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.