Carriacou January 2016!

Carriacou!

Back again but still no progress on the engine front, frustration deluxe!

After a flurry of e-mails it seems that we cannot solve the problem, Volvo and Golden Marine keep coming up with the wrong part despite having originally supplied two of the correct parts. We are now looking to source the part from elsewhere. The problem still exists of how we get it out here.

We finally manage to find the correct part from Diesel Technique in the UK. They will post it to Ruth who will bring it out to St Lucia with her. A big thank you must go to Mark Smith and Andy Hewing for their prompt response.

 While all this is going on we might as well enjoy the Carriacou cruising life. 

We woke one morning to the sight of an old ferry sinking on it's mooring! - It was pumped out and the hole 'fixed' with underwater epoxy. Aparently it is a fairly frequent occurence!

We attended Youthlin’s Cultural Evening before Xmas, an evening of local drumming, dancing, and music with very African rhythms. 

The dancers are in traditional costume, men and women though the drummers are traditionally only men. 

This was followed by the ‘Shakespeare Mass’ where the performers attempt to outdo each other by quoting from Shakespeare texts in really outlandish costumes.The audience are really involved and clap when they do well and boo if they get it wrong. Amazing! The evening culminated in more contemporary Penang and Calypso style music. A very interesting glimpse into Carriacou traditions. 

 

Woe betide you if you forget your lines!

The Shakespeare dates from slave days. The slave owners would teach the slaves the Shakespeare and would have competitions between plantations. Even though harsh punishments were apparently meted out if they got it wrong, they have maintained the tradition. It is only here on Carricaou.

Local food was also available, cooked traditionally outside on open fires and BBQ of course.

Youthlin, who was also one of the dancers spoke to us afterwards. They are really pleased when non locals come. We asked her if this was a regular event and she said “Yes, every year, the last weekend in November.” Deadpan. So, definitely a note for your diary if you are here in November.

Sabrena - The next Beverly Knight?

The big event was to be a concert by Sabrena, a local Grenadian artiste at the ‘Off the Hook Bar’ on Paradise Beach. Sabrena was promoting her soon to be released 1^st album of songs. Some were cover versions of popular blues/rock numbers and some material written by herself and her sister.These topical ballads described island life from a young woman’s view. The concert at the beach was enjoyed by locals and cruisers alike and we are really glad we were there. 

Kareoke in Levi's Bar, note the real musicians - You just have to join in!

Aside from the more formal events, we had the usual rounds of sundowners and visits to local bars and restaurants with other cruisers. We calculated there are about 22 establishments in Tyrell bay, but we have only managed to visit 14 of them so far! So you can see there is always something to do. As cruisers we are always meeting new and catching up with old friends.  ‘Euan Mara’ who had just crossed the Atlantic, their landfall was Carriacou, well done, and a nicer landfall you couldn’t get. ‘Infini’ who have almost completed their circumnavigation, ‘Crazy Diamond’ who probably have circumnavigated, having been to Australia by both the Pacific and Indian Oceans! We also caught up with ‘Mistress’ who we first met and last saw 2 years ago.

Just to dispel any thoughts that all we do is eat and drink, we also managed a few different excursions. We had a walk to another secluded bay for some good snorkelling. 

On 'Safari'!

The scenery looked very African – long straight grass, fences made from rough branches and barbed wire, goats wandering around and even a muddy waterhole. 

An Ideal spot for lunch in Hillsborough - after a hard mornings shopping!

Another day we walked all the way to Hillsborough along the sea shore. For quite a bit we had to scramble through thick mangroves and coming back to sea one time we saw a small lemon shark swimming in the shallows! 

Hiking through the mangroves

We scheduled a couple of dives

Bluebell tunicates - they really are this blue

A shy Trunkfish

 

 including a Lion fish hunt (where Richard bagged two), 

Got it!

had a weekend at Sandy island where the snorkelling was excellent

A French grunt in the shallows off Sandy island

 and visited the neighbouring islands of Petit Martinique and Petit St Vincent.

Anchored off Petit St Vincent

The latter is just an exclusive resort, yachties are welcome to use the beach bar but the island is private. At their prices they won’t be getting much of our business!

This Ferry picked up a mooring off Petit Martinique - no help just 2 on board!

Petit Martinique is quaint 

and very rural. 

 

If you think Carriacou is laid back, 

Not seeen much action lately!

Petit Martinique is horizontal!

The Anchorage in Petit Martinique

Finally with our injector delivery arranged we manage to head north. Richard’s daughter and her husband are coming to St Lucia in February for the school half term so we need to be there to meet them.

A very festive Festive Season in Bequia.

A very festive Festive Season in Bequia.

We left Carriacou on Tuesday 15^th of December, sailing in company with Mahalo to meet Paw Paw for Christmas.  They will be leaving on the world ARC so this will be the last time we see them for a few years. As we sailed past the Sisters, Uwe (our engineer) phoned to say the injector had finally arrived but he thinks it is wrong again! We decided not to turn back as this is the only decent weather forecast for going north until after Christmas. Also we suspect not a lot would be done about it over the Festive Season anyway.

We spotted a pod of pilot whales south west of Bequia and called Mahalo to tell them to look out for them. Then we heard My Way call Mahalo. Obviously we were too far away for her to reach us and was checking if we were heading for Bequia too. With Paw Paw’s friends on Ti Sento meeting in Bequia as well we now have 5 boats together for Christmas.

A Deceptively calm anchorage

After snorkelling to check the anchor and spotting a juvenile Jack Knife fish and a turtle, Lew from Suzanne came to meet us, they are friends of Exit Strategy. And then there were 6! We all decided on a quiet night and to meet up for sundowners on the beach the next afternoon. 

Sundowners on the beach

After checking in, we met Platinas crew on the dingy dock – we had met them previously in Carriacou. And then there were 7! Back on Galene we saw Infini re- anchoring ahead of us. And then there were 8! It was time to get ready for sundowners when Maia arrived and anchored ahead of us. And then there were 9!

SVG Coastguard to the rescue - This boat was one of many towed back and put on a mooring or re-anchored by the coastguard over Xmas. They also rescued several dinghies that went 'walkabout'. - Well done the coastguard!

Our anchor had dragged a bit at first but now we were well dug in. Another boat dragged that evening and this set the pattern for our entire stay. It was very windy by now, 25 - 30 knots with stronger gusts and boats were dragging all over including a small freighter and one of the cruise ships. Fortunately there were only two collisions (that we know about). Unfortunately one crashed into Maia but luckily no damage.

We had nearly three weeks of great fun, in spite of the strong wind and getting paranoid every time a new boat came in hoping they were not going to anchor in front of one of us! The ladies all joined in Noodling (water aerobics) and our last morning we persuaded the men to join us which was hilarious. They just don’t seem to have the same sense of balance as the ladies. Lews comment was the best “This is a lot harder than watching you from the boat.” 

The Xmas lights

On the 19^th it was the turning on of the Christmas lights. In ‘Bequia This Week’ it said at “about 6:30pm” so we all met ashore at about six. We hung about near the stage at the Almond tree (Where all events in Bequia take place) watching a lot of activity like wiring and connecting sound equipment. With it looking as though not much was going to happen very soon, we decamped to the new bar just over the road.

We had a few drinks and sampled the street food on sale and watched everyone wandering around. Of course, there were many children all dressed up and excited. Eventually the little ones were being carried and then falling asleep! About 9pm the compere came on and after a prayer from the vicar and thanks to the organisers she said “We are going to move on to the lighting ceremony shortly.” Then followed about an hours’ worth of speeches from everyone involved! All the locals did not seem to mind at all and clapped and cheered. Eventually the children sang a carol and the lights came on at about 10pm! They were very good for such a tiny community. Then we had a band and we left at about 11:00 with the party still in full swing. We just felt sorry for all the little ones who had not seen the lights come on.

Christmas Eve we had booked to go to the Frangipani who were doing a BBQ with a steel band. It was a very good evening, meat or fish nicely cooked and a fabulous array of salads buffet style.

Xmas lunch - Caribbean style

Christmas Day we all went to the Fig Tree restaurant. We were joined by another boat with a family on board as well. They were closed but Cheryl said we could use her veranda area and even her BBQ if we wanted. We had decided to do a traditional Christmas dinner with everyone bringing a dish or two. We had ham, turkey, chicken, pigs in blankets, roast potatoes and an array of vegetables. Cheryl and her grandson joined us which was nice. To complete the meal we had three different desserts, a real feast in a lovely venue overlooking the sea. As a small thank you to Cheryl we collected some cash to go towards her Reading Groups.

After more sundowners on the beach and on various boats it was Paw Paws last day. We went down to Lower Bay to De Reef where they have a band on Sunday afternoons. A fun farewell and then time to organise New Years Eve!

We started at The Plantation House, recently reopened, with pizza for supper and then a few drinks on Mahalo, before a few of us decamped to Galene to watch a really good firework display over the bay. They seemed to be using a few presumably out of date flares as well as some of them lay burning on the water for quite a while! A bit dangerous considering how many boats there were in the bay.

A variety of boats in the bay.

There was a constantly changing backdrop of interesting boats in and out of the bay, old and new. We looked up a few including one of our favourites we had seen before in the Virgin Islands. It was James Dyson’s Nahlin, a small retro cruise ship built in 1930. The Duke and Duchess of Windsor had sailed on her. Another was a lovely 4 masted barque, Sea Cloud built in 1931.

Tenacious arrives in Bequia

Gradually all our friends were leaving, mostly heading north. We, of course have to go back to Carriacou! Leaving on Tuesday morning, the anchor windlass was not working! Richard investigated for ages and discovered that it was the solenoid. He had to haul the chain up by hand and add another job to the list!

We had a brisk sail down to Chatham Bay 32 miles in 5 ½ hours. Not bad. We saw tropic birds and red footed boobies, which you only see off shore but no whales this time. Chatham is a lovely calm bay with very clear water and many pelicans, brown boobies and terns fishing. We want to spend more time here but not now. Raising the anchor next morning, the winch worked again! Now we can cross a job off the list for a change!

A glorious sail south

We sailed 13 miles to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou in 2 ¼ hours and anchored easily – it almost feels like coming home now! Richard went to check in and meet Uwe and check the injector....... You guessed it, it is wrong again!

Grenada Island Tour November 2015

Grenada Island Tour November 2015

With a mixture of history, art and agriculture Cutty’s tour was one of the most interesting we have done.

St Georges from the hilltop

A drive up the hill behind St Georges showed us a beautiful view of the Carenage and port. We were below Forts Matthew and Frederick which the Americans tried to bomb in 1983 but instead bombed the mental hospital! Below was the prison with an extensive farm has been in use since the 1700’s!

Down the hill we passed the cricket stadium built by the Chinese. At the opening ceremony the Police band played the Taiwanese National Anthem. Bet that did not go down very well. It was also severely career limiting for the bandmaster as well! The road was cut into the cliff and we stopped to see ancient petroglyphs right at the roadside. 

A modern 'petroglyph'!

The tradition is still continuing as there were many modern ones as well. We continued through Happy Hill, the birthplace of Lewis Hamiltons grandfather and further on the home villages of Johnson Beharry, VC and the Mighty Sparrow, Calypso King of the World. Most villages had hand painted murals dedicated to celebrities or politicians.

Cutty with a coco pod

Cutty would stop now and then to show us various plants and describe their uses. Oil nut, used in cooking. The inside of prickly pear leaves can be used as a shampoo and body wash – I only knew it as a fruit. Nutmeg is of course the crop synonymous with Grenada which has healing properties as well as culinary. Soursop, a rather ugly knobbly fruit is a newly discovered cancer cure and is taking over as Grenadas biggest crop. It makes a delicious healthy juice as well.

Wherever you looked there were crops. Most farming is mixed where crops are grown in layers with taller trees like coconut providing shade for others. 

Typical mixed farming

Cocoa is a big crop here too. During Hurricane Ivan the cocoa trees lost all their fruit but the trees were undamaged and continued to fruit. Many of the nutmeg trees were damaged and Grenada still has not reached pre-Ivan production levels even though there seem to be nutmeg trees everywhere.

There are citrus trees, star fruit creepers, guavas, bananas, breadfruit, avocado, cassava, pawpaws, turmeric, maize, sweet potato and more. It is incredibly lush. Cutty said no one in Grenada need go to bed hungry, there is always something in season.

Fresh coconuts at the roadside

Leaving the coast we went east to visit the Concord Falls, a dramatic two part waterfall. There is another section higher up but we did not have time to walk up. Even here in the highlands we were surrounded by edible plants as well as the beautiful forest flowers.

Concord falls

Next stop was the Goyave nutmeg processing station. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures inside. It is really just a huge shed and most of the work is done by hand by women. Above them is a mechanical nut cracker and the nuts come down a central wooden chimney. The women sit all around this and sort the nuts into sacks of whole or broken. They remove any shell remaining and the shells all go in sacks too. They get paid per sack of whole or broken nutmegs. The sacks are hand stitched and stencilled with destinations world wide. Grenada produces the words finest whole nutmeg. 

The view from the exclusive Petty Anse hotel - yes they did let us in!

After a brief stop at the Petit Anse Hotel to see the lovely garden, waves crashing on the beach and a view all the way to Carriacou our next stop was Sauteurs also known as Caribs leap. 

The gardens at Petite Anse

When the French took over the island the last few Caribs leapt off the cliffs to their death rather than surrender to the French. A sad tale, sadly repeated on several other islands.

View towards Carib's leap

We had a delicious lunch at Helenas restaurant just next to the Post Office. Her veranda overhangs the sea just around the corner from Caribs Leap so we had a lovely view and a lovely sea breeze. Chicken, turkey and fish with all the usual island side dishes was served buffet style accompanied by Passion fruit juice – of course, you could buy a beer at the bar – and rounded off with nutmeg ice cream and melon. This was less than £10.00 for the two of us!

Recycled cannon - as a traffic bollard

We headed south to Arthurs Seat (!!) and the Grenada Chocolate Factory which has been a cocoa processing plant since 1774 but only recently began making chocolate. Very small factory but very nice chocolate!  Four little bats jockeyed for position over the door as we entered for our tour! 

Bats by the door!

No one seemed to mind them at all! Cocoa trees grew all around with other crops below like everywhere else including pumpkins, calaloo and lemon grass. The cocoa fruits grow up to about 20cm with many beans inside. Cutty broke one open and we all had a taste. They have a gelatinous coating over each seed which you suck off, slightly tart but very nice, a bit like a Litchee. They only make dark chocolate in a few flavours, nutmeg being one, of course! 

There have been huge amounts of Sargassum weed in the Caribbean this year and piles wash up on the beaches. Here they collect it and mix it with the pods from the cocoa which are slightly acidic. This counteracts the salt in the seaweed and makes very good compost. During the turtle nesting season, cruisers had been helping local wild life rangers to clear the weed off the beaches as the turtles were unable to move the weed to dig their nests.

The old Rivers distillery

Rivers Rum Factory was next, we went there last time we were in Grenada but it was still interesting. They have been producing rum since 1785 and still only make enough for local consumption. 

Pretty old technology - but it still works

The white rum they produce is 150 proof! It is too high an alcohol content to take on an aeroplane, so they make a 130 proof for the tourists! Both are rocket fuel! We had a tasting of course and their latest product is a chocolate rum! 

A walk into the rainforest

Back into the interior we had a little forest walk at Grand Etang through tree ferns, huge trees and colourful heliconias to look for Mona monkeys. We did not see any but when we got to the end of the walk and the bar – naturally – the barman said we had just missed them. They are not indigenous, once again escaped pets but have become naturalised. They are hunted but this area is a reserve so they are quite tame.

Typical country house

We drove back through Grenville, the second biggest town in Grenada and it was certainly very busy. A lot of the businesses here are run by Syrians. Not recent immigrants but descendants of Syrian settlers from the 1800’s. 

Contrast a restored plantation house

As usual every bit of history raises more questions than answers. Back to the yacht club for a last drink before making our weary way back to Galene after a fascinating day.

Did we do all that in a day?