Saturday morning we went to the flea market in Whisper Cove Marina. We arrived a few minutes early only to find the place jostling with cruisers looking to sell unwanted gear and those looking for bargains. We managed to pick up some free guides to Australia and an RS232 cable splitter which I need to talk to some of my gear.
Bristol Roses were there looking to sell some of their US charts and guidebooks. Where IIs were wandering around as were the Jacksters.
Helen and I took a little walk up the hill from Whisper Cove and found a lovely plot of land overlooking the bay. It would be a great place to build a home and we wonder why one hasn’t been built there. No doubt someone owns the land and is hanging on for the right event. Here’s a panoramic video from the location.
Back at the marina we again bumped into the Jacksters and ended up inviting David and Jacqui over for a curry aboard Dignity.
Back aboard Dignity is was down to clearing and cleaning ready for our trip to Trinidad. I wanted to check and clean the props and decided if I was down there on the hookah I may as well clean the hulls too. I’m beginning to despise this job as it takes all the fun out of being in the water. Down here the wriggly critters are prevalent so despite putting my wetsuit on they still got into my hair and neckline.
The evening came David and Jacqui joined us. We had a great evening sharing stories and the odd joke. I managed to find one that David didn’t already know which, if you know David, is quite a result. In the end they left around midnight, the real one, which is a testament to how much we enjoyed the evening. We have roughly similar plans so hopefully we’ll be bumping into the Jacksters (not literally) from time to time.
Checking the weather this morning it is again looking like Monday evening offers the better weather window for Trini. For a while it was beginning to look like tonight would be better but now the odds are shifting in favour of Monday again. Probably for the best as we’re a little tired this morning.
Final note. Yesterday I discovered a page on the winlink site that shows our current and recent positions on a single page. This gives you a better idea of how we’re moving about and should be pretty good when we’re covering larger distances. I’ve provided a link to it on our ‘Where Are We?‘ page for future reference.
The following pics include views of the boat to give a sense of the place we’re anchored.
Friday night Fish n Chips at Clarke’s Court Bay Marina and a Saturday morning flea market at nearby Fleur Bleu brought us to Clarke’s Court Bay yesterday. Our sail round was at midday. The only thing of note in the morning was my dinghying to the dock at Prickly Bay Marina with my face mask and snorkel to search and locate a pad lock dropped into the water on Wednesday evening. I managed to find it fairly quickly despite my initial pessimism when I saw the bed was a jumble of large rocks. Dripping wet I walked into the mini-mart as I’d heard they needed something dropped off in Trinidad. Now I’ve got us running a box load of Doyle’s Cruising Guides south.
The motor sail round to Clarke’s Court Bay was a bit of a pounding – particularly around Prickly Point – as the winds were slightly south of east and waves squeezed into small places. At one point a pair of my swimming shorts blew off the rail (they shouldn’t have been there really). We probably could have quite easily turned to get them but we were squeezed between the shore and off shore rocks in messy water. The economics or risking your boat/home for your swimming shorts made us decided to pound on through.
Once round the point we again took the marked dinghy channel inside the reef of Hogg Island where the waters were much calmer. We found a spot a little away from the main pack in the bay and anchored – our Manson again setting firmly on first bite of the ground.
Fish ‘n’ Chips was again delicious. We bumped into the Where IIs and Jacksters and Bristol Roses (briefly). They’ll all be at the flea market too. We also saw Sweet Carolines. They’re off to Trini next week too but later than us so we may see them down there. We also made new friends with a couple from Durban (Whiskers) who are now on their second circumnavigation. They’re on a similar timetable to us for heading across the Pacific. They gave us some useful information on routing and timing which may lead me to adjust our plans a little.
There’s quite a good weather window tonight for the overnight trip to Trini. It’s just a bit too early for us and it would involve paying overtime to customs at each end. The next window looks like Monday night but continue we monitor the forecasts twice a day in case this changes. I don’t mind paying overtime here in Grenada but I’ve heard it’s a real pain in Trinidad. If we discover tomorrow morning (Sunday) that we have a window that evening I’ll take the bus into St George’s and check out in the morning.
Over the next couple of days we’ll get Dignity ready for the passage south. We’ve heard it can be a little rough so we need to make sure we have nothing loose. We’ve got used to traveling without having to put things away. This will be a chore but a useful exercise.
After proving that using the winch power cables for my solar panel supply was effective, doing the job properly took a bit of extra effort. It was important to me to be able to put the wires back to their original use so cutting them or changing the ends was not on. Nor were the lugs on the ends of the wires the right size for connecting to my charge controller so I had to find the right pieces to make it all work. Nearby Budget Marine had some but not all the parts I needed. A longer walk to an electrical store found some of the other parts I needed plus they let me use their hydraulic crimper to place the lugs on the end on my leads which I’d brought to the store.
Another possible piece of luck is I got talking to the store manager and he learned I may have some spare batteries. We may have a deal on where I can borrow some of his top end tools in exchange for a battery or two. Given that I’m unlikely to sell them all this would be really good if we can pull this off. Having the best connections possible has no substitute so getting hold of good tools will make my future rewiring work the best I can do.
After clearing everything up we had just enough time to clean up, shower and go ashore to meet Inge. Inge is someone we’ve been trying to meet for two months. She is good friends of Des and Sue from Desue (who we got to know well in St Martin). She also runs the local radio net a couple of times per week. We’ve had a number of near calls for meeting up but for one reason or another it never happened until yesterday evening.
We met Inge who showed up with her significant friend Hal at Prickly Bay Marina where we enjoyed a couple of drinks at their Tiki bar during Happy Hour. We then went back to the boat for more conversation and, whatever. We ended up back ashore for pizza. The whole evening was very enjoyable. Hal gave me some great tips for the passage to Trinidad and what to do when we’re there so we’re very thankful for that.
Today we were tourists and took Cutty’s round Grenada tour. Cutty is the same fellow we took to go and see the turtles back in May I think. His tours have a very good reputation and he has a good gig going with the cruiser community.
The day started at 9am with a pickup at De Big Fish. You may have gathered De Big Fish is a focal point and it is. For the reason that they have a pretty good dinghy dock close to the road, Budget Marin and public transportation to shops and the capital. With four others, we were soon heading off to St Georges to collect the remainder of the ride.
Our first stop was at the prison overlooking town. The prisoners get a great view – something seems wrong here. We learned the prison was housing 3 times the prisoners it was originally built for which seems just like the rest of the world.
We then took the winding roads into Grand Etang, the rain forest in the center of Grenada. Our next stop was at a spice kiosk where Cutty showed us some naturally growing spices followed by the opportunity to purchase some at very low prices.
The third stop was at the Annandale Waterfalls. These were set in small but beautifully laid out gardens. The waterfalls could have been magical but were a bit too concreted around and too touristy (hark who complains). They were worth the effort of stopping for though. We had the option to go swimming which only one of our party took up. A couple of locals ran their little enterprise there which involved jumping into the pool below the falls from a high height and collecting tips for their efforts. I noticed their eyes were a bit bloodshot which could be due to their frequent forceful dunkings.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oORkki_DgaA[/youtube]
After that we followed the road up into the hills to 2,000 feet above sea level and arrived at the place where one can see the local (from Africa) monkeys. We weren’t disappointed and got to see many of them including having the chance to scratch one of the old timers.
Onward from there we made our way over to the Rivers Rum Distillery. Along the way we stopped for some local interest including some colourful caterpillars which you can see in the slide show below.
Lunch was at the distillery in a nice raised restaurant. We were told lunch was EC$30 each which included a tour of the distillery. Helen and I both ordered rotis and were incredibly disappointed by the size in comparison to others’ meals.
They passed around a book for feedback and we (I) wrote down our disappointment only to discover our rotis only cost EC$10 which is next to nothing. Oh well – had we known we might have ordered two each and been more than satisfied.
Next came the tour which was fascinating. The rum making process was still dependent on the use of a water wheel to drive the machinery that crushed the sugar cane and squeeze all the juice out of it. Most of the rest of the work was intensely manual.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LUPeCtRgtxI[/youtube]
The tour ended with a tasting session which included some of the 75%+ by volume strength rum. I felt all tingly after.
I fell asleep on the bus after my double whammy of lunch and rum. I was soon woken at the nutmeg factory. It’s a sorry tale really. Grenada used to be the number 2 in the world for nutmeg exports. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 destroyed 90% of production which has yet to recover. The facility we saw used to employ 140 people. Now it employs 8. There’s a lot of replanting being done so over the coming years the industry will hopefully recover.
Our final stop was at a wonderful little beach on the south side of the island.
This was one of those picture postcard spots. We were able to splash around a little in our bare feet and explore a little before heading back to our various stops.
This was definitely a very good tour and would recommend it to anyone. For a full day out and informative guide the cost was extremely good too.
Back on the boat I was eager to check the effectiveness of the solar charging. The day had been a little overcast but I was pleased to note that the panels had fully charged our batteries despite this. I’m still feeling pleased about this one.
On top of the mornings admin I did pickup the backing plates yesterday and popped round to see Jim on Bees Knees but not a lot else. In the evening we went out to De Big Fish for their happy hour and had a couple of beers and some chicken wings. We met and chatted to Mike from Cirque de Soleil. After that we walked round to True Blue and had a cheap and cheerful curry from a take-away.
Today we’ve been getting down to things. I’ve installed all but two of the backing plates. The six cleats on the sides of the boat are now strengthened which are the most important. The two at the rear will require some form of building up underneath as the underside surfaces at far from level. Given that these are less likely to take great strain finishing this job off is now a lower priority.
While I was down in the starboard transom I started looking at the solar panel rewiring job. Staring at where I would have to run the wires I noticed the thumb thick wires running up to the powered dinghy winch which we never use. We never ordered this but it came with the boat at no extra cost. I’ve always looked at it as spares. Well – there are these jumbo cables thick enough to take a heavy load running right where I need them back to exactly the right place. Ding !!!!
I’ve already tried using these for the solar power bodging my way around connector differences. Before trying this the delta between the amps my solar controller was putting out and the amps the charger control was measuring going into the batteries was about 20%. Now it’s under 10%. That’s a huge improvement and will probably get better when I connect everything properly. A quick bit of mental arithmetic suggests we’ll get another 20-25Ah out of the system every day.
Helen’s been busy too (she usually is even if I don’t write it up). Today she’s fixed a door latch (bit of a gluing job) and cut a sacrificial zinc down to the right size so we have an extra spare. She’s also been clearing up behind me where I expose or make a mess.
This afternoon I will focus on properly wiring up the new solar power cables. I want to leave it so they can be reconnected to the power winch if someone ever wants to reverse the change but that’s not much of a constraint.
Sunday was almost a lazy day. We spent most of the day relaxing but we both started our audio Spanish lessons and I spent some time on my Eurotalk Spanish disk. We will be spending a lot of time in Spanish speaking countries from October and, if a hurricane is aimed at Grenada, we could end up escaping down to Venezuela.
Yesterday I decided I needed to visit the doctor regarding my eye as it was getting quite irritating. He confirmed there was no major damage, just a scratch on the surface with some bleeding. He prescribed some antiseptic drops to prevent infection. At the same time I discussed my thumb which I injured back in May and is still clicking and causing pain. He provided me a note to have an X-Ray at the local general hospital. The doctors office was right by our favourite supermarket so we shopped for provisions and both returned to the boat for lunch.
In the afternoon I went into town taking with me one of our cleats to be used as a template to have backing plates made. At present we only have washers and nuts securing the cleat to the deck which is not as strong as backing plates. While we’re in project mode we felt it was worth strengthening all the cleats. Better safe than sorry.
After dropping off the cleat at the metal workers I headed over to the main town to pick up my eye drop prescription then head over to the hospital for my X-Ray. The facilities were pretty basic compared to US and UK hospitals but the job was done costing all of EC$15 (about US$5). They handed me a note to give back to the doctor. He wasn’t there when I returned so I’m awaiting contact later today. Hopefully is just age taking time to heal but for the extra EC$15 it’s worth having a peer inside.
Yesterday I confirmed the battery order in Trinidad and added our bottom paint requirements as it is 20% cheaper there than here. The goods should make it onto the Thursday ship out of Miami and reach Trinidad Wednesday next week. That should put us on a Monday evening departure from Grenada for an overnight passage to Trini – weather permitting.
The weather has been quite wet and windy. Prickly Bay lived up to its reputation last night and became a little rolly. The tropical waves seem to be picking up intensity but upper level wind sheers continue to prevent the waves developing into Hurricanes. Here we are approaching the end of July and still no big blows in the Caribbean.
Today we’re doing more admin. I may be picking up our cleat backing plates if they’re ready and perhaps dropping off one of our jib sheet travelers for similar work to be done for them. I may also measure up for some electrical cabling. One of the projects is to lower some of the resistance in our 12V circuit. I regret opting for the minimum thickness cable joining our solar panel regulator to the batteries so I want to upgrade that and use the old cable to double up the run from our batteries to our main control panel. Both of these improvements should lower the number of lost Amp/hours each day.
We arrived a few minutes early only to find the place jostling with cruisers looking to sell unwanted gear and those looking for bargains. We managed to pick up some free guides to Australia and an RS232 cable splitter which I need to talk to some of my gear.
wanted to check and clean the props and decided if I was down there on the hookah I may as well clean the hulls too. I’m beginning to despise this job as it takes all the fun out of being in the water. Down here the wriggly critters are prevalent so despite putting my wetsuit on they still got into my hair and neckline.
