About a year after Rachel was born my God-Father died and left me a small inheritance. It was enough to finance a family vacation to Canada and I started planning the trip. We would close the restaurant at the beginning of September and spend 6 weeks away from Bequia, something I was more than ready for! I had not been to Canada since Vanessa was a small baby and was looking forward to some time off “De Rock”.
Mac and I decided that we could afford to take the children’s nanny along with us. Rachel was just learning to walk and Vanessa was a lively child, so asking Arleus to travel with us was a fine idea. Arleus had never been out of the country, this would be a whole new experience for her! I couldn’t wait to watch her expression as she flew in a ‘plane for the first time, or how she would react when she saw a North American supermarket.
As any mother knows, traveling with small children can be a chore when it comes to packing – there are so many extra items that need to be remembered. I had to bear in mind that our trip would be done in three stages, and that essentials such as spare diapers, blankets, bottles, a change of clothes and toys had to be carried as hand luggage. We would be leaving Bequia at 6:30 A.M., then flying from St. Vincent to Barbados. The flight from Barbados would arrive in Canada after 9:00 P.M. which meant we were in for a very long day.
The morning before our departure Arleus arrived with her small suitcase, she would be spending the night at our house. She carefully pressed the clothes Vanessa and Rachel would be wearing in the morning, then helped me choose what to pack for them. Canada gets pretty nippy in September, I would have to buy warmer clothes for everyone once we arrived. After tucking an extra blanket into the carry-on bag I decided we were as ready as we were ever going to be.
Early the next morning Arleus gave the girls some breakfast before we headed into the harbor to catch the ferry. I had already noticed waves crashing against Ship’s Stern near Moonhole, which indicated that the sea was going to be rough. Mac assured me it was “just a piece of tide” but I knew what that meant! Sure enough, when we rounded Devil’s table the waves started washing over the bow of the ferry, we were obviously in for a rough ride. Bequia now had a choice of ferries and we had opted to take the Edwina instead of the Friendship Rose. The Edwina was a motor vessel as opposed to a sailing vessel. She had been a fishing boat in an earlier life before being converted to carry passengers, and Mac figured she would offer a dryer ride. In that respect Mac was right, we stayed dry, but that boat rolled like a pig in the big waves.
It didn’t take long before I started feeling seasick, and Rachel squirming on my lap wasn’t helping. Mac had gone to chat with the Captain up on the bridge so I asked Arleus to hold Rachel. Seeing that Rachel was shivering, she bent over to get a blanket from the carefully packed hand-luggage. As Arleus leaned over, Rachel took aim and vomited straight into the bag. I wasn’t the only member of the family prone to seasickness!
It WAS a long day, especially with hand-luggage smelling like puke. We had left Bequia looking smart and clean, and arrived in Canada looking grubby and stinking to high heaven! Traveling with small children is never easy, even when the nanny is there to help.
It is so nice to see pictures of the girls when they were little. So many sweet memories of those days long passed. Thanks Jude, I really look forward to your trips down the path of long ago.
Hi Melinda, glad you enjoy the stories so much!
These were the days after Whistler and sea Hawk. Sea Hawk was much larger but rolled too much Whistler was fast and got there always ahead of sea Hawk they would both leave either Port Elizabeth or Kingstown at the same time; the race was always on but it was Whistler all the way. Even with the dolphins flying and accompanying us all the way to cane garden point before departing