110 miles to go - and the Axelrod fails the bounce test

The perils of handling yogurt in a rolling boat!

 

Good morning from 21 degrees 21 minutes north, 66 degrees 26 minutes west. (about 30 miles NNE of the Venezuelan island of Puerto El Roque).

 

Well, this is proper Tradewind sailing alright – the wind's behind us so the yankee foresail is poled out to starboard and the mainsail is out to port, with a preventer line to stop the boom swinging as we roll. Winnie the Windpilot has done an admirable job for the past two days so we haven't had to touch the steering wheel at all. There's a reasonably large swell (about 2 metres) and every now and then Maunie does an unpredictable lurch, one of which caused the pot of Axelrod yogurt to go flying as we were making breakfast this morning. Actually, that has probably been the most dramatic event of the past day or so and Dianne complains that her last night watch (04.00 to 08.00) was boring as she had nothing to do and no ships to avoid.

 

It's quite a contrast to our Atlantic crossing where we had to contend with rain squalls, gales and then flat calms but, with just two of us aboard now rather than the ARC crew of four, we're not complaining. We've now settled into our watch pattern so yesterday Dianne stood the 08.00 to 14.00 watch, Graham did the 14.00 to 20.00 then Di had 2 night watches (20.00 to midnight and 04.00 to 08.00); the pattern automatically reverses so the next night Graham gets the two night stints. The watches tend to leave you feeling a bit jaded (4 hours sleep, if you can manage to nod off, is enough time to get into a really deep slumber so it's not great being awoken from it) but we can just about keep awake during the night watches (Graham resorts to podcasts on the iPod if it's a struggle to stay alert).

 

The favourable current which was pushing us along at nearly 2 knots yesterday seems to have left us now but we're still making around 6.5 knots towards Bonaire, via a waypoint which keeps us clear of Venezuelan waters. Overall, helped by the tide, we are several hours ahead of schedule so at the moment it looks as though we'll arrive in the very early hours of Monday morning. Our plan was to come into the port of Kralendijk in daylight so we may have to stooge around a bit. The normal course of events would be to anchor in the shelter of the island, well away from other boats and obstructions, to await daylight but the whole coast of the island is a designated Marine Part so anchoring is strictly forbidden to avoid damaging the coral and other aquatic life; we'll play it by ear when we get there.

 

Missed the rugby yesterday so please let us know the result of the England – Wales match! BBC World Service didn't mention it when we last checked! Happy St Patrick's Day to our Irish readers. If the wind was less we'd be flying our 'Irish Flag' – Maunie was originally an Irish boat (Maunie of Baltimore) so her cruising spinnaker is in the green, white and orange of the national colours!

Skirting the Venezuelan coast and thinking about food without traces of horse

We are now 18 hours into our three-day crossing from Grenada to Bonaire and we've set a course to keep us at least 30 miles north of the outlying Venezuelan islands en route. They had a bit of a reputation for piracy in recent years and, with the recent death of Chavez, we're not sure what the current political climate is like so we are taking no chances.

 

So far the voyage has been pretty good, once we got away from the wind-shadow cast by the hills of Grenada; we had fluky winds and confused, rolly waves for about the first 20 miles. As ever, it takes a while to acclimatise to life aboard a rolling boat, with all the sounds of the waves and the water rushing past the hull, so we didn't sleep that well in our four-hour off-watches. 'Stormvogel' has been within a mile of us all night so it's been reassuring to see their masthead navigation light twinkling in an otherwise fairly empty bit of ocean (just one huge oil tanker, 1400ft long, passed us); it's odd to think that we first sailed together across the English Channel back in September and what started as the 'Biscay Alliance' has turned into a very firm friendship.  Anyway, as the night progressed, the boat steadied down and we are making good speed, with our Windpilot windvane taking care of the steering duties.

 

With Maunie pretty much sailing herself the duties of the crew are limited to keeping a good lookout and preparing meals, so we have plenty of time to think and talk. Those who have sailed with us before will not be surprised to hear that food is a top topic. We spent the last couple of days in Grenada buying food provisions for the voyage and were delighted to find some excellent fresh fruit, veg and meat. Grenada has lots going for it in the food area – rich volcanic soil, a really wet rainy season from June to December and no shortage of sunshine – so much of the produce is grown organically and is sold in the local markets. We also discovered a brilliant butcher who buys local beef, lamb, chicken and pork and produces cuts of meet far superior to the imported stuff found in the bigger supermarkets. The only problem is that the island is mountainous and much of it covered by thick, protected rainforest so there is a limit to how much food can be produced locally; as a result there's a lot of imported food, mostly from the States but some from Europe too.

 

With all the recent media coverage of the 'May contain traces of horse' debacle, we can only hope that more people will take a greater interest in where their food comes from and what's actually in it. The horsemeat story reached the Caribbean pretty much instantly in these days of global e-news. Two days after the story broke we were in the tiny Union Island, which belongs to Saint Vincent, where a small cafe offered Beef Lasagne as the daily special. Marie, the owner, is from Paris but has lived on Union for 14 years; she was quick to point out that the Lasagne was "definitely beef, not 'orse. How do I know zis? Well, zer are no 'orses on the island!" It was delicious.

 

Whether we like it or not, food is a global business dominated by multi-billion dollar companies with corporate shareholders demanding high yields on their investments so it shouldn't come as a great surprise to find that, every now and then, corners are cut and blind eyes are turned. Independent, local and farm-based businesses like Yeo Valley are becoming increasingly rare in this ultra-competitive world market but they offer a level of authenticity, traceabilty and provenance that consumers can trust.

 

Food brands are big business and we've found it fascinating (and depressing) to see which ones dominate the local markets in the places which we've visited. With the exception of France, we've found foreign brands in dominant positions in supermarkets, with the locally-produced offerings relegated to smaller areas of the shelves and fridges. The brand names don't always translate well, of course, so we've been amused to find the following ones on sale in various ports: Bonka coffee, Tosh crackers, Sulky nuts, Smucker's jams and Bimbo bread. We've also just tried an American yogurt called Axelrod, which sounds like a car part but tasted ok (though not to Yeo Valley standards, of course). Every now and then, though, it's refreshing to find a proper British brand that we love and respect so we were delighted to find Dorset Cereals on sale in Grenada.

 

It'll be really interesting to see what we find when we get into the Pacific – we'll stock up again in Panama City when we go through the Panama Canal in mid-April so we're sure to find a few more novel brands. Just hope they don't contain traces of horse.

 

 

 

 

Leaving Grenada

Today, sob, is our last day in lovely Grenada. We're about to dinghy ashore to clear out with the Customs office and to meet Harry the driver from 'Meat and Meet', a wonderful butcher's and deli based in Whisper Cove, further along the coast. We went there yesterday so our delivery of local chicken, beef and eggs will arrive ready to go straight into the fridge aboard.

After going alongside the little Prickly Bay Marina for some diesel and water we'll set off for Bonaire at about 1.00pm. The voyage is 400nm so will take us just under 3 days so we should arrive in there on Monday. Very sadly, Matt & Charlotte can't set off with us today; after waiting for parts for their gearbox to be sent from Sweden, a whole new gearbox was supplied and fitted under warranty yesterday but Matt reports a 'chattering' noise which the mechanic isn't happy with. So they have more frustrating waiting but will, we hope, catch up with us in Panama.

So it's Maunie and Stormvogel together again for an ocean passage. We'll update the blog from sea.

Preparing for the next voyage

Well Grenada is lovely and we can see why lots of cruising yachts get her and just stay. However, we need to be moving west so hope to be setting sail for Bonaire at the end of the week. So as well as sorting out food supplies, we've been working through the inevitable list of boat maintenance jobs - servicing the water-maker and generator and replacing or repairing anything that looks as though it's getting towards the end of its serviceable life.

Whilst we were in the marina we took the opportunity to take most of the mainsail down onto the pontoon so that we could do a few running repairs with the sewing machine. We also unpicked the stitching on the sprayhood (a very tedious job) to replace the velcro that fixes a cover to protect the windscreen from harmful UV when we aren't sailing - the same UV had destroyed the velcro's ability to stick, so we have had to make a set of extra little covers to save the new velcro from the same fate! It's amazing how destructive the sun can be here.

It's been an expensive month; the boat insurance renewal has just come through (ouch) and we've splashed out on a new outboard engine for the dinghy. The little 3.5hp was nice and light but struggled a bit with the wight of our big dinghy and in the Pacific we'll be doing long dinghy rides from the anchorages. In Grenada you can still buy new 2-stroke engines (no longer sold in the UK or US) which are much lighter and simpler to maintain than 4-strokes so we now have a splendid 9.8hp Tohatsu which allows the boat to zip around at high speed even fully loaded. Hopefully a fellow yachtie is coming across to buy the old engine from us this evening. Once we get past Panama the spending should stop as, basically, there will be very few places to part with money!

In between all the work we're managing to relax, you'll be relieved to know, and have met some really nice people. Next to us is a Fowey-based Sadler 34 called Jon Jon (we recognised the boat from our visits to Fowey) and further along is another Vancouver, the baby-sister to Maunie at just 27ft, which sailed across the Atlantic at the end of last year. 

Peter and Heidi on Stormvogel arrived here on Sunday with their friends Gabbi and Uwe aboard (who fly home today) and so we'll sail in company with them to Bonaire and Panama; in the meantime it's been great to catch up with them and compare experiences of cruising the Grenadines. We're just waiting for news of the third boat of our little west-bound  fleet, Gallinago. They have had gearbox problems but the new parts have arrived from Sweden so hopefully they will be back in action by the end of the week.

We'll certainly miss the local food here. Yesterday we had the local speciality known as 'Oil Down'; curried chicken with breadfruit (texture a bit like dense potato), callalou (similar to spinach) and plantains (firm-textured fruit which look like bananas but are only for cooking). It was absolutely delicious, very filling and cost only $EC 20 (about a fiver). We are now doing daily work-outs on the foredeck to try to get fit again!

A tour of Grenada

We have discovered that there are a lot of yachts in the various sheltered anchorages of Grenada who arrived for a couple of weeks and are still here, in some cases years later. As a result there's a very active cruisers' community so if Mexican Dominoes, bingo (yes!) or Hashing (following a trail, running or walking, through interesting terrain) is your thing, then there will be people here with whom to share your interest. Every morning there is a Cruisers' Net on the VHF which, apart from sharing useful information like the weather forecast, allows local businesses to advertise their services.

One such service is Cutty's Island Tours so we joined 11 other yachties from the US and Australia for a full-day's tour of the island which included the rain-forest, a swim in a waterfall, a visit to a nutmeg processing station, a distillery and an organic cocoa plantation which makes rather splendid high-octane dark chocolate. Here are some photos of the day:

The view over St Geoge's - the building in the foreground is the prison. During Hurricane Ivan the roof blew off and most of the inmates escaped!

 The Governor General's mansion, wrecked by Ivan

A refreshing shower in the Annandale waterfall

One of the wild monkeys in the Etang national park (originally brought over from Africa)...

 ... not so wild, now! They have learnt that posing for the camera earns them bananas.

 More Ivan damage - one of the churches up in the mountains

The Rum Distillery:

The waterwheel powering the sugar cane crusher at the River Antoine rum distillery - the production process hasn't changed for a century

 A health & safety officer's worst nightmare - open gears and chain drives and one of the workers standing in the crusher to feed the cane through!

 The crushed cane - some is burnt to boil the sugar syrup, the remainder goes back to the fields as mulch

 

 The four coppers. The cane juice is moved from the nearest (cool) to farthest (near boiling) to concentrate it ready for 7 days' fermentation followed by distillation.

 Transferring the juice from one copper to the next using, essentially, a saucepan on a long bamboo pole!

 The stills are wood-fired and produce a 75% alcohol white rum!

The Belmont cocoa plantation:

A ripe cocoa pod. The beans inside are white and soft and taste vaguely of citrus at this stage.

 Kelly, our very entertaining guide

 Turning the beans in the drying racks the traditional way - with your feet!

 The new drying racks, under poly-carbonate shelter. The beans take about 7 days to dry and are raked (by hand, not foot) and turned every hour or so during the day.

Our guide, Cutty. He was hugely knowledgeable and would stop, dash into the undergrowth and return with herbs, leaves, fruits and vegetables for us to smell and taste. His tours are highly recommended!

As you'll imagine we don't really want to tear ourselves away from this lovely island but the clock is ticking and we need to be heading west. We'll do a final run to the good supermarkets and hope to be heading for Bonaire (a four day sail) sometime mid-week, weather permitting. 

Diving and snorkeling the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park

We spent our last morning in Port Louis on an underwater adventure - we signed up for a dive / snorkel around the coast at the Underwater Sculpture Park. It's absolutely fantastic - have a look at the website

Dianne was able to snorkel and look down on Graham and divemaster Ron diving around the sculptures below her. The park was teaming with fish though the first dive on a reef about a mile to the north was really spectacular from a wildlife point of view and Di was able to snorkel the shallow reef whilst Graham dived to around 50ft. The snorkeling was probably just as spectacular, if not more so, as the colours darken very quickly as you dive deeper.

Here are a few photos (from Google so they are a bit low-res) to give you an idea - we loved it!

We have now moved around to the south coast of the island to a very sheltered anchorage called Prickly Bay. The excellent De Big Fish restaurant (no prizes for guessing their speciality) provided a great supper last night and so we're back for roti lunch! We'll do a tour of the island in the next couple of days (the rainforest and waterfalls are spectacular) and then do some serious food shopping in readiness for our next voyage. After all the relaxed cruising we have to get ourselves back into the mindset of long-distance passage-making so we're working through the boat to make sure everything's in order - our very expensive dyneema (a non-stretch Kevlar rope) halyard that keeps the foresail hauled up and tensioned was showing signs of chafe so the sailmakers / riggers have it to repair.

Diving course completed and the novelty of a marina

Sorry for the delay since the last blog; there has been a lot going on!

Graham completed his PADI Open Water Diver course on Wednesday with two consecutive dives (to about 17m and 11m) with his brilliant instructor Conny. Apart from  having to undertake more skills tests (including the simulation of running out of air),the dives provided ample opportunity to see two Hawskbill Turtles at close quarters, a Nurse Shark and a huge variety of fish and lobsters. It was great fun and the very structured leaning process of the course seemed to work very well. If you are ever in Carriacou, we can heartily recommend Conny and Georg at Arawak Divers - their underwater photos are amazing too and there are a few brilliant ones on their website

With a final day in Tyrrel bay to recover from all the excitement and to snorkel around the boat to scrub off the weed that was growing on the propeller in the nice warm water) we had a really wonderful 30 mile sail south to Grenada in pretty much perfect conditions. The route takes you within a couple of miles of an active underwater volcano called Kick 'em Jenny which last erupted in 1939 but has rumbled every now and again ever since. We saw no bubbles or steam so made it safely to the capital port of St George's.

The anchorage outside the port looked very calm but, after a month of anchoring we actually fancied the novelty of a couple of nights in a marina so motored into the very smart Camper & Nicholson Port Louis Marina. By Caribbean standards it's a bit pricey but is still cheaper than most UK marinas and is very well run. It was nice to be able to step ashore without inflating the dinghy, fitting the outboard and finding somewhere safe to tie up and we had an excellent and relaxed supper of some very good stone-baked pizzas.

 Today we've been into town to explore and to buy fresh fruit and veg from the vibrant, noisy but very friendly market (above). Lunch at a little Italian-run bistro (where we were the only customers) was delicious and the National Museum was fascinating, if a bit shabby and lacking in any modern history information (the US invasion is limited to a glass case containing a few spent rounds of ammunition and a paratrooper's beret).

The town has been comprehensively rebuilt after if was hit by Hurricane Ivan in 2004 but there are still buildings with no roofs and lots of damage as a reminder. However today it's busy, noisy and great fun - a nice change after all the quiet anchorages of the past few weeks. We'll stay a couple of days then go back to anchoring in one of the many deep, sheltered bays at the south of the island. Our plan is to leave around the 12th (having re-provisioned and completed a few maintenance jobs) head to Bonaire (fantastic diving!!) and on to Panama. 

A few photos of St George's follow.