Friday evening, while on the dock) we were joined aboard by the Where IIs, the Bristol Roses, the Arctic Terns and Diane from Jabulani.
It’s always pleasant when we [...]]]>
Friday evening, while on the dock) we were joined aboard by the Where IIs, the Bristol Roses, the Arctic Terns and Diane from Jabulani.
It’s always pleasant when we have company aboard and this 
was no exception. The conversation was broad but the topic of batteries came up once or twice, either because I was getting the subject off my chest or others were interested.
Saturday morning was spent putting things away and/or back to where they should be. The removed drive battery was replaced and everything cleaned up and reconnected. Bar putting on a shackle (lent by Where II) to connect our new anchor to our new chain no projects were attempted yesterday. I did play catch up on some of my regular checks which have got 
a bit behind. Everything was fine. The morning was also spent catching up on ‘admin’ such as reading remote mail and paying bills – yach.
Late morning I paid and we said our goodbyes. We didn’t see Fletcher the very friendly night watchman but we promised to include his picture on the website – Hi Fletcher. We ate lunch aboard before setting off. Rene, who helps out a lot at Clarks Court Bay Marina, helped us leave. I showed him how an electric boat motors – no noise. I think he was impressed.
We then motored around to Prickly Bay as the winds were very low. The waters were calm so we glided along. At Prickly Bay we had our first chance to try our new anchor, a 57lb Manson Supreme. We’ve always been very pleased with our 44lb delta but even when it sets well there is always some hesitation as it ploughs its way into the sand. The Manson just set and let us know it was not going to budge without any hint of needing to settle in. The next test will be getting it out again. That won’t be for a few days. Our first impressions are very good.
We had an hour or so spare before we left for the Grenada Hash so we made a little water and this was when I caught up on my checks.
On our way to De Big Fish where we were going to leave the dinghy we popped by Sweet Caroline to congratulate them on their 50th wedding anniversary. At De Big Fish we bumped into the crew of Cirque de Soleil who we’d last met in Dominica and shared the Boiling Lake hike with (well – just Angie). We had a brief catch up before heading to the roundabout to catch a bus into town. In true local style we hadn’t quite made it to the roundabout when a local bus went past. The conductor had spotted us so the bus reversed and came back round the roundabout just to find out if we needed a ride. It seems crazy but it’s most welcome and a lot of fun.
We were soon down at the Caranage waiting for a pickup. Not long after we arrived, Mike and Jackie who we’d met on the first hash drove by on their way to the hash. They spotted us and soon we were chatting. They made room in their vehicle (they already had two passengers) and squeezed us in. This hash was not too far from town. The numbers were more than we’ve seen before, somewhere between 150 and 200 I reckon. A lot of these were new students at the St Georges medical school. We bumped into more cruisers who we’re beginning to recognize more including Jim from Bees Knees. I spent a little time on battery strategy with Jim (I have a one track mind at the moment).
The hike was basically a big scramble along what would be optimistically described as a single file track to the top of the highest peak around us and then a more leisurely descent first on a wider track and then on roads. Unfortunately we started near the back of the pack 
and many of the students were ahead of us. A number were out of shape and others kept stopping to take pictures which meant progress up the single track was incredibly slow. Whenever we could we skipped past the photo takers to try and pick up the pace. Along the way I lost my sunglasses as well as slipping over and getting a stick go in my eye (youch). I did take a photo when I couldn’t make any progress as the views were pretty good.
On the way I learned my reputation seems to be building. I was asked by Barb (a complete stranger to me at the point) if I was ‘the battery guy’. It seems that someone buying 36 golf cart batteries for their boat is becoming a talking point amongst the cruisers here. A few are beginning to show interest in my throwaways so I’ll be getting on the net soon to start lining up folks who would be happy to take old batteries off us and maybe even pay a little for some of the better ones. I met Diane (from the night before) once again and chatted for a while. Once we were on the road I ended up running the last mile or two. We’ve been constrained to the boat (mainly) for the last week and I felt the need to flush the system.
Back at the start we had a beer each but didn’t stop long as we had an urge for a Chinese meal at the restaurant near Prickly Bay. We started walking into town and made about a miles progress when a bus passed. On it were Devi & Hunter from Arctic Tern and Dianne and Barb. They had been more sensible and waited for the bus without walking. We parted company at the bus station as we had different onward busses to catch.
After dinghying back to the boat we showered then headed into Prickly Bay Marina to make our way to the Chinese Restaurant. It was a little further than we remembered – about a mile walk each way. The meal was very nice and the price even better.
Eventually, back on the boat it was straight to bed and to sleep. That was not without raising the dinghy as we usually do. I did open the drain between the inner and outer hulls and there was barely a trickle. I can close off the dinghy leak project – finally.
This morning my eye is pretty sore and red where the stick went in. Vision is unimpaired so I’m not concerned. Eye drops are helping so I’ll stick to that unless things get worse. I’ve checked on the house batteries. I never reconnected the worst battery. The charge levels this morning are the best we’ve seen. This will be some combination of the equalization and the removal of the crappy battery. The fact that the house batteries are worn as well as the drive batteries tells me they’ve had a rough life and it really is the best thing to replace the lot. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of adding the 4 spare batteries to the house circuit. That will really make life pleasant. The downside would be that we’d spend less time with them over 14V which means I could create a sulphation (or is it sulpatation) problem down the line unless I equalize periodically. If I do lose a cell somewhere I would have plenty of spare capacity in the house bank to remove a pair without suffering unduly until we can find a fair priced replacement. The future looks good.
So back to today. We don’t intend to do much. We think we’ve earned it.
]]>My plan for the drive banks are to take three batteries at a time and parallel them up to make a 12V bank which I’ll then substitute for the house bank and repeat the equalization process. This also allows me to take the house bank off line and let them settle for 24 hours when I’ll give them a full test. That way I’ll know if I have any issues to attend to.
Other projects have been attended to today.
I have fitted an on/off valve on the pipe that allows water from one water tank to overflow and fill the other. This allows the water maker to top off both tanks. However, this does represent a risk. If for some reason our port tank becomes contaminated, this system could push the contaminated water over to the other tank and we could lose potability on both sides. Not a big issue when we’re close to somewhere to sail to and work on the problem but this could be a literal killer in the ocean. I had thought of buying a bunch of jerry cans to keep spare water in case this happened but in one of my many talks to Jim we cottoned onto the idea of simply isolating the tanks from each other. The valve I have put in allows us to do just that. So in the future, before setting off on a big trip, we’ll fill both tanks then isolate the port tank. We’ll live off the starboard tank refilling it when necessary. If we lose that, we can go over to the port tank and ration. As a backup, backup we have one jerry can, the water in the hot water tank and we’re ordering a handheld water maker for last resort. This project won’t be closed until I have tested the system to be sure no air locks are being created and water does still flow between the tanks when it’s supposed to.
Another item off the list is fixing the fast button for our electric winch. Turned out a connection had come loose. I squeezed the connector with my pliers and refitted it. It’s now on nice and tight.
I’ve also installed the replaced shackle for the topping lift line. It still looks a bit small and I’m not happy. Where II is in the bay near us. I may go over and look at how there’s is done before I close this one off.
Now that we’re on shore power we tested all four air conditioners. We had these put on for the years we expected to be in charter – not really for our selves. They need to be checked on and used from time to time just to keep them in order. I found two of them not working. In both cases it was issues with the sea water cooling line and in both cases I managed to fix the problem.
Trish and Rob from Bristol Rose popped over earlier to talk WiFi and other boaty things. Well – that’s what Rob and I talked about. It was during my showing him my AIS setup that I was able to spot the problem with my foot switch for the electric winch.
It’s getting near to 5pm which is happy hour here. Looks like we’re going. It’s also burger night tonight which was fun last time we did this about 2 months ago. Almost a different crowd by now. We know Hunter and Devi from Arctic Tern are here as Hunter helped us dock and we bumped into Devi earlier. Their boat is docked on the next pier. I believe they’ll be at burger night too. I’ll have to make sure I’m near Devi as last time I was able to swap my coleslaw for her chips.
- Fixed the choke on the dinghy
- Mounted, registered & tested the EPIRB
- Installed remained of LED indoor lights
- Mounted Magic Jack phone
- Drained water from fuel filter
- Oiled all the hinges and door mechanisms on the boat
- Voltage and hydrometer tested all 12 drive batteries
- Finally tidied up all my rubbish and stuff lying around
I didn’t get round to plugging the hole in or cleaning the dinghy.
Today started with Yoga hosted by Devi from Arctic Tern at Clarke’s Court Marina. The session was an hour long and included a variety of positions, some strenuous, some very relaxing. We both ended up feeling quite relaxed. The session reminded me of some of our karate warm ups back in the UK (10 years ago!!!!). I kept thinking we’ll be doing a ton of press ups or a couple of hundred kicks next.
The hydrometer checks yesterday revealed some cells reading too low. Usually this means the sulphuric acid has sulphated onto the plates which can only be reversed by equalizing the batteries. This means charging them in isolation at 15.5V. The drive battery charger doesn’t do this so today’s mission was to find a charger on the island that did. Jim from Bees Knees accompanied me as he was looking for something similar. I was reasonably hopeful as one of the stores I called in the morning said they had one. So it was a matter of walking all around St George’s looking into various stores.
In the end we came up a big zero on the charger. Even the store that said they had what I was looking for didn’t. The day wasn’t a complete waste of time as I picked up some materials to beef up and expand the number of hand lines I have aboard. I also bought some additional leader wire and crimps to attach to the lures I bought in NJ. Best of all I learned that Island Water World will equalize batteries for you for free. If it turns out they’re not ok at the end of a nights charging they’ll gladly sell you a replacement.
Back on the boat I upgraded my two old hand lines giving them better bungees and I made up a further two hand lines. I also put leaders onto all the lures I bought in NJ.
So all this dictates our next few days. Tomorrow morning we’ll motor back to Prickly Bay. During the day we’re off to the wholesalers to pick up beer and Ting’s (a local lime/grapefruit concoction I’m getting addicted to) and more food. Tomorrow evening we’re off turtle watching. On Thursday we’ll move the boat to St George’s so we can offload the batteries to Island Water World for charging. This may take us to Saturday where we will go on the moonlight Hash. With a bit of luck we’ll be heading north by Sunday or Monday with four lines out catching fish all the way.
]]>Just after 1pm we picked up Jim from Bees Knees and made our way to the Caranage Café to be picked up for 
this weekend’s Grenada Hash. The location was about 15 minutes further on the road we took to Seven Sisters Falls yesterday so the route was familiar. We were collected by one of the St Georges University student busses so we had plenty of room. On the bus we got to know Scott & Joalie (check) from “Excuse Me” and Richard and Laila from “Nebula”. Scott and Joalie are avid wind kiters. It turns out we saw them (and they saw us) when we were anchored off Maria Island in
St Lucia. Also on the walk were Devi and Hunter from “Arctic Tern”.
This hash was a lot more arduous than our first hash. It started with a steep climb with many having to take rests before reaching the peak. Even though we started around 4pm the heat and humidity did not help at all. Shortly after our steep climb we encountered an equally precipitous descent which was challenging in terms of trying not to fall on top of those 
below and to avoid those tripping and falling from above.
For a while things got a little easier although the general elevation of the walk seemed to be climbing inexorably upwards. We were presented with one or two ‘choices’ in route but given our position in the pack it was always obvious which was the wrong turn. I ended up losing Helen and catching up with Jim and when we were presented with the choice between the ‘Runners’ path and the ‘Walkers’ path we chose to walk the runners path as it offered more views and even though we were walking, 
we had a good pace.
We were treated to plenty of great views although from talking to Helen, who took the walkers (shorter) path they saw most of the same. We saw the old airport strip and beautiful lush valleys. High up we walked through a village with a partially built church with palm trees outside painted Caribbean style.
Eventually, all the climbing was made up with even more precipitous descents than encountered earlier. I managed to slip down a bit. One chap behind me lost his footing and somehow flew down the slope turning 
and twisting without falling. The ‘path’ we were on turned into a short jungle trail before following a rocky brook where we could avoid getting our feet wet hopping from rock to rock. We eventually made it down to river level where Jim and I caught up with Helen who had got ahead of us by taking the shorter route.
The walk followed the river for a while past thick rainforest and clusters of bamboo before coming within a couple of hundred feet of our destination: rest, food and beer. Our hopes were lifted only to find there was no 
direct route to our destination and it was back to hard climbing (and slipping) and descents through plantation.
We did finally make our destination. Many were pretty exhausted from the ordeal. The beer, BBQ chicken and 
oil down (local food) was most welcome. At the ‘devirginizing’ ceremony Jim was welcomed into the Grenada Hash and received his certificate as well as a liberal coating of beer.
After feeding and lubrication it was time to reboard the university bus.
As luck would have it the bus drove right by Grenada Marine where we had left the dinghy so our trip home was not only simple but also free – a cruisers delight. We dropped of Jim back at Bees Knees and it was back home to Dignity to rest though not before watching the first episode of the recent series of 24.
Here follows the slide show from yesterday with more pics than shown above. A reminder that if you click on the slide show you will be taken to the Picasa website where you can see the pictures much larger.
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Yesterday evening we were invited out for dinner at De Big Fish by Jim for an early celebration of Anne’s birthday and to officially say goodbye as she’s off to Maine on Saturday morning. Devi and Hunter from Arctic Tern were there too. We had good food and a surprise cake. As ever, the company was excellent.
This is the downside of friendship while cruising. Good friends eventually say goodbye or at least au revoir. Anne will be coming back to Grenada in November but by then we expect to have headed west. We may again meet up in the western Caribbean but we can’t be certain. We will remain optimistic that this is not goodbye forever.
While we were eating, Scott had gone to town for some R&R. We had left him the dinghy to get back to Dignity. Around 10pm we received a call from him because he’d spent the last hour trying to start it and had, in great frustration, given up. Being a boat tech all his life he did not concede lightly. I made a general request for assistance on VHF 68, the local cruisers channel, and was answered by Sue & Bill from Unchained. Bill came to the rescue picking me up from Dignity and dropping me off at the dock where Scott was waiting. I managed to start the motor fairly quickly. Scott was feeling a little humbled by this. I think this was down to the broken choke which had I had jury rigged a while back and knew how to fiddle with correctly. I do have the spare part now so I’ll have to expedite this fix.
Thanks Bill.
The final piece of excitement missed in yesterday’s blog was the excitement surrounding my lost flip flop while on the dock at Prickly Bay Marina. Back in the US I had bought an extremely comfortable pair of flip flops. I had left them, with several others, on the port transom. A little while later we could only find one of them. We looked around the boat in case someone had moved it and came to the conclusion it must have been knocked or blown overboard somehow. We searched everywhere around the dock and I even went out in the dinghy to search. No luck. I was cross and despondent as I’d barely had them down here for 24 hours. Having given up the search we did find it. It was on the bed in our room. It must have been knocked through the small porthole by accident. Hurray.
]]>We were in about 20 feet of [...]]]>
We were in about 20 feet of water. Going down with my scuba gear I discovered we were over fine mud and the visibility was only a few feet. Undaunted I collected some string and a long screw driver to drive into the ground so I could create a search pattern. I was down for nearly an hour but in the end I did have to abandon the search as I realised the swing of Dignity simply created too big a search area and there was a distinct possibility the cutlery was sitting just under the mud, impossible to see even if the water was crystal clear.
Later we moved Dignity back behind Hog Island to be in dinghy range of Clarks Court Marina where the Fish and Chips were to be sold in the evening. Although it doesn’t show on the google maps a new bridge joins Hog Island to the mainland. One used to be able sail between the two but not any more. This location is our best compromise. The alternatives would either have been to dinghy from where we were (too far in the dinghy) or to round Hog Island in Dignity (unnecessary extra distance).
We didn’t do a whole lot bar read for the day until it was time to go. At the marina we met a bunch of old faces. Devi & Hunter from Arctic Tern were there among others. Everyone we meet at the moment are on their way through, most of them laying up either here or in Trinidad. It will be interesting as the place fills up with those that are staying.
Today we’ll shift Dignity into Prickly Bay and go into town to look around. I may pick up a mobile phone so we can communicate while on the island. In the afternoon we have the Hash Hound Harriers event to attend. Devi and Hunter from Arctic Tern have intentions to go as well. They have been to events on other islands and said they’re a lot of fun.
anchored for the first time south of 12 degrees North (Helen looks at me weirdly on this point).
We had lunch then went ashore to look at Martin’s Marina and to have a walk around the peninsula that separates Prickly Bay and Mt Hartman Bay. Without a decent map we made a few wrong turns but got to see some interesting places and properties. We visited Prickly Bay Marina too which saves us taking Dignity there which we may have done tomorrow.
Our walk took us to the very end of the peninsular to Prickly Point where the fancy houses gave way to a small bit of rugged land.
One of the more interesting places we saw on the way back was a yellow castle like home. It would 
be cool to live in a place like that.
Tomorrow we have one more marina to look at. We’re pretty sure we’ll anchor Dignity in Prickly Bay while we’re in New Jersey. However, when we return we’re due to get our upgrade on the control board and we need a marina for a night or two. Where this will be we haven’t decided. After tomorrow we’ll have seen them all and can decide.
Tomorrow night we’re almost certain to go back to Clark’s Court Bay for their Fish and Chips evening. On Saturday there is a Grenada Hash House Harriers event planned. I hadn’t heard of the Hash Harriers before but it’s world wide. It seems to be a casual Rotary Club aimed at runners/walkers who like a beer or three. They describe themselves as drinkers with a running problem. Despite all this it is a family thing. Apart from the fact this seems to be right up our alley, this will be a good way to meet some of the indigenous population. They have a walk/run planned for Saturday afternoon so we reckon we’ll join them. They have an open invite on the VHF net every morning so we should be more than welcome.
]]>The cooks, Rene & Cherryl, who are cruisers helping out also run a fish & chips night every other Friday. If we don’t make this coming Friday we must make the one in two weeks time.
As ever, when we’re having the most fun I forget to take photos. Oops.
Today we have some calls to make and make our last on line orders for things to collect in NJ. In a few minutes Helen will be off with Anne for yoga at Clark’s Court Bay Marina hosted by Devi from Arctin Tern. Later we will move the boat to explore more of the possibilities to the west of us. Today we’ll certainly look at Mt Harmon Bay where we may stop for the night. To the west of that is Prickly Bay which is a real cruiser hub and there’s also True Blue Bay which has some moorings we could possibly use too.
]]>We agreed with Jim and Anne to go and explore and snorkel around Petit Tabac around 10am. This involved dingying out through a small cut in the reef and making our way over boisterous water to the calm waters surrounding Petit Tabac. Ashore we walked all around the island. On one side it was fine sand (closer to what you see in the movie) and on the windward side the shore comprised rock and, mainly, broken coral. We then took the the crystal clear waters and snorkeled together. We found the current a little strong so we broke of the snorkel and dinghied back inside the main reef to continue our snorkel towing the dinghies along with us. Here, in more crystal clear water, we saw more marine life including turtles in the reserve area.
In the afternoon Helen and I dinghied over to one of the cays called Jamesby. We climbed to the summit to take in the view and, of course, take pictures. Even though the cay had one smallish beach we found we could walk all the way round often on smoothed over rocks walking under rocky overhangs. As we rounded each corner many crab would be disturbed and scuttle off to find cover.
At 5pm we again met up with Jim and Anne and four from another boat the Bees Knees knew, Arctic Tern. They were Devie, Hunter, Jay and Deb – the first two being the boat owners, aboard for three years already, and the latter two friends/guests. They were all National Park folk from Alaska and very interesting people. We hung around watching the sunset from the beach on Baradel, another Cay. As it got dark we all headed back to our boats with Bees Knees coming over to ours for evening meal. We finished off the Tuna Curry as well as a vege curry Anne had made.
Today we’ll hang around the Cays again. More snorkeling and more island exploring is in order.
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