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.