June - July, 2006 – Once checked in at Hillsborough on Carriacou we were good for the big island of Grenada as well. Carriacou is 13 square miles of drier land than the islands to the north. It's not as high so it doesn't get as much rain, although we had a number of showers while we were there for almost a week. The people were very friendly, especially a fellow named John or Robert, if he was feeling paranoid we were told, who came around in his rowboat selling mangrove oysters. So Roland told him we would take a dozen the next day. Not what we know as oysters, the shells are flat and very thin, the oysters are smaller than a small mussel, salty, but very tasty, especially with fresh lime squeezed on them. John sits beside the boat, asking for a plate and a knife, and opens the oysters and arranges them on the plate very nicely. And these oysters are fresh as they come from the mangrove lagoon right there on the side of the bay. The only problem is that John wants to bring you oysters every day, and it can become difficult to say no. It would be easier to say yes if the price was lower, and sometimes you can bargain with him, but life is pretty tough on these little islands. Oh, yes, he also offers to take your trash to shore, but we were told that he might throw it in the mangroves instead of taking it to the proper place which is a very short walk from the public pier. Before we heard that, we gave him our small bag of trash and instead of taking money to do it, John asked for a beer! Well, that started the process of him asking for something to drink, preferably with alcohol, every time he stopped by. One day we told him we had only cold water, but he took that saying, "Water is better then nothing!" Another boat told me they gave him a shot of rum once. That would certainly be cheaper than a beer which cost us over $3 US a can in Rodney Bay. But what a great experience!
The “city” of Hillsborough has many small shops selling clothing and groceries. There is even George’s $10 Store, something like “Everything’s a Dollar”. There are many small variety stores and few Wal-Mart type stores anywhere. Another great little shop is Patti’s Deli. There we found Kraft’s Horseradish Sauce! Patti told us that she was planning on adding a bakery so when we go back, we’ll be able to get FRESH goodies!
Our five boats hired Phillip, the president of the taxi and bus owners association on the island to take us on a three hour tour of the island. It happened that it was a holiday, of which there are many in the islands, this one being Corpus Christi Day, so schools and shops were closed. Phillip has been trained by the tourism office to give an educational speech as he gives the tour. We stopped at the top of the hill in Belair where the hospital is located. Its name is derived from the good air that blows across the top of the island hill which was believed to help the patients recover. It’s a lovely spot with a breathtaking view of the harbor below. We visited the town of Windward, on the windward side of the island, where the locals build the wooden boats on the shore, later having a blessing and a big party when the boat is launched - like a barn raising! Scattered all over the island along the roadway are "rum shops", little buildings roughly 20x20 feet, where you can buy drinks, rum, beer, water or Cokes (occasionally even Pepsi). Some people are very entrepreneurial at eking out a living. The roads are barely wide enough for two cars and the local goat population that meanders along and across the roads as well. After our tour, we went to the Turtle Dove Restaurant for pizza which was baked, apparently, on the stone oven bottom judging by the blackened bottom of the crust - but it was VERY good anyway. That was a late evening for us, getting back home about 9 PM, and four of us were leaving at 7 AM for Grenada. The fifth boat was planning on spending some time in the Tobago Cays before going on. We'll probably see them again this winter, but next spring they are heading back to Maine.
So that takes us to Prickly Bay on the southern coast of Grenada, another uneventful motor-sailing day. Three of us came down the west side, and one came down the east side of the island. The only advantage was that the one boat had following wind as they turned westward to get to the bay. The rest of us had strong headwind as we went eastward to the Bay. It took us about 30 minutes longer because of that! So here we stayed for five days...
We took the dinghy to shore at the Spice Island Marina where there is a restaurant and a Budget Marine store (local version of West Marine). A short walk to the round-about enabled us to catch a maxi-taxi to the city of St. Georges or anywhere in between. Let's see, we got there on a Friday, and on Saturday the four boats rented two cars to take a drive around the island. It's bigger than Carriacou, and while we saw a good portion of the island, visiting the Grenada Chocolate Company and the Rum Distillery. We missed some other things that we'll have to see on the way north. That was the 17th of June, which was our 5th anniversary, so at the end of the day, our friends dropped us off at a hotel where we spent the night in air-conditioned comfort, and had a bathroom with a large shower that had hot water, well, almost hot water. There was a switch on the wall that had to be flipped to heat the water ahead of time. We guess most people would be horrified to learn that showers in the Caribbean have only one faucet knob with one temperature of water, but believe us, it's always warm, if not hot, here, and a cold shower is much better than a hot one! Who needs hot water!
One day was spent, just Kathleen and two other ladies, wandering around St. Georges, shopping and having lunch. A nice break for the gals! Kathleen found a couple of pieces of fabric for tops or shifts or shorts. She hasn't decided yet what she wants to make with which piece. The afternoon of the day we left Grenada, Heather, Linda and Kathleen went into the city to check out a hotel for going back to Grenada for Carnival in August. They don't want to compete with Trinidad's Carnival so they hold it in August. We’ve heard that it is small, but very nice.
The trip from Grenada to Trinidad was, how shall we say, a "trip"! We had the choice of leaving that Wednesday at 6 PM for a 22 hour passage or waiting until the following Monday. One boat needed to be there for a flight out on Tuesday. The seas never settled down as predicted during the night, but did calm down a little near daylight. Everyone had to motorsail the entire way because the current was running about 3 to 3.5 knots to the west-northwest, and, of course, we were headed south. We were all under the impression that this current was a problem only as you get closer to Trinidad, but we had it the entire 80 miles. It's weird when you see the boats in front of you pointing in a direction that is not where you are going, but that's the way it has to be. We also had a couple of strong gusty squalls which lasted long enough to get our attention and to get us wet.
As we approached the Boca de Monos (the channel between Trinidad and Isla de Monos which is quite narrow and also has a strong cross current at times), we went through an area called the Dragon's Mouth. The surface seas rippled in strange ways, nothing we had ever seen before. We were still several miles from the channel when we heard our lead boat call the Trinidad and Tobago coast guard to report that they had accidentally hit and overturned a local fishing boat that was anchored in 165 feet of water four miles out of the channel. They rescued the fisherman, who lost his catch, and were able to tie his boat to their stern, capsized as it was. The rest of us caught up with them, but there wasn't much else anyone could do at that point. Scott was already in the water trying to One fellow jumped in and tried to help right the boat since he had done it before with small catamarans. But the boat was so full of water that it kept rolling over. There was nothing to do but to tow the fishing boat upside down (like a drogue) to the nearest shallow bay.
Later we found out that the sailboat was on autohelm, Scott had done a visual, and gone below for seven minutes. Heather was reading in the cockpit and heard some yelling but thought it was on the radio in the cabin. Scott didn't hear the noise. And the seas were so confused that they might not have seen the guy even if they had been keeping a lookout. No one expects to see a small fishing boat anchored in 165 feet of water four miles from shore! As it turned out the man didn't have a fishing license and the rented boat had an expired registration. After many hours spent making reports with various agencies, everyone was worn out, but thankful and relieved that no one was hurt. Just goes to show how watchful everyone must be.
After visiting Immigration and Customs, we anchored in Chaguaramas Bay for two nights. This is a commercial port and very busy with ship traffic, etc. There are moorings on a first come basis provided by the YSATT (local organization formed by the major marinas in the area) for a small fee, but that means that the anchorage area has shrunk to a size that doesn't allow for too many boats to anchor in the designated area. And the depths where you can anchor are 30-50 feet instead of the 20-25 in what used to be the designated anchorage where the moorings are. That's getting to be the rule rather than the exception everywhere.
This bay is also where all the marinas are located for haul out work, etc. So we explored a little by dinghy and foot, found the ATM, the mini-mart, a place where you can pay to use the internet, and various restaurants. Then we were ready to get away from the traffic. Oh, yes, this is also the area where you must lift your dinghy out of the water at night if you want it to be there in the morning. Sometimes they just steal the outboards, but "lock it and lift it, or lose it" is the rule. A short motor trip of about four miles took us around a sort of peninsula to Hart's Cut Bay and an anchorage next to the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association moorings. For $65 US a month we can use the facilities (showers, swimming pool, laundry, book exchange and free wi-fi), even the boats that will take you back and forth to shore so you don't have to use your own dinghy. It's safer here so we don't feel the need to lift the dinghy every night, but we do keep a locked cable between the boat and the dinghy and outboard. We put out a stern anchor as well so we only "hobbyhorse" when the wind blows hard enough to make the bay a little rough. We've had enough of rolling sideways to last a LONG time.
Even though it was a four mile trip by boat, we are actually only a half mile walk from the area with the marinas. However, in this heat we often take the maxi-taxi which costs 33 cents US. Have to support the local economy! For 80 cents US we take the maxi to a shopping mall with a large supermarket that is probably five or six miles east of here. There is also a "Super Pharm" where we can get Roland's prescription medicine at reasonably low prices. There are a couple more large malls further away, one has movie theaters, and the capitol, Port of Spain, has lots of fabric stores. The shops are organized so that all the shoe stores are on one street, all the fabric stores are on another street, all the clothing shops are on another street, etc. Sounds like a unique concept.
So far we haven't done much on the boat as far as projects. We took the wind generator to an electrical repair shop to find out why it hasn't been helping the solar panels charge the batteries. The diagnosis was that the regulator had gone bad. They don't make the replacement part anymore, but a rebuild kit is available for 2/3 the price of a new generator. Roland's son shipped the new one to us that he was keeping for us. Customs regulations are that the box must be shipped to their office, and as long as it is addressed as "boat parts for yacht-in-transit" we didn’t have to pay any duty on it. The new wind generator is now in place, and helping a little, just not much wind.
Which takes us to the climate...guess we should have done a lot more research on the climate here other than reading that "everyone" goes to Trinidad for hurricane season. The first week and a half we were here...rain, rain, rain....tropical wave stuff. The forecast for the 4th of July was for T-storms and more rain, but we actually had a beautiful day and it didn't rain for almost a week. Actually the African dust, or powdered camel dung as one person calls it, is suppressing the formation of tropical waves right now which means not as much rain. July apparently is the rainiest month with 11 inches; then the amount drops an inch or two each succeeding month. The temps range from 80-84 day and night, and when the sun shines, you can almost feel it burning your skin if you're not careful. Even though the trades may blow 15-20 during the day the nights have been calm with little air circulation. People who stay on their boats at the marinas usually rent (expensive) AC units that are placed over a hatch. The humidity even when it isn't raining is about 94%. We don't know if we'll ever get used to the humidity! Most people get the boat into a marina and go back to the states for at least a month or two!
We've already decided that the news coming out of Venezuela is enough to keep us from going there. We have met some people who go there regularly and plan to continue to do so. We've met others who feel as we do that it is not worth the risk of life and limb, not to mention one's home and worldly belongings. Sorry, we’re not that adventurous. We agree that we don't really want to spend next hurricane season here. We know the four months will pass quickly enough, and we'll be happy to head north to spend more time along the island chains.
Barnacles grow RAPIDLY in this warm water. We had the bottom of the boat cleaned, and were told that the things were up to two inches thick around the stern! Then we decided that we needed to clean the bottom of the dinghy, too. The little buggers were worse than the ones in the Sassafras River last summer. Most folks have the bottom cleaned once a month to keep ahead of growth.
