Bye Bye Trinidad

 Getting ready for lift off.  The Travel-lift  is getting ready to put the slings under the boat to lift it out of the water.

Lifted off and life on the hard begins.


THANKS EVERYONE FOR SHARING OUR BLOG WITH US.   

WE'LL BE UPDATING THIS BLOG WITH PICTURES NOT PREVIOUSLY SHOWN AND/OR WITH PICTURES OF INTEREST DURING OUR MONTHS' OF BEING BOAT-LESS.  CHECK BACK ON THIS BLOG OFTEN.  WE PROMISE TO MAKE IT INTERESTING!

No picture this time.

Everything is stowed, cleaned, and ready for haul out tomorrow.  Sails packed down below, spinnakers hauled out of the bow so people can work on the fired bow thruster.  Food being distributed to locals.
Today was just thunderstorms followed by clearing.  Typical.  Just as the laundry was done, yet another torrential rain.  Three and half hours to do 3 loads of laundry between downpours. 

Preparing for life on the hard for the Chicken boat

Aluminum foiling all the top side windows to reflect the sun and heat for the summer months in Trinidad.  While the Chicken will have a/c during the next 6 months, the sun is intense here.  Every thing we can do to keep the mold and heat at bay, we do.

Haul out is scheduled for Thursday; we catch a flight out on Friday morning for LAX.  
We've had typical Trinidad weather; scorching hot and humid in the morning, followed by severe rain showers in the afternoon, only to be followed by rainbows and more scorching heat.  Reminds us of Panama.

Exciting Memorial Day on the Chicken

We left Grenada because it was a "holiday" on Monday only to find out it yet a another Holiday in Trinidad on Wednesday.   Yikes.  Someones got to make a calendar of this stuff.
87+ miles under our belt today and tucked in a slip at Crews Inn, Trinidad.  Wouldn't you know it, a white out rain squall came in just as we approached the marina, and without the bow thruster.  Fortunately it was more rain than wind.  No problems Mon.  Some of you may recognize Crews' Inn...
Later, all three pc's at work.  We expect haul out on Thursday and catch a flight out on Friday.  Wednesday is an "Indian Immigration" holiday so no work or haul out will done then.  We have the worst luck on hitting ports on a local "holiday".  I really have to start a diary so we know about these things before they affect our schedule.  The guide books don't always warn you of these little oddities.  Pardon the dishes drying...where's the dish washer?....Oh yeah, we converted it to a plastic container drawer...  the stupid Fisher-Pakel.  Don't buy it.  Disappointed in CA and on the boat.

What a cool inflatable bar!

Tomorrow is a holiday of some sort so instead of waiting around until Tuesday we've upped the departure date.  There's no duty free shopping, or any kind of shopping for that matter here in Prickly Bay.  So...
Leaving Grenada early am for Trinidad.  It's about 87 miles to the tip of Trini, then about another 5 into Crew's Inn Harbour.  If we leave at 5 am we should be snugly tied up to the dock at about 3pm.
Can't wait to have an automatic dishwasher and washer/dryer again!  It's amazing what little creature comforts are missed while out at sea.  Oh yeah, and a full size kitchen! 
Hope we don't see any pirates off Venezuela!
Gotta go find my bear spray.....

GRENADA, Prickly Bay

We had another very nice ride from St. Vincent (Union Bay) to Prickly Bay, Grenada.  We hit 10 knots boat speed again under a reefed main and the small jib with 16 knots of wind.  We just look at each other and wag our heads in amazement.
While reading a book in the salon during our migration from Union to Grenada, I heard a thud against the haul and ran up to the cockpit hollering "what did we hit, what did we hit?"  By that time a wooden crating slat visually passed by the stern.  The guys in the cockpit thought all they heard was a wave slap hard, but down below I heard something loud and clear.  I wonder if it left skid marks on the bottom paint?
Basically we are here to relax, get Bruce's swollen feet to deflate before heading south to Trinidad.  It's only 80 or so miles and the wind/sea conditions are looking favorable.  I'm thinking we'll be here until Tuesday as Bruce wants to get confirmation of the haul out date.   And we can get stuff duty free here so, yeah, we'll probably pull out early Tuesday morning.

Union Island (still in St. Vincent)

We left Bequia this morning after holing up for 2 days for the pressure wave to move through.  We had torrential rain squalls.  Today we had very nice crossing from Bequia to Union Island under a half reefed main and the small jib and we still did between 8.5 & 10 knots.  Bruce really wanted to put up more sail area but asked himself..."why??" 
Once anchored,  the boys decided to have a race to see who could get to the bow first - the winner getting a beer.  Guess who won?  The guy who bought the beer in the first place...but he also had bigger fins, longer legs and a snorkel.  And Simba lost his shorts trying to beat Bruce to the bow!!  Sorry, no pics of that.

TURTLES!!

union island

We had a nice trip from Chateaubelair to the end of the island and most of the way until 45 minutes out of Bequia, the island, the winds kicked up, the swells returned and we became a rocket ship with the main reefed, no head sail going 10+ knots easily.
Got into the harbor and still blowing 24-25 and decided that since the harbor is now mostly consumed with moorings, we would just take one.  Good choice.  The wind died and Simba thought we would want to go ashore so took all the restraining straps of the dink on deck.  An hour later, a squall came through and started lifting the unsecured dink off the deck.  After a scramble in 33 knots, here is Simba after re-securing the dink, totally soaked (which doesn't show up well) but you can see the total white out behind him.  He said it felt like b-b pellets pelting him.  And the guy just took a shower a half hour before.  We were all laughing so hard. "Oh My Gosh Mon!". Never underestimate squalls.  Leaving tomorrow am for another 30 mile hike to Union Island.

A little sun does a lot to get rid of the EEWWUU

Boat boy George, whom we met a couple months ago when we passed through Chateaubelair St. Vincent a couple months ago was right there to greet us as we dropped anchor.  George is a well known, friendly and helpful entrepreneur and Simba has known him for many years.  George will do his best to obtain anything you might need that his little town may have.  This time it was avocados, young green coconuts and passion fruit nectar.

EEEWWWWUUU!

We pulled the dink out of the water at Rodney Bay in preparation for our 55 mile trip from St. Lucia to St. Vincent and out came a dingy bottom full of slime!  Yuck!

(The dink rides on the deck of the boat up-side down for aerodynamics.)








Approaching the St. Lucia Pitons.  We had steady 20-27 knot winds crossing the channel between the two islands with no less than 10 foot swells.  It was actually a very nice ride since it was a reach but sure glad we weren't going in the other direction.

Who can name the original?

We are out of here (Rodney Bay St. Lucia) tomorrow, early.
Don't know where we'll end up but expect to do 50+ miles tomorrow but we'll be somewhere in St. Vincent. 
Dink forward/reverse is repaired, food storage good (probably too good), new chain hook on the snubber, laundry done, all is good to go.  
Guys got a get the dink topside, girl has got to get the smoothie going...banana nut bread already done.

Wax apples and Marigot Bay, St Lucia

 We took the short 3 hour tour of the island today and the taxi driver asked if it was okay to stop by his aunt's house to return a food container.  He was quite proud to show us his aunts' fruit trees and we left with 8 pounds of wax apples (left) and mangoes.  Wax apples look like little pears with the same flesh texture but shiny.  These are not quite as ripe as they should be but delicious nonetheless.

Marigot Bay; a good hurricane hole, base operations for The Moorings and a very cute little harbor.

The Fruit Boat

This guy comes around twice a day to see if any of us anchored out in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, needs bananas, oranges, pineapples, etc.  I'm surprised he doesn't tip over as the roof area of little boat is loaded with heavy stuff like potatoes and onions!

In St. Lucia, Rodney Bay

After leaving the tenuous stern to anchor on Dominica that I described 2 days ago, we spent a night in Martinique.  I know to most of you that may sound lovely, romantic and beautiful.  We (Bruce, mainly) were beat from white out squalls and the 55 mile trip.  And, I found out this morning, we dragged anchor during the night.  My favorite part of the day is when I know it's happening; not when I thought the hook was set firm and sleeping soundly, only to discover that we were 20 yards from a 2 foot shelf.  There is a tropical depression over us currently and the wind hasn't gotten below 18 all day; gusts to 25 are normal, in the Bay.   Out on the ocean its more; boat heeled well over where you can't maneuver below without strongly hanging onto a hand grip and a homemade lunch is out of the question.  We're not going anywhere tomorrow or maybe even the next.
We were going to get a slip today in Rodney Harbour Marina but last night the bow thruster came on at 2am all by itself, apparently the same kind of short we had last year, and burned itself out.  So no bow thruster for the rest of the trip.  Perhaps we have an electronic ghost on board that just wants to create havoc...
Anyone want to go sailing in the Caribbean?
Oh, some of you asked how the weather is....Squalls come and go, rain sometimes were you can't see 10 yards in front of you, then clear blue skies, sunshine, rainbows and stars shining brightly at night.  Or maybe just ominous dark covering the sky.  The wind is constantly rising and decreasing.  Temperatures range from 75 to 93.   Bruce went from no shirt, to a wind/rain breaker to a long sleeved one today if that helps the imagination.

DOMINICA

Motoring down the coast of Dominica we caught this lovely Kingfish.  We now have enough fish for the rest of the trip!  There were no moorings open for our size in Roseau  (the capital of Dominica) so the local boat helper put us "stern to" to a concrete dock with the anchor out in front in about 60 feet of water.  So now we're lee shore for the night with the stern in 18 feet of water and 15 yards from the shoreline with the wind coming a beam.  I know the writer of this blog will not get a wink of sleep tonight. 

Going back 2 days, the North loft in Le Saintes pulled through for us with the repaired main sail at 9am as promised and we were on our way by noon.   We are still going to be gentle with it as we have 400 miles to go.

Talk about a change in plans....

FRC on a mooring in front of Le Saintes, Guadeloupe, without a main sail.

We had major issues with our main head board.  IE:  We couldn't use the main.

Plans were to leave early am and motor the 50 miles around Guadeloupe to the North Sails Main Caribbean location in Pointe A Pitre.  Just as we were getting ready to round the end of the island, a sat phone call came in and we were told that loft is too busy and wouldn't get to our problem for a week, but the satellite loft in Le Saints may be able to help.

To make a long story short, we headed to Le Saintes, pulled up a mooring at noon, had the North Sails rep on board by 2:30, main sail off the boat by 3:30 and it's return promised at 9am tomorrow! 

Up date:  the sail was returned, as promised at 9AM and it was a good emergency repair.  May even last us another trip north with the head sail track replacement made in Antigua.

Nice day in Deshaies, Guadeloupe

 Waiting for immigration and customs yesterday to open at 4:30pm!  We had to find something to do.  No ice for our drinks.
Bruce tried and tried to get internet connection; finally got it but after so many tries he forgot what he used as a user ID and password; he was so frustrated.  Turns out the user name was "Bozotheclown" and the password was "frogwater".  Appropriate??

Today, Sunday, we visited the Botanical Gardens here in Deshaies, just a mile or so up the road.  It was fantastic.  So many species of plants and flowers to delight the soul, waterfalls, ponds full of Koi and flamingos.  Even Bruce enjoyed it.  To the right is one of our feathered friends that would come and sit on your arm or hand.
It's been difficult communicating as absolutely no-one speaks English.  And if they do, they don't let you know it.  Simba is good at Rasta speak but as worthless as us with French.

Antigua - Montserrat - Guadeloupe in two days

We left Jolly Harbour, Antigua at 10am Friday and had a lovely beam reach to Montserrat. Pulled in to Little Bay, dropped anchor and the wind started to howl to 37kts and slinging us around like a kite on a wire.  Yikes!  Not a place I'd want to leave the boat and go ashore.  Ate left overs because BB-Qing or cooking was not an option.  We spent the night and high-tailed it out of there this Saturday morning and had another lovely sail to Deshaies (pronounced "Day-ay) on the north-western side of Guadeloupe.  We were in this bay previously coming up the coast and it is lovely.  Nice to be back.  We are having trouble with the main, again, so we'll spend the day ashore and explore a little bit, go to the botanical gardens for lunch since we are comfortable leaving the boat alone here.  Customs didn't even look at our passports and no stamp, stamp, stamp.  Baguettes are to die for since this a French island.  Monday we'll head to Pointe A Pitre to find a sail loft to shore up yet another repair to the main.
(We really need a new main sail)
Re-discovering that a simple 1 Euro coin can yield a firm, ripe local grown tomato and a hand of ginger, with change; or a baguette.  Need to go through the spare change coin packets....Going from one currency to another is an adjustment.
FRC out
16.18.393N
61.47.899 W
 

Sunset in Antigua - yeah, we haven't left yet...

We WERE going to leave Jolly Harbour this morning but it was raining tree frogs and sand fleas and it took Bruce 2 hours to get through the immigration paperwork where they make you hand write the passport information/crew list on "their" forms, then proceed to hand write 2 other forms necessary to complete the exiting the country paperwork, plus the "stamp", "stamp", "stamp" of all the copies.
So we are here for yet another night.  The sunset was so beautiful tonight that I thought I'd take a picture...but first I decided to retrieve 2 bumpers from the bow to stow and gosh darn it, the minute and a half that I wasted on the bumpers took the photo op away from me.  Come rain, sleet or snow we are leaving Antigua tomorrow and headed the 25 miles to Montserrat where there's a good anchorage.  I know, I know, leaving on a Friday is a harbinger of a bad passage but I least I don't have any bananas on board!  It will be a few days until we can post another blog.  Until then, you can always contact us at WDC8882@sailmail.com.

Leaving Antigua...Returning to Antigua

Leaving Jolly Harbour, Antigua.
We wanted to get fuel and do a sea trial before setting out tomorrow to make sure all the mechanical repairs were good to go.  Engine running great, some black smoke out the exhaust, but purred like a kitten.  The prop pitch change doesn't give us the power we are used to; we'll have that changed in Trinidad along with the injectors that will make the fuel run cleaner.  Looks like we're good to go in the morning.
Provisioning is done, laundry clean, fuel topped off!

Returning to Jolly Harbour, Antigua.
New Main luff track is the best it's ever been, very smooth.  While returning to the entrance, we were astounded to see 3-4 people in the water off a shoal just off our bow apparently diving for lobster.  No diver down flag and a guy in a skiff about 70 yards from the swimmers not waving us off our 8 kt/hr headed right for them path.  Stupid & dangerous.  We could have had people chowder on our resume!!

Not sure if we're headed to Barbuda or Montserrat.
At sundown, while Sharon & Simba were at the grocery store finishing up the provisioning, Bruce swears he saw a very large plume of smoke rising from Montserrat.  It was too dark when returning to the boat to say if he was seeing things or not...

Rain is gone - new luff track for the main!

With the rain gone, we finally got to do some outside work accomplished!.  Bruce and Simba replaced the old plastic luff track for the main with an aluminum one which hopefully won't destroy the mains' sail tape like the old one did.

And inside work accomplished too!  (laundry)

It's been raining

Non-stop for 3 days now.  Can't do any work on the boat or repairing the dink.  It's been okay though, provisioning is an everyday occurrence, little by little.  Thankful for the internet.  And Simba's goofy movies.  The dink is going to sink if the rain keeps up.   It's like Panama all over again.  10 inches of rain over night.

Sittin' on the dock of the bay...

Sharon and Simba taking a break from boat work at Jolly Harbour, Antigua.  Not much wind expected for the next few days, just periodic showers in the humidity.  Bruce's feet have been swollen since we got here...don't know what's up with that!

Bruce's 62nd b-day in Antigua!

We arrived in Jolly Harbour, Antigua Monday afternoon.  After severe jet-lag and no sleep we are finally on our way to getting out of here.  Refer/freezer working, outboard working with a new hoist, head sails on deck, one stolen fender from the dock, provisioning started, heat exchanger replaced, Yanmar still waiting for repair (island time, Mon!), as you can see, FRC's salon is typical....tool boxes and all replacement parts are out.  Simba is with us but I forgot to take the picture at Bruce's dinner out.  Expect to leave Friday or Saturday.  Since the Antigua Race Week concludes this weekend, we are hoping to find another sailor or another couple to join us for our trip back to Trini (Trinidad).