11 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We got up early this morning and went into St Georges to get the crates that we had shipped out from Portsmouth on Geest-line.
The mini-bus dropped us off at the Nutmeg and we went straight to the Shipping Agents office. It took about ten minutes for them to fill in a form and stamp it. They then told us to go to the Port on the other side of the Carenage.
It took us a little while to find the entrance to the port, but it was pretty obvious when we found it – there we loads of people milling about and lots of small pickup trucks waiting across the road.
The first thing that we had to do was to pay $1 EC each to be allowed into the port. The security guard took our passports from us and issued us with a pass card. By this time, a local guy had latched onto us and explained that he would help us to find and sort out our stuff. I wasn’t too sure about this but went along with the flow. Our helper took us across the port into a huge warehouse where there were lots of people milling about between piles of crates and pallets. He immediately started to search among the various piles of crates, pallets and drums looking for our stuff.
We eventually found the compressor crate and the pallet with our “personal effects” crates, so our helper went and commandeered a pallet truck to move everything closer to the customs office. This achieved, he produced a screwdriver and pliers and opened the tops of the four crates. Another guy latched onto us and told us that he could arrange transport for us. He gave me a price of $150 EC (£37), which seemed a bit excessive (a taxi would cost $50EC), but it didn’t seem worth the hassle haggling over £10. I just wanted to get my stuff out of this noisy hot warehouse and onto the boat.
A customs guy appeared and wanted to see invoices for the goods. I explained that three crates were second hand personal effects and one crate was a new diving air compressor – all for a “Yacht In Transit”. I gave him a list of the items in the personal effects crates. He looked through the list and wanted to see the video camera, which I dug out and showed him that it was a seven year old camera and not worth anything. I was keen to make him understand that our personal effects weren’t worth anything because we would have to pay import duty on them.
The customs officer wandered off and came back with another guy who was introduced as a shipping agent who we would need to use to get the goods cleared for a Yacht In Transit. The customs guy wandered off while the Shipping Agent explained that we needed to sort out more paperwork, but that it would be worth it as we would only pay 2.5% duty instead of 40%. The shipping agent filled in some more forms using a barrel as his desk. He then told us that we would have to go back to the customs office at Prickly Bay with our paperwork and get him to sign another form proving that we were a bone-fide “Yacht in Transit.”
We made sure that our crates were closed again and caught a minibus back to Spice Island Marine. We jumped into the dinghy and zipped across the anchorage to Prickly Bay Marina to the customs office. The customs officer is a surly, old chap and wanted to see our clearance papers and cruising permit. With my heart in my mouth, I went through the explanation that we were new crew and owners. To my great surprise, he signed the relevant form and told us that we would sort the crew list when we cleared out.
We left the dinghy at Prickly Bay Marina and walked towards town. It took about five minutes before we were picked up by a mini-bus. We went to the St Georges customs office next to the Port and presented the various forms. The Customs officer checked everything and agreed the valuation and duty rates put on the form by the Shipping Agent – Personal Effects: $250 EC * 5% = $12.50EC, Compressor: $9,455 EC * 2.5% = $236.00 EC. Grand Total: $248.50 EC (£75). We happily paid the money and went back to the port warehouse with our many stamped forms.
The Shipping Agent took our forms and sorted out the final piece of paperwork that gave us permission to remove our goods from the port. Our pickup driver had spotted us by this time and ten minutes later our crates were loaded onto the pickup. We paid the Shipping Agent $100 EC, the helper $20 EC and climbed into the pickup truck.
We arrived at Prickly Bay Marina at about one o’clock, which meant that it had only taken us 4½ hours to do the whole process which wasn’t bad. We now just had the major problem of getting the four huge crates onto the boat in a rolly anchorage. I went to the marina office and obtained permission to come alongside the fuel dock. The pick-up driver earned his money by helping me carry the four crates to the dockside.
Now came more trauma – we actually had to move the boat for the first time. We jumped in the dinghy and back to Alba to contemplate our fate. Glenys made a sandwich while I put the fenders down and sorted out the warps to go alongside. After quickly eating the sandwich, I turned the engine on, which ran for about 20 seconds and then switched off. Don’t panic…. After about two minutes and five attempts, the engine finally started and kept running. (Perhaps a bit of air in the system?)
We raised the anchor and went alongside the fuel dock without any drama – the boat handles nicely under power. We struggled with tying the warps as there is no cleat on the dock for the bow warp, but soon sorted ourselves out. We opened the personal effects crates and lifted half of the contents out into the cockpit before lifting the half empty crates onto the front deck. A local guy helped me lift the big compressor crate onto the side deck and then we went back to the anchorage. I had no problems using the windlass to anchor and we gratefully dived over the side to cool down.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the rest of our things out of the crates and finding a place for it all. I took the life raft out of the cockpit locker and placed it in front of the cockpit on the deck - another job to lash it in place on the deck. Now I had enough space to try to get the diving air compressor into the cockpit locker, fortunately it just fits in, so I pushed it to the back to wait for some time to wire it all in (another job…)
We had dinner on board and went to bed with piles of stuff all over the front cabin and saloon.
12 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We woke up to a miserable overcast day and rain. We spent the morning trying to decide where to put everything. Surprisingly, we managed to hide most of the things away.
In the afternoon, we walked to Ace Hardware and bought a pan and a few bits for the galley. We spent the rest of the day tidying up, had an early dinner and collapsed into bed.
13 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
Another overcast, rainy day. We just pottered about the boat in the morning. Glenys sorted through the courtesy flags and I cut the crates up into smaller pieces. I’m sure that the inventory of the boat included a jig saw but I couldn’t find it. I ended up borrowing one from Neil. It’s very annoying knowing that I’ve got two good jigsaws back in the UK. I’m guessing that this won’t be the last time that I will want to use a particular tool that I’ve left behind.
Having cut up the crates, the next problem was where to dispose of the rubbish. I took some across to Prickly Bay Marina but they have a sign stating that it costs $2EC for a small bag and $4EC for a large bag of rubbish. I'm not going to pay that when I know that I can put my rubbish in the skip at Spice Island Marine, so I just dumped half of my load (the bits without my name on it…)
After lunch, we went to Spice Island Marine and dumped a load of crate and other rubbish before visiting the chandlers. I bought a fitting for my wireless network antenna and 150 feet of 1/8” braided line to use as a fishing line.
I spent the rest of the afternoon fitting the antenna to the pushpit and trying to feed the cable through the lazarette into the aft cabin. It took me about 2 hours to do this simple job – routing the cable was a nightmare because I had to crawl into the lazarette which is about the size of a coffin.
We went to Prickly Bay marina for happy hour and had a pizza for dinner.
14 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
Horrible rolly night – the winds were light and the swell was rolling in from the south east. At least it wasn’t raining. We went over to Spice Island Marine and dropped off the remaining wood and packing from the crates. Our plan is to leave for the Grenadines tomorrow, so we caught a mini bus to Spiceland Mall to buy food and other essentials.
Spiceland Mall is very posh – it’s just off Grand Anse Beach and has lots of little boutiques, a hardware store and a supermarket. We bought two new pillows because the ones on the boat are very thin and I’m convinced that the pillows are giving me a sore neck. I bought some silicone sealant and a ½ ball valve for the watermaker. I’d had a bit of a scare yesterday when one of the ball valves on the water-maker turned past its 90 degree stop – I thought that I’d broken it.
We spent an hour in the supermarket buying heavy stuff and luxury items like Colman’s English Mustard and Heinz Ketchup. The supermarket has lots of imported goods, but the fruit & vegetable selection is rubbish – most of it is imported chilled food that won’t last very long. We’ll buy more fruit & veg further up the islands maybe in Union.
We were back on the boat in time for lunch, after which, we chilled out reading the pilot book for the Grenadines and dozing. Later in the afternoon, we put on the generator so that Glenys could use her sewing machine and make a fitted sheet for my bed – I’ve been sleeping in a duvet cover which gets rucked up and creased underneath me every night.
I spent the afternoon finishing off the installation of the wireless network antenna. I had to solder a new USB plug onto the end of the wire which was incredibly fiddly because I was only able to pull about 6 inches of cable outside the locker above Glenys’s bed. This meant that Glenys had to hold the plug and cable in her hand while I soldered the tiny wires in place. The boat was still rolling 10 degrees or more so it was a mission – I only burnt Glenys once. The remainder of the job was simply running the cable through four cupboards and using cable ties to hold it in place but it took about 2½ hours altogether. I now have a working wireless network antenna with the USB plug at the chart table.
We had a quiet dinner on board and went to bed at nine o’clock.
15 April 2011 Prickly Bay to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
I got up at quarter to seven and did some stretching exercises. I’ve decided that I need to do some basic exercises every morning –“Greeting of the Sun”, sit ups, press ups, the plank, etc. My neck is a bit better this morning – was it the new pillow or am I getting used to living on a rolling boat?
Just after eight o’clock, we went over to Prickly Bay Marina to check out of customs and get our laundry - both were shut. To kill time, we went to say goodbye to Neil and Josie who were still in bed. We then went back to our boat and Glenys made a soothing cup of tea. At quarter to nine, I cracked up and decided to go and sit at customs with a newspaper and wait for them. The customs people turned up just as I arrived.
The grumpy old customs guy gave me the check-out form to fill in and I paid $75EC for a cruising permit. Then he just put the papers on his desk and moved onto someone else. I stood there like a lemon. Eventually another customs lady took pity on me and said that the immigration guy would be here soon. I waited.
A German guy filled in his customs forms and, after waiting for 20 minutes, lost the plot and started ranting. “I don’t give a shit about immigration! I want my clearing in papers!” I thought that this was a bit unfair on the customs people, but surprisingly they handed over the papers and the German stomped off. I went to get the laundry – I wanted my papers to be perfect.
The immigration guy turned up at ten o'clock. No apology, he just told me to wait when I walked into the office. I just sat down in front of his desk and waited patiently. Ten minutes later I was done and went back to Alba. Glenys had been worrying that there was a problem – no problem, just island time.
We lifted the outboard from the dinghy and quickly got ready to go. I turned the engine on, which like a couple of days ago, ran for about 20 seconds and then switched off. I went and stared at the engine – it must be either water in the diesel or more likely air in the system. I remember Sergio talking about an extra diesel “lift” pump, so I turned that on and the engine started. I’m not sure whether that made any difference, but I obviously need to have a few hours looking at the engine.
We finally left Prickly Bay at half past ten. We motored around Pointe Saline and then put up the sails. That all seemed to go great and we had a pleasant hour’s sail past St George. As we approached Moulinere Point, the wind dropped (because we were in the lee of the island) and we had to put the engine on again. We motor sailed all the way up the west coast of the island.
Before we arrived at the north end of the island, I rolled away the jib in case the wind was strong, but it was quite light and straight on the nose, so we motored all the way to Iles de Ronde and then onto Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.
When we were last here, Tyrell Bay was a quiet little back water with maybe six yachts at anchor. Now it is a bustling place with a boat yard and about 50 yachts lying at anchor – quite a lot of which look like they are permanently here. We managed to anchor in a smallish gap without any problems. This was our first attempt at anchoring Alba in a crowded place, so I was quite pleased.
I dug out my snorkelling gear and had a look at the anchor – well dug in to the sand. While I had my mask on, I had a look at the bottom of the boat. We never had the boat surveyed and there was a niggling thought that the hull might have osmosis, which is blistering of the fibreglass and can caused the hull to delaminate in extreme cases. Thankfully, the hull looks pretty clear although there are some bubbles in the antifoul paint where it looks like the previous antifouling wasn’t prepared properly. There’s also one 3 inch long gouge which looks like it was done when the boat was lifted back into the water because there’s no antifoul paint on it.
Over dinner, Glenys mentioned that she had read an article on Cuba in a newspaper. Apparently President Obama is expected to lift the travel ban on US citizens visiting Cuba. This is likely to set off a surge of American yachts visiting Cuba – there are estimated to be 600,000 boats in Florida capable of making the 80 mile trip to Cuba. We were planning to visit Cuba in about two or three years’ time, but we might bring that forward and go there this coming December before the American “invasion”.
16 April 2011 Tyrell Bay to Saline Bay, Mayreau
There was only about 5 knots of wind in the morning, so after breakfast, we motored out of Tyrell Bay towards Clifton on Union Island. We went past Sandy Island which is a tiny strip of sand – it used to have large coconut palms but they were wiped out in a hurricane a few years ago. The locals have planted more trees and it will soon be the idyllic desert island that it once was. There are lots of moorings now in the anchorage and I think that it is compulsory to use them.
We tried to sail for about fifteen minutes, but there wasn’t enough to do any more than two or three knots, so we motored all the way to Clifton. We anchored on the outer part of the bay in beautiful turquoise waters over white sand – it is a lovely anchorage.
The main street of Clifton was fairly quiet with a few vegetable stalls open in the little market square. We were having trouble finding the customs to clear in to St Vincent, so we asked a taxi driver who told us that it was probably shut and that we should go to the airport. It’s only a ten minute walk to the airport and the checking in process was simple -we had to pay $71EC for a one month cruising permit.
We walked back down towards town and went into a small supermarket opposite a marquee where some Baptists were holding some kind of rally. A tannoy system was blaring away with righteous statements from the various speakers. “And the Lord Jesus says….” “You will repent…” While Glenys was checking out the supermarket shelves, I asked the lady how long the rally was going on for. “Another week”, she said wearily. We bought a case of beer.
Back on the boat, we had lunch and went to look at the anchorage at Frigate Island. There was only one boat in there, but there was a swell was coming in from the south-west, so we decided to go over to Mayreau. Still not much wind, so we motored all the way.
We anchored in Saline Bay near four other boats. A cruise ship was anchored off the beach and the beach had been taken over with tourists. We tried a couple of places to snorkel, but the water was very murky and there was a strong current on the north headland. At about four o’clock, just as the cruise ship was about to leave, very loud music started to blare out from somewhere on the island – it was very irritating. I went down below and did some work on my laptop while Glenys tried to read. A chap off another boat said that they thought that it was a wedding, so we expected it to go on all night. It was too late to move, so we would just have to grin and bear it. Thankfully it stopped at seven o’clock.
I’ve not had Internet access for about a week now and I’m starting to get a bit nervous. No one has rung us, so there can’t be any major crises, but it is unsettling. I probably won’t be able to get any access until we get to Bequia in another week. I wish that I had paid $10US to connect while we were in Clifton, but I was too tight.
The wind dropped to nothing overnight and we rolled a fair bit.
17 April 2011 Saline Bay to Tobago Cays
After breakfast, we went for a walk up to the top of Mayreau – a long steep haul. Even though it was only eight o’clock on a Sunday morning, a few of the bars were already blasting out loud music. There is a small church perched on the top of the hill in a beautiful location overlooking the Tobago Cays. A small congregation were gathered outside singing to a guitar – a stark contrast to the beating reggae further down the hill.
The view from the top is great, but would be better in the evening when the sun will be from behind. We walked back down and called into Dennis’s hideaway to see how much it would be to get an internet connection – only $6 EC, so we decided to go and get our laptops. Back in Dennis’s Hideaway, we bought a couple of nice cold cokes and settled down to the Internet. I was pleased to see that I’d only got 15 emails over the past week and most of those were junk – in fact there was nothing that couldn’t have waited for another week. This is a marked contrast to the 100 emails a day that I used to get back in the UK.
I had a short chat to Dennis, who is a good friend of Gareth and Fi and remembers Maia. He used to run a couple of boats for day charters, but has now sold them and is concentrating on building up his restaurant and little hotel. He said that we must call in on our way back south and “lime” with him.
We motored around to the Tobago Cays – no wind again. The Tobago Cays are still lovely – turquoise water, desert islands with palm trees and, unfortunately, about 50 boats anchored. We anchored in 4 metres of water among the gaggle and went for a swim. The Tobago Cays are now a Marine Park and they have re-introduced turtles, which has been a great success – there are Green Turtles everywhere. We snorkelled with the turtles for a half hour – some are unconcerned about humans and others bolt as soon as they see you.
After lunch, we went out to the small boat passage to do some proper snorkelling, but there was a very strong current coming into the Cays and the snorkelling was poor. I read that a recent hurricane destroyed a lot of the hard coral and it will take years to recover. I saw two small lobsters and a large Southern Stingray. I got a couple of photos of them, but the visibility and light was poor.
The wind dropped right off in the evening and we all swirled around. In such a crowded anchorage, you can hear people talking and partying in the other boats – kind of like being on a floating campsite.