final report from Charlotteville, Tobago Jan 2009

This is our final report from Charlotteville, Tobago for Jan 2009. It is a lovely harbour with an interesting village spreading from the waterfront into the surrounding hills.

The majority of cruising sailboats here are from Europe, making their first Caribbean landfall from Cape Verde. The trans-atlantic boats tend to stay for awhile to recover from the crossing and to savour their first tastes of the Caribbean. We have enjoyed their company. There are very few charter sailboats. This picturesque 5-masted cruise ship stops in for a day about every 3 weeks, dwarfting the “Charlotte D”.

The dry season may have started. We are operating our watermaker about 15 hrs to produce our 300 litres of fresh water per week, now that we are not collecting rainwater into our tanks. Daily temperature range is 25-33 deg C (77-91 deg F).

We are privileged to have met many interesting people here. Curtis (holding his sleeping daughter) operates the combination internet café, laundry, and snorkel rental shop.

He also runs sport fishing charters, rain forest hiking tours and a boat repair shop. A most industrious man! We went with him one day to Scarbourgh, and along the way stopped to help start (successfully) a small truck carrying a Christmas pig home for slaughter.

Cosmos (in chef hat and football jersey) operates bakery and “kitchen” (café). Stuart (sharing Gluhwein with us) operates a SCUBA dive business in Charlotteville and was also repairing a boat in the same shop (Curtis’s) where we fixed our dinghies.

Glenna operates the produce stand on the waterfront and shared many local vegetable recipes with us. Kalisha has now prepared Catherine’s hair in various braid styles.

Tim-Tim is a local fisherman and one of the many sober young gentlemen in this village. Michael the Customs officer was the source of local knowledge and shared much advice on cooking East Indian Style.

Rowing continues to provide Peter with daily exercise. We made good progress on a number of boat projects after finishing the dinghy repairs. Two new canvas shades help keep the “Charlotte D” cool.

Yes, Dorothy, there is a Santa Claus and he looks a lot like the fellow that sold us fish yesterday and had drinks with us the day before!

Old Year’s Night was, as expected, the occasion for several parties outside along the Charlotteville waterfront. At one a large pot of “all-in-one” stew was cooked over an open flame. It had “ground provisions” (root vegetables), dumplings, and “cow heel” (beef shanks) with wonderful fresh spices and herbs. At another party, hosted by Stuart, there was a mixed grill of burgers, dogs, corn, potatoes, Wahoo steaks and Mahi-Mahi fillets.

Enthusiastic local musicians were joined by cruising sailors with varying talents. It was not a chorus, but rather a fine spontaneous cacophony of voice, guitar, bongo drum and didgeridoo.

Derrick (bongos) is a local fisherman, Squeezy (guitar) sells empty CDs of his music to unsuspecting tourists, Kim (didgeridoo) is an 18 year old Dane who crossed the Atlantic aboard a 12 m sloop.

Catherine and I completed a SCUBA refresher course and started toward our advanced certification. There was one day of academics with our instructor Stuart, after 4 days of self study with new text books. After passing the written and oral tests, there was a day in the pool to review all basics and for safety checkout.

We discovered that SCUBA equipment has evolved quite a bit. The biggest changes that we noted are in alternate air supply systems, buoyancy compensators and dive computers. Fortunately, we are not too old to learn. Our brains were well stimulated.

We enjoyed 4 open water training dives on the wonderful reefs offshore Speyside, Tobago. Anthony drove the dive boat “Heaven vs Hell” and Stuart was the divemaster.

These were our first experiences with “drift dives” and with regimented “multi-level dives” that start deep and gradually ascend along the reef wall (facilitating off-gassing of blood nitrogen without long decompression stops). The sea conditions were robust with large swell and strong current. The reefs here are excellent as you will appreciate by following the various links to photos and videos at http://www.caribstu.com/ We enjoyed the course and dives under stuart's supervision and would highly recommend his services.

On Jan 9, we sailed away from Charlotteville. It was a 17 hr, 95nm passage to The Grenadines. Click on the VIDEOS below to see the dolphins that joined us along the way and to get an impression of sailing conditions on this wonderful passage. The story of our destination will be subject of the next blog update.

Jan 20, 2009; the end of an error. We have been privileged lately to be in the company of cruisers and residents of diverse homelands and ethnicities. The range of opinions strongly held and expressed is enormous. Nevertheless, on one issue there is a surprising degree of agreement. There is such hope and optimism about the new administration in Washington! The inauguration ceremonies and speeches of Jan 20 were carried live on local radio even on these small Caribbean islands, and groups collected around radios in public places. There is a high level of interest. Obama has inspired. Now we are all anticipating his performance.

“Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be one.” John Lennon

adventures in tobago aboard S/V Charlotte D

We have been at Tobago since Nov 14, 2008, anchored either at King’s Bay or at Man O’ War Bay (Charlotteville). We have spent most of the time at Charlotteville, going the 10 nm to King’s Bay only when large north swells are running. We expect to remain here into the new year before cruising northward to the Grenadines and Martinique.

At the Charlotteville anchorage most of our needs can be met within a short walk from the dinghy dock. Diesel fuel is available on some days to jerry jug to boat. There is an internet café, public library, bakery (coconut bread!), laundry and at least 7 beach-front bars. Local-made ice cream comes in coconut, peanut and rum raisin. There are several small groceries on the waterfront for canned staples, dry goods, New Zealand cheese and Irish butter. Locally grown produce at the small stall includes avocado, yams, pumpkin, callaloo (dasheen), tyme, pineapple, paw paw, bananas, breadfruit, cassava (tapioca), endo, coconut, cabbage, simba peas and mango. The several restaurants have interesting local cuisine (catherine is pictured with Buss Up Shut, dhalpourri and a Roti). The restaurants have clay ovens.

The local fishing fleet of about 30 pirouges have unique names including “come test meh”, “jah rule”, and “inez pride”. When not is use, the pirouges are moored off the beach, fishermen swim out. The fish catch is off-loaded from the beach through the surf.

There are two basic fishing techniques; trolling hand lines for Wahoo (locally called Kingfish) and Tuna, or fish traps for reef fish (small snapper) and lobster (rare). Size and catch limits get lip service only. At least the Wahoo fishery seems secure since the abundant catch is all of large fish (1.5-1.8 m). The fish we purchase within minutes of their landing have been super. Catherine has greatly expanded her list of sauces and marinades for BBQ fish.

We swim almost every day. The weather is wonderful. There are brief showers almost every day; almost enough to keep our water tanks full (we use our watermaker about 5 hrs per week). Daily temperature range is 25-30 deg C (77-86 deg F). Humidity about 75%.

We made one day trip to Scarborough because the local ATM does not accept our cards and we wanted a few grocery items not available locally. The 3 hour round trip in new buses is economically priced at Canadian $2.70 per person. Scarborough (pictured below) is a much larger city. Very colourful, but also noisy and crowded for us.

We have encountered many interesting people here, both residents and visitors. Bee rides Junie his donkey to tend the cattle he has tethered here and there in the forest. Dougie runs a bar and restaurant and put on a great “Old Years Night” party last year, so we expect the same this year.

Bamboo cannons are a common entertainment of young boys. A few ml of Kerosene is poured onto smouldering coals in the lower end of the cannon, heated there by blowing through a slit to vaporize it, and then “touched off” with a flame transferred from the wink burning in the beer bottle. The result is a satisfying explosion of flame and smoke which hopefully spares the eyebrows of the operator!

We were pleased to meet a couple who just opened a small café after living here for 14 years (“I’m not from the US, I’m from New York City”). Catherine is pictured below on the deck of their café overlooking the “Charlotte D” at anchor.

There are only a few cruising sailboats here at any one time. Most are making their Caribbean landfall after crossing the Atlantic from the Cape Verde Islands. A Danish sailor solo aboard his 7.6 m sloop previously completed a solo circumnavigation of the Atlantic basin and is now on his way to the Pacific, planning to bicycle New Zealand and Australia. A British sailor left England 15 years ago aboard his 10 m sloop and has one more day’s sail to cross his outbound track and so complete his leisurely circumnavigation of the globe. He has sailed with at least 2 wives and several girlfriends, and is now solo. He is planning an air trip to England because of family concern that his parents “are about to fall off their perch”. A Finnish sailor left his homeland 22 years ago, has completed several circumnavigations, and is now into another with his Thai wife who he met on an earlier circuit. They plan to continue round and round “as long as we can hoist a sail”. Finally, a Swedish couple have completed half of their circumnavigation of the Atlantic basin in their engine-less 9m sloop, and plan to sail back to Sweden before the next hurricane season.

You can imagine the interesting conversations with these world travelers! Plenty of bragging and lying, for sure. But their accomplishments do attest to their competence . We can vouch personally for their abilities at drinking beer and rum!

The village spreads part way up the surrounding hills. The Tobago rain forest begins just beyond the last homes and offers some lovely but strenuous walking.

Catherine is keeping a cooler head these days after getting her hair braided and decorated.

Peter has started playing with a harmonica. It is fun, but not really music yet. Catherine feels almost ready to produce her first fiddle CD. Beach time is very important at least every couple of days.

Of course, boat maintenance continues without end. We restored operation to our manual bilge pump with spare parts on hand.

Both dinghies required attention. For the sailing dinghy it was routine and expected. The runners on the bottom of the hull and the skeg had lost their fiberglass coatings from pulling the boat onto beaches for 4 years. Fortunately, there is a boat repair shop here run by Curtis who, with his family, also operates the internet café and laundry. Curtis agreed to rent us some covered space in his shop so we could do this repair.

For the motorized dinghy the attention was not routine and not expected. While we were off on a hike the dinghy was washed under the jetty after dragging her anchor, lodged there and was submerged by the rising tide. Yes, it was sunk, putting the outboard engine under water. After rescue it too was taken into Curtis’ shop. We removed the carburetor to get seawater out of fuel pump, bowl, throat, intake manifold and cylinder. Gave all a good wash with WD40 and oil. That tough engine runs again.

The engine cowling was badly damaged. We used the remaining fraction of cowling as a mold to lay up fiberglass to replace the missing section. This was trimmed to fit and attached with fiberglass inside and out.

The dinghy was holed in two places. These wounds we ground out and repaired with fiber glass.

A larger dinghy anchor is now on our shopping list. And, we have resolved to in future bring dinghies onto the beach above the high water mark when we leave the area of a dinghy dock for an extended time. A valuable lesson hard learned.

We hope all our friends and family are enjoying winter as much as we are, and we look forward to hearing from you.

“Salt water is the cure for everything; in one form or another, sweat, tears or the salty sea”
Isak Dinesen

report of S/V CharlotteD from Charlotteville,Tobago

Catherine and Peter returned to the Caribbean on Oct 30, 2008 to begin another winter season of cruising aboard the “Charlotte D”, our Alden 47 ketch which had been laid up ashore in Trinidad since April while we summered at our home in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia.

You can see how much Catherine enjoys painting antifouling on the bottom. A nasty but necessary job! And it was hot! 38 deg C in the shade of the hull!

We completed the onshore recommissioning in record time for us, were launched and happily floating once again by Nov 7; loaded with groceries, fuel and fresh water. The launch itself, always a tense time for us, was executed competently by the experienced yard staff of Peake Yacht Service.

We immediately departed crowded, noisy Chaguaramas for the quiet isolation of the Five Islands anchorage. How happy Catherine appears as we motor away from the Launch Slip!

The remainder of the preparations for departure were completed with the boat in the water, which was blessedly cooler. We were fortunate to have light winds in early mornings for the bending on of sails. There were 4 days of in-water commissioning to make ready for our departure from Trinidad.

We sailed, well motorsailed really, the 87 nm from Trinidad to Tobago during Nov 12-13 and cleared in with Customs and Immigration at Charlottteville, Tobago, from where we are posting this blog entry. The “Charlotte D” is one of eight sailboats at anchor here, representing Switzerland, Germany, Bermuda, Luxembourg or Netherlands (almost identical flags) and Canadian (us).

We found ourselves quite tired by the physical labour of preparing the “Charlotte D” in the 30 deg C heat of Trinidad plus the tension of the squally passage to Tobago, but Oh-So-Happy to be here in the peace, quiet and scenic beauty of Charlotteville. Check it out on Google Earth! The location is 11 deg 19.715' N and 60 deg 33.143' W.

We expect to lay at anchor here for several weeks enjoying daily swims in the ocean, losing our Canadian tan lines and exploring ashore in the Rain Forest. Then there are the local bars and cafes, the ice cream bar, the internet café, the fruit stand, walking on the beach, the bakery and the Roti Shop!

Of course, there is the never-ending maintenance of engines, electronics, domestic systems, and canvas and sail repairs. Catherine did a lovely repair on the sunshade before relaxing under it with her fiddle. Later she baked a delicious loaf of her rye bread with wheat berries and flax seed while Peter BBQed Tuna Steaks.

We especially like the waterfront fish market where one purchases directly from the fisherman within minutes of their landing of the tuna or wahoo. Yesterday it was a 2.5 kg Tuna for about $ Cdn 10. The fish are caught on hand lines from 5 m piroques within 2-4 nm of the mouth of this bay. We are pleased to patronize the local fishermen who go solo into the ocean with no lifejacket, no radio, and no GPS, however, we do look forward to our own catches as we cruise the Windward and Leeward Islands until April.

“The price of peace is the happiness of our enemies.” Bertrand Russell.