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

Happy Birthday Vanessa

Today’s Locations: Tyrell Bay anchorage and a Sandy Island mooring ball, Carriacou

Today was Vanessa’s birthday. She was 34 and this must have been one of those birthday’s she will remember for ever. Vanessa and her husband are from Canada. Well, actually she was born in the Azores and he’s from Australia. They met in Toronto I think (at least that’s where they live now). She became a teacher and he works in commercial property. They sail a bit as crew on a 30’ racing boat in Lake Ontario but they wanted to sail on a boat where they were allowed to learn, to spend some nights on a boat, to understand what is like to live on a boat. Why? Because they might just try this life one day. Their friends and parents think they are mad!

Birthday girl and husband

So Vanessa and Michael (34 two days ago) put a “request to sail” profile on Find A Crew which matches up wannabe sailors with skippers looking for crew. Enter Captain Louis (Lewis) Honeycutt from Texas and his fifth (or is it sixth) wife, Jules from Oz. Louis has been sailing on various boats fulltime since 1999 (I think). Catamarans, monos, trimarans, he’s done it all. A larger than life, quiet, unassuming man, and a very competent sailor. He has a “looking for crew” profile on Find A Crew. They all got together for two weeks in the Caribbean.

Anchor up 

Sandy Island

Sandy Island monster

Gill and Jules

Gilly and John

We first met Louis and Jules in Grenada when they anchored next to us. One thing led to another and when they arrived in Carriacou a couple of days ago they anchored next to us and we got to know Vanessa and Michael too. We woke up this morning and over our usual banana, mango and cereal breakfast we discussed today’s jobs. Whip a frayed rope, get the bus into Hillsborough to get some money, polish some stainless steel – all the usual stuff.

Then the dinghy from Louis and Jules’ boat Freya turns up. We are going to Sandy Island (a couple of miles around the corner). Do you want come with us? It’s Vanessa’s birthday and we’re going snorkelling. Yes please. Jobs can wait. So off we go to Freya. She is a 52’ Erwin monohull with watermaker, aircon, loads of space, deep freeze and every other mod con you could wish for. They picked her up for a ridiculously low price and are now planning on a Pacific transit (his fourth) next year having spent this year in the western Caribbean (Colombia, Panama, Honduras and Mexico). There was a fresh breeze as we sailed around to the anchorage. And what a gorgeous place it is. A long sandy island, blue seas, relatively well protected and a shallow reef full of small to medium sized fish. We took the dinghy to shore and sat and talked and swam and snorkelled for several hours. Then it was back to Freya for birthday lunch. Gill, Jules and Vanessa produced a wonderful feast – guacamole, fresh salad (of kale, lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, peppers, goats cheese), starfruit, salamis etc. You get the sort of thing. Followed by a freshly liquidised rum fruit juice. Yum, yum, yum, yum, yum. My job was to catch the fish using Graham’s (from Karma) new killer rig. Guess what? It didn’t work…again!

Sandy Island aquarium

After a while we slipped the mooring, put the sails up, and had a beautiful sail back here to Tyrell Bay. A magical day with great people, new friends and, I think, two more people who will shortly be looking for a boat of their own. Vanessa couldn’t stop grinning!

Thanks guys.

Grenada to Carriacou

Current Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada

So, here we are again, back in Grenada, after a nightmare four months. A blog is not the right place to go into all the details. Suffice to say my dad died aged 90 on my birthday in March and my nephew Sam died tragically a few weeks later. In the meantime we have had an offer to buy our Cumbrian home of 30 years which we have accepted and we’ve bought a two bedroomed flat in Stroud close to my brother and only a few miles from where my mum now lives alone in Dursley.

We did manage a couple of trips to France for welcome breaks with Marcus’ mum and dad in the Dordogne and then to Jack and Fizzy’s mountain hut in the Pyrenees. Fantastic times and very welcome. Thank you all.

We finally flew back out here a week ago to get our head round things and to put Petronella to bed for the hurricane season. Straight back into local politics where the local marina management has had a big shake up with sackings, deportations and recriminations. Small fry though compared with the larger national English political and sporting disasters as we left the Euro zone twice in a week. The rest of the world seems totally bemused by Britain’s vote to leave the EU and mildly amused at our departure from the Euro football competition.

But it’s great to be back in the warm weather and the warm welcome from our friends here, to know what the moon is doing, to watch the sun going down and to not worry (much) about care packages and wheelchairs but how the solar panels are charging and why yet again the dinghy won’t stay inflated.

We are on a mooring ball next to a boat named Freya with a Texan skipper and his partner Jules from Australia. They’ve spent the last couple of years cruising round the western Caribbean including Honduras, San Blas (home to our party boat earlier this year) and other exotic and mildly dangerous sounding countries and islands we’ve barely even heard of. They take guests from time to time to top up their cruising kitty and to help people who are considering buying a boat to see what this life is all about. In a previous life she set up a charity foundation helping a small village in remote rural Zimbabwe. We spent a fun evening with them reminiscing on our various African travels.

Today we caught up with Jenny, our friend with the dogs and the big cider drinking pig and the neat wooden house up in the hills and her good friend Paul, the Grenadian ex BBC documentary maker. We took them to lunch at Umbrellas (you know the place D&V). Turns out Paul is from Stroud, has worked at The Space where sister-in-law Jane used to work and has even drunk coffee in the square that our new flat overlooks in Ebley near Stroud. Coincidence or what? Paul has built a bamboo hut next to the stream that runs at the bottom of Jenny’s fruit and vegetable small holding. It sounds almost as basic as Petronella and we have been invited to stay there for a few days once Petronella is on the hard and before we leave for the UK in just a month’s time. It has a cooker, a bedroom, a small veranda, a swimming pool (actually the stream) and a toilet (though this has to be moved as at present Jenny can see Paul doing his business at the bottom of her land)!

We’ve also decided we really do need to sail somewhere this year so we’ve been putting the sails back on for in readiness for a short sail up to the next island, Carriacou. It’s part of the same country as Grenada so no need to check out. It’s much less developed than Grenada and the intention is to simply chill out there for a couple of weeks. So the water tanks are being slowly filled, things stowed below and charts idly studied.

Meanwhile our family of circus troupe friends on Island Swift have finally left The Azores heading back east to the UK. Fair winds to Jojo, Simon and the boys. I’m envying you back on the ocean if not the fact that every day it will be getting colder.

PS - Now in Carriacou after along day motor sailing northwards with too little wind and strong, not predicted, west going currents. Chilling out in the Iguana Cafe next to the boatyard. Strong winds forecast for later in the week.