I can’t believe it’s February already. Kelly and I awoke and found us alone on the boat. It was 7AM and Rick had taken the dinghy ashore for fresh croissants and Danish pastries. When he returned we had a relaxing breakfast and waited for the sun to get a little higher before heading through the reefs into the Tobago Cays. It was less than 5 miles from Union Island to the Cays but it was a rolly ride since I had said not to bother with the main sail. We arrived and found many boats already anchored but there was still plenty of room for us. We anchored behind Horseshoe reef. This reef was the only thing separating us from the Atlantic Ocean with open seas all the way to Africa. The winds were constant but the reef broke the waves. There was a small deserted island to either side of us and one behind us as well. We had lunch and a siesta after arriving and then went by dinghy to see which island we would like to visit first.
We had happy hour on board and then decided to have a late dinner since the
pork tenderloin was frozen solid. This gave us time to watch the videos
Kelly brought of the Christmas we missed back home. It was wonderful to be
able to watch my nieces open their gifts. In fact my youngest niece Diana
made a video of a Christmas Eve get-together just for us. In it she kept
telling everyone why she was making the video and to say hello to us. It
was quite professional. We also watched a video of Kelly dancing at the
studio. She has come a long way with her Latin Dancing and now she wants
to see Rick and I in action. Guaranteed, it won’t be allowed on video.
We had a leisurely breakfast of French Toast and then I baked a Blueberry pie
to take with us to Rasi tonight for dinner. It was almost noon when we
climbed into the dinghy and headed over to Baradel (our chosen island) for the
day. We just sat on the beach for a while until Kelly saw some baby goats
coming down the hill. We then climbed the hill looking for the goats and
as well searching for a few Kodak moments overlooking the anchorage and reefs.
The top of the hill provided a great view. When we returned to the bottom
of the hill we went snorkeling off the beach.
It was 3:30PM when we returned to the boat leaving us time to each have a
shower before Happy Hour aboard Rasi at 5PM. I quickly made some rice to
take with us. Ann and Carol had prepared chicken and fried plantain for
dinner. It was a pleasant evening together. Rasi was heading
north towards Bequia in the morning and we were
heading back to Union Island.
We waved good-bye to Rasi at about 8AM. Reef snorkeling was canceled
for the morning as Kelly wasn’t feeling all that great. We decided to make
it a quiet day. We had a nice sail back to Union Island and arrived before
lunch. Just after we anchored Janti of Janti’s Bar stopped by to see if we
would like to have dinner at his place. Janti has two places, a
restaurant/bar in town and a little shack on a reef. We agreed to go to
the reef, which is quite unique. He has built a Palm leaf shack on a
cement base in the middle of no where. The cement base approximately 20x20
feet and is a mix of conch shell and cement. It contains a small salt
water pool where the lobsters are held until dinner time. The
base was
covered with a coating of sand. There are two small gardens near the
lobster pool and lights for after dark. 3 cement steps allow you to walk
up from the water when you get out of the dinghy and there is really only room
to tie one dinghy. We were the first to arrive but many followed just
behind us. There were plenty of people there for some serious dominos
games. Rick and I beat William and Kelly 6 to 1. (We were playing
local dominos not Mexican Train). William who works for Janti tied all of
the dinghies together but just as it was getting dark someone saw one of the
dinghies drifting away. Since our dinghy was the closest and easiest to
get into, Rick went to rescue it. When he returned we had to send him out
again. We didn’t realize we were supposed bring our own plates and
cutlery. We were anchored very close so it wasn’t a big deal. It was
a fun evening, we met Dougie who is the only person who lives on the Petit
Bateau Island in Tobago Cays. We told him that next time we were there we
would try to visit with him. We met some other interesting people and
would recommend Happy Hour at Janti’s. The next time I think we’ll skip
the dinner. Although the food was very good it was also very expensive.
After breakfast we all went ashore to check out with Customs and Immigration.
We told the Immigration Officer that we would be leaving about 11AM, which then
gave us time to stroll through the town of Clifton, visit the market and buy a
few things. The fruit and vegetables at the market were plentiful and very
fresh looking but expensive since everything is imported. We bought a
whole watermelon and a very fresh pineapple (both the smallest we could find).
It was 10:50AM when we arrived back at the boat and started to lift the anchor.
We had a gorgeous sail back to Carriacou. The gap between the islands gave us almost no waves at all. When we arrived in Hillsborough Kelly and I stayed aboard while Rick went into Customs and Immigration to check in. He and a large black cloud arrived back at the boat about the same time. We waited 10 minutes for the cloud to pass and then lifted the anchor again to head around the corner to Tyrrel Bay. Shadowfax pulled into the bay just before us and we dropped anchor side by side. Keith and Alison jumped in for a swim, checked their anchor and ours then came aboard for a visit. The watermelon was a perfect snack and the five of us finished half of it. I used most of the pineapple by making Hawaiian Chicken for dinner.
Shadowfax asked if we would like to join them on a bus trip to Windward on
the other side of the island to see the local boat building operation. We
passed, as Kelly had already expressed a desire to dinghy into the mangroves and
then go for a walk along the shore. It was a very peaceful morning and as
we were returning from our walk, Denis from Tiger Lilly II poked his head out of
the Arawak Dive Shop door and said hello. After introductions of Kelly and
his guests we agreed to have lunch together at The Turtle Dove which was a
little further along the beach. We went by dinghy and they walked but when
we arrived we found the restaurant closed. Evidently everyone was in
Grenada for La Source which is a major sailing event. Next stop was the
Yacht Club, which is always open for lunch. Arleen who was still back at
the boat arrive by dinghy with their son Scott who is also visiting with them.
We all had Rotis, shared some Callaloo Soup and had Nutmeg ice cream for desert.
This was a true Grenadian lunch. We had finished eating and we were just
sitting around talking when Rick noticed Moonrise pulling into the bay.
They anchored near us so on our way back to the boat we stopped to say hello.
They said they had some pretty big seas on their passage from Grenada.
We lifted the dinghy in the davits before dinner so that we were prepared for an early departure in the morning.
We had a couple of major rainfalls in the middle of the night and the winds picked up to be very strong. The weatherfax we had received the night before indicated that we would have 6 to 9 foot seas and 15 to 20 knot winds for our passage back to Grenada. We all wondered if this was still valid so turned the SSB on at 6:30 AM to listen to Eric. This accomplished nothing because the propagation was so bad we couldn’t hear anything. We decided to listen to George’s forecast at 7:15AM, which meant we would be a little late leaving if we left at all. George indicated that the winds had picked up and both the winds and waves were going to increase over the next few days. That was all we needed to hear. The anchor was up and we were on our way. You never can tell, but we had a wonderful sail. Sometimes the knot meter was hovering between 8 and 9 knots. The tide was with us, the winds were almost behind us and the waves gave us a little surfing effect to keep up the excitement. We arrived in St. George’s before 1PM and went ashore to get a few provisions and restock the liquor cabinet at the duty free shop. We called Grant our dance instructor and asked if there was any Latin Dancing on the island this weekend. Luck was with us there was dancing every night but the one that interested us most was a party the next night at Castaway’s Restaurant.
It was 9AM as we lifted anchor and headed home to Mt. Hartman Bay. The wind was blowing 30 knots and higher, the tide was running against us with a 2 knot current and we had to go around the south end of the Island directly into the waves. Since we were only going 10 miles we didn’t really care but it was a tough slog the whole way. As we rounded the point at Prickly Bay I was below checking charts and I could hear Rick increasing the RPM’s on the engine. He had the RPM’s up to 2200 and we were making less than 1 knot (SMG). As we actually rounded the point and got out of the current and waves we were all of a sudden making over 8 knots.
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It was 12PM as we motored past Night Owl and Chas called out to let us know
there was a party at Hog Island today beginning at 1PM. We arrived at Hog
a little after 1:30PM and we were almost the first ones there. Every one
else arrived shortly after. It was nice to see many of our friends were
still here. There was a volley ball game and the Pan Band was on hand to
entertain us. We had chicken dinner from Roger’s Barbecue before leaving
and heading to the Rum Squall Bar for Happy Hour and to book a taxi for this
evening. Normally there is at least one taxi that is available until 8PM
every night but since this was a holiday the lot was empty. Fredricka at
the bar call one of the drivers at home and he agreed to pick us up at 8PM.
We returned to the boat to shower and change before heading to shore again.
Milo the taxi driver picked us up and took us to Castaway’s for the party.
It didn’t really start until 9PM at which time the place was packed. Grant
arrived and he and Kelly seemed to have a fun time with quite a few dances.
It was after 11PM when we decided to leave and since it was a Holiday we found
we were unable to get a taxi. Grant arranged for a friend of his who was
leaving to give us a lift back. It was 11:45 when my head hit the pillow
and that was the last I remember.
It’s a good thing we returned to Grenada when we did. The winds overnight were so strong that the boat was heeling (at anchor) as each huge gust of wind screamed down off the mountains and through the valley. We were tucked into the bay close enough that we didn’t rock and roll but the sound of the wind woke us a few times during the night. Poor Kelly was in the aft cabin nearest the wind generator which at times sounded like a jet aircraft taking off. This wind was to last throughout the rest of the week.
A change of pace was required. Kelly was complaining about having a
sailor’s tan. The fronts of her legs were brown but the backs were as
white as when she arrived. We took our books and sun protector up to the
pool for the day so she could work on her tan. Karen and Samantha from
Serendipity joined us for a swim and for lunch. After lunch, we returned
to the pool and Lori from Pride came up for a swim. It was a nice day.
The only other thing we did was to go to the Rum Squall Bar for Happy Hour.
Everyone was going to Hog Island for volleyball and Roger’s Barbecue again.
Kelly wanted to go early so she could lie on the beach for a while. I made
some green banana salad, cole slaw and hard-boiled eggs for a picnic and we
headed over about 11AM. The ride over was very wet since the winds were
still blowing over 30 knots. We had the island to ourselves for a while
and enjoyed the picnic lunch. Kelly gave up on the beach because we had a
rising tide and the beach was quickly disappearing. She chose instead to
lie on one of the dinghy tubes. Meanwhile I gave Rick a much needed
haircut. Everyone arrived including the steel pan band. Roger had
the barbecue going and the volleyball game was underway. Ann from Nativa
cut my hair again. She does a nice job. We didn’t have the barbecue
this day since we were still full from our picnic. Three other dinghies
left the island with us just before 5PM and raced back to the Rum Squall Bar.
It was a fun Happy Hour. Everyone knew it was Kelly’s last night so Pam
gave her recitation of Albert and the Lion. Chas sang his Irish song and
everyone else sang and did the actions for Swing Low Sweet Chariot. When
we finished it was decided we should have another potluck Happy Hour the next
night but we should call it a musical potluck and everyone would bring
instruments of some type.
This was Kelly’s last day. We spent time in the morning creating some backup CD’s of my pictures and files to send home with her. I was a little rushed in doing this because she didn’t want to leave without another dip in the pool. We arrived at the pool about 11AM just as some grey clouds appeared overhead. It didn’t rain but the air felt a little chilly for getting into the pool. Granted it was still in the mid 80’s but there was definitely a wind chill factor. We went back to the boat in time to get washed and changed before the final dinghy ride to shore for our taxi to the airport. Check in for her flight was quick but we found out that the flight was going to be an hour late. We went to the restaurant and Kelly ordered chicken roti and nutmeg ice cream for lunch. She had to settle for chocolate ice cream as they were out of nutmeg. After the Air Canada flight arrived we stopped by the SVG Airlines and said good-bye to Grant in his office before checking Kelly through security. We were going to wait and wave good-bye to Kelly as she got in the plane but since I had announced the Musical Pot Luck party we all felt I should get back to the marina and participate. The two weeks went very quickly so Kelly has instructions to start saving for another visit.
The Musical Pot Luck was a blast. There were 4 guitar players, one harmonica, one keyboard, and a variety of percussion instruments. I took the tambourine that our friends Esti and Dubi gave us as a bon voyage gift. I had quite a few compliments on the artwork they had drawn on the skin. The party was a great success but Rick and I left early and hit the pillows by 8PM.
This was the first day in over three weeks we haven’t had company so I did almost nothing all day. I relaxed, read my book and caught up with some email. Rick read a book and had a siesta in the afternoon. It’s normally very difficult to get Rick to sit and do nothing but he didn’t even need to be coaxed.
We went ashore for Happy Hour but had to time the dinghy ride so that we left in between rainsqualls. After Happy Hour we found two people stranded at the dinghy dock. They had planned to call the crew to come and get them from the Rum Squall Bar and didn’t realize there wasn’t a radio there to use. We offered to give them a lift to their boat and learned that they were Peter and Kay Forwood, Australians, who are riding their Harley Davidson around the world. They started in 1996. They have a web site that we will have to check out next time we’re in town. www.horizonsunlimited.com/forwood
Easing back into chores was our game plan today. Rick took the jerry cans to dock and fueled both the boat and the dinghy. I put together enough laundry to keep Claire (the laundry lady) busy for a while. I also did some hand laundry. We decided to put out a second anchor. The winds are still strong and are forecasted to get stronger by the weekend. The anchor is holding beautifully but I wanted to stop some of the dancing and surfing that the boat goes through with each really strong gust. It worked perfectly and another boat followed right after us doing the same thing.
There was another volleyball game at Hog Island today but we declined. We had to rest up a little in the afternoon to prepare for an evening out. The Big Blues Band was playing at Stuart’s Bar in True Blue Bay and we had free transportation. There were two busloads of Yachties from Mt. Hartman Bay that went. The Blues Band played amazing rock and roll music all evening. The Mt. Hartman Bay gang took over. There wasn’t really a dance floor but that didn’t stop anyone. Everyone was dancing on a floor of crushed nutmeg shells, which covers both the pathway and the eating area. Not too many were barefoot. There was a great barbecue that night as well. Rick and I had a mouthwatering plate of ribs.
We went to the “Dolly Mixtures” (Cockney for the pictures), today with Pam and Chas of Night Owl, who are obviously some of our crazy British friends. We met them at the Excel Shopping Centre where they were eating the chicken they had bought from the Chicken Man on the way there. He makes the best chicken on the Island for $5EC ($2.50CAD) but I didn’t want any chicken this time because the last time we did that I was too full for popcorn. We did have a hot fudge sundae from TCBY’s before going into the theatre and then bought some popcorn inside. Part II of the Lord of the Rings was great but I’m sure glad we watched Part I last night. It has been so many years since I read the books I had forgotten a lot of the story. After the movie, a local bus agreed to drive us back to Mt. Hartman Bay but after turning the corners on two wheels and racing up and down hills we asked him to just drop us at the top of the Hill for Secret Harbour Hotel. I don’t think our nerves could have handled the ride down to the water. We made it back in time for the last half of Happy Hour.
It was a beautiful day, warm and breezy with not even a sprinkle of rain. Rick worked on small boat jobs and I caught up on a lot of email. Late in the afternoon, Walt & Elsie from Sea Dream I stopped by for a visit. They are from Toronto and sailed out of Humber Sailing Club. They bought Sea Dream I this summer in Grenada and are moored very close to us.
Rick walked Prickly Bay to use the Internet Cafe. He spent the morning surfing. I baked some bread and puttered around the boat. It is so nice to have the bread maker working again. We blew the timer on the circuit panel while at dock. The electricity here is 50 hertz rather than 60 and can cause real problems with some electrical appliances. Some boats without smart chargers even ruined their chargers. Since we don’t plan on spending anymore time at dock it’s no longer an issue.
We met Jim (the Pastor) at Happy Hour. We haven’t seen him for quite a while as was back in the U.S. visiting family. We also had a great gab with Pam and Chas about going to the Western Caribbean including Venezuela this spring if things remain settled there. We could then go on up to Cuba next fall. We’re considering it but will probably wait until the last minute to decide.
The howling of the wind woke us a few times during the night. These winds are forecast to continue for the rest of the week.
In the morning Rick took the dinghy to the beach to wash it but was only half finished by lunchtime. I started working on a few sewing projects. After lunch we got ready to go Fort Jeudy and visit our friends from Canada, Bill and Huguette. They are back in Grenada for their regular February/March vacation. We spent a pleasant afternoon gabbing with them but it went so quickly that it was dark before we realized that we hadn’t had a swim or even played a game of dominos. Joy, the lady who cooks for them had prepared a lovely meal for dinner. It was 8:30PM when we left to head back to Mt. Hartman. When we arrived it was pouring rain and the winds were still howling. We stood in the Rum Squall bar for a while, waited for the rain to let up a bit, and then charged in the dinghy back to the boat.
Yesterday was Anne’s Birthday and we had not been able to attend the party so this morning I baked a loaf of Banana Bread and we took it over as a birthday gift for her. She and Brian have anchored Nativa by Hog Island now and since it was Wednesday (a barbecue day), after visiting Nativa we stopped by the island to visit everyone else but didn’t stay for the barbecue.
Rick had to go to shore and order a new fresh water pump for the engine. We had noticed that sometimes the engine was making a little noise and when he checked it out it was the pump. The manual said not to attempt to disassemble the thing just buy a new one. It should be here in a couple of days so it should not interfere with any plans to leave.
What a day! Poor Rick decided innocently enough to polish some stainless steel. As he unzipped one of the zippers on the bimini it fell away in his hand. The stitching had rotted. So down came the bimini and out came the sewing machine. With some temporary repairs made he put the bimini back up. While doing this he had to unzip a zipper on the dodger and wouldn’t you know it, the same thing happened. He took the dodger down and brought it below for repairs. Since I was well into sewing I asked him to also bring me the main sail cover which needed a few patches. With these things finished I had time left to do a few flag repairs. Everything was done just in time to get ready and leave for Happy Hour and dinner out. Susan and Leon on Masade had organized transportation and dinner at Patrick’s Restaurant. This restaurant serves a 21 course meal of local dishes for a set price ($25CAD per person). There were 10 of us and we had a great time.
It was 2 AM and I could hear that there was something wrong with the anchors. There had been no wind for an hour or so and I guess we just drifted around in a circle so the anchors were twisted. We untwisted them and went back to bed just before the wind picked up again.
It rained all day. I’m glad it was yesterday we had the dodger and bimini off for repairs and not today. I did find a few more sewing projects to work on while I had the machine out with threads blowing everywhere.
We went to the Rum Squall Bar a little early in the afternoon because I had promised Samantha (6 years old) that I would sing with her if she brought her new little Karaoke Keyboard and Songbook ashore with her. She did and by the end of Happy Hour we had made a Busker out of her (much to her Fathers chagrin). She put her hat out and was charging 2 cents (EC) per song. I talked Rick into staying for the Friday night barbecue which we haven’t done for quit a while.
The wind was extremely strong all night long and during the day it was even difficult to stand upright on the deck it was so fierce. I spent the morning trying every last thing I could imagine to fix the colour print head on my printer and nothing worked. A new colour printer head is now on order. Rick cleaned some more stainless steel. Almost everyone just stayed aboard all day and listened to the wind howl. In the afternoon I made a big pot of chicken stew with dumplings and we watched a movie in the evening.
Things were a little better but we’re still putting up with extremely high winds. No boats are moving anywhere. In the afternoon we went over to Hog Island by dinghy for a while. We were amazed by the height of the reef above water. It looked like an island rather than a reef. I asked one of the locals why the tide was so extremely low since it wasn't a neap or spring tide. He explained that this is the beginning of “dry season tides”. Evidently the tides in dry season are much lower and higher than during the rainy season.
Finally, the winds eased off and we had a wonderful nights sleep. In fact, I opened my eyes about 2AM and couldn’t believe how quiet it was. There wasn’t even enough of a breeze to turn the wind generator. The hatch above my head was open and I could see the clearest sky in weeks. Thousands of sparkling stars. It’s funny how one truly beautiful night can “almost” make you forget a couple of week’s worth of terrible nights in paradise.
We dropped our laundry off in the morning and caught the bus into town. While in the Internet Café we checked the status of our boat part on the FedEx Web site. Great service from the Mastry Engine Center in Florida. We ordered the part on Wednesday and it was in the Grenada FedEx office by Friday. That’s not to say we have it yet. We went into FedEx, which happens to be next door to the Internet Café. They had delivered the papers to our marina office and we would have to have them processed through customs before we could actually get the parcel. It sounded easy so after returning to the boat and putting away the groceries we went and picked up the papers to take to the Custom’s Officer in his cute little building right next to the marina office. We found only the Immigration officer at his desk. The Customs Officer was off sick. The Immigration Officer very nicely phoned over to Prickly Bay to ensure that the other Customs Officer was available before Rick hiked all the way over there. He was and he processed the papers immediately for us. Tomorrow we get to go to town again and pick up the parcel.
Rick went into town and picked up the parcel from FedEx and a few more groceries. While he was gone I ran the engine, made some water, baked Brownies and simmered some spareribs.
When he returned we both worked on raising the second anchor so that he could clean and store it. Everything was finished in time to take our ribs, brownies and a salad over to Hog for a small barbecue with about a dozen other cruisers. Roger’s was not open so we used his grill. It was a great barbecue and we got some new ideas on how to barbecue potatoes and eggplant on a skewer. We just barely made it back around the point into Mt. Hartman Bay before the sun disappeared.
Today was a good news and a bad news day. Rick installed the new fresh water pump. I did hand laundry and some gopher jobs to help Rick with the new pump. The installation went without a hitch. The bad news was that our tank monitors were acting up. The holding tank that we thought was empty was actually full and the water tank that we thought was half full was totally empty. That’s life.
We met Walt and Elsie on Sea Dream I at Happy Hour to discuss leaving tomorrow.
The winds continued strong all night long. Karen on Misty stopped by just after we raised our dinghy to let us know that Sea Dream had been trying to reach us on the radio. Their stuffing box was dripping too fast and they needed help from Rick to fix it. Karen taxied Rick to and from their boat. I was hoping that he would return and call off the departure but no such luck. Everyone was ready to leave and it was 9:30AM so we raised the anchor and circled around the bay to say goodbye to the remaining boats.
Our trip to St. George’s with Sea Dream was uneventful but we had winds of 30 knots gusting as high as 38 knots at times. When we reached the lagoon we had a call from Lil Ollie who had arrived from Prickly Bay just ahead of us. They were on their way up to Carriacou and pulled into the lagoon because of the winds. We all settled in for the rest of the day and watched the goings on in the lagoon and harbour. St. George’s is a busy harbour, this was the day the container ships arrive and Club Med II was anchored just outside the harbour.
It was a little after dark when a large Mooring’s catamaran started to drag toward Lil Ollie. We tried to call them on the radio but they had it turned off. Rick jumped in the dinghy and raced over. We didn’t think there was anyone on board the cat because we had watched 6 people jump into their dinghy and head to shore right after dropping the anchor. There was someone, they had left their elderly Mother on board who didn’t speak English, didn’t know how to use the radio or how to start the engine. Rick offered to take her off the boat until more people could come and assist but she didn’t want to leave. Meanwhile I called GYC (Grenada Yacht Club), and told them that the cat was dragging towards their dock, specifically towards a 85’ sailboat that had just docked a few hours ago. Eventually, the yacht club and the tender from the large sailboat came out and re-anchored the boat in another location. We tried to watch for the 6 people returning but gave up about 8:30PM. We heard later that the mother’s voice was echoing around the lagoon when they finally returned.
I just got settled in bed and was dozing off when our anchor alarm went off. Sure enough we were dragging. A few boats on either side of us had left so there was a nice big open pocket that we could re-anchor in using a little more rode. This is normally a tight anchorage and therefore you are usually limited in how much rode you can put out. The rest of the night was windy but quiet.
We learned that Sea Dream had dragged as well last night. In fact we think they have gotten into anchoring as a hobby. They re-anchored at least 4 times before lunch today. Rick picked up Nadine from Lil Ollie and they went ashore in the lagoon to get a few groceries. When they returned Rick came and got me and we stopped by Sea Dream to see if they wanted to go into the Carenage. They wanted to re-anchor one more time. So we picked up both John and Nadine from Lil Ollie and went to the Marketing Board. This is where they sell great chicken pies ($4EC) and every time I have tried to buy one I’ve been too early and unable to wait. This time since I wasn’t catching the Darries Bus I had all the time I needed. We got a couple of pies for Sea Dream and when we stopped by to deliver them, they were in the process of re-anchoring again.
The rest of the day was spent relaxing on board since we’re not going anywhere until the wind dies down a bit.
