In Which Ye Author Most Shamelessly Plugs
A NATURAL HISTORY OF MUSTIQUE
Patrick O'Brian novels are best read lounging in a mizzen top: about the only place you can keep track of the Gish Gallop of nautical gear gushing through his prose.
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| Brig Astrid, since sunk. |
So when aboard the brig Astrid, I spied the canefields greenly shivvering on the volcanic slopes of Martinique I put The Nutmeg Of Consolation aside to swing from the mainyard garnet 'neath the futtocks to the quarterdeck ratlines, and down to check the synthetic aperture radar--sure enough, it was time to shorten sail.
Radar is fine for navigation , but what about ashore ? From meteorology to mineralogy, a lot of natural history is encountered cruising the Caribbean. Bequia's late great Captain Raul King used to swear " Nothing in this sea will harm you", but you need to know enough about the local flora and fauna not to bite into manchineel fruit, pass up low-hanging pommes de Macassar, poke the lion fish, grab the fire coral or step on the sea urchins instead of eating them. That calls for
A Natural History Handbook So I helped write one.
It focuses on a tight little Grenadine island, wondrously rich in geology for its size, its rocks swarming with the Pyrites of the Caribbean , as well as the chalcopyrites, zeolites , and both epidotes and epicenes in their dotage.
Though it abounds in glitterati, birds of bright plumage, and ants, plants and tortoises galore, the isle is paparazzi-free, with few sycophants and fewer elephants: it seemed imprudent to replace the last one after it ran amok on St. Lucia.
As many creatures have migrated from from the Antilles to the Grenadines, readers will find this book Indispensable on all islands Leeward & Windward
Published by by The Mustique Company, with a foreword by a surprisingly intelligent London School of Economics drop-out :
The Natural History of Mustique includes a hopelessly amateur introduction to Grenadine geology that I am doomed to update by returning every winter I can afford until get it right-- Such is ones grim duty to science.
A Natural History of Mustique
includes 360 color photos covering all creatures great and small, from harmless insects the size of birds, to vinegaroons, hummingbirds the size of bees, and a snake easily mistaken for a keychain. Every reptile from St. Barts to Barbados, from the noble tortoise geochelone to lividly green lizards, is vividly depicted in this handbook.
includes 360 color photos covering all creatures great and small, from harmless insects the size of birds, to vinegaroons, hummingbirds the size of bees, and a snake easily mistaken for a keychain. Every reptile from St. Barts to Barbados, from the noble tortoise geochelone to lividly green lizards, is vividly depicted in this handbook.
Despite its name, Mustique is phenomenally poor in mosquitoes, but rich in Wi Fi bandwith in The Excellent Bar of Basil Charles O.B.E.
This surprisingly waterproof edition is an absolute snip at forty bucks. Available at better rum shops & bookstores in the Spanish Main or send fifty to mnestheus@paypal, and I'll autograph one.
While pyrite crystals may be pried from Virgin Islands lamprophyre veins, and jade from DR riverbeds, the Grenadines offer glittering chalcopyrite and glowing zeolite crystals. More touristed isles, like St. Lucia are barely cooled piles of lava and ill mineralized volcanic ash but ancient basement rocks endow the older Grenadines with richer and more eventful geology. For a really hot diving spot, try Kickem Jenny, the underwater volcano perking its way to the surface a long days sail southwest. A Must See for Bob Carter and other coal flacks spewing nonsense about underwater CO2 and thermal fluxes.
Newcomers may find St.Vincent and Bequia more welcoming than the 0utlying Grenadines, desert islands suitable only for stranding statisticians and PR flacks. The exception is the Tobago Cays , where yachts anchoring to oogle the turquise seascape where Pirates of the Caribbean was shot, are provided with rum by enterprising Iron Jack moonshiners from Petit Martinique.
Newer and more elegant editions of the handbook will report more on where the Grenadine pyrites are buried , but go in June, and you will find the outlying islets and pinnacles. like Battowia and Baliceaux abuzz with congregations of boobies worthy of a Heartland Institute Climate Conference
Newer and more elegant editions of the handbook will report more on where the Grenadine pyrites are buried , but go in June, and you will find the outlying islets and pinnacles. like Battowia and Baliceaux abuzz with congregations of boobies worthy of a Heartland Institute Climate Conference
Alas, the brig Astrid , shown above, passed into less vigilant hands in 2012, and at the goodly age of 92, ran aground on the rocks of Cork.
One always needs a bigger boat, and my next Grenadines sail will be aboard Mikael Krafft's modern recreation of the Preußen:
