1 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada
The boys were running around at eight o’clock this morning waiting to go to “La Source”. Ros picked us up in her car at half past nine and we had a wonderful day.
Everything in the resort is free to guests including food and drinks. We started the day with a bacon and egg breakfast, then Glenys and I went for a dive while the boys went to archery – poor old Craig couldn’t bend the bow, but Brett did OK. We had a swim in the pool and lounged in the Jacuzzi until one o’clock when we went in for lunch.
One hour, four courses and four glasses of wine later, we staggered out of the dining room to the water sports. I took the boys out on a Sunfish dinghy and we then tackled the water skiing.
Craig went first on a knee board and did very well until he let go of the tow rope about 30 metres from the beach. The board tipped over and Craig couldn’t get his legs out of the strap. He was trapped underwater only just managing to get his head above water to scream. I started to swim out to him, but the ski boat turned around quickly and one of the guys jumped in and got to him just before me.
It scared him immensely, but he was very brave and had another go when I asked him to. I was worried that it might put him off having another try sometime in the future. He went out for a short run and was very cool when he let go – he ripped open the knee strap and slipped out before he had stopped moving!
Brett had a go with the knee board and as usual was very good. I couldn’t get started on a mono ski, (I suspect it was the 4 glasses of wine!), but started OK on 2 and transferred to a mono OK. Glenys and Brett went for another sail in a Sunfish, and then it was back to the pool for a quick dip before a round of golf! The mosquitoes were out on the greens, so we played 4 holes and retired for a game of table tennis.
After another quick dip in the pool, it was back into the restaurant for tea and sandwiches and then to the bar for sundowners. One of the best days we’ve had for ages, very decadent! We are very grateful to Gary and Ros especially because we found out that they have paid £40 to get us in for the day!
We got attacked by mosquitoes and sand flies when we got out of the taxi at Secret Harbour. I’ve been collecting itchy bumps all over my body since we got to Grenada – and I’m getting sick of it now! I’ve just remembered that we’ve been living on the boat for exactly 3 years today – we had a good celebration day!
2 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay
Glenys did school work while I went into town to have a mooch around. I put a new spark plug in the outboard and I think it’s a bit better. I put a new Triplex filter in the dive compressor and then filled 5 tanks. Glenys went over to a French boat “Anejo” and did a bit of sewing on their awning – she earned $30EC, a good start to the month! I made a prototype collapsible lobster snare from 1/4“ copper tubing, bolts and some extension nuts – we’ll see how it works tomorrow!
3 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay
We went around to Hog Island and did school work there. After lunch, we went for a dive with Tony and Dee. I tried my collapsible snare and caught a 3-4lb lobster – it worked well and impressed Tony! As soon as we got back, we went to “Marina Em” for a cup of tea – it threw it down for about an hour. We had to have dinner down below when we managed to get back home.
4 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay
Glenys went into town with Dee in the morning. Just before she left, she announced that she couldn’t find her keys and also couldn’t find her credit card – panic! I spent most of the morning tidying up and looking for the keys and credit card. I found the keys under the chart table seat, but no credit card. When Glenys came back she told me that she’d found it in her handbag – phew! After lunch Glenys cut my hair and that was the end of another day!
5 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay
School work in the morning. I scrubbed the bottom of the boat. We went for a dive with Dee and Andrew from “Running Free”. I spotted a nurse shark in a small cave. While the others were having a look at it, I sneaked around the back of the cave and gave its tail a good tweak - it shot out of the cave straight at Glenys. She had to lift her legs to let it go underneath her - very funny! I filled 6 tanks. We went for a night dive with Tony which was a bit boring.
6 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay
We motored around to Hog Island in the morning. I filled 3 tanks. I serviced the tank valves. One of the valves doesn’t have the proper seals, so I’ve asked Gary to get me some spares. Unfortunately, it means that I’ve got one more tank out of action (2 out of 6). We did two dives with Tony and Dee to the east of Calivigny Island. I caught 4 lobsters.
We went back around to Mount Hartman in the evening and took 3 lobsters up to Gary and Ros’s house for dinner – had a good time but unfortunately, Ros got out a bottle of Port. Half a bottle later we staggered down the hill, I wouldn’t say that Glenys was drunk but she stood at someone’s garden gate shouting at and teasing three big dogs for a couple of minutes!
7 August 1995 Mount Hartman Bay to Hog Island
We were feeling a bit dull this morning. We motored around to Hog Island and did schoolwork. In the afternoon, we sent the boys to the beach and had a nap! I spent an hour finishing off scrubbing the bottom of the boat. We had a quiet evening and went to bed early.
8 August 1995 Hog Island
School work in the morning. I filled 3 tanks. We then went for a dive with Tony and Dee. They came for dinner which was pleasant. There was a heavy rain shower and we all got a bit wet. Marina stayed for the night which the children found exciting!
9 August 1995 Hog Island
We motored around to Mount Hartman and filled up with water and diesel. Brett opened the back of our yellow camera and we lost our photos of La Source and Grenada – not a great loss, but I went crackers because it was so unnecessary. In retrospect, I’m surprised that it’s not happened before now!
Gary and Ros came down to say goodbye. Gary went over to see “Manx Cat” and bought a flute from Ian for £250. They were both happy with the deal. (We decided to go back around to Hog Island.) We expected to go to Trinidad tonight, but it’s raining and the wind is south of east so we’ll probably go tomorrow. We spent the afternoon quietly – the boys on the beach, I played the clarinet and Glenys painted some flags for Venezuela and Belize.
My clarinet playing is getting better – I can nearly run through all the major scales, and I can just get through 15 jazz tunes like Robbin’s Nest and Harlem Nocturne. I still don’t breathe properly and lift my top lip to snatch a breath - “like an enraged camel”, but my tone and fingering is getting better.
10 August 1995 Hog Island to Chaguaramas, Trinidad (Day 1)
We did school work in the morning and then motored around to Mount Hartman Bay. We were invited to “Marina Em” for a farewell lunch, sad to say goodbye because we’ve had a good three weeks together. We went round to Prickly Bay and cleared out.
We then spent two hours getting ready to sail overnight – tidy up, deflate dinghy, check engine, etc. We left at five o’clock and had a pleasant sail until eleven o’clock when the wind died on us. We motor-sailed the rest of the way. It was a beautiful night with calm seas and a full moon – great night passage.
11 August 1995 Hog Island to Chaguaramas, Trinidad (Day 1)
We had to roll away the genoa at midnight because we were going too fast. We arrived at the Boca Del Dragon at seven o’clock in the morning and into the anchorage at Chagaramus at eight o’clock. It took us 4 attempts to anchor because the anchorage is very crowded.
I ran around clearing in, getting mail and arranging for Craig to go to the dentist. We had lunch with Ann and John from “Sandpiper”. “Drot”, “Moby Dick” and “Night Music” are here. Glenys took the boys to the toy shop in the afternoon while I looked through the mail and wandered aimlessly about. We went to the “Lifeline” bar for happy hour – they’re still serving greasy chips, burgers, chicken and fish.
We met Coby from “Cecelia” (Aus) who we met in St Lucia just before Christmas. He was telling us about being bitten by a vampire bat while he was in a boat yard near Cumana in Venezuela. He didn’t feel anything but woke up with his arm covered in blood. He went to the doctor who confirmed a vampire bat bite (2 small grooves) and prescribed a course of 5 anti rabies injections. He said it was one-a-day in the stomach and “made his toes curl”. We will have to be careful. We were joined by “Rose of Wight” and “Colleen” who didn’t seem particularly keen to see us – we don’t know what we’ve done!
12 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
School work in the morning. We’ve only got 10 lessons left for this year, so I’m starting to do 1½ lessons per day to get it over with – it’s hard on Craig but I’m sick of this Grade 1 now! Glenys tried to do some washing, but Power Boats didn’t have any water! I ran the engine which started to overheat – I didn’t have time to check it out, but I suspect that we’ve sucked up one of the cannonball jelly fishes which proliferate here. I went to a Mood Indigo Jazz night with Joe from “Night Music” which was good fun – I’m starting to think that I’ll have to play next Saturday.
13 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I found out that our fresh water pump is leaking and removed it from the engine. There’s nothing that I can do until tomorrow, so we’re restricting electricity – no fridge and minimal lights. Glenys did school work and then took the boys to a children’s play day event at Peakes. I spent the afternoon sorting out our tax affairs. We went to Lifeline bar for dinner.
14 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work in the morning, while I ran around arranging for a company to pick up our water pump. I borrowed an outboard off “Night Music” and put ours in for a check up, since it seems to have lost power over the last month. I met Stewart and Wendy on “Jane Anne”, an Oyster 435 that was for sale next to “Glencora” in Fox’s Boat Yard three years ago. Glenys tried to go to the shops but the road was blocked by a landslide. We had a beer or two in the Lifeline bar and back to hurricane lamp lighting on “Glencora”.
15 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I took our life raft into Power Boats and it was picked up by Marine Consultants. The water pump wasn’t picked up yesterday because of the landslide, so in a mad impetuous moment I hired a car for $30US to drive down to San Fernando, which is 30 miles away. It threw it down and we had a miserable 2 hour trip down. We got to Burmac Ltd who told us within 5 minutes that they didn’t carry the model of pump. Great! They pointed us down the road to another place where we could get a pump repair kit. We drove down and bought a Vauxhall kit for our Ford pump.
On the way back to Burmac, we found out that we had a puncture! I drove to Burmac on the flat and gave the pump and repair kit to Burmac’s engineering shop. Fortunately, Burmac also had a tyre repair shop and repaired the puncture for me. The engineering shop put the pump together but it still leaked. They said that the seal was different so at my suggestion they took it to bits and reassembled it with the old seal. They assured me that it was OK. I was amazed that they didn’t charge me anything for the puncture repair or the pump repair! We had a pleasant drive back, did some shopping and went to Pizza Boy for dinner.
16 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work while I refitted the water pump. It leaked! I went back to Power Boats with the leaking pump and saw one of the owners, Fran. He took the pump and said that he would try to get a new one for me. I went back to the boat, had lunch and then went to Port of Spain to a Mood Indigo rehearsal. Glenys and the boys spent the afternoon at the movies.
I’ve been talked into playing “East of the Sun” and “Stranger on the Shore” in the bar in three days time. Don’t Panic ! I got back to Power Boats and saw Frank who had a new water pump for me - I took it back to the boat and tried to fit it, but no joy because the hose outlet is in a different angle and interferes with the fan belt – back to square one! I gave the new pump back to Frank and he said he would try to get another. I turned to drink.
17 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I took the water pump to an engineering shed in Power Boats who said they could repair it. I went back to the boat and found out that one of the 4 batteries that I bought in St Martin in March had failed. It was dragging the other 3 down. I went out and spent £100 on a new one.
Glenys took the boys to see Linda, Steve and Dale (8) from “Maccabee” who we saw a year ago in Tobago. The pump was ready at four o’clock, I took it back to Glencora and fitted it. No leaks. I ran the engine – no leaks. I was euphoric. I went up to check the engine gauges – oh my god, the alternator isn’t charging. Life is a bitch sometimes! I went and got drunk.
18 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Richard from “Kaelia”, who runs Dockyard Electrics in Antigua, came over and checked my alternator. He eventually determined that it was the Adverc regulator at fault. Yesterday, I had forgotten to switch off the wind generator when I disconnected the batteries to fit the new one. With no load, the voltage output from the wind generator went up to about 70 volts and killed the regulator.
Once we found out that it was just the regulator, we went into town to watch the life raft being inflated prior to having a service. The life raft is in good condition and I persuaded him to put the old flares back in, which expire Dec ’95. That saved us a lot of money. We then walked up to the dentist where Craig had two fillings and his front tooth extracted. His mouth was badly swollen but we walked to the zoo. It threw it down, but we all had a pleasant time (apart from Craig whose mouth hurt!)
19 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Craig’s mouth was still swollen, so Glenys took him back to the dentist, who said that Craig had been chewing the inside and corner of his mouth while it was numb from the injection. The dentist gave Craig a course of antibiotics to help reduce the swelling.
Today is the Mood Indigo Concert, so I spent the day practising my tunes in between running about. I ran the engine and bypassed the regulator to put some charge into the batteries. I did this by connecting the field terminal on the alternator to ground – this causes the alternator to run at full output which is only 25 amps. I must get a 75 amp alternator.
Brett has been asking us to buy him a bike for the last 3 days because all his friends ashore have bikes. I managed to borrow one from “Night Music” – Brett was so excited! Brett’s personality is changing – he’s acquired my teasing sense of humour – “Oh look, Dad, the propeller’s fallen off the outboard”. It’s a bit wearing. He’s also getting a lot more stubborn and doesn’t listen when we tell him off. I suppose we’ll all have to adjust.
I became more and more nervous as the evening approached, and my practising became worse so at three o’clock I gave up. The jazz session started at five o’clock and I didn’t play until about half past six – I wasn’t very communicative before I played. I wasn’t very good. I squeaked a bit and missed a few notes, but worst of all I couldn’t get a consistent sound from the microphone. The sound from a clarinet apparently doesn’t come out of the bell but comes out of the highest hole! The music stand was in a very awkward place to my left so I was forced to strain to look out of the corner of my eyes. I wasn’t very comfortable and combined with my terror caused me to play worse than I should have. I’ve decided that I’m not good enough yet for public performance!
There’s a 17 year old Trinidadian called Alwyn who plays the clarinet – he’s brilliant. I’m going to try to get a lesson with him as soon as I can.
20 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Couldn’t bring ourselves to do school work. I took Brett and Craig ashore, and then went to see Al and Joy on “Nightingale”. Al is a music teacher (retired) who plays a mean cornet, and also plays flute, sax and clarinet. We chatted for an hour then after lunch I took my clarinet back to him with a list of a hundred questions. I spent another couple of hours with him; he gave me a lot of pointers on playing the clarinet but said I was doing OK and had good tone, which pleased me. We chatted for a while about playing jazz, which he has played for 50 years! It was so rolly at lunchtime that we went and sat under the trees at Peake’s and had a picnic!
21 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
A bit depressed today – I found out that I owe the Inland Revenue £1,320 from the 91/92 tax year. When will it ever end! Glenys did school work while I put the old regulator on the alternator – seems to work fine. I sent a fax to Adverc asking them about the cost of a new PCB for the Adverc controller. Glenys went out to the shops in the afternoon.
22 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work while I went into town. I went and picked up forms for a US Visa and found out that we have to pay $20US each. I then went to the Venezuelan Embassy and found out that we have to pay $30US each! I went to three banks – one for US visa payment, one for Venezuelan visa payment and one to get some US dollars and travellers cheques. I then wandered aimlessly about town. Miserable rainy day, so by the time I got back to Glencora, Glenys was crawling the walls because she had been trapped on the boat all day!
23 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys did school work while I went back into town to get the visas. I first went to the US Embassy and they kept our passports until tomorrow, which was a bit of a blow because I couldn’t then get the Venezuelan visa as I had hoped.
I went to a photocopy shop and photocopied a Jazz Fake Book – all 430 pages. It took me 2½ hours, but only cost £14! I bought some sandals and tapes and went back.
While I was out, the outboard had packed up and Richard of “Kaelia” helped Glenys start it, but it packed up on me as well. I stripped the carburettor but I think that it’s still sick! We went out for steak and kidney pie at the bar which was nice. When we got back to the boat, I managed to have an argument with everyone else – tired, drunk and sick of Trinidad!
24 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
We decided to miss out Lesson 159 and went straight onto the final test. We had a little ceremony and presented the boys with certificates and a new book each!
I’m glad we’re down here in Trinidad because there are 2 hurricanes east of Dominica. Humberto is at 15°N 42°W and Iris is at 15°N 54°W. Everyone is hoping that they track NW and miss the islands, but Iris is stationary at the moment and could go anywhere.
Glenys went to pick up the US visas – we actually got 5-year multiple entry this time! I borrowed a ghetto blaster from “Kaelia” and started to record the 13 tapes of “Lord of the Rings”. In the evening, we went to play jazz with Al of “Nightingale” and Rolf . We took Glenys’ keyboard, so we had a cornet, a guitar, a piano and a clarinet. It was great fun and we learned a lot! Al got us to play Bb blues where each person ad libs. He kept telling Glenys and me to play what we feel, which is OK for Al who has been playing his cornet for 50 years! My first introduction to jamming!
25 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
The repacked life raft was delivered to us. Glenys went into town to drop off our passports at the Venezuela Embassy. I finished recording “Lord of the Rings” and then started to enter new tunes into “Band-in-a-Box” ready for our next jazz session. We had a quiet evening on board “Glencora”. Hurricane Iris is still moving west but very slowly. Hurricane Humberto has started to move north and doesn’t concern us any more.
26 August 1995 Chaguaramas to Maracas Bay, Trinidad
I was woken up at three o’clock in the morning by the violent motion of the boat. I staggered upstairs and found that there was a 20 knot wind from the SW causing 4 foot waves to come straight into the anchorage. The motion was extremely disturbed, pitching and rolling. I knew we weren’t in any danger but I couldn’t sleep. I stayed up until five o’clock, doing a few jobs on the deck, re-lashing the life raft and tidying up in case we needed to move.
By seven o’clock the waves were 6 foot and breaking and the anchorage looked terrible with all the yachts pitching and rolling amongst the whitecaps. The wind hadn’t increased above 20 knots but, because of the 100 mile fetch, the waves have built up. We listened to the weather and discovered that Hurricane Iris has been down-graded to a tropical storm and is practically stationary over St Lucia with 40-50 knot winds. The unusual SW winds that we are getting are caused by Iris, 200 miles away.
We decided to get out of the anchorage because the winds aren’t expected to back from SW to SE for the next 24-48 hours. We had trouble motoring out of Chaguaramus because of a strong tide against us, and as I discovered later, we had ¼” of barnacles on the propeller! We had a quick look at Scotland Bay and, as expected, it was packed with yachts that had escaped from Chaguaramus. We carried on round to Maracas Bay on the north coast. We had a brilliant broad reach most of the way there and the anchorage is off a beach and beautifully calm compared to Chaguaramus!
27 August 1995 Maracas Bay, Trinidad
No peace for the wicked, at about nine o’clock last night we started to get 20-30 knot gusts of wind, accompanied by heavy rain. We had about 3 of these squalls during the night and then the wind died about six o’clock. We then started to roll as a swell came from the west. Tropical storm Iris is at 15.2°N 61.8°W and is moving very slowly in a WNW direction The SW winds are expected to stay for another 12-48 hours. There’s also tropical depression 12 at 15.7°N 37.6°W, which is the next one!
We moved over to the west corner of the bay and had a pleasant day pottering about on the boat. We took the boys to the beach and I made a judgement error and approached the beach at a point where there was surf. We surfed in OK, but had a hell of a job getting back out - at one point we nearly flipped the dinghy. We met Tim from “Frehel” - he’s the photographer who produces a lot of the brilliant photos at Antigua Race Week. He’s based in Bequia and knows Gareth and Fi well.
28 August 1995 Maracas Bay to Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Fairly peaceful night. Iris is now at 19.0°N 62.0°W and is back to being a hurricane. It has passed to the east of St Martin and we’ve now got SSE winds so we decided to head back to Chaguaramus. Tropical depression 12 is now at 16.6°N 42.1°W and is predicted to be at 19°N 53°W on 31st.
We motored around to Chaguaramus and filled up with fuel. Chagaramus was flat calm, but we could see the damage done to the dinghy dock by the swell. Apparently, the swell dropped off on Saturday afternoon, but then they had 30-40 knot squalls and there were people dragging and staying up on anchor watches. I think we did the right thing going to Maracas Bay. I’m feeling smug!
29 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
Glenys went into town to pick up the Venezuelan visas, travellers cheques and a few bits. I stripped down the aft toilet to de-furr the pipes. I found that the outlet pipe had split so I had to replace it. I then stripped down the pump, foolishly threw away the valves and then discovered that I haven’t got a spares kit! Peake’s don’t have a spares kit, but fortunately I have a spare pump which I installed.
I talked to the outboard engineer about the reduced power on the outboard. He can’t do a rebuild because the agents here don’t hold spares for small outboards. He reckons that the rings and valves are gummed up with lacquer and carbon and he sold me a can of engine conditioner which is sprayed in the carburettor. It appears to be a little bit better.
30 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
I went into town to get travellers cheques and pick up a few things. I got back to the boat, tired, hot, dehydrated and still hung over. I’m going to have to stop getting drunk at the bar every night! I hate Chaguaramas – it’s rolly, hot, humid, dirty water, poor holding, crowded and I keep getting a hangover. But it’s convenient for getting things done!
Glenys spent the day cleaning out the engine bilge and going to the launderette. We lead such an exciting life! We’re planning to sail away from here on Sunday to Tobago.
31 August 1995 Chaguaramas, Trinidad
There’s now another hurricane (Luis) at 14.4°N 39.1°W, expected 16°N 51°W on 3rd September with winds of 95 to 115 knots. The other 3 hurricanes (Huberto, Iris and Karen) have now moved north.
It was Trinidad’s Independence Holiday today, so we had a day off work. I spent the morning printing off more sheet music from “Band-in-a-Box” ready for an afternoon jazz session with Al, Rolf and Glenys. They played a lot of tunes that I didn’t know, so I had a confidence problem and didn’t play as well as I should. Al also pointed out that I curl my thumb and little fingers when I’m playing so I need to work on that – more slow scales! We ate at the Lifeline Bar – beer, chicken pie and chips – boring! Time to get out!