Week 53 December 15 to 21 2014

Here we are back in Prickly Bay, Grenada after spending the past few days in Bequia and Tobago Cays, stopping off in Clifton, Union Island to check out of St Vincent and the Grenadine’s and then in Tyrell Bay Carriacou to check back into Grenada.

Monday and Tuesday we enjoyed just being in a lovely anchorage in Admiralty Bay, Bequia. We went for a walk along the beautiful white sandy beach where we had a chat with a family from Sydney Australia.

Tuesday evening we enjoyed a lovely and amusing time with Bev on Aseka. Bev had invited Barry and Gail from Giamar (Barry helped me in Simpsons Bay Lagoon, St Maarten when our anchor dragged), Ivo, Mira and Maya from Fata Morgana and Mina from Cassiopeia. Mina is a 62 year old grandmother from Canada who has been sailing solo for the past 8 years. She was so interesting to listen to and to hear all her fascinating stories about her sailing adventures. Mina is also somebody one can admire and be in awe of, as she has such a positive attitude towards everything in life.

 Wednesday morning we said a fond farewell to Bequia as we made our way to the beautiful Tobago Cays.

The Tobago Cays is a national park and they are a group of very small islands surrounded by reefs, which are uninhabited – the islands are Petit Rameau, Petit Bateau, Baradel, Jamesby and Petit Tabac. The main reef is called the Horseshoe Reef.

Once we were anchored, it was into the water, first to check the anchor and then we swam towards the area that was the turtle laying area just off the very small island of Baradel. We saw twelve turtles in less than 15 minutes of snorkelling. Three turtles were merrily eating away at the sea grass oblivious to us humans. It is as if they know they are in a safe area where nobody can harm them. There were HUGE conch shells and star fish as well.

Mel and I went onto Baradel and walked up to the top – we came across HUGE and ugly iguanas with bright orange frills along their backs. It is amazing to see how quickly they can climb up trees.

After walking around the small island of Baradel, Mel and I swam back to the boat where we saw about another four turtles!

Thursday morning we knew it was our last day together (Passages and Fata Morgana) so we wanted to make the most of it. Firstly we decided to go snorkelling at Horseshoe Reef. WOW did we see a lot of fish! The corals were only okay, as you could still see some of the damage caused from a hurricane a few years ago, but thankfully there are signs of recovery. We spent well over an hour snorkelling and of course we paid the price the following day as we were all pretty sunburnt.

We went back to our boats to relax for a while before we all went out again to the reefs but this time Mel took his scuba diving gear. Unfortunately Mel has not been able to dive this year as he has had huge issues with his ears. Something that will need to be seen to when we are back in Perth.

Mel had promised Maya that he would let her experience breathing under water. Maya is like a fish…. She is always swimming and has been trying to stay under water for as long as possible… diving the anchors, finding shells, starfish etc. Where we were snorkelling, we were only in about 4 metres of water so there would be no diving issues/dangers. For the next hour we all had a good time breathing under water.

Thursday afternoon after a quick lunch we dinghied to two of the other islands that formed part of the Tobago Cays – Jamesby and Petit Bateau.

 Thursday evening, Ivo, Mira and Maya came for dinner on Passages as we would be leaving for Carriacou and Grenada in the morning. Fata Morgana would be sailing back to Bequia where they will be spending Christmas before heading to St Maarten, possibly for New Year then onto Puerto Rico for restocking before heading down to Columbia and Panama.

Friday morning - the time had arrived for us to say “farewell” to Ivo, Mira and lovely Maya who we had spent the past 4 months sailing with. We felt extremely sad to see Fata Morgana going in the opposite direction to Passages but who knows when and where we will see them again.

We sailed to Clifton, Union Island as we had to check out of St Vincent and the Grenadines before heading to Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.

Our sail down to Tyrell Bay was lovely! We had now completed our circuit – from Tyrell Bay, Grenada, down to Trinidad and Tobago, up to Barbados and across to Bequia and now back to Tyrell Bay. It felt very strange though not having Fata Morgana anchored close by…. I suppose we will get used to that.

We were tempted to stay at Tyrell Bay and only leave for Prickly Bay, Grenada on Sunday but Mel was keen for us to sail on the east coast of Grenada. The last time we sailed to Grenada, we sailed on the west coast and we were caught in the wind shadow of the island which made for quite a slow and at times frustrating sail as there was NO wind. Plus there were plenty of fishing nets and traps which we were not keen to make our way through again.

The weather forecast predicted winds of 10 – 15 knots and sea swells of 1 – 1 1/2m for Saturday but increasing to 20 knots and sea swells of 2 -3 metres on Sunday so we decided since we would be sailing along the east coast we would leave Tyrell Bay on Saturday.

After Mel had checked us into Grenada, we went for a walk along the main and only road in Tyrell Bay and stopped off at a restaurant called the “Lazy Turtle” that made the best pizza’s we had eaten for a very long time.

Saturday morning by 7.00am we were sailing out of Tyrell Bay and heading south for Prickly Bay, Grenada.

Our sail down to Prickly Bay was fast as at times we were doing 7 – 8knots, as the wind was aft of beam – coming from the side of the boat closest to the stern/ back of the boat.

I am sure what was on Mel’s mind the whole time was “This is our last sail on Passages before she is put into storage.” AND “When next are we going to be out sailing on Passages?”…….

We had our anchor down in Prickly Bay, Grenada by 2.00pm and were greeted by our dear friends Linda and John on Blue Moon. We said “Bye” to them in Antigua in August before we sailed off to Guadeloupe.  Linda and John spent the hurricane season in Jolly Harbour, Antigua and were caught up in Hurricane Gonzalo that passed over Antigua. Thankfully they only suffered some minor damage to Blue Moon.

Saturday evening we had dinner together to catch up with what each had been up to… it was good hearing about their adventures and future plans.

Sunday was just a lazy day on the boat catching up with chores and emails and deciding on what we would do for Christmas. Over the next few days we will be organising the boat yard and deciding on what are the best options for Passages while she is in storage. It is not something we are going to enjoy doing but we knew that this was going to happen.              

So until next time, take care and wishing you and all the very special and important people in your life – a very Merry Christmas!

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Week 52 December 8 to 14 2014

It is very hard to believe that at the end of this week it would be one whole year since I left Perth and moved onto Passages. So much has happened since then. When I start reflecting on the year that has been, many, many different thoughts, emotions and experiences pop into my head!

At the moment one of the emotions I am feeling is pure exhaustion because we have not slept much since being in Barbados and the thought is “Why are we putting up with this roll?” The answer to all the above is because we want to experience wonderful Barbados!

Information taken from the Cruising Guide to Trinidad and Tobago (plus Barbados and Guyana) by Chris Doyle 4^th edition 2012 pg 179

“Barbados has a very British feel to it. The buildings found in Bridgetown are a mixture of Georgian and modern buildings. Bridgetown is built around the mouth of Constitution River with a board walk along the river.

Barbados is only 21 miles long by 14 miles wide and has a population of just over 300,000 (2013) who are mostly of African descent. The rest of the population came mainly from England and India.

Barbados was under British rule for over 300 years and is often called “Little England”. In 1966, Barbados gained independence from Britain and today it has a very stable democratic parliamentary system and is an active member of the Commonwealth.

Bathsheba

Barbados is the only Eastern Caribbean island that is not volcanic and due to its remoteness from the other islands it was not involved in the many battles between the British and French so it has been left up to its own devices. This is particularly evident in the distinctive accent that the English speaking Bajans have evolved.

Columbus missed Barbados – phew! Many people wonder what dead Catholic saint Columbus would have named Barbados after ….. instead the word “ Barbados” came from “bearded one”, a name given to it by a Portuguese explorer , Pedro a Campos. In 1536 when he stopped off at the island, he was impressed by the fig trees and their thick aerial roots that gave them a bearded appearance.

In 1625, England claimed Barbados by Captain John Powell. It was colonized two years later by his brother Henry along with 80 settlers and 10 slaves. They built a settlement calling it Jamestown, in the area now known as Holetown. When they arrived the island was uninhabited but archaeological evidence shows that it had once been inhabited by the Kalinargo people of South America.

Before the introduction of sugar to the island, there were many small farmers but things changed around 1650. Many small holdings were bought by very wealthy landowners who started importing slaves to work on their lucrative sugar plantations. This continued for many centuries.

In 1639 the first legislative assembly was formed which opposed Cromwell when he took over England after beheading King Charles 1. Cromwell sent over an invasion force, but the Bajans managed to negotiate a surrender in which they accepted governance by a governor and a “freely” elected assembly. They were given freedom from taxes without local consent.

This obviously only applied to the rich landowners and not to the slaves or workers who lived in terrible conditions. In 1834 slavery was abolished but changed only happened in the late 1930’s/40’s when sugar became less profitable and the formation of labour unions similar to the issues facing the U.K.

There were many street riots, serious arrests and many heroes were made particularly Clement Payne who in 1937, was one of the leaders of the labour unrests and is now one of the country’s national heroes.

With the decline of the sugar industry, tourism has now taken over as the number one industry. The Concorde often flew to Barbados and there is the “Barbados Concorde Experience” at the Grantley Adams International Airport.

Sunday evening we enjoyed our Mahi Mahi – Ivo, Mira and Maya joined us, plus Marcus from Finland.

Marcus had just arrived from crossing the Atlantic solo. His plan is to circumnavigate the world as quickly as possible.

Monday we caught the bus to Harrison’s Cave. The public transport in Barbados is efficient and very cheap - BD$2 (US$1) for any bus ride anywhere on the island no matter what the distance. It is a standard price.

Harrison’s Cave was 11km NE of Bridgetown – it is a series of limestone caves carved out over millions of years by seeping water from the surface.

Information taken from Eyewitness Travel Caribbean 2009 pg 469

“The caves comprise of a series of crystalized limestone subterranean caverns with underground rivers waterfalls and uniquely shaped stalagmites, stalactites and columns. The cave is named after Thomas Harrison who owned the land in 1770’s. It took over 200 years for the caves to be fully explored and mapped by a Danish engineer and cave adventure Ole Sorensen.”

We decided to take a walking tour instead of the usual tram tour as we wanted to get up and personal.

It was quite beautiful and tranquil in the caves.

After spending some time in the beautiful gardens we made our way back to Bridgetown and enjoyed the lovely atmosphere of this wonderful city.

Tuesday we decided we would catch the bus to the east coast to Bathsheba which we had been told had beautiful huge boulders and was a very popular place for surfers.

It was lovely – very picturesque! We had a picnic lunch in amongst the many boulders playing games like “What does that boulder resemble now?” and finding interesting designs and patterns on the beautiful pebbles found along the beach.

Wednesday, Mel and I decided to catch a bus and head along the south coast of the island to Oistins. As we were making our way to the bus terminal we saw the police band and a whole procession pass over “the Bridge”. It was heading for Nelson’s square where the main Christmas tree was. We saw that it was the “opening ceremony” for Barbados Tourism Week so we decided to stay for a while and watch.

We saw some traditional dancing and characters like Shaggy Bear and Mamma Sally. There were stilt walkers and dancers and a limbo dancer. This lady made a bee line for Mel and pulled him up into the main performance area where, along with a few other people from the audience did the limbo. Mel had a great time – laughing the whole way through as he knows he has very little rhythm but he was a” good sport” as the British would say and enjoyed himself. I couldn’t stop smiling and giggling as it was fun to watch.

 

Back to Oistins……. This little fishing port was named after Austin, the area’s first land owner. It has a long history as well because in 1652 a treaty was signed at the Mermaid Tavern which led to Barbados accepting the authority of Oliver Cromwell, Britain’s military commander and Lord Protector”

Wednesday afternoon we checked out of Barbados as the weather looked fine for us to head west to Bequia in St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Mel and I are now on pretty tight schedule as we plan to be back in Grenada by Christmas, as we are meeting up with our friends John and Linda on Blue Moon. We are aware that we don’t want to rush our time in the Grenadines as there are many islands to explore but we also know that “when” we return to the cruising lifestyle when can always head back up to explore the Grenadines fully.

Ivo, Mira and Maya on Fata Morgana are on a totally different schedule – they don’t have any commitments so can go where ever the winds takes them. It will be a very sad day which is not very far away when we will have to say “Bye” to Fata Morgana as we have had an amazing 4 months of sailing with them.

Thursday at 1.00pm our anchor was up and we were heading west towards Bequia. The winds were behind us – first time EVER and it felt quite different! The swells were higher than what I would have liked – 2 – 3metres and we were cork screwing along. Mel realised that Passages is not really equipped for downwind sailing – the shopping list is growing longer by each sail!

We experienced winds of up to 24 knots and sea swells of 3 metres and Passages handled them well. At times we were surfing down the swells at over 7 knots! We both found it extremely difficult to sleep though, so we ended up taking turns to doze in the cockpit.

By sunrise, Friday morning we were we were heading towards the channel between Bequia and St Vincent. By 8.00am we were entering the entrance to Admiralty Bay, Bequia and the main town of Port Elizabeth and as we were putting our anchor down we were greeted with a very enthusiastic welcome by Bev on Aseka who we had last seen in Rodney Bay St Lucia.

We were exhausted so once the anchor was down we had about an hour’s snooze before Mel went into Customs and Immigration to check us in.

Bequia is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. It has long been associated with sailing and boat building and one can still see the traditions of old along the beach front.

Information taken from the Cruising Guide to the Windward Islands 2013 -2014 by Chris Doyle 16^th edition pg 242

“The island has an active whaling station in a low key and traditional way. By IWC agreement, local whalers can take four whales a year, but in some years they do not get any. The whaling season is from February to April.

Semplers Cay

There are only a few people left who have the necessary traditional skills of harpooning the whales using hand thrown harpoons hence there only being a very few whales caught and killed. When a whale is caught, it is taken to Whale Cay or Semplers Cay for butchering.

Many of the Bequians are descendants from settlers who came from North America on whaling boats, from farms in Scotland, from France as freebooters and as slaves from Africa”.

 
Friday evening I didn’t feel like cooking so we went off to a local restaurant called “The Fig Tree” run by Cheryl who does the cruisers net on channel 68 every morning. Every Friday they have a fish bbq so we thought we would go and try it out. Bev joined us along with Mina a 62 year old single hander lady from Canada. I realised I had seen her before in Grenada when we did the Hash Harriers race through the Rum factory.

Now that we have returned to the main part of the Caribbean islands, we are seeing many yachts that we have seen in other anchorages up and down the island chain. This is now (November – April) the main cruising season so there are plenty of yachts out there going whichever way the wind takes them.

Cheryl from the restaurant “The Fig Tree” also runs a reading group every Saturday for the local children to attend and always she needs people to volunteer to help her, so before leaving the restaurant I said to her that I would be willing to help her. I was to report back at the restaurant at 2.00pm on Saturday afternoon and Mel was more than willing to come along with, as she had very good and fast Wi-Fi!

So Saturday afternoon after spending time on the yacht doing some chores off I went to help with the reading program at The Fig Tree. Cheryl said that more children usually attend but since school broke up for the Christmas holidays the numbers have been down.

I was given two very lively little 6 year old boys whose attention span was nil! I read them two stories. It always feels good dealing with little ones even if they were very naughty!

 
Afterwards Mel and I went for a walk up to Friendship point. We could see the other side of the island and saw Whale Cay or Semplers Cay down into Friendship Bay.

Sunday was a lazy day just enjoying the beautiful surroundings of Admiralty Bay, although we did go snorkelling at Devils Table which is the point at the main entrance to the bay. There were plenty of fish from snappers to flounders, plenty of fans and hard and soft corals. It was lovely!

Cay

It is times like these that make me realise just how extremely fortunate we are to be doing what we are doing and have done this year. At the moment I am experiencing many mixed emotions as our time with Fata Morgana draws to an end and our time sailing and living the dream comes to an end. Funny how things change!

 Until next time, take care.

 Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Harrison's Cave

Bathsheba

Week 51 December 1 to 7 2014

When you live on a yacht, particularly a monohull, you HAVE to get used to the constant movement of the boat.  When you choose an anchorage there are certain requirements you have to take into account - the wind and the swell, plus the depth of the anchorage, as you want as much protection as possible. The better the protection, the more comfortable and enjoyable the anchorage will be as that will mean a smooth, gentle movement of the boat and a good night’s sleep! Unfortunately not all places can offer all of these requirements.

Store Bay in Tobago, where we started the week off, offered  very little protection from a NE swell so there were times when we rocked and rolled quite a bit, but not enough to make us not have a good night’s sleep. Unfortunately this is not always the case. More later…..



One of the lovely beaches on Tobago

I have mentioned this a few times – we were keen to get to Barbados and were watching the weather quite closely. Monday morning the weather forecast predicted that the weather looked favourable for us to head NE to Barbados on Thursday/Friday. An opportunity we were not keen to miss, as there would not be many chances in the remaining time we had for the winds to blow south of east or as close to SE as possible. This time of the year, the Christmas winds set in – these blow from the NE which would make it extremely difficult and to tell you the truth quite silly to even try to sail to Barbados from the south, when these winds are blowing.

BUT…. We hadn’t explored Tobago yet so Mel and I decided to hire a car for the day and travel around the island. The weather wasn’t great as it was pouring with rain and it would have been better to just spend the day on the boat, relaxing.

 Ivo, Mira and Maya decided to join us so by 10.00am we were heading NE along the southeast coast of Tobago. We passed many beautiful bays and beaches but the southeast coast is very exposed so there are no places to anchor along the coast.

Jemma's Tree Teahouse

As we drove up to the top of the island, it became progressively hillier- the western part of the island is quite flat but the north is extremely hilly. We stopped off at Speyside which is Tobago’s dive capital, for a cuppa tea at Jemma’s Tree Teahouse. This was a lovely quaint restaurant built around a tree.

We also saw some fishermen cleaning and preparing their catch. They gave Mel and Ivo some advice on how to fillet a fish.

After Speyside we were now heading down the northwest coast line where there are a few bays where one can anchor. When anchoring in some of these lovely bays, you hope there isn’t going to be a northerly swell, plus the anchorages are very deep which means you have to put out a lot more chain.

We stopped off at Charlotteville, Bloody Bay, Parlatuvier Bay where we took a short walk along a trail to the Parlatuvier Falls.

Charlotteville

We went for a walk along Englishman’s Bay which is surrounded by lush vegetation. Just as we were about to turn into the entrance of Englishman’s Bay, we saw the fly-infested remains of a python that had been driven over by a car. Its head was crushed flat against the asphalt of the road.

At Castara Bay we stopped off at the main beach where the school is located and saw how they were using all the natural resources around them to make veggie gardens. They were using bamboo to construct raised flower beds, with banana leaves as a base layer for holding the soil and coconut husks as mulch.

Castara

We carried on driving along the coastline to Plymouth, where we saw a fishing boat had been flooded with water and was being swept up along the sea shore. We hate to think of the damage was being done to the two HUGE outbound motors attached to it. We also stopped off at Fort Bennet and walked around the Fort.

A bit of useless information that Tobago has to offer – it has the world’s fanciest and the largest goat racing stadium at Buccoo. On the Tuesday after Easter Monday, the village of Buccoo hosts the national and annual goat race.

 Tuesday and Wednesday, we spent time catching up with chores on the boat like laundry, cleaning and preparing the boat for our sail to Barbados which was planned for Thursday/Friday.

 Tuesday evening we invited John and Lucy for a sundowner as they were preparing to leave Store Bay on Wednesday morning to sail up the coast to Charlotteville for a few days before one of their four sons arrived from the States.

Wednesday afternoon we went into Scarborough to check out of Trinidad and Tobago and had an early dinner, ready for an early start on Thursday.

Thursday morning our anchor was up by 6.00am and we were heading NE towards Barbados. We were rather excited as we had been planning and preparing to sail to Barbados since St Lucia but the opportunity never presented itself.

 

The sails were set, we knew we would be on the same tack all the way up to Barbados and we were both comfortable reading books when zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz the fishing line went!! Yippee!! We had caught another Mahi Mahi and this time it was a bit bigger than the last one.

After sorting out the fish – Mel cuts the head off and guts it, throwing everything overboard, we then put the fish in a big black bag which goes into our freezer – we cleaned up the cockpit as it does get a bit smelly and messy with the gutting before we went back to relaxing and enjoying the sail.

Like in most cases/experiences in life, things do not always go according to plan….. the winds were not as strong as predicted which meant we were going A LOT slower than anticipated and they were not as far SE or south of east as predicted. Originally we thought we would arrive in Bridgetown Barbados by noon on Friday but it was looking more like 3.00pm. Our concern was the conflicting information we had on customs and immigration overtime charges and rates. Some info said over time charges start from 10.00pm while others said from 5.00pm and these rates can be quite heavy and make a HUGE dent in the budget.

It was a magical night as we had a full moon. A container ship passed our way at about 2.00am – we are thankful we have AIS that alerts us when a commercial vessel comes within close proximity to us.

Mid Friday morning we started to see a vague outline of Barbados and we thought that we would get to Barbados by 4.00pm but then the AIS alarm went off warning us that we were on a collision course with a 199m cargo ship.

On the AIS we can see the name, MMSI number, speed, length, final destination, CPA = closest point of approach, TCPA = time of closest point of approach and a few other bits of information about the vessel.

When we were about 4nmiles away from the cargo ship, Mel radioed the ship to say that we would go behind them, which they were very grateful for as it is not easy for a vessel that size to alter course quickly. This unfortunately meant that we would be arriving in Bridgetown 30 -45 mins later than schedule now. Better to arrive late in one piece than not at all!!!

Technically speaking any vessel that is under sail has right of way so we could have just carried on sailing and the cargo ship would have had to get out of our way but in this instance and in most times when it comes to big cargo/ container ships, it is better for the smaller sailing vessel to keep clear of these HUGE vessels of the sea.

Fata Morgana leaving the Customs Dock

The wind played ball and we picked up speed which was a relief so about 1nm Mel radioed the Bridgetown port authorities for permission for us to enter the port for clearance.

We have noticed that in the predominantly ex-British islands/countries, there are quite strict rules and regulations for entry into the country. It seems that these ex-British colonies have still maintained some of the British naval requirements and etiquette.

Like in Antigua, in Barbados you had to tie up to the Customs and Immigration dock. You could NOT anchor off somewhere and then dinghy in like in most other countries.

The docking area was the area used by cruise liners so the fenders against the dock were HUGE and very high. We put out all of our fenders to protect Passages as much as possible. Fata Morgana were there to assist us which I was relieved about as it is quite difficult having to jump off the boat as quickly as possible to tie up the boat while Mel is trying his best to get as close to the dock as possible and  as a slowly as possible.

After quite a long procedure we were eventually all legal and were allowed to proceed to the main visiting yachts anchoring area in Carlisle Bay. There was a HUGE cruise liner in the harbour and we felt quite small in comparison to them.

 

 

Not many yachts cruising the Caribbean sail to Barbados. This is because it is so far east and you have the prevailing east winds to contend with. Then there are the anchorages – they are only along the west coast and are VERY exposed! We knew that the designated anchorage area in Carlisle Bay was very rollie BUT we did not expect it to be as bad as it in fact was. My goodness!!! If it wasn’t for the fact that Bridgetown, well Barbados, was such a lovely place, I think we would have left Barbados after 2 nights. At one stage I even thought of booking into a hotel just to have a good night’s sleep.

Barbados though is the first port of call for many yachts arriving from Europe, particularly between November and March. They sail down to the Cape Verde Islands, then across to Barbados. While we were anchored in Carlisle Bay, we saw many yachts, at least 10 -15, arriving from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Belgium to name but a few.

Anyway, we knew that there was a 10km and a 3km run on Saturday, organised by Run Barbados.

Mel and Ivo have been getting up early in the mornings and going for runs on whatever island we happen to be on. Ivo had only been running since meeting Mel, nor had he ever run 10kms let alone entered a race, so he was so excited when he found out about the 10km run.

 

The race took place at 4.30pm opposite the Prime Ministers Offices. Mel and Ivo did really well although Mel is a bit concerned about his fitness level as he has entered into Comrades for next year and he is not as fit as he should be at this time of the year. Mel’s time was 46:26 and Ivo’s time was 53:25.

Sunday we decided to see Bridgetown and look for Synagogue Lane which we found. Apparently quite a few of the graves found around the Synagogue were pirates – Jewish pirates! We admired the beautiful buildings, found out about the public transport as we wanted to see a bit of the island while we were here, found a great place that sold delicious ice creams and just took in the lovely friendly atmosphere of the people.

SO here we are in sunny beautiful Barbados – rolling like mad in the anchorage, feeling very tired from lack of sleep but happy to be in such a beautiful and friendly place.

Until next time. Take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

 

 

The Parlatuvier Falls



Bridgetown

Nelson's square

 Synagogue

Week 50 November 24 to 30 2014

Mel and I had been toying with the idea of leaving Passages in Trinidad instead of Grenada but after seeing how quickly mildew develops and grows, with the humidity in Trinidad, we know we are making the right decision to leave Passages in Grenada. Trinidad is much cheaper for work to be done on a boat, although it is always done in island time, which at times can be frustrating.

Fuel in Trinidad is so cheap – make sure you are sitting down when you read how cheap petrol is -TT$2.70 per litre!!! (US$0.42/AU$0.52)

 Mel has even said it pays to sail down to Trinidad, get all the work you need to have done on the boat and sail back up north.

Monday, we once again the hired a car for two days. We needed to get our gas bottles refilled and it was cheaper to hire a car and find the factory that fills the gas bottles than pay the “agent” to do this for you. Hiring a car cost only TT$150 a day (AU$25) whereas the agent could charge us up to TT$180 just for the gas. Mel and Ivo went off and spent a better part of the morning completing the job – apparently they had some entertaining moments, taking the wrong turnings, going in the wrong direction, etc.

When the men eventually made it back to the boats, they had lunch before we went to see the

 Bamboo Cathedral, as it was bright and sunny.  It was amazing to see the different structures and configurations the bamboo made. The sound of the bamboo swaying in the wind was quite magical.

After going for a walk under the bamboo, we headed for the big grocery shop to get some fresh produce (which is always in short supply on the yacht).

Tuesday bright and early, we were in the car and heading east for the Asa Wright Nature Centre and later to the Caroni Swamps to see the Scarlet Ibis (national symbol of T & T) and the white Egret.

Information taken from the Cruising Guide to Trinidad and Tobago by Chris Doyle 4^th edition 2012 pg 44

“The Asa Wright Nature Centre is situated in the Arima province of Trinidad – east of Port of Spain. It is a 200 acre nature preserve set at an elevation of 1200 feet in lush, scenic mountain area. Previously the centre was a coffee, cocoa and citrus plantation.

In 1959, William Beebe established a tropical research station close by and many of the scientists would stay with the Wrights. One of these visitors, a well-known bird painter Don Eckelberry persuaded Asa Wright to turn her property into a reserve after her husband passed away.”

Before Asa herself passed away, she handed over the property to the Government but insisted that the property remained a reserve which it still is.

The old estate house which was built in 1907 is the main administration building, with a big

verandah where one can sit and watch the many birds feeding on the feeders.

Trinidad has 13 hummingbirds, 9 of which can be found flying around the verandah of the Asa Wright centre.

We watched the birds for almost 2 hours flying passed us and enjoying the fruit and feeders. It was a wonderful experience sitting, eating our lunch in amongst all the beautiful birds. We saw hummingbirds as I have already mentioned, honeycreepers, woodpeckers and even the Tegu lizard in amongst the bushes.

http://asawright.org/

 

We decided to go on a short hike along one of the many trails found in the AWNC. One can stay at the centre and many people fly in from all over the world do stay to see all the amazing birds found in the area.

Our short hike was only 1 ½ hours and we saw the lek (area) of the white bearded Mannakin – the males are known for their elaborate acrobatic mating dancing to attract the female birds. The female will choose the male who has the cleanest nesting area and the most elaborate dance. The males will do whatever they can to win the females attention and even drop leaves and twigs on other males nesting area.

We heard the Bearded Bellbird who will spend hours trying to attract the female with his call.

We saw some beautiful flowers like the Hawaiian Sugar bush, the Crab claw, the pink flamingo and

Hawaiian Sugar bush

many leaf cutter ants busy going about their business carrying bits of leaves twice their size.

We were reluctant to leave the Asa Wright Nature Centre, as it was so enjoyable but we knew if we wanted to visit the Caroni Swamp and see the amazing sights of the Scarlet Ibis and the Egret, we had to be there by 4.00pm.

The Caroni Swamp and Bird Sanctuary is an extensive swamp marshland where flocks of rare scarlet Ibis fly home every evening around dusk to the small mangrove islands within the swamp area. One can only see this amazing sight by boat and the boats leave around 4.00pm.

It was wonderful going amongst the swamps and the many inlets and cannels. We saw quite a few blue herons and even saw a tree boa curled up on a branch in one of the many trees we went under.

We arrived at the main swamp area at around 5.00pm and as if on cue, slowly more and more Scarlet Ibis and Egrets congregated on the islands. The Egrets, once they have landed, disappear into the bushes while the Scarlet Ibis tends to stay on the outside of the bushes and trees. It was a truly magical sight to see! The whole day had been truly magical – getting up close and personal with the hummingbirds and as close as possible to the Ibis.

At the anchorage where we were staying, we had met a lovely couple from Port Elizabeth, South Africa Gerda and Rob and their two sons Alex and James. They left South Africa mid-2013, crossed the Atlantic, been to Brazil, motored 700km up the Amazon. They are planning on heading up to the Bahamas then down to Panama and into the Pacific in January 2016.

Gerda and I decided that we needed to do something very “normal” and “girly” so on Wednesday we caught a bus/taxi to the big shopping centre close to the anchorage and had some retail therapy. We had coffee in one of the many coffee shops there, walked in and out of the many shops, bought a few Christmas decorations at the very cheap and nasty Christmas shop, had lunch, did some more walking in and out of the shops before heading back to the boats at 4.00pm. It was very good for the soul to be doing something other than looking at boat parts or things for the boat.

The whole week we had been watching the weather forecasts to see if there would be a weather window so we could sail NE to Tobago. Thursday through to Saturday looked like the only opportunity we would have for at least another week to 10 days, so we decided to check out of Trinidad on Thursday morning and sail for Tobago.

We knew the sail would not be a great one as we would be beating into the wind and we would have a 2 knot current against us. Many yachties do not go to Tobago because of the prevailing conditions, or if they do, they usually sail from Grenada to Tobago first then onto Trinidad. We knew that in order to sail from the Gulf of Paria, through the Boca de Monos then out into the Caribbean Sea, we would have to take into account the tide. It is best to sail through the Boca de Monos with the rising tide, as going against the tide means motoring at 6 knots, so we had to wait until about 5.00pm.

We decided to leave the Carenage anchorage at about 1.00pm and head for either Scotland Bay or Morris Bay for a few hours until the time was right for us to sail through the Boca de Monas.

Scotland Bay was rather crowded as many boats were doing the same as us as the weather window was just right for those heading up north to places like Grenada, so we decided to head to Morris Bay which was on the opposite side of the channel. We put down anchor for about 2 hours, had a nice shower and prepared for an overnight sail to Tobago.

Many boats were sailing through the Boca de Monos at the same time we were and it was like peak hour traffic as all the boats were heading out of the passage for their intended destination.

The one thing that I have always found amazing/interesting about sailing are the rules and regulations and how they vary throughout the world.  Some countries insist that to own a boat and to sail it, you have to have met certain requirements, which can be seen as a money making racket, while in other countries, one can buy a boat and sail it into the sunset – no questions asked about your knowledge, competence or experience. I know this is like opening up a can of worms but it is very interesting. My opinion, for what it is worth, is before you drive a car on the road, you have to study the Highway Code and go through a driver’s test as a car is a dangerous weapon. I feel a boat is the same thing – it can be a dangerous weapon.

On our sail out towards Tobago, we were sailing but a yacht that was motoring decided to cut right in front of us – yes, they may have thought they had plenty of time to motor passed us but on the water, they came far too close to us. Technically we had right of way as we were sailing and they were motoring so they should have gone behind us. It was quite a scary experience. Thank goodness we were keeping a close watch in case we had to take preventative measures.

The sail to Tobago was awful!!! It brought back all those feelings, thoughts and questions as to “Why am I doing this?!!!” Let us just leave it at that!! We eventually arrived at Store Bay to find that there were mooring balls which are free to use, at the moment. In Store Bay, which is on the west coast of Tobago, the main electric subsea cable running between Trinidad and Tobago comes ashore there. On our chart it shows us where NOT to anchor but we were grateful for the use the mooring balls which meant no anchor alarm on – we could catch up on some much needed sleep.

Once we had attached ourselves to the mooring ball, it was a HUGE rush to get to Customs and Immigration before 4.00pm as we thought we would have to pay overtime fees of US$50 per boat.

Although Trinidad and Tobago are “one nation”, when we left Trinidad we had to clear out of Customs and Immigration and inform them we were sailing to Tobago. Their control systems are manual, so they returned our clearing in documentation for delivery to the authorities in Trinidad – very weird.

There are buses in Tobago but there are also private taxis – these are individuals who drive around in their own cars offering lifts to people. All you need to do is go onto one of the main roads and wave a car down. There is price control so we knew that we would only be charged TT$6 (US$ ÷ by 6/ AUS $ ÷ by 5). We walked to the main road, stuck out our thumbs and a car stopped for us. After negotiating the price (always do this before you get in the car) and informing the driver where we had to go, we all piled in and off we went.

Our driver was a young guy who had had his driver’s licence for 3 years and he was extremely proud of his new Mazda. However, he jumped a traffic light and a police car was in front of him so saw this happen. Further up the road, the police car slowed down to let us pass. Well a little further up the road, we heard and saw a police car flashing his lights and the siren blearing – we soon realised that the police car wanted us to stop and pull over. Oh dear, this was all we needed as we were running out of time to get to the Customs and Immigrations.

After some very sweet talking by our young driver, who received a very stern warning by the Police Officer, we were on our way again.

 We were dropped off at the Customs building and ran to the Immigrations building, only to be told that we just needed to hand in one of the many papers Mel had filled out on entry to Trinidad and that was it. When we check out of Store Bay, as we intend sailing up the coast to the north of Tobago to Charlotteville , we have to come back to Immigrations to collect the form before making our way up the coast.

 

Frustration!!! We quickly made our way back to Customs as we did not want to pay any overtime charges, only to be told that the overtime charges only apply to crew checking into Trinidad and Tobago for the very first time – it was their first port of call/or entry point i.o.w. we had already officially checked into Trinidad and Tobago and this was NOT our first port of call or entry point. Nothing is very clear when it comes to Customs and Immigration, as Mel had specifically asked the officials in Trinidad before checking out there and they had said overtime charges will apply!

Anyway … we were all legal and soon found a great place that sold homemade ice-cream, so after a delicious ice-cream cone, all frustrations were completely gone and forgotten.

We eventually caught a lift back to Store Bay where we had a good look at the beautiful anchorage we were in. Lovely crystal clear blue waters and white sandy beaches. What a difference from Trinidad’s dirty oily polluted water! Poor Passages has a dirty black ring around her from all the oil and muck while we were anchored in Trinidad.

Also in the anchorage is a couple who we met in Nevis, Lucy and John on Maraki. It was lovely to catch up with them and to see what they had been up to since we last saw them.

Saturday it was lovely to wake up to such a beautiful and yes, a clique view – white sandy beaches, with palm trees fringing the beaches and the crystal clear blue waters.

It felt good to be back in our swimming costumes and to go for a dip in the water when you felt hot.

We spent time on the boat cleaning and sorting a few things out but went ashore mid-afternoon to see what was around.

There are plenty of restaurants, fruit and vegetable vendors, car hire places – we enquired about hiring a car as we would like to see the interior of the island as well as the lovely coast line.

We visited Fort Milford which was built in 1777 by the British in the same place that the Dutch built a fort during their occupation of the island between 1642 to 1660.

Sunday – after a lazy morning we went ashore and went for a long walk along the sandy white beaches to Pigeon Point and into the nature reserve where the famous Buccoo Reef is found. It felt so good walking in the lovely waters and the scenery was beautiful. Mel, Ivo and Maya had fun climbing up a palm tree.

So here we are – it is the already the end of November and we are in an absolutely beautiful part of the world. While we are here we hope to see and do as much as possible but we are always looking at the weather to see if there is a good weather window for a sail up to Barbados. We would really like to sail there in the remaining time with Fata Morgana, as they are also keen to go.

So who knows where we will be this time next week…. Watch this spot!

Until next time, take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Tegu lizard