1 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
The Eco-tech electrician came back early in the morning (after ringing us to see how rolly the anchorage was.) He’d changed the starter capacitor and checked the internal components of the motor. He says that there is a little bit of heat damage to the windings, but it should be OK for a few more years. He managed to refit the pump assembly and most of the wiring before he had to rush up into the cockpit to stare at the horizon and sip water. I finished connecting the wiring and started the water maker up. It worked fine, so I tidied up and took the electrician back to terra firma.
Glenys went shopping in the morning on an organised taxi run to Circular Mall. We’d swapped phones so that I had our Trinidad SIM card. When she got back she discovered that she didn’t have my number, but she managed to scam a lift from a local in a pirogue.
We lounged about in the heat of the afternoon and had a quiet night in.
2 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I spent most of the day trying to fit the table to the arch. It was a very frustrating day because it kept raining and preventing me from working. I only had to drill seven holes through the stainless steel tubing, but it was a mission because stainless steel is so hard and my drill bits are cheap and nasty. I snapped a couple of drills, so I had to go and buy some more. Once I’d drilled the holes, I went to the chandlers and bought some bolts. I couldn’t get the size that I wanted, so I had to re-drill the holes to open them out. I just managed to get the table fitted before dark.
I also removed the wind generator. It was a little precarious balancing on the top of our Arch trying to remove the 10 kg unit. There are many local boats that whizz through the anchorage and cause us to roll with their bow waves. Of course, the sight of me stood on the arch attracted them to come and have a closer look… I was a little too impatient with the job and (stupidly) yanked too hard on the cable to lift the unit off – the cable pulled out of the connectors. I now have the end of the cable somewhere down inside the stainless steel tubing and might have a major problem to re-wire it.
I took the wind generator into Kiss Energy to get it looked at. Unfortunately, Doug wasn’t there. The guys who work for him are very difficult to talk to - they just shrugged their shoulders and pointed for me to leave it on top of a box. Fortunately, I’d been prepared for this and left a note for Doug with the unit. I tried to ring Doug later in the afternoon, but no joy. I hope that this doesn’t turn in to a drawn out saga.
3 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We dragged ourselves out of bed at quarter past six and caught a taxi to the US Embassy in Port of Spain. We had to queue outside for half an hour with the other people who had an eight thirty appointment. Once inside we went through a security scanner, then handed our passports and confirmation papers to a clerk. We then took a seat with the other 200 applicants.
Two hours later, we were called to a small booth, where we had our fingerprints scanned. The guy asked a few banal questions about why we wanted to go to the USA – I reckon that these were just time fillers while he processed our finger prints and scanned through our application forms. We were granted our visas, then queued to pay 50TT each to have the passports sent back to us and that was it.
We did a little bit of shopping in town and grabbed a roti for lunch. There was nothing else that we wanted in town, so we caught a mini-bus back to Chaguaramas. I called in to Kiss Energy, in the vain hope of catching Doug there. No chance. One of the more communicative of his workers pointed at my wind generator which was in bits on a bench and mumbled that he was waiting for Doug to come back and tell him what to do. Ah well, at least they’ve started on it.
Back on the boat, we chilled out for the afternoon and then went to a pot luck barbeque at the Crews Inn marina and hotel. It was very posh. It’s supposed to be for marina users only. One of the hotel staff lays out tables complete with table cloths and starts the barbeque. There were only four couples there - “Smidge”, Bob and Vicky from “Fox Sea” and Kaj & Leila from “Amelit”. Kaj is from Sweden and Leila is American and they kindly invited us to go walking up to Edith Falls with them on Saturday.
4 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We had a go at recovering the wind generator cable from within the arch tubing. I was balanced on top of the Arch trying to hook the cable with a piece of stainless steel wire, while Glenys was lying inside the aft lazarette pushing the cable up the tube. It took us an hour of bad tempered shouting and pulling and pushing to drag the cable 18 inches up and out of the arch. Flushed with success, I went to Kiss Energy to have a look at what was going on, but my wind generator is still in bits and the guys there are still waiting for Doug to show up.
Glenys spent a couple of hours patching the dinghy to cover the damaged areas caused by the savage dock in Los Roques. She also bought some grey Sunbrella to make a cover for the tubes of the dinghy to protect it from the sun and abrasion.
I checked the engine and started it for the first time in a week. We’ve got a mysterious rattle coming from the front of the engine around the timing belt cover. It seems to come and go and it may be dependent on the engine revs. I wandered over and had a chat to Falco and he says to check the catches on the timing belt cover or it may be a bearing on an alternator.
There’s a Tropical Wave moving past the Windward Islands today and we had thunderstorms and heavy rain for most of the afternoon. It was dark enough at half past four that I had to wear a head torch to read in the cockpit.
5 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
The local power boats motoring passing us are driving me mad. They start just after six o’clock in the morning and roar through the anchorage causing large waves, which slap hard against our "sugar scoop" transom. In the back cabin, it sounds like something solid has hit us. By half past six, I’m wide awake. The bow waves continue all day and make us rock at inconvenient times – like when I’m trying to get a small screw into a fitting, grrrrr. They only stop speeding past when the sun has gone down and even then we are left with the residual waves bouncing off the shore in the bay. It calms around eight o’clock in the evening. It’s all getting to me now - it’s time to go.
I had a quiet morning, reading and playing the clarinet, while Glenys made some fitted sheets for the aft bed. We were planning to go walking with “Amelit” but Kaj has hurt his back, so Plan B was invoked and we went to the movies instead – we love being cold instead of sweating through the afternoon.
6 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
It’s Sunday again, so we went walking in the area around the anchorage. Once again we were frustrated by closed areas. We first tried to walk up a valley to the west of us, but the road led to an army training area, with a big sign warning of the restricted area. We retraced our steps and walked a mile down to TTSA to try to walk on the peninsula to the east, but again came to a gate across the track with a sign saying restricted area. It’s very frustrating – God knows what they have up these tracks.
Back on the boat, Glenys did some more sewing - the mattresses on our bed are a very weird shape and she’s struggling with making the fitted sheets tight enough.
I created a short video of our trip from Curacao, which has some good footage of dolphins, and published it to YouTube and our website. I noticed that YouTube has cleverly detected that I’ve used commercial MP3 tracks on my videos and has marked them as infringing copyright. One of the videos has had the sound disabled, but the others just have a warning. I’ve had to replace the sound track on the skydiving video with some horrible "plinky plink" instrumental track. It’s pretty spooky - Big Brother is always watching you.
“Smidge” came for a beer or four and gave us some good information on Chesapeake Bay. It sounds like we could spend six months just exploring Chesapeake Bay. I think that our plan of making large jumps up the East Coast of the States and then coming back slowly is correct - if we try to take our time going up the coast, we probably won’t get as far as New York.
7 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We’re just waiting for our passports, so I took advantage of our good internet connection and had an administration day.
Glenys did some more sewing in the morning and spent the afternoon ashore doing the laundry and taking advantage of the showers to dye her hair. It was supposed to be auburn, but has come out a bit more ginger than she would have liked. I must admit it was a shock when I saw her the first time. She’s hoping that the sun will bleach the colour out quickly.
I waited too long to go and pick up the wind generator – the place was all shut up just after four o’clock. I’m a bit frustrated. Being a Monday, we went to the TTSA pot luck barbeque and supped a large number of beers.
8 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys went to a shopping mall to do a last shopping trip assuming that we’ll be leaving on Thursday.
I went to Kiss Energy in the morning and Doug was actually there. He looked very tired and confided to me that he’s having a few cash flow problems and his workers are just sitting about. The guy who was doing my generator hadn’t turned in yet. This wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I explained that we were hoping to leave on Thursday and Doug said that he’d have it sorted by then.
Back on the boat, I did a few jobs before picking Glenys up with her shopping. Just after lunch we received a phone call saying that our passports had arrived. I jumped into the dinghy and rushed over to get them. We were so happy to see 10 year, multiple entry, B1/B2 visas in our passports. All I had to do now was get the wind generator back.
I waited until half past one and then went back to see Doug. The generator was still in bits and there was no sign of any workers. Doug managed to find the guy, who appeared to be working in an engineering shop next door. No doubt picking up my mildly panicking body language, the guy agreed to change the thermostats and reassemble it for me and told me to come back in fifteen minutes.
Twenty minutes later, I walked out of there clutching my wind generator like a long lost baby. I don’t know whether it will work, but I’ve got it back. Doug wouldn’t accept any money for the work, which was good of him. Perhaps that’s why he has cash flow problems.
We had a quiet night in, planning what we have to do tomorrow before we can leave on Thursday.
9 November 2011 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I fitted the wind generator back onto the arch, which only took 90 minutes – not too bad. There’s been no wind today, so I have no idea whether it works or not.
I checked the engine and tidied up, then read a book for the rest of the morning. After lunch, we went to customs and immigration and told them that we were going to Tobago. We then went to the supermarket and bought two cases of beer and 8 large bottles of Coca Cola - which only costs £0.75 for a 2 litre bottle.
Our plan is to get fuel first thing in the morning, then sail 20 miles around to La Vache Bay on the north coast. We’ll anchor there for the afternoon and then leave at midnight to head for Tobago. The wind and current will be against us and we’ll be motoring up the coast taking advantage of the lighter winds at night. We should be at the north east tip of Trinidad at dawn and can then sail hard on the wind to Store Bay in Tobago. Well that’s the plan anyway. We’re pretty excited about seeing clear water and reefs again after two weeks of the dirty, brown water of Chaguaramas.
10 November 2011 Chaguaramas to Store Bay, Tobago (Day 1)
Straight after breakfast, we went over to the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. We were on our way before half past eight. Just after Gasparillo Island, Glenys spotted “Blackthorn Lady” heading into Chaguaramas, so we went over and had a chat for ten minutes, while we both drifted in the current. They spent last night in Scotland Bay after arriving back from Tobago. They spent two weeks in Store Bay and saw the rest of the island by car.
We motored out past Monos Island and headed up the north side of Trinidad. The wind was against us, but only about ten knots. However there was a 2 metres swell against us. We went into La Vache Bay which is very isolated, steep sided and with jungle coming down to the water. The skies were overcast and the place looked spectacular but a bit forbidding. There was a swell hooking into the bay and we couldn’t find a calm area to anchor so we decided to go around to Maracas Bay, which is three miles further up the coast.
It was a mission going those three miles, the wind picked up and so did the seas. We were only making 1 knot over the ground at one point – I suspected that our propeller was fouled up.
Maracas Bay is a huge bay with three beaches. Two of them are very popular tourist beaches with fast food stalls, but those beaches are exposed to the full might of the swell coming into the bay and have crashing surf. The third beach is tucked up around the north side of the bay and is much more protected. We anchored off the beach in 8 metres of water, but we were still rocking and rolling in the swell. We decided to stay and leave at ten o’clock at night.
I put my snorkelling gear on and had a look at the propeller, which was completely covered by ¼” of barnacles. It was clean 18 days ago when we arrived in Chaguaramas Bay – it’s an astounding growth rate. I spent 30 minutes scraping the barnacles off, which was a bit of a mission because the boat was pitching up and down so much.
We put the dinghy up on deck and then spent the rest of the afternoon reading. The anchorage was so unsettled that we decided to start our watches at seven o’clock with me going to bed while Glenys sat on anchor watch. We left at quarter past ten, motoring into steep, two metre seas with 15 -20 knots across the deck directly against us. It was a horrible motion with the waves stopping us dead every so often.
11 November 2011 Chaguaramas to Store Bay, Tobago (Day 2)
The steep seas continued all night and slowed us down. As dawn broke, we were still six miles from the tip of Trinidad. The current had picked up, dropping our speed over the ground to 1½ knots, and was pushing us north towards Tobago.
I decided to head more north and try to get through the fast current as soon as possible. The current was so strong that in order to maintain a course over the ground of 030°M, I had to head at 070°M. The wind was still on our nose, so we had to continue to motor sail. We kept to the east of Wasp Shoal and once past that our course was more northly allowing us to switch the engine off for a couple of hours. We caught a nice sized Horse Eye Jack on the way.
We arrived in Store Bay at ten o’clock and anchored among ten other yachts. The place is beautiful with blue waters, coconut palms hanging over white beaches and waves crashing onto coral reefs. Unfortunately, we didn’t have enough time to sit and stare because we had to go into Scarborough to clear in. There are no Maxi taxis here, but there are cars that are communal taxis and it only cost £0.60 each to go six miles into the main town. It was chaos in Scarborough, the taxi driver said that Fridays was always very busy because most people get paid today.
It was very quick to check in. Customs just booked us in, but Immigration wants us to tell them when we go to the north of the island – it will be a pain having to come into Scarborough again. Oh well. We walked around in the beating sun trying to find a nice local restaurant, but ended up in Churches Chicken which is very, very similar to KFC.
Back on the boat, we slept for an hour or so in the afternoon and had fish satay before going to bed early.
12 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It rained heavily last night - the dinghy had two inches of water sloshing about. The sky was very overcast and it rained all day with a couple of heavy squalls thrown in.
Glenys took advantage of the rain water and spent all day in her swimming costume, cleaning the teak toe rail and the top sides. Meanwhile, I mooched about all day, reading, playing the clarinet, doing some admin and feeling a little guilty at the sight of Glenys working away.
It continued to rain as night fell. We had some more of the fish and a quiet night reading.
13 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
We woke up to sunshine and I managed to potter about and do a few little jobs before the clouds started to build up and it started to rain again. Glenys was tired after her hull scrubbing exertions yesterdays and read in the morning.
After lunch, we saw a gap in the clouds and dinghied a mile over to Buccoo Reef to have a look for somewhere to snorkel. The reef is huge but very shallow, so we were looking for somewhere with a drop off. The water was very cloudy and we didn’t find anywhere that looked appealing. A huge bank of black clouds was approaching from the east, so we gave up and scooted back to the boat. Ten minutes later, we have 25 knot winds and torrential rain.
So it was reading, playing the clarinet and lounging about for the rest of the day.
14 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It rained again last night and we had one squall with strong winds, which forced me out of bed at four o’clock to put up the spray hood to try to keep the cockpit dry.
It was sunny in the morning, so we went for a walk around the local area. There’s a really nice municipal beach, with lots of food stalls and even life guards. It’s a very popular place with the locals – the tourists go to another beach at Pigeon Point and have to pay £1.50 entry fee. We walked around the point and ended up at the airport, where we found a Tourist Office – Glenys found a flyer for a horse riding centre – she hasn’t been riding since we’ve been on the boat.
On the way back to the boat, we called back into the municipal beach and bought a take away “Crab and Dumpling” for lunch. We only just made it back before it poured it down. “Crab and Dumpling” is the national dish for Tobago, but we weren’t impressed at all. It consisted of crabs legs cooked in a curry sauce with rubbery, flat pieces of stodgy cassava dumpling. We struggled for ten minutes trying to get some meat out of the crabs’ legs and then, in danger of starving to death, we gave up and had a cheese sandwich.
It cleared up in the afternoon, so we went snorkelling in the afternoon, but the visibility in the water is less than two metres, so we only persevered for fifteen minutes.
15 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
It was sunny in the morning, so I did some jobs. Our deck is topped with teak planking, which is screwed down to the fibre glass deck. The screw heads are then covered with 10mm teak plugs. I had over a dozen plugs that have come worked loose over the past few months, so I spent a pleasant hour removing the screws, drilling a deeper hole and then replacing the screws and plugs.
I’ve been a bit worried about our batteries (again!) Recently, we’ve had to run the generator for an hour a day to make sure that the batteries still have 50% charge left at the end of each night. I suspected that we might have a dud battery, which is pulling the others down. I disconnected all six of the batteries, left them for an hour and then measured the voltage on each of them, but they all stayed at the same voltage of 12.3 Volts. This is not a very conclusive test, so I spent a couple of hours on the Internet researching into electronic battery testers and ordered a simple one that should give me a good indication of the state of each battery. It only cost £60 and I’m hoping that it will be worth its weight in gold over the coming years. Craig will bring it out with him at Christmas.
Glenys has booked us both on a two hour horse ride tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to with mixed feelings.
16 November 2011 Store Bay, Tobago
First thing in the morning, we went to the beach, chained the dinghy to a wire fence and then stood outside the local beach bar. With typical Caribbean humour, it’s called Bago’s Bar. Why’s that funny? Try “We’re going to Bago’s Bar”. Not got it yet? How about “We goin’ Tobago’s Bar” … in Tobago…
We were picked up by Lennon, who, with Veronica, runs the riding stables. They have five horses and are lovely people. They only take small groups and only take their horses out once a day. We had a great time. Their horses are all thoroughbreds, which originate from Trinidad where racing is a big sport. Several of their horses are ex-race horses. They took us out on a short trail ride around the Buccoo Bay area, past the edge of the mangroves and onto the beach.
The tide was high and the surf was rolling onto the beach, so it was a challenge to persuade the horses to go around the Manchineel trees into the crashing surf. When we arrived at the end of the ¼ mile long beach, Veronica steered her horse into the sea and called for us to follow. Surprisingly the horses seemed to be okay with struggling along with the water lapping across their backs. At times my horse was swimming as it came across deeper patches. I wouldn’t say that the horse was enjoying it, but seemed resigned to the ordeal. It was hard work gripping with our knees as we had no saddle or stirrups and the pressure of the water was sweeping our legs back.
After fifteen minutes of wading, we climbed back onto the beach and returned to the stables, where we hosed down the tired horses. It was a fantastic experience and if you’re ever in Tobago give them a call (http://www.being-with-horses.com)
We returned back to the boat, had lunch and collapsed. It rained heavily in the afternoon, which prevented us from going into Scarborough to clear out, so we chilled out with a book.
17 November 2011 Store Bay to Mount Irvine Bay, Tobago
We went into Scarborough first thing in the morning, went to Immigration and told them that we’re going to the north of the island. We did a bit of shopping and posted our driving licenses back to the UK to get the address changed. Hopefully, they will process them quickly; send them to my brother Andrew, who can send them onto Brett and Craig, who can then bring them out at Christmas. It’s a logistical nightmare living on a yacht.
We motored around to Plymouth and anchored off the dock where the cruising guide suggested. Within five minutes a local fisherman came rowing out on a kayak and told us that we couldn’t anchor there because they put out seine nets very early in the morning and we would be in the way. We told him that we were going to spend the night in Mount Irvine Bay, which placated him.
Glenys made a roti for lunch and we ate it while watching the locals seine netting on beach. It’s a very labour intensive operation with 15-20 guys heaving the very long nets up the beach. They appeared to be getting a good catch of fish.
We motored around to Mount Irvine Bay, which is lovely with three nice looking beaches. We went snorkelling off the northern point. There was a huge amount of swell, with waves crashing on the rocky headland. This meant that the visibility was not very good and the surge made snorkelling a challenge.
18 November 2011 Mount Irvine Bay to Man of War Bay, Tobago
We were woken by loud music just after six in the morning as some sort of procession went by with a lorry loaded up with huge speakers and blaring out reggae. In the UK, they’d be arrested for noise nuisance, but here they had a police motorcycle escort.
We motored along the rocky coast to Englishman’s Bay. As we headed north, the coastline changed from low-lying sandy reefs to be more mountainous, with steep jungle coming down to the edge of the sea where the surf beats against rocky cliffs.
We anchored to the north of Englishman’s Bay which is cut out of the steep sided jungle with a lovely beach and coconut palms hanging over the pale sand. We did a scuba dive off the northern headland. The water was still a little murky, but it was a nice dive site. Our last dive was in Bonaire six weeks ago, so it great to get back in the water.
After lunch, we motored up to Man of War Bay and anchored off Pirate Bay. We went into Charlottesville and visited customs and immigration. The customs guy gave me a bit of a hard time because I hadn’t reported into the customs office in Scarborough, but he eventually chilled out.
We looked around the small town which has a few bars and shops. It is a very quaint little place, with a strong tradition in fishing. We went to a few shops and bars and discovered that no one sells beer in cans. In one bar, the girl looked at us like we were crazy as she shook her head and repeated “Beer in Cans?” This was a disaster as we only had six cans left in the fridge. Although glass has no place on a boat, we bought a case of bottled beer in desperation.
This is another beautiful anchorage. There’s an idyllic beach on the shore and we’re surrounded by steep-sided jungle, where we can hear parrots squawking as they fly in to roost in the evening.
19 November 2011 Man of War Bay, Tobago
Our mysterious “clacking” sound on the engine seems to be happening most of the time now, so I had another go at trying to pinpoint what it is. I ran the engine for a few minutes and initially, it all sounded OK, but then as I revved the engine, the “clacking” sound started. It appears to be coming from the front of the engine, but it’s very difficult to pinpoint. I switched the engine off and restarted and the “clacking” sound was not there initially, but started again when I revved the engine. It’s a mystery.
I gave up and we went for a dive on the northern point of the bay which was a great dive site – very interesting with lots of fish. We went to look for lobster, but alas none to be seen. Fifteen years ago, we were able to catch lobster “on demand” in this bay – have they been over exploited here?
After lunch, we chilled out for a while, and then I went snorkelling to try to catch some fish with my pole spear. I had an enjoyable hour or so, but only managed to spear a couple of flounder and a parrot fish. We saw loads of big snapper on our dive, but they are all in water deeper than 20 metres, which is beyond my spear fishing depth.
We had the flounder for dinner, but there wasn’t much meat; it was bland and a little mushy – I won’t bother with flounder again.
20 November 2011 Man of War Bay, Tobago
I woke up at four o’clock worried about the engine, trying to decide what to do. The “clacking” sound appears to be getting worse, so I need to find out what it is and get it fixed, before something breaks. I lay there agonising about where to get it fixed – do I go back to Trinidad and get Gittens to sort it out? I know that Falco is very good at his job and would sort it out, but do I want to spend another two weeks in Trinidad? The alternative is to go to Grenada, but it takes longer to get things done there. It kept me awake for an hour.
I did some more investigation on the engine. I found that when the engine is first turned on at low revs, then it sounds OK. Revving the engine a few times will start the “clacking noise”, which will be continuous until I drop the revs back to idle, when it disappears. Having established that I can reproduce the fault, I removed both fan belts to see if it was faulty bearings in the alternators or the water pump, but it made no difference. It sounds like it’s at the front of the engine, so I think that it is either the fuel pump, injector pump or valve clearances on the camshaft. In any case it’s something that I can’t fix, so we’ve decided to go to St David’s Harbour in Grenada later this week, where there is a Volvo dealer.
It rained in the morning, so we went for a dive after lunch. We dinghied over to the south side of the bay to look at an isolated rock, with breaking waves. I stuck my head under water and it looks like it’s a huge pinnacle, but unfortunately the swell was too great for us to anchor off it. We went to the shore and did an OK dive – still no sign of lobster.
I chilled out for the rest of the afternoon reading a book, but Glenys felt dynamic and scrubbed the waterline.
21 November 2011 Man of War Bay to Anse Bateau, Tobago
We went for walk around the town, first going up to a fort on the southern headland and then along a road to the beach at Pirate Bay. These were both pleasant walks with lovely scenery and lots of birds flying about. There are some very steep steps leading down to Pirate Bay that were slippery and treacherous going down and depressing to look up on the way back.
When we got back to town, we bought some tuna from the fishing cooperative. The local fishermen look very rough, but are lovely people when you get talking to them. We paid £1 per pound and the guy filleted the two fish for us.
We motor-sailed around to Anse Bateau on the north eastern side of the island. It was a bit of a bash around the rugged northern coastline against the current and the wind. There’s a fairly narrow channel between cliffs on one side, some small rocky islands on the other side and a nasty sunken rock in the middle. We survived.
Anse Bateau is a lovely anchorage with a nice beach and a hotel. “Smidge” were the only other boat in the bay. We went for a walk into Speyside, which is a small town in the next bay along the coast. The road goes past an old waterwheel which was used to make sugar. The town is very small with some hotels and dive shops. There’s no supermarket here, just a couple of very small grocery stores. We came across a house that had put egg shells on the tips of an Aloe Vera plant. I asked the owner about it and she replied that it was decoration – nearer to Christmas, she is going to paint them in bright colours. Nice.
In the evening, we went to the hotel bar for a few beers with Maury and Bonny from “Smidge”. They’d been on a rainforest tour today and had a great time, so we organised to go out with the same guide tomorrow.
22 November 2011 Anse Bateau, Tobago
The wind in this bay is blowing us and anything that goes overboard onto the pristine beach. So we decided to use the holding tank for our toilet for the first time to store the effluent rather than pumping it directly overboard. The waste from the toilet goes through a valve and into a stainless steel tank. I used the toilet this morning and for some reason the toilet pump jammed. I now have a tank of effluent that is above the toilet pump which I will have to remove and repair – the joys of living on a luxury yacht…
The national bird of Tobago is a “Chachalaca” and looks like a cross between a scrawny chicken and a pheasant. There are lots of them in the trees around this bay and their loud squawking calls can be heard from first light as the various groups compete for territory. The birds name is similar to the sound of their call.
Our guide, Leslie, drove us to the rain forest. We walked down a marked trail called the Gilpin Trail which is in a national park. The big attraction of this area is the huge number of birds, with birdwatchers coming from all over the world. It was okay, but far too slow for my liking. We only walked about a mile with lots of standing about, listening to the bird calls and trying to spot the rather elusive birds. We ticked off a few birds – Yellow-legged Thrush, Mot Mot, Black-thoated Mango Hummingbird, yawn...
Leslie then took us to the Argyle Waterfall which has a nice sized pool beneath it. It was great to swim in the cold fresh water. After stopping for a roti for lunch, we spent the afternoon chilling out before going to the bar for drinks and dinner with Gaston & Lizanne from “Bidule” and “Smidge”.
23 November 2011 Anse Bateau to St David’s Harbour, Grenada (Day 1)
First thing in the morning, we sailed back around to Man of War Bay. We encountered very nasty steep seas, which we had to motor into until we were past Pointed Rock. As we turned more north, we were able to sail for a while.
We dinghied into town, cleared out for Grenada and spent last of our Trinidad dollars. It rained heavily for most of the afternoon, so we were undecided whether to go or not.
I did my favourite job and serviced the jammed pump for the front toilet. Unfortunately, after replacing all the seals and valves, the toilet still doesn’t work – we must have a blockage in one of the pipes. I didn’t want to get involved with that, so I left it until we get to Grenada.
There was a lull in the rain at half past four, so we decided to go for it, hauled the dinghy onto the front deck and half an hour later sailed out beneath a grey overcast sky. It was a very dark night and rained a couple of times before midnight, but we at least we had a pleasant 15 knot wind from abaft the beam.
24 November 2011 Anse Bateau to St David’s Harbour, Grenada (Day 2)
Just after midnight, I decided that we were going too fast and would arrive at our destination before dawn, so I reefed the main sail and the jib. Half an hour later, a thunderstorm caught us up. Not much lightning, but the wind picked up to 30 knots for a short while – I was glad that I’d reefed earlier.
After that we rocked and rolled all night with inconsistent winds and choppy seas - we both found it difficult to go to sleep with all the banging and crashing of things in lockers. At four o’clock, we were still going too fast, so I dropped the main and we ran with just a small headsail.
We arrived off St David’s Harbour an hour after dawn. As we approached the narrow reef-lined entrance, the fishing reel screamed. I leapt to the back while Glenys turned us back out to sea. We could see a big rain shower approaching, so I swiftly hauled in a lovely big 12lb Horse-eye Jack, threw it into a bucket on deck and we motored quickly into the bay. We just managed to drop the anchor before the squall hit us and dropped visibility down to 100 metres – phew!
We had scrambled egg on toast for breakfast while waiting for the rain to stop. I dropped the dinghy back into the water and we went to clear into customs. Unfortunately the customs are only there occasionally and we had to ring them up to come out especially for us.
Meanwhile I managed to get hold of Stephan, the marine engineer from the boat yard, who immediately came out to look at engine. After looking around and listening, he said that he is 95% sure that it’s the injector pump. This is not good news because new injector pumps cost several thousand pounds. Stephan says that the best place to get the injector pump fixed or replaced is at the main Volvo dealer in Martinique.
I took Stephan back ashore and waited for the customs and immigration officers to turn up. I tried to read a book, but mostly spent the time worrying about how to get the injector pump sorted out before Brett and Craig arrive for the their holiday at Christmas. It would be a disaster to have no engine. I had to wait for two hours for the customs guy and, by the end of the process, I was very angry, tired and in the depths of despair.
I went back to the boat and felt much better after I had a rant at Glenys and something to eat. I had a nap which further improved my outlook on life.
Later on in the afternoon, I rang Frank, the owner of Inboard Marine in Martinque. He said that it would take seven to ten days to get an injection pump serviced, so we don’t have a lot of time to mess about. He wants Stephan to call him and check a few more things, but I’m guessing that we’ll probably be sailing the 160 miles up to Martinique the day after tomorrow.
We had a quiet night, ate had a marvellous meal of Horse-eye Jack and drank all of our remaining beer and wine.
25 November 2011 St David’s Harbour, Grenada
We slept in until half past eight – we obviously needed the extra rest. I rang Stephan and reminded him to talk to Frank in Martinique.
We went into St Georges to get some cash and do a bit of shopping. It’s nice to be back in Grenada, using the crazy, but efficient minibus system - just when you think that the bus is full, another cushion magically appears and another punter is squeezed in. The shops in St Georges are in full Christmas mode with Christmas reggae songs blaring away and shop staff wearing Santa hats.
Back on the boat, I rang Stephan and picked him up from the boat yard. He took off the exhaust elbow to check whether it was blocked – it wasn’t. We stared at the engine, listened to the noise and decided that it was definitely the Injector pump making the clacking noise. I rang Frank and I told him that we’d be sailing up tomorrow and would be with him on Monday morning.
On the way back to the boat yard, Stephan asked me when I last changed the primary fuel filter. I told him that I fitted a 2 micron filter about four weeks ago. He suggested that I should change it to a coarser 10 or 20 micron filter as it would put less strain on the injector pump. Back on the boat, I dug out a spare 10 micron filter and changed it. To my amazement, the clacking noise went away!
I rang Frank in Martinique and chatted to him about this revelation, he said that the injector pump is lubricated by the diesel fuel and if the pump is being starved of fuel it could be causing the noise. He suggested that I run the engine under load as a further test. We ran the engine in reverse at 2000 rpm for ten minutes and no clacking noise – it’s a miracle. We’re so relieved.
We went to happy hour and got drunk. Neils and Ruth invited us back to “Baraka” for dinner.
26 November 2011 St David’s Harbour, Grenada
We were feeling a bit delicate this morning, so we decided to stay here for another day and chill out.
Glenys took the opportunity to clear out her fridge. It’s a top loading fridge, which is two foot wide and nearly three feet deep, so food works its way down to the bottom and could be down there forever without a regular sort out. She found some home-made Gravlax in a container that she made when we were in Trinidad three weeks ago. It’s had plenty of time to cure and tastes delicious.
Our other fridge is making gurgling noises again and has obviously lost refrigerant. The fridge was last charged at the beginning of October, so it’s only lasting a couple of months before it needs to be done again. It’s very frustrating that we can’t find the leak; hopefully the leak will get worse over time and get to a point where we can detect it. There’s no beer left so I’ve turned it off – I’ll have to get someone to look at it next week.
I spent the day mooching about – I read a book, played on the laptop, played the clarinet and went snorkelling. The visibility was only about 4 metres and I couldn’t find any lobster although I did come across two lobster carcases, so they are about.
There was a live band at the bar, so we stayed a little longer than we planned, but Glenys still managed to rustle up a fine fish supper when we staggered back to the boat.
27 November 2011 St David’s Harbour to Calvigny Harbour, Grenada
We motored around to Calvigny Harbour. The anchorage is lovely and peaceful, but the entrance is a little scary, going between two unmarked reefs. One reef had breaking seas and we couldn’t see the other one, so we kept close to the one we could see. There are only three other boats in this brilliant anchorage, which is surprising when there are probably 200 yachts packed into the other anchorages only two miles away – some cruisers are so unadventurous.
After lunch, we did a dive off the breaking reef. As is normal on the south coast of Grenada, the visibility was poor and the reef covered in a fine layer of silt. We went specifically to hunt lobster, but didn’t see any large ones, so we took a couple of small spotted lobster – more like langoustine.
We chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. No beer left so we need to go shopping tomorrow.
28 November 2011 Calvigny Harbour to Prickly Bay, Grenada
We chilled out in the morning, then after lunch motored around to Prickly Bay. I caught another 12lb Jack as we were leaving Calvigny Harbour. As luck would have it, the reel started to scream as we approached the narrow part of the channel, so it was a little stressful for Glenys steering through the reefs at 1 knot while I fought the feisty fish.
Prickly Bay isn’t as crowded as I thought it would be, but Hog Island looked busy as we motored past. We dropped off our laundry and bought a couple of cases of beer. I still haven’t managed to get the fridge fixed and now that we have beer it’s becoming critical.
In the evening, we went to happy hour where we bumped into Neil and Josie from “LucyEllen” – they were the first cruisers that we met after we bought Alba, so it was good to catch up with them.
29 November 2011 Prickly Bay to Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada
Overnight the wind veered to the south bringing a swell into the bay. We rocked and rolled all night and, in the morning, we were pitching up and down quite violently, so we decided to do some errands and then go around to Mount Hartman Bay where it will be more settled.
We walked down to Ace Hardware then to Spiceland Mall. While Glenys went to the supermarket, I wandered around the hardware store and discovered that they sell small cans of refrigerant, which I could use to recharge our fridge. Unfortunately, they don’t sell the gauges and fittings to connect the can to the fridge compressor, but one of the shop assistants said that Ace Hardware may sell them. I walked back the mile back to Ace Hardware, but the gauge that they had will only fit on a special connector for car air conditioning – ah well.
We caught a taxi from the mall back to De Big Fish and called in at Budget Marine to buy some bits and pieces. I bought a fighting belt for holding the fishing rod on my stomach – recently I’ve been catching bigger fish and the end of the rod digs in painfully while reeling them in.
After lunch, we picked up the laundry, bought some ice to cool our beer because the fridge is still turned off, and motored around to Mount Hartman Bay, which is very calm. We had a quiet night in.
30 November 2011 Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada
I rang a local fridge man, but he’s injured his leg and can’t walk properly, so he said I should ring him back in two days’ time. Then Steve from “Celebration” called on the VHF and said that he’d heard that I had a problem with my fridge and has the gauge kit to recharge a fridge. He offered to walk over this afternoon from Prickly Bay and help me sort it out. I gladly agreed. Steve mentioned that he was going into Spiceland Mall to do some shopping, so I asked him to buy me a couple of cans of refrigerant.
I turned my attention to the blocked front heads. I removed the toilet pump and, by shoving a stiff plastic tube up the waste pipe, decided that the blockage was about 18” up the main waste pipe. Now all I had to do was remove the 2” diameter reinforced pipe. I tried to remove the end under the holding tank, but there is so little room inside the cupboards that I failed abysmally. Switching strategies, I removed the whole holding tank, which is a 35 litre stainless steel tank bolted inside the cupboard. This gave me enough space to remove the pipe. The pipe had over ¼” of hard, encrusted “crud” on the inside, so I took the pipe on deck and beat it with a hammer, breaking the crud up. Loads of it poured out of the tube and it cleared the blockage. An hour later, I had it all assembled and a working toilet again - lovely job.
Steve turned up in the afternoon and we worked on the fridge. He’s built his own large engine- driven fridge system, but unfortunately, he didn’t know much about small systems, so we were experimenting on my system. He added about ¾ of a can to the system, but it was still gurgling and the pipe returning from the fridge compartment seemed to be too cold. He deduced that he’d put too much refrigerant into the system and explained how to release and monitor the pressures and left me to it.
My life for the rest of the afternoon was split into 15 minute slots:
1.Switch off the fridge and wait 15 minutes for the pressures to equalise.
2.Bleed some refrigerant out (a little at a time) and wait 15 minutes for the pressures to equalise.
3.Turn on the fridge and wait 15 minutes for the system to cool the evaporator in the fridge compartment.
4.Look at the pressure gauge connected to the low pressure side and decide if there is the correct amount of refrigerant in the system. I was aiming for it to be 10 psi – at first it was 40 psi.
5.Repeat from 1.
We went to the bar in the marina for happy hour. There was supposed to be a jazz group playing but they didn’t turn up until seven o’clock. It wasn’t a very well attended event and certainly wasn’t very “happy”, so we left before the music started.