1 January 1994 Hog Island to Prickly Bay, Grenada
The start of another year. We motored around to Prickly Bay and anchored in three places before we managed to settle down. There were a lot of boats around. Gareth and Fi arrived late afternoon. Gareth cleared in and then zoomed across with a bottle of champagne before zooming back to deal with his charter guests. We had a quiet night.
2 January 1994 Prickly Bay
Gareth’s guests went at midday, so we had school in the morning and then went over for lunch which was really nice – so much to catch up on! We had a two hour siesta and then back to “Dabulamanzi” for dinner and a video.
3 January 1994 Prickly Bay
I spent the morning stripping the outboard down with zero success! I put the windsurfer up in the afternoon and we all went for a quick snorkel with Gareth. Gareth and Fi came for dinner.
4 January 1994 Prickly Bay
We went into St Georges, picked up some photos and did some shopping. The boys had lunch at Kentucky Fried Chicken. I rang a “Mariner” agent and ordered an outboard which should arrive tomorrow. Fi received the bad news that her sister Annabel is critically ill with malaria in a hospital in Kenya – sounds pretty serious.
5 January 1994 Prickly Bay
We spent the morning on the boat. I tried to plan our next six months, which is subject to whims and winds of course. The new outboard arrived today and it starts great. Glenys made a goat stew and we took it over to “Dabulamanzi”.
6 January 1994 Prickly Bay
We filled up with water then Glenys went into town. The outboard sounds a bit “lumpy”, so I rang the dealer who said that it is probably because they put more oil in the mixture than normal. Ceris arrived today and we all ate on “Dabulamanzi”.
7 January 1994 Prickly Bay to Tyrell Bay
Gareth and I arrived at customs at eight o’clock (opening time). The guy didn’t turn up until an hour later - island time! Gareth rang Kenya and it sounds like Annabel is recovering slowly. We motor-sailed up the coast of Grenada then tried to sail, but we could only point 40° below the rhumb line and wouldn’t have got to Tyrell Bay until after dark. I’m afraid that I cheated and motored. It would have been better to have followed Street’s Guide.
Tyrell Bay is a pleasant anchorage. We met our first “boat boys” trying to sell us oysters, wine, limes, lobster, t-shirts, etc. They were all fairly pleasant. I had a bit of trouble with two of them who kept trying to persuade me to give them my old outboard as a Christmas present.
8 January 1994 Tyrell Bay to Tobago Cays
What an exhausting day! We got up fairly early and went round to Sandy Island. This is a beautiful small island with palm trees and white beaches. Gareth, Glenys and I went snorkelling on the reef, which was the best I’ve seen (so far). Parrot fish, cuttle fish, trumpet fish, damsel fish, etc.
We then had a nice beat to Union Island where we cleared into St Vincent. This cost £7 for crew and £5 for overtime. I think that it’s always overtime in the islands! There are two pools at the Yacht Club, one with nurse sharks and one with lobsters. We then motored to the Tobago Cays, which on first impressions is crowded and windy. The 50 metre voyage to “Dabulamanzi” in the dinghy last night was very wet.
9 January 1994 Tobago Cays
Brett’s official birthday. We went to Jamesby Island with Brett and Craig, while Glenys prepared the party, complete with Birthday Cake. Brett struggled to blow the candles out because Craig kept blowing them out first in his excitement! Brett solved the problem by covering Craig’s mouth while blowing out the candles.
Gareth, Glenys and I went snorkelling on the other side of Horseshoe Reef via the small boat channel – absolutely superb, I’d love to dive here. We went back inside the reef and did some more snorkelling in shallow water. Gareth suggested that I dive down and look at a small bit of reef where an agressive little Damsel fish shot out and bit me on the arm - I’ll get him back!
We went to “Dabulamanzi” for dinner and had a second Christmas with presents and party games. Lobster for dinner – very nice. Craig stayed the night with Grandma – some party!
10 January 1994 Tobago Cays
Gareth and Fi left to pick up their next guests and Ceris moved on board Glencora. We re-anchored closer to another island. We did a bit of windsurfing, snorkelling, beach, etc. “Whisper” turned up. We had flying fish for dinner.
We’ve picked up a small plague of cockroaches somewhere. They’re small, fast little buggers. Glenys is on a mission to get rid of them - she doesn’t want her mum to know that we’re infested. It’s worst when you turn on the saloon light at night. They come out in the dark and when the light is switched on, they freeze for about a second and then scurry off - if you’re very fast you might squish one or two!
We’ve tried various poisons with little success - we’ve now bought some special cockroach traps, which are little cardboard tunnels with something nasty in them.
11 January 1994 Tobago Cays to Little Bay, Canouan
We had a nice but windy and wet sail up to Canouan. We went to a small beach and anchored off it in a surprisingly sheltered place. It took three attempts at anchoring until I was happy because the wind swung us all over the place and it was hard to judge our position relative to the three other boats.
After a quick swim and lunch we went to the beach (surprise!) and we spent a couple of hours snorkelling (well, I did anyway!) it was excellent. I saw the usual things plus a yellow trumpet fish, an eel that acted like an underwater snake, trigger fish, etc. I’m sure that all this wonder will wear off in a couple of months! Glenys rustled up a goat stew for dinner. Quite a lovely place.
12 January 1994 Canouan to Bequia
We had a hard bash to windward getting 30 knots across the deck at times. We motored into Admiralty Bay against 30 knots and anchored off the Frangipani Hotel. The place is incredibly crowded and a French boat zoomed up just as we were manoeuvring into position to anchor and dumped his anchor right next to us. I had to put out a second anchor to keep us away from him.
We went for a walk around Bequia – what a strange place. The pilot has a detailed street map and I expected the place to be quite big, but all the shops are very small wooden houses. Lots of locals hassling tourists and high tourist prices.
13 January 1994 Bequia
I went into town to get plywood for the dinghy floor. I tried to find out about getting a Dive Master Internship but the owners of both dive schools are in the States at some conference, so I guess I’ll write a letter.
I spent the afternoon cutting the dinghy floor. Glenys went into town with Ceris and Brett. We re-anchored first thing this morning and it took three attempts in strong gusts – Glenys was
getting rather fraught!
14 January 1994 Bequia
I started to varnish the dinghy floor – it’s a bit difficult because the wind keeps blowing them away so I can only varnish ¼ at a time. We filled up with fuel and water from an interesting floating fuelling station – a small catamaran “Daffodils Yacht Services”.
We went out for a meal at the Ginger Bread House, which was really good with great calypso music. I loved the song “Jamaica Farewell” - seems to epitomise the Caribbean.
15 January 1994 Bequia
Strong wind and rain squalls in the morning, so we decided to stay in Bequia. We did some jobs in the morning. In the afternoon Ceris, Glenys and Brett went for a walk while Craig and I stayed on the boat – I read my book and had a nap – wonderful.
16 January 1994 Bequia to Mustique
We had a windy and wet sail to Mustique. Picked up a mooring and went swimming off the boat. Craig had a break-through with his swimming and spent ½ hour jumping in and swimming about without his armbands! Mustique looks lovely. We had a quick walk around, paid £9 for beers and cokes in the only bar and back to the boat for dinner. I inspected the mooring chain which had links worn down to 1/8”, so I attached a spare line to the base.
17 January 1994 Mustique
What a rolly night. Brett woke up in the middle of the night with a nose bleed which took ½ hour to sort out. I took Ceris ashore at half past eight – she couldn’t wait to get off because of the rolling. We did school work and a few jobs and then went to the beach. The snorkelling off the beach wasn’t too good as the water had a lot of silt in it.
Glenys and I went for a walk when Ceris came back. Mustique is definitely a place for the wealthy. We walked for a mile through mowed grasslands resembling a golf course, a very pretty little whitewashed school house, etc. Another rolly night ahead.
18 January 1994 Mustique to Canouan
I got up early and went for a swim. I had to take off the extra mooring line that I put on base of the mooring. I took the opportunity of snorkelling around the boat which was pretty good.
We sailed to north of Canouan and then motored when the wind dropped to 10-15 knots. We had a quick look at South Glossy Bay, Canouan – very nice beach, but it looked very rolly. We went into Salt Whistle Bay which is crowded, but a beautiful anchorage.
Ceris, Glenys and the boys went to the beach after lunch and I finished off the dinghy floor boards. The plywood that I bought is only ¼” thick and it should be 3/8” and it’s definitely too thin – it will probably only last a month or two!
19 January 1994 Canouan
We all went to the beach in Salt Whistle Bay. Glenys and Ceris went for a walk up to the village leaving the boys and me to play in the surf with their dinghy (well, they did – I read my book.)Glenys came back leaving Ceris to walk over to Saline Bay.
We motored around to Saline Bay - it looks rolly to me (again!). Brett and I went for a snorkel off Grand Col Point which was good but only 5 metres visibility and a strong current. We met Ceris on the beach and Glenys and I walked up to the top of the hill. We went to Dennis’ Hideaway for dinner, which was very good, but expensive. Dennis knows Gareth and Fi very well and we met another couple on “Hedonis” who are chartering their boat and also know Gareth and Fi.
20 January 1994 Canuoan to Tobago Cays
We motored over to Clifton Harbour. Glenys and I went into town and did some shopping. Glenys went berserk buying frozen meat because we didn’t have any fresh food left. We then motored over to the Tobago Cays because I heard Fi on the SSB saying that they were going there. We found them anchored on the north side of Baradal. We went snorkelling with Gareth and his guests and then we moved to a more sheltered spot near Jamesby. Gareth and Fi went to Mayreau.
We are undergoing a crisis with our anchoring. Over the last week we have had a few disasters. We drop the anchor, but keep ending up too close to other boats, by the time we’ve re-anchored a couple of times, Glenys and I are snapping at each other. Glenys is losing confidence in her close quarter boat handling. This evening was the final straw – we had acres and acres of water to anchor in, but ended up about 20m away from another boat. We moved – very uncool!
21 January 1994 Tobago Cays to Petite St Vincent
We are getting up later and later each morning. I went to bed at 2045 and got up at 0900! Something is making me tired – sun, air, swimming, zooming about, rum punches? By the time we had finished breakfast it was time to go to Petite St Vincent (known as PSV). We had a nice sail to Mopion and tried to anchor off the tiny island. Unfortunately, the bottom is broken coral and I couldn’t get the anchor to hold. (Gareth says he can’t either, so he just puts out loads of chain and watches the boat).
We decided to carry on to PSV which is really nice. We went to the beach for a couple of hours and then went for an evening drink with Gareth and his guests. We met Dave and Judy on “Metani” an Aussie family with three children. They loaned their boat to Gareth and Fi to do a charter while “Dabulamanzi” was having new decks put on.
22 January 1994 Petite St Vincent
We were woken up last night by howling wind and two French charter boats motoring around anchoring. God knows what they were doing – it certainly disturbed our sleep. I bought a tin of white paint in Union a couple of days ago. I got it out to paint marks on the anchor chain and it’s light blue!
I went windsurfing in a rain squall – outrageous! The others had a beach day and then went to Dave and Judy’s for a beer. We met Chris on “Meniscus” (UK) on the beach.
23 January 1994 Petite St Vincent to Union Island
We sailed to Palm Island, another beautiful (yawn!) island. We sat on the beach and played in the sea. After lunch, we sailed over to Clifton, Union to meet Gareth. We went once around “Roundabout Reef” looking for a place to anchor. There was a nice spot on the outside reef, but we decided against it because we thought that Gareth would anchor nearer to town. We anchored off the Yacht Club and then Gareth came in and anchored on the outside reef! Gareth and Fi came to dinner.
24 January 1994 Union Island
Glenys and I went into town (I took the blue paint back!) We all then went to the small island in Clifton Harbour (Green Island) but there was nothing there except a “fisherman” who wanted £1 “because I keep the island clean”. He was living there in a hut.
We went to Gareth’s boat for lunch. I went and cleared out and then got the boat ready to leave. We all went out for a meal at the Anchorage Yacht Club with steel band.
25 January 1994 Union Island to Prickly Bay, Genada
Nice downwind sail back to Prickly Bay. It was a bit of a shock to our systems, getting up at six in the morning, especially since we went to bed at midnight last night. I cleared in at Prickly Bay and we decided to relax for the rest of the afternoon - then we ran out of water. We had two hours of frantic activity, making sure that we could get water, going bows-to, re-anchoring and tidying up. We had a quiet evening!
26 January 1994 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We caught the bus into St Georges and saw the sights. I spent £60 on photos and an album (groan!) – I’m going to stop taking pictures of beautiful beaches and anchorages. Brett, Craig and I went up to St Georges Fort, which is interesting and has a fabulous view. We had lunch at the Nutmeg restaurant which was very good. We had a quiet evening after Glenys, Ceris and Brett went for a “sundowner” at the Calabash Hotel.
27 January 1994 Prickly Bay
I rang the two dive schools in Bequia about doing a Divemaster course. “Sunsports” sounds 50:50 based on his assessment of me on a couple of dives. “Dive Bequia” doesn’t need any more help. I don’t think we’ll rush up there, just yet. We all went for a walk round to Secret Harbour and had lunch there. Ceris left at four o’clock in the afternoon and we went back to the boat to collapse. It was nice to have her here, but wearing for the last few days.
28 January 1994 Prickly Bay to Hog Island
I waited all morning for a guy from Anro Services Ltd to come and get both outboards. He hadn’t arrived by noon, so I left the old outboard in the Customs Office for them and we went round to Hog Island. The boys and I went for a walk on the island and then we had flying fish, chips and mushy peas for dinner.
Glenys met Derek and Jill and brother Doug on “Ginseng” who are some friends of Gareth and Fi and are bringing some cases of beer up from Trinidad for him. We think some are for us! Brett and I saw a stingray near the beach.
29 January 1994 Hog island
School work and tidying up. Brett and Craig went to the beach and spent all afternoon there by themselves playing with Kim and Joel. These Dutch children have been on Hog Island for 18 months and go to the local school (parents are Andy and Marilyn on “Ootek”). Grandma would have a heart attack if she saw Brett playing with a camp fire.
Glenys and I went for a snorkel on the reef which has lots of fish but the water is murky. We got four cases of beer from “Ginseng” and they came for a drink in the evening.
30 January 1994 Hog Island
Glenys listened to the local radio net on Ch72 at eight o’clock in the morning. She heard a charter boat saying that they wanted to give away all the food that they have left. She shot over and must have got £50 worth of food and drink! We went to the beach for a Sunday afternoon barbeque. I started clarinet lessons in earnest - “A Tune a Day”
31 January 1994 Hog Island
Glenys went into St Georges, while Brett and I nearly came to blows over his school work. He keeps saying “I hate writing; I’m not going to do it!”
I did some windsurfing – very gusty conditions. I went round to Secret Harbour in the dinghy – it’s great having a reliable outboard. Brett and Craig went to the beach to play with Kim and Joel – they love running wild. I rang Ceris who told me that she had rung John Day and asked him to sort out my computer!