07/Jun/2006, POWERBOATS, CHAGUARAMAS
IT'S HOT! We've been hauled, and we're now sitting on the hard in Powerboats in Chaguaramas, Trinidad. We've spent the last week putting the boat to bed and generally getting organised to spend the next 4 months or so in Trinidad.
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We arrived back in Trinidad this morning after having sailed from St George's in Grenada overnight. Unfortunately, we arrived on a public holiday which, apart from being a nuisance, cost us extra for overtime rates for the Customs and Immigration people! We picked up a mooring in the Bay and hope to get hauled tomorrow in Powerboats. It's hot and it's very sticky. The only good thing about staying on a mooring buoy in the Bay is that it's cooler than on the hard - but we're very hot already! We had forgotten just how hot it gets here.
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Anne and Alan went for a walk, and ended up in the Yacht Club - you get a nice view over the anchorage, and the beer is good too!
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Alan in a BT phone box, trying to be ET, but like home, they don't work!!
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We anchored in St George's Lagoon, Grenada yesterday. Good old Island Water World are providing us with a free wi-fi connection straight to the boat - yippee!! We had drinks in the yacht club tonight, and we'll do a bit of exploring tomorrow.
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Some of the island transport in Carriacou, Grenada - they keep the Ferrari's hidden so the tourists don't see them!
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We spent four nights in Carriacou - a wee island about 14 miles north of Grenada, and belonging to Grenada. We checked in with Customs and Immigration in Hillingsborough and then moved round to Tyrrell Bay the following day. We liked Tyrrell Bay - there's lots of yachts here, but it's very quiet.
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The Tobago Cays are gorgeous - there is absolutely no doubt about that. We spent two days in the Cays. On the second day we anchored with no land between us and Africa. However, we found it too busy - 50 yachts in an anchorage is just too many for us! We decided to up anchor and go the extra few miles to Union Island, round to Chatham Bay, where tonight there are only 3 yachts and one power boat in this huge bay. It's quiet, it's peaceful and the snorkeling today was fantastic.
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Another few miles south today to the Tobago Cays. The water is clear. The sea is green. The sky is blue - there is some rain in the distance, however. We worked our way around the reefs today and found an anchorage just outside the "rest of the pack". We've never seen so many yachts "in the middle of nowhere"! We went snorkeling this afternoon, but we found the current was just too strong to enjoy the snorkel.
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Yes, it was Anne's birthday today. We decided to eat out tonight to celebrate, then decided we'd rather eat the steak we've got in the fridge. We've chilled a bottle of wine, and we're going to have a nice night in instead. Anne bought herself a couple of bikinis today as a birthday present and is feeling rather pleased with herself.
Bequia is one of our favourite islands, very pretty and very friendly. The fruit market has got to be experienced - we've never seen such huge mangoes.
There's some nice photos of Bequia in Freya's gallery - see the right hand part of this screen.
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We sailed to Bequia in the Grenadines last night. It was a lovely sail and we finally dropped anchor at 6.00 am.
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We're now at the bottom end of Martinique, in a gorgeous sandy bay surrounded by cruisers and holiday complexes. It's 9.00 am and the disco has already started up somewhere ashore. But, it's a French disco with a Caribbean flavour, or should that be a Caribbean disco with a French flavour - not sure! It just puts you in the mood for a dance. We met up with our good friends "Hoyden" last night - Ian and Sue - they're on their way back to Trinidad and have to be back in the UK by mid May, so they left this morning for St Lucia. We probably won't see them again until they return to Trinidad next November. It was great to see them again.
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Before I had time to finish uploading the photos to the blog, we had the anchor up and we were at sea! We had intended sailing straight from Portsmouth to St Pierre in Martinique, but because it was blowing up to 30 knots on the nose and the current and waves against us, we decided to stop overnight in Roseau at the south end of Dominica. We rocked and rolled all Monday night, but otherwise had a good night. On Tuesday we set sail for Martinique. We had a fabulous sail, even if the wind was coming from the direction in which we wanted to go - as usual! Our speed over the ground peaked at nearly 9 knots, We were just passing the headland at Martinique when the wind died, going from around 20 knots to 5 knots in a period of about 2 minutes and we found we were doing 1 knot! We engined the rest of the wind to St Pierre and anchored in the bay. We've been here before and previously we had to announce our arrival at the Police Office in the town, so we launched the dinghy, went ashore and made our way to the police office. Big sign on the door - either go to the museum or the internet cafe to check in!! The museum is just along the road from the police office and the guy in the office managed to put the phone down long enough to give us a piece of paper to fill in. We filled in the bit of paper, gave him our documents and five minutes and a fax later, he returned with our papers duly stamped. No cost, no frills, no uniforms, just a smile! Why can't all the islands be like this?
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We're still in Prince Rupert Bay in Dominica enjoying the sights and sounds of what must be one of the poorest islands in this chain. The island is very green and lush and the Indian River which runs through the jungle is a fascinating experience. Albert picked us up in his own boat, motored to the river and then rowed up for about three quarters of a mile to a jungle bar where you can buy something to drink, and then he rowed us back down. The trees/fauna/birds/insects/crabs etc were just fabulous. There's lots to see here and there are some restaurants, one of which we tried last night - the Blue Bay Restaurant. The food was good, but not as cheap as we thought it might be. There are some shops ashore in Portsmouth and we found a "meat shop" where you can buy chicken, chicken, chicken or for a change, chicken!!! It's worth coming here just for the experience! Some of the vendors come paddling out to see you on old surf boards trying to sell you fruit, bread and anything else they can think of.
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We set sail at 7.30 am this morning from Les Saintes for Dominica. Beautiful day and we managed to sail most of the way. As we approached Prince Rupert Bay (about a mile out at sea), one of the boat boys came out to meet us - and introduced himself as Albert and he is now our boat boy (known here as "yacht helpers") for the duration of our stay. We arranged to go up the Indian River with him tomorrow. After that, we booked in with Customs - the Customs man was a very, very nice man who asked us what "Freya" meant, so we gave him a very brief history of Freya and suggested he checks the internet to get the full story. Still no wi-fi connection, so no photographs at the moment. We're a rockin' an' a rollin' in this anchorage as the big sea swells roll into the bay and this may curtail our visit somewhat.
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