report from The Grenadines

This report is of the cruising of the S/V “Charlotte D” from Jan 10 to Jan 31, 2009.

St. Vincent and The Grenadines, part of the Windward Islands, is a country made up of the big island of St. Vincent plus 32 smaller islands of The Grenadines scattered across 35 nm of sea. http://www.svgtourism.com/ The total land area of The Grenadines comes to about 17 sq miles. We visited Union Island, Mayreau and Bequia, continuing old and new friendships among cruisers from around the world.

Union Island is the southern-most of The Grenadines, about 40 nm from St. Vincent. Our stop at Union Island was at Chatham Bay after clearing Customs and Immigration at Clifton. I’ll give the latitude and longitude of our anchorages so you can “fly there” on Google Earth. Chatham Bay (12 deg 36’N, 61 deg 27’W) is undeveloped, with no road access. Just a protected anchorage with lovely beach and five beach bars.

All supplies for the bars/restaurants come by small boat through the surf (no dock), or are packed 30 min down the footpath from the paved road. Water is captured from roof tops and electricity is from generators. All of the establishments are open air and sand floor with small closed-in kitchen. Cooking is by gas stove and charcoal.

We had a wonderful time at Chatham Bay. We patronized 4 of the5 bars, usually at “Happy Hour” but sometimes for meals. At some of the bars the owner/operators partied as much as the cruisers. There was one particular server who usually had enough alcohol in his blood to light a stove. Every bottle of whiskey on his shelve had the “correct” label, no matter what was inside. The homemade rum is said to be smuggled from Venezuela in 200 litre drums and is distributed locally in 4 litre water jugs. We can attest to its alcohol content!

Local fishermen come around to anchored sailboats to hawk their catch. You know it's fresh because it's still alive, but use caution or you'll end up buying a juvenile lobster or female with eggs. Peter usually climbs into their boats and looks through the offered catch.

By far, the best cook at Chatham Bay is Vanessa, so, naturally, we favoured the establishment that she and Seckie operate. We recommend her Breadfruit Salad and Callaloo Soup. They also have the most comfortable sun loungers ideally positioned for sunset viewing, and their music is mellow island style, very relaxing.

To access the internet from Chatham Bay it is a 3 hr (round trip) hike over a 200m ridge and down to Clifton. This hike burned the carbon from our arteries on that day of 30 C (86 F), Much needed exercise for our soft pale bodies spreading out in the middle like melting pads of butter.

We met a serious string musician (he is actually paid to play) from Holland aboard a cruising sailboat in Chatham Bay. He shares Catherine’s interest in Blue Grass music and came aboard for a string workshop and Banjo Jam Session. We learned a lot from him.

There was a beach bonfire and cook-out with the Danish crew of S/V “Condor”. Delicious BBQ chicken, baked beans and cole slaw, all mixed with wood ash.

We purchased two carvings by Felix out of the native white cedar wood. One is of the St Vincent Parrot (Amazona Guildingii), the other a stylized sea turtle with human face on dorsal shell.

Saline Bay (12 deg 38’N 61 deg 24’W) of Mayreau Island has a glorious long beach, deserted except when the small cruise ship visits. The white-legged cruise ship passengers are entertaining with their outfits one size too small and two decades too young. Even on cruise ship days the anchorage is quiet.

Bequia’s Admiralty Bay (12 deg 60’N 61 deg 15’W) has many attractive features for cruising sailors. There are two lovely long beaches, nice choice of restaurants, wonderful vegetable market, adequate groceries, bakery, propane tank refilling, and robust fast internet access. There are sail makers, canvas shops, engine shops, machine shop, several small chandleries and diesel fuel available to carry back to the boat in our Jerry Cans. All on an island of 7 sq miles with 6000 residents. http://www.bequiasweet.com/ Seems to be lots of real estate development underway; we hope all for the best.

Street food vendors are located here and there, with some interesting offerings. BBQ pig tail is only for those whose appetites soar above all prejudices. Naturally, Peter did not hesitate!

The highlight of Bequia for us was our second attendance at the annual Music Festival. www.bequiatourism.com/bequiamusicfest The venue is beachfront and the music is Jazz and Blues. We attended one of the evening sessions and the daylight session on Sunday (our favourite). The two videos show that this is a small festival where one can easily get up close.

You can see the "Charlotte D" anchored off the beach in the last frame of this second video.

Cruise ships also come to Bequia. They are small ships, often attractive and interesting to watch. Their schedule is always a morning arrival and departure before sunset on the same day. As there is no cruise ship dock, the passengers disembark the ships by tenders shuttling to the same dinghy dock used by cruisers.

We made a lovely afternoon hike over to the east side of Bequia and stopped for lunch at a very restful and scenic place.

On this hike we visited the Turtle Sanctuary. They raise hawksbill, leatherback and green sea turtles from hatching to about 3 years old, when they are released into the sea.



On Jan 31 we sailed away from The Grenadines, up the west coast of St Vincent, on the 93 nm, 20 hr passage to Martinique. The next blog will detail our adventures in the French West Indies.

Peter and Catherine, aboard S/V “Charlotte D”, keeping both oars in the water.

“People who worry about what others think of them would be surprised at how little they did.” Unknown French Philosopher

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