1 May 2018 Bequia to Tobago Cays, St Vincent
We were up at 07:00 and after a quick breakfast, set sail towards Canouan. After going past the bizarre Moon-hole houses, we rounded the south-west headland and had a lovely beam reach for 3-4 hours to Rameau Bay. We anchored in 7 metres of water in a patch of sand at 12°43.48N 061°19.99W, which is surrounded by broken coral and weed. It’s not a very secure anchorage and the boats swirl around in the current and wind, so we decided to move on after lunch.
We went for a snorkel around the head land, which was rocky reef. The water visibility was ok, but there wasn’t very much to see. After a nice bowl of Calaloo Soup, we upped the anchor and headed off to the Tobago Cays sailing in through a small pass just east of Baline Rocks. We dropped our anchor at 12°37.81N 061°21.42W in 4 metres on fabulous holding sand.
The Tobago Cays is still very pretty, but the wind howls across the shallow fringing reef and it’s quite bouncy. A park ranger soon came over and extracted the fee of $10EC (£2.50) per person per night, which is very reasonable. It’s getting to the end of the tourist season, so there were only about 30 boats in the anchorage, the majority being large chartered catamarans.
2 May 2018 Tobago Cays, St Vincent
After waiting for the sun to get a high in the sky, we went snorkelling in the turtle protection area. It’s buoyed off and no dinghies are allowed in the area, which is good because there’s a lot of traffic, including kite-surfers whizzing about. The conservation efforts are obviously still working well because we saw at least ten turtles in an hour. The water is lovely and clear, so I took a few nice photos.
We tried snorkelling over by the reef towards the small boat channel, but the reef is in very poor condition. We spent the afternoon chilling out and doing a few chores like running the water maker. In the evening, we were invited for a glass or two of wine with Rob & Cathy on “B&G”, a 53ft Hallberg Rassy.
3 May 2018 Tobago Cays to Saline Bay, Mayreau
It was another bouncy night with the anchor snatching as we veered about in the strong winds. Last night, I managed to cut my foot on our swim ladder as I leapt onto our sugar scoop, so I didn’t want to go snorkelling until it has a chance to heal.
We chilled out until 10:00 and then sailed out of the south west channel between Jamesby and Petite Bateau. We had good light, so the channel was easy to navigate, but as we came out of the shelter of the reef, we had big, steep waves on our port beam, rolling us over dramatically. We hadn’t prepared very well for rough seas, so things were crashing to the floor down below.
It was only a couple of miles of open water, so we were soon rounding the south tip of Mayreau and into the calm shelter of Saline Bay. There’s a lot of weed on the sea bed, so we dropped the anchor in a patch of sand at 12°38.05N 061°23.84W in 5 metres of water. It’s a beautiful bay with a lovely white sand beach and coconut trees swaying in the breeze - one of my favourite anchorages in the Grenadines.
I had another go at getting North Sails to accept responsibility for adjusting our baggy mainsail. After a few stroppy emails with their Singapore office, I finally decided to get in contact with the headquarters in Rhode Island, USA. I’m now in contact with Bill, the Global Cruising Products Manager with whom I'm now having a civil conversation.
Bill has come up with lots of suggestions and information about the relationship between the rigging and sail shape, so I’m planning to get the rig inspected and adjusted when we get to Trinidad. Bill has given me a contact in Trinidad, who will come to inspect the sail and he has said that if there’s a fault with the sail, then they will be “open-minded” about who pays for the adjustments. I’ve said that I’ll report back in a couple of months.
In the evening, we invited Anthony and Sally from “Fortino” over for cocktails. We’re slowly building up a circle of British friends.
4 May 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
It was a lovely, albeit a windy day, so we went for a walk around the island. (I have some hiking notes on this.) I was pleasantly surprised to see that there wasn’t much Sargassum Weed on the windward beaches. I guess that the reefs of the Tobago Cays to windward are keeping the weed away.
Our walk took us to Saltwhistle Bay which hasn’t changed much. There’s a hotel there and the tiny bay is always crammed with charter boats who pick up moorings for £15 per night - we don’t bother to go there.
After a long walk up the steep hill, we looked in at the small church at the top of the island - it’s very cute and has a great view across to the Tobago Cays. On the way down the hill, we stopped off at the Combination Café which is a nice restaurant with a view over the sea. Glenys indulged herself with a Lobster Sandwich.
We stopped off at the Boat House beach bar and said hello to Dennis, who is a friend of Glenys’ brother, Gareth. We chatted for a while and Dennis says that business is not too good because the aggressive boat boys are intercepting the tourists before they get to Dennis’ restaurant. The boat boys are not from Mayreau and are costing him business. Grenada has banned boat boys from selling beach barbeques and Dennis hopes that a similar ban will be put in place in St Vincent.
We had a quiet afternoon and evening.
5 May 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
It’s a Saturday and the start of the charter week, so our nice quiet anchorage was inundated with boats. I couldn’t believe it when two French catamarans anchored 20 foot in front of us and blocked our view of the beach. The worse thing was that they didn’t stay on-board to enjoy the view that they’d stolen, but immediately went ashore for a very long lunch.
To make matters worse, we then had a German boat anchor close next to us with two aged naturalists on board. They proceeded to rip off their clothes and expose their flappy, old bodies to us. Talk about euro-stereotypes…
In the afternoon, we went for a snorkel. We picked up a mooring on the wreck on the Purina, but the water clarity was shocking and it was very windy. Glenys stayed in the dinghy while I went for a quick 5 minute swim around. The wreck is in 8 metres of water and has collapsed a little bit more since I last dove on it 6 years ago - there’s lots of sea life and I had a shoal of 20 large Barracuda swimming around me for a while. Unfortunately, it’s in a Marine Park area and you have to go with a local dive guide. We went for a snorkel at Monkey Point, but the visibility was very poor as well, so we soon gave up.
We went to “Fortino” for sundowners.
6 May 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
I woke up all dynamic and tackled some maintenance jobs. The main bilge sump is under the companionway steps and is the central point in the boat where all water in the bilges accumulates. It’s impossible to empty completely and there’s always some foul, oily water in the bottom - it was pretty disgusting. To make matters worse, the two fridge compressors are on the bulkhead above the sump and, being constantly in a humid environment, they were going rusty.
I spent all day cleaning, sanding and wire brushing hanging upside down in the bilge. The three seacocks and the painted surfaces in the bilge have come up fairly clean. I degreased and de-rusted the fridge compressors and then sprayed them with black paint, so they look much better. All the pipework and wiring is good with no signs of wear.
We received an enquiry from a couple in Brazil wanting to buy Alba. They say that they are very interested, but they have a limited budget and would we accept an 18% discount on our asking price? They wanted to clarify the price before they go to the expense of flying from Brazil to Grenada. We wrote back and said that we’re not in any rush to sell the boat and, although we have some flexibility, their offer was too low.
7 May 2018 Saline Bay, Mayreau
I spent the morning finishing off some more jobs in the bilge. The automatic bilge pump has a pneumatic switch that has never worked properly, so I ripped it out and need to get a metal bracket made to fit a more modern rocker-type bilge switch, which I’ve already bought.
Another damn charter catamaran anchored right in front of us and ignored Glenys’s pleasant complaints. I’d had enough and went up to the bow and shouted insults at them at the top of my voice. Everyone in the anchorage stopped and stared, so eventually, in embarrassment, they moved. I think that the next time we come here, we’ll anchor further away from the beach - it’ll be less stress.
The Brazilians came back to us and asked what we would think is an acceptable price for the boat. It’s a bit odd negotiating the price when they’ve not seen the boat, but we know that if we sell the boat in the USA, we’ll have to pay a broker 10%, so we’ve some flexibility if we sell directly.
This enquiry for the boat has made us look at our future. Do we really want to stop cruising? It’s very pleasant sitting here in a beautiful bay in the Grenadines and I’ve been looking forward to having a final six month cruise up to the USA next year. Do we really want to go back to the hustle and bustle of the UK and the very changeable weather? What are we going to do in the winter? We decided to sleep on it.
I was very excited in the afternoon because I was bidding on eBay to buy a second-hand Les Paul electric guitar and won. The guitar was in Reading, so our son, Craig picked it up for me. He sent me some pictures and it looks good. I’m very keen to get my hands on it because although I’ve been playing an acoustic guitar for 5 years, I’ve never played an electric guitar. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait for 2 months until we get back to the UK.
8 May 2018 Saline Bay to Chatham Bay, Union Island
After breakfast, we popped into the small supermarket and bought a few things. We then upped anchor and had a lovely sail downwind to Chatham Bay on Union Island. It’s a lovely big bay with a nice beach, but after our recent tussles with the charter catamarans, we anchored a long way from the beach at 12°36.22N 061°27.06W in 7 metres on a big patch of sand.
After much debate, we’ve decided to continue to try to sell the boat now and let fate decide on our future. We wrote back to the Brazilians giving them a counter offer. However, I made it very clear that this was our bottom price and there would have to be something majorly wrong for us to drop any lower. I also disclosed a list of the maintenance jobs that I’ve been planning to do and said that they will have to accept the cost of these jobs if they buy the boat before I have time to do them.
We went snorkelling in afternoon, just to the south of Rapid Point. The visibility wasn’t very good, but there are some interesting small walls on the rocks. The reef is in good condition as you head south-west.
9 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
I woke early thinking about the logistics of selling the boat. If the Brazilians come back and want to proceed how are we going to manage the mechanics of the legal documentation and money transfer? They’re in Brazil; I want the money in a UK bank account; and the boat is in Grenada. Thankfully, we had a very good internet connection, so I was able to do some research on-line.
It turns out that the legal ownership of a yacht can be transferred by both parties signing a simple Bill of Sale, which then needs to be shown to the authorities in the country where the boat is to be registered. Alba is registered with the British Small Ships Register (SSR), which is only available to British residents, so the Brazilians will have to register the boat in Brazil or somewhere else.
Logistically, the transfer of money from Brazil to the UK will take several days, so we might have to get a UK solicitor involved, so that they can hold the money in their UK client account while the final documentation is signed. It’s a similar process to selling a house, but more complicated by the international aspect.
While I was slaving over a hot laptop, Glenys started the process of systematically working her way through the boat, cleaning and polishing any chrome or brass fittings. There are 55 chrome handles on the cupboard doors, which have to be removed, disassembled and then polished. In addition, there are five swivel reading lamps that are looking very grubby plus a plethora of small stainless fittings, clasps and hooks. By the end of the day, she’d done most of the front cabin - it’s going to be a long job.
10 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
Now that we’ve finished crossing oceans, there’s no great need for our Grab Bags, which contain lots of useful things if we ever have to abandon ship. Glenys sorted through the contents, removing any tins of food and items that will perish - there were a number of bags of drinking water taken from old life rafts, some of which was 15 years old, so we threw them out. We’re left with lots of handy things in two hard, floating containers.
Glenys continued with her Sisyphean task of cleaning the chrome work, while I “spring-cleaned” the aft cabin - this included removing the mattresses to reveal the bilge under the aft berths. After inspecting the steering gear and autopilot, I washed down all the bilge surfaces and cleaned everything that I could get my hands on. It took almost all day, but at least I know that everything is in good working order and clean.
11 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
Glenys is making progress with the chrome work and we now have shining handles on half of the cupboards and all five of the swivel light fittings are gleaming.
Alba has Whitlock cable steering. The stainless steel wire and the conduits have not been touched since the boat was built in 2001, so they are over-due for replacement. I systematically checked and measured all of the various components for the steering, which took hours because the conduits pass through several compartments and bulk heads. Everything looks to be in good condition, so I just want to replace the wire and the conduits.
In the late afternoon, I did a couple of electrical jobs and the day was over. We need to get off the boat…
12 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
We had another day of jobs. Glenys continued with the chrome work - she’s nearly there. I spent all day working on the engine. In January, I had the sea water pump repaired by the Volvo dealer in Cape Town. At the time, the shaft of the pump had a deep groove which damaged the seal, so they sent the shaft off to have it hard chromed and then ground back to size.
Unfortunately, the repair didn’t last very long. I noticed a water leak when we were in Brazil and it’s been getting worse, so I took the pump off and found that there was a new groove in the shaft where the lip seal comes in contact. It looks like the chrome wasn’t hard enough and there has been corrosion. The groove was very rough, so I used a grinding stone in a Dremel to grind the groove smooth.
This has reduced the diameter of the shaft, but I’m hoping that the seal will still make a good contact. After rebuilding and replacing the pump, I ran the engine for 15 minutes without any sign of a leak, so fingers crossed. I’m going to have to buy a new pump when I get to Trinidad, so the repair only has to last for a few hours of motoring.
I then had to sort out the mess caused by a couple of months of salt water running down the hot engine - a very corrosive combination. Some of the steel components (brackets and bolts) were starting to rust, so I spent a few hours scraping and wire-brushing the rust away and then painted the bare steel with some green Hammerite paint.
By the time that I’d finished tidying up, it was Miller Time. We need to get off the boat…
13 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
It was a Sunday, so we had a day off. After tying up our dinghy to a tree outside of the Sun Beach & Eat Restaurant, we walked along the beach to the north end and took a small path that goes steeply up the hill behind the Sunset Restaurant. The path petered out into a scrubby grass hillside, but carrying on brought us up to a dirt road - turning right takes you to the road to Ashton.
We turned left and after 25 metres took a path off to the right that took us up a grassy hillside to a gentle ridge where we had a nice view of the windward side of the island with the rest of the Grenadines in the distance. Carrying on up the hillside, we kept right and took a very faint path that follows a rocky ridge up to the top of the hill over-looking the anchorage.
After returning to the dirt road, we continued to the Ashton Road. There’s a junction with two roads and a steep dirt track that takes you down to the beach at Chatham Bay. The two roads take you into the small town of Ashton. We decided to take the left hand road, which gave us a pleasant 1.5 km walk to another junction, which overlooks Ashton.
We chatted to two guys building a boat, who said that there wouldn’t be anywhere open for food on a Sunday, so we headed right up the steep road to a col over-looking Chatham Bay. After that it was a pleasant stroll down the road back to the junction we’d started at.
We took the steep dirt track down to Sun Beach & Eat, where Vanessa cooked us a tasty lunch of grilled Mahi-mahi with provisions, which we washed down with a few cold beers.
Back on the boat, we had a bit of a kip and watched a movie - a nice Sunday.
14 May 2018 Chatham Bay, Union Island
Glenys pulled out her sewing machine and had a busy day repairing and adjusting various pieces of canvas work. She also added some blackout material to the curtains in the aft cabin, which will reduce the sun light in our bedroom in the morning.
Whenever the sewing machine comes out, the saloon is turned into a workshop, so I kept out of the way and had an administration day, publishing my blog and then obtaining quotations for the various parts that I want to buy over the next few months. There are some expensive items on my list and I might be able to get them cheaper in the UK than in Trinidad.
I also went up the mast to have a look at the top of the mainsail furling. One of the suggestions of the guys at North Sails is that the luff tension is too low on the main sail, so I was concerned that the luff was too long and the halyard is jamming at the top of the mast.
However, the head of the main sail is still at least six inches from the top of the luff extrusion, so that doesn’t seem to be the problem. While I was up there I noticed that the Topping Lift is half worn through, so that’s another thing to add to my shopping list.
15 May 2018 Chatham Bay to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After breakfast, we motored around to Clifton. It’s only five miles, but it was a hard slog directly into the 20 knot wind. As usual, the small bay at Clifton was jam-packed with boats. We’ve always anchored on the shallow reef to the east of the entrance, but that is now occupied by mooring balls. It’s hard to find a good anchorage away from the moorings, but we eventually settled at 12°35.78N 61°24.73W in 7 metres.
We were very close to other boats and I was unsure of how good the holding was, so I snorkelled down and found that we’re in a patch of good holding sand. There was a catamaran very close behind us, so Glenys stayed on board while I zipped into town to clear out of St Vincent. On the way, I called in for a quick chat with “Leyna”, who we last saw in Brazil. They’re heading north to St Lucia and the will head west to the ABC Islands - they’re keen to get through to the Pacific next year.
I tied the dinghy up at the Anchorage Yacht Club and walked the 300 metres to the airport, where it only took 15 minutes to clear out. After dropping off our garbage in the skip at the yacht club, I zoomed back to the boat and we left the crowded place.
It was a pleasant sail downwind to Carriacou and we went outside Sandy Island, so we were able to sail all the way until the entrance into Tyrell Bay. As always, there are lots of boats in the huge bay and we struggled to find an anchor spot away from moorings. We found a place initially, but we ended up close to a steel boat on a mooring and I was uncomfortable with the fact that he was swinging differently to us, so we moved to 12°27.40N 061°29.21W, next to a lovely local schooner.
After a roti for lunch, we went shore and cleared in at the Marina. It was relatively straightforward, but the customs lady was a surly woman, who became annoyed with me because I kept asking her to repeat her questions which she was mumbling in a thick Caribbean accent.
I’d used the on-line Sail Clear to create an arrival request, but the officials weren’t as efficient as in St Lucia. I think that the customs lady was annoyed that I’d used it because she had to do more work. She had to go on-line, find my request, check it and then print out four copies - all extra work. It cost us $80EC (£20) for a one month cruising permit.
We strolled along the beach into “town”, which is just a dusty road alongside the beach. The place is as sleepy as it’s always been with locals chillin’ out under shady shelters or in bars. We visited a couple of tiny supermarkets, which had a limited choice of goods and a small vegetable stall on the side of the beach, where we bought a few things. Then we came across a new supermarket, what a contrast - air conditioned with shelves and packed with food - we could have been anywhere.
Surprisingly, there was nowhere that we could buy a SIM card for our phone. We’ve managed to buy SIM Cards everywhere that we’ve been so far including remote islands in places like Indonesia, French Polynesia, etc. The lady in the vegetable stall says that we have to go into Hillsborough where there’s a Digicel store. When we walked back to the marina, we stopped off at the Slipway bar and paid a donation to the Carriacou Childrens Fund, so that we can use their free wifi signal - terribly slow but good enough to get email.
16 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We had a very slow start to the day, and after breakfast, we went ashore, dropped off two big bags of laundry and visited the super market to buy a dinghy load of beer and food. A lady called in at the supermarket selling Rotis, so we bought a Lambi one for our lunch which was excellent.
The afternoon was a quiet affair. Glenys pottered about in the galley and did a bit more spring cleaning while I chilled out and played some guitar - I’m motivated to practise because I have an electric guitar waiting for me in the UK.
We received an email from the Brazilians saying that they can’t meet our counter offer. They have a problem with funds because the Brazilian Real had dropped in value over the past six months. I said that I’d keep in touch and, if our situation changes (or the Brazilian Real recovers), then we’d be back in touch. Ah well, at least it motivated us to spring-clean the boat and get on with some boat jobs.
In the evening, we invited Sally and Anthony from “Fortino” over for a few beers.
17 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After picking up the laundry, we caught one of the mini buses into Hillsborough to get a SIM card for our phone and to get some cash because the ATM in Tyrell Bay refused to give us any money. The SIM card was easy to buy from a Digicel store, but the ATMs at the two banks wouldn’t give us any money from our credit card.
We tried to get cash across the counter in one of the banks, but their credit card machine wouldn’t play ball. It’s really strange because we used it to pay for £100 worth of groceries yesterday. We finally managed to get some money out on our Debit Card, which we don’t like to use because they charge a fee for foreign transactions. I think that it’s a problem with the small provincial banks and we’ll have no trouble with the international banks like Scotia Bank when we get to Grenada.
Hillsborough was a little more bustling than I remember with quite a few tourists walking around, although the “super markets” are still very run down with Wooden Shelves. After walking around for a while, we had lunch in one of the little restaurants overlooking the beach. The view was stunning, but the food was mediocre fried fish and provisions.
Back at the boat, we pottered about doing a few jobs and playing guitar.
18 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
In the morning, I did some administration. I ordered a water pump from eBay and sent off some emails to track down things to buy when we get back to the UK. (I also bought a funky little amplifier for my electric guitar…) Glenys tackled cleaning the water-maker components, which just needed a lot of wire brushing and washing down to remove various rust and water stains.
In the afternoon, I removed the cooker because the forward gimbal had dropped. I replaced the little stud when we were in St Helena, so it’s a bit annoying that it happened again. I found that the hole for the gimbal stud was enlarged, so it has been moving around. I fitted a large penny washer to hold it in place and hopefully, it won’t happen again.
19 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys continued with the mammoth task of polishing the various catches, hinges and fittings on the boat. Meanwhile, I sorted out the wiring for our TV system.
For the past few years, I’ve been turning on the inverter and using an extension lead to plug in the 220V power supplies for the projector and the media player. A couple of years ago, I bought some dc-dc converter power supplies, so that I could power the devices from our 12Volt system, but I’ve never had the opportunity to fit them.
It took me most of the day to do the job. I mounted the dc-dc converters onto a small piece of plywood and after wiring it all up, I fixed it inside a cupboard. Like every job on a boat, it was a struggle to work in the confined spaces, but the wiring is much neater and I only have to turn on a single switch to power up our home cinema system.
20 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Just before dawn, we were woken by a loud bang on the hull. There was a faint chance that it was the bump of a boat loaded with robbers, so I cautiously poked my head out of the companionway. I couldn’t see anybody, so I went on deck with a torch and spotted a small wooden boat floating off downwind - a local rowing boat had come loose from its mooring.
I dropped our dinghy in the water and retrieved the boat, tying on a length of good rope as a painter to replace the existing tatty bit of string. In the morning, I dragged the boat upwind where a local guy stood on the beach waving at me. It wasn’t his boat, but he wanted to help me pull it up onto the beach, where we tied it to a tree with my nice painter. There was no sign of a thank you for rescuing a local boat, instead the guy asked me for money for helping me pull the boat onto the beach - cheeky bugger.
Back on board, I did some more electrical work and fitted a new trip switch for the sea water deck pump because the old one was tripping out. I also wired in a new switch to manually operate the bilge pump - it has a float switch to automatically pump out any water, but I thought that it would be good idea to have an over-ride in case the float switch failed.
Glenys has finally finished off the bright work polishing - she’s very relieved…
Philip and Claudia invited us over to “Bruno’s Girl” - they’re a couple of Brits living on a Hallberg Rassy 40.
21 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We carried on with the remorseless process of spring-cleaning the boat following seven years of cruising. Now that Glenys has finished polishing the bright work, she’s now looking at the woodwork. There are 23 mahogany louvre doors, which are beautifully made, but a pain to clean because there are so many little corners where dust can accumulate. Glenys has started to work her way through the boat cleaning every louvre on every door with a toothbrush…
I also did some cleaning jobs, mostly wire brushing valves and seacocks and wrestling to remove seacock handles in preparation for cleaning and painting them all. There are some that have corroded too much and we’re going to have to buy some new ones in the UK.
In the afternoon, I went up the mast and did a temporary repair to the chafed topping lift - I cut it and tied a knot, which will be good enough to get us to the chandlers in Grenada where I can buy some new rope. I was a little concerned that the pulley at the top of the mast was damaged and had caused the wear on the rope, but it runs smooth and looks to be in good condition. I guess that the topping lift has been too tight for days on end and rubbing on the edge of the mast.
22 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After three days of hard graft, we had a day off and walked up Chapeau Carre, which is the highest peak on Carriacou. It was a nice walk starting from the beach; walking up past the school and then up through bush to the top of the 945ft hill, where we had a great view of Tyrell Bay and the surrounding islands. It was only a couple of hours, but hard work in the blistering heat. The route is described in our hiking section.
After grabbing some provisions, we chilled out for the rest of the afternoon. In the evening, we went to the Lambi Queen restaurant for dinner. Tuesday is Jam Session night, which I thought was going to be a relaxed guitar-type jam with cruisers, so I took my guitar along. However, it turned out to be an open mike session and karaoke, so I bottled out - I’m not good enough to stand in front of a microphone, singing…
There was some great bongo drum playing by some of the locals and a couple of cruisers. It looked to be great fun for the performers, but in my humble opinion, drumming always goes on for far too long. We sloped off at nine o’clock, when the drunken karaoke started in earnest.
23 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After having detailed look at the interior woodwork, we’ve put together a fairly long list of varnishing projects. It takes several days to rub down and put on a few coats of varnish, so we’ve decided to stay in this lovely, peaceful anchorage for another week.
We emptied the front cabin and stood the mattresses on end to make a varnishing workshop. Rubbing down the existing varnish creates a lot of dust, so we’re going to concentrate on varnishing any fittings that we can remove and sand on the aft deck. We’ll leave the fixed varnishing and bigger projects until we’re in the marina in Trinidad. While the boat smelt of thinners, I dug out some bilge paint and painted one of the bilges in the aft cabin.
In the evening, Jeff & Marcia from “UJam’n” invited us over for sundowners.
24 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We continued to remove wooden fittings such as towel rails and various littles shelves in the galley. After sanding the fittings with 120 grit sandpaper, we arrayed them in the front cabin and put on a coat of varnish. The fittings from the previous day received their second coat.
Our Dan Buoy, which is made from a fibre glass pole has stood undisturbed on our port aft quarter for the whole of our 6 year circumnavigation and after 40,000 miles the outer layer of fibre glass has been stripped away leaving 1” long filaments of fibre glass looking like hoar frost. I painted it with white bilge paint which flattened the filaments and made it look a lot better.
25 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After breakfast, we did a run to the supermarket and dropped off some laundry. The rest of the day was spent sanding, varnishing and painting. We removed the last of the fittings and put on more coats of varnish. Some items have had three coats now.
I sanded down the Dan Buoy pole to remove any fibre glass filaments that were sticking out and then put on a second coat of paint. There was no time to do anything else.
26 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys continued with the sanding and varnishing and was able to replace a couple of the fittings. I spent most of the day investigating our heating system.
Back in October 2012, while we were up in the cold Chesapeake, we had a problem with the Webasto heating system, which wouldn’t run properly. I paid for a Webasto engineer to run a computer diagnostic and he found that the problem was related to the room temperature sensor. I was quoted a ridiculous price of $350USD to replace the sensor (which is just a $5 thermistor), so we didn’t replace it.
Instead the engineer installed a $30 terminating resistor, which allowed us to run the heater albeit with no room temperature control - for the $320 difference, we were prepared to turn the heater on and off manually.
We’ve only had to use the heater a few times in the past six years, but I thought that it would be good to check the wiring to the room temperature sensor. It took me hours to trace the wiring for the sensor and I found a very dodgy looking connector, which I replaced. The wiring now has good continuity back to the heater. The thermistor has a resistance of about 9KO and reacts to temperature changes, but after connecting it all together, it still gives an error.
I replaced the terminating resistor and the heater works fine… Unfortunately, the heater is a very complicated device running through all sorts of safety checks when it starts up, so I’m not able to do anything without getting a Webasto dealer involved. Ah well, at least I now know that the wiring is OK and changing the sensor will be a ten minute job. (I’ve found out that I can buy a new room temperature sensor on eBay for £70.)
27 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys finished off the varnishing and re-attached the completed items. I spent most of the day hunched over the engine, cleaning up the various pipes, equipment and surfaces, which are covered in a thin film of oily grime. I also had a go at cleaning the gearbox and rear engine mounts, removing rust caused by sea water dripping from the faulty sea water pump.
The engine is looking very grimy, but I need more brushes, pipe cleaners, rags and degreaser before I can tackle the job. I also want to remove the two alternators and the starter motor to give me better access to the engine and to get the electrical wiring out of the way. However, I don’t feel brave enough to remove those parts while at anchor in case something goes wrong. I’m going to wait until we get to the marina in Trinidad.
28 May 2018 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
After ten days of slaving away on the boat, we decided to have a few days’ holiday. We popped ashore to buy some food and then motored around the corner to Sandy Island. It’s a pretty little island, which is part of the Marine Park, so you have to pay $25EC per day to anchor or use a mooring. However, it was blowing a hooley in the anchorage with 2 foot wind waves, so we decided to carry on and find somewhere a little more protected.
We stopped at Sparrow Bay, which is a couple of miles further north and we anchored at 12°30.11N 061°27.18W in 5 metres of water. I dived down to look at the anchor, which was well buried in a mixture of sand and coral rubble. We’re about 100 metres from a beach where there is a good restaurant called Bogles. It’s a very nice spot and there’s no one around us - I’m amazed that we haven’t anchored here before.
29 May 2018 Sparrow Bay to Petite Martinique
The anchorage is a bit exposed to the swell hooking around the north of Carriacou, so when the wind died over night, we rolled a little bit, but nothing too bad. However, we decided to move on and pulled up our anchor after breakfast.
We motored a mile north and stopped off at Anse La Roche, anchoring at 12°31.12N 061°26.90W in 5 metres over sand. It’s a stunning place, with a white sand beach and an impressive large rock at the south end of the small bay. Again, this is a place that we’ve never been before, despite the fact that we’ve sailed along this coast dozens of time over the past 25 years.
We went snorkelling for a couple of hours. The rocky headland to the south of the anchorage is very good, with an interesting rocky reef having lots of small walls and crevices to explore. Glenys found three Lionfish lurking in a cave - we’ve been told that the invasive species is multiplying rapidly and is becoming a big problem because of lack of predators. The diving centres kill them on sight and hold Lionfish barbeque nights. I also found a nice Bearded Fire Worm.
After lunch, we motor-sailed upwind to Petite Martinique passing close to the tiny island of Mopian, which still has a single beach umbrella. The harbour at Petite Martinique is covered with moorings for local fishing and tourist boats, so it’s hard to find a spot to anchor.
There are some gaps to the north of the fuel dock, but it was exposed to the strong NNE winds, so we tried to find somewhere in the lee of the island. We dropped the anchor at 12°31.42N 061°23.50W, which looked like a sandy patch, but we dragged on coral rubble.
Instead of trying to anchor again, we picked up an orange mooring at 12°31.53N 061°23.31W, which belongs to the Palm Beach restaurant and then we booked a table for dinner. The meal was quaint, sat outside on wooden tables. We had a Lobster Bisque, which was very tasty and then shared a Caribbean Platter, which had a mixture of lobster, fish, lambi and squid - it was OK.
30 May 2018 Petite Martinique to Tyrell Bay
After an early-ish breakfast, we went for a walk on the island. After tying up our dinghy to the main dock, we headed north. We love Petite Martinique, it’s a very small community with traditional wooden houses and a very relaxed way of life. The small children were heading off to the primary school all dressed in their smart school uniforms and politely greeting us good morning.
We came across three guys harvesting Queen Conch to extract the Lambi. I chatted to them for ten minutes and found out that they get the conch from beyond the reef to the windward side of the island. The conch are only found at depths over 60 feet, so they have to use scuba gear. They also dive for Lobster when it is in season.
They’ve constructed a Tidal Pool where they store the live Queen Conch. When I met them, one guy was getting the Conch from the tidal pool; one was using a hammer to create a small slot on the third whorl; and the third guy was using a sharp thin knife to slit the retaining muscle of the conch, so that he could pull the creature from the shell. The Lambi was tossed into a bucket filled with sea water and then dumped on a huge pile of Lambi. They told me that they’re paid $7 EC per kilo for the processed Lambi.
We strolled south and visited a couple of the tiny supermarkets - one was closed because the owner had wandered off somewhere and we bought a couple of bottles of booze from the other one. The island used to be renowned for cheap alcohol and wine, which the locals used to smuggle in. The rum and gin that we bought seemed to be a little cheaper than other places, but not drastically so.
A little further along the road, we found a traditional wooden boat being built in someone’s back garden. After asking permission, we went in and chatted to the craftsmen. There were four guys working on the 80 foot long fishing boat and they had nearly finished the frame work of the hull after four months of labour. They reckon that they have another four months’ work to complete the boat.
The framework is made from a wood called Silver Bali, which is a hard wood from Guyana and is highly resistant to rot and marine/insect attack. The grain is fine and straight, which enables the boat builders to easily bend the 4” by 1” framing planks to the shape of the hull. It’s an impressive piece of work, but unfortunately, the number of boats being built in this traditional way is rapidly declining.
Back on Alba, we dropped the mooring and headed south around the windward side of Carriacou, heading back to Tyrell Bay. We poked our bow into the narrow channel past Cassada Rocks and had a quick look at the shallow bay on Saline Island. It’s amazingly sheltered from the easterly swell, but shallows rapidly from 15 metres to less than three metres - I didn’t find out how shallow because I was hard in reverse…
We could have anchored on the sandy drop-off in 6-8 metres, but there was a nasty looking cloud system coming towards us and we were worried that the wind might shift and put us onto the shallows. We did the prudent thing and ran away. It was only a few miles to Tyrell Bay, where we anchored in more or less the same spot we left a few days ago, dropping the anchor onto a clear patch of sand in 5 metres of water - a nice little holiday.
31 May 2018 Petite Martinique to Tyrell Bay
We still have five weeks before we fly back to the UK, so we’ve decided to stay here in Tyrell Bay for a few more days before going down to Grenada. It’s so peaceful and relaxed here and we know that the anchorages in Grenada will be packed with cruisers hiding from the hurricane season, which starts tomorrow. I love Grenada, but I dislike the “summer camp” mentality of the predominantly American cruisers, who organise daily events such as Mexican Train Dominos, Beach Volleyball, Yoga classes, etc. (Yawn!)
Our plan was to go into Hillsborough in the morning, but then we discovered that today is a national holiday - Corpus Christi, so everything will be closed. We’re rapidly running out of cash and the ATM machines refuse to give us a cash advance, so we need to go to the bank and get some money. Tomorrow is a Friday, so we’ll have to survive another day.
It rained on and off during the morning, so I couldn’t do the deck work that I was planning - instead I had a chilled morning. Glenys dug out her extensive shell collection and started to pack it away in plastic boxes. When we get to Grenada, we’re planning to organise the shipment of a crate back to the UK containing a load of stuff that we don’t need on the boat any more.
There are more photos in our Photo Album section.