report from grenada, west indies

This is our first blog for the 2009-2010 winter cruising season.

We returned to Grenada on Nov 5 and started preparations for launch. Still acclimated to the near freezing weather in Nova Scotia, we suffered much at 30 deg C (86 deg F). The hell never ends down here!

After passing the hurricane season ashore at Spice Island Marine,

the "Charlotte D" was launched on Nov 19.

It has been 4 years now since the "Charlotte D" has been tied to a dock. We continue to spend all our layover times at anchor, where we produce our own electricity (wind, solar and generator), and our own fresh water (reverse osmosis). Fuel is hauled in jerry cans and filtered into boat's tanks. Our thin cruising budget requires that we do our own maintanence and repairs.

Normal maintanence prior to launch included varnishing, applying antifouling paint on bottom, servicing engines, stocking foodstuffs, and filling water tanks. These routine items usually take us a week to complete.

This season our launch was delayed by several problems.

Our 20 year old diesel generator, increasingly balky for the past two seasons, refused to operate even after we installed new glow plugs and fuel injectors. After many hours of sweating in a hot engine room, we finally decided that compression is low due to both worn piston rings and valves. So, we purchased a Honda portable generator.

Our battery charger/inverter developed a "communication fault". Tech support at Xantrex told us that the likely cause of the problem was poor quality AC shore power, judging from the error messages displayed. In fact, we were made aware of a hot-neutral reversal in the shore power line when our shrouds carried 110 V! Xantrex is hopeful that the unit is repairable, so we will carry it back to Canada in the spring. In the meantime, we purchased smaller charger and inverter to carry us through this winter. We will be less trusting of shore power in the future!

And efforts at recommissioning continued even after launch.

Our sailing dinghy looks bristol with new paint and rigging! The big boat was rigged with help from our friend visiting from Cedar Key, FL.

Our 6 year old Yamaha outboard, running fine when we left in April, would not start. It was taken for service and some wiring problems corrected (corrosion continues even when the boat is laid up ashore).

The malfunction of the HF radio was easy to correct, after many hours searching for the poor power connection responsible for the trouble.

The manual bilge pump that we had been nursing along finally proved to be irrepairable and was replaced.

An eye splice was replaced here and there.

Supply stops were needed for the aft shower before the dripping head could be repaired. Replacement of teak bungs is a continuing chore.

We were pleased to accept a gift of 2 solar panels (110 W total) and installed them on starboard rail. Thanks to our new friends from South Africa! We will think of them for years as the amps flow into the ship's batteries!

Of course, not all our time in Grenada was occupied with boat maintanence. We enjoyed Jazz sessions at the museum with our friends from The Isle of Mann and from Grenada.

Le Phare Bleu is a wonderful spot for Happy Hour, which, on wednesdays, is followed by a West Indian dinner, served "family syle". We met many interesting cruisers at the "Friendship
Table".

Our friend from Grenada arranged for an "oil down" which was enjoyed by all.

The Grenada Yacht Club was a cool spot after a long hot walk through downtown St. George's.

There is always lobster to boil or grill and Happy Hours are well attended, here with friends from Isle of Man and Denmark.

Pot Luck Dinner on US Thanksgiving held at de Big Fish was a great success thanks to organizing efforts of our friends from Iowa.

We explored Grenville and the east coast of Grenada.

Catherine participated in saturday tutoring sessions at Mt. Airy and found them rewarding.

The Steel Pan Concert fridays at Prickly Bay Marina is a favourite event for us. Click on the short video clip to sample their rendition of "Hotel California".

The fiddle playing is improving steadily. She's almost ready to produce her first CD, to be titled, "Persistence is the best substitute for Talent."

Grenada has many beautiful beaches, one of our favourites being the Grand Anse on the west coast, lined with open air bars; perfect for "liming" (sit long, talk much).

Catherine is enjoying having her hair braided, island style. It's a much cooler and suprisingly long-lived "do" even with ocean swimming and shampooing.

Roger's Beach Bar is renowed for sunday afternoon BBQ's, enjoyed by many.

Skype continues to provide free voice and video communication with other Skype users. It does require highspeed internet service, which is not always available at the internet cafes. Since we do not receive snail mail, the internet continues to be very useful for email, banking, bill paying, retrieving tax information slips, downloading tax programs, as well as for world news, weather forecasts, and communicating our cruise news through this blog.

Catherine continues to do most of the cooking aboard the "Charlotte D" in her fine fashion, while Peter struggles along with simple things like plantain fritters and scooping out jelly coconuts.

We sailed away from Grenada on Dec 19 for a lovely passage northward over 2 days to Bequia, one of the 30 or so islands of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Conditions were perfect in late december; 15 knot trade winds, sunny skies and 28 C (82F).

Peter and Catherine, aboard S/V "Charlotte D" at Bequia.

"To err is human, to really screw things up one needs religion."

Return to the Grenadines and to Grenada

The S/V Charlotte D arrived in Bequia, The Grenadines (http://www.svgtourism.com/ ), on Mar 15, 2009. Located at 13 00.1’N 61 14.6’W the anchorage at Admiralty Bay is one of our favorites.












Driving in Bequia is typical of the islands we have visited. Here’s how it is. Use of horn is frequent, generally to indicate a vehicle’s presence or as a greeting, rarely in anger. Shouting to and from vehicles is common, road rage is not. Priority at intersections is not always clear. Pedestrians expect cars to avoid them rather than the other way around. Driving is a social activity, with open windows, slowing down or stopping in traffic lanes to buy mangos or to chat with people driving in the opposite direction. Because roads are so narrow, delivery trucks halt traffic to unload. Blocked drivers just wait calmly. What else could you do?

The fish market at Bequia is always a show. A blown conch shell announces arrival of the fishing boats onto the beach, and the fresh catch is sold within minutes.




The complex of fish market, vegetable market and “boutique” stalls was funded by the taxpayers of Canada.

Pleasingly, breadfruit came into season while we were in Bequia. This one was roasted on our coal pot, but rolled off the grill and escaped into the bay while being turned. Never fear. Catherine swam to recover it and finished the cooking.

Cooled and peeled, it was made into a delicious “salad” (red bowl) to go with rice, green beans and mahi-mahi steaks from today’s visit to the fish market.


The red meat market operates on the street one day a week. Freshly butchered pork and beef is available, along with frozen whole roasting chickens. The tenderloins, sirloins and filet mignon all go to the local restaurants, but nice chops, chucks and ribs are sold on the street at a good price.

Buy it early in the morning and cook it soon, because it is not refrigerated!

There seems to be a concentration of live aboard cruisers with young children at Bequia.

Many of these kids live full time aboard cruising sailboats, or are here for the winter months. These boat urchins are home-schooled, and have the beach and the bay as their “backyard”.

What a wonderful range of experiences these kids have! It seems so much more appealing to be swimming and running on the beach in the sunshine than to be logging hours per day of television in a darkened room. The S/V Picton Castle is a school ship, mixing academics with sailing experience

This brief video of dancing kids may whet you appetite for more steel drum music which is in the longer video later in this blog.





.At Bequia we attended football games (known as soccer in some parts of the world) on a Saturday. They are energetic youngsters happy to ham it up for photos. Girls and boys participate in equal numbers.










The cricket match on the next day was also fun, with beers 3 for EC$10. (approx Canadian $4). We still do not fully understand that game.

Maria's French Terrace in Bequia (http://www.marias-french-terrace.com/ ), with WIFI, has live music several times a week, so naturally we timed our internet sessions to coincide with the live music whenever possible.

The internet is very useful to us not only for communication (email, skype), but also for preparing income tax returns (we downloaded tax programs and tax slips), banking, weather forecasts, and researching for our cruising. We do not receive or send any paper mail between November and May. We no longer subscribe to a cellular service.

We celebrated St Patrick's Day at Jack's Bar on Princess Margaret Beach, Bequia with Guiness and Heiniken (it's not an Irish beer but at least it's in a green bottle. On that day he was Peter O'Gallagher!





Catherine is still practicing her fiddle because she knows that perseverance is the best substitute for talent. This was one of her earliest efforts for this tune. So, you get to hear a master artist in her formative stage. Sorry for the wind noise in the audio on this video.

Click it and be amazed!


On Mar 23 we departed Bequia and sailed to Petit Nevis (12 58.4’N 61 14.9’W). Here are ruins of the former whale processing station, including remains of the steel pots for rendering blubber.


Whaling is still carried out in The Grenadines, limited to hunting from small sailboats. We observed the hunt in progress while we were underway from Petit Nevis toward Mustique, and it appears to us that the whales have a pretty good chance of surviving. S/V Limbo in the collage above is the style of boat used for the whale hunt and also for the island regattas. The owner of this particular boat is proud to be a frequent winner. He said, “It’s not bragging if you actually did it!”.



We made a brief stop at Charles Bay, Canouan (12 42.5’N 61 19.7’W). We appreciated the dinghy dock of the Tamarind Beach Hotel and their internet access (http://www.tamarind.com/ ).

The island tour of Canouan by taxi was enlightening. There has been massive resort development (Raffles for US$980/day in winter months!). The employment offered has been welcomed, but the change in the character of the island causes some to be uncomfortable. For example, the expansion of the airstrip to handle jet traffic involved removing one large hill to bury one large coral reef, and one long white sand beach. Mount Royal was to become a nature preserve, but is now incorporated into the private resort. Strangely, the resort, although appearing completed and looking very posh, presently has very few guests (http://www.raffles-canouanisland.com/ ).

Saltwhistle Bay of Mayreau (12 38.8’N 61 23.3’N) is truly beautiful picture postcard perfect. The resort that has been here for 30 years seems to fit right in, and is still only 8 small villas, 6 booked when we were there (http://www.saltwhistlebay.com/ ).
.

Windward Bay of Mayreau (12 38.2’N 61 23.3W) was our refuge during a period of large ocean swells propagating down from a powerful winter storm off the coast of Nova Scotia. We found a nice concentration of edible seaweed growing here. Yummy!


Ocean swells do not enter Windward Bay because the anchorage is surrounded by miles of shallow coral reefs and “flats”, all part of the Tobago Cays Marine Park (http://www.tobagocays.com/).

Petit St Vincent, also a privately owned island with resort charging the same rate as Raffles has one of the loveliest beaches that we have been fortunate enough to visit (http://www.psvresort.com/ ). We walked, ran, waded, sat, soaked, and lounged in hammocks in great enjoyment over several days.

Click on this video to see catherine (AKA Demi) in her daily beach run.



The anchorage at Petit St Vincent is clear turquoise water over a bright sand bottom and is irresistible for swimming.


Peter (AKA Scrawny) could not control himself (nor did he try!).



Later we put half of a red snapper and local butternut squash on the coal pot. The snapper had been marinated since morning with a lemon grass recipe, and the squash stuffed with brown sugar, real Irish butter and pecans.

Together with Catherine’s ginger flavoured coleslaw, they made a lovely dinner in the cockpit.

Chatham Bay of Union Island is always fun for us. The beach is lovely. Seckie and Vanessa continue to operate their comfortable beach bar, and also a water taxi and tour service (www.myunionisland.com/seckietours ). We enjoy patronizing their bar/restaurant and also socializing with them outside of business hours, when we can serve drinks to them!

We had a magnificent 40nm day sail from Petit St Vincent to Prickly Bay Grenada on April 3. This was a broad reach with warm wind ENE 15-18 knots and sea 2m ENE swell under bright sunny sky. Doesn’t get any better than that!

On our first Friday back in Grenada we lucked upon a happy hour with very professional steel drum band. We now know that they are a regular feature of Friday happy hours at the Prickly Bay Marina. We will attend again!

Click on this video to see why!

This is almost the end of our cruising for this winter. We are scheduled to haul out the Charlotte D on April 14 and hope to fly back to North America on April 21 to enjoy the spring and summer months in Cape Breton.

peter and catherine, aboard s/v charlotte d in grenada.

“The consent of citizens to be governed by laws drawn up for the common good is not consent for the state to act in ways that would be illegal or immoral if carried out by individual citizens.” Ursula M. Franklin