Still in Tyrell, Carriacou

We are still in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou.  It is great to be with such good and like-minded friends, but the wind and rain are starting to take its toll on us.  We know, complaining about Caribbean weather in a weblog intended primarily for New Brunswickers is, well, stupid and insensitive; but this much rain could be depressing just about anywhere.

7 am, uninhabited walkabout boat blowing through the stormy anchorage being guided by intrepid rescuers

Peace and Plenty at anchor among the many curious and unique boats of Tyrell Bay

We have had a boat break its mooring and many dragging anchor.  The good news from my point of view is that many draggers have had the Rocna style anchor, allowing a demonstration to the admiral that it may not be a "must have" addition to our gear, and maybe the Brittany style we have are not so bad.  We also all mustered our dinghies to try to get some guy in a metal boat off the Tyrell Bay Reef (known as "Bareboat Reef").  He actually floated off by himself at midnight, since it was a full moon high tide.

We got another two hikes in, showing the crews of Moody Blues and Peace & Plenty some parts of the island, and managed to stay reasonably dry each time.  One included beaches and a ruin, while the other explored a high mountain trail - but without climbing or scrabbling.  The second was marred by dog activity.   Dogs fought with each other, and one dog badly wounded a sick sheep out of sheer instinct.  The dogs are terribly numerous in Carriacou; poorly looked after and poorly trained.  If you do not like dogs, stay off this island, and if you love them, this place might just cure that.

Another set of ruins in Carriacou

Christmas Eve was spent on Moody Blues, with Susea providing a fantastic chili complemented with fresh boat-made breads.  We actually stayed up until midnight, the fun was so addictive.  Christmas Day was a pot luck on Cat Tales; and the food was just amazing again, with turkey and carrot cake from Susea, pork tenderloin from Dawn, mashed potatoes and mixed veggies from Lorna, and a hot plantain salad from Laurie (with coaching from Dawn).  We started at 4 pm, but we were alone by 8.  Sadly, we are all too old and decrepit to party hard two nights in a row, although most blame it on the turkey.

Jeff from s/v Beach House and Steve and Maria onboard Moody Blues, Christmas Eve.

 

Lorna and Brian and Laurie on Christmas Eve

 

Gene and Susea aboard their boat Moody Blues

We're watching for a hole in the weather today so I can help Brian with a faulty wind generator, and again at supper when Lorna hopes to serve us all at P&P some soup made from the turkey bones, veggies, and some other left-overs. 

Cat Tales and P&P are also hoping for a lull in the wind and squalls to make a run between here and Grenada.  It is only 3 hours in open sea, then 3 more down the side of the island.  It means a temporary goodbye to Aspen and Moody Blues, but we'll be united again at some point.

Something for the boys to look at while sipping cold beers at Paradise Beach!  An extremely friendly and attractive gal from New York enjoying a solo vacation.

An attractive young couple investigating shells in an isolated ravine, west shore Carriacou.  As they still were looking at shells with their suits on, we all agreed they were wasting their youth!

 Technical

We have little to report here this week, although there is a nagging leak under our bunk from the primary bulkhead that travels under the mast and through each hull.  It happens if we have a significant rain or series of rain or have a major hell-time of a sail.  The water is insignificant, but the smell it brings with it reminds one of a dump fire or the burning of the coating off wire.  We continue to monitor and scratch our heads.  It would be wonderful to have a plan of the boat that shows where there is sandwich construction or solid glass, and exactly how the bulkhead joins the various surfaces.  One would assume that the hulls and deck were complete with outer and inner skins before the honeycombed bulkhead was installed, but obviously not.  The answer is to re install every fitting on the boat, we guess - not something we wish to do over open water.

Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Waiting for Santa

Check out their Caribbean Flextime hours!

It is a hot, windy Sunday, and, after a hike with s/v Aspen, s/v Peace and Plenty, and s/v Moody Blues ((Gene and Susea (the spelling is another story)), Dawn has left me on the boat to read, fix stuff and write while she goes with the crowd to play dominoes.

We had a fine sail up to Carriacou on Monday with Aspen.  Aspen took the traditional route to the tip of Grenada and motored even further upwind to make the last couple of hours through the open ocean easily and on one tack.  Cat Tales stayed off Grenada, turned the motor off as soon as the refrigeration and watermaker chores were done, and ended up off Carriacou by 7 nautical miles.  So, we arrived an hour and a half after Steve and Maria.   Purity apparently has a price.

As a shakedown cruise, it was a success.  However, we hit some real rough water in the area known locally as "Kick-em-Jenny", and one particular plunge between waves had us changing immediately between 6.5 knots and 2.5 knots with one hell of a bang.  It made me quite appreciative of the $650 US I had spent in October on welding for the forward crossmember.  The crew, rather used to violent changes to velocity, had little trouble, just big eyes.

Peace and Plenty presented both of us with an offer of dinner by radio while both boats were hours out, and at the appointed time, we enjoyed French wine, French cheeses, and French pate, with many choices and trimmings in Lorna and Brian's cockpit.  It was a wonderful evening, and a long one.

Since then, we've been rather social every second day/night, with quiet days in between for reading, repairing, and recuperating.  As well, we have been joined by friends aboard Moody Blues, mentioned above, with whom we had bonded in 2008.  It has been great!

Wednesday was declared a beach day, and we went to the north shore: Paradise Beach, where our friend Curtis runs a little place called Off de Hook for sitting, reading, swimming, drinking, eating, and haircutting (he has a barbershop attached).   We've mentioned this place many times before as it is spectacular, with beautiful white sand and a commanding view of many of our favourite islands of the Grenadines.  We have had our Holiday pictures done from here a few times, and you will see that we have done it again.  This time, the best shots and the choreography were courtesy of Susea, who even has a Steve Miller Band album cover to her credit.

Major photobomb on Brian and Lorna's Christmas photo.  Who was that idiot??!

Susea trying to get the best shot of all of us poor subjects!  "Work with me, work with me!!"

Lorna and Brian without Laurie!

Dawn & Laurie with Union Island in the background to the right

Maria and Steve from s/v Aspen

Susea showing us how to model for a photo-shoot!

Susie and Gene s/v Moody Blues.  Job done!!

Friday morning, we determined we'd take a local bus to a community on the far side of this little island, called Windward.  Once we got there, we chatted the driver up about what we wanted to see, and it became plain that he could and would be our guide for a couple of hours.  We got to see two local boats being manufactured (heavy timber from Guyana, planking a yellow pine from Honduras), a rather ancient well, and a major, old graveyard being assaulted by the sea.  Regarding that, we pieced together that the increase in sea level over the last 150 years has been exacerbated by the mining of beach sand by some unscrupulous contractors to cause even relatively new graves to fall to the mercy (or lack thereof) of the sea.  I think you will agree that the picture is quite something. 

Graves and erosion!

Malcolm, our bus driver and the crew of us wandering around the sights of Windward, Carricou

Boatbuilding in Windward

Ancient well

Friday night we attended a party at Tanty Lizzy's Seaside Fountain.  We warmed up at a sundowner bar nearby, then joined other cruisers and locals for wine, a wonderful tray of local food, and the sweet sounds of a cruiser who calls himself Barracuda, accompanied by two other musicians.  There were some humourous antics on the dancefloor among the cruisers and locals, but it would be unfair to describe them.  Also, the decorations were decidedly "Valentine's Day-ish", with only red and white balloons, red and white ribbons, Tanty Lizzy's big and beautiful red dress, and of course big hearts; but who would be so fussy to mind? Just think, they don't have to re-decorate for Valentine's Day!

Christmas Party at Tanty Lizzy's

Not only can Tanty Lizzy cook, you should see her dance :-)

A good time was had by all!

So, here we are on the odd day again:  we've had our hike, Dawn is presently at the Slipway Restaurant sipping beer and playing dominoes; but there is more to come.  The eight of us are scheduled to hit the Lazy Turtle Restaurant for pizzas tonight.  Stay tuned.

Technical:

The batteries are not causing too much trouble.  We run the engines in the morning with the refrigerator cold plate and for the ham radio, but rely on solar, wind, and the old batteries to keep the freezer working, so we're still better off than boats without solar and wind.  The engine room boards have been soaked in fresh water to get the salt out of them so they would dry properly, and this week, we dried them and finished painting them.  We also located a vent that has been allowing salt water spray to do the damage to them and attached a home-made elbow out of a water bottle and duct tape to see if it can be managed (we need the air but not the water).  The work on the older snap screws for the salon window covers must have been the sources of leakage, because the last few storms have resulted in a dry bunk.  The sunbrella cover over the engine controls in the cockpit has been re-stitched by Lorna.  Well over two hours were spent on my sandals that completely fell apart during our tour of Windward.  Whoever is selling sandals to Canadian Tire need to understand that there are some glues that do not dissolve in water.  A two-year-old could have disassembled the sandals.  Now, 3M 4000 caulking is making these worth the money, but I want compensation for the time.

I have a volt meter that is wired through all three battery banks, allowing a toggle switch to provide the voltage of each.  It is fused on the negative return wire, but our boat surveyor insists that to be safe and conforming to codes each positive lead has to be fused.  I installed these this week, although I got dizzy from rolling my eyes at the need.

Regarding our slow approach to Carriacou, we suffered from large waves and a pinching course, but also, the tide was coming in to the Caribbean sea from the Atlantic (filling the headwaters of the Gulf Stream), and the outrageous differences between our heading and our COG (course over ground) suggests that in the deep water between the major islands we were getting pushed to the west by up to two knots.  Our new electronics, with such great reporting of all things GPS allows us to also see that whenever Cat Tales' speed through the water drops below 5 knots, we suffer significantly increased leeway.  Therefore, pinching is a poor option - bear downwind and enjoy the speed.

Leaving Prickly Bay

This morning, we finally lifted anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada, and sailed by jib, downwind, around the headlands and curled north to anchor in 21 feet outside St. Georges.  The two-hour trip was done easily, but with no fish.  The anchorage bottom is mostly just coral rubble, and, although we arrived before lunch, we were worried that the day would be spent "anchoring til happy hour".  We tried at least six times before being reasonably satisfied, but only earned one anchor beer.  We need a better union!

Still, it is nice to be outside of the opaque water of Prickly Bay, and in water that allows you to see the bottom.  Swimming on the anchor was a pleasure.  We intend to spend the easy afternoon in this breeze and blueness, and then join Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen at the Yacht Club for 5 pm.

We were rather caught up in our chores by Tuesday, and had intended to spend Tuesday afternoon at the University Club pool in Prickly Bay, swimming and getting an internet fix; but as things happen, Steve and Maria landed there in their attempt to abandon their own workload - so we had an enjoyable chat.

Wednesday, as planned, we joined Steve and Maria as they rented a car and attempted to give Steve his "archeological fix".  He intended to circle the island and visit ancient caves and petroglyphs.  We, and I guess Maria, were just along for the ride.  We had a lovely hike to a cave at Black Bay, heading down the same river that forms the Concord Falls (Dawn and I had hiked up to these falls from the bus stop with Darrel and Loretta of Cankata in 2006, this cave was in the other direction).  We actually didn't find the cave without help - we had to hire a local, Dillon, who was fishing the mouth of the river with his mother.  It was a grand cave with two entrances, and a rather flat floor.  It would have made a lovely home a couple of thousand years ago, once the bats gave up on it, and some lovely Carib Indian furniture was moved in (can't really say we've ever seen Carib Indian furniture in any catalogue).  The hike, with a log balance over a stream, some mud, and a tough rock scramble, was just tough enough for Maria to withhold her seal of approval; but a lot of it was through the old road and orchard of a former plantation, that was being brought back to life as the cocoa crops are increasing in value locally.

Dawn with Maria in the background

We also found that if you want to get help finding petroglyphs from the locals, you need to say you are looking for Carib rocks, not petroglyphs, otherwise, raised eyebrows follow.  One was the size of a transport truck engine and cab, and was in a very eroded stream bed beside a highway.  In the past, the government had placed a little concrete house with a lookout veranda and toilets above it, but this was in disrepair, and no signage was evident.

Petroglyph or Carib Rock as the locals say

Humm...a bridge, of sorts.  Let's all go one at a time.  Laurie, goes first!

Steve trying to find the path to the caves!

Dylan, the guy at the stream helps us across and shows us the way.  He smiled brightly after we gave him a token of our appreciation!

cocoa growing all through the farm we walked through

The best part of the trip, all agree, was the discovery of our lunch stop, the Petit Anse Resort and Restaurant, on the north end of the island.  It had a beautiful restaurant high above the little beach, facing the northern Grenadian islands.  The food was as good as the fantastic view - the best rotis in the Caribbean, easily.

Maria and Steve.  Steve is all set to find a swimming hole by the look of his swim trunks peeking out below his shorts!

 On Thursday, we got caught up physically and emotionally in the efforts to find a missing Canadian woman whose parents live in New Brunswick.  Linnea Veinotte was running and walking her dog in an upscale residential area called L'Anse Aux Epines (an area that also includes the Cuban Embassy and the British Consulate) on the morning of Sunday, 06, December, 2015.  There were no witnesses to an accident, but several people in the development heard the noise of an accident, including the yelping of a wounded dog.  One of these persons was walking her own dog towards the accident scene when a particular type and colour of car drove by her moving fast and erratically, and actually caused her to have to get out of its way.  Moments later, she came upon an obvious accident site, and found a badly wounded dog.  Assuming a human victim was being rushed to the hospital she turned her attentions to helping the victim's dog.  However, according to the police, there was no evidence at the scene that Linnea Veinotte herself was injured in the accident, but there was no sign of Linnea. 

We had been able to distance ourselves from these problems with other appointments, but we ran out of excuses, and went to shore to visit the headquarters of the efforts to find her.  We got to hear what was known from Linnea's husband Matt (who was in terrible shape), and then sat through a strategy session.  It was concluded that the best thing to do was to bring pressure on Grenada officials to maintain their efforts, but also to call in more expertise from Canada, US, or Scotland Yard.  Anyone knowing about the police in small countries, or with experience in the Caribbean would understand our misgivings.  It is not their fault that they may not have the training or experience - but it is not the victim's fault either.  We took it upon ourselves to contact media and politicians in Atlantic Canada, and to attempt to get the Canadian Government to make a sincere offer of assistance, and spent the rest of our day in a restaurant with horrible internet attempting to do that.

The situation rapidly changed, however:  Late Thursday night it was reported that the vehicle in question was found and the owner's name was made public as the search for him continued.  Friday morning, he gave himself up; and later in the day, a body was located - probably with the man's help.  We still do not know what happened, and wonder if we will ever.  I am left to rescind our pleas, and thank those who were willing to assist.  People live and die; many die too soon, a lot die in greater numbers and in even more terrible circumstances - but this situation grabbed our attention and it seemed we could do something.  

Last night, we went to a brew pub with the woman who had taken on the command centre: Kathy (& John) of s/v Katerina, Ontario.  She and the other volunteers who accompanied us had some need of a few drinks and a few laughs.  The craft beer was good, by the way - a brew called West Indies IPA was favoured by Dawn and me.

Our plans are to sail to Carriacou on Monday morning in the company of s/v Aspen; where we will rendezvous with Lorna and Brian aboard s/v Peace and Plenty.  We'll spend two weeks with them all, Aspen will head north, and we, with Peace and Plenty following, will return to the south end of Grenada so we can show them around.  We will also pick up our new batteries at that time.   So, Monday = our real shake-down cruise.