Carriacou

On Thursday 20 February, we dinghied ashore. Having put a stern anchor out to prevent the dinghy being blown under the pier, we padlocked the dinghy to the pier. We could now start our walk to Salt Whistle Bay. It was only a mile or so, but it was half a mile up and half a mile down – not quite vertical. The bay was beautiful. A crescent of white sand and overhanging palm trees edged a lagoon blue stretch of calm water. Beyond was an isthmus leading to a headland, so Kathy and I walked along accompanied by two mangy, but well mannered dogs. Here we passed piles of garbage as we looked out to the idyllic Tobago Cays. Blocked by huge boulders we returned to the bay and tried the other way. I picked up a coconut, broke it open and we ate the contents looking towards Canouan. We returned to Mayreau Village and stopped at Robert Righteous and De Youths for a couple of beers. These were lovely and cold, but 50% up in price compared to the beach bar in Rodney Bay. Robert himself was Rasterfariously entertaining. Following lunch on board “Sally D”, we went to a northern reef and snorkelled. It was quite rough and I, in an attempt to find the ship wreck, nearly joined it. The final chore in the evening, was for me to mend my sandals and trainers, both of which found Mayreau hills heavy going.

We left Mayreau for Union island the following morning and it was quite gusty (above 22 knots). Initially we tried to anchor in the capital, Clifton, but between an annoying boat boy, who would not go away, and a slightly dragged anchor, we decided to leave for a better anchorage at Frigate Island, near the quiet “town” of Ashton. During the trip, the log (speedometer from a little wheel under the boat) stopped working. Soon “Hinano” was anchoring behind us and our Belgium friend Guido later arrived on SD with three bottles of beer. After helping him with these, Kathy and I swam and then went to an Oyster 55 called “Ostrika”. We met Eliot and Marion from London and Bernard came across from his Westerly 49, “Happie Hippie”. Eliot had earlier given us advice on where to anchor and had later invited us for drinks. It was a more social day than we had had in a long while.

We had to dinghy in against the wind and waves for about ¾ mile to Ashton. Here we found friendly people and several “supermarkets”, but little in the way of fresh produce. Eventually we bought some tomatoes, carrots and oranges at a bar. Back at SD, Kathy did some washing, while I stripped … a sheet winch which had become tight again. Kathy then found a COCKROACH in the toilet, which I was instructed to kill. Surprise,surprise, Kathy cleaned the whole toilet area while I withdrew the log, scrapped off the sea life and re antifouled it. Later I discover two ferrous metal screws in the cockpit wooden seating. I removed one but the other is resisting!

On Sunday we were having a lazy old time until Guido arrived with an unexpected present – a beautiful, huge, conch shell. He felt he needed to give us a gift as we may not meet up again (he is going north and we south). We were all staying put, by the way, as the winds were 30 knots and over (coming close to gale force). Following our ritual afternoon swim (it is a good way to keep cool and to wash as we have a shower on the stern afterwards), Guido popped across for supper.

Early the following morning, Guido rowed over with his daughter’s email address and very shortly he left heading for Saltwhistle Bay. Kathy and I worked on our possible route post December, but it is difficult as we’ll not be in the right place as it were. Looks like we shall have to spend a couple of months in the A B C islands. Emily’s gift of the “Lonely Planet Guide to the Caribbean Islands” has come in very handy.

On Tuesday Kathy and I decided to explore Frigate Island on foot. We dragged the dinghy up a beautiful but small beach. Here there were tens of weathered white conch shells, left presumably by humans who had devoured the contents. The walk along the windward side of the island was interesting with much coral and ferns thrown ashore in the recent strong winds. We were surprised by a vicious, barking dog, which backed away from us and ran up the hill. We discovered a lobster pot made with rough wood and chicken wire washed up. In it was a lobster, a ferocious looking eel (nasty spiky teeth) and several attractive reef fish. All were dead. After lunch on SD, K cooked bread. Following a pleasant siesta, we went snorkelling and saw many, large star fish and two live conch. The latter have a mandible (is that like an arm?) and an EYE on the end of a stalk! When I waved at it, it fled into its shell. As Kathy is out first and showering, I usually spend some time with the reef area which used to be Sal Darago’s keels. To say the antifouling is breaking down would be a powerful understatement. I have seen wrecks with less growing on them. This, of course, has an adverse affect on our speed. If I spend about 20 minutes a day scrubbing above and below the water, we can generally move the next day. We had bacon supper. The next day I told Kathy the use by date – 01/08/08. She was not impressed, but I had not seen it in the shop, because the lady in the shop had taken it out of the freezer and put it into our bag.

By 0800 Wednesday, the anchor was up and we sailed a couple of miles to the private Palm Island. It was very rolly and, although there was a smashing beach, we thought we would move on to Chatham Bay back on Union Island. This was a grand wooded bay (about one a half miles wide). Sadly, we had to anchor three times before the plough held. And now the bad news: the hot water tank had ruptured again. This was the third time. I spent quite a time trying to repair it. Kathy plotted our route to Carriacou. We took the dinghy and snorkelled from it, seeing many colourful reef fish. We actually were less than five feet away from some Pelicans peering into the water, but they did not seem bothered by us peering out of the water!

At 0700 we left Chatham Bay to return to Frigate Island anchorage. From here we dinghied in to Ashton and took a bus to Clifton. Here we had to go to Customs and Immigration to “Clear out” from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Having completed the paper work, we went shopping at the various market stalls for fresh fruit and veg. The prices were about 4x as much as Vieux Fort on St Lucia, but Kathy grinned and paid. Then to the supermarkets for other stuff and back in the bus to Ashton, into the dinghy and finally unload at Sal Darago … all this before noon. We relaxed in the afternoon. Kathy joined me to scrub the hull, which she thought was “very hard”.

Today we left Frigate Island to sail the 7 miles to a new country Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. We anchored in Hillsborough, Carriacou at 0840. Shortly afterwards we had to go to Customs (on the pier), Immigration (in the Police Station), back to Customs and finally to The Port Authority (on the pier). It all went very smoothly and everyone was very polite. Kathy and I walked to the Anglican church, “Christ, The King,” followed by the inevitable shopping. We had found some orange to dilute in St Lucia and hopes were high, but we could only buy SORREL. It does dilute, but tastes rather like cinnamon and dead leaf mould. The museum was small and interesting with many ancient artefacts found on Carriacou quite recently. This afternoon we found that there was WiFi in the bay and we have been wedded to the keyboard ever since. Thank you for your comments, both on the Blog and in emails. It is a pity that some of you cannot just pop over for a couple of days. Tomorrow we are off to Petite Martinique as they apparently sell drinking water to yachts and we have very little water left. Insert “Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner”:- "Water, water everywhere and all the boards did shrink, Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.”
And on that thought, night, night.