A BIg Day Out

At a burger night with lots of wine and beer and with lovely lady, Maxine, from Blue Beyond, Moody 54 anchored nearby.

Helen and friend behaving quite normally (!) on party BBQ night, Hog Island

Hog Island BBQ. All the little children just so sweet!

Cutting Pete's hair again on troutbridge...no criticism of my technique please...there was no loss of blood or fingers just rather hairy arms!!

The steel band at the fish fry night at Gouyave. They were very good too!

Pete and Helen and I decided that we would like to see the island of Grenada from somewhere other than these (albeit awfully nice!) anchorages on the south coast so we booked a whole day tour with a local guide and his bus/taxi. It cost very little, just $25 each for 8 hours of sightseeing.

It was a brilliant day out. We visited just about everything that it was possible to visit here, too many places to remember in fact. We got around the whole island....met monkeys, did the rain forest with waterfall and pool, found spices and nuts growing on trees....and a real loofah tree too....I always thought they were found underwater?

We had a good local lunch in a lovely place on the north coast with a tour of the nearby rum distillery included. This was probably the highlight of the tour for me...it was like stepping back in time 200 years as virtually nothing of the process from cane crushing to distilling the "stuff" has changed in all this time and I just loved seeing the ancient machinery still working. I bought some of the end product too, a white rum that is too strong to export...it's classed as a flammable liquid on aircraft. We tasted it...real firewater...not for the fainthearted!

Our delightful tour guide,"Cutty" seemed to know all the history of his island and we had a running commentary on the bus as we passed places of historical interest such as the remains of the psychiatric hospital which was bombed and destroyed accidentally by the Americans (Instead of some building of strategic importance apparently) when they invaded Grenada in 1985. The bewildered patients were accidentally released and found wandering about unexpectedly free, still dressed in their white hospital gowns!!

Photos included here are not of the day out...they will arrive later...Pete is putting them on a stick for me...my camera battery died after a couple of shots....not of rum either!!!

On domestic matters

It becomes necessary to do the laundry on occasion! One tries to wear as little as decently possible with this heat and humidity and in a crowded anchorage which helps keep the dirty washing pile down but still it grows...... Over the last few months, we have visited several laundries and I am just so unimpressed....some of you will already know my views on how to wash clothes...sorry to go on about it again, but I like white things to stay white and out here, everything comes back a horrid shade of yellow and it's getting worse!! I now wash most of my stuff by hand in hot water with a bar of soap, just scrubbing 'til things look clean. I just don't know what the laundries do with clothes...use rubbish detergent maybe or not enough powder or cold water. Who knows?
Another horrid thing that I'm finding is that now that my "tan" is quite deep...especially on my shoulders (with the sun overhead so much and with it being so hard to find shade on the boat...maybe I should start wearing an enormous wide brimmed hat!)...anyway, the skin that I er... "exfoliate" is now dark coloured so it always makes the washing water look dirty. Nice!!! This is also why white clothes begin to look yellow by the way. Nice again!!
Sorry about that but I thought that you should know this so that anywhere that I might stay when I'm back in the UK should try to provide me with brown towels!!!!!!!

Moving on South

Well here we are in Grenada, anchored in a sheltered bay just a few yards away from Hog Island after spending a few days in Prickly Bay which is just around the corner. No wifi here so I’ll have to post this when we find another hot spot!( If I post this, then it’s because we have come back to Prickly Bay)
From Prickly Bay, we took the local bus into the capital, St Georges to go shopping etc. Had a beer at the yacht club there and spotted one of my flags on display!
It’s quite a nice place, quiet and with a little beach bar which only sells beer and rum (apart from Coke if that’s what you feel you have to add to the rum)! They did a nice BBQ on Sunday afternoon to which most of the yachties in the bay turned up and so a jolly time was had by all.
We were all interested to know what everyone else was going to do for the imminent hurricane season which officially starts on June 1st. We, and Pete on Troutbridge, are heading south to Trinidad to lay the boat up for a while before we head north and west again after the worst of the hurricane season is over in October/November.
Other yachts will head north up the East coast of the States and quite a few are toughing it out and staying put! Grenada is a long way south and supposedly not much at risk of being hit but hurricane Ivan practically destroyed the island a few years ago and so it has become an insurance risk for boats. There are quite a few boats which have been left here though, the sails etc removed while the owners head home and I suppose they just hope that nothing bad will happen. Other islands like St Lucia are offering sheltered marina berths (very expensive!) and some places have mangrove swamps which usually manage to survive a hurricane so offer some protection to boats sheltering there. We are taking no risks however so south it is and outside the hurricane limits at 10 deg latitude.
Trinidad is supposed to be extremely hot and humid during the summer months so I’m not looking forward to that but we will have air conditioning in the boatyard at least to make things more bearable.
The humidity gets up to around 85% here sometimes and that is not pleasant at all….I don’t think one can acclimatise to it either. You just stay damp and try not to do much physical activity!!!
We are off to yet another “do” tonight specially organized for the yachting community here. This time it’s a burger evening (with a live band) at the marina around the corner. The last do was on Friday night (and every Friday night ) which was a fish fest held in a small town one hour’s bus ride up the West coast….and very good it was too! Cheap, and a steel band to entertain us….much better than the over the top one in Barbados back in January. Photos may follow….
Tomorrow, I’m joining some friends here for an Island tour, another trip specially just for us yachties….must remember to take plenty of water and douse myself in 98% deet beforehand….you never know which bitey things are out there and the Boots “environmentally friendly” stuff just doesn’t work!!!

Sitting peacefully at anchor in Carriacou waiting to leave early next week and I’m thinking about fish. The best meals I’ve had out here have been the fresh fish dishes cooked on board…..partly because they were free of course!
Dick will fish from the boat if we are in suitable water. I learned from a local in Bequia that if a boat stays in one place for some time, a colony of sea creatures will thrive beneath….feeding on the “stuff” that goes overboard…..all organic naturally and I suppose an effective way of recycling!
He has managed to hook some interesting specimens, most of which had to go back. There were a few stingrays….much too big to handle on board, some moray eels, an odd orange fish with wings that the locals call a bat fish…not good eating… and the best catches which have been the red snapper….lovely just filleted, seasoned and fried in butter. These were all caught in Bequia and we haven’t really been anchored anywhere suitable since until here in Carriacou. So, the other evening, I was doing something on the computer when I heard the most incredible noises coming from on deck….sounds as though someone had seriously overdosed on those foods with antisocial “aftereffects”…you know….Jerusalem artichokes, butterbeans etc!! I came out to investigate and found he’d managed to hook a pufferfish which was obviously reacting badly to the experience having puffed itself up like a football and then letting the air escape like a deflating balloon. It was really loud and so funny…… Dick managed to shake it from the landing net, back, unharmed into the water and it floated off upside down unable to help itself until it had belched out enough air!! I took photos as seen here but just wish I’d been able to capture the sounds on video!! Priceless!!!

Carriacou

Union Island with Pete and Dick and little girl who attached herself to us!

And another one with more people attached!!

View of Carriacou from "taxi" in Union Island..... it was nice...air conditioned too!

Blowing a conch shell....Union Island. Normally used to announce fresh fish for sale but think he was doing it just for effect...it's quite loud...like a boat's fog horn.

The only interesting geology I've seen so far apart from the bubbling sulphurous mud of the Soufriere volcano, St Lucia. These are basalt columns like a small giant's (?) causeway on Frigate Island (attached to Union Island).

Well I never! We arrived in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, Grenada after clearing customs etc yesterday and after a pleasant motorsail from Petit Martinique...more about that later..... Have just discovered that not only do I get free internet here anchored in the middle of the bay but that my laptop keyboard has decided to mysteriously mend itself completely. All I need now is to be able to Skype and I'll have total free contact for a change! Think I'd like to stay a few days just to catch up with everyone and still be able to afford a couple of rum punches too!

So, after leaving Union Island, we headed south for the next island, Petit Martinique. This island is part of Grenada and we should really have checked in at Customs in Carriacou first so we were technically illegal immigrants for a day. Fortunately, the authorities turn a blind eye to yachties who do this. Otherwise, no one would visit Petit Martinique probably!!

It turned out to be my favourite place so far so I was sad to have to leave after 24hours there as regulations required us to do. There were no tourists, the people were all really friendlyand the little supermarkets stocked just about everything we needed at the best prices so far in the Caribbean (including Chilean merlot!!!!!!). The island is also a perfect "shape" in my opinion.... a gentle slope one end rising to about 700' then dropping more steeply on the other side; just as a child would draw it complete with palm trees too! Silly I know but so nice compared to the outline of so many of the other islands here which look like a pile of slag heaps from a distance.

The Internet CAN be Free in The Grenadines

Just about to get in the water!!! Mayreau

É A Creole kid and a coconut!!! Mayreau

Nice view huh? The smelly salt flats in Mayreau

This is what about 99% of the Caribbean islands look like..... the postcards only show the beach and palm trees!!

More salt flat...sorry, I couldn't find how to delete it!

While we were all staggering back to the dinghy dock earlier with all the laptops etc we came across a delightful dockside bar and naturally stopped for a beer or two (and lunch!) Two hours later, I was told that wifi here was free so here come some photos...... I hope!!!

A Little Out of Touch.... Sorry

Internet access has been a little difficult these past few days as we have moved further south within the Grenadines to smaller and less well connected islands. We left Bequia on 23rd April after the essential things on the boat had been fixed. Unfortunately, my new keyboard hadn’t arrived yet so the terribly nice and very apologetic young man in the computer centre has said he will post it on to wherever we may be as and when it finally gets to the Caribbean. Hmm!!
Our first stop was the island of Canouan about 15 miles south of Bequia. We anchored for the night but didn’t go ashore. It didn’t look too exciting…..an airstrip and a cement works I believe. It will probably end up with an exclusive and very expensive resort built somewhere just like a lot of the other islands here…… a place to avoid then except as a convenient overnight stop. Sailing at night in these waters is a little hazardous unless one knows the islands well as there are many dangerous reefs around and very few lit navigation marks. Lots of wrecked vessels around too which tend to be left where they ran onto the reefs…. A warning to all!!
Next day brought us to Mayreau, another 15 miles to the south. We anchored in a lovely little bay with really clear waters and ventured ashore this time. We climbed the hill in the raging midday heat to look across the other side and over to the scenic Tobago Cays which are very popular with yachtsmen…. Too crowded for us to join them though. Mayreau is a bit like Sark in character….but with cactus and smelly salt flats. Still, I did actually go swimming on the beach here….a rare thing!
Virtually everywhere we go seems to blare out loud music at night from several of the beach bars and this place was no exception. It’s usually a mixture of traditional calypso, reggae, steel bands and really bad karaoke as well as a lot of horrible modern music, garage or house or indie or something equally awful! I suppose I’m showing my age!! In Mayreau however, a small group of tent dwellers camped on the beach (hippies or devil worshippers I think) brought out the bongos and carried on thumping it out until 3 or 4 in the morning. Different….but nothing it seems can keep me awake anymore!
After two nights we left for the next suitable stop in the chain, Union Island. The main anchorage is tucked behind a line of reefs and we eventually managed to find somewhere safe inbetween the coral to anchor. It was Helen’s (Troutbridge) birthday and we’d been invited to a knees up on a special purpose built beach bar right on the reef. A great evening was had by all and there was dancing in the sand too!! I’ll try to post photos next time round as my time in this internet café is running out fast…
We ( with Troutbridge) sailed around the corner the next day for Chatham Bay… a lovely quiet spot and the first place I’ve been to so far which has been completely dark and music free at night! After two days there, we came back around the corner to another bay, and then back into the main anchorage to clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines ie do “customs”.
Then tomorrow, we are heading further south to Carriacou and Grenada…..
Hope to get better internet access there and I also hope that my new keyboard might eventually catch up with me there too. This spare one I’m using is three times the size of my dear little laptop!