Sunday is...whatever we want!

Tracy, party of 1, your yacht is ready!

Welcome aboard Dlokoko, an absolutely beautiful 46 ft four cabin catamaran with allllll the bells and whistles. Our Skipper, Canyon, of Nirvana Yacht Charters has delivered this beautiful welcome treat for our single guest Tracy - a coconut complete with umbrella, orchid and straw. And how fitting, as Dlokoko means”Coconut water” in Antillean Creole or patois, still spoken throughout the Caribbean.

So yes as I was saying, through a series of unfortunate events, we are down to one guest this week. Tracy will get a customized program on our first, fully St. Vincent SwimVacation. Not a bad thing, as she often is torn between wanting to swim miles and miles or just poke around look at marine life. It’s hard to pick just one when both are on offer and happening! Guess what? We can do whatever we want. No FOMO this week! Wanna burn a few miles? Let’s go! Wanna check out the reef and look for the teeny tiny awesome things? Mask and fins on, let’s look!

A few pre-charter moments today: The book borrow shelf at the marina has some volumes from our other sea-homes. Mal has made Hopper’s charter dreams come true with bar accessories. Canyon gives Tracy a welcome coconut…niiiiiiiiiiice touch! Welcome aboard!

Blue wall Marina cat looking on as we load up and pull away. Is he happy or sad to see us go? Unknown.

We got Tracy aboard and tucked her into her cabin with plenty of time to nest and rest before Mal put out an awesome lunch of oven roasted potatoes and some sort of glazed amazing chicken atop a bed of Caribbean slaw. We better get some exercise. There is going to be some incredible eating this week.

Our first stop is so close to the marina but wow the remote style drama it gives. Duvernette Island is an impressive land mass. It’s actually a volcanic plug - a landform created when magma hardens inside the vent of an active volcano, and the surrounding softer rock later erodes away. Ancient magma turned modern classic SwimVacation swim. 

Before our swim Tracy said to me, “Heather, I didn’t bring my underwater camera this trip!” Lovely lady, I gotchu!

Tracy and I jumped in - I was at once both relieved from the heat and humidity of the afternoon, and surprised at how warm the water was. I’d say we’ve got maybe 84ºF in there.

This drama of Duvernette as a swim spot is more than just the imposing promontory looming above. There are also currents coming from all directions, birds soaring on drafts then dive bombing to the water’s surface, and today a good stiff wind to top things off. No matter, Tracy is strong and we both decided, since we can do whatever we want, we weren’t in a rush. Let’s not go big, let’s just go. We made a nice course of the shoreline of the adjacent island, crossed the shallows to Duvernette, swam along its ancient, dark shores, hit a pretty strong current, turned back into the wind, dipped back into the heart of the bay, then made a beeline for the boat. Along the way we looked at very cool fish species in the beautiful rock garden below - blennies and damsels peeked up at us, but a giant porcupine fish kind of stole the show with his puckery white lips and big puppy dog eyes. Sweetie.

This boat has this high tech swim platform that Canyon lowered for us to swim right onto. Then he raised us to the deck like an amusement park ride. Fun and a little bougie. 

As I was toweling off, I couldn’t help notice the difference it makes on deck with just the two of us returning from a swim. No jockeying for position, no waiting on the fresh water rinse, no desperately scrounging for clothes pins to hang towels. It occurred to me: There is no rush. We can do what we want. So I sat down on the deck and Tracy and I chatted till we dripped dry.

A lovely cheese and fruit platter for two appeared which we enjoyed with white wine and good conversation. Tracy has traveled to swim and snorkel all over the world, and with a few other companies in addition to us. She has seen such incredible things and has such colorful stories to share. She also shared that she prefers her SwimVacation experiences for the opportunities to play and explore, and for the personal attention and touches we instinctively deliver. This means a lot.

Canyon joined us for a showstopper (on day 1???!?!?) dinner that Mal put out. Orange glazed fresh (caught today) seared tuna with charred tomatoes on a bed of linguini in creamy spinach parmesan sauce. My belly was so full. Dessert didn’t help matters. Mal needed some workshopping with the name of her sweet creation, but needed no help with its preparation and flavor. Utterly delicious, we have named it Banana Bread Creme Broulee in a Lake of Chilled Creme Glasé. With Chocolate Drizzle. People. She Creme Brouleed the banana bread. As in, she made fresh banana bread, and then she put this magical sweet broulee crust on top. Every time I type Broulee I get a little more full.

We chatted into the dim. Canyon, Mal and I spent a little time on the stern watching fish jump and fly. One nearly harpooned me in its hasty retreat from something else in the water. Eventually we all ambled off into different directions on our little yacht home. Tracy headed to bed with an audio book, Mal brought me a cup of peppermint tea while I edited and blogged. Canyon is tip tapping away on his laptop working on projects and plans. 

I like this pace. I like this space. We will ease into a week of whatever we want.

Love,

Heather