Land of Milk and Honey (and Croissants and Coffee)

Current Location: St Annes Bay, Martinique

We’ve made it to Martinique. This is where we will leave Petronella for Christmas and New Year.

For a change, instead of writing something new, here is our log from the time we left Carriacou (just north of Grenada) until Monday morning.

View from the remote anchorage of Isle de Ronde, south of Carriacou

Sunday 27^th November 2016

Up at 5am. Rained all night. Pouring. Winds look good. E 10 to 15 knots until it turns ESE and strengthening. But it’s going to be a wet 26 hours.

0600 – Anchor up, blustery start, engine on. Sails up, slightly hairy as, of course, it gusts to 20 knots at just the wrong time. 15k ENE. Full sails up. Reefed main after a squall.

0740 – Fish on! Caught a tuna. 5lbs on the new cedar plug. Gilly gutted it for the fridge. Whoop. Whoop. Now off Union Island. Going well. Bowling along at more than 7k on a flattish sea, Wanda [wind steering] on steering us at 010 degrees north.

Tuna - caught on the new cedar plug - just the right size for eating - yum, yum

0855 – The day has brightened up. Flattish sea. E wind. Averaging over 6k still, in the right direction! Fishing ceased. Waterproofs off.

1100 – Still cracking on. Slipped downwind. Shook out reef. St Vincent now clear off the starboard bow. Sunny but squalls over the islands. Speed 5.4k.

1315 – Speed 6.3k. Track 021 degrees. Crossed St Vincent/Bequia channel. Sun out. The world is good. Cup-a-Soup for lunch. 16 hours to St Annes would give 0515 tomorrow. 84 miles to go.

Cracking on, on flat seas, north Union Island

1414 – Just got sails balanced and J noticed outhaul coming loose. Engine on (Battery 2 after Battery 1 refused to start!). Sails down, readjust outhaul. All back together again now and sailing. Engine charging on Battery 1 for a bit. Now to get sails set as we cruise down the western side of St Vincent.

1500 – Rats. Lost wind behind St Vincent. Engine northwards.

1700 – Finally a bit of wind. Engine off (too early?). Let’s hope we can sail to St Lucia. Curry for tea. Get ready for night time.

1750 – Staysail down, main reefed for night, wash, washup. All too late, again!

1900 – Dark. Gilly saw boat coming towards us that was probably an aeroplane. St Lucia off our starboard bow. Stars with some cloud. 10-14k ESE, 6-7k boat speed. Estimated arrival at St Annes now 0600 but plenty of variables still. Both awake at present.

2300 – Awoken by John. 10-12k forward of the beam he hit a wind shadow from the Pitons of 2.5k. Wanda turned us round. I got up groggy, we turned the boat round and I thought we were going backwards! Soon got P back on track and jogged along at 3-4k down the side of St Lucia. Wind got up as we passed Rodney Bay during John’s next watch. So pleased the main was reefed and staysail taken down.

0130 (Monday 28^th November) – Left the shelter of St Lucia. Seas rolly and a bit of spray came in. 14k from SE. Made a good course – in fact too high so had to ease off as we approached Martinique. Lightening all around us.

0600 – Approaching Martinique at dawn on a lumpy sea. Cloudy but sun came up as we motored into the anchorage at 0700. Jack (Carpe Diem) came out in his dinghy to welcome us. Wonderful. Sails down and anchored in 6m, 35m of chain out. We are here. Sorted out boat. Raining so put sails up to wash them, until the wind got up. 135 miles in 24 hours. Great sail.

Went over to Carpe Diem and took Fizzy and their passengers Lottie and Max into St Annes. Checked in in the café near Huit a Huit then on to the patisserie for coffee and pain au chocolat. YES. It’s beautiful here.Lots of boats basking on a calm sea.

Petronella at anchor again (actually back in Isle de Ronde!)

We were invited back to Carpe Diem for John’s tuna. Great evening….until the wind went round to the west. CD bumped as it hit a shallow patch. We saw lights come on in the anchorage and got back to P just in time. We were dragging down towards a catamaran. Nightmare! Got engine started as the wind got up to 40k. John picked up the anchor very slowly. Dark, sprayey, windy, boats dragging everywhere. Eventually we were free, then the steering chain fell off the tiller. Shit. By now there were big rollers sweeping (we heard 6’ and 8’ waves mentioned on the radio this morning). Bowling along out of control through the anchorage with 25k of wind. John rushed aft and took the tiller and I shouted ‘port’ or ‘starboard’ as we weaved through the fleet then anchored but not until the steering has come off another twice. Eventually we anchored in 6m at least 100m away from everyone else and watched as people re-anchored all over the place. Dreadful two hours. At one point a big cat passed us motoring into the waves with big waves making it rear up.

Then we had to get the engine off the dinghy in case it got swamped in the waves. The swell was big. Poor John got tossed around. But finally we settled down for a rolly night.

In the morning boats radioed in damage. One boat on the shore, dinghies trashed or sunk, anchors abandoned after rodes chaffed through. It was a massive localised squall but huge. Further south boats were also lost on St Lucia last night. Carpe Diem had managed to re-anchor and survived the night too.

Lessons Learned: 1. Even our trusty Rocna anchor can drag. There do seem to be some softer patches of sand. Perhaps that why we dragged? 2. We need new head torches. 3. We managed extremely difficult circumstances with no damage to ourselves, P or any other boat. Quite a night!!

In other news we have had a lot of interest in Petronella with several interested parties. So we have decided if we can to buy Tiger Lily, if necessary before we sell P. This is a big decision as two boats mean double the cost of berthing and maintenance, double the hassle and just quite a big risk all round. We don't usually do risks like this but Tiger Lily is now here in Martinique and so convenient compared for example with a boat we were looking at in Portland, Oregon! We meet Tiger Lily's current owners for further discussion in the near future.

Insecurities

Current Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada. Preparing to leave for Carriacou tomorrow or Monday.

What is going on? Where is home?

All the things that used to define me are disappearing. Our house in Cumbria is sort of sold, but sort of not. We have a small apartment in Stroud but apart from my mum and my brother and family we don’t know anyone else in the area. No GlaxoSmithKline any longer, in fact no ‘job’ at all. Our car is broken. And our boat is for sale. We have our eye on a new(er) boat but I don’t want two boats at the same time if we can avoid it. Until recently when people asked where ‘home’ was I would have said “Europe” but post Brexit even that doesn’t feel right any longer.

Will we ever be able to settle down ANYWHERE? Do I want to? When? Where?

Should I stop listening to philosophy podcasts [ha, ha]?

It’s not just me though. I think many of us lucky baby boomers feel the same. A good percentage of our best friends have also travelled widely and several of us face the same questions. Grandchildren, ill health and ageing parents seem to be the issues for most of us. And these are hard questions. In the past we were living 9 or 10 months a year on the boat in Greece and Turkey. Petronella really was ‘home’. We averaged two or three thousand miles a year culminating in 8,000 the year we crossed Atlantic. Last year, a very difficult year for our family, we spent over half the year in the UK.

Maybe this is just what another month in the boatyard does to you. At least we launched on Saturday and the knackered water pump is repaired….again! All the jobs are done and Petronella is looking as good as ever. We will sail to Carriacou and then onwards through the Grenadines to Martinique. In just over a month we will be back in the UK again for Christmas without my dad, Sam or Jenny for the first year ever it seems.

Meanwhile, excitement mounts on the other side of the Atlantic. Dave & Melinda, Dave & M-C and Steve & Diedre are all getting ready for their own Atlantic crossings. Fair winds, big ocean rollers and harmonious passages to you all. I feel some more parties coming on. And JoJo, when will you be back?

A Bit a Dis, a Bit a Dat

Current Location: Clarkes Court Marina, Grenada

We've been back here now for around three weeks. I keep meaning to write something and then the moment passes.

The hurricane we were all worrying about eventually decided to bypass Grenada but as you will have heard Matthew certainly did not bypass Haiti and surrounding countries. One of the worst hurricanes for ten years and there are still emergency boats going up island taking supplies of sails, ropes, canned food and water to Haiti.

Anyway, back to my flight out. Gilly, you will remember had already flown out. Here's what I wrote to Gilly at 3am in Port of Spain, Trinidad's departure lounge.

I am currently the ONLY person in the departures lounge at Port of Spain!

So, I woke up at 5.15am to find that my phone was flashing. one message, from WestJet. Ah, that'll be my flight confirmation. Is it hell - it's only a cancellation!!! Wake up very quickly. Creep into Hugh and Linda's study and ring WestJet. No reply. Try again - I'm through. Just getting ready to crap on 'em when they tell me they have booked me on the 10am BA flight via St Lucia. Wake up H and L, confirm they can take me to Gatwick three and a half hours earlier than planned, slurp down a cup of tea, have a shower and off we go. As it happens we are there in plenty of time.

Uneventful flight (no upgrade - boo) and we arrive in Trini at 4pm. It then takes me two hours to go out through Immigration and Customs and back through customs after I have checked in for my Caribbean Airlines flight. Not least because they gave me a boarding pass for a different person and a different flight [I almost arrived this evening at 9pm as Mr Broomfield]!

Also, as usual, my debit card has refused to give me any local currency so I am going to VERY hungry by the time I get to P (or CD?) tomorrow.

Since our arrival much of the time has been spent chipping, grinding and painting. This does not make for interesting blogging so here's what we've been up to in between.

Yoga at the university is a regular Monday outing with Jack and Fizzy, followed up by beers and pizza at our favourite Port Louis restaurant.

Yoga at St Georges University

I had to slip in a couple of 'work' pictures. Here is our Cuban welder, Carlos, preparing a small rusted area for a new piece of steel. Carlos spends most of his life in Grenada earning money to support his family back in Cuba. His English is pretty good and we had a good laugh with him. Like many Cubans he is extremely well educated. He trained as a vet specialising in cow pregnancies. But opportunities once qualified are few so he had done a bit of welding with his dad as he grew up in Cuba and came over here to practice his trade. A very good welder he is too.

Welding up the hole in the cockpit

VERY, VERY hot below. On fire watch as the welding is completed.

On the next boat to us are Hazel (UK) and Jeff (USA). Hazel bought this pretty boat, a Sweden 37, in Florida. The idea was to sail it back to the UK. Somehow they started cruising down the islands and won't be returning across the Atlantic for at least another year or two. Amazingly they met Wendy Scott-Jupp our friend from Christchurch UK, at a hash in the new forest during the summer.

Our neighbours across the garden fence. Hazel and Jeff on Susimi.

And then we were off on another hash of our own (Google Grenada hash for more info). This was a special on a boat. We left The Carenage in St Georges at 2.30pm with 250 hashers aboard. Southwest to BBC Beach (why?) and then a steep climb up into the hills, along the ridge, down to the coast and back to the boat along the beach. Everything got a bit messy after that with large quantities of alcohol being consumed, dancing on the lower deck and peace and tranquillity on the upper deck. A great day out.

The view back to St Georges the capital of Grenada

Some of the greatest dreads on the island!

Pre-messiness

Messy

Wife, happy to be back on the water

Annoying boat (it turned 20 seconds before passing in front of the setting sun)!

Next day we were invited to a party on the beach with local friends. This turned out to be a fine outing. One of the highlights was the sound system consisting of two car batteries, a solar panel (not connected to anything even though there was a solar controller installed), random pieces of wire and three very large speakers. The batteries lasted for about 3 hours before slowly reducing in volume until the rain started and we all went home.

Very important job. Sorting out the sound system.

Cultural exchange. 13 year old cruising kid Lily feeding 16 day old baby whilst Mum supervises.

 Meanwhile the dinghy started leaking....twice. Donal the local Irish dinghy fixer fixed it the first time but it has just gone down again so we are waiting for him to reappear with 'options to move forward'.

More dinghy problems. Still not fixed.

Today was Thanksgiving Day in Grenada. Why? Nobody seems to know but it is a national holiday anyhow. Across the water outside the famous Taffy's Bar the local children had their regatta and fun day. Great entertainment. We still can't understand the broad Grenadian patois but there were traditional boat races, beer drinking contests for the older participants and swimming competitions. But best of all was the Breathtaking Contest for under 12s. This consisted of a marshall counting 1, 2, 3 Go. On Go each contestant took a deep breath and ducked under the water. The winner was the last one to surface and boy did they want to win. Fantastic entertainment for the spectators. We briefly ventured into the rum shack set up for the event to see if we could get a fizzy water for Gilly to drink. All they sold was rum and weed! The air was heavy with the pungent smell of marijuana.

Thanksgiving Day. Regatta and party for local Grenadians.

Wow. See what a hard life this all is!

Tomorrow will be an interesting day too. We have decided to sell Petronella (if we can out here) and buy another boat on which to continue our travels westwards. You can see P's advert here. If you know anyone who might be interested in her do let me know!! We looked at a Stevens 47 last week and tomorrow it's a Hylas 47. A bigger, more complex boat than Petronella but with more comfort as we look towards the future. Here's a link to this one. We're in no hurry though. We'll just see what develops.


Oh, I forgot Trafalgar Day. There are quite a few ex naval types here both living ashore and on boats. Last night we were invited by some of them to celebrate Nelson's famous victory over the dastardly Frogs. Most of the other guests seemed to be millionaires living in smart houses along the south coast here but after a few beers, and compulsory rum, everyone got on just great. The head of Grenada's coastguard was there (in fact the evening was hosted by Jean, the widow of Jim and the guy who originally set up the coastguard here). Also in attendance a former Harrier Jump Jet squadron leader from the Falklands, several retired businessmen and Wally, the local glass bottomed boat owner who married a rich English girl following a brief affair after she came out for a holiday!

What else? We went to a salsa dancing lesson. Well,I say we went for a lesson. Gill and Fizzy had a lesson. Jack and I just watched and admired the sinuous and youthful scenery. A couple of musical evenings too. Jack is becoming an accepted member of the scene here along with Country Dave and his friends. Robin, on a catamaran here accompanied us in the bus to Secret Harbour along with Dave and Alicia who are helping Robin under the Workaway scheme. In fact David happens to be founder of Workaway which puts hosts and volunteers in contact with each other. They are working on Robin's boat in exchange for food and a sail once he launches. There are over 200,000 members of Workaway now at $20US per person. Nice work if you can get it! For those of you that remember Computex, my home exchange site, this could have been me if I could just have kept it going for another year or two.

Right, I've spent the last two hours writing this for you whilst sitting next to the marina office being bitten to death by mosquitoes. I hope you appreciate this devotion to duty.

Good night.

John

We're Back...

Current Location: Ebley, Gloucestershire, UK

Well, not exactly back in Grenada but this time next week Gill at least will be. With a bit of luck I will be too but before that I have a 24 hour trip from Gatwick via Toronto (yes, that really is Toronto in Canada) and Trinidad.

That all assumes though that the Windward Islands are still standing! At present there is a nasty low / tropical storm / hurricane developing off to the east of the southern Caribbean islands - just where we are...

Today's map from the National Hurricane Center

The internet is a-buzz with predictions as to how this thing is going to develop and where it might make landfall. Will it turn north, will it fizzle out or will it develop into a full blown hurricane like Hurricane Ivan that hit Grenada in 2004. The truth is that no-one really knows and even the experts can't make up their mind. The next three days are likely to provide the answer.

Aftermath of Hurricane Ivan 2004

Meanwhile, back on the islands our friends are making their way into the mangroves, laying additional anchors and removing the few things still outside that might increase windage. And they are looking at the neighbouring boats because more damage is done by other peoples' boats sweeping through the anchorage than by the wind itself. We are especially concerned for Jen up in Martinique with only her dog as crew. Stay safe guys.

Hopefully though this will just be another of those false alarms and forgotten in a week or two. Petronella is still on the hard and looks safe enough and well tied down according to Jack on Carpe Diem (thanks Jack). All people can do now is wait and see.


So, after a couple of months back here in the UK we're down to the final preparations for our return. Bits ordered. Bits arrived for delivery to friends in the islands. The last few jobs all squeezed into the remaining hours. It's going to be another bitty season I predict. We have promised to return to the UK for Christmas so we will try to get up to Martinique by then. My particular aim this season is to improve my fishing skills. To that end tackle shops around Europe are now devoid of lures, hooks and line. Watch this space.

The Bamboo Hut

Current Location: The Bamboo Hut, SE Grenada

This one is for all you budding eco-home builders.

We’ve just spent two nights in our friend Paul’s temporary living structure, otherwise known as his bamboo hut. Paul’s dad was black Grenadian, his mother white British. He was born and brought up in the East End of London, neither white nor black. He had a hard childhood. But he became a BBC documentary maker before returning to Grenada, the land of his father. Here he sells LED lights to locals and mega yacht owners alike. He is an unusual and fascinating man and a super person. He has also lived in Stroud, close to the flat we have recently purchased and is a performer at Stroud’s annual Fringe (I think that is its name).

When Paul discovered we had several nights to spend aboard Petronella he said “that’s hot and dusty with lots of mosquitoes. Come and stay in my bamboo hut instead”. So we did.

The hut is his retreat from the village where he has his main home. He spends around 3 nights every two weeks there. We arrived via a 10 minute red, muddy, slippery slope on friend Jenny’s land. At the bottom of the hill, in the rain forest, was the hut. Made from local bamboo this was his second attempt. The first one was quickly attacked by termites because the bamboo had been cut on a waxing moon rather than a waning one. This meant that the sap was still in the bamboo which in turn attracted the termites which in turn ate his house. It only lasted a few months!

The Hut - first impressions

Bamboo hut with raw material growing in the background

Mossie net in the bedroom

It’s beautiful down there but far from quiet. The river was quite high and as night fell the tree frogs started to shout too. And then the fire flies came out to play. Some orange and permanently lit up, others white and flashing. Then in the middle of the night the rain started and the noise was deafening. By the time it stopped the river was roaring and Gill got up to make sure we were not about to get washed away.

Construction

The view upstream

The view downstream

Time for a cup of tea

Surprisingly there very few mossies up here even though everything was damp and either growing or dying. You can happily walk around barefoot (and bare everything else if you wish). The ground is soft and covered in decaying vegetation. As in the rest of the Caribbean there were not many animals. The islands are nearly all volcanic and very recent in geological terms so there just hasn’t been enough time for animals to colonise. There are a few monkeys higher up but no snakes and very few mammals except mongeese. Lots of lizards and iguanas though. It is just a fabulous place to be. For two days we had no jobs to do. We simply swam, lazed around, read a few kindle books and did some puzzles. I spent half an hour standing in the water doing the washing up after breakfast, which included freshly picked bananas. We made a fire which was absolutely hopeless at cooking our sweet corn and squash but it didn’t really matter.

Nightime approaches

Time for bed

Skinny dipping

The fire that never was

On the evening of the second day Paul and Jenny came to visit us for cheese and biscuits together with some of Jenny’s freshly made juice drink and her menagerie of rescue dogs. We put the world to rights which was remarkably very simple and straight forward to do in a beautiful place with beautiful people.

Paul - mastermind of the hut

Jenny with one of her rescue dogs

As well as the bamboo structure itself, which consists of a bedroom/kitchen and balcony Paul has all services laid on. Water comes from the stream – you just take a pan down to gather water for cooking or jump in for a wash or a swim. Electricity is generated by a small solar panel that sits on the roof and feeds a yellow controller/battery. Into this box you can plug up to 6 LED light bulbs and two USB connectors. There is also a flashlight function. Sewage is managed via a high tech hole in the ground with a concrete block surmounted by a wooden seat and surrounded by a couple of bamboo screens. Actually it’s not high tech at all. Apparently if we had some wool and bits of coconut we could have caught crawfish in the river. But we didn’t, so we couldn’t.

Toilette - au naturelle

The beating heart of the electrical distribution system

Solar Panel

 But by this morning we had to return to the boat so we carted everything back up the even slipperier slope back to Jenny’s wonderful house at the top of the hill before she drove us back to the boatyard. Two days in a wondrous environment. Perhaps an eco-house will be our next big project someday.

Bits and Bobs

Current Location: Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada

We spent a day mooching around Hillsborough, the capital of Carriacou. It’s known as ‘the city’ even though it is basically just two streets. One reason for going there was to see if the shoemaker had mended Graham’s (from Karma) flipflops. We found the shop as directed at the end of one of the streets. Known as The Snake Pit the cobblers doubles as a bar. Inside we found a rasta behind a counter with an enormous pile of shoes stacked up on it. I asked if my friend’s sandals had been mended. He rummaged to the bottom of the pile, pulled out Graham’s flipflops and said, as we had expected “No, they will be ready tomorrow”. [And indeed they were when graham went in the next day – beautifully stitched for 20EC, around five pounds – which was probably more than it should have been].

The Snake Pit otherwise known as the Cobbler

Beach Bar in Hillsborough, Carriacou

Vegetable shopping in 'The City'

Preparing for the new season. Carriacou welcomes Jerks!

 We had so enjoyed our time with Louis and Jules at Sandy Bay that we decided to head back there in Petronella for a day or two. It was windy but the snorkelling was even better with fish everywhere.

Fish everywhere

Petronella at anchor off Sandy Island

 The idea was to go on to the small island of Petit Martinique where they were holding a sort of festival called Maroon. But the next day the weather was perfect for a sail back to Grenada and down the eastern, windward (read windy) side of Grenada. The ocean here has come straight across the Atlantic with nothing in its way for over two thousand miles. As the sea shelves near the land the waves can get quite big. But today the wind was relatively benign and north of east so pushing us in the direction we wanted to go. Add in a favourable current and we were off. The best sail of our very short season. Forty odd miles all under sail with much of it over 6 knots. Lively, but a great sail back into Clarkes Court Bay where we were to haul out.

It was around this time that we agreed to sponsor a child’s education from Carriacou for a year. There really is very little they can do on this poor island. Our friend Jenny has set up a charity to allow a few of them to go to Grenada to get some practical training. Dante, the 15 year old we are sponsoring hopes to become a refrigeration engineer. We do live a pretty selfish life and it feels good to give something back to the Caribbean even if it is only money and a bit of educational support.

Next up though, another hash. This time right in the middle of the island in the rain/cloud forest. Tough terrain particularly as we found ourselves on the runners’ course instead of our chosen walkers’ route. Eight kilometres of slipping and sliding over tree routes and through waterfalls. Good training for this year’s big walk back in the UK next month. Gill teamed up with a French lady sailor who joined a boat in Guadeloupe to sail round the world but was already finding the skipper a difficult man to live with. She is looking for a new boat to sail on. At the start of the hash we had a minute’s silence for the victims of the Nice truck atrocity. Hosted by the Alliance Francaise group the event was as sombre as a hash can get.

Vive La France (I have never chanted that before today)!

Jungly jungle

Bottleneck on a tricky section

A well earned beer after a wet hash

 We also spent several evenings on Freya learning the excellent four handed card game “hand and foot”. Louis and John came out undisputed champions though it has to be said that on some occasions alcohol did play a part. Jules is a great cook too and they gave us a Cuban evening with rum and Cuban food. great fun.

"Hand and Foot"

Dining - Cuban style

Then it was time to lift out for the hurricane season. This year we came out on a tractor/trailer combination, the first time since Portugal nine years ago. It’s a new yard and the staff were the best we have encountered everywhere. It wasn’t their fault that 10 minutes before our haul time of 8am it absolutely bucketed it down. Still all went to plan and we are now on cradles and tied down to big concrete blocks that we hope will hold us if a hurricane happens along.

Wet, wet, wet

Tractor (with diver)

P carefully coaxed onto the trailer

Out she comes

Pressure washing in the rain

Back on land - boo