The Adventures of Little Rosie

posted from Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada

The last post was about our return to Grenada and covered our travels up to July 2014.  This post will cover us up to almost June 2015.  To say that much has happened since then would be a gross understatement.

We returned to the US in late July.  We visited relatives and friends and ended up in Detroit.  From there we flew to Africa and toured in Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, and South Africa.  It was an amazing trip.

Elephant checking us out. Close? The yellow thing at the top of the picture is the roof of our LandCruiser

Elephants playing in the Chobe River, Botswana

Rhinoceroses, Karongwe Park, South Africa

Zebras. Hwange Game Preserve, Zimbabwe

Lilac-breasted Roller. Chobe River, Botswana

Cheetah eating a warthog in the Okvango Delta, Botswana

Warthogs – not yet eaten. Kambi Ya Tembo, Tanzania

Hippos. Chobe River, Botswana

Lion. Serengeti, Tanzania

We always get stuck. (L) A wheel falls into an anteater’s den, Kambi Ya Tembo, Tanzania. (R) Buried in the sand, Okvango Delta, Botswana

Just over five weeks and 8000+ pictures later we flew back to Detroit, collected our car, went to a niece’s wedding, visited more family and friends, and drove to North Carolina.  Finally we moved into our new house just outside of Wilmington.  Then Thanksgiving in Virginia, a holiday party in DC, Christmas in Detroit and Cleveland, and New Years Eve in Oriental, NC. On New Year’s Day Jackie flew to Missouri to help our niece who was about to deliver her third child and I (Eric) sailed in the New Year’s Day Regatta in Oriental and then returned to our house.

BACK TO GRENADA

I started my trip to Grenada on Jan 6, but it was a night in Miami, a detour through St. Lucia, and a lost bag later that I finally arrived on Compass Rose.  The batteries were low, but otherwise all was well.

We strip most of the gear off the deck and stow it below when we leave for extended periods of time and it took the next couple weeks putting everything back together and doing some maintenance and repair on items before they went back in service.

GRENADA SAILING WEEK

Boat maintenance and repair was interrupted at the end of January by the start of Grenada Sailing Week.  I was signed on again as crew on Jaguar.  In the past I was on the main sheet, but I moved to the pit for this regatta.  That meant taking care of the halyards for the main, both genoas (we were rated for a second headsail rather than a spinnaker),  topping lifts and downhauls for two spinnaker poles and pulling the second headsail below when we lowered it.  I shared these duties with Sam, another crew member and between us we kept that part of the boat running smoothly.

The racing was a lot of fun and the crew performed well, but we had a couple bad starts, a close encounter that caused us to do a penalty turn, and a short grounding off Grande Anse Beach (no big deal for a Chesapeake Bay sailor).  We were rated as the slowest boat in our fleet so all the other boats had to give us time at the finish, but there were a couple times when we regretted not having the spinnaker after all.  When all was said and done we finished fifth out of seven boats and one point out of fourth place.  Although disappointed with our results we still had a lot of fun.

Jaguar crashes to weather

As usual, the Grenada Workboat Races were held on the weekend in the middle of the regatta.  It’s always fun to take the day off and watch the races from Grand Anse beach.

Grand Anse Beach workboats

Beating to the finish

Our niece, Autumn, had been born a couple weeks later than expected, so Jackie spent a little more time in Missouri and then flew back to close up the house.  Jackie finally arrived in Grenada on the last day of the regatta.  By that time the boat was back together and the systems were all up and running.  Unfortunately, I had discovered some rot in the starboard cockpit coaming.  Further inspection found a lot of rot in that board, rot in the winch base, and rot in the deck.  And so I commenced on a fairly major repair project.

CRUISING: FIXING YOUR BOAT IN PARADISE

The problem with boat projects is that once you get started you usually identify other repairs, maintenance, and improvements that you should do while you are working on that part of the boat, and this was no exception.  The deck rot was caused by the way some hoses were routed, so those needed to be redone, The propane locker was always a little substandard and the tank needed proper mounts, and it was time to replace the cockpit coaming limber holes that allowed water in as well as out with proper drains, and …… you get the picture.

As of this writing the deck has been repaired and the hose routings have been upgraded.  The cockpit coaming and winch base have been rebuilt and painted and everything is assembled.  We could actually go sailing if we weren’t preparing to fly back to the US.  The plan was to paint the deck this year, but we will have just enough time to finish this repair.

Rotted cockpit coaming and winch base

Coaming and winch base core made with honeycomb panel

Ready for fairing

Back together and ready to sail

FUN AND GAMES

It hasn’t been all nose to the grindstone.  There has been Mexican Train Dominoes, Latin dance lessons, jam sessions, jazz and poetry night at the museum, Trivia Night at the Tiki bar, Sunday afternoons at Roger’s Beach Bar, and rotis at Nimrods as well and African drumming.

Roger’s Beach Bar on Hog Island hosted a pig roast

Jam session at Secret Harbour

Jackie even got invited by Monty, her drumming instructor, to play with him at a gig at Savvy’s beach bar at Mount Cinnamon resort.

Jackie played as a guest drummer at Savvy beach bar

COMINGS AND GOINGS

There has been a little excitement in and around the anchorage.  There was a boat that hurricane Ivan tossed up on the rocks in 2004 and has been sitting there ever since.  One day a large tug boat came in and dragged if off.  The word is that it will be used as a floating workshop by someone in the next bay.

The last wreck from Hurricane Ivan is pulled from the rocks and refloated

Just after this wreck was removed, Bob from the old Clarkes Court Marina brought the Oasis bar around from Clarkes Court Bay where it was anchored after being placed on floating docks last year (see previous post)

This Oasis is a dry place surrounded by water

One day we had a boat break its mooring while the owner was away, but a bunch of us got to it just before it hit another boat and moved it to a new mooring with our dinghies.  That night the boat that almost got hit broke its mooring. Luckily the owners woke up and got the boat under control and anchored before they hit any one.

REEFer MADNESS

The really big event was the rescue of Ratan, a boat that went up on the reef between Mt. Hartman Bay and Hog Island.  A bunch of cruisers in dinghies responded as well as Dieter with his big yellow RIB (rigid inflatable boat) from Le Phare Bleu.  The boat was upright and had and anchor out to keep the surf from washing them further onto the reef.  A strong surf was pushing the boat around and made it quite challenging to get close with a dinghy.

Dieter tried to pull him off, but with no success.  Another cruiser, Stephan,  and his son took a halyard from the stranded boat and tried to pull it over sideways to get the keel up, but the boat had a winged keel so it was difficult to get it free.  Then his outboard quit and wouldn’t restart so his son took the halyard and transferred to Stewart’s (Iguana) dinghy so they could continue to tip the boat.  I took the first dinghy in tow and took him out of the surf zone to a channel marker where he could work on his engine.

Dieter decided he couldn’t get the boat free with his RIB, so he went to get Le Phare Bleu’s tug.  When he returned George from Survival Anchorage used a long line he had in his dinghy as a messenger line and took it from the tug to the stranded boat so they could use it to pull in the heavy tow line.  He got it there and one of the people on the boat started to talk to him.  Just then a wave broke on the reef and flipped George’s dinghy.  I went to help George, Axle and Mary Clare (Azaya) followed in case they were needed.  George and I gathered his gear, got him in my dinghy, and towed his dinghy in to a beach.  He has a hard dinghy, so it was easy to right.

We got George’s dinghy bailed out and headed towards George’s boat to get oil for the fuel and some tools.  We got the rest of the stuff he needed and went to a dock where George could work on his engine.  He drained the carb, flushed the water out of the engine, put in new plugs, and it started on the first pull.

Dieter got Ratan off the rocks with his tug and towed her to Le Phare Bleu.  No word on what damage she might have sustained.

The great thing about this event was that a lot of people dropped what they were doing and responded immediately to Rattan, a boat in distress.  Enough people so that when unexpected problems arose there were people available to help.  Some cruisers like Peter and Anne (Spice of Life) never got the opportunity to help, but they bobbed around cold and wet farther from shore and in rougher conditions than they would normally venture out in, to stand by just in case they were needed.

Thanks to everyone who participated.  There are a few cruisers who showed up whose names I don’t know – sorry I can’t mention you, but you know who you are.

NEXT: Return to the US

posted from Johannesburg, South Africa

We had a fine sail from Carriacou to Grenada.  The wind was abaft the beam, the seas were fairly calm, and once we figured out the how to play the current we made good time.  The wind usually dies on the leeward side of Grenada, but it stayed steady most of the way down the island.  We had to motor a few miles past St. George, but the wind filled in at the lower half of the bay.  We rounded Point Salines and got the wind and current right on the nose, so we motor-sailed and then motored the last few miles to Mt. Hartman Bay.  The trip ends by keeping Prickly Point to port and then entering Mt. Hartman Bay.

Aerial view of Grenada’s south coast

1. Clarks Court Bay
2. Le Phare Bleu out of the picture to the left
3. Whisper Cove Marina
4. Clarks Court Bay Marina
5. Hog Island and Roger’s Beach Bar with anchorage to the right
6. Mount Hartman Bay (we like to anchor near the 6)
7. Secret Harbour Marina
8. Buget Marine, Timbers (formerly Da Big Fish), Spice Island Boatyard
9. Prickly Bay (Prickly Bay Marina and Tiki Bar to the left)
10. Prickly Point
11. Lower Woburn Dock and Nimrods Rum Shop
As you can see from the picture, Mt. Hartman Bay is guarded by some reefs, so it takes a bit of concentration on the chart, GPS, and water to find the way in.  Once we had the course figured out I was free to really look into the bay.  It was filled with boats!  I later counted over 75 boats anchored or moored and another ten or so in Secret Harbour Marina.  This is at least twice as many as there were during our last visit in 2012 and probably three times more boats in the bay than during our first visit in 2010.

Crowded Mt. Hartman Bay

We worked our way through the boats and amazingly found a place to anchor in our favorite part of the bay. We put away sailing gear and got out our anchorage gear and finally relaxed and looked around.  We recognized quite a few boats, but we realized that most of the boats in the bay appeared to be closed up.  We spotted people on only three other boats! We began to feel like we were in a Stephen King movie.

The next day was Friday and we dinghied in to the marina to catch the shopping bus.  We found that there were more people on their boats than we thought.

CHANGES

Returning to an island is fun because you get to see friends and familiar places.  This is especially true of Grenada, because we have spent so much time there.  It’s also interesting to see what’s changed and this was a year of big changes.

We already knew that Da Big Fish restaurant had closed but what we didn’t know was that is was being remodeled and planned to open at the beginning of August as The Timbers.  It would be a more upscale restaurant managed by the same fellow who runs The Tiki Bar at Prickly Bay Marina.  Da Big Fish was a bit out of the way for us to visit it on a regular basis, but we did go there once in a while by bus for special occassions.  We look forward to seeing what it is like when we get back.

The other big change was that Clarks Court Bay Marina was closing.  Bob, the owner, couldn’t quite make it financially and had to sell.  It will reopen as a boat yard and marina and the project was well underway when we left.

The marina closing was sad news. It was about a ten minute dinghy ride from Mt. Hartman Bay so we went there most wednesday nights for burgers and music and at other times for special events like cruiser cricket matches.  We attended the last Burger Night, saw usual crowd, and listened to Gylfie and Jomo play all the regular tunes and accompany Bob as he sang one for the crowd.  We saw the last burger come off the grill.  It was the end of an era.

The last two burgers served, and the grill closed.

Bob does one last Burger Night song.

AN OASIS IN THE BAY

But there was still hope.  The center of activity was The Oasis Bar in the middle of the marina, but it didn’t fit into the new owner’s vision.  Bob devised a plan to pick up the Oasis with cranes, place it on floating pontoons, and move it to a new location.  It all sounded improbable, but steel braces were installed and cranes were scheduled.  On the appointed day, the crowd grew.  Bar Zero was opened in the building next to the Oasis.  It was dubbed Bar Zero, because when it opened there was zero alcohol available, but that was soon remedied – after all, Bob had to pay for the cranes.

Bar Zero does a booming business

But in typical Caribbean fashion the second crane was a day late arriving, but that gave Bob a second day to sell beer and wine to the assembled masses (and they said he wasn’t a shrewed business man).

Finally the moment came and the cranes lifted the Oasis, swung it mostly over the pontoons and set it down.  Then the cranes had to repostion, reattach to the bracing, and finish putting the Oasis on the raft. The hardest part of the process was getting the building positioned properly, but Bob and the crane crews persevered.

Two cranes are finally in position and ready to hoist

The oasis is placed on the floating dock in two separate lifts.

But were will Bob go with the Oasis?  No one seems to know. Last we saw it was attached to the mangroves just north of the marina.

DINGHY CONCERT

Shortly after we arrived in Grenada Le Phare Bleu hosted another dinghy concert.  The concerts have moved from the middle of Clarks Court Bay to just off Le Phare Bleu Marina.  The concerts are free, but the new (to us) venue encourages people to spend a little time and money at Le Phare Blue and shortens their shuttle service considerably.  The only real downside is that Le Phare Bleu Bay is pretty rolly and makes it hard to dance in your dinghy.

Ann and Hokun having fun at the dinghy concert

MUSEUM CONCERT and DRUMS

The museum in St. George’s continues to sponser jazz and poetry every first Friday of the month.  We went to the event in July and it was great, as is usually the case.  We also met a guy who plays local drums and he put us on the track that eventually led us to Monty, a drum instructor.  Soon Jackie organized drum lessons at Secret Harbour Marina that were so well received that she had to arrange for two sessions – one for new drummers and one for more experienced drummers.

Jazz and poetry night at the museum

One Friday night Monty had a gig at a hotel on the beach and we attended along with our friends Hal and Inga.  It was a low key event with Monty talking with guests and drumming.  He had a friend who was supposed to play with him, but didn’t show up, so he invited Jackie to join him.  They put on a nice show.

Jackie drums with Monty on the beach

INSTALLING A MOORING

While we are not excited about moorings filling anchorages, they do make sense when you put them in spots between existing moorings that are too close together to allow anchoring.

Our friend George has some of the moorings in Mt. Hartman Bay.  He and his son squeezed in a couple more while we were there.  The mooring anchor is a large concrete block with loops of steel sticking out.  He makes them at his home and has a crane truck pick them up and bring them to the bay.  The block has four 55 gallon drums and many fenders attached so that it will float when launched by the crane.

The crane lowers the mooring into the water

Once launched, George and his son Aaron tow the mooring to the selected spot.

Towing the mooring to position

Once in place, George puts on his scuba gear, gets in the water, and carefully starts cutting away the floats one at a time.  The first to go are the 55 gallon drums.  The mooring sinks deeper as George cuts away each drum.  The drums pop to the surface in dramatic fashion.  As George releases the floats, Aaron collects them and loads them into the spare dinghy. Finally George cuts away the fenders and then brings the new mooring line to the surface.

Aaron collects the loose floats

It’s a low tech process, but it works quite well.

A COUPLE RANDOM PIX

An absurd form of transportation gets worse

Mt. Hartman Bay sunset

NEXT: GOING TRANSATLANTIC

posted from Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada

BIRDING ST. LUCIA

At the end of our last post we had put Dave on a bus to the airport at Vieux Fort.  It was great to have him along for the passages south from Antigua, but it was really nice to finally have the boat to ourselves.

St. Lucia hasn’t changed much.  One of the things you can always count on is the vegetable guy.  He has expanded his business by growing herbs on the top of his boat.

A visit from the fruit and vegetable boat

We relaxed a bit and looked around for some bird watching and hiking opportunities.  There is always the hike up to Fort Shirley at the north end of the anchorage.  You get a great view of Rodney Bay and there are always interesting birds.

Will he grow up to be a big shot? A man of high caliber?

View of Rodney Bay from Fort Shirley

Bare eyed robinWe also found that there are some nature preserves around the island.  The first we discovered was the Union Nature Trail just a couple short bus rides from Rodney Bay.  The trail is relatively short, but much of it is along the side of a ridge so you are close to the tops of the trees growing on the slope below and that’s where the birds hang out.

Adelaides Warbler

Lizard

St. Lucia Peewee

The next park we visited was the Millet Nature Trail.  We wanted to get there early, so we shared a taxi with Bruce on Wild Matilda for the forty five minute ride into the interior of the island.  There we met our guide who led us through the park and helped us find and identify various birds.  The goal was to see parrots and we did see a few, but they flew fairly high and far away. The one time they flew fairly close Bruce got a good picture of them, but Jackie and I were still working our way up the trail.

Freshwater crabs were all along the trail

Mangrove Cuckoo

Saint Lucia parrots (picture by Bruce)

The next big outing was to Maria Isle just outside of Vieux Fort.  Again we shared a taxi with Bruce and also Rowena and Richard on Galene for the ride to the other end of the island.  We met our guide at a small fishing harbor where he had arranged for a local pirogue to take us to the island.  At first look it appeared that we would have to traverse some serious surf, but our captain took us along shore behind the reef and then stayed in the lee of the island for the last stretch.  We hiked to a few vantage points and spent lots of time watching the birds soar off the cliffs in the high winds that constantly buffeted the island.

Our transportation to Maria Isle

Birders in action

One evening we decided to sit up on the bow and relax.  I spotted something on the bow pulpit.  It was a brown boobie looking for a place to spend the night.  It got tired of the camera flash and eventually left.

Why go on bird watching hikes when they land on your boat?

We later met some people who had the same thing happen and thought it was pretty cool until the next morning when they discovered the messy bird droppings.

MARIGOT BAY

We saw some favorable weather coming and decided to head south.  The next island is St. Vincent.  We have heard enough about people being hassled by boat boys, problems with customs, and boat break-ins that we have always skipped St. Vincent.  This makes for a long trip, so we moved about eight miles south to Marigot Bay.  That brings the trip down to about sixty miles.

Marigot is essentially two small bays with a relatively narrow passage between them.  The holding and private moorings in the outer bay are pretty sketchy so we picked up marina mooring in the inner harbor.  That gives us access to the marina facilities (the showers).  A small boat came by advertising a restaurant that features live jazz in the evenings.  We caught a water taxi there after dinner and listened to a really great jazz pianist.

BEQUIA

We were off at first light the next morning.  We plan our passages at five knots so we were looking at a possible twelve hour trip and we wanted to be anchored before dark.  The winds were favorable and currents not bad.  We even sailed most of the way down the lee side of St. Vincent and kept moving well enough that we were anchored in Bequia well before dark.

We dodge some squalls on the way to Bequia

We like Bequia because the town is small and quaint with a couple nice beaches and lots of restaurants.  There is a beach where you can find lots of sea glass and some nice snorkeling near where we anchor.

Yellow Tube Sponges

Trumpet fish

Smooth Trunkfish

Sharp tail Eel

Banded Butterfly fish

Bearded Fireworms and remains of a sea urchin

Bequia is known for model boat builders and we stopped at one of the shops to take a look.  They build some very nice, but very expensive models.

Boats in various stages of completion at the model building shop

Just a few of the many beautiful model boats

Bequia also has an interesting variety full size boats built locally.

Locally built racing sailboats

Many island beaches are a study in interesting watercraft

Local workboats

The second day in Bequia we stopped at a restaurant/beach bar at the far end of the beach where we were anchored.  They had a bunch of temporary tables and seats set up on the beach.  We soon found out that a French sailing rally of thirty five boats was due in the next day.  Sure enough, early in the afternoon boats began pouring into the bay.  Now we know how the English commanders on these islands felt when the French fleet appeared on the horizon.

With that many boats coming in we knew that everyone would anchor close and they certainly did.  I have to admit, though, that they generally did a good job of fitting their boats into some pretty small spaces.  They had their party at the restaurant and were back on their boats relatively early.  Then at dawn the next morning they pulled there anchors up and headed out.

MAYREAU

We left Bequia for the Grenadine Islands – the group of islands between St. Vincent and Carriacou.  The trip is short, so we got a leisurely start rather than our usual crack of dawn departures.  We had talked about going to Tobago Cays and spending a couple days, but once we got out there we started discussing other options including checking out at Union Island and going to Carriacou.  We discarded this idea because of our relatively late start and light winds that kept our speed down.  We finally decided to go to Saline Bay, Mayreau.

We have been taking pictures of birds while sailing as long as it isn’t too rough.  We spotted these birds along the way and got some shots.  Jackie posted the pictures on Birding Aboard.  Here is her post:

“Sailing from Bequia south we kept seeing these white tailed birds, often skimming the water, barely visible as the seemingly flew between the waves. We finally snapped an identifiable picture just north of Mayreau.  Unfortunately it was difficult to get a really good picture, the birds are flying fast, and we are sailing fast. ”

Dark morph of the white-tailed red-footed booby

Here is the response she got:  “Nice! These are white-tailed dark morph Red-footed Booby. This species is among the most polymorphic seabirds with respect to plumage color.

Three main adult plumage types are recognized (brown or dark, white-tailed brown and white morph) with many intergrades such as white-headed and white-tailed brown, black-tailed white morph and golden white morph to add to the confusion. The latter two species are restricted in range as they may only breed on the Galapagos and Christmas Island.

Great documentation”

I think it’s’ pretty cool that Jackie found some birds not known to frequent this part of the world!

We anchored in Saline Bay, Mayreau.  We had been rocked badly by a ferry last time we were in here, so we anchored well away from the path to the dock.  We had plenty of time so we did some exploring and found some fairly good snorkeling at the south end of the bay.

Blue Tang juvenile (yellow fish on left) Bluehead juvenile (yellow stripe on right)

The next morning we sailed the few miles to Clifton, Union Island and checked out of St. Vincent.  This is always an interesting process because we don’t trust the local moorings and we always seem to have trouble finding a good spot to anchor.  This time was no exception, so I stayed on the boat in case we dragged and Jackie took the dinghy in to check out.  She found customs in town, but then she had to go to the airport to clear out with immigration.

CARRIACOU

The next stop was Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, an easy sail from Union Island.  We used to have to anchor at Hillsborough to clear in and then sail around to Tyrrel Bay, but there is now a Customs and Immigration office in Tyrrel Bay.

Approaching Carriacou

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

We met up with our friends Bob and Debbie on Chimayo, who we hadn’t seen since they were in Antigua in 2013.  Debbie told Jackie about  drum lessons given on the beach each day by a local guy named Bongo (aka Zulu).  She tried it out and liked it and showed quite an aptitude for traditional drumming, so yes, we now have a drum on board.

Drum lessons on the beach

Jackie checks out a drum

One of our favorite things to do in Carriacou is to take a bus most of the way up the west side of the island and then walk around the north side to Windward on the northeast side.  We started walking the dirt road and a fellow in an old Land Rover stopped to say hello.  He was Dario, from KIDO, a wildlife conservation and wildlife education group.  He took us to their facility – a modest but beautiful home converted for group education.  They are involved heavily in protecting and rescuing sea turtles.

We also visited the bird sanctuary at Petit Carenage and Windward, where they make boats on the beach.  We didn’t see much in the way of interesting birds, but we did get a good view of some wrecks off the north coast and some interesting things on the trail.

Humming bird

Carriacou crab

Wreck being battered on beach

NC HURRICANES

This item chronologically belongs in the next post, but it’s best to cover it now.  We left Antigua and headed south for Grenada without a real schedule.  The only driving concern is that our insurance doesn’t cover us for named storms during hurricane season unless we are below 13 degrees latitude – the southern end of the harbor in Bequia.  We like to stop and enjoy the islands as we go, which causes us to run behind schedule.  This isn’t a big worry because we can do an overnight sail and get out of the hurricane box.  That doesn’t guarantee that we will avoid a storm, it just means we are insured.

Sailing from St. Lucia to Carriacou

So we are where we need to be, but we do have a little history with hurricanes since we started this trip.  When we headed south in 2009 we spent a few days in Southport, NC waiting for the rainy edge of Hurricane Ida to clear out.  In 2011 we had Compass Rose in Oriental, NC and Hurricane Irene came right over us.  Last year we built a house near Wilmington, NC and guess what?  Hurricane Arthur just made a close pass.  Do you see something in common here?  NC.

Hurricane Arthur visits North Carolina. Our house is by the red arrow

Next: Back home in Grenada

posted from Rodney Bay, St. Lucia

SOUTH TO DOMINICA

We finally got Compass Rose back together and sailed for Portsmouth, Dominica, some twenty miles to the south.  We had a good wind angle and relatively mild seas.  The trip went well and we arrived in Dominica without incident – quite a relief after our sail to Les Saintes.  One of the River Guides met us as we approached the bay and led us to a nice sandy spot to drop the anchor.

We have always liked Dominica, but we have not spent much time there since our first visit in 2010.  We arranged for a tour of the northern part of the island.  Our driver, Winston, was pretty knowledgeable about the island’s history.  We stopped just outside of Portsmouth to visit an agricultural exhibition where we saw a lot of interesting plants, fruits and vegetables.

Winston (left) took us to an agricultural exhibition

Some other notable sites he took us to were the Emerald Pool, and the Kalinago reservation.

Jackie at the emerald pool

The Kalinago, better known as the Caribs, have a reservation on Dominica’s east coast.  Part of it is set up as historical site where you can see aspects of traditional Kalinago life.

Kalinago traditional building made with modern materials

Traditional Kalinago boat

One sculpture for each of the elected chiefs

We also saw some beautiful views of Dominica.

Dominica’s coastline

Dominica’s mountains

Dominica’s mountains

And not to be forgotten, there was the restaurant where we had lunch while listening to Frank Sinatra’s greatest hits.

The next day we dinghied to Cabrits Park and walked around Fort Shirley.  The lower part of the fort is nicely restored and there are many ruins of old buildings and gun emplacements in the hills.

We also saw some crabs and a snake as we walked through the woods.

Land crab was somebody’s lunch

One of many hermit crabs in the park

We looked ahead to the weather and decided to do the eighteen mile run to Roseau, the biggest city in Dominica and the jumping off point for the crossing to Martinique.  It was an easy trip.  We sailed, motored, and motorsailed as the wind dictated. We tried to raise Sea Cat on the radio so we could take one of his moorings, but he never answered.  We picked up a mooring and figured that the owner would eventually stop by to collect the fee.  No one ever did, but the area is pretty rolly so we rocked back and forth most of the night.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

The next morning we motored out of Roseau.  The wind started to fill in wrapping around the island and coming north.  We worked out way out to get a sailing angle and found plenty of breeze.  We found ourselves riding a south flowing current and picking up at least an extra knot over the bottom.  The current ran headlong into the waves that were building on the shallows at the south end of the island, so the seas got lumpy and confused.

Compass Rose crashed along under reefed main at more than eight knots over ground.  The seas settled a little as we got away from land and the wind settled in to a good angle.  Just when it looked like we would have a fast, albeit wet trip, we heard a familiar noise and watched the bowsprit pop up and the jib slacken.

We had been through this drill before.  We dropped sails, stabilized the rig with spare halyards, and started motoring back against the strong current and through the confused waves.  I looked over the bow and saw that the bracket that holds the lower end of the bobstay had failed.

All spring Jackie and I had talked about spending more time in Dominica this year, but this wasn’t what we had in mind.

Pancho, a boatboy greeted us as we arrived back in Roseau and took us to one of his moorings near the Anchorage Hotel.  We told him about the problem and he recommended a welder and could arrange for transportation to the welding shop.

Dave and I got to work getting the bracket off.  I replaced the bolts that hold the bracket on while we were in the boatyard so I knew the process.  First we had to get all the chain out of the anchor locker so we could get to the bolts.  Dave laid down in the vee berth and got a wrench on the nuts while I sat in the dinghy holding onto the boat in the swell with one hand while unscrewing the bolt with the other.  The lower bolt hole is just a couple inches above the waterline, so I had to quickly put some caulk in the hole and shove the bolt back in to keep the water out.

Spreading 190 feet of chain on deck

Broken bobstay bracket

ISLAND TOUR II

We contact Pancho and talk to him about getting a ride to the welding shop.  The price is outrageous.  The he suggests we take a half day tour of the southern part of the island that includes dropping the part off at the welding shop and picking it up at the end of the tour.  The price is reasonable for a half day tour and he throws in the mooring rental for free.  We go for it.

Pancho picks us up early the next morning and takes us to shore where we meet Kelvin (sp?) our driver.  He takes us through town to the weld shop where I discuss the job with the welder.  He doesn’t have stock thick enough to replicate the part, but he will weld it back together and add reinforcements.  We agree to a price – not cheap, but we need the part and it has to be strong.

We hop in the van and head off into the hills of southern Dominica.  Our first stop is Titou Gorge.  There were two waterfalls separated by a very narrow gorge.  A small dam was constructed at the top of the second falls and the water diverted through a wooden pipeline – think of a very long barrel – to a hydropower plant.

Wooden pipeline diverts water to power plant

The pool created backs up through the gorge to the base of the upper waterfall.  We swam in the water impoundment – it’s always a novelty for us to swim in fresh water.  But the coolest part was to swim into the gorge.  It is very narrow and has high walls so it feels like a cave.

Looking into Titou Gorge

We ended the swim by sitting under a small waterfall that comes from a hot spring.

Taking a warm spring shower

Our next stop was Trafalgar Falls.  This is actually two waterfalls next to each other, and despite their proximity, they have separate water sources.  The hike down to the falls was easy and quite nice and the view of the falls was stunning.

From there we went back to the welding shop to pick up the part.  The welder had found a discarded piece of metal that was the right size, cut off the broken piece and welded in the new piece.  It was a much better fix and I was much happier with the solution despite the higher price tag.

We head back to the boat stopping at the fish market for some fresh tuna and mahi mahi, and then dropping Jackie off at the vegetable market so she could shop and then take a bus back to the boat.

Dave and I put the boat back together.  It’s a lot of fun hanging onto a bouncing dinghy while trying to tighten bolts and caulk the fitting.  The wrench and caulking gun spend more time underwater than above, but we managed.   The caulking looked perfect when we left the boat yard – now it looks like someone closed their eyes and put it on with a spatula.  Little Rosie is once more whole and ready.

MARTINIQUE BOUND

Once again we set out for St. Pierre, Martinique, some thirty five miles away.  The wind and waves are a bit milder, although it’s still windy and bumpy.  After two rigging failures so recently, I don’t think any of us really breathe easily until we drop anchor.

St. Pierre is a little town along the edge of the sea.  In the early 1900s it was considered the “Paris of the Caribbean”.  Then a volcano wiped out the town killing all but two people.  Some buildings use walls that survived the volcano, so there is a mix of building style in some spots.

We arrived too late to check in, but figured we could do rest and do it the next day.  The next day is my birthday.  It’s also Emancipation Day and there is a small carnival on the waterfront.  We dinghied in only to find that no one is allowed to tie up to the town dock or land a dinghy on the beach within 300 meters of the dock.  Eventually some other cruisers land their dinghies on the beach near us and the land owners look OK with it, so we do the same.  We visit the carnival, but it is small and few people are there in the heat of mid-afternoon.

We went back to the boat and spot some fishermen landing their boat by the beach.  They set up a portable fish cleaning table and proceed to unload a yellow fin tuna that is almost as big as the boat.  The boat in the picture is just the tender they use to get to their mooring, but the fishing boat wasn’t all that much bigger than the fish.

This was one big tuna!

That evening the activity in town began to heat up.  We were already tucked in on the boat, so we stayed put, but we had a ringside seat for the great fireworks display on the waterfront.
CHEEKI RAFIKI

I’ve been trying to figure out how to deal with this topic, but I finally decided to cover it about the time we became aware of it. We heard that a boat was lost in the Atlantic.  Cheeki Rafiki, a Beneteau 40.7 that competed in Antigua Sailing Week this year and won their class, was lost with all hands.  She was returning to the UK and the crew called in that she was taking on water.  Evidently she lost her keel and capsized.  The US Navy reports that there is no sign of life on board and that the life raft was not deployed.  It is now pretty certain that the four crew, Paul Gosling, James Male, Steve Warren, and Andrew Bridge, could not have survived this long in the sea.

Cheeki Rafiki winning her class at Antigua Sailing Week (photo by Tim Wright)

While we did not know the crew, we competed in the same regatta with them.  In light of the issues we have had recently this strikes close to home.  Things don’t always go as planned.

GRAND ANSE d’ ARLET

The next day we ran down the coast to Grand Anse d’Arlet, another little vacation town.  We would be in the lee of the island and the wind and waves should be relatively mellow.  We expected a little jump in the wind as we passed the mouth of the bay at Fort De France.  We left St. Pierre, hoisted sail, and started motorsailing and then sailing down the coast.  The wind blew up into the high teens and twenties and stayed there all the way to Grand Anse d’Arlet.  It was not the semi-lazy trip we expected.

We motored into the bay and found that the planned moorings were now a fact.  We had always anchored towards the south side of the bay near the town dock, but the only moorings available were on the north side of the bay.  It turned out this was the rolly part.

We went into town and walked around and eventually had dinner in a nice little resort/restaurant on the beach.

The next morning Jackie took the dinghy and scouted the southern moorings, but none were available.  We did see a number of boats anchored inside the edge and just outside the mooring field.  We dropped our mooring and anchored just outside the mooring field near the middle of the bay.  It was much calmer there.

We went snorkeling that afternoon on the south side of the bay.  It was a pleasant surprise.  There was a lot of live coral and quite a variety of fish.  I was sorry I didn’t take the camera.

SAINT LUCIA

The weather looked good the next day and we made the twenty seven mile passage to St Lucia.  Martinique is the eastern-most of the islands we frequent, so you would think we would get a break on wind direction when sailing south to St. Lucia.  This is not the case in that we are going from the wide part of Martinique to the narrow part of St. Lucia and have to make easting the whole way.  The trip was a little less windy and rough than a lot have been this year, but the wind direction and westward setting current prevented us from sailing the rhumbline during the first part of the trip.  Luckily we got a little lift from the wind and the current moderated some as we neared St. Lucia.  We made landfall just south of the anchorage and tacked into the Rodney Bay.

Modern navigation

Dave and I take turns steering

We tried to anchor south of the channel off Reduit Beach, but found poor holding and our chain went under a couple large rocks.  We moved north of the channel off Gros Islet and sunk the anchor in nicely.   We got ourselves checked in and they told us we didn’t have to do anything special to get Dave off our crew list.

It has been great having Dave on board.  He is an easy guest and a great help when sailing – especially when things go wrong.

Which brings us to the end of this phase of our cruise.  Dave was able to arrange a flight out of the main airport near Vieux Fort at the other end of the island.  The Vieux Fort anchorage has a poor reputation for security and is an upwind slog once you round the bottom of the island, so we check options for getting Dave to the airport from Rodney Bay.  Taxi fare is about $80 US.  The bus to Castries is $2.50 EC (less than a dollar US) and the bus from there to the airport is about another $5.00 EC.  This is a no-brainer.

We get up early and catch the bus with Dave.  This is his first real experience on a Caribbean bus.  We have taken the bus to Castries and from there to Soufriere, so we know that there is no central bus terminal – each bus route has its own little terminal (sometimes just a side street).  We ask directions and start our trek which eventually takes us to the other side of town.

We find the buses to Vieux Fort, verify that it will stop at the airport, and put Dave aboard.  He will be on his own for the rest of the trip.  Now we know how parents feel the first time they put their kids on the school bus.  We restrain ourselves from pinning a note on his shirt telling where he needs to go.  The bus pulls out, we wave, Dave is gone.

We put Dave on the bus to Vieux Fort

For the first time in about five weeks Jackie and I are alone on the boat.

Next: More St. Lucia