November 2011

Tues 1^st Nov

Mum and Dad arrive in Grenada we meet at about 7pm and have a meal in the Rhodes (Gary) restaurant in the Calabash hotel. This is the start or a gourmet fortnight!

Wed 2^nd Nov

Go for a meal at the Red Crab, 400m from the Rhodes Resaurant, a quarter the price and a good local selection. Lambi (conch) Red Snapper, Lobster etc. back to the boat.

About midnight we awake to a banging, we are hitting another boat. So we have move away, stow the dinghy and lift the anchor. The anchor is quite stuck so we don't think we were dragging and are fairly sure we were just at the limit of the chain. The other yacht did anchor quite close with wind from a different direction to the direction when we dropped. So it is possible they swung and rode forward until we touched at the extent of our chain.

Thurs 3^rd

Things are a bit fraught but we eventually calm down and swap insurance details.

Fri 4^th

We move to Clarkes Court Bay marina so we can dinghy to Whisper Cove Marina restaurant for a meal with M&D. (And so they can get onto the boat on Saturday.)

Sat 5^th

M&D arrive at Clarkes Court Bay marina dock and we proceed to load them on board. There is not much swell so its all OK. We hang around drinking tea and coffee until the current is in the right direction for a trip to the next bay. The forecast is for 15 to 20 knots and 5 to 7 foot swell so I am expecting an uncomfortable ride for their début on our yacht. However the seas remain calm, the wind below 15 knots and the weather is just sunny and hot. We get to Phare Bleu marina in a couple of hours. The marina is new and we get excellent help from their dock manager Keith from Loghborough. He's been here 7 years. The Phare Bleu restaurant is on the Västra Banken an old light ship and the meal is exquisite, we ran out of superlatives for each of four courses on their “teaser” menu. We put M&D in their taxi and retire.

Sun 6^th

Decide to stay another night

Mon 7^th

Travel back to Prickley bay for a rest.

Go to BB Crab back for dinner after a taxi round St Georges – just to prove to Dad how difficult it is to walk up and down hills with 1/2 meter drains to fall down!

Tues 8^th

Tour around the island with Terry who is a wealth of botanical information. We meet Alice in wonderland who is a guide at a fort above St Georges. We hear that the Grenadian schools teach anger management and conflict resolution in infants school! No wonder they are so laid back and there is no road rage. See the rain forest and don't get our picture taken with ladies wearing multi coloured dresses and hats made from fruit. It costs $10US a picture. I never buy anything where prices are in US$. It always seem that when the prices are in EC$ the numbers are the same, i.e 1/3.

Wed 9^th

Run out of gas at breakfast time!

It may not be possible to fill old gas bottle here. We buy new one with American fittings there are no adaptors available so we may need a new regulator etc.. We will know by Friday. Go to Mount Hartman Estate for dinner, the most beautiful setting so far, overlooking secret harbour and Mount Hartman bay.

Thurs 10^th

Restful day on board.

Fri 11^th

Mike from “Whitebird” tells us that our solar panels were not damaged in the collision, phew. We are on butane and the American system is propane so we will need a new regulator and hoses.

We go to the Calabash for cocktails and a meal then afterwards meet up with the usual suspects in the Tiki bar. A guy named Sam tells us that has spent the last seven years sailing the pacific. Among the advice he gives is that when you see dolphins turn up your music and they will stick with you. I ask him what music and he says he only has 60s and 70s so they must like that.

Sat 12^th

Last minute shopping for Mum, she wanted a hat made to measure from palm leaves, and a meal in the Coconut Beach very good value and too much king fish and lobster to eat.

Sun 13^th

Spend a day at the beach and eat at the Aquarium listening to a band playing mostly Marley. Haven't heard any reggae for ages – strange but true. It felt like we were in the Caribbean.

Mon 14^th

Last evening with M&D so we go to a Sushi bar; full of students and very noisy. Sake is sold by “cup”, small or medium carafe. We ask for large, they don't do it. We ask for Gin and Tonic they don't do that either. This is a bad start. Tempura is good but they forget to bring the wine so we do without.

Tues 15^th

Say bye to M&D in hotel room – no one likes all that airport OTT hugs and stuff.

Wed 16^th

Final shop before we set off North.

Thurs 17^th

Travel from Prickley to Tyrrel Bay, On the way we meet a pod of about 10 dolphins. We think they were bottle nose but were only about 6 feet long. As suggested by Sam we turn up the music Stevie Ray Vaughan seemed to go down well as they stayed for three tracks. We have been here several times and have always needed to re-anchor 3 or 4 times. We do it in 2.

Fri 18^th

Want to move as anchor not dug in! Port engine won't start. Solenoid or starter, most likely starter. Go ashore to Tyrrel Haul Out and Paul gets us a mechanic to the boat by 1:30 pm. Brilliant. “Jurg” is a German mechanic and quickly diagnoses the starter as the problem, whips it off and takes it ashore. He comes back saying it was OK but dirty inside, we need a new starter battery as the 12v Trojan that we have for the port engine is a deep cycle and will cause build up of carbon in the starter which will eventually make it fail again. We re-anchor and dig in well.

Sat 19^th

Anna, who has a small shack on the beach, made pancakes as promised, very tasty but a bit small, so I ate Trudy's. We collect our vegetables from Princess Aliesha's palace, another shack on the beach but a great place to shop. Cheap, fresh, ripe or near ripe as requested and excellent quality with a long shelf or fridge life on the boat. The big supermarkets should aspire to provide such a service. Even if the selection is small and eggs and tomatoes are only available every other day.

Sun 20^th

Tania and Steve from Windigo arrive in the bay. They met on the internet (crew finder not desperate sailors) and we meet for beers in Tantie Lizzie's. We catch up on Prickley Bay scandal, discuss our respective routes and how Lorna should put her name up on crew finder. She is amused but says NO!

Mon 21^st

Sail to Hillsborough, we have all day to do about 4 miles so as the wind is good we put in some practice tacks. We get dinghy fuel, 2stroke oil and a few provisions. And ask customs if we can check out now and leave Granada tomorrow, we can, so later we get paperwork done. No internet here so rely on day old forecast.

Tues 22^nd

Sail to Clifton, it is a beautiful day and we need only put in two tacks. Clifton has been famous for the boat boys who hassle you from when you are a mile out until after you have anchored. However they must have been subdued by the tourist board as they were extremely helpful. They left us alone until we had anchored and set well. We check in to Immigration and Customs, look at the shark pool in the Anchorage Yacht Club and pick up some water. Go to Jantie's bar on an island on the reef; about 150 square meters, built entirely from recycled stuff e.g. conch shells and flotsam. He runs on solar power and rainwater. i.e. no flush loo! The bay is called “Roundabout Reef” we watch a boat try to go straight across about 6 knots (flat out) with expected results! Boat boys are very quick to help. It is a Bavaria which have been documented as loosing keels. He should keep his fingers crossed.

Wed 23^rd

Pick up more water, provisions and laundry. We will get no more chance for about a week. The wind blows up in the night and we swing through over 30 meters East to South to North and back East. Anchor alarm was set at 0.03 miles but still a restless night.

Thur 24^th

Sail round to Chatham Bay a wide open sheltered bay with three bars remaining open, several have closed. This is a shame, as the best have gone and a new one is reported in Compass to have the best swimming pool and Conch fritters in the Caribbean. I assume that the author dislikes conch fritters and does not swim as the pool has no water and conch is not on the menu. We give it thumbs down after we have two small beers for £4. And try the other two bars.

Fri 25^th

Boat clean and jobs day, measure and catalogue our warps and lines, retie bridle, empty clean and re-stow lockers. We spend a couple of hours planning a rout north with distances between islands and ports for clearance in and out. We notice another gas leek on the main burner – one of the knobs caught fire. After taking the stove apart it is not fixable so we need a new one. After putting it back together we still get a leak from a tap so we cannot use it at all. All gas taps turned of and residual gas is burned off. Its too late to contact anyone and we have no mobile signal. We go ashore to eat and no one gets a signal.

Sat 26^th

On waking we microwave some water for tea – lucky we didn't chuck the thing away. Set off back to Clifton and on the way we get a mobile signal are amazed at our luck; Budget marine in Grenada have a stove, and Paul from Carriacou Haul Out can get it shipped to him by Monday and fit it by Tuesday at the latest. Usual boat boy hassle in Clifton but we are used to it now.

Sun 27^th

Check out at airport on Union, as it is the week end we need to pay overtime rate, an extra £15. Sail to Hillsborough on Carriacou and check in overtime is £20 and we need to pay for a month cruising even though we will be here for only a couple of days.

Mon 28^th

Move to Tyrell bay and contact Paul, he will collect the stove from the “Osprey” later and we will be able to collect it mid pm. Stove arrives with no compression fitting “olive”.

Tues 29^th

We search for the olive but there are none of the correct size on the island and Budget marine do not have them.

Wed 30^th

Lime digital mobiles are not working so we take new stove to Jork, the engineer we met before. He was able to extract and reuse an old olive so we can now cook again! Thank heavens for real mechanics, as my fitting skills did not work.

September and October 2011

Thur 1^st Sept

Check first coat of anti-foul and request a further sanding, later this is done to a much better standard.

Fri 2^nd

Props are fitted, but the double locking nut does not arrive. We go back into the water anyway. At the last minute there are air locks in both engines and we get no cooling wa.ter. To the experts on hand this is a two minute job to purge the system. Next we have fitted a water filter so the first job is to run the drinking water for 3 minutes. Unfortunately the pump bearings have seized with not being used for a week so we get a new water pump fitted. This is completed in another half hour and we finally move away from the dock and into the bay again. It is a huge relief.

Sat 3^rd

We lose our virginity! This is our first outing with the Grenada Hash House Harriers and it is their 700^th Hash. For those that haven't heard about this it is an excuse for a party in the pub. Someone lays out a marked trail with direction splits and dead ends. Those doing this for the first time are deemed virgins and duly get soaked with beer at the end. The idea of a hash is that the fastest in the group make the wrong turnings and have to come back before the slowest catch up. The perfect Hash design will result in all abilities arriving at the pub at the same time. Or in this case a beach party with band, bar, all types of local fast food, and eventually a lift back to the boat. The run was a muddy event as we had torrential rain in the morning and a trail that should have taken an hour and a half through rivers and up mountains took 3 hours.

Sun 4^th

Go for Oil down, a beach barbecue at Lance Aux Pines cottages on Prickly Bay.

This is a pot roast cooked on an open fire with calalou, chicken, ocra, carrots, breadfruit, dumplings,pigs tails, saltfish green banana in a coconut source with turmeric. Delicious!

Mon 5^th

We get the chart plotter fitted, the new compass and replacement ST60 tridata display. Johnny “Sails” will arrive tomorrow to do the final measuring for the sail bag and bimini.

Tues 6^th

Move to True Blue Bay to get Racors fitted. Get a call from Jonny, he can't make it.

Move back to Prickly Bay

Wed 7^th

Not sure what Johnny has done except check rigging of sail-bag.

Put 5 litres in Dinghy, Johnny is using all our fuel!

Wed 14^th

Key in lock breaks so we spend all day tracking down a new key. There are no blanks on the island but we find Nigel Nedd who makes keys!

Thurs 15^th

Meet Johnny – his other sister is in hospital so will call us when he can remove bimini.

Fri 16^th

Riggers fit new goose-neck parts

Buy new reefing lines – await sail bag before fitting. Really rough night with winds gusting to 35 kts. Thunderstorms etc..Meet Nigel Nedd he has 4 keys at EC$100 - bargain.

Sat 17^th

De Big Fish has “Barracuda” playing, a rock musician who does a little opera in his acoustic set. Very talented.

Sun 18^th

Acoustic jam session at Whisper Cove marina in Clarkes Court Bay we are made very welcome by Marie and Giles. Giles is a French Canadian butcher. We get free beer and sausages for entertaining the clientèle. We are jamming with the world famous Peter Bonta that played keyboard for Mary Chapin Carpenter!

Mon 19^th

Head out to find guitar strings as I broke one!

Riggers replace remaining sheaves and we wait for Johnny sails who is not answering his phone.

Tues 20^th

Get in touch with Johnny, he lost our phone number again but will call round at 3pm.

Recalibrate wind instrument it was set at a factor of 0.7 so I changed it to 1.0. There is another jam session at De big Fish. Usual thing loads of people and difficult to get going, but I managed long train running Doobie Bros, Black Magic Woman, and a Money for Nothing chord progression. Plus a very enjoyable 12 bar blues session where I got to play lead to much encouragement and applause! (swollen head).

Wed 21^st

Jonny arrives on the dock at 9:00! by half past we have the bimini off to promises that the new one will be measured up on board tomorrow and be completed by Friday. The lazy bag to be worked on over the weekend (total shock (and disbelief)) and completed by Tuesday.

Thur 22^nd

A day waiting.

Fri 23^rd

8:30 Call Jonny no reply. Battery controller is flashing red and indicating we are discharging at 450 amps! I need an electrician. Called Mike from Enza Marine – not available until Monday. Put 5 litres in Dinghy. 11:30 Call Jonny Bimini not ready, “Do we still want a temporary cover?” No, we enjoy getting baked and soaked alternately!

We collect a large tarpaulin from the dock.

Not much happens for the next month apart from waiting in for Jonny sailmaker, its rather like waiting in for the gas man but with more blatant lies about when the work is getting done. He never comes.

OK, we go to the same five bars and have the same nights off every week. We have a couple of very hot days followed by a couple of days thunderstorms. I get to grips with saving rain water with hoses running from the coach-roof into a couple of jerry cans. A months work!

Oct

Fri 14^th

We get our new wooden bin and have the first fitting of our Bimini. We go out to Whisper Cove Marina for a sirloin steak to celebrate and meet Lorna an ex Prudential sales woman who knows all the best eating places on the island – we take notes. We end up at the Tiki bar in the small hours.

Sat15^th

After a two month wait we have our new bimini and are able to rig our reefing lines. We can go!

Sun 16^th

Weather is rubbish stay put

Mon17^th

We head out weather is good. To start with. We run into two hours of storms with vis down to 50 meters, its very scary and we are sailing over Kickem Jenny, an underwater volcano at the same time. We try to fit our new life jackets, the leg ties are uncomfortable because we fit them incorrectly. Eventually the vis lifts and we arrive in Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou island in time for a sundowner. We go ashore to look for some friends and find them in the bus shelter with some beers that they got from the supermarket. Just like being back at school. Later we go to “Swampy Jo's” - Joanne is a very classy lady living in a swamp. A loud game of dominoes, telly and stereo booming, two tables, three stools and a swamp to wade through to get to it. A perfect bar so we stay for three beers and three rums each. Bill comes out at £50 for five of us. On the way home we meet a girl we met two months ago so we have to stop for another beer. Then back to the boat.

Tues 18^th

Clean mud off the boat from Swampy Jo's. Try to fix log impeller, go out for a burger and bloody mary breakfast (1pm) and feel much better. Try to fit life-jackets correctly.

Wed 19^th

We spend a day taking buses around Carriacou with Chris and Sally from “Vanity” a steel ketch with 32v and 12v electrics. The island is beautiful, the people are friendly and it is no wonder that many yachties have stopped here and bought houses. (only one for sale on the island today). We met a guy building a racing yacht by eye, Beautiful lines and hopefully will do well in the 2012 regata. (he was building it for 2011). Just a really relaxing place to be.

Thurs 20^th

Took a bus to Paradise beach and found an old repainted container with some classy artwork, t-shirts, jewellery, painted calabashes, etc. so bought stuff.

Friday 21^st

Motored round to Sandy beach picked up a mooring buoy that was no good, tried another that was OK and snorkelled ashore in clear weather and a calm sea. The waves got big, the rain came down and we had to wave arms SOS style to get a lift back to the boat. We were rescued by the French for the second time! A nice gent on yacht “Megabass” picked us from a rolling shore and took us back to out boat. The weather suddenly lifted and all was smiles again. He had a look around Manureva as he was considering a Belize in place of his monohull.

We had dinner with Chris and Sally from “Vanity”at Bogles Roundhouse, a very quirky building built from local boulders, whalebones, wagon wheels a hollowed out concrete filled tree with a ferocrete rounded roof. The dinner was delicious chilli and lime prawns, barracuda with shadow bene sauce and finished off with some El Dorado 15 year old rummmm.

Sat 22^nd

Motor to Petite Martinique in no wind and flat sea, A very small quiet island where Matthews supermarket sells cheap booze, a litre of Gordon's and Mount Gay rum at EC$29 about £7-50 a bottle and SA and Chilean wine at £4. We get take away rotis at £3 and have a relaxed afternoon.

Surrounded by reefs, sea bottom is an awful mix of sand and dead coral so don't expect to hold if wind gets up.

Anchor holds as no great winds.

Sun 23^rd

We sit outside the “Lime” mobile shop and pick up the weather it looks like we will get some wind and rain tonight. Go for a walk around the island and end up in a bar halfway up the hill and have a few beers, then back to the boat for a rest.

Anchor drags and we need to grab a buoy in the middle of the night.

Mon 24^th

Set off back to Tyrrel bay Carriacou after a hour it chucks it down and we are again in 100m vis. We stay well out to avoid rocks we cannot see and eventually anchor in the bay soaked through again. This is becoming a habit.

Tues 25^th

Go ashore to get an internet connection, everywhere is closed as it is a public holiday. The anniversary of when the Americans landed and liberated Grenada from the Cubans.

Some idiot has anchored close by and is sitting over our anchor; “Beauty and the Beast” an American cat from Portsmouth NH.

Wed 26^th

Went for a walk in Tyrrel bay, met Anna a girl from Carriacou that runs a shop from a shack on rout to the yacht club. She just got back from England brrr. She gives us some sweet potato to eat raw. Good stuff, we buy some and a few green bananas.

Thurs 27^th

Set off for Prickly bay at 07:00 and have a cracking sail until two miles out when we hit the current. We need to plan to miss this as it is 4 knots against us.

August 2011

Monday 1st

First thing check the navtext and get on line to National Hurricane Centre Florida. “91L” appears to be moving north and will miss us.

I am invited to race on “No Fear” and head off at 8:30 for the next bay. We get a poor start in pouring rain that is impossible to see through, but are first around the windward mark pointing higher than all other yachts. We have no down wind performance and when the race is stopped early we are disappointed with a fourth place. We lunch at the Yacht club and catch a van through beautiful scenery above Hilsborough and down to watch a donkey race held around Hilsborough town, greasy pole and beer drinking competitions. There is loud music that you can feel through your stomach all around town with crowds of people in a carnival atmosphere. Back to the slipway for prize giving where we meet loads of new people living the boat life, have a barbecue, and end up on “Loose Cannon” the winning boat for rum and cokes etc. We cram 24 people aboard to exceed their previous record. She is 24ft long. Have trouble getting home as we did not leave any lights on.

Tuesday 2^nd August

Laundry day (with book swap) hear that Jay came out of hospital the previous night and has gone back in again this morning. We meet French Eric (white with dreadlocks) who has been living on his trawler for 25 years. He tells us his friend has been on his boat for 50! Bijorn came aboard to advise on battery situation, we are under powered and need to buy more charging kit.

Wednesday 3^rd August

I remember that I have a dental appointment for some implants on the 11^th and wonder if I can make it. We go to the yacht club to sign up for the Cariacou Childrens Fund Internet connection. A bunch of companies pay towards the connection and hardware, the yacht club offer connections to anyone and you are left to donate to the fund. Another bright idea from the Caribbean...

Trudy checks on line to see if we can get tickets and although this is possible we have to spend ages phoning the UK to pay, get listed and confirm flights as Grenada to the UK is a two sector flight.

Thursday 4^th

We start the engine at 6:30 in preparation for a long sail to St Georges in Grenada. We make good time and are able to play with the sails gibing in light winds until we finally motor in to Ross point and anchor in a mix of rock and dead coral.

We dinghy round to Port Louis marina where we are told they have a carnival special offer with berths at £15 a night for ten nights. This is good news as we can get to England and back in that time. So my trip to the dentist is on.

We have a restless night as the anchor is dragging and we have to move before we start an anchor watch. I fall asleep on watch and Trudy wakes me at 4am. There is no wind so we can get some sleep before motoring in to Port Louis.

Friday 5^th

We moor up on pier S8. This is a super-yacht berth and we are surrounded by 30 meter plus yachts, tall masts, and free-boards that block our view. We search for an electrician but as Carnival is due to start tonight and will run though until Wednesday morning we don't stand much chance. However after a chain of phone calls we get hold of Mark from Grenada Marine who says he will get someone to look at the boat whilst we are in the UK.

Saturday 6^th,

We go into town to the only cash point in St Georges. This is an eventful journey as the music is blaring out of the van as it speeds two meters behind a scooter three up, man with helmet, large dog held by small girl with shorts and flip flops. Dog and girl have no helmets.

We visit the market which includes several rum shops each being less than two meters square but include a bar a fridge and sometimes a seat. There is a wealth of unrecognisable things. We buy shadow bene, avocados limes etc. the limes are really strong, zesty and fresh, the avocados have red skins, yellow flesh and are ripe and very creamy, the shadow bene plant has a sharp leaf. The taste is hard to describe, a mix of coriander, celery and basil.

After the market we catch a bus towards True Blue Bay as we hope to find someone to help with a range of other boat needs, sail bag, bimini, compass, propeller, trampoline etc. We need to walk a fair way and by chance find Prickly bay Marina with De Big Fish restaurant and Budget Marine chandlery. We have a beer before lunch and watch an Alsation pup dash about. It has huge feet that cannot miss standing on yours. It can neither control them nor its legs and careers around generally bumping into everything. It belongs to no-one but selects a couple leaving in a dinghy and leaps into the water after them. We don't see this but are told afterwards by an American girl who arrives in the restaurant asking for help to rescue a dog that cannot get out of the water. (unless it swam to the shore?) Trudy volunteers and climbs over a fence watched by the other diners. Together with the other rescuer she retrieves the dog from the sea. Of course it has to share the sea with everyone else and continues paddling around until eventually collapsing. After lunch we realise that it is half day closing on Saturday and the chandlers closed 10 minutes ago. Oh well, back to the marina for a beer.

Sunday 7^th, Monday 8^th

We spend the week end drinking Caribs and dinghying about trying to find “Carnival”. It is not until Monday that we realise that the various parades start at 5AM! And this is after partying from 9pm the previous night. We are out of our depth by a long way. However by chance we hear of a warm up for the evening at 4pm on Monday so we dinghy to the Carenage where we experience what we have been missing. The costumes are various colours with each float having its own theme. Costumes are very small; and the dancing is of an extremely lewd nature, a mixture of pole dancing and fornication with several parties all joining in together. No you can't imagine, you have to see it!

Tuesday 9^th

We have to move the boat to a safer berth as we will be leaving her unattended and they are expecting a large swell that may cause us damage where we are. Set off by taxi to the airport for the rip off price of EC$65 in was only 25 in December.

Wednesday 10^th

Arrive Gatwick pick up hire car and off to Dorchester hoping to see Shaun at the White Heart, he's on holiday. We sleep then go to the Cockado for dinner.

Thursday 11^th

Go to dentist and get a dose of temazepam, the rest of the day was well cool.

Friday 12^th

Off to Oxford for the summer sales, (I have run out of shorts) then Dorchester before a trip to the seven stars. It was great to see you all again. Just a pity I was on antibiotics.

Saturday 13^th

Trip to Southampton for some cooker parts and back to Nuneham Courtenay for a curry with Margie and Steve.

Sunday 14^th

Arrive back on Manureva, Electrician has turned all power off so we have a deep freeze and fridge full of rotting food! We go out for dinner and leave it all until tomorrow.

Monday 15^th

Clean out fridge and deep freeze, twice. Contact electrician, he will get back to me later.

4:45 get back to electrician he will send an email. 7:30 read email, he has suggested all the things I requested. The only useful information is that only 2 out of 4 solar panels are working so we are down 150 watts in charging power.

Mahi Mahi for dinner, we eat out again as we have no food on board.

Tuesday 16^th

Call electrician again, he will visit us in the afternoon, so we go shopping to the nearest chandlers and supermarket. All we find of any use to us at the chandlers is some polyurethane polish, we can't buy it because we forgot our yacht papers and it is a duty free shop! We get supplies at Foodland and go back to the boat to wait for an electrician.

Wednesday 17^th to Friday 19^th

We wait for electrician, finally he arrives with 4 out of 8 batteries and over next few hours 8 batteries and a new 100ah alternator are fitted. The solar panels are ok, the solar panel regulator was preventing overcharging the dead batteries.

Saturday 20^th

Prepare to move out of marina, thunderstorms all day so postpone the move.

Sunday 21^st

Moved boat from St Georges Marina to Prickly Bay anchorage. Beer in yacht club two hour happy hour ooh! We listen to an American talking at a Dutch couple. He says they can ask any American, Canadian, Englishman or European and none would have anything good to say about the Dutch! How strange..

Monday 22^nd

We have a list of jobs requiring the boat to be hauled out of the water, antifouling, propeller changing, rudders dropped and greased, sail drives serviced etc. So we try Spice Island Marine for yacht haul-out, no slots available until end September!

Visit Choo light a local Chinese – same as UK but with Conch!

Get a call to say we may get a place in the queue for a haul-out Tuesday. We just need to wait on board.

Tuesday 23rd

The 7:30 am "cruisers net" is receivable on VHF channel 68 in Prickly Bay so we get to know about weather, yoga, painting classes, film club, musician jams, cooking classes, restaurant specials, live gigs, yacht services, shopping trips etc. This service has a standard format and protocol with details of security issues, weather, arrivals and departures, social events, treasures of the bilge, commercial services and general announcements. You call in your yacht name and await for the request to speak. As part of this “net” you can call in with “Treasures of the Bilge” if you have anything to sell, give away, or need to buy. This morning a Dutch guy called in saying he had a grumpy wife and did anybody want her. The American operator ask him to repeat – I guess she didn't believe what she'd heard. He repeated the request and added he wanted to swap her for a blond bimbo....The operator asked for the next request – no sense of humour.

We have been on solar and battery power for two days now and, so far, with new batteries we are self sufficient without starting the engine. Great news.

As we are now in clean water, Trudy can swim again so dives to check the propeller connectors as these need to be changed.

Wednesday 24th

We hear that we can get a haul out on Friday and that we can include anti-fouling during the free 4 days ashore. It looks like a good deal. So we investigate what paint has been used, soft anti-foul, this rubs off slowly and does not require any scrubbing if you sail every now and then! Sound good, if we need to go for hard anti-foul this would cost extra as we will need a further sanding and an extra coat of barrier paint.

Thursday 25^th

In the bar we discuss the various merits of soft and hard anti-foul and discover that the soft we have on the boat already is the worst kind. We will need to put the same on again or go to the extra cost of sanding down the hulls to bare epoxy.

Friday 26th

Our haul out is postponed until Monday.

Sat 27th

Re visit the St Georges market and buy some more plastic baskets. Trinkets etc.

Sun 28th

We visit Terry and Julie on “Melvin” a 3700 Lagoon and swap books and ideas on keeping cool and avoiding mosquitoes. Later in the Tiki bar we meet an Aussie who has been sailing for about 25 years and delivered his latest child on the galley table. We are told by a number of experts (there are a lot around) that we should have chosen hard, not soft anti-foul.

Mon 29^th

We haul out the boat, this is a delicate steering manoeuvre with a need to fit a 23ft wide boat into a 25 ft gap with concrete pontoons. In addition our fenders are about a ft in diameter. We are perfectly lined up and all goes well until we are told to go back as there is no one to receive the boat. Great! With a side wind we need to reverse her and try again. We succeed without a bump, huge sigh of relief. All I have to do now is sign a declaration to say that the boatyard are not responsible for any accidents, breakages weather etc...anything. Everybody signs, there is no where else to go within 150 miles and they are the cheapest for 200 miles.

A welsh guy Steve (Liverpool supporter, I can tell from the tattoos) invites us out to his boat for a meal its a good relaxed evening where we swap information and ideas and we end with a list of stuff we need to buy.

Tues 30^th

We are told that the whole anti-foul needs to be sanded back and discover a load more evidence of osmosis. We agree to extra work and decide to go for the hard stuff. A lucky break as it turns out to be £50 cheaper a gallon – we need six! This fits in with all the opinions we received.

Next we are informed that we need to change the rudders. Is this ever going to stop?

We arrange a visit from a surveyor, minimum call out 2 hours at $150.

Go to the Quiz at the Tiki bar run by the owner, Darrel, a guy from Nottingham. He only came here to service swimming pools and eventually decided to run the bar. (We later find out that he gets deported for bad mouthing a judge and bigamy!)

Wed 31^st

Discover blisters in barrier coat for anti-foul it needs to be sanded back and repainted. I replace the ridge and deep freeze compressor mounts.

We meet Bob Goodchild the surveyor, after introductions and a quick view of the rudders he says they are OK for a cruise around the Caribbean but will need to be changed for an ocean passage. They should last another year. Apparently some professional sailors do not even notice when they lose one! The best bit, he doesn't charge us a thing.

We hear that our electrics have arrived from Raymarine and Herve can fit them on Monday, lets hope that we are back in the water by then.

July 2011

Friday 1st July

Checking in and out of each country will become a regular routine as we travel between the islands.

We meet Patrich at customs to check in to Martinique. For all the French islands this is a simple on

line process and is free! On other islands the customs officers make a charge depending on time and day of the week.

It will be a few days before we check out under a British flag.

We start unpacking and at 6 pm Francois picks up in his dinghy and we go for a drink with him and his Venezuelan wife Marina on his Legend 45 Feline Good. He is a wealth of information both locally and in Venezuela.

We have a beer in the Mango Bay, a local yachty bar and go to a local restaurant for a meal.

Saturday 2^nd July

We try to get our local phone topped up but the orange shop is shut on Saturday. So we go to the internet café who are very helpful and we finally get connected, and do a few emails. 

We head back to the boat, pump the dingy up and set off across the bay to do some shopping. Very exciting ride  as we have a 15hp Tohatsu 2 stroke engine on a Caribe rib with v shaped hull. (We thought it was a 4 stroke at the time)

Emmanuel, the French Dr who sold us the boat, arrives about 4pm and we spend the rest of the day removing a broken topping lift spinlock from the mast that has completely rusted up. I wish I had remembered my grinder! (and my allen keys). We cooked our usual Saturday curry with local scotch bonnets that are not as hot as those we get in England.

Sunday 3^rd July

We get free wifi at the Mango Bay bar so spend 2 hours there accessing all accounts to keep up to date until the laptop battery is flat. Back to the boat to empty water from the dinghy check engine filters and complete the unpacking.

Monday 4^th July

Started the day with a dinghy ride across the bay and up a small mango creek to find a sailmaker and a cheap chandler. We found the sail maker but the chandler was too far to walk. 

On the way back the dinghy packed up. This was a bad time to realise that we did not bring the oars! A quick paddle with our shoes took us onto a yacht anchored in the bay where we tried to work out what to do. Got the engine restarted just as some kindly French people offered to follow us back to the marina in case we had another fault. We got out the oars but it was now too late to get back to the chandler; all shops shut between 12 and 1:30 in Martinique.

We took a walk for a juice at the internet café and completed the monthly banking logons.

Priced up a range of parts in the expensive chandler and came back to the boat to complete a few more chores.

We got hold of Pichto,  a well worn old school mechanic who estimated about €250 to clean injectors and fix a gearbox selector. We visit another sail maker and return to remove the head sail for delivery tomorrow as the sail maker closes at 1pm. We asked around about Pichto and it appears he is an excellent mechanic when he is sober. (which he is when his wife is with him)

Tuesday 5^th

Headsail stitched and looking good. Will not put this up until main halyard is replaced in order to use two halyards for the lift. Buy blue tooth dongle to access net via phones.

Bought jack-stay material and two headsail sheets (half meter too short!) Spend two hours trying to install the dongle – and fail it requires registration.

Wednesday 6^th

Bought new main sail halyard in spectre (two meters too long) and reef line material.

Plumber inspects gas hose (with a lighter!) and says it is ok.

Pichto returns with his wife and fits clean injectors and gear selector. Spend two hours on the net trying to register the dongle – and fail bad internet connection.

Thursday 7^th

Got the riggers to fit the new main sheet and radar reflector, Did all deep freeze shopping, checked out the gas pipe shop and place for servicing extinguishers for the fourth time – beginning to think we go without them. Took Reef line and strop material to sail maker Josine. Extinguisher service man calls to say he will visit us at 9am tomorrow.

DigiNav man does not show, phones at 10:45 to say he he will be with us at 3pm, I phone at 4:30 and he will be with us later...

Our friend Stephan from Germany, living in Venezuela arrives fresh from a major drug bust on a yacht and we have dinner in the Mango Bay, the Tourist menu with Ti-punch cocktail, lemon, sugar syrup and white rum.

Friday 8^th

Diginav arrive 9am and prepare half the work, some faults need correcting in the workshop so we wait another day. We collect reefing strops and jack stays. Extinguisher service man calls says ours are ok to use but he will not service them, he sells us two new ones.

Saturday 9^th

Diginav complete all work, we check out of Martinique at the customs, so we can leave on Sunday. We fill with diesel and water and anchor in the bay overnight. It is the first time out on the boat on our own and it feels great.

Sunday 10^th

a very quiet night with an excellent anchor, At 8:30 we up anchor and head out. We try two reefs for a while then shake one out and go with full headsail at 7.5 knots a lovely day sail with a pleasant breeze and plenty of sun. We moor in Rodney bay and check into St Lucia, the nice man in the customs clears us out of St Lucia as well so we don't need to go to customs again, then charges $15EC because it is Sunday and they are on overtime.

Monday

Shop for food and chandlery, Island Water World (IWW)and Johnson's for resin, pilot-book, snap shackle and Tupperware and look for an electrician to test the log. He comes immediately and after half an hour tells us its broken and he doesn't have another. So we are without a log until Grenada. (thank heavens for GPS!) We move to an anchorage in the bay and reorganise the boat cupboards and draws. We read the pilot and it tells of “Life-rafts and Inflatables” (Lr&I) a company dealing in dinghys.

Tuesday

We ring Lr&I to find they have no new dingy stock but a one year old and a few others. We head off in our old dingy and get a lift to their warehouse. There are non that fit between our hulls but they say they can repair ours overnight! (US$325 – a snip) We borrow their rib and get back to our boat that is now 10 meters from the boat behind ("Wind's Way") the owners tell us that local fishermen have lifted our anchor and “reset” it. They had removed the bridle which made us less stable at anchor. We lift and reset the anchor again with 40m chain in 5m water. Should be ok for another fishing attack. A loud crack and the heavier dingy on loan has pulled the snap shackle out from our davit block (with Becket). Have our first swim in the sea - marvellous.

Wednesday

Watch fishermen putting nets around yachts and lifting their anchors. At least they were on board. We pick up our dinghy and drop the security chain in the water. Back to IWW and Johnson's for shackles and a large screwdriver (that I left at home). The weather forecast this morning was grim with rain and thunder so we decide to stay in the bay for another night. Strangely weather is pretty good very sunny, with a light breeze and a couple of light showers.

Thursday

We set off for Soufrier bay, a beautiful bay between the two Pitons, the mountains on the St Lucia flag. It is a protected bay with no anchoring allowed. This would have been ok but the mooring we got allocated was too close to the next one and we spent a night on “mooring watch” as at times we were side by side with a monohull ..fenders out! Etc.

The customs official had a touch of “epiletsy” and gave us a talking to because we had not left St Lucia when we said we would. The last customs officer told us to drop into Soufrier if we didn't leave by the date set, but no point in arguing.

Friday

It takes an eight hour sail to reach Williabou on St Vincent. We arrive and moor with the full main still up! It was a long day...the mooring guys have an argument about how much to pay them to take the mooring lines to a buoy. Trudy gives them EC$10, like the book says. They expect twice as much. Try to find customs to check into the Grenadines but find that they phone about 3pm to ask if anyone has arrived. As we didn't get there until 3:50 there is no customs and we have visions of a further issue when we get to the next port of entry.

We have a beer or two in the Waliabou Hotel and look at all the Pirates of the Caribbean memorabilia. The whole bay has been left as it was when the set was put up, with stuffed pirates, the water wheel, cannons and coffins lined up against several walls.

Saturday

We set off for Bequia with no wind, so we motor. The Starboard engine overheating alarm goes off so off goes the engine for inspection. Not much water in the filter but it is clean, start her up again with load of revs and with water out the side it cools down and we are ok again. After a couple of hours when I raise the revs we get black smoke from the Port engine and a streak of oil behind. Rev up and down we get no more than 2000 rpm until it clears, then ok again. We get the Sails up and engine off and sail on a warm 15 kt breeze at 6 to 7 knts. We see loads of flying fish as usual but also dolphins for the first time this trip. They are in a pod of about 20. We get to Admiralty Bay and anchor in Princess Margaret / Tony Gibson bay in time for lunch. When rounding the point at Devils Table we see a dead dog floating out to sea with a string lead attached, not a pretty site.

We check in at customs and get clearance for a month, this is for St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Sunday

Not much happening so we have a day cleaning the boat and reading the pilot.

Monday

There are three chandlers in Port Elizabeth so we track down each one and buy a new 1/2 inch main sheet 123 feet for about £150. Cockpit looks a bit smarter when it's rigged. It runs freely though an open spinlock and pulls easily though a closed one. The old sheet did neither of these. We find Robin Smith (Fixman 2) an ex Ferrari driver in Le Mans. He agrees to service our engines on Wednesday, he hopes he can see better by then, we just need to get part numbers for service kit. He has recently had a battery explode in his face and has Bakelite scars and an acid burn near his eye.

Tuesday

Deliver engine type, impeller and filter numbers to Robin. Shop for frozen food, stop by at the boat and go to Nolene Taylor's for a Roti lunch, Conch for me Chicken for Trudy. This is our first “local” meal. It is a bit like a Chinese yellow curry with potato corn and peppers wrapped in a 10 inch Chapati. Both chicken and conch are tender. At 5:30 we go for a beer in the New York, the ex pats bar and meet Jurgen, Sue, Deborah, Dee, Robin and Tony who will start the yachting net on Wednesday ch68 at 8:00am broadcasting from the Fig Tree.

Wednesday

In the quest to find free wifi we visit the Fig tree, but it does not open until 11am. Back to the boat to wait for Robin who arrives about 4pm, fits port impeller and takes oil and fine filters to try to obtain a match. We go back to the Fig Tree to catch up with emails and a fruit cocktail (beer for Trudy)

Thursday

Robin spends most of the day completing the service on the engines. We have a “raccord” primary diesel filter that is leaking but there is nothing we can do about that until we get a replacement. We go to the New York bar and meet Duff, Dave, Bob, Robin, Chris and Dee have a few rums and beers and home for supper.

Friday

Took the ferry for a day out in Kingstown St Vincent, an hour each way on an old roly vessel. Busy working port will endless street vendors but no decent chandlers however we did find a nice piece of beef sirloin. We visit Digicel head office and a helpful guy gives us the settings to link phone to internet. For lunch we go back to Nolene 's for a chicken roti.

I finally get an internet link using my old Nokia 6230i with new settings and we hear the shocking new about Mark Williams. a neighbour from England who at 32 has just been killed in a fork lift accident.

Saturday

Whist Trudy is sourcing envelopes and writing paper I check dinghy engine for misfire. A local (girl) water taxi driver takes over, cleans the plugs and after looking in the tank tells me that my fuel has too much two stroke oil in the mix, and that this will make it stutter and stall, which is exactly what has been happening. Bought new fins and masks with nose clearing valves, and go snorkelling, get back to the boat and clean the weed off the outside hulls. Steak for supper, we got 12 from a £10 sirloin!

Sunday

Clean bilges put bilge matting down, relaxing day before the “jump up” at Beige, an acoustic music night. Quite a few attend and there are good local musicians and yachties alike. We see an example of Caribbean dancing that is pretty raunchy.

Monday

Rest day, filled up with water diesel and petrol.

Tuesday

Head for Charles town on Canouan, we walk around the bay buy a few supplies and head to the Pirates Cove for two beers and rum. EC$75 we will not recommend this place!

Wednesday

Canouan to Mayreau, a beautiful small friendly island. We walk to the top and view Tobago Keys from the top. On the way back we stop off a Dennis's bar for a Dennis special – 2 rums, bitters, grenadine, lime pineapple grapefruit and orange juice – very good.

Thursday

Mayreau to Union Island a 2 mile motor as our starboard and house batteries are dead. We check out at customs and immigration have a beer and wifi access at the Green light bar and head back to check the battery water. Use the 2 litres we have to top up 3 cells and go ashore again to buy more to complete the job.

Friday

We wake to dead batteries on starboard again. Left Union and head for Hillsborough on Cariacou. We check in and deal with very friendly customs and immigration and port authority. EC$ 50 to cruise in Grenada and we are given a 3 month visa. The immigration officer tells us all about the Cariacou regatta and that this is the safest place in the Caribbean with only one homicide in the last five years. We do a bit if victualling, watch the hand built fishing vessels practising in the bay and have an early night.

Saturday

Move 4 miles around the coast to Tyrrel bay meet up with the crowd from Bequia to discover that Jay has been taken to hospital with an undiagnosed stomach pain. We have conch creole in the Twilight bar and finish up in a bar run by a scot, Lorna.

Sunday

Recheck batteries and add a further 2 litres of water they are not bubbling up so I must not have refilled with enough in the first place. Need to keep a close watch on them. We move anchor but it takes 3 goes to get a good hold in the right place – tropical storm “91L” may become more organised and get classified as a Tropical Cyclone it is 150 miles to our East. We need to get some reliable weather information.

June 2011

Wednesday 29th June 2011

We flew into Vieux Fort St. Lucia, all our bags arrived, we cleared customs

quickly and met Chris Joseph, our driver for the day.

Our next job was to collect out cargo, all 23 bags. we spent the next two hours

travelling between cargo and customs. $80 to receive cargo then a further

$250 to Mr Harris the broker who spent ten minutes arranging a transit

document to allow us to take our household goods to Martinique.

Finally we are on the road north to the Coco Palm hotel where we agreed to

leave the cargo in the van overnight.

Thursday 30th June

The next day we set off for Rodney Bay marina where need to check our

cargo out and load it onto our catamaran, "Manureva", waiting on the pontoon. Chris Joseph wants $350 plus a tip that he does not get!

We meet Patrich and Francois who have brought the yacht from Martinique

to meet us. We all go to Customs, Patrich and Francois check in to St Lucia

then we all check out for Martinique.

$12 dash for the loaders and finally we are off.

We have a pretty exciting sail for about four hours with 3 to 4 metre waves

and 32 knots showing on the windex (needs recalibrating upwards). We have since done the trip north from St Lucia to Martinique several times and each time it has been rough.

We arrive in Le Marin marina in clouds of black smoke from the Starboard engine, moor up and open the Champaign (thanks Linda) one glass (small) pored into the sea for Neptune and four of us

enjoy the rest.

We do a bit of food shopping, get back to the boat have a local Pizza and

crash out.

First Blog

This is my first ever blog. The beginning of a new adventure. If only we had known what was in store for us!
I intend to use this blog to update followers on progress though the high seas to let you know how we are progressing.
The website www.andyandtrudy.net will have our latest pictures assuming we can upload them.
I hope this proves useful.

Andy and Trudy
XXX