We
have been on the move.
We
left Granada and sailed and motor-sailed up to Carriucou Island
Saturday morning. Motor-sailing is what you do when the winds die
and you are not making enough progress. You start the motor but
leave the sails up to give a little lift from what wind there is.
When the winds pick up you shut off the motor and continue sailing.
We have a 4 knot rule. If our speed drops below 4 knots, about 4.5
mph, we start thinking about motoring. We were in the wind shadow of
the island so the winds were up and down so we ended up motor-sailing
about half the time. The passage between islands was rough and we
took a lot of water on the deck and we found upon arrival that one of
our stanchions was leaking. The stanchions are the posts that hold
up the lifelines marking the boundaries of the boat, as in “stay
inside the lifeline” or you are swimming. We re-bedded all of the
stations in Trinidad and one had to be redone. Since then it has not
leaked. We are closer to having a dry boat. In Carriucou we checked
out the changes since we were here two years ago including the new
grocery store and they have finished the new marina and boatyard.
Tuesday we checked out of the country and headed up to Union Island
which is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It was only an
eleven mile trip. We went ashore to the bar/restaurant to see about
checking in. The Customs and Immigration office is on the other side
of the island but you can hire one of the restaurant employees to act
as your agent and go to the office and check you and the boat into
the country. For a fee of course, but it is about the same as the
cost of taking a bus to the offices. While there we saw several
large yachts and a small sailing cruise ship anchor in the bay. One
morning the waitress said that it was Ed Scheeran (musician) and his
friends off one of the yachts that were in for dinner. The weather
was supposed to stay favorable and we decided to try going to Tobago
Cays again. Last year we went there twice but it was so windy we
bailed out both times. This time we were lucky. We did several
hikes on the small islands seeing several iguanas and I was able to
go out to the reef to snorkel. The coral on the reef is in pretty
poor shape but there were still a lot of fish. The Cays are a Marine
Park so there is a charge for staying there but worth the cost. You
cannot go a day without seeing several turtles around your boat.
Several days of this and it was time to move on.
Bloody Bay, Union Island
We
left in the morning at first light to sail up to Willilabou Bay on
the island of St Vincent. We had stayed in this bay last year, which
is a location for the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It also has
an Immigration and Customs office so were able to check out. We had
set our next harbor to be St Anne in Martinique but we were planning
to do it in two hops. We planned to sail up to the Pitons in St
Lucia and take a mooring (no anchoring allowed) without checking in
and leave in the morning. We had such a good sail that we arrived
too early to stop and decided to continue up to Margot Bay where we
had spent several weeks last year. With a combination of sailing and
motor-sailing we arrive there earlier then necessary so we continued
up to Rodney Bay and anchored for the night. It was a pretty good
day, traveling 58 miles in ten hours, arriving in time to have a rum
drink and watch the sunset. In the morning we pulled anchor and
sailed off to St Anne Martinique.
We
had a wild ride across the pass with winds in the 20-27 knot range
and 6-9 foot seas. We spent a lot of time climbing the swell and
then dropping off the other side which was sending water flying
everywhere. We, however, were dry and comfortable in our enclosed
cockpit. About halfway across the winds died a bit and the tide
changed and the seas calmed down. It is amazing the effects of wind
and current on the sea state. We arrived in St Anne and set the
anchor. Last year when we stopped here the anchorage was very
crowded but this year there are about half as many boats but still
close to a hundred. The inner harbor at La Marin is not as crowded
this year either but still more boats in one place then I have seen
anywhere else. It is a very popular destination. We went ashore to
check in to find the cafe was closed on Wednesday. In the French
Islands all you have to do to check in is to go to a designated cafe
or business that has a computer and fill out the form and have the
employee sign and stamp it. The other islands still use paperwork in
triplicate with very overused carbon paper to make the copies. If
you are too young to remember carbon paper just Google it. We went
in the next day to check in and ran into our friends Stephen and Jody
form Blue Pelican on their way to catch a bus and Dean and Kim from
Dream Catcher. We had met Stephen and Jody about nine years ago when
they were in a boatyard in Oriental NC the same time we were there.
They have a sistership to Hi Flite down to the same blue hull paint.
Since seeing them they have sailed the East Coast of the US, the
Bahamas, The Caribbean, through the Panama Canal, home to Australia,
the Indian Ocean, up the Red Sea, the Mediterranean and were just
finishing their eight year circumnavigation. These Pearson 424’s
are good boats. We spent a lot of time with them hearing their
stories, comparing boats and Stephen was over one day to help tune Hi
Flite’s rigging. They were deciding what their next move will be
and it seems they have decided to stop for a haul-out to paint the
bottom and then across the Caribbean Sea, through the Canal again and
sail back to Australia. We have more modest plans. We spent a lot
of time with Dean and Kim from Dream Catcher. We first met them when
we were in Nassau for repairs and they were starting their cruising.
Since then we have run into them numerous times.
While
in St Anne we made several trips to La Marin by dinghy and bus. La
Marin is the town inside the bay with the marinas, marine stores,
shops, restaurants and grocery stores. One day the six of us and
Craig and Billie from Flying Loon took the hike to Saline Beach. The
hike is beautiful following along the shoreline and through the
forest and the beach is your classic Caribbean crescent sand beach.
The interesting part of the hike is that it takes you through the
nude beach. I will not comment on this other then to say there are
things that can never be un-seen. We have been having a bit of a
rainy spell with short rain squalls passing through several times a
day and overnight. One day the six of us, Hi Flite, Dream Catcher
and Blue Pelican, rented a car and when sightseeing on the island.
It is a beautiful place. We stopped for lunch in St Joseph and after
checking out their replica of Notre Dame Cathedral we had lunch at a
Chinese restaurant. We stopped at the Clement rum distillery but
skipped the tour and just opted for the tasting room. The distillery
is an old plantation with several tours including their newer art
displays. When they said it took about two hours for the tour we
decided to save the money and maybe do it another time. With as many
cruisers as there are here there are many social events and we spent
several Friday evenings in town sharing drinks and stories with
cruisers from Canada, The US, and most any other English speaking
countries. The other nationalities were doing the same at other
venues. We again became regulars at the bakeries buying baguettes and
a variety of pastries. It was a different experience from last year
when we looked at the number of boats here and left as soon as we
could.
Movie Set
Movie Set
Saline Beach, Martinique.
It
was not all life in paradise. I was still having fuel issues so I
spent a day changing a fuel filter and then figuring out what I had
done wrong that the engine would not run. It took a while but I
finally found my mistake. Another learning experience, I am in no
way a diesel mechanic. Our other problem came up when I tried to use
the generator to charge the batteries. It is again not producing
electricity. It did this in Granada and after several tries we found
a mechanic that was able to get it working. Evidently the salt water
and salt air have corroded much of the wiring and electronics. It
runs great, just to power output. With the cloudy days we have been
having the batteries were very low and running the engine was not
keeping them adequately charged. Time for a more radical solution.
Generators in Martinique are of European design and produce 240
volts. Just South of us in St Lucia they use 110 volts. After a
couple of emails to Island Water World we were able to reserve their
last generator. Now we just had to backtrack to Rodney Bay to pick
it up. Generally checking into and out of a country on a weekend
involves an overtime fee. Not in the French islands however. Sunday
afternoon we made the dinghy trip into town. I checked us out and
Cori picked up more supplies including the bakery. Monday morning we
said good bye to our friends, pulled anchor and had a great sail down
to Rodney Bay. We anchored, had a late lunch, and went ashore to
check in and pick up the generator. We are now the proud owners of a
Honda eu2200i generator. We spent the day onboard running the
generator giving the batteries a nice deep charge. In the afternoon
we had another boat come in and anchor right in front of us. There
is no shortage of space but evidently sitting on top of our anchor
was the preferred spot. After a while I went out and made a bit of a
fuss, I’m not sure they understood what I was saying but after a
visiting with a neighbor boat then pulled their anchor and
re-anchored a little further away. This morning Cori took her kayak
to some of the beach area but came back reporting that the beach
combing wasn’t any good. I took care of a couple of preventive
maintenance items and relaxed with a book about Blackbeard the
Pirate. We have made a trip into shore to check out with Immigration
and Customs, pick up some provisions and duty free alcohol and are
preparing to leave in the morning to go back to Martinique.
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