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.
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