6 April 2011 London to Prickly Bay, Grenada
I woke up at six o'clock and it slowly dawned on me that I was in a hotel near Gatwick about to fly out to Grenada to start a new life on a yacht – blimey!
Glenys and I had a quick breakfast and lugged our six heavy bags onto a bus to the airport. We arrived at the check in desk at quarter to eight and joined the back of the long snaking queue. No worries, our flight didn't leave until half past nine so we had loads of time. Then we saw the check-in people were weighing the hand luggage - we were only allowed 5 kg for each bag, so we had ten minutes of panicking while we got out of the queue, commandeered an unused weigh machine and had to repack our bags - very embarrassing.
The flight was a typical steerage flight – babies crying, people pushing past and a little girl behind me kicking the seat as she moved about. However, the worst part was sitting next to a huge lady who overflowed across the arm rest between us so much that I had to lean to the left to avoid her. I eventually found that I could slide my arms onto the armrest behind her if I reclined my seat - the lady was so rotund that her shoulders couldn't touch the seat back. She was dressed completely in black and even had black fingernail polish which I though was a little odd. After a short while, she leaned towards me and told me that she had just lost her husband and was going to Trinidad to bury him - that put a stop to any further conversation!
We arrived at Pointe Saline airport at quarter past two in the afternoon with a temperature of 29 degrees, blue skies and fluffy white clouds – perfect trade wind weather. A taxi was waiting for us and took us to the apartments on the beach in Prickly Bay which were nice. I immediately dug out my binoculars and could see Alba at anchor - very exciting. By three o'clock we’d rung Sergio and arranged for him to pick us up at half past five. Rather than hanging about for two hours, we decided to go for a walk to the Prickly Bay Marina to buy some food for breakfast and a peaked cap for me - I’d had a senior moment and packed all of my peaked caps into one of the three crates that are being shipped out on a “banana” boat arriving Monday.
When we were last here fifteen years ago, Prickly Bay Marina was a pretty little marina with a small chandlers and a small haul out area. The marina pontoons are still there, but the boat yard is now a rough looking restaurant and they've built some $1 million apartments hoping to attract rich yacht owners. It doesn't look like it has worked – I believe that most of the apartments are empty. There’s an “essentials” store at the marina that hasn't changed in the past 15 years. It’s a small shop with a few runs of shelves, is incredibly dingy and (errr…) they only have essentials. We bought a few bread rolls, cheese, fruit juice and four cans of Carib beer, but no peaked cap.
While Glenys was browsing the vast array of goods on sale, I had a quick look at a map in the Doyle pilot book for Grenada to get my bearings. I decided that we should go for a longer walk and went to check out the local restaurants at the Calabash Hotel and the Red Crab just up the road. I then dragged Glenys through the lanes and up a steep hill to Spice Island Marine about ½ mile away to continue my search for a peaked cap.
Spice Island Marine used to be a tiny little marina for small local boats, but now it’s a thriving boat yard catering for foreign yachties - a vast change compared to Prickly Bay Marina. They have a huge area for hauled out boats and a yachtie bar. There’s also an excellent chandlers, but the only peaked cap was a $25US Gill technical hat – I don’t think so…
We were very hot and sweaty by the time that we had walked back, so we had a quick beer and a shower and went to meet Sergio.
I could hardly contain my excitement as we zipped out to Alba in the RIB dinghy. She looked just as I had imagined – in fantastic condition both outside and inside. Sergio immediately wanted to show us the equipment on the boat, but I persuaded him to get out some beer and we could just have a quick look about. We chatted for about an hour and arranged to meet him for a pizza at Prickly Bay Marina at seven o’clock, which was surprisingly good.
We went to bed excited.
7 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
I woke up at two o’clock to the sound of very heavy rain thundering onto the corrugated iron roof of the apartment. The old yachtie in me awoke and I “just” had to get up and have a look at the weather. It was lashing down with gusts of wind as the squall went through. I lay there worrying about being at anchor in these conditions.
Sergio picked up us at the dinghy dock at Prickly Bay Marina at half past eight and then went to get Neil from “Lucy Ellen.” Neil and Josie sailed their Westerly across the Atlantic seven years ago and have been coming out to the West Indies for five months every year since then, which is very similar to what Sergio has been doing with Alba. Neil came out for a sail with us to steer while Sergio showed us the “ropes.”
We upped anchor and set off motoring east towards St Georges. It was all very familiar and the boat has a nice motion going downwind. The wind was from the North - a very strange direction so we ended up beating upwind once we had rounded Pointe Saline. Even though the main sail has roller reefing, all of the controls are on the mast on the port side which is OK – keeps all of the nasty ropes out of the cockpit.
The frame from the bimini interferes with the primary winches for the jib, so it is impossible to get a full rotation on the winch handle – instead you have to wind back and forwards which is incredibly inefficient – so Job No.1 will be to change the bimini frame. There are no safety lines on the deck and it is a bit exposed by the mast especially because there are no “granny rails”, so Job No.2 is to fit some safety lines.
There were some nasty looking squalls coming, so I decided to abandon the trip to St Georges and go back. By this time, the wind had come around to the East and we ended up beating back towards Pigeon Island before having to turn on the engine. The jib roller reefing jammed when pulling it back in, so Neil had to go up front to sort it out – not a problem (I hope) I think that Sergio just let it out too fast and got a riding turn. Meanwhile, I rolled in the main sail which seemed easy enough, but I had to use both hands to do it which goes against the old adage “one hand for the boat” – I’ll have to sort out a secure way of clipping myself to the mast for heavy weather. We just managed to motor into Prickly Bay and get the anchor down before the first rain squall hit us.
We spent the rest of the day going through the equipment on the boat – generator, water maker, navigation instruments, chart plotter program on the laptop, batteries, location of the spares and tools (spread randomly around the boat), etc, etc.
By four o’clock, I’d had enough information and thought that the boat was great, so I asked Sergio to drop us off at the marina. We arranged to meet him at half past six for dinner, after which, I would go onto the boat for the night and Glenys would go back to the apartment.
We had a cunning plan for the transfer of the money. We had already transferred the money to Glenys’s brother (Gareth). The plan was for me to stay on the boat overnight and ring Gareth at 0300 (0800 UK time) and tell him to transfer the money into Sergio’s bank account. Gareth would then do a CHAPS transfer and ring Sergio’s wife (Rita) and tell her that the money had been transferred. At this point, Sergio and I would be joined at the hip - he wouldn’t give me the documents until he had the money and I wouldn’t leave the boat until he had given me the documents. The nightmare scenario was that I slept in the apartment with Glenys, started the transfer and, in the morning, woke up to find the boat was gone – hence me staying on the boat.
When I got back to the apartment, I decided to call Gareth (2200hrs UK time) and instruct him to do the transfer in the morning. I just wanted to make sure that we didn’t have any communication problems in the middle of the night - we are still using a UK pay-as-you-go SIM card in our phones which cost about £1 per minute.
We had a few beers and a chicken roti at the bar and I was in bed on Alba by nine o’clock.
8 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
It all happened pretty smoothly. I was woken up at half past three by Glenys ringing and telling me that Gareth had rung her because he had transferred the money, but couldn’t get hold of Rita or Sergio. I woke Sergio up and he called Rita. Thirty minutes later, Rita confirmed that she had received the money. We didn’t bother to transfer the documents until after breakfast at half past six - I hadn’t slept much.
I went and picked Glenys up at eight o’clock in OUR dinghy and brought her to OUR new boat. We spent a few hours reviewing some of the more complicated equipment with Sergio and then went to customs to sort out the change of skipper and crew. I thought that the customs would want us to fill in new clearance forms and pay for a cruising permit, but they only want to see us again when we clear out. They wanted a letter from the marina stating the dates that the boat was on the hard, which Sergio sorted out pretty quickly. I just hope that this doesn’t cause us any problems when we clear in our crates next week.
By eleven o’clock, we had sorted everything out, so I dropped Sergio off at Spice island Marine and returned to Alba. We had a ten minute breather and then went in the dinghy to the beach outside our apartment to pick up our bags and check out. We spent about two hours unpacking our bags and trying to find a place for everything. Most of the clothes disappeared into lockers in the aft cabin, but the berth in the front cabin ended up piled with other stuff.
Neil & Josie came over in the afternoon (while we were trying to have a nap) to congratulate us on buying the boat. We had a cup of tea and I sold Neil the air conditioning unit that Sergio had been using when on the hard. We have no intention of spending much time on the hard and it is taking up valuable space in the cockpit locker, which is where I want to put my new diving air compressor which is hopefully arriving on the banana boat on Monday.
We went for happy hour and had another pizza with Neil & Josie – we were in bed at nine o’clock – knackered.
9 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We were up at half past six again and decided to go into St Georges to get some food. We went over to Spice Island Marine, parked the dinghy and walked towards the roundabout on the main road. We had only gone about 100 yards before we heard the sound of a car horn. A quick wave of the hand and a mini bus screeched to a halt to take us into town.
The local minibuses are great. They come along every minute or so and only cost $2.50 EC (£0.60) for the fifteen minute trip into St Georges. The drivers are obviously the cool dudes and each mini bus has a “conductor” who takes the money but is also constantly on the lookout for people walking up side streets towards the main road. There’s lots of waving and shouting to make sure that they don’t drive past a customer. Loud reggae music blares away all the time and the driver goes a fast as he can. They jam as many people in as they can, so with the heat, it is an interesting journey.
We went into the centre of St Georges and first into Digicell to get a local mobile SIM card. This was very painless and we were sorted out within ten minutes. We went to the central market which is as chaotic as it was 15 years ago. Glenys bought a few spices and vegetables and we drank fresh coconut water from a coconut hacked open with a machete.
We walked down to the Carenage to look for the Geest-line shipping agent and eventually found it behind the Nutmeg after wandering around for an hour. We then went to Food Fair which is next to the Nutmeg restaurant and did a “big food shop”, getting a taxi back to Spice Island Marine.
The afternoon was spent trying to decide where to put stuff. We had our first meal on board – sail fish steaks and a bottle of red wine – yummy.
10 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We got up late at quarter past eight and then spent most of the day looking in lockers, under the floorboards and trying to work out where to put stuff.
It was a really nice day and not too hot, so we lounged about on deck in the afternoon doing a bit of sunbathing and reading.
We’ve decided to use the freezer as storage for cold drinks – if we set the thermostat to 4 degrees, it will keep our beer nicely chilled. It’s a large space – a case of 24 cans of beer, six bottles of coke, 4 litres of orange juice and 4 * 1½ litre bottles of water only half fill it. We obviously just need to buy more beer.
11 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We got up early this morning and went into St Georges to get the crates that we had shipped out from Portsmouth on Geest-line.
The mini-bus dropped us off at the Nutmeg and we went straight to the Shipping Agents office. It took about ten minutes for them to fill in a form and stamp it. They then told us to go to the Port on the other side of the Carenage.
It took us a little while to find the entrance to the port, but it was pretty obvious when we found it – there we loads of people milling about and lots of small pickup trucks waiting across the road.
The first thing that we had to do was to pay $1 EC each to be allowed into the port. The security guard took our passports from us and issued us with a pass card. By this time, a local guy had latched onto us and explained that he would help us to find and sort out our stuff. I wasn’t too sure about this but went along with the flow. Our helper took us across the port into a huge warehouse where there were lots of people milling about between piles of crates and pallets. He immediately started to search among the various piles of crates, pallets and drums looking for our stuff.
We eventually found the compressor crate and the pallet with our “personal effects” crates, so our helper went and commandeered a pallet truck to move everything closer to the customs office. This achieved, he produced a screwdriver and pliers and opened the tops of the four crates. Another guy latched onto us and told us that he could arrange transport for us. He gave me a price of $150 EC (£37), which seemed a bit excessive (a taxi would cost $50EC), but it didn’t seem worth the hassle haggling over £10. I just wanted to get my stuff out of this noisy hot warehouse and onto the boat.
A customs guy appeared and wanted to see invoices for the goods. I explained that three crates were second hand personal effects and one crate was a new diving air compressor – all for a “Yacht In Transit”. I gave him a list of the items in the personal effects crates. He looked through the list and wanted to see the video camera, which I dug out and showed him that it was a seven year old camera and not worth anything. I was keen to make him understand that our personal effects weren’t worth anything because we would have to pay import duty on them.
The customs officer wandered off and came back with another guy who was introduced as a shipping agent who we would need to use to get the goods cleared for a Yacht In Transit. The customs guy wandered off while the Shipping Agent explained that we needed to sort out more paperwork, but that it would be worth it as we would only pay 2.5% duty instead of 40%. The shipping agent filled in some more forms using a barrel as his desk. He then told us that we would have to go back to the customs office at Prickly Bay with our paperwork and get him to sign another form proving that we were a bone-fide “Yacht in Transit.”
We made sure that our crates were closed again and caught a minibus back to Spice Island Marine. We jumped into the dinghy and zipped across the anchorage to Prickly Bay Marina to the customs office. The customs officer is a surly, old chap and wanted to see our clearance papers and cruising permit. With my heart in my mouth, I went through the explanation that we were new crew and owners. To my great surprise, he signed the relevant form and told us that we would sort the crew list when we cleared out.
We left the dinghy at Prickly Bay Marina and walked towards town. It took about five minutes before we were picked up by a mini-bus. We went to the St Georges customs office next to the Port and presented the various forms. The Customs officer checked everything and agreed the valuation and duty rates put on the form by the Shipping Agent – Personal Effects: $250 EC * 5% = $12.50EC, Compressor: $9,455 EC * 2.5% = $236.00 EC. Grand Total: $248.50 EC (£75). We happily paid the money and went back to the port warehouse with our many stamped forms.
The Shipping Agent took our forms and sorted out the final piece of paperwork that gave us permission to remove our goods from the port. Our pickup driver had spotted us by this time and ten minutes later our crates were loaded onto the pickup. We paid the Shipping Agent $100 EC, the helper $20 EC and climbed into the pickup truck.
We arrived at Prickly Bay Marina at about one o’clock, which meant that it had only taken us 4½ hours to do the whole process which wasn’t bad. We now just had the major problem of getting the four huge crates onto the boat in a rolly anchorage. I went to the marina office and obtained permission to come alongside the fuel dock. The pick-up driver earned his money by helping me carry the four crates to the dockside.
Now came more trauma – we actually had to move the boat for the first time. We jumped in the dinghy and back to Alba to contemplate our fate. Glenys made a sandwich while I put the fenders down and sorted out the warps to go alongside. After quickly eating the sandwich, I turned the engine on, which ran for about 20 seconds and then switched off. Don’t panic…. After about two minutes and five attempts, the engine finally started and kept running. (Perhaps a bit of air in the system?)
We raised the anchor and went alongside the fuel dock without any drama – the boat handles nicely under power. We struggled with tying the warps as there is no cleat on the dock for the bow warp, but soon sorted ourselves out. We opened the personal effects crates and lifted half of the contents out into the cockpit before lifting the half empty crates onto the front deck. A local guy helped me lift the big compressor crate onto the side deck and then we went back to the anchorage. I had no problems using the windlass to anchor and we gratefully dived over the side to cool down.
We spent the rest of the afternoon getting the rest of our things out of the crates and finding a place for it all. I took the life raft out of the cockpit locker and placed it in front of the cockpit on the deck - another job to lash it in place on the deck. Now I had enough space to try to get the diving air compressor into the cockpit locker, fortunately it just fits in, so I pushed it to the back to wait for some time to wire it all in (another job…)
We had dinner on board and went to bed with piles of stuff all over the front cabin and saloon.
12 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
We woke up to a miserable overcast day and rain. We spent the morning trying to decide where to put everything. Surprisingly, we managed to hide most of the things away.
In the afternoon, we walked to Ace Hardware and bought a pan and a few bits for the galley. We spent the rest of the day tidying up, had an early dinner and collapsed into bed.
13 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
Another overcast, rainy day. We just pottered about the boat in the morning. Glenys sorted through the courtesy flags and I cut the crates up into smaller pieces. I’m sure that the inventory of the boat included a jig saw but I couldn’t find it. I ended up borrowing one from Neil. It’s very annoying knowing that I’ve got two good jigsaws back in the UK. I’m guessing that this won’t be the last time that I will want to use a particular tool that I’ve left behind.
Having cut up the crates, the next problem was where to dispose of the rubbish. I took some across to Prickly Bay Marina but they have a sign stating that it costs $2EC for a small bag and $4EC for a large bag of rubbish. I'm not going to pay that when I know that I can put my rubbish in the skip at Spice Island Marine, so I just dumped half of my load (the bits without my name on it…)
After lunch, we went to Spice Island Marine and dumped a load of crate and other rubbish before visiting the chandlers. I bought a fitting for my wireless network antenna and 150 feet of 1/8” braided line to use as a fishing line.
I spent the rest of the afternoon fitting the antenna to the pushpit and trying to feed the cable through the lazarette into the aft cabin. It took me about 2 hours to do this simple job – routing the cable was a nightmare because I had to crawl into the lazarette which is about the size of a coffin.
We went to Prickly Bay marina for happy hour and had a pizza for dinner.
14 April 2011 Prickly Bay, Grenada
Horrible rolly night – the winds were light and the swell was rolling in from the south east. At least it wasn’t raining. We went over to Spice Island Marine and dropped off the remaining wood and packing from the crates. Our plan is to leave for the Grenadines tomorrow, so we caught a mini bus to Spiceland Mall to buy food and other essentials.
Spiceland Mall is very posh – it’s just off Grand Anse Beach and has lots of little boutiques, a hardware store and a supermarket. We bought two new pillows because the ones on the boat are very thin and I’m convinced that the pillows are giving me a sore neck. I bought some silicone sealant and a ½ ball valve for the watermaker. I’d had a bit of a scare yesterday when one of the ball valves on the water-maker turned past its 90 degree stop – I thought that I’d broken it.
We spent an hour in the supermarket buying heavy stuff and luxury items like Colman’s English Mustard and Heinz Ketchup. The supermarket has lots of imported goods, but the fruit & vegetable selection is rubbish – most of it is imported chilled food that won’t last very long. We’ll buy more fruit & veg further up the islands maybe in Union.
We were back on the boat in time for lunch, after which, we chilled out reading the pilot book for the Grenadines and dozing. Later in the afternoon, we put on the generator so that Glenys could use her sewing machine and make a fitted sheet for my bed – I’ve been sleeping in a duvet cover which gets rucked up and creased underneath me every night.
I spent the afternoon finishing off the installation of the wireless network antenna. I had to solder a new USB plug onto the end of the wire which was incredibly fiddly because I was only able to pull about 6 inches of cable outside the locker above Glenys’s bed. This meant that Glenys had to hold the plug and cable in her hand while I soldered the tiny wires in place. The boat was still rolling 10 degrees or more so it was a mission – I only burnt Glenys once. The remainder of the job was simply running the cable through four cupboards and using cable ties to hold it in place but it took about 2½ hours altogether. I now have a working wireless network antenna with the USB plug at the chart table.
We had a quiet dinner on board and went to bed at nine o’clock.
15 April 2011 Prickly Bay to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
I got up at quarter to seven and did some stretching exercises. I’ve decided that I need to do some basic exercises every morning –“Greeting of the Sun”, sit ups, press ups, the plank, etc. My neck is a bit better this morning – was it the new pillow or am I getting used to living on a rolling boat?
Just after eight o’clock, we went over to Prickly Bay Marina to check out of customs and get our laundry - both were shut. To kill time, we went to say goodbye to Neil and Josie who were still in bed. We then went back to our boat and Glenys made a soothing cup of tea. At quarter to nine, I cracked up and decided to go and sit at customs with a newspaper and wait for them. The customs people turned up just as I arrived.
The grumpy old customs guy gave me the check-out form to fill in and I paid $75EC for a cruising permit. Then he just put the papers on his desk and moved onto someone else. I stood there like a lemon. Eventually another customs lady took pity on me and said that the immigration guy would be here soon. I waited.
A German guy filled in his customs forms and, after waiting for 20 minutes, lost the plot and started ranting. “I don’t give a shit about immigration! I want my clearing in papers!” I thought that this was a bit unfair on the customs people, but surprisingly they handed over the papers and the German stomped off. I went to get the laundry – I wanted my papers to be perfect.
The immigration guy turned up at ten o'clock. No apology, he just told me to wait when I walked into the office. I just sat down in front of his desk and waited patiently. Ten minutes later I was done and went back to Alba. Glenys had been worrying that there was a problem – no problem, just island time.
We lifted the outboard from the dinghy and quickly got ready to go. I turned the engine on, which like a couple of days ago, ran for about 20 seconds and then switched off. I went and stared at the engine – it must be either water in the diesel or more likely air in the system. I remember Sergio talking about an extra diesel “lift” pump, so I turned that on and the engine started. I’m not sure whether that made any difference, but I obviously need to have a few hours looking at the engine.
We finally left Prickly Bay at half past ten. We motored around Pointe Saline and then put up the sails. That all seemed to go great and we had a pleasant hour’s sail past St George. As we approached Moulinere Point, the wind dropped (because we were in the lee of the island) and we had to put the engine on again. We motor sailed all the way up the west coast of the island.
Before we arrived at the north end of the island, I rolled away the jib in case the wind was strong, but it was quite light and straight on the nose, so we motored all the way to Iles de Ronde and then onto Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.
When we were last here, Tyrell Bay was a quiet little back water with maybe six yachts at anchor. Now it is a bustling place with a boat yard and about 50 yachts lying at anchor – quite a lot of which look like they are permanently here. We managed to anchor in a smallish gap without any problems. This was our first attempt at anchoring Alba in a crowded place, so I was quite pleased.
I dug out my snorkelling gear and had a look at the anchor – well dug in to the sand. While I had my mask on, I had a look at the bottom of the boat. We never had the boat surveyed and there was a niggling thought that the hull might have osmosis, which is blistering of the fibreglass and can caused the hull to delaminate in extreme cases. Thankfully, the hull looks pretty clear although there are some bubbles in the antifoul paint where it looks like the previous antifouling wasn’t prepared properly. There’s also one 3 inch long gouge which looks like it was done when the boat was lifted back into the water because there’s no antifoul paint on it.
Over dinner, Glenys mentioned that she had read an article on Cuba in a newspaper. Apparently President Obama is expected to lift the travel ban on US citizens visiting Cuba. This is likely to set off a surge of American yachts visiting Cuba – there are estimated to be 600,000 boats in Florida capable of making the 80 mile trip to Cuba. We were planning to visit Cuba in about two or three years’ time, but we might bring that forward and go there this coming December before the American “invasion”.
16 April 2011 Tyrell Bay to Saline Bay, Mayreau
There was only about 5 knots of wind in the morning, so after breakfast, we motored out of Tyrell Bay towards Clifton on Union Island. We went past Sandy Island which is a tiny strip of sand – it used to have large coconut palms but they were wiped out in a hurricane a few years ago. The locals have planted more trees and it will soon be the idyllic desert island that it once was. There are lots of moorings now in the anchorage and I think that it is compulsory to use them.
We tried to sail for about fifteen minutes, but there wasn’t enough to do any more than two or three knots, so we motored all the way to Clifton. We anchored on the outer part of the bay in beautiful turquoise waters over white sand – it is a lovely anchorage.
The main street of Clifton was fairly quiet with a few vegetable stalls open in the little market square. We were having trouble finding the customs to clear in to St Vincent, so we asked a taxi driver who told us that it was probably shut and that we should go to the airport. It’s only a ten minute walk to the airport and the checking in process was simple -we had to pay $71EC for a one month cruising permit.
We walked back down towards town and went into a small supermarket opposite a marquee where some Baptists were holding some kind of rally. A tannoy system was blaring away with righteous statements from the various speakers. “And the Lord Jesus says….” “You will repent…” While Glenys was checking out the supermarket shelves, I asked the lady how long the rally was going on for. “Another week”, she said wearily. We bought a case of beer.
Back on the boat, we had lunch and went to look at the anchorage at Frigate Island. There was only one boat in there, but there was a swell was coming in from the south-west, so we decided to go over to Mayreau. Still not much wind, so we motored all the way.
We anchored in Saline Bay near four other boats. A cruise ship was anchored off the beach and the beach had been taken over with tourists. We tried a couple of places to snorkel, but the water was very murky and there was a strong current on the north headland. At about four o’clock, just as the cruise ship was about to leave, very loud music started to blare out from somewhere on the island – it was very irritating. I went down below and did some work on my laptop while Glenys tried to read. A chap off another boat said that they thought that it was a wedding, so we expected it to go on all night. It was too late to move, so we would just have to grin and bear it. Thankfully it stopped at seven o’clock.
I’ve not had Internet access for about a week now and I’m starting to get a bit nervous. No one has rung us, so there can’t be any major crises, but it is unsettling. I probably won’t be able to get any access until we get to Bequia in another week. I wish that I had paid $10US to connect while we were in Clifton, but I was too tight.
The wind dropped to nothing overnight and we rolled a fair bit.
17 April 2011 Saline Bay to Tobago Cays
After breakfast, we went for a walk up to the top of Mayreau – a long steep haul. Even though it was only eight o’clock on a Sunday morning, a few of the bars were already blasting out loud music. There is a small church perched on the top of the hill in a beautiful location overlooking the Tobago Cays. A small congregation were gathered outside singing to a guitar – a stark contrast to the beating reggae further down the hill.
The view from the top is great, but would be better in the evening when the sun will be from behind. We walked back down and called into Dennis’s hideaway to see how much it would be to get an internet connection – only $6 EC, so we decided to go and get our laptops. Back in Dennis’s Hideaway, we bought a couple of nice cold cokes and settled down to the Internet. I was pleased to see that I’d only got 15 emails over the past week and most of those were junk – in fact there was nothing that couldn’t have waited for another week. This is a marked contrast to the 100 emails a day that I used to get back in the UK.
I had a short chat to Dennis, who is a good friend of Gareth and Fi and remembers Maia. He used to run a couple of boats for day charters, but has now sold them and is concentrating on building up his restaurant and little hotel. He said that we must call in on our way back south and “lime” with him.
We motored around to the Tobago Cays – no wind again. The Tobago Cays are still lovely – turquoise water, desert islands with palm trees and, unfortunately, about 50 boats anchored. We anchored in 4 metres of water among the gaggle and went for a swim. The Tobago Cays are now a Marine Park and they have re-introduced turtles, which has been a great success – there are Green Turtles everywhere. We snorkelled with the turtles for a half hour – some are unconcerned about humans and others bolt as soon as they see you.
After lunch, we went out to the small boat passage to do some proper snorkelling, but there was a very strong current coming into the Cays and the snorkelling was poor. I read that a recent hurricane destroyed a lot of the hard coral and it will take years to recover. I saw two small lobsters and a large Southern Stingray. I got a couple of photos of them, but the visibility and light was poor.
The wind dropped right off in the evening and we all swirled around. In such a crowded anchorage, you can hear people talking and partying in the other boats – kind of like being on a floating campsite.
18 April 2011 Tobago Cays
I switched on the VHF to channel 68 at 0730 and managed to pick up the weather forecast from the cruisers net in Grenada – the guy at Island Water world must have a strong transmitter. The forecast for the next five days is light and variable winds, so it looks like a lot more motoring.
I started a “To Do” list because there are a few things starting to go wrong – chart plotter not charging, compass light doesn’t work, slight sea water leak on engine, water tank gauge not working, etc, etc. I sorted out why the chart plotter wasn’t charging (broken wire) and it was time to go for a swim.
We went to Jamesby Island in the dinghy and climbed to the top (30 metres.) The view from up there is spectacular – you can see all of the Tobago Cays and the colours are magnificent. We snorkelled around the island which was OK; the highlight was a sighting of a small Barracuda.
After lunch, we lazed about and had a nap. I processed the photos that I took while snorkelling (rubbish.) At sundown, we went for a drink with Derek (and his friend John) on “Buzzard”. Derek normally sails single-handed and knows Sergio well. He is another person who comes out for the “season” and then puts the boat on the hard in Trinidad for six months.
We had a critical equipment failure today. The freezer has been making gurgling noises and has been running almost continuously. I reckon that there is air in the system and it needs recharging. It’s not efficient now so I’ve turned it off. Thank God the other fridge is working okay – I couldn’t live without a cold beer or two every evening.
19 April 2011 Tobago Cays
We dragged ourselves out of bed at half past seven – it was harder than normal because we drank a bottle of wine with dinner last night.
We spent the morning pottering about doing a few jobs – I finally managed to sort out all of our computer data into a semblance of order. The data was on my laptop and three USB hard disk drives from two PCs that we had at home plus an old laptop that Sergio left behind. There was a lot of duplication, so I’ve had to go through it all, folder by boring folder to consolidate it. Once it was sorted out, I backed it up on a USB drive and stashed it in a “secure” hidey hole along with some important papers and about $500 US.
At about eleven o’clock, we went snorkelling with the turtles and I got some nice pictures of them. After lunch, we went to Jamesby Island and took some pictures of ourselves with the farewell card that was given to us by the people at work (they had insisted that we do this to prove that we were here…) I think that a part on the outboard is broken, because I can’t get it to stay in the “up” position when coming into a beach – another job to sort out.
We went snorkelling around Petite Bateau but Glenys was being stung badly by very tiny jelly fish, so we gave up. It’s funny that jelly fish really affect her and she comes out in big spots that itch like mad – I feel them but don’t my body doesn’t react. This is totally opposite to mosquito bites which bother me for three or four days after I’ve been bitten while Glenys doesn’t get affected as badly.
We chilled out in the evening. I’m currently reading all about Cuba, which sounds like it is infrequently visited and the southern Cays sound fantastic but remote. It also sounds a bit scary because it’s very shallow in many areas.
20 April 2011 Tobago Cays to Petite Martinique
After breakfast, we pottered about doing some jobs. I hauled the dinghy onto the front deck and sorted out why the dinghy wouldn't lock in the “up” position – basically user error. I figured out the mechanism and I was pulling it too high, so it was just going back down – duhhh!
I've been putting off investigating the engine – the engine room is a dark, hot place and I have many bad memories of hours spent sweating over engine problems. I finally picked up enough motivation, got the manual out and figured out where everything is. I was a bit confused at first until I realised that there are two of most things because there is an engine and a generator. I spent an hour identifying where the various filters, pumps & pipes were on the engine.
At about eleven o'clock I started the engine to leave the Tobago Cays and after about 30 seconds, it just cut out. I deduced that it must be air in the fuel system, so I bled the fuel and the engine started. I was pretty glad that I’d spent the hour poking about the engine.
There was very little wind, so we motored around Mayreau, past Union, between Mopion and Pinese to Petite Martinique. We went straight onto the fuel dock and filled up with diesel. The fuel gauge was reading 1/3 full and I was getting nervous because I didn’t know whether it under read or not. I'm a happy man now that I have a full tank of fuel, but £200 poorer for the privilege.
We decided that we would go out for a meal – first one for a week, so we picked up a mooring for the Palm Beach Restaurant after arranging a reservation. We tried to go snorkelling at the north side of the town, in the cut between PSV and Petite Martinique, but it was rubbish so we went to the headland to the south end. The terrain was rocky with poor visibility, but we saw loads of small lobster under the ledges – in one cave I saw 12 of the little devils. I must make a lobster snare.
When we got back to the boat, I went snorkelling to check out the mooring – which was okay, being a large Bruce anchor well bedded in. There were some small rocky outcrops under the boat containing about 12 lobsters – but all very small.
We went to the restaurant for dinner. Unfortunately there was a huge table of tourists and we weren't getting any attention, so I went to the bar and ordered our meal before they ordered theirs - it worked because they soon served us. The meal was OK – we had a bottle of wine so the dinghy journey back and climbing aboard was a bit more difficult than usual.
21 April 2011 Petite Martinique to Chatham Bay, Union
We went for a walk on Petite Martinique, a nice island with very friendly people and a lot of sheep and goats. On the way back we were collared by a guy who runs a charity operation. They dry a particular variety of banana and then produce banana flour. This can be used to make fritters and, when mixed with normal flour, will make banana bread. They give the banana flour away to churches, etc. who distribute it to the needy. We gave the guy a small donation in return for a small sample of the flour.
We went and stocked up on food for the weekend and bought a case of Old Milwaukee beer for $50EC, a litre of Myres Dark Rum for $28EC and two bottles of wine for $10 EC each, which seems very cheap – I think that we’ll be calling here on the way back to stock up on booze. I bought some fishing wire and made a lobster snare from an old aluminium burgee mast that I found beneath the front berth.
Easter weekend starts tomorrow, so we want to make sure that we are somewhere quiet. I’m sure that the loud music will be blaring away in the towns. Bequia has a sailing regatta over the weekend so we are planning to arrive there after Tuesday next week when the partying has finished. We motored over to Chatham Bay on Union Island – no wind again.
Chatham Bay is lovely. We anchored quite a way out to be alone. After lunch, I got out my clarinet for the first time and had a play about. Glenys dozed in the cockpit. We then went snorkelling around Rapid Point. I took my snare with me but only saw one very small lobster. We saw a Green Turtle grazing on something on a rock, but when it saw us it took off like a rocket – unlike the relatively tame ones in the Tobago Cays.
I ran the generator and the water maker for and 50 minutes this afternoon. I’ve started to run it for about an hour, every other day. This seems to be keeping the batteries full and we’re generating more water than we are using. It looks like we are using between 60 and 75 litres of water each day. We drink about 4.5 litres, so the rest must be going on our one-per-day showers, cooking and rinsing down with fresh water after we’ve been swimming.
22 April 2011 Chatham Bay, Union
I was very tired this morning – it’s either the exercising, snorkelling and generally running about or the big rum punch that I made after dinner last night. I did my exercises anyway – that’s a whole week now and I’m up to 30 press ups each morning. Unfortunately, we don’t have any weigh scales, so I don’t know if I’m getting rid of my weight. I feel a bit trimmer so that’s good.
We went for a two hour hike after breakfast. After dragging the dinghy up the beach, we walked up a small path to a col on the island where it joined a dirt road. We turned left and walked up to the top of the small peak on the north side of the bay. After that we walked back down to the road and found a path which goes along the side of the ridge, slowly climbing towards Mount Taboi (1000ft). The path was pretty overgrown, we didn’t know where we were going and we ran out of water, so we gave up and went back. The next time we come here, we’ll go up with long trousers and more water – I'm fairly sure that the path carries onto Mt Taboi (1000 ft.)
Back on the boat, we lounged about reading until three o’clock, then went snorkelling, which was okay, but no lobster…
I spent a couple of hours, compiling a list of frequencies for weather reports and learning to use the Single Side Band radio – pretty dull stuff. Glenys read a book on bread making – we’ve been having trouble with the local bread because it seems to go mouldy after a day or two, so I’m looking forward to having nice freshly baked bread (when she gets some yeast.)
23 April 2001 Chatham Bay, Union
I spent most of the day messing about with my dive compressor. I first had to get it out of the depths of the cockpit locker, then I had to print the manual which came on a CD – thank goodness I’ve got a laptop and printer. After reading the manual and staring at the compressor, I’ve decided that it looks simple enough to operate and service.
Glenys meanwhile, found all of the life jackets, harnesses and safety lines and inspected them. We have six basic “blow-to-inflate” life jackets, two harnesses and two safety lines. We are going to get a couple of nice CO2 inflatable life jackets with built in harnesses for us.
After our lunch of Quesadillas (with home-made tortillas), I made an attempt to start the compressor using the boat’s ring mains. Unfortunately, when starting, the motor draws more than 10 Amps, so the trip blew. I thought that I might have a problem, so I've already bought a gadget called a “Soft Starter” which uses electronics to smoothly ramp up the motor and is supposed to reduce the starting current. I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out the wiring for the motor – I even had to take a relay apart to find out what it was doing. I don’t understand induction motors very well, but I think that I know how I need to wire it all together.
We went snorkelling at 3 o'clock and I managed to find a reasonable sized lobster, but it was too deep in its little cave to get it.
Before dinner, I finished off the circuit diagrams for the compressor circuit and measured the cockpit locker so that I can design a frame to hold the compressor in place near the top of the locker.
24 April 2011 Chatham Bay, Union
It’s Easter Sunday today, but no Easter Egg. Quite a few squalls went through last night and there was a major one just as we were waking up. I’ve not been able to get any weather forecast for a few days, but the last that we heard was that there is a trough north of us which is causing all this weird weather. This is such a nice anchorage that we decided to stay here another day, go to Canuoan tomorrow and onto Bequia on Tuesday or Wednesday.
I spent most of the day poking about the boat finding things and staring. I lifted some of the floorboards to find out where I need to run the cable for the compressor – that will be a 4 hour job… I got the barbeque working – it took me 30 minutes to find the regulator for the small gas bottle. I also checked how much cooking gas we have got – one bottle has 100 psi and the other has 50 psi. It will be interesting to see how much gas we actually use.
Glenys opened the emergency “grab bags” and checked what we have – these are to be taken into the life-raft when we abandon ship. All the flares are very old – Sergio must have brought some from a previous boat because they expired in 1992, 20 years ago! We will buy a set of replacement ones. I had brought some things that we had in our grab bag on “Glencora” so those went on the pile as well. Glenys has a list of what we have now and we’ll compile a list of stuff that we actually want. On a similar note, I found the manual for the 406MHz EPRIB and ran through the test procedure – it still works and the batteries don’t need replacing for another year.
I lifted the life raft out of the cockpit locker and placed it in front of the windscreen so that I could measure up for fitting it there. I removed the instrument panel and I can just about reach half way inside that raised part of the deck. This will allow me to fit some bolted eyes to strap the life raft in position.
I looked at all of the manuals and invoices that Sergio has left behind. Some of it is redundant so I threw a load away. This means that we now have five carrier bags full of rubbish. I went through most of the spares as well – just to see what we have. Pretty comprehensive, but I need to make a list of what we should be carrying for the more complex equipment.
Glenys made some soda bread in the afternoon, which we had with dinner – a little heavy but tasty.
25 April 2011 Chatham Bay to Charlestown Bay, Canouan
We awoke to a beautiful morning with a steady wind – perfect for sailing. After breakfast, we tidied up the mess from being at anchor for four days and left at nine o’clock. We motored out of the anchorage and, ten minutes later, we had the sails up and off we went. The wind was coming from the North East which was roughly where we were going, so it was a beat all the way.
As this was our first time sailing, I took the opportunity to try out a few things. I had full sails up on starboard tack in about 18-20 knots apparent wind and the boat was heeled over too much. I put 10 rolls onto the roller reefing and the boat was sailing better. I put the Hydrovane wind vane on and it only took me about five minutes to get the settings right, so that the Hydrovane was steering us. I love having a Hydrovane…
When we did the first tack, I tried to roll away some of the jib because I thought that it might get hung up on the inner forestay. That was a disaster – it took me ages to roll it way, by which time we had stopped dead in the water. We sheeted in again, got some speed back, tacked and let the jib out again. The boat seems to be stiffer on port tack which makes sense because I think that we have more weight on the port side – water tank, books, spares, etc.
We sailed almost into Saline Bay on Mayreau before tacking again. This time we tacked with a full jib and found that it will slide past the inner forestay. We did a few short tacks up the coast of Mayreau to clear Catholic Rocks and I cursed on every tack because the bimini frame is in the way of the winches and it’s impossible to do a full winding action. It’s a bloody awful design – God knows how Sergio has put up with it for the past eight years. It would be exhausting to short tack in confined waters.
We found that the wind direction indicator was about 20 degrees out of alignment – on starboard tack we were pointing about 20 degrees and on port tack we were pointing about 60 degrees. That was soon altered by adjusting the calibration on the indicator. Meanwhile, Glenys kept popping below to check the lockers and if anything was crashing about – all seems to be okay.
We arrived in Charlestown Bay, Canouan at about two o’clock and anchored in a very rolly anchorage – it’s only for one night and we don’t have much choice. We used to anchor in a small exposed bay to the North, but the swell is coming from the north east and I think that it’ll be worse there.
So all in all, we had a great sail and got to know the boat a little better. There are a few jobs to be done - the bimini interfering with the winches is driving me crazy and the roller reefing for the jib seems incredibly stiff – I had to use a winch to roll it away when we arrived.
We ate down below for the first time because the gusts of wind were so strong. It was surprisingly cool in the saloon.
26 April 2011 Charlestown Bay to Bequia
What an awful night, the wind kept blowing in shrieking gusts; it kept raining and we rolled all the time. I spent all night dozing then jumping up to close the hatch above our bed.
It was overcast and very windy in the morning. I checked the weather forecast on the Internet which said showers and East 20-25 knot winds. We decided that this anchorage is not good and we might as well go up to Bequia which is only 20 miles away, albeit upwind.
The wind was gusting as we left the anchorage, so I put up the main with 10 wraps to reef it and we put out a reefed jib on starboard tack. As we cleared the north of the island, we were pointing as high as we could and the wind was 20-25 knots across the deck with 6-8 foot, steep waves. We were heeling over quite a lot and I was pretty worried about the squall clouds that we could see to windward.
A squall hit us about an hour out. We could see the rain coming like a wall towards us, and the wind started to gust up to 30 knots. The boat started to heel over more, but nothing too drastic – I should have reefed a bit more before the squall arrived. Both Glenys and I were pretty anxious until it had gone past.
It was a very bouncy crossing with the constant threat of more squalls, but we only had one more squall hit us and I reefed before it arrived which was much more comfortable. I messed up my navigation and eased our course a little off the wind for a couple of hours. This meant that we had to beat up wind for the last hour and still ended up about half a mile south of the point. We’d had enough tacking and beating upwind by this point, so we cheated and motored upwind in pretty big waves into Admiralty Bay.
We anchored off Princess Margaret’s Beach after a hard 4½ hour upwind sail. I’ve still not worked out how much we should be reefing the sails – it will take a lot more playing about to get it right. The motion of the boat is good and we managed to do this passage without feeling sea sick. I’m amazed how resilient our stomachs are – I used to get sea sick very quickly and it would take me a few days at sea to be able to go below.
It rained and rained for the next two hours. We managed to sort out a few things in between the squalls – such as 10 minutes to put the outboard back on the dinghy and then dive for cover. Eventually, we managed to rush into town and have a quick walk around. I found a man who could cut two pieces of teak to support the life raft on deck and we bought some essential food – bread, chicken and a case of beer.
I talked to Sam of Knock Refrigeration about fixing the freezer. He says that the gurgling is because the Freon has leaked out. He wants to find the leak, remove the compressor, change the oil and recharge the system. His workshop is a real scruffy hole and he can’t give me a quote, just says that it will cost $ 45-60 US per hour. I’m not too sure.
We just made it back to the boat before the next squall and had dinner below again. We were in bed by nine o’clock – shattered.
27 April 2011 Bequia
We had a much better night – no rain showers and we slept well. I checked the weather forecast and it looks like this rainy weather is here for 4 or 5 days – bummer.
The first rain shower hit us at about nine o’clock. We lurked about until eleven o’clock when it looked a lot brighter, before going into town. We dropped off our dirty laundry to get it washed and went to the post office to see if our mail had arrived yet – Gareth posted it about seven days ago, but no sign of it. Another British guy was in the post office and said that the record for mail getting from the UK is 13 days – nothing changes. Our debit cards expire in a few days’ time and there are some new cards in the post – we may have to hang about and wait for them.
We dropped in to see Sam of Knock Refrigeration and he is going to be on the Jack’s Dock on the beach at 0900 tomorrow. Glenys got some prices for foam and Sunbrella to make some cockpit cushions – if we have guests they’ll have to sit on bare wood, which is bloody hard. I dropped a drawing into the wood yard for the pieces of wood for the life raft – they should be ready by Friday morning. Glenys dragged me into every supermarket and the vegetable market and I dragged her into every hardware store and chandlery.
One of the market ladies recommended an eating place called “Rush Hour”, so we went to try the pork and rice. There wasn’t much rushing going on. They had two things on the menu – Pork & Rice and Chicken & Rice – we had one of each. When it eventually arrived it was very tasty, but a much bigger meal than we normally have at lunch time. In the afternoon, we wandered around doing the same as the morning – supermarkets and chandlers.
Back on the boat, I swam to the beach to work off the Pork & Rice and mooched about. I was hoping that the guy from Grenadines Sails was going to come and look at modifying the bimini frame, but when I talked to him on the VHF radio, he’d fallen behind on a job he had to finish today - maybe tomorrow...
28 April 2011 Bequia
After breakfast, I moved everything out of the way so that Sam could get at the freezer compressor. I took some pictures of the current installation, including close-ups of the wiring in case he removed the compressor and messed it all up. At least I have documentation of where everything was originally.
Sam was standing on the dock at ten minutes to nine, so I went and picked him up. By half past nine he had set up a pressure gauge on the low pressure side of the compressor and put some Freon gas into the system. He then had to wait for the system to get to the correct temperature, let the compressor switch off and try to detect the leak. He was there until midday (chattering away to us) before he declared the system okay. He seemed to detect a leak around one of the compression fittings on the compressor but after tightening it said that it was OK. Nice chap, it was interesting to talk to a local for a change even if it was costing me £30 an hour…
The guy from Grenadines Sails turned up mid-morning; he’d been measuring up another boat nearby and called in to look at my bimini. We agree a plan to move the strut that is interfering with the winch and Glenys took him back to town in the dinghy. While Sam was waiting again for the freezer to do something, I took the bimini frame apart and took one part of the frame in the dinghy to Grenadine Sails. They bent the frame and I went to pick them up in the afternoon.
It took two hours of faffing about to refit it, but it is much better now that it’s a couple of inches higher at the back and the winches are now clear. The guy knew what he was doing to get the bimini tight and in the correct shape, but he was a little rough on the boat. We now have quite a few scratches on the gel coat and there are four self-tapper screws sticking about ½ inch into the aft shower. I’ll replace these with bolts in the next few days and seal it with silicone sealant.
We had Spaghetti Bolognese for dinner with our last bottle of red wine - at £6 per bottle, we'll just have to survive with beer and rum until we get to Martinique.
29 April 2011 Bequia
We caught the half past nine ferry to Kingstown, St Vincent. I was quite excited about going on a ferry – small things, small minds. It takes about an hour to make the crossing and it was very rolly in the NE swell, but again I was able to read without feeling seasick – what’s happened to me?
Kingstown is a busy little place. Lots of people milling about, weaving in and out of the very dense traffic, from which there is a constant honking of horns and shouting. We wandered around the town going into supermarkets and hardware shops looking for bits and pieces. Glenys bought some bed sheets - our only set of sheets are becoming a little “stiff” with the salt and sweat… I bought a nice little box to house the electronic soft-starter for my compressor. Glenys bought a few pots and pans. We looked at foam to make some cockpit cushions, but it seemed expensive.
We had lunch in a little bar/restaurant called VJ’s. I had a chicken roti and Glenys had a chicken dinner with rice – it all came to £10 with a drink. They’d run out of Coca Cola, so the waiter suggested “Mauby” which is a local St Vincent drink made from a kind of bark. It’s okay but has a bitter after taste – been there, tried that…
We wandered around in the afternoon intending to catch the return ferry at four o’clock. We arrived back at the Ferry Port in plenty of time, but then found that the Bequia Express was running late. There’s another ferry company called Admiral which does the same run and had a ferry leaving at half past four. By twenty five past four there was no sign of the Bequia Express, so we hopped on the Admiral ferry. It cost us another £10 but it was worth it because the Bequia Express passed us about 45 minutes later –we would have been sitting there until half past six. We met Carol and John from “Sweet Caroline” on the ferry.
30 April 2011 Bequia
We woke up to sunshine and a nice breeze – perhaps the trade winds are back? We went into town and I picked up the two pieces of teak to support the life-raft on the front deck and some screws to fit it. Glenys bought some white Sunbrella (nylon canvas) to cover the life-raft – it has an ugly black rubber band around it that we would like to hide. We bought some mackerel-type fish from the market and two cases of beer and a few things from the supermarket.
Back on the boat, I ran the generator, set the water maker going and started to shape the teak supports to the match the deck. I hadn’t gone very far before Carol and John from “Sweet Caroline” turned up. I’d (foolishly) said that I could give Carol some e-Books for her Kindle, so I had to stop everything and boot up my laptop. I copied about 100 books onto her hard disk drive and then stopped the water maker. I opened the valve to reverse-flush the osmotic membranes with fresh water from the water tanks - normally this is done for about a minute.
I stopped the generator and showed Carol the software that I use to manage eBooks and they went off into town. We had lunch and Glenys asked if she could put down the saloon seat which I had lifted to check the water level on our top tank. I decided to check the water level again and found to my surprise that the top tank was empty. It slowly dawned on me that I’d not shut the reverse-flush valve on the water-maker – we had been pumping all our fresh water out of the tanks for 45 minutes. We had to run the water maker for another two hours to get the water level back to where it should have been – idiot!
I carried on with shaping the teak supports for the life raft. This was a very labour intensive as I had to cut out a curved section to fit the shape of the life raft canister – I ended up drawing the profile, making lots of small vertical saw cuts and then chiselling out the shape. Took me a couple of hours to do something that would take 5 minutes with a band saw or a jigsaw – I still haven’t found the jigsaw that Sergio says he left behind.
I screwed the pieces onto the deck and was just finishing off when I looked up to see a wall of rain racing towards us as a huge squall hit Bequia. I grabbed one or two tools from the deck, shouted “Rain” to Glenys and started to close hatches. The rain was torrential – I had loads of tools on deck and could only watch them all get drenched. The squall only lasted five minutes, but an hour later my chisels, plane and other tools where already showing rust – I’ll have to spend a couple of hours cleaning them up sometime.
We were going to have a fish barbeque tonight but the weather was still squally, so Glenys magically produced a fish and rice dinner with plantains.