1 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
In the morning, we went snorkelling at a shallow reef next to the southern corner of the bay at about 12°27.25N 61°29.55W. It’s an interesting little reef, with some rocky walls dropping down to 5 metres. I spotted a Common Octopus, which was surprisingly active, swimming about the reef looking for food. Taking photos of it kept me occupied for 15 minutes. It never ceases to impress me how quickly they change colour and the amazing way that they blend in to the background reef.
Marcus & Margie from “Island Kea” came for dinner to give them a break from the monotony of living on the hard.
2 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We had a chores day - dropping off laundry, going to the supermarket and running the water maker.
3 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys removed the spray-hood and gave it a good scrubbing - she now needs to waterproof it. I did a bit of wood work on the cupboard doors that we’re making for the front heads. It’s a fiddly job, fitting the hinges and latches before painting.
4 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
A huge squall came through last night giving us strong winds and heavy rain.
We went snorkelling in the morning. We tried a couple of places - it was good visibility at the deeper reef opposite the rusty wreck, but terrible visibility on the shallow reef. Back at the boat, Glenys got changed and I went for a snorkel on the old wreck in the middle of the anchorage. It’s marked by two small buoys and is in 5 metres of water. It was surprisingly full of sea-life and bristling with small juvenile Lobster.
The mosquitos have been bad for the past few days. Every night, we’re getting some coming into the boat. Tonight, we had to light a mosquito coil in the cockpit to keep the little devils away. We have mosquito nets on the hatches; I constantly have mosquito repellent on my legs; and the bug mat heaters are running 24 hours a day. Despite all this, we’re still picking up a few bites every day, which is damn irritating (excuse the pun…)
5 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
During breakfast, we made a snap decision to go for a hike. I’d been looking at Google Maps and spotted what looked to be a dirt track leading along the coast from Grand Bay, which is on the other side of the island. I thought that we’d be able to link up with the dirt track that leads up to Chapeau Carre and then could walk back down to Tyrell Bay.
We caught a mini-bus into Hillsborough and bought some bread rolls to go with our Mackerel in Mustard Sauce. This is our favourite hiking food, only available in French supermarkets (“Filets de Maquereaux à la Moutarde à l’Ancienne” - we’ll have to stock up again in Martinique…)
With the provisions sorted out, we caught a number 12 mini-bus, which took us up a very steep hill and then down the other side of the island to Mount Pleasant. There’s no real village centre for Mount Pleasant or Grand Bay, but we asked the driver to turn right to Grand Bay and take us to the start of the hike, which is at 12°28.39N 061°26.00W.
The route follows a dirt track along the coast, giving access to the beach occasionally and some fine views over to Petite Martinique whenever the track climbs higher. It was a nice 3 hour hike, but the mosquitos were murder - every time that we stopped, we were inundated by clouds of the little black buggers. It didn’t seem to mind whether we were by the beach, or high in the hills, or in the sun, or in a good breeze - they just appeared. We were glad that we’d brought loads of insect repellent.
We started to walk up the trail to the big hill called Chappeau Carre, but by this time, Glenys was tired and every time she stopped for a rest, the bloody mosquitos were on her. We retreated and walked down to Tyrell Bay. On the way, Glenys was surprised to see a Tree Snake slither across the road in front of her. It zipped up a wire fence, reached across to a bush in someone’s garden and disappeared.
Back on the boat, we had our Mackerel in Mustard Sauce and chilled out for the afternoon. I’ve written some Hiking Directions for the route.
6 November 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
A Tropical Wave came through last night, giving us plenty of rain. It looked pretty miserable in the morning, so we abandoned the idea of leaving and hunkered down for a couple of hours. By 11:00, it had brightened up, so we did a supermarket run.
As well as the normal visit to the new supermarket, we popped along to the wholesale place and bought three cases of beer and six bottles of wine. The lady looked very bemused that I was removing the cans of beer from the cardboard trays and packing them into big shopping bags. I explained that we never take cardboard onto the boat because sometimes cockroaches lay their eggs in the cardboard and we don’t want the boat to be infested. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when I found and squished three big cockroaches - my paranoia is justified.
We’ve been having a bit of trouble with the batteries being at a low voltage in the evening, despite the solar panels soaking up the sun and the wind generator whizzing in the strong winds. I ran the engine for a couple of hours to fully charge the batteries and then tested them. Thankfully, everything tested out okay and all four domestic batteries and the starter battery seem to be in good condition.
We’re obviously just using too much electricity, with fans running all day, the computer on all day and, in the evening, we’ve been watching a movie - our TV projector uses a lot of power. It’s not a problem when we’re moving about because we’ll be using the engine, which charges the batteries. I don’t like to run the engine or generator just to charge the batteries, but I need to keep on top of the charging, when we’re stationary.
7 November 2018 Tyrell Bay to Clifton, Union Island
The weather forecast for the next few days shows that there will be heavy showers both day and night. This unsettled weather is being caused by the Inter Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), which has moved north and is stationary over the Windward Islands. We can expect squally weather for the rest of the week.
After breakfast, I tried to run the watermaker, but I couldn’t start the generator. It took me 20 minutes to get it going. I had to bleed the diesel lines and re-seat the fuel pump relay. It ran for about an hour, but then the revs started to vary, so we switched it off. I need to read my excellent article on “Fault-finding a Generator”…
In a lull in the weather, I jumped in the dinghy and went to clear out at the marina. It was a bit crowded in the small office, but the paperwork was soon done and we were on our way by 09:45. With the wind on the nose, we motored around Sandy Island and up to the north-west corner of Carriacou, where we had a good enough wind angle to sail towards Clifton on Union Island.
The edge of a huge squall hit us when we were a couple of miles away from Clifton, bringing 25 knot winds, but we only had a little rain. The yacht a mile behind us disappeared in the heavy rain. We rolled away the genoa and slowly sailed with just the main, arriving ten minutes after the skies had cleared.
As usual, we were met by a boat boy, offering a mooring. We normally try to anchor in the crowded anchorage, rush to clear customs and then leave. However, this time this time, Glenys wanted to have a wander around the town and stay the night, so we accepted a mooring. The moorings are installed by the Tobago Cays Marine Park, cost 60 EC (£15), but look to be in very good condition.
After lunch, we parked the dinghy in the new dinghy “marina” and walked the 20 metres to customs and immigration, where it was easy to clear in. It only cost 71EC (£18) for a 1 month cruising permit, which is a bargain compared to some of the countries that we’ve visited.
Once we were legal, our first stop was at the Digicel office where we bought a new SIM card - £20 for 3 GB for 30 days. We still have 8 GB left on our Grenada Digicel SIM, but that doesn’t work here in St Vincent - it’s a damn nuisance having to change the SIM in every country, but it’s just part of the cost of cruising.
It only took us an hour to walk around the small town. We bought some vegetables from the colourful stalls in the square, but the other stuff in the super markets is expensive, especially imported things like Tortilla Chips. We were back on the boat by 15:00, narrowly avoiding another squall.
In the evening, we went over to Happy Island, which (apparently) is THE place to go for a sunset drink. The island was built by hand, using old conch shells and has evolved into a pleasant bar with concrete walls protecting it. The guys running the bar are very friendly, but charge high tourist prices. A small, weak rum punch cost 20 EC (£5) and a small beer was 10 EC (£2.50) - I hate being ripped off, but for the sake of marital harmony, I took it on the chin. The sunset was rubbish.
8 November 2018 Clifton to Chatham Bay, Union Island
A huge squall went through overnight and another while we were having breakfast. The ITCZ shows no sign of moving. In a sunny interval, we went ashore to get some anti-fungal cream for an infection that Glenys has picked up on her ankle - such things are a consequence of living in the Tropics.
I’ve managed to pull a muscle in my lower back again. I injured it in Trinidad about a month ago and it took a couple of weeks to heal. I suspect that I’ve damaged the same muscle by twisting while lifting a 20 litre jerry can of petrol onto the deck. It was very painful yesterday and overnight it’s seized up completely. I took some ibuprofen and did some light stretching, so that I could move, but I’m going to have to take it easy for a few days. It’s a bummer getting old - my body just doesn’t heal as fast as it used to.
We were back on the boat by 10:00 and dropped the mooring. The weather was kind to us and we had a pleasant downwind sail to Chatham Bay where we anchored at 12°36.26N 061°27.06W in 8 metres of water. We had a very nice afternoon, with no more rain, so we just chilled out, resting my back.
9 November 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
We had a quiet day. My back was a little better, so I went for a snorkel in the afternoon and don’t appear to have suffered any side effects. Glenys was a little more dynamic and put the first coat of paint on the cupboard doors.
I've lost the enthusiasm for trying to pursue a warranty claim on my life raft. This is the latest email from the Quality Manager at Survitec:
"I have reviewed the various communications that have been forwarded in relation to your warranty claim. You will be aware that a warranty claim is dependent on the liferaft being operated and maintained in accordance with operating instructions, please see below the relevant section of the warranty declaration.
1. The Liferaft has been maintained strictly in accordance with the Operating Instructions and is, in particular, serviced at a Survitec Approved Service Station (which will provide you with a Certificate of Servicing after each service) at the cost of the Purchaser at regular service intervals commencing from the Date of Manufacture (Service intervals should be in accordance with national regulation or, in the absence of a national regulation at least once every 3 years or every year in tropical areas).
Regular maintenance of a liferaft is critical to ensuring that the liferaft is operational if used in anger, but also critical in ensuring that the operational life of a liferaft is not reduced as this enables an approved service station to make running repairs, this is all the more critical when a raft is operating in tropical climates as we identify in the warranty declaration.
Unfortunately as your liferaft has not been maintained in line with requirements throughout its life we are unable to process a warranty claim."
In other words, bugger off...
10 November 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
We had another quiet day with lots of snorkelling in the morning. In the evening, we went for Happy Hour at Vanessa’s beach bar, where we met Barry and Layne on “Sweet Mango”. After a few rum punches, they left leaving Glenys and I to have a fabulous meal - it cost us £50 including the drinks, but we did drink a lot…
I’ve had further thoughts on the liferaft. As far as I can see all manufacturers (including Survitec) say that the first service on their life rafts is 3 years after date of manufacture. After that it gets a little confusing - some manufacturers say servicing should be every year; some say every year when in the tropics; and some say every three years regardless of where you are. After our experience and other people's comments, I think that, after the initial 3 year period, we should have our new liferaft serviced every year while sailing in the tropics.
A new 4-person life raft costs about $3,000 USD (half that in the UK) and our last two services (in Trinidad and New Zealand) cost $920USD each. With the high probability of the glue deteriorating over time, it might be safer to buy a new liferaft every three years - it's the same annual cost and there's no chance of some numpty servicing it incorrectly.
11 November 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
There were very strong katabatic winds overnight, so we didn’t sleep very well. The weather forecast shows that the wind is due to get very strong by Wednesday 14th, so we decided that we’d head over to the Tobago Cays today - we don’t want to be in the exposed Tobago Cays in 20 -30 knots winds.
We had a tough upwind motor-sail past the east end of Mayreau and then worked our way through the southern passage into the Tobago Cays. A rain squall hit us as we were approaching the reefs, but it was short-lived and we survived. We dropped anchor in 3.5 metres of water at 12°37.87N 061°21.36W.
By 14:00, the weather had deteriorated and we had overcast skies, rain and 20-25 knots winds raising 2 foot wind waves in the anchorage. We cracked up at 14:30 and went for a snorkel. It wasn’t much fun. There was a stiff 1 knot current and the waves ruined the underwater visibility. We saw a couple of turtles, but gave up after 30 minutes and retreated back to the boat.
We had a bouncy evening, watching a movie.
12 November 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
The day started off overcast and looked very unsettled, but by ten o’clock the skies brightened and the wind dropped, so we went for a snorkel with the Green Turtles. What a difference a day makes. The visibility was up to 15 metres and we saw plenty of Green Turtles and Southern Stingrays.
After swimming with the turtles for an hour, we ventured off to snorkel on a reef at the south-west corner of Petit Bateau Island. The reef was okay, but there’s lots of dead coral. However, there are shoals of friendly fish and even the groupers don’t run away - it just shows the benefit of marine national parks.
I was really excited when a Lemon Shark swam past me - only about ten metres away. Unfortunately, I had my camera on the wrong setting and didn’t get a good shot of it, but it circled around the shallow reef and came back - not so close this time, but I managed to get a snap of it. Five minutes later, the shark returned, so we decided that it was acting very territorial and got out of the water.
In the late afternoon, we went to Jamesby Island and had a sun-downer beer, sat on a rock overlooking the anchorage - it’s a lovely place when the sun shines.
13 November 2018 Chatham Bay to Saline Bay, Mayreau
The weather forecast still shows strong 20-30 knot winds and unsettled weather tomorrow, slowly returning to normal by Saturday 17th. We decided to run away to Saline Bay, which should be a lot more sheltered than the exposed reefs of the Tobago Cays.
It was a short, one hour, downwind run through the southern passage to Mayreau, where we anchored in Saline Bay at 12°38.01N 061°23.86W in 6 metres depth. The sea bed is mostly thick weed, but there are plenty of sandy patches to drop the anchor in - the sandy patches are actually one foot deep holes in the dense weed, so at worst the anchor will dig into the wall of the hole if it doesn’t dig into the sand.
We went for a snorkel on the rocky reef just to the east of where we anchored. The visibility was a little murky and the reef is covered by a light dusting of sediment, but it’s interesting enough and looks like a good place to practice my close-up photography.
We had a quiet afternoon.
14 November 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
It was a very windy and rainy day, so lurked around down below.
Our wind generator has been playing up and today it was whirring around very fast, indicating that it was under no load and therefore not charging the batteries. I traced the wiring and found that the fuse holder that I fitted a couple of months ago has become so hot that the plastic case had melted. Obviously too much current has been going through the 25 amp fuse and has exceeded the rating of the fuse holder. I replaced the wiring with a thicker cable and fitted a car-type 30 Amp fuse.
15 November 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
It was a windy, but sunny day, so we went for a walk around the island. This is the fourth or fifth time that we’ve done this route, but I still managed to lose my way a little. It’s nice to walk along the beach on the windward side, but somehow, I was suckered by a path and we ended up squeezing through thick bush.
I found my way back to the beach and we worked our way across to Saltwhistle Bay. As usual, it was cram packed with charter boats. It’s a pretty bay, but I couldn’t stand to have so many people so close to me. I have photo of our first boat, Glencora, anchored in isolation in the bay in 1994. There are just too many boats in the West Indies nowadays. (Bah Humbug!)
From Saltwhistle Bay, we struggled up the steep road and visited the charming Catholic church at the top of the island, from where there is a great view of the Tobago Cays. There’s also an interesting water catchment facility consisting of two concrete slopes leading down to two huge tanks. Being at the top of the island, there would have been plenty of water pressure in the houses down the island. They’re not used any more - I guess that the island has a huge desalination plant now.
On our way back to the boat, we stopped at the Combination Café and had a Lobster sandwich - they cost £10 each, but they had plenty of lobster in them. We chilled out for the rest of the day, letting our huge lunch settle.
16 November 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
It looks like we’re finished with Tropical Waves for a while. Today was lovely and the forecast looks like more of the same for the next week. We pottered about in the morning - Glenys continued with her Sisyphean task of painting the cupboard doors. The grain on the plywood is deep and the paint isn’t quite covering it, so she’s having to rub down in between coats -it will probably need 4 or 5 coats of paint.
I tightened our lower shrouds. I had the rig professionally set to the correct tension in Trinidad, but when we’re beating to windward, the downwind lower shrouds are a bit too loose for my liking. I went around all four shrouds and tightened them by half a turn - we’ll see how that goes. I went for a snorkel in the afternoon on the rocks close to where we’re anchored, but I didn’t see anything special.
17 November 2018 Saline Bay to Bequia
The weather looked fabulous, so after breakfast, we pulled up the anchor and sailed to Bequia. The wind was 15-20 knots from the ENE, so we were beating into 1 metre waves, making it a bit tough. After a few sail changes, we settled down to 2 reefs in the main and just the staysail and even then we were heeled over past 20 degrees.
It’s only 25 miles to Bequia, so we were dropping our anchor by 14:00. As usual, we anchored off Princess Margaret Beach at 13°00.17N 061°14.67W in 6 metres, good holding sand. The wind was swirling around as we anchored, with the anchored boats moving about, so it took us two goes to get the anchor in the correct place in the crowded anchorage. At one point, we looked like complete newbies with Alba facing 180° to the other boats, but we settled down within ten minutes.
We hadn’t been to a shop for a few days, so we hopped in the dinghy and went into town. I like Bequia, it’s a laid back, colourful place. Glenys stopped at one little vegetable stall, where there were clear plastic bags filled with water hanging from the ceiling over the fruit. It’s a way of keeping Houseflies away, something to do with the refraction of light confusing the fly’s vision, so they buzz off. The lady on the stall was convinced that it works.
18 November 2018 St Margaret’s Beach, Bequia
Being a Sunday, we had a fairly quiet day. We went over to Devil’s Table to go snorkelling. There was a dive boat circling around and the driver pointed out a small buoy/bottle marking a wreck about 80 metres directly north of the cardinal pole on the reef. There’s a sturdy mooring attached to the top of the wreck which is about 5 metres under water. The bottom of the wreck looks to be about 20 metres.
We spent ten minutes diving onto the wreck, which was interesting, but it’s all a little too deep, so we went back to the reef and picked up a mooring next to the cardinal marker. The reef varies in depth from 3 metres to about 15 metres and looks a little boring when swimming on the surface. However, it’s very colourful and full of sea life when you dive down.
I’ve been hunting for Scorpionfish and Frogfish for the last week, so I was delighted to find a couple of Spotted Scorpionfish. I spent a happy 15 minutes diving down and taking photographs - the camouflage is incredible and they are very patient, allowing very close approach.
After lunch, we did a few chores, running the water maker and to her great relief, Glenys finished off painting the cupboard doors.
19 November 2018 St Margaret’s Beach, Bequia
Today's plan was to catch a ferry across to St Vincent, but while we had breakfast, it was raining heavily and the forecast was for unsettled weather all day, so we abandoned the trip. Instead, we pottered about doing a few jobs - I screwed the fittings onto the cupboard doors, while Glenys painted a couple of other doors in the front heads.
The weather never cleared with little squalls coming through giving gusty conditions, so we lurked about, sheltering in the afternoon. Glenys send a big bag of laundry off with Daffodil, who come around selling fuel and water and also wash & dry clothes. They’ve been providing a fabulous service to cruising yachts for decades - we used them when we were here in 1994!
20 November 2018 St Margaret’s Beach, Bequia
We were up fairly early and dinghied into town to catch the 08:30 ferry, but unfortunately it left at 08:00 and the next one was at 09:30. The security guard said that the ferry website has been wrong for over a year. Faced with a wait of at least an hour, we went for a walk up towards the windward side of the island, which was pleasant, but sweaty.
The ferry left bang on time. I was like a little kid, all excited to be on a big ship. As we rounded the corner of Bequia and headed out towards Kingstown, we hit the big swell coming from the east and the motion of the ferry became alarming, rolling from side to side at 20 degrees. Many of the locals immediately lay down on the benches, but thankfully, we now have iron constitutions and didn’t suffer during the 1 hour passage.
Kingstown is a quaint colonial town, a bit run down, but with some interesting buildings. We wandered around the three main streets, poking our heads in to the various shops and the markets, buying a few things here and there. We ended up walking over to the churches. There’s a pleasant Anglican Church, which is being restored and, just across the street, there’s an amazing Catholic church, which is an eclectic mixture of architectural styles. I believe that it was completed in the 1930’s.
We grabbed a couple of rotis from a street stall and caught the 13:00 ferry back to Bequia - 2½ hours is enough for wandering around Kingstown.
21 November 2018 St Margaret’s Beach, Bequia
The last time that we went scuba diving was in Madagascar over 14 months ago. We plan go diving in the British Virgin Islands in December, so I dug out our diving gear to check it all out. Unfortunately, when I press the purge button, two of our octopuses are free-flowing. I adjusted one, but I think I might get a dive shop to check them out.
We went snorkelling on Devil’s table again. It was okay. We saw a scorpion fish in about the same place, but nothing else terribly exciting apart from being circled by a Great Barracuda. After lunch, I ran our dive compressor and topped up our two dive tanks - I’m pleased to see that dive compressor still works.
The weather forecast looks okay to sail up to St Lucia tomorrow, so I nipped into town to clear out, which was a very painless process.
22 November 2018 Bequia to Rodney Bay. St Lucia
It rained during the night and, when we dragged ourselves out of bed at 0500, the skies were dark and forbidding.
There was enough light to see at 05:40, so we upped anchor, put two reefs in the main and set off. The passage across to St Vincent was very pleasant with a good 15 knot wind and one metre seas. We motored up the leeward coast of St Vincent for an hour and then ran straight into a big squall system at the north end of the island.
Unfortunately, the squall had strong winds and lashing rain, which combined with the acceleration zone at the end of the island, gave us 30+ knot winds and steep 2 metre seas. When we hit it, we’d already rolled away the genoa, so we continued to motor-sail with two reefs in the main for an hour until the wind had settled down to a steady 25 knots and the seas had calmed down a little.
The next four hours were unpleasant, bashing through the waves, hard on the wind with a reefed staysail. The waves crashing across the foredeck were so bad that they ripped the port navigation light from its bracket on the pulpit. We then had to run downwind, so that I could go forwards to lash the navigation light to the pulpit with some duct tape.
Once we were in the lee of the Pitons, life became better, but we were still plagued by a couple of squalls before we thankfully arrived in Rodney Bay, just after sunset. We anchored at 14°04.61N 060°57.57W in 6 metres of water on good holding sand, weed and rubble.
23 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
After breakfast, we dinghied into Rodney Bay Marina and cleared in. I’d used the online Sail Clear system, so the check-in was relatively painless. We then zipped around to the shopping mall where we went to the supermarket to buy a few things that aren’t available elsewhere - English Mustard being one of our top priorities.
The Rodney Bay anchorage is very empty at the moment with boats very spread out. That was until a single handed catamaran anchored right in front of us. He kind of apologised but then stayed put, so we moved.
In yesterday’s big waves, our port navigation light had not only been ripped off it’s fitting, but it had bent the stainless steel plate on the pulpit. I straightened the pulpit and knocked a dent out of the light housing and replaced it all. Fortunately, the lamp is an LED one and worked fine - I’m sure that an incandescent lamp would have been damaged when the light was bashing about in the waves.
The lee-side lower front shroud is still going slack when we’re bashing into big waves, so I tightened all of the four lower shrouds by another ½ turn.
24 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
We’re planning to move onto Martinique in a couple of days, but with nothing better to do, I decided to do some cleaning in the engine room, which was looking very grubby and oily. My main focus was on the very aft of the engine compartment around the stern tube for the propeller shaft. It’s a very inaccessible place and there’s a huge exhaust muffler in the way, so I thought that I’d remove it.
Big mistake… The exhaust is connected to 4 inch diameter rubber, reinforced exhaust hose. I removed the hose clamps and disassembled the engine room side of the exhaust, but the aft end goes through a bulkhead into a small bilge in the aft cabin. After 20 minutes of thrutching, twisting and cursing, it was apparent that the hose would have to be cut off, so I abandoned the idea and put the exhaust back together - a waste of a couple of hours.
If I climbed on the engine and lay with my upper body hanging down the back, I could just about reach the stern tube. Unfortunately, once in this position, I couldn’t lift my head to see properly because there are three big hoses and a bulkhead in the way. Also getting out was a mission, involving pushing back with my arms and squirming backwards off the engine.
I spent two hours, squirming back and forwards off the engine, using wire brushes, sand paper; degreaser spray and water to clean the bilge, sea cocks, stern tube and anything else I could reach. It was quite a work out and I think that I’ll have a permanent dent in my chest from lying across the Turbo. However, the bilge area looks a lot better now. I was thinking of painting the area, but the old bilge paint has cleaned up well.
I then spent a couple of hours cleaning the rest of the bilge around and beneath the engine. Again, it’s difficult to get access, especially beneath the engine, but using a variety of brushes and plenty of degreaser spray, the engine compartment is looking pretty good.
Glenys elected to work on cleaning jobs on the deck, mostly to stay away from my frequent and loud cursing.
25 November 2018 Rodney Bay. St Lucia
It was a Sunday, so I rested my aching body - I’ve badly bruised my chest by lying across the engine and my lower back is not too good either. We dinghied into Rodney Bay Marina and went to one of the restaurants for our Sunday lunch, where we had an excellent pizza and Greek salad with a couple of beers.
The Atlantic Rally for Cruisers (ARC) left the Canaries today and there are over 200 boats due to arrive here before Christmas (we will make sure that we are well away). The rally organisers had set up some tents and had a steel pan band playing while a big catamaran motored around playing loud music with scantily clad girls dancing on top. It appeared to be a rehearsal for the arrival of the ARC boats.
26 November 2018 Rodney Bay to St Anne, Martinique
Overnight, a big, rolling 2 foot swell started coming into the anchorage and (err) started us rolling. The weather forecast looked okay, so I cleared out and we upped anchor at 09:30. After the battering that we took on the way up from St Vincent, we were little apprehensive, but it was okay.
We were hard on the wind and not able to lay the Rhumb line but we only had ½ hour of upwind motor sailing at the end of the passage. We arrived in St Anne at 13:30 and anchored at 14°26.02N 060°53.23W in 6 metres on good holding sand and weed. It’s a huge, well protected anchorage and there must be 150 boats at anchor here.
After tidying up after the bouncy passage, we dinghied ashore, tying up to the excellent dinghy dock opposite the church. We walked to the Snack Boubou café where they have a computer linked to the customs system. The clearing in process was a doddle - fill in the online form, print out a copy, give it to the café owner who stamps the form and then pay 3 euros.
We had a walk around the tiny town centre, which consists of about ten streets. There’s a little supermarket and a boulangerie, where we bought a bottle of wine, a baguette, some brie and some olives - essential French food.
It didn’t take long to explore the town, so we wandered further afield and walked Went for a walk along the beach towards the large Club Med holiday resort. It’s a nice beach, with plenty of bars and small restaurants, but not much to interest us. (I was more interested in the cemetery that we passed on the way with its stunning white washed crypts.)
To complete our tour of the area, we walked up the path behind the church which winds its way up the steep hill. At every turn in the path, there is a small shrine depicting a scene from the crucifixion of Christ. It’s an interesting little walk with some nice views of the town and anchorage.
27 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
We took a long dinghy ride to Marin which is 2.5 miles from where we are anchored. The route we took was to pass close to the end of the pier at the Club Med resort and then head for a red buoy on the other side of the reef. We followed a sand patch over the shallows, but I think that there’s enough depth as long as you don’t stray too far from the beach. Once around the headland there was a tough up wind mile, bashing into 2 foot wind waves.
Our plan is to stay in Martinique for a couple of weeks and to spend a few days inland, hiking and having a look at the island. We went to the marina to book five nights, but they were unwilling to commit themselves and told us to ring them tomorrow to confirm a place from Thursday 29th - very strange. We wanted to confirm the booking, so that we can book some accommodation on shore, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow.
We visited a couple of car hire places, who told us that there was no problem with the availability of small cars, so we’ll book one tomorrow when we’ve confirmed the marina space. With our holiday arrangements done as much as possible, we wandered around the chandlers and fishing tackle shops, buying a few things. I found out that the only people who can service dive gear are a company called Nautica, but they are near the Airport about 20 kilometres away.
I called in at North Sails and had a chat with Gavin, the owner of the loft. He says that he’s happy to come to have a look at our main sail when we come into the marina. Unfortunately, he can’t make Thursday, but Friday should be okay.
After lunch in a small boulangerie, we went to the Leader Price supermarket and stocked up on a dinghy load of provisions. The supermarket has a dinghy dock, where you unload your trolley directly into the dinghy. It’s very convenient, but we’re not impressed by the range of goods on the shelves.
28 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
After breakfast, we rang the marina, but they will still not guarantee us a mooring or a berth for tomorrow. They are telling us that we should ring at 10:00 tomorrow morning and they will allocate something to us. When asked if they will guarantee a place they just say it’s very likely that they’ll have a space. It’s weird - we can’t book a hire car or accommodation until we know we have a marina space.
After some debate, we’ve decided to forget about the marina and we’ll just do day trips in a car. It’s only a couple of hours drive to get the north of the island, so we’ll be able to see most of the island and do some hiking. There’s a car hire place in St Anne, so we walked over and booked a car for three days from Friday 30th.
In the afternoon, I did some work on our dive gear. I took the octopus regulators apart, cleaned the needle valves with some fresh water and adjusted the valve seats to make them harder to purge. I then put the regulators on a tank and went for a little dive under the boat. All three now seem to work fine, so I don’t have to have them serviced now.
29 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
Glenys pulled out her sewing machine and did a few repairs - mostly reinforcing stitching on the sprayhood and bimini side panels. I spent most of the day investigating what anchorages to visit in the Bahamas and doing a rough itinerary for the next few months.
Kevin & Bev from “Kailani” came for a few beers -it was nice to talk to a couple of Brits again.
30 November 2018 St Anne, Martinique
The alarm went off at 06:45 - no time for a lie-in when you’re on holiday. By 08:00, we’d picked up our hire car and were on our way up the east side of the island. The roads are incredibly narrow and winding, so it was a bit tense for the first hour as I drove on the right-hand side of the road with lunatic French drivers whizzing around the bends in the middle of the road and others tailgating me. Having said that, the scenery is fabulous with many large banana and sugar cane plantations.
After a couple of hours, we made it safely to the Caravelle Peninsula and parked when the road turned into a dirt track. Most people were driving up the dirt track for a kilometre to another car park, but the road looked very rough for our little hire car. We walked up to the car park, where we joined the well-marked trail which goes around the end of the peninsula.
We took the route in a clockwise direction and started off on a single track concrete road, which leads to a meteorological station. On the way, we missed a path that led to a lighthouse on the top of the hill, oh well… The meteorological station is closed to the public, but that didn’t matter because the path continued along the rocky coast over varied volcanic rocks with dramatic scenery.
The route took us over a few hills with some great viewpoints and then dropped down into a Mangrove swamp, so we saw many different terrains on the 2½ hour hike. The walk ended at the ruins of the Chateau Dubuc, which had a sugar cane processing mill, a distillery and a coffee mill. It only cost €5 each to gain access and was moderately interesting, but our tired legs soon made us give up wandering around the ruins.
On the way back we stopped off at a couple of supermarkets, but we weren’t very impressed by the selection of items on offer. However, we filled four large bags with provisions as well as three cases of beer and a few boxes of wine.
It was a bit of a logistical challenge when we arrived back in St Anne, because there is no parking near to the dinghy dock. Eventually we parked in the town square; walked to the dinghy dock; dinghied over to the fishing dock; Glenys stayed in the dinghy while I got the car; loaded up the dinghy; I parked the car; and we then went out to the boat…