Week 45 October 20 to 27 2014

 

Murphy’s Law – we now have our new solar panels and for most of the week, bar Tuesday, we have had cloudy and rainy days!

Tuesday we decided to do some exploring so we caught a bus from St George and went to Grand Etang Lake. We had been told that you could walk around the lake in about an hour. We were also told about the very friendly little grey monkeys that would greet you when you arrived at the entrance to Grand Etang Lake and they would even sit on your head – it was a good idea to take some bananas. Unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it, there were no monkeys to greet us, so we ate the bananas instead.

Grand Etang Lake is a crater lake. We walked around the lake – it was very muddy and at times rather unpleasant with all the flies and mozzies.

Grenada is referred to as the “Isle of Spice” and wherever you go around the island, there are many

spice gardens.

Information taken from “To the Windward Islands, 2013- 2014 Sailors Guide, by Chris Doyle, 16th edition”.

“Grenada has had a lively past especially as recent as 1974, with the transition to full independence. Most Grenadians thought that this was not the right time for independence as many wanted to wait awhile longer.

Instead of jubilant celebrations, the island went on strike in protest but independence was forced on Grenada, under the rule of Sir Eric Gairy who was a flamboyant and at times a controversial figure. He had a very divisive effect on the population. The result was a left wing coup in 1979 by Maurice Bishop who greatly admired Fidel Castro. He tried to turn Grenada into a socialist state. He improved medical and education but at the expense of freedom. Anyone who opposed him was thrown in jail and all independent newspapers were banned.

Mud mud everywhere

Second in command, Bernard Coard and his wife Phyllis opposed Bishop and together with members from the army took Bishop prisoner. This was in 1983. After a massive crowd freed him, an army group executed him along with half of his cabinet ministers. The US, along with Grenada’s eastern Caribbean neighbours (the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) launched a rescue mission which was welcomed by many Grenadians. Grenada has been extremely peaceful since and is flourishing. It is still developing into a big yachting destination with its many haul out facilities.”

Wednesday we decided to go into town to do some provisioning before heading SE to Prickly Bay to take refuge with the predicted Tropical Wave that was going to hit us later that evening and stay with us until Friday.

By Wednesday lunch time we had lifted our anchor from St George’s Bay and were heading to Prickly Bay. We had a good sail, although a bit frustrating as there was a rather strong current against us. We were heading in the direction of Tobago, then when we thought we could tack and head straight into Prickly Bay, we actually ended almost in the same place where we had originally started.  Eventually when we were about 1nmile from the entrance we decided to switch the engine on and motor into the very crowded and popular Prickly Bay anchorage. We eventually found a place to anchor.

Grenada has a cruisers net which is run 6 days a week (Monday – Saturday). There are many social engagements as many cruisers spend the entire hurricane season (July – November) in one of the anchorages in Grenada. We have met quite a few cruisers who have been anchored in Prickly Bay since July and will be leaving Grenada in the next few weeks to head either north or west.



Prickly Bay Anchorage as the Tropical Wave
was passing over us.

As predicted the Tropical Wave passed over us on Wednesday night, whole day Thursday but by mid-morning Friday it had passed. Unfortunately we knew that there was the possibility for another one to be passing over us starting some time on Sunday evening. This was causing a few issues with the planned children’s Halloween parties in the various anchorages.

Thursday was spent couped up on the boat, with the anchor watch on full so we could keep track of our anchor and respond if required. You can take as many precautions as possible but like most things in life, one can never guarantee how others will react. We had a huge Cat anchor right in front of us – at one point we thought he may have anchored over our anchor – anyway Mel decided to let out some more chain so that we could fall back a bit more and if we did swing, which we did, we would be far away from the Cat.

Friday morning we went to the main shopping centre at Grand Anse to get some provisions (we eat lots of fruit and the markets were closed because of the public holiday).  The rest of the day and night was spent, like most of our time so far in Prickly Bay, bouncing up and down with the awful swell.

Saturday we decided to attend the Hash House Harriers run/walk through the Westerhall Estate Rum Factory and its surroundings so at 2.30pm we caught the bus organised for this event from the Prickly Bay Marina.

It was the Grenada Hash House Harriers’ 850^th run and there was a huge turnout of at least 300 people of all shapes, sizes, ages and fitness levels.

Mel and Ivo came in the top 10 of the runners, while Maya met up with some of the children she had recently met and went off into the distance, Mira tried to find her after a while and I enjoyed myself chatting to quite a few of the locals who were walk/jogging  at my pace. We all had great fun!

We were back at the marina by 6.45pm in time to watch some of the talent show, put on by the

students from the University of St George (Medical University).

Sunday was spent on the yacht catching up with some domestic chores with a walk to the next harbour – Mt Hartman Bay, in the afternoon.

As you can see not much to report on but yet still quite an eventful week.  I am keen to find a quiet, calm anchorage as I feel we have been bouncing up and down since we arrived in Grenada two weeks ago. The anchorage in St George’s Bay had a swell from the after effects of Hurricane Gonzales and now Prickly Bay is having a southerly swell caused from the tropical wave. I don’t sleep very well when I am bouncing up and down like on a Bouncing castle. Not sure what our plans are at the moment other than possibly moving to Mt Hartman Bay … who knows….so until next time… have a great week and take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Another view of Grand Etang Lake



Our shoes after our walk around the lake

Week 44 October 13 to 19 2014

Power is one of the key components on a yacht. We soon realised after we left the States that Passages did not have enough power – we have a wind generator and one 120watt solar panel but together they do not produce enough power to charge our battery bank without running our 2kW portable Honda generator every day. (See Week 14 for the saga in buying the generator)

 

Our refrigeration takes up a lot of power and we need to make water every second or third day so we need power to run the water maker as well.

Mel has said all along that he wanted to put on more solar panels but he wanted a particular type – Kyocera. Many places along the way had solar panels for sale but they were not the right type, size and cost!! The States is definitely the cheapest place to buy solar panels!!!

We knew Grenada was a HUGE boating and yachting centre, plus as a transit boat we don’t have to pay import duties. We also thought we would be down in Grenada by the end of July not mid-October as the southern part of Grenada is out of the hurricane zone and for insurance purposes we are meant to be 12degrees south – i.o.w. out of the hurricane zone. That is why we always checked the weather and a few of the hurricane watch centres in case we had to sail south, suddenly.

Ivo, on Fata Morgana has over 1500 watts of solar panels and he put us in touch with his USA solar panel dealer. We got such a good deal from this solar panel dealer in the States that it was even worth our while having them shipped out to Grenada. To add to this Mel was getting exactly what he had wanted all along – x2 325 watt Kyocera panels. I am hoping by the end of this week, we do not need to run our generator.

The generator, I know, serves a purpose but it has been a pain….. we have had to run it every day, for at least 4 - 6 hours at a time. It sits at the back of the cockpit, on the helmsman’s seat and although it is not noisy like some generators can be, it still prevents one from sitting in the cockpit and enjoying our beautiful surroundings. The fumes get to me as our CO2 detector has gone off on a number of times! SO the focus for this week was to fit our new solar panels.

Ivo was so keen to help Mel which has been great!!! (It certainly saved me from having to help make the new frame work to fit the solar panels on.)

 Back to Monday and Tyrell Bay….. our anchor was up by 8.00am – we only had 32nmiles to sail and according to the weather we would have at least 10 -15knots of wind coming from the SE which would be great as we were heading SW to be exact. Technically it should have only taken us 6 – 7 hours. Yeah right…..

Oh dear…… we planned for the wind shadow caused by the island as we were approaching main land Grenada but… guess what? We ended up bobbing up and down for over an hour. It was then that we decided we would have to put the engine on and motor sail until we found some wind otherwise it would be another very long day and night.

We motor sailed for about 1/2hour when we found some wind but it was coming from the SW!!! The direction we were heading….. so we tacked at least 6-8 times until we were at the entrance to St George’s. It was now after sunset – and night time was fast approaching. Not the best way to enter an anchorage particularly since quite a number of boats do not put their anchor light on, nor do they have any form of lighting to show their whereabouts. It is a “colregs” regulation (the International Martine Organisation regulations for avoidance of collisions at sea) to have your anchor light on when anchored but we have noticed that many boats do not care, bother or otherwise. This can be very dangerous – obviously.

Well we switched the engine on, took the sails down, put on our two way communications and Mel went up on the bow with a torch to guide me in. We put down our anchor at 7.00pm utterly exhausted!!!

We kept our radio on and tried calling Fata Morgana every few minutes eventually getting in touch with them at about 8.00pm. We tried staying up for them, kept our radio on in case they needed any assistance but by 10.00pm we were falling asleep sitting up so off to bed we went.

When we got up at about 1 - 2 .00am we saw that they were anchored close by. Thank goodness.

Tuesday was spent organising the delivery of the solar panels. Mel and I decided to make things easier, we would go into the Port Louis Marina for 2 – 3 days. Mel needed to cut piping for the frame which would be extremely difficult and impractical on the boat – what with the constant movement and the stainless steel fillings.

By 2.30pm we were docked in the marina and we had our solar panels on the dock. Mel and Ivo were so looking forward to getting stuck into the whole solar panel project that they spent the rest of the afternoon discussing what needed to be done and went off to buy whatever extra fittings they needed.

Pillar Rossi on the left

At the marina was a lovely swimming pool which we used quite a few times to cool off.  In the marina were quite a few mega yachts – one called Pillar Rossi, owned by Nelson Piquet the F1 racing driver. There were also a few restaurants and thought we would try at least one while we were there – we did on Wednesday evening. Great pizzas!

Wednesday, bright and early – 7.30 am Mel and Ivo were starting to put together the frame work for the panels. Everything was going well until they realised that the stainless steel connections said one thing on the label of the bag they were in, but they were actually a different size! Always expect there to be a delay or an issue.

Thursday was spent very much the same way as Wednesday, Mel and Ivo working on the solar panels. By the evening the solar panels were up but not connected. We all did a little dance as the last of the solar panels went up. The electrical work was for Friday after we had left the marina and were anchored safely in the bay.

Friday morning we stayed in the marina until 12.30pm, so that we could go to the local bakery for “Build a burger” – every Friday lunch time at the bakery is “Build a burger”. Most of the proceeds go towards assisting the local vets with the feral cat issue that Grenada has.

Friday afternoon we were back in St George’s Bay anchorage and spent the rest of the day organising some of the wiring that needed to be done to connect the solar panels to the battery bank.

Saturday morning we decided to go into the town to the local market to buy some fresh produce before Mel finished putting the final touches to the solar panels. By midnight that evening, the panels were connected and we couldn’t wait for the morning to see just how much power the panels were making.

The following information taken from “Truly Discover – Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinque – complimentary tourist information booklet”.

“St George is a very pretty town and is the oldest town in Grenada, dating back to the mid 1600’s. In

March 1649, the French started a small settlement – Port Louis where the Port Louis Marina is located. The settlement grew as the threat of the Kalinago or Island Caribs diminished. Fort Royal or Ville du Fort Royal (present day Fort George – the oldest built structure on the island) was built on the main headland opposite to where Port Louis was located. Between 1706 and 1710, it was extensively rebuilt. From Fort Royal, the town quickly spread and it was named St George.

Young Street is one of the most historic streets in St George where the Sendall Tunnel can be found. This tunnel was constructed in 1895. Today the Sendall Tunnel remains a major thoroughfare for vehicles and pedestrians to and from Market Square to the waterfront area known as the Carenage.”

 Many alleyways and stairs connect the various levels of the town – it is very picturesque.

 Sunday morning we decided to dinghy out to the Underwater Sculpture Park located in Dragon Bay.

Here are two websites that have photos of some of the sculptures found at the Underwater

Sculpture Park:

http://grenadaunderwatersculpture.com/

http://www.underwatersculpture.com/projects/grenada/

The following information taken from “Truly Discover – Grenada, Carriacou & Petite Martinque – complimentary tourist information booklet”.

 “The Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park was the first in the world and due to its success of rejuvenating the sea life after only seven years, National Geographic featured them in an issue dedicated to the 24 wonders of the World.

  The 65 sculptures were installed by Jason De Caires Taylor who combined his love of diving and his skills as a sculpture – he created a plan to sculpt pieces of artwork that would evolve and be enhanced by nature as the art becomes transformed by the living reef.”.

We spent about 1 ½ hours snorkelling looking at as many sculptures as possible – it was a bit difficult as the clarity was not great and there was a huge swell coming from the NW – all the result of Hurricane Gonzales that hit Antigua and St Martin. (20 out of 37 boats anchored in Simpson Bay Lagoon, St Martin, sank – we spent time in Simpson Bay Lagoon – remember that is where our anchor dragged and I was on my own to deal with it – Week 25).  There was an abundance of colourful fish which added to the experience.

So that was Week 44… we now have a lot more power on the boat which means the generator will ONLY be used in case of emergencies, which I hope is never!!!

Our plans are to explore Grenada a bit more – we are also making inquiries about boat yards and yacht maintenance as we need to start thinking about where to put Passages when we return to reality and the treadmill of work, next year.

 Until next time – Take care.

 Lots of love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

 

 

 

 

Week 43 October 6 to 12 2014

The only thing predictable about the weather is its unpredictability and that is how Week 43 was for us.

 

Late Sunday afternoon we were told that Monday was a public holiday in St Lucia so if we wanted to clear out we would have to pay rather large overtime charges which we were reluctant to do. Sunday night the wind died and we were facing due south which was not a good sign for a sail to Barbados.

First thing Monday morning we checked the weather and there was no wind and whatever wind there was, was coming from the wrong direction. We thought we would see what tomorrow’s weather was like but either way we would check out of St Lucia and either head to Barbados or further south to Grenada.

Tuesday – no wind!!!! Boy was it hot!! Thank goodness we have a HUGE swimming pool at our disposal!

 Tuesday afternoon, we checked out of St Lucia and had 48 hours to leave. Our plan was to get up early on Wednesday morning, check the weather and decide what to do.

 Wednesday morning, we set the alarm for 5.30am so that we could check the weather – NO wind!!! It would be hopeless for us to attempt to sail to Barbados let alone try to head south to Grenada which was over 100nmiles away – 10nm further than Barbados.

We needed a NE wind for Barbados which is pretty unusual for this time of year but it does happen and we needed the prevailing easterlies to blow at least 10 – 15 knots for us to head south. We were experiencing 2 – 3 knots of wind coming from the south!!!

 

Thursday was a repeat of Wednesday. We went for a walk along a trail on the south side of the Rodney Bay anchorage where we found a bunker which had a sign saying “USA Ruins”. (I have tried to find out more information but have not been successful).

 

 Mel and I were becoming desperate as we knew our solar panels were arriving in Grenada and ready for collection on Monday.

 

We decided that if the wind was not great we would have to leave Rodney Bay on Friday and even if we had to do over nighters we had to start heading south – Barbados was out of the picture for now.

 Early Friday morning we were heading out of Rodney Bay. Our plan was to sail to the northern part of St Vincent – to Chateaubelair, overnight there with our yellow quarantine flag up, then sail through to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada on Saturday, then on Sunday sail down to St George, Grenada to collect our panels on Monday.

  We were reluctant to stop in St Vincent. St Vincent and the Grenadines are lovely sailing areas, but unfortunately for St Vincent there has been far too much crime associated with boats, so we were planning on missing them. The Grenadines, however, are a different story – there is Bequia, Canouan, the Tobago Cays, Mayreau and a few other lovely islands which we intend sailing to before the end of the year.

 

Like everything in sailing and in life generally – things don’t always go according to plan particularly not when it concerns the weather. It took us 9 hours – most of Friday to sail the length of St Lucia, down to the Pitons which only took us 2 hours by bus to get to!!! At one point we were going backwards!!! We were in the shadow of the island despite being quite a few nmiles off the coast – obviously it wasn’t far enough!!!

Change of plans!!! We were just going to keep sailing until we reached Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada.

As the sun set and the moon rose, the wind picked up and were had a good sail across to St Vincent. It was quite magical as the previous night had been a full moon so the moon was still large and bright. We even watched two episodes of the Big Bang Theory.

(Mel and I enjoy “The Big Bang Theory” and have the complete series 1 – 7, so we watch a few episodes at a time – we are half way through Session 4 at the moment).

Just when you think things are looking good, well the wind died and we were back to bobbing along at 1 – 2 knots – the time now was 11.00pm. We decided to put the engine on and find some wind whereas Fata Morgana didn’t put their engine on and they spent the next 3 -4 hours bobbing along!

We found some wind….. we had had the engine on for about 15mins when we found wind … 18knots coming from ESE – great!!!

We sailed on through the night arriving at Tyrell Bay, Grenada by 11.00am but unfortunately we could not see Fata Morgana, nor could we reach them on the radio. We only heard from them round lunch time. By 3.00pm they had put their anchor down behind us. WOW what a sail!!

Mel and I decided to check in to Grenada – we knew that it was easier checking in at Tyrell Bay than in St George, so we paid the $20EC overtime charge.

We thought about sailing down to St George on Sunday but decided to rest and enjoy some of the snorkelling around Tyrell Bay. We were keen to catch a bus to Hillsborough and explore the town but there were no buses running on Sunday.

Sunday was spent relaxing, snorkelling and swimming.

One positive about sailing is I have had plenty of time to read…. This past week I managed to read three books, a rare novelty as I know once we are back in the “real world” and the treadmill of work starts, it will take me forever to complete a book. I find I can only read at certain times when we are actually sailing…. If we are not healing too much and crashing into the wave’s i.o.w. it is a gentle sail, then I can read without feeling a bit wheezy.

So as you can see we have had to go with the flow this week… whichever way the wind dictates.

Barbados is still on the cards, so Mel has just put his singing off for a while as our next and very important goal is to install our new solar panels!!! Yippee – I can’t wait!

Until next time – take care, keep well.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

 

Mel cleaning the dinghy while we had a HUGE down pour.

Week 42 September 29 to October 5 2014

Here we are in Sainte Anne enjoying the beautiful waters and calm anchorage so much so that we decided to stay an extra day before heading to St Lucia.

We had been told about a lovely trail along the coast line so we decided to go for a walk, stopping off at the beautiful white sandy and often secluded beaches along the way.

We saw plenty of reddish/orangey crabs and Manchineel trees. They bear a small apple type fruit from a beautiful yellow flower. The flower bud is pinkie/purple in colour but when it is in full bloom is bright yellow. The fruit is extremely poisonous. Even sitting under the tree when it is raining is quite dangerous as well.

Manchineel trees are found all over the Caribbean but we had never seen so many in such a small

area as we did while on our walk. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manchineel

As we were walking back to the boat we noticed that there were about four brightly painted fishing boats pulling in this HUGE fishing net. Along the shore line, on the beach, were men and women waiting with HUGE buckets and tubs, for the fishermen to pull in their catch.

Tuesday morning bright and early – 6.00am to be exact, our anchor was up and we were heading south to St Lucia.

It was a great sail as the wind was aft of beam – i.o.w coming from behind us so we didn’t really feel the strength of the wind which was over 20knots at times. We even had a bite on our fishing rod BUT it was a barracuda and although we were tempted to use it as bait so we could hopefully catch some Mahi Mahi, we released it. Fata Morgana had more luck than us and caught a rather big Mahi Mahi which we enjoyed eating for dinner.

We arrived at Rodney Bay by 12.30 and put down our anchor. Mel dived the anchor as he usually does but he wasn’t happy with it, as it had lodged behind some loose rock and we knew that by the end of the week (Thursday and Friday) a tropical wave was passing over us, so the anchor had to be secure to prevent any mishaps.

After lunch we upped the anchor and moved to a spot we thought would be better and where there was a bit of sand for the anchor to dig into. Unfortunately when Mel dived the anchor the second time, the anchor had lodged under a huge rock. The only comforting thing was that the anchor was very unlikely to drag, but it may take a while to lift the anchor when we eventually leave Rodney Bay.

Later that afternoon we found the HUGE shopping centre close by to check the weather and to enjoy a bit of window shopping.

Information taken from the official guide to St Lucia “Paradise St Lucia”2014 edition – it a free copy from the Tourist Information Centre.

St Lucia is the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands. It was inhabited by the Arawak Indians way back in 200AD which referred to the island as “Iouanalao “or the “Land of the Iguanas”.

The Arawak Indians lived peacefully until the Caribs, who were a fierce race over came the Arawaks in about 800AD. The Caribs called St Lucia “Hewanarau” – the airport in the south of St Lucia is called Hewanorra Airport.

The first record of European explorers was in about 1500 by a Spaniard, Juan de la Cosa. Surprisingly there are no records of Christopher Columbus setting foot on St Lucia.

Later that century, a colourful and interesting character by the name of Francois Le Clerc – a pirate, who was also known as “Jambe de Bois” due to his wooden leg, based himself at Pigeon Island where he and his men of 330 attacked any of the passing Spanish ships for their treasure.

Pigeon Island is now connected to the main land and two huge hotels are located on the landfill. Where the Rodney Bay marina is, was once swamp land. When the marina was being built and dredged, everything from the dredging was deposited between the main land and Pigeon Island – hence the island now being connected to the main land.

Back to the history of St Lucia….. the Dutch arrived in about the 16^th century and built a fort in the south which is now called Vieux Fort.

The British tried to land here in 1605 but were forced to flee by the vicious and terrifying Caribs. There second attempt was in 1639 but they failed once again.

The French claimed ownership of St Lucia but didn’t try to colonise it until 1651. In 1659 there was huge animosity between the French and the English over St Lucia and in 1660, the French signed a treaty with the Caribs and named the island “Saint Lucia” after Sainte Lucy of Syracuse. In 1665, Thomas Warner claimed St Lucia for England which started the many battles between the French and the English. The French had a strong base in Martinique while the English had a strong base in Barbados.

In 1746, the French established the first town in the south – Soufriere. In December 1778, the Battle of Morne de la Vierge took place with the British landing at Cul de Sac and taking control of Morne Fortune in Castries. The French were defeated by a relatively small army lead by Admiral George Rodney and fled to Martinique. Admiral Rodney built Fort Rodney on Pigeon Island as from the higher of the two peaks, Signal Hill, one can easily see clearly anything coming from Martinique.

It was only in 1814, when the British finally won St Lucia which had changed hands over fourteen times in less than 150 years – hence its nickname “Helen of the West” after Helen of Troy.

St Lucia gained independence in 1979 (22 February) but remains part of the British Commonwealth.

There are a few anchorages along the west coast of St Lucia that we are able to anchor but unfortunately St Lucia has not been the safest of places to anchor in of late. There has been quite a lot of dinghy theft – they are after the outboard motor and unfortunately a murder of a yachtsman took place in the south, in Vieux Fort, late last year. We have also read about some “boardings” and the stealing of property in some anchorages. Rodney Bay seems to be the safest spot to anchor and there are lots of yachts around which makes it safer as everyone is watching out for each other.

Wednesday we went into the marina – Island Water World is there so Mel bought a new water pump – better one than what we had, plus a few other bits and pieces.



The Cathedral of Immaculate Conception

Thursday, we caught the bus down to Castries which is now the capital of St Lucia and also known as the shopping capital. It is the largest town in St Lucia and is the commercial and governmental centre of the island. In 1948, a huge fire destroyed many of the builds in Castries although several landmarks still exist today like the Cathedral of Immaculate Conception. It is also where there is a HUGE cruise ship anchorage and dock, accommodating up to five cruise ships at a time. There was only one cruise ship docked on Thursday.

We walked around like many of the other cruisers, looking at the local market and the high end touristy market where prices are ridiculous.

Thursday night was a sleepless night as the wind howled, the heavens opened and we rocked quite a bit – Friday all day was the same except for the rain. Mel installed the new water pump while I worked on the computer.

Saturday we decided to catch taxis/buses to Soufriere and to the Pitons. We had to catch a bus to Castries, to the main bus terminal and then another bus to Soufriere – 45kms away.

When we were dinghying to the marina so we could leave the dinghy there while we were in Soufriere, we saw a disturbing sight – along the main fishing dock where all the local fishermen are, we saw two up-turned very large turtles. Their heads had been chopped off. On Sunday afternoon when we went to the marina, we stopped at the dock where we had seen the two dead turtles, to ask a fisherman about the turtles – this is what he said….. “October is the only month the fishermen in St Lucia can catch turtles but they have to be over a certain size”.  Since speaking to this fisherman, I have found the following link and info:

http://www.stlucianewsonline.com/sea-turtle-hunting-season-opens/

Queen Elizabeth II square and the main
cathedral

Soufriere is a small, quaint town with the Pitons towering over the town. In the town centre is Queen Elizabeth II square with the main cathedral overlooking it. While we were there, the Saturday market was on so all the street vendors were plying their trades and goods. We managed to find a taxi driver who didn’t want to charge us an arm and a leg to take us to see the Pitons.

 The Pitons are a UNESCO World Heritage Site and consist of Gros Piton(771m) and Petit Piton (743m) – they are two HUGE mountain peaks that can been seen from many km’s away.

The Pitons

After seeing the Pitons and returning to Soufriere we thought it was best to catch a bus back to Castries and then onto Rodney Bay as the last buses were round 5.00pm and it would be a very long and strenuous walk back to the boat if we missed the bus.

Sunday was spent preparing for our sail to Barbados - yes we are off to Barbados on Monday morning after we have checked out from St Lucia.

Mel has started singing the song – “We’re going to Barbados” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyfaB8SW5Sw&noredirect=1

…. So that is it for Week 42.

Until next time, take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

One of the many secluded beaches on our walk from Sainte Anne

A very chuffed Ivo and his catch

We tried some "raw" cocoa beans.

Week 41 September 22 - 29 2014

Not much to report on this week – we spent most of the week – Sunday through to Saturday morning anchored off Le Marin catching up on the never ending chores and maintenance required on a yacht. Saturday afternoon we sailed down to Sainte Anne in preparation for our next port of call….

In Le Marin there is a HUGE Leader Price – it is a grocery store and the prices were reasonable so once again I made sure all the hidden compartments on Passages were filled with provisions for the next 3 – 4 months.

Mel, on the other hand, waterproofed the Bimini, fixed the shower pump, got the whole of the genoa sun protection strip resewn, serviced the water pump and the generator and organised the shipment of our new solar panels to Grenada.

I have attached some more photos of Le Marin – I know in last week’s blog I mentioned the amount of boats that were anchored and moored in Le Marin but every day there seemed to be more!

In Le Marin, we found the local market where we bought some lovely fresh fruit and veggies. Of course we found the local Boulangerie and bought the tasty baguettes and pastries.

Saturday morning we decided we had had enough of Le Marin and were ready to sail to Sainte Anne which is only 3 -4 nm south-west of Le Marin.

Sainte Anne is a lovely small holiday seaside town. It is quite picturesque with the church in the centre square off the main dock and the many lovely colourful buildings around the square. Behind the church is a windy path/road (reminded me of Lombardy Street in San Francisco) which leads up to a shrine. There is a Club Med to the north of Sainte Anne that has blaring music until the early hours of the morning which is unfortunate as it is such a lovely anchorage.

The whole week we had been watching the weather to see if there was a weather window for us to sail to Barbados. Every time we thought there was a weather window approaching, when we next checked the weather, the window had gone. We felt quite frustrated as Mel and I were keen to head south as we are desperate to get our new solar panels.

We are tired of running the generator to top up the batteries. The fridge and freezer are coming on more frequently as the weather is becoming hotter and hotter which means the batteries are working at their maximum and more – we do not have enough power on the boat to use some of our appliances e.g. microwave without the use of the generator. It is something we did not fully anticipate when we left the States – anyway it is not the end of the world and we have been fortunate we have had the generator.

We have decided that we will continue south, hopefully arriving in Grenada by the 10/11 October, collect and fit our new solar panels, then head to Barbados – it should be a better sail as the wind is predominantly out of the east and SE and we will be heading NE.

After Sainte Anne, where we will be staying for about 2 -3 days (Saturday through to Monday of Week 42), we will sail to St Lucia – Rodney Bay to be exact so until then…keep well and take care.

 Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Le Merin and all the boats

 

Passages anchored off Sainte Anne with Diamond Rock in the distance

Sainte Anne - the main square and Cathedral