Jules
14/12/2011, Carriacou, Grenada

We finally left Woburn a week last Saturday (only a day late this time) and made it all the way (30 miles) to Carriacou, with a slight 40 miles detour out towards to Tobago.

Tony and Devon are on board and Jeff has come along for the ride. The first leg of the trip was fairly uneventful as the Christmas winds haven't kicked in yet and the weather has been relatively calm for the last month or so, and we caught a good sized tuna (the first one we've had for quite some time). Unfortunately I got a bit sea-sick which wasn't so good but I'm hoping that is was just because I haven't been to sea since we went to Trinidad which was over four months ago. We left Saturday afternoon around 4.30 and were at anchor by 10 am Sunday morning; in plenty of time to get to the Slipway for lunch and then back for a well deserved nap. I'd forgotten just how crystal clear the water is out here, without the run off from the rum factory that we get in Woburn.

Most of the week has been pretty hectic as we haven't been here for a while. We've had meetings with Andy the sail maker who made a cover for our steering rack and is going to make the awning for the top deck when our material eventually arrives. Andy has a virtual menagerie in his tiny sale loft: five red spotted tortoises, one that only has one foot and that he reckons would be really great on our boat, three cats, and a resident humming-bird that has built her nest in the rafters and has produced five sets of twins in the last eight months.

Tanya is in Hillsborough, the next bay to where we are, so we've made a couple of visits over there to help her with it her winch. The shaft seized-up and she burnt out the motor trying to raise her anchor; Mike had been trying to solve the problem over the phone without success but now him and Jeff have managed to get the shaft moving again and we're going to take the motor back to Grenada with us to get it re-wound.

Their little boy, Jesse, who is now 18 months is a delight, although how she copes with him on the boat I'm not too sure. As we were leaving I couldn't find my shoes which Jeff said he'd last seen Jesse carrying. The fear was that he'd decided to do a float test with them over the side, which he apparently has done with quite a few things. We looked all over the boat and in the end I left wearing a pair of Tanya's. The next day she phoned to say she'd found my shoes in their shoe closet so there may be hope for the future yet!!!

We've also been working on the boat, as usual. Mike and Jeff put new seals on the steering ram and tightened up the packing which seems to have worked well and got rid of the oil leak on the back deck. Tony and Devon worked banging and scraping the shelter deck and the grating over the steering. Devon's 'English' is all but indecipherable and we're having trouble understanding him, he's not proving to be the most able bodied seaman either. He almost caught his hand in our one of our mooring ropes while trying to tie it off, dropped a ladder on his finger and got a massive blood blister under his nail, which Mike had to puncture with a hot paper-clip, and then whacked his head coming out of the crews.

We went to the Friday night Lambi Queen pan night, met up with a few other people we haven't seen for a while, and actually managed to get home at a reasonable time which was good.

Last weekend we did two trips out to sea with our friends Mike and Audrey, and Tony from Ragin Cajun who was hauled out anti-fouling his bottom. On the Saturday we left around 5.30 pm and got back in at 2 am after meeting up with Troll, a tug we've met before. We went alongside them for a while and ended up feeling like a Senior Citizens Pirate Club; apart from Tony and Devon I was the youngest on board.

Sunday we went out at 1.30 pm and were supposedly going to be back by 7 pm. Going out was fine but as we were coming back in the fuel pump started playing up, and we got air in the main engine system. We limped back into the bay at around 11 pm and I was oh so pleased to hear the anchor go down. We started up the crane to lower the dinghy and our main generator died on us, completely. We ended up having to lower the dinghy over the side on ropes, which we probably should have done before we opened a bottle of Pussers to celebrate being back safely, then maybe someone would have checked that the plug was in before it got to the water.

As you can imagine the last few days have been busy. The main Yanmar generator needs a new exciter coil which we won't be able to get until we get back to Grenada, if then. Mike and Jeff have been working on the Onan trying to get that going so at least we have our own household power (at the moment we're running on a borrowed portable), then they have to get the old blue wind-up Isanthall going so that we can get 3-phase to pump up the air-bottles, run the crane and windlass, oh and the bilge pump too. And then we have to fix the main engine ... it never rains but it pours as they say.

In amongst all this I've been trying to organise Tony's ticket to go back to Indonesia for a few months. After the problems we had with Johan being returned from Barbados I decided to go through the travel agent we ended up using in Grenada. All was good and we booked a ticket leaving the 14th Dec and coming back on the 8th Feb. Only by the time the itinerary came through he was leaving on the 21st and the price had gone up nearly $500. I was not best pleased, and neither was Tony as he'd told his family when he would be back.

After lots of phone calls, emails and internetting I eventually found another flight leaving on the 19th for the same price and called up the agents who then booked it. Maybe I should become a travel agent.

I guess the next blog will be around Christmas. Not sure where we'll be for it. Last year was Bequia and the year before Venezuela, I think we'll probably be in Grenada for this one ... but then who knows!

Love to everyone ....

Comments [2]

Jules
02/12/2011, Woburn, Grenada

Three years to the day we were leaving Maryport, heading out into the wild blue yonder. And yes, it was pretty wild that day if I remember, which I certainly do. We finally left the dock and went out of the harbour to get our compass swung. Only it was just a little rougher than we thought and we ended up coming back into the inner harbour to get it done.

Tony on Aquila (God bless him) towed us round and helped us get it finished. Unfortunately that was to be the last time we ever saw him, and he's a great loss to us all and still very much missed.

If you want to catch some of the excitement that was our leaving day, Twent has uploaded a video clip of it on our Friends of Flying Buzzard facebook page. Even from a distance it looks bad, just imagine being on board with the furniture flying and stuff going everywhere. Not the calmest first day.

Still, that was then and this is now and we've sure come a long way, both figuratively and literally. Today we're planning to set off for Carriacou. It's warm and sunny and there's a gentle breeze, quite the contrast. Just a shame I'm still as anxious as always, I guess if I haven't got my sea-legs (or more accurately my sea-mind) yet the chances are I'm not going to.

The last two weeks have seen a few events but not too many. We went up to St. David's and helped Jeff bring his boat back round to Hog Island which all went smoothly until we got safely anchored and then the rum squall came in. It's good to have him back and he'll be coming with us when we leave for Carriacou, if we can afford the food and the brain cells!

We've bought the poles ready to construct the framework for the top-deck awning and the material is currently on the ship coming from Miami. Well we think it's on the ship; it was supposed to be arriving today but Mike is on the phone to the shipping agents and now they're saying maybe next Tuesday so we're not quite sure when it will arrive.

Our friends Henry, Iris and Luana have left for Trinidad after being anchored close by for the last few months. We had a bit of send-off dinner party for them which turned into a really good night. As they left Calabuig came in; this is the 100ft sail-boat we've met many times before, the first time with Pedro and Julian on board as crew. The new crew are all unknowns but the Captain, Jason, came by the other day to say what a wonderful old tug we were and had we ever thought of taking her up to the Alaska where she'd fit in perfectly; now there's a thought.

We've finished the patching, yes, finally finished the patching, well as near as damn it anyway. And the boys have almost finished the banging and grinding. We've actually got some primer on but unfortunately have run out so we're having to wait for our next shipment from Trinidad, whenever that will be, hopefully soon. At the moment we're looking something like a camouflage boat, only in red/pink/grey/green/white ... apparently we look quite festive.

The cruise ship season is once again upon us and most days St. George's is awash with pasty white tourists clogging the sidewalks and huffing up the steep streets. Actually it's great for the Grenadian economy, although with most cruises now being all inclusive the local bars and restaurants aren't making too much out of it. The little yellow tourist train was doing a roaring trade yesterday though as it chuffed along the Carenage with its cargo of sight-seers who are either too old or too over-weight to use the manual method of getting around. I have to say there was a point when it teetered on the top of a hill and I wasn't sure it was going to make it, but it did.

Nellie and Toby are fine, Mike has a black eye from hitting his head on a cupboard door, honestly.

Love to all ...

Happy Birthday Jess for tomorrow ... can't believe this time last year I was with you in snowy Vancouver!

Comments [3]

Jules
16/11/2011, Woburn, Grenada

So ... we had the use of a car for five days. The first day was spent doing the usual pick-ups, getting oxy, more steel, welding rods, the usual. The next two days we were too busy working to use it, but on the Thursday we did manage a day out. We drove up the east coast of the island to Grenville to get doubles and then across the mountain roads to Gouyave on the west coast.

There's only one main road that crosses the island and we still managed to miss it; ended up driving down someone's driveway instead. Big roads, obviously, but we did make it in the end. The scenery through the plantations is quite amazing, lush and green and tropical. And it must have been washday because all along the roads people had their clothes laid out over the hedges drying, it looked like bright, flat people laying in the sun.

Once in Gouyave we ended up in a local bar, where else, watching tv. We sure know how to have fun.

Friday was spent picking up 20 gallons of supa-wash, 10 gallons of paint and a large 50lb bag of rags that our friends had brought down from Bequia for us. And visiting various scrap yards, Mike's favourite. They're not quite up to the Cumbrian standard but Mike always manages to find something that we just can't do without.

Friday was actually a fairly stressy day. Devontay and his girlfriend decided to leave, under something of a black cloud. Not quite sure how it happened but it went from us doing them a favour by having Silke on board and getting free food and board in exchange for a couple of hours work, to them demanding more money because we were getting two workers for the price of one. It was a shame it ended on a bad note as Devontay had been with us for two months, we liked him and he was a good worker. From now on - definitely no more girlfriends.

On a more positive crew note, Devon came back to work for us on the following day and that's working out really well as he arrives at 8 in the morning and leaves at 5 so there's only us and Tony on board. Tony is going back to Indonesia in a few weeks time and as yet we're not sure whether he'll be coming back again or not. It's going to be strange for a while as he's been with us for well over two years now.

We've had Spanny, the welder, with us for a few more days and we've almost finished with the patching. We thought we had finished but then Tony and Devon started banging the gunnel cap and we've made a few more holes. We're damn near done now though.

Jeff arrived back from Canada last Friday and brought the bad weather with him so we couldn't do much work over the weekend. Apparently welding in the rain isn't the way to go. We did however have a few hours of calm sunshine on Sunday morning so Mike and I finished grinding the mooring buoy and got the first coat of two-pack on it, well most of it went on the buoy but there was still quite a bit over us and the dinghy. It's not too easy painting a buoy that's suspended from our bow and the dinghy you're in is going up and down and the winds a blowing and it definitely isn't helped when some prat in a speed boat goes by.

We've had a couple of Hog Island episodes as per usual but mostly it's just been banging, grinding, welding, painting, cleaning, work and more work. I remember Mike once telling me that when we got to the Caribbean the loudest sound would be the clink of ice-cubes in the gin and tonic ... and I believed him!!!! Actually it does happen sometimes, just not as much we'd like.

Tomorrow Jeff's boat is going back in the water so we're going to go up to St. Davids and then sail back round to Hog with him. Should be good if the weather's as blustery as it is today; we've even got a few white caps in the bay.

Love to all ...

PS Toby's fine and has been almost tick free for a few weeks now. Nellie is living the high life on tinned food as, for the last three weeks, there has been absolutely no dried cat food available anywhere in Grenada ... is this a world shortage or just the Caribbean?

PPS For lunch today I made callaloo soup, with chicken backs, pumpkin and coconut, and everyone loved it. Devon and Spanny reckon it was as good as any Grenadian could make, well except I didn't do the hard dumplings that they seem to favour over here.

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