1 May 2011 Bequia
It’s Sunday today, so we had a relatively chilled out day reading, swimming and doing a few little jobs.
I finished off the mounting for the life-raft by fitting a couple of pad eyes to lash the life raft down. This was very awkward as I has to reach into a 3 inch high space under the deck to fit nuts to the pad eye bolts – took about an hour to fit eight nuts. I then replaced the self-tapper screws on the new bimini fitting with proper bolts, so it doesn’t look so bad in the aft shower now. Glenys started the cover for the life raft, which is a complex curved shape – it will be interesting to see how it comes out.
A French boat came in yesterday afternoon and anchored very close to us – they were about 10 metres to our starboard side. This anchorage is very big and there’s no reason to be so close – it drives me mad. We were hoping that they would bugger off today, but at eleven o’clock, it was obvious that they were here to stay. So we re-anchored even though we were here first. What a relief it was to not have them squatting next to us.
Mutton stew for dinner – yummy.
2 May 2011 Bequia
I got up this morning with a bee in my bonnet about publishing this diary and the photographs that we have taken to our web site. I’ve had the web site for about six months and have never finished it off. The Internet connection is so slow and flaky that it is hard to do any administration on-line, so I backed up the live application and database and restored it to my local PC. I worked on it most of the day.
The only other major thing that I did was to finish off the life-raft mounting which only took about 20 minutes. The life raft is now lashed in place and looks like it’s meant to be there. I also had a good poke around under the front berths, found the Storm Parachute and two warps. I’m going to use the shorter rope as a shore mooring line when we go to St Vincent. I still haven’t found the jigsaw.
It started to rain about eleven o’clock and continued most of the day. In the late afternoon, it rained for about an hour solidly. We were trapped on the boat, so working on the web site was ideal, if very sweaty below.
We had to have dinner below since it was raining so heavily. I managed to get the website running on the live server and sent off an email to family and friends by about half past ten.
3 May 2011 Bequia
We went into town and bought a few bits and pieces, food and another case of beer. Our mail still hasn’t arrived.
It started raining at lunchtime and carried on most of the day – hot and sweaty down below. It’s Tuesday today and the weather forecast is for showery weather until Friday. Our plan is to go walking tomorrow morning and then go over to Wallilabou on Thursday, check out and sail to St Lucia on Friday.
Sergio sent me an email telling me that he’s got the jigsaw in London. Fortunately, we’ve got some friends (Mike and Rona Johnson) coming over to St Lucia at the end of May. I rang Mike to get him to pick up my jigsaw (and our mail) from Gareth before he comes out here. I spent some time working out how to wire up the compressor. I need some specialist electrical bits for it, so I’ll get them sent to Mike as well.
The rain was torrential from about three o’clock until seven and we’ve discovered a few leaking hatches. There are two of the side hatches leaking in the saloon - one is directly above the aft comfy chair so it drips on you every ten seconds – very irritating. The biggest problem is that the porthole in the aft cabin is leaking onto our bed in two places – one for each of us. I seem to remember Sergio saying that he had replaced this porthole. The leaks are from the mounting screws, so I’ll probably have to remove it and seal it correctly.
The rain was so torrential that it has created some rivers through Princess Margaret’s Beach and washed away quite a lot of sand.
4 May 2011 Bequia
Guess what? It was raining this morning, so we hid down below. Glenys worked on some side panels for the bimini to keep the rain out of the cockpit and I reconciled our bank accounts (yawn!) When the rain finally stopped, Glenys put up the cockpit cover, which fits under the bimini to give us a dry area in the cockpit.
After lunch, we went for a walk to Paget’s Farm. It started raining after about 30 minutes, but we had our waterproof jackets and at least the torrential rain is warm. We got soaked to the skin, but it was good to be off the boat for a change. The locals thought that we were mad walking past them in the rain while they sheltered under cover. The road that we were following went past a quarry and then petered out to a path, then up a stream bed and ended up at a house on the hill. I’m sure that we could have gone around and carried on but we gave up and turned back. We were out about 2 ½ hours.
We had dinner in a nice dry cockpit.
5 May 2011 Bequia
We had our first mosquito last night. It dived bombed me a few times and I had to get up to find the plug-in Mosquito killers. I also sprayed myself with insect repellent before getting back in bed.
The weather looks a lot better today (Thursday), but the forecast is for isolated showers today and tomorrow. Saturday and Sunday look much better so we decided to stay another day, go across to Cumberland Bay tomorrow and sail to St Lucia on Saturday.
We went for a hike to Bequia Head. We left Port Elizabeth just after nine o’clock, walked up the hill out of the town to a cross roads where I took a wrong turning, so we ended up in a place called Cinnamon Gardens. It had a nice view of Port Elizabeth and the Bay, but we had to retrace our steps back to the crossroads. We walked along roads until we passed the turtle sanctuary, then the road turned into a rough track through a quarry and up through low trees.
Eventually it turned into a path which led to a dead-end in thick undergrowth which it would be very easy to get lost in. Retracing our steps, we came across a tortoise ambling along the path – amazing to see a wild tortoise. We followed another path that took us to Bequia Head – three hours of walking. Bequia Head it wasn’t as spectacular as I would have liked- I was expecting dramatic cliffs, but the path just ends with a view of St Vincent. However, the hike to it was interesting and the last bit along a faint path is great fun.
We only took a litre of water with us, so we ended up rationing it and were very dehydrated by the time we reached a beach bar in a place called Industry. Unfortunately, we had only taken $52 EC with us so the slap up meal and loads of drinks was severely restricted to a sandwich and a coke each. We then had a one hour walk back in the beating sun with no water. We arrived back at the dinghy after six hours – a lot longer than I had thought.
We had a very lazy afternoon because we were pretty knackered and dehydrated. The only thing that I did was to tighten the screws on the aft cabin porthole which seemed pretty loose – hopefully it will have stopped the leak.
6 May 2011 Bequia to Cumberland Bay, Saint Vincent
I had a major mosquito attack last night – I woke at half past one with eight bites in my right shoulder and one in my left shoulder. I wouldn’t mind so much if they just bit me once and then buggered off. I had to get up and spray myself with insect repellent.
We cleared out of customs and found out that our mail still hasn’t arrived – we’ll pick it up on the way back in June. We set off for Cumberland Bay on St Vincent at half past ten. It was a lovely close reach in 10-15 knot winds and we made good time. As we were approaching the SW corner of St Vincent, we could see a huge squall coming down from the hills, so we hove-to and we sat there in the sunshine having lunch, watching the rain sweep past about three miles away.
The wind dropped in the lee of the island and we motored along the coast and into Cumberland Bay. The sea bed in Cumberland Bay shelves really quickly and you have to drop your anchor in deep water then tie the stern of the boat onto a tree on shore. There are lots of local “Boat Boys” who are willing to help tie your line ashore – a Boat Boy intercepted us in his RIB dinghy about ½ mile out and escorted us into the bay. The going rate is $10EC (£2.50) which is irritating, but does make life a little bit easier because they do know what they are doing - we were tied up with little effort.
Unfortunately, I didn’t take the Boat Boy’s advice on where to drop the anchor and dropped it a little too late. I only had 20 metres of chain out and we were about 50 metres from the beach - I sat there and worried for 40 minutes before deciding to re-anchor.
I put our small 3.5hp outboard onto the dinghy, went ashore, untied us and dragged myself back to the boat with the rope, flaking the rope into the dinghy. We lifted the anchor, motored forwards about 20 metres and redropped the anchor with 40 metres of chain. It was then a simple job of going ashore with the dinghy, tying the rope back on the tree and tightening the rope back on the boat. It was all done in 15 minutes and amazingly without being hassled by boat boys.
Cumberland Bay has greatly changed in the last 15 years. It used to be a very isolated place with palm trees all along the shore – I loved the place. A large number of the palm trees have now gone and there are now small restaurants along the beach. The government has even built a small welcome centre with showers and a dinghy dock. It’s still a very pretty place, but I preferred the isolated feeling.
We lifted the dinghy onto the front deck and lashed it in place ready for the 55 mile trip to Rodney Bay tomorrow and had an early night. There was no wind at all in the anchorage and we prepared for an onslaught of mosquitos by putting a mosquito net on the aft hatch and keeping the aft cabin door shut.
7 May 2011 Cumberland Bay to Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was boiling last night and we both had a terrible, restless night. We got up at half past five and I nearly got away with undoing the rope myself. Unfortunately, a guy saw me walking about on deck and paddled over on an old surf board. I tried to say no, but he was so pathetic that I gave in and handed him $5EC to undo the rope. We left Cumberland Bay at six o’clock.
We motored along the island with just the main up and didn’t get any wind until we were about half a mile clear of the north of the island. The pilot book says that it can be quite nasty with strong gusts and big seas, but it was very calm and a nice 15 knot wind. We had a great sail for five hours with the wind slightly forward of the beam in lovely sunshine.
We arrived at the south end of St Lucia at midday and then had to motor as we lost the wind. The approach to St Lucia is dominated by the two impressive Pitons, which are 2500 foot high mountains rising straight out of the sea. These can be seen all the way from St Vincent.
We motored up the coast, going in close to have a look at the various places that we could visit on the way back down. Unfortunately, anchoring is now banned in most places south of Marigot and we will have to pay a daily fee for picking Marine Park moorings. However, I’m looking forward to doing a lot of snorkelling.
Rodney Bay is just as I remember it – a huge bay with a sandy beach and hotels dotted along it. We anchored off the yacht club and went into the marina to clear customs, which was quick and painless. The marina has expanded a lot – there are now huge concrete docks that can take up to 32 mega-yachts over 250 feet long. Most of the lagoon is now taken over by marina pontoons or moorings.
Being Saturday afternoon, the hardware and chandler stores were closed, so we bought a few provisions and retired back to the boat to chill out.
8 May 2011 Rodney Bay
There was a huge, loud rave going on somewhere on shore last night. The reggae continued pounding until seven o’clock this morning, just as I was getting up.
I caught the sun yesterday and I wanted to keep in the shade, so I had a very lazy day doing some administration. I looked through the various manuals that we have on board and found that we have over 70 manuals, in paper and electronic format. I catalogued them so that I’ll be able to find a manual when I need it.
Glenys was feeling more dynamic and spent the day washing some clothes and cleaning various parts of the boat including the hull near the waterline which was going green.
We tried to go snorkelling in the afternoon, but the water is very murky and we gave up.
9 May 2011 Rodney Bay
It’s Monday today, so it was declared a shopping day. We did the rounds of hardware stores, chandlers, sail makers, supermarkets and bought various bits and pieces. I bought a saw so that I can make a frame to mount the dive compressor on, some very expensive boat cable to wire the compressor, bits of glue, epoxy, etc, etc. We got back to the boat at about half past one, exhausted.
After lunch, I decided that I should go and buy some 2” * 2” wood for a frame for the dive compressor. What a mission. I foolishly walked to the “lumber” store - it turned out to be about two miles along the road in the beating sun. I stopped off at a few stores on the way and arrived at four o’clock - just as they were closing. Bugger! I decided to walk a little bit further and came across another DIY store and managed to buy some wood. It came in a 20 foot length, so I had to chop it into 3 foot lengths to be able to take it back on the bus. I didn’t get back until about half past five.
We had a steak and chips for dinner with a nice bottle of red wine. I had been craving a steak for a few days after I read a description of a restaurant where they serve huge sizzling, Angus beef steaks. I enjoyed the steak immensely.
I bought a book today called “The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing”, so I stayed up until nearly midnight surfing the Internet trying to understand the differences between the various rods and reels. There’s the potential to spend a lot of money on “big boy” toys for fishing.
10 May 2011 Rodney Bay
We had a late start this morning after my late night last night – I didn’t get up until half past eight. By the time that I had done my exercises, had breakfast, checked the weather and updated this diary it was ten o’clock.
It was a lovely sunny day, so I built a wooden frame for the dive compressor. It wasn’t difficult, but time consuming trying to build it on the back deck with hand tools. It seems to be OK. I now need a piece of plywood for the top of it and to screw it in place.
There’s a lot of equipment cluttering up the aft deck on Alba and the solar panel is on top of the port side guard rail. While we were reefing the other day, the main sheet flicked under the solar panel and nearly ripped it off. I want to get an arch made and fitted to the stern of Alba to get all of the clutter off the aft deck. The design will have to hold two solar panels, the wind generator, four aerials, a crane to lift the 15hp outboard, fishing rod holders, etc, etc. I’m hoping that we’ll be able to incorporate some davits to lift the dinghy out of the water for short passages rather than towing it.
We called in to say hello to Richard and Claire on “Phalarope” – they have an arch so I wanted to have a look at it.
11 May 2011 Rodney Bay to Marin, Martinique
I cleared out of customs and we sailed to Marin in Martinique. It was a very hazy day, but we had a nice close reach sail arriving at half past two.
The highlight of the trip was catching a small Barracuda. It was a very gentle strike and the budgie bell that we use as an indicator barely tinkled. As soon as I confirmed that I had a fish, it was chaos while Glenys found a pair of gloves and something heavy to kill it – I ended up using the handle of a heavy diving knife to club it to death. I then descaled it, gutted it and chopped it up into two pieces to fit in the fridge. We need to be a bit more organised when we catch a fish – perhaps more stuff to store on the arch.
Marin is a strange place – there are literally hundreds of boats at anchor plus hundreds in the marina. There are quite a few of the typical French live-aboard yachts which look like they could never move and are slowly sinking. We weren’t able to check in – customs only turn up in the morning. We wandered around in a daze, checking shops and supermarkets in preparation for doing a “big shop” tomorrow. One of the things that we were hoping to buy was diving cylinders, but they are $400US – I can buy cheaper in Bequia.
The freezer is making a lot of gurgling noises again and is not pulling down the temperature. We’ve obviously still got a leak in the system, so I turned it off. We had pan-fried Barracuda for dinner, with real French bread, red wine and Camembert cheese.
12 May 2011 Marin to Saint Anne, Martinique
We cleared in and wandered around Marin buying a few things. We found a fantastic fishing shop which sells everything including spares for spear guns.
We went to a large supermarket with its own dinghy dock and bought loads of wine, beer, orange juice, food, etc. After lunch I dug out my two spear guns - the large one has a weak rubber band and the small one doesn’t have a spear. I went back to the fishing shop with both spear guns, but they were unable to help me with any spares. While I was there, I bought a small spinning rod, reel and a few bits of tackle.
When I got back to the boat, I found that Glenys had been having a small adventure with a catamaran that had anchored in front of us. The crew had gone ashore and their boat had dragged straight past us. A couple of French guys on a boat next door helped out and let out more chain.
We motored around to Saint Anne which is a much more pleasant anchorage (if a little rolly). I dug out my new fishing rod and set it up. I then cut up some Barracuda to make into bait, salted it and put it into the fridge for tomorrow. As night fell, I tried to fish using a small jig hook and an artificial worm – I had a few nibbles but was not quick enough to catch the little blighters. Now with real bait tomorrow….
We had Barracuda and Chips for dinner.
13 May 2011 Saint Anne
It was a little rolly last night but OK. We had a quiet morning catching up on a few things.
We’ve been pretty lucky for the past two weeks as we’ve managed to get free Internet connections in Rodney Bay and Bequia. It looks like the hotels here are a bit more technically savvy and I can’t get a connection. I miss receiving email and having an Internet connection. In particular, I’ve been getting the weather forecast from various web sites, so I now have no idea if a tropical storm is developing in the Atlantic…
We went for a walk at half past ten. There is an interesting little walk up to a shrine at the top of the hill behind the church. The path winds its way up through tended grounds and at every turning point there is a small shrine depicting the various stages in the crucifixion of Christ. I think that there are about ten of them on the way up and each one has candles and rosaries left behind by penitent worshippers. At the top there are more shrines depicting the resurrection and a small chapel.
After a short walk around the little town, we walked along a coastal path to Grand Anse Des Salines. The peninsula is a nature reserve and the path is well maintained. It goes past the edge of mangrove swamps and along beautiful white beaches. It took us two hours to walk to Grand Anse Des Salines which is a lovely beach on the windward side with crashing surf and coconut palms. We had lunch in a small beach side café. It was revolting - all deep fried in grim tasting cooking oil. Even the chips tasted foul. We walked back along the road across the peninsula which took about an hour.
Back on the boat, it was very rolly and the grim lunch started to make us feel a little ill, so we mostly lounged about for the rest of the afternoon. I ran the generator and started the water maker. I noticed that there was some water dribbling down behind the watermaker. Further investigation revealed a leak on top of one of the osmosis filters which turned out to be a leaking high pressure fitting. I undid the connector and found that the O-ring is badly distorted and split lengthwise. The leak must have been happening for a while because the seat for the O-ring is corroded. I couldn’t find any spare O-rings, so I put some silicone grease on the original one, re-tightened the fitting and prayed. The operating pressure is 850psi, so I didn’t hold out much hope, but amazingly there is now no leak. I’ll buy a few spare O-rings and get the connector changed in St Lucia.
As dusk approached, I got out my fishing rod and Barracuda bait. I made a small bait bag out of a bit of mosquito netting, filled it with bits of fish and dropped it into the water to try to attract some fish. I managed to catch a couple needle fish, which are 2 foot long, 1½ inch diameter with long jaws with lots of sharp teeth. They are feisty little fighters on the light fishing rod and it was good fun to catch them. It’s amazing how catching one fish sets off a frenzy of activity in the other fish around. There must have been a big shoal of needle fish because there were lots of splashing and leaping going on. Rain stopped play early and I gutted the fish to put in the fridge. I’m not sure if we’ll eat them or use them for more bait – they look like they will have lots of bones. We had a light dinner of risotto and retired.
14 May 2011 Saint Anne to Anse A L’Ane, Martinique
It was a dreadful rolly night, with no wind and the odd spots of drizzle. I seemed to spend most of the night either hanging onto the bed or getting up to close or open hatches.
I was worried about the weather in the morning and tried to pick up a forecast from the SSB radio. Unfortunately, I was getting terrible reception from all of the weather stations that I tried. The SSB antenna is the back stay and there is an antenna tuner which is supposed to maximise the reception and transmission of the SSB radio. I must talk to someone about how to check that it is working – the manual is confusing.
Then, in a blinding flash of inspiration, I remembered that my phone will connect to the Internet. I dug it out of the drawer and ten minutes later, I had the Caribbean Offshore weather forecast from the National Hurricane Centre in Florida. Job sorted.
We dithered about after breakfast and eventually decided to go to Anse A L’Ane which is opposite Fort De France. The wind was fairly light and we initially motored downwind, rolling our guts out. Eventually the wind picked up enough for us to sail and the boat settled down to a reasonable motion. We sailed close to Diamond Rock which is a very steep-to small island which in the 1800’s was a British Naval Base with cannons to keep the French at bay.
We arrived in Anse A L’Ane just after lunch. It’s a nice sleepy little bay. We anchored quite a long way from the beach and chilled out. Later in the afternoon, we went ashore to buy some bread. It didn’t take long to walk around the little holiday resort. Thirty 30 minutes later we were back in the boat – been there done that.
Glenys cooked some chicken in the oven and has been struggled with the efficiency of the thing. It doesn’t seem to get hot enough to cook properly and because it is so slow, the galley gets very hot. On our previous boat, we had a cheap Flavel Vanessa cooker which was designed for a caravan and it was very efficient. I need to sort out what is wrong with this oven because a new cooker will cost about $1,000US and we can’t guarantee that a new one will be as good as Glenys remembers her old one.
While she had the oven on, Glenys cooked a couple of pieces of the needle fish. The flesh tasted nice but as suspected, there are lots of sharp sturdy bones – I’ll make the rest into bait. No fishing tonight because we’re in a marine park. Our plan is to chill out tomorrow and catch a ferry to Fort de France to do some more shopping before returning to St Lucia on Tuesday.
15 May 2011 Anse A L’Ane, Martinique
Reasonable night – not a lot of wind and it kept raining, but at least we weren’t rolling. It was hot and humid and we were visited by at least one mosquito. My strategy of spraying myself with insect repellent is working – Glenys had four bites and I only had one…
We lurked around all day. Glenys played with her oven and we decided that the seal on the front door is no good – another job for me to sort out. I played with my laptop most of the day – creating eBook versions of the Alba Chronicles. Not easy, but a nice intellectual challenge.
We went snorkelling just off the Iles a Ramirs, which is part of the Marine Park and was very good. There was a surprising amount of fish life considering that this is a French island – they normally kill everything that swims. We spotted a nice Spiny Lobster that I would have grabbed if I’d only taken my snare.
A nice chilled out Sunday.
16 May 2011 Anse A L’Ane, Martinique
We had another night of light winds with drizzle, so we had to keep the hatches closed for most of the time - very hot and sweaty. I’ve come up with a cunning plan to have a big piece of Sunbrella (canvas) zipped onto the bimini at night that will cover the hatch into the aft cabin. It should allow us to keep the hatches open in the rain and as an added bonus will act as a big wind scoop directing air into the hatch - another job for Glenys.
I’m still doing exercises every morning and reached 60 press-ups today (3 * 20). I think that it’s making a difference to my beer belly. However, I’ve had to stop doing pull-ups because I’ve pulled a muscle in my left forearm.
We caught the ferry from Anse A L’Ane to Fort de France and wandered around the town. The first stop was the tourist office to get a street map - typical of the French, the tourist office is very difficult to find and the door is shut, so it looks closed. After we had our map, it only took ten minutes of walking around before it became apparent that Glenys wanted to go into clothes shops and I obviously didn’t, so we split up for a couple of hours - this is probably the longest we’ve been apart for the last six weeks.
I wandered aimlessly for an hour, before going to the chandlers and filling in the forms to clear out of Martinique tomorrow. I then went and sat in the park and read a book for half an hour. I met Glenys at midday who had only managed to buy one (lime green) dress. We went to KFC for lunch as most of the other places were doing “Plat de Jour” menus which we thought were too large.
We were back on the boat at two o’clock and went snorkelling by the Iles a Ramirs again. Glenys spotted another lobster, so I practised snaring it. I caught it on the third attempt, but it was only about 12 inches long (and we are in a marine park), so I let it go.
17 May 2011 Anse A L’Ane to Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was another hot night, so we got up early and started to get ready to go to St Lucia. We left at eight o’clock and motored down the west coast, starting to sail once we had cleared the lee of the island. There were some nasty looking squalls to windward, but the rain stayed over the land and only gave us some strong 20+ knot winds for 15 minutes or so.
The trip was varied with periods of very light winds and stronger when there were squalls close. Fortunately, we didn’t get rained on at all. I messed up the navigation a little bit, heading a bit too far upwind, but this gave us a very pleasant reach along the north west coast of St Lucia into Rodney Bay.
We anchored at four o’clock and dived overboard to cool down – I’d caught the sun because I’d spent at least 30 minutes re-rigging our fishing line in the beating sun.
It was a beautiful moonlit evening, very calm with twinkling reflections on the water from the hotels and the full moon.
18 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was a very pleasant night with wind coming down the hatch – I actually felt cold when I woke up. We went into the marina where I checked into customs, while Glenys took a huge bag of dirty washing to the laundry. Then we had the obligatory stroll around the chandlers, the hardware store and the supermarket. Glenys went to the bank and withdrew some money on a credit card – our debit cards have been blocked for some reason.
Back on the boat, we rang our bank and found out that they have blocked our Debit cards because we changed our bank account type. No, they can’t reactivate them, instead they arranged to send some new Debit cards to Gareth’s address and hopefully they will arrive in time for Mike to pick them up and bring them out to us.
I took the engine control panel off, to try to fix the hour meter on the tachometer. There are a lot of wires and I couldn’t see anything obvious. Now that we’ve got an Internet connection again, I “goggled” the problem and found out that it’s very common that the LCD display is intermittent – something to do with moisture – what a rubbish design. I fiddled about for three hours and couldn’t get it working.
I did some Internet research on arches for the stern – I found some photos of a nice looking one on a Hallberg Rassey 46, so I think that will be the basis for my design. I emailed the owner of the boat and asked a few questions about how it was made and fitted.
Later on in the afternoon, I went into the marina to pick up the laundry, but they were closed. So I went to the chandlers and, after a lot of prevaricating, bought a new trolling rod and reel. I also HAD to buy some fishing line, a few hooks, swivels and a nice little tackle box. So far “The Cruisers Handbook of Fishing” has cost us £320 in fishing gear…
19 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Another pleasant night, but it rained quite hard in the early morning. A check of the weather forecast showed that there is a Tropical Wave passing over us, heading west. In a gap between the showers, we went into pick up the laundry and I bought a rod holder for my new rod - make that £330 in fishing tackle.
I ran an electrical cable from the fuse box to the cockpit locker to power the dive compressor. This was only 10 metres of cable, but it took me three hours of cursing and sweating to get it in place. When Mike brings out the electrical bits, we’ll finally be able to get the compressor working.
Glenys bought some grommets from the hardware store, so was able to finish off the small side panels that fit to the bimini, which should help keep the cockpit dry when it rains.
I played about with my new fishing rod, loaded the line and made a bimini twist, which is a cool way of doubling the line at the end to strengthen it for all the huge fish that I’m going to catch.
I managed to get Skype set up and had a video call with my mum – she was very excited about it. The video quality is not very good because of the poor Internet connection we get, but it’s motivated me to set up more Skype “friends” – it’s free.
20 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We had an abrupt start to the day when I heard a humming sound as I got out of bed. A short investigation led me to the fresh water supply pump which was running continuously. That led me to the conclusion that we had no fresh water left in our tanks. So where had it gone? I checked the bilges – no water in there. I checked under the sinks for signs of a leak – none. I checked the connections in the lazarette for the shower at the back of the boat – not that. Then I found that the dodgy valve on the water-maker had been pushed past its 90 degree position and was therefore slightly open - I guessed that it had been dumping all of our fresh water slowly overboard for the last two days.
We ran the generator and water-maker for three hours to fill the water tanks again and then I changed the valve – I bought one five weeks ago back in Grenada, but I couldn’t motivate myself to change it before now. The fitting of the valve was OK, but I ended up with air in the water-maker system and it took me ages to get rid of the air.
I did a few more little jobs and started the design of the “Alba Arch” – a very complicated thing to draw.
We’re going to go to Soufriere tomorrow, so we went into the marina and paid for a “Permit to Moor” from the customs which allows us to moor outside a port of entry – very strange concept and very confusing.
After going to the supermarket, we called in on “Hurah”, a Hallberg Rassey 43, and chatted to David and Angie (Brits)
21 May 2011 Rodney Bay to Anse Cochon, St Lucia
We intermittently motored and sailed in the fluky winds down the west coast of St Lucia to the Pitons area. After refusing an offer from a rather aggressive boat boy to tie us up to a mooring for $20EC, we pickup up a mooring next to the ”Bat Caves” near the Hummingbird Restaurant. It was incredibly rolly with a swell coming all the way across the bay. The moorings are very close to the shore and it was very worrying to hear the waves crashing onto the rocks just behind us.
After lunch, I swam ashore with a rope on a fender and tied up to a tree to bring the bow into the swell. The motion was much better. We went for a snorkel, looked back at our pitching, rolling boat and the crashing waves and decided that we couldn’t stay there. All of the other mooring places in the Pitons area looked just as rolly, if not worse, so we motored back up the coast to Anse Cochon.
Anse Cochon is a lovely little bay with a small hotel and an idyllic beach with palm trees. All of the moorings had been taken so we anchored. We went snorkelling which was good, but unfortunately, I received a really bad sting on my left arm from a jelly fish – like an electric shock. I quickly swam back to the dinghy where we have a small bottle of vinegar to counteract the effects of the stinging cells, but unfortunately it was empty… The only thing to do was to pee in the bottle and pour that over my arm – not very pleasant but the urea in urine works just as well as vinegar.
We bought two snappers from a local fisherman for $30EC, which was probably overpriced, but they cleaned them for us and were very pleasant. So we had barbequed Snapper, couscous and plantains for dinner.
22 May 2011 Anse Cochon to Malgretout, St Lucia
I did my usual check on the engine before leaving Anse Cochon to go back to the Pitons. The sump beneath the engine had over 4 pints of water in it. I’ve been trying to track down why I get small amounts of water in the engine sump, but this amount was very excessive. I checked all of the hoses on the engine and couldn’t see anything. I ran the engine for half an hour – nothing. We motored for an hour down to the Pitons and I kept checking every ten minutes – nothing. It’s a total mystery.
I changed the lure on my new fishing rod and trolled a small bright squid, but no fish…
We picked up a mooring off Harmony Beach Restaurant, which is directly below the Petit Piton and went ashore. The owner of the restaurant is called Benny – he’s a really nice guy and very helpful. We asked about climbing the Pitons and it turns out that the Grand Piton (2619 ft) is a hike which spirals around the mountain, but has no view from the top because it’s all in trees. The Petit Piton (2460 ft) is steeper and has a great view from the top. We asked Benny to arrange a guide to take us up the Petit Piton tomorrow.
After lunch at the restaurant, we went snorkelling – it was pretty good straight off the boat, but we are still getting stings from tiny jellyfish. Three noisy, party catamarans arrived at two o’clock, anchored next to each other by the beach and played loud music. The noise of three different pieces of music blaring away at the same time was surreal. Fortunately, they only stayed for a couple of hours and peace returned to the isolated beach.
We dug out our walking shoes, water containers and packed our rucksacks before going to bed early in preparation for the hike up the Petit Piton tomorrow – I’m so excited…
23 May 2011 Malgretout, St Lucia
We landed on the beach at half past six and met our guide, Edgar, who didn’t look too pleased to be up this early – he told me later that he’d been having a little “smoke” and watching a movie until midnight.
Edgar led us up the road towards the Gros Piton for about ½ mile before stepping over a chain and across a piece of land with cars parked on it. Ten seconds later, the owner of the land appeared and started to shout at Edgar in Patois. They had a stand-off argument for about two minutes before there was a lot of shrugging and we carried on. It turned out that Jaih owns the land leading up to the path and normally the guides have to pay $20EC per person to get access. However, Jaih is Benny’s brother, so Edgar told him to sort it out with Benny. The problem is that Benny never pays Jaih …
The route up to the summit is brutal. It is a path of sorts, but it is more like a scramble (45 – 70 degree slope.) Glenys was really struggling with the heat and the steepness of it all. After an hour, I was avoiding eye contact with her because she looked like she was going to give up. Anyway, we managed to have frequent rest stops and she made it to the col which is about ¾ of the way up. The last bit is even steeper, with small sections of real scrambling on rock, but they’ve put ropes in the difficult places.
We made it to the top by quarter past nine and what a fantastic view it is. We had a quick bite to eat, took the summit shots and headed back down. The path is treacherous with lots of loose stones and dirt. About half way down, I slipped and crashed down onto a sharp rock, badly bruising my right thigh. That made it even more difficult as it hurt when I bent my right leg, which you do a lot when descending. We arrived back at the Restaurant at half past eleven. I was tired, but Glenys looked exhausted. She dumped her shoes and rucksack and staggered down to wade into the sea to cool down. We sat and chatted to Benny and Edgar for half an hour while having a cold coke and retired to our boat to collapse.
It was a very hot, sunny day with hardly a breath of wind and we tried to sleep in the cockpit, but it was hot even in the shade of our bimini. We tried jumping in the sea, but the current had brought lots of seaweed and jellyfish into the bay. The jellyfish seem to live under the seaweed – perhaps there are small fish lurking in the protection of the seaweed. I gave up swimming after being in the water for one minute before receiving a sting on my top lip.
We suffered until the early evening when the sun started to disappear and a light breeze struck up. I tried fishing on the seabed beneath the boat with two hooks baited with salted needle fish, but had no success. Frozen Flying Fish tortillas for dinner – I’m a failure as a fisherman.
24 May 2011 Malgretout to Anse Cochon, St Lucia
We dragged ourselves out of bed at seven o’clock, had breakfast and decided to move on somewhere. Before we left, I tried to catch some Rainbow Runners that were lurking around our boat. I tried an artificial worm lure which they swam straight at, but then veered off when they got close. An artificial, swimming fish lure had the same effect – they obviously have good eyesight, so I’m going to have to be more cunning.
We picked up a mooring at the Bat Caves again and had a snorkel, before going around to Anse Chastanet for lunch. The snorkelling there is very good. We then motored up to Anse Cochon and picked up a mooring. It was mayhem with three party catamarans, a dive boat and a couple of snorkelling boats in the bay. There were pirogues and power boats zipping past taking tourists back to their hotels and a cruise ship. However, by four o’clock they had all gone and peace returned to the lovely bay.
After motoring for three hours in the past three days, there is only a tiny bit of water in the engine sump – about an egg cup full. I suspect that this tiny bit is coming from the stern gland, which is not a problem. So where is the mystery water coming from?
We ran out of beer this evening – we need to go shopping now.
25 May 2011 Anse Cochon to Rodney Bay, St Lucia
Today was a day controlled by external influences. By half past nine, the boat boys were getting ready for the influx of party boats, then a dive boat arrived and picked up a small mooring 20 feet in front of us - we decided that it was time to go.
We motored around to Anse La Raye, to buy some food and beer. The Doyle Pilot Guide describes as a “picturesque fishing village” - it’s actually a very run down little town, with lots of stalls next to the bay selling t-shirts and tourist rubbish. There appears to be a constant stream of tour buses depositing the tourists on the street for a short wander around before whisking them off somewhere else. We were begged for money as soon as we stepped off the dock.
Twenty minutes later, we had seen enough, found the local “super market” – a very small shop with hardly anything, and discovered that there wasn’t any fish for sale apart from some small mackerel-type fish that looked very bony. Disappointed, we returned to the boat with a single packet of breakfast cereal and pulled up the anchor.
We decided to go back to Rodney Bay. On the way, we poked our nose into Marigot Bay and had a quick look. It hasn’t changed much, apart from the inner harbour which now is covered with moorings which apparently cost £30US per night. We motored out and ran away.
We picked up some wind outside Marigot, so we started to sail. For some reason I decided to look at the engine sump and to my great surprise, there was now five pints of water sloshing about. I’d checked it before we left Anse Cochon and there was only an egg cup full - we’d motored for less than two hours. The only thing that I can think of is that we’ve heeled over as we’ve been sailing – perhaps the water is coming from the sump under the generator when we heel over? I used a sponge to get the water out of the sump and we didn’t take on any more water all the way to Rodney Bay.
Just as I finished messing about in the engine, Glenys shouted that we’d got a fish. I scurried up on deck, gave a couple of big tugs on the rod to set the hook and asked Glenys to slow the boat down by heaving-to. I reeled the small barracuda in, gutted it and put it in the fridge ready for dinner. My new rod is no longer a virgin.
Sailing into Rodney Bay was like coming home – a huge anchorage with plenty of space and, best of all, a nice, cooling breeze. We went into the marina to buy some food and beer.
26 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
In the morning, I decided to inspect the generator to see if I could see any water leaks. I tightened various circlips on hoses and ran the generator for an hour, but couldn’t see any leaks or accumulated water.
At eleven o’clock, we caught a bus into Castries. It was hot and sweaty and our first mission was to find somewhere to eat. There are lots of KFC, Subway and Pizza places, but we struggled to find anywhere selling local food that wasn’t a real dive. There’s a small mall where the tourists from the cruise ships land and they had a restaurant but it was very clinical and expensive. We eventually found a small place called the “Balcony Restaurant” on the edge of the main square where we had a great meal for $18EC including a drink.
We wandered aimlessly about town, bought a few t-shirts and some bits and pieces from hardware stores, before heading back to the boat for a welcome swim. We spent the rest of the afternoon pottering about on the boat.
27 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was a hot, airless night. I was bitten by a mosquito several times on my lower legs, so I was stomping about at one o’clock, putting up mosquito netting, turning on the mosquito killers and rubbing antihistamine cream on my bites. I didn’t sleep well.
Glenys zipped off in the dinghy to go to the shopping mall, leaving me alone to potter about doing a few jobs. I moved our 45lb CQR anchor into the anchor locker and set it all up. I’m going to sell the 35lb CQR anchor and buy a lightweight Fortress anchor to use as a kedge. I inspected and had a play around with the spinnaker pole. I had another look at the engine compartment for water leaks – still nothing found.
In the afternoon, we motored over to Pigeon Island for a couple of nights for a change of scenery and to avoid the Friday and Saturday night “jump-ups” which are deafening over by the Yacht Club.
28 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It felt like a Sunday today, so I couldn’t motivate myself to do anything – we just lurked about until eleven o’clock and then went for a walk on Pigeon Island. This used to be a British Naval base with a fort to protect the British fleet in Rodney Bay. It is now a national park and the ruins of the buildings are being preserved. The grounds are beautifully manicured.
We walked up to the top of the hill – not as tough as the Petit Piton. The rest of the afternoon was spent reading and snorkelling.
29 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was really Sunday today and some friends, Mike & Rona, came to visit us for the day – they’re on holiday in an all-inclusive resort near Castries. They live near Gareth and have brought a few things over from the UK - my jigsaw, some electrical bits for the dive compressor and our mail.
We had a cracking sail down the west coast of St Lucia, had a stare at the Pitons and picked up a mooring in Anse Chastanet for lunch. They brought us a bottle of Champagne so we had that with lunch – very decadent. On the way back, we motored into Marigot Bay and then had a good sail back to Rodney Bay arriving just before six o’clock – a very nice day out.
30 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
We opened the mail which Mike had brought out and I decided that, while I have a good Internet connection, I should have an administration day. I spent all day slaving over a hot computer sorting out our investments so that they now will earn interest and income rather than grow in value. It’s quite bizarre having no monthly pay going into our bank account - we now have to make our savings last until we die.
Glenys pottered about reading the newspapers that Mike had left us and generally chilling out. We didn’t even put the dinghy in the water.
31 May 2011 Rodney Bay, St Lucia
It was pretty grotty first thing this morning, with heavy rain showers. We were going to sail down to Bequia tomorrow, but the forecast is for strong winds with showers, so we’re waiting another day and we’ll sail down on Thursday when it should be nice and sunny.
The weather brightened up as the morning progressed, so we decided to go out for a walk. As soon as we were ready to get into the dinghy, a dive boat approached us with Mike hanging off the front. After a brief chat with him, we agreed to meet them at one o’clock and go for a walk.
We had three hours to kill, so we decided to walk to Anse En Bas beach on the windward side of the island. It took us about an hour to get there. It’s quite a pretty place with dark sand. There were a lot of groups of horse riders on the beach – a popular tourist trip by the looks of it. We walked back to Rodney Bay with a slight detour into Gros Islet to have a look – a bit rough. There was just enough time for a quick lunch in a café in the marina before Mike and Rona turned up.
We took them back to the boat and motored to Pigeon Island, where we went to the National Park and walked up the peaks with them - a pleasant afternoon.