Dec 16
First thing this morning, I connected the computer via the sat phone just long enough to check the status of my FedEx package. It is in St. Vincent! Yeah! If it got that far, I know I'll get it sooner or later.
This morning we re-launched the dinghy. Before doing so I had to blow the front section back up which took a fair amount of pumping. Once it was inflated, I took the spray bottle of soapy water and sprayed around the new patch to see if I accomplished anything. The patch does not seem to leaking at all, but to my horror, there was a substantial leak a few inches below the spot I fixed. I checked for other leaks before I deflated it, and I don't see how I could have missed this. We need to use the dinghy, and I used all the glue I had on the one repair, so this will have to wait for another day. We hoisted the bow up with the halyard, and I guided the stern over the lifelines as Barb let the halyard go and the dinghy dropped into the water. After sitting in the water a little while I was pleased to see there was much less water leaking in, although that isn't entirely cured either. I can see though that what is coming in now is coming from around the drain plug housing, so when we haul it out again to fix the other leak, I'll put some goo on that too.
We dinghied to the market dock where Barb got out and dropped our garbage in the dumpsters. I went across the bay to Gingerbread's dock and set up the computer to check some things, while Barb walked around and picked up a few things at the grocery. She stopped at Solana's, the gift shop that doubles as the FedEx agent and asked about the package. They said their deliveries from St. Vincent usually came around 13:30. After she met up with me and I finished my computer stuff, we took the computer and groceries back to the boat. Then we dinghied over to the north side of the bay where Grenadine Sails is. They should have our screens repaired by now. We caught the guy there just as he was about to close for lunch and got our screens. They look good and the price was reasonable. We went next door then to the Sailor's Cafe for lunch. They had an interesting menu, with typical local foods, burgers and sandwiches, and some Chinese food. I had a conch roti, and Barb got chicken chow mien. The roti was served in an unusual manner, but practical. Usually a well filled roti will fall apart if you try and pick it up to eat, since the wrap is fairly thin. Usually if you are going to eat one by hand, you keep it wrapped in the paper it comes in also, so that helps hold it all together. Well here, they simply give you the wrap, with the chick pea stuff spread on one side, folded in quarters. The filling is just piled on the plate. This way, you eat the filling with your fork and take bites of the wrapper as desired. Both meals were quite good.
After lunch, I took Barb and the screens back to the boat, I and went to see if the package had arrived. It had, but it was in Customs. I got the paperwork from Solana's and walked down the street to the Customs office to claim the package. The officer at the main counter told me to go around behind the building to the door marked warehouse. Once in the right place, a different officer asked if I had my boat papers. I did not, since in a store you don't need them to get duty-free status. He said I needed them and I said I'd be back in a few minutes. I zipped back to the boat, collected my papers and went back to Customs. I was gone about ten minutes. When I returned, I found the door to the warehouse locked. I went back around to the main desk in front, and a lady officer told me I would have to come back tomorrow as the warehouse closes at 15:00. Nobody mentioned that when I was there a few minutes ago, and there is no signage indicating that either. I told her that I was here a few minutes ago and that the other officer said to come right back with my papers. She conferred with the other officer and waved to me to go around back, where she met me and unlocked the door. To get the package, she glanced at my papers, and asked me to open the box. I opened it and showed her what was inside. She asked how much the things cost and I showed her the invoices. Then she had me sign a book and I was out of there. What confuses me (pleasantly though) is why do you have to have invoices and open the box when there is no fee for a vessel-in-transit? I guess it's just another example of the island way of maintaining jobs and power through paperwork and procedures.
I got back to the boat and we had Christmas. We went through the mail, which for a change had a few important things in it. There was our boat documentation for 2009, our US Customs decal for 2009, our insurance renewal certificate, and Barb's health insurance certificate. Of course there were two issues of Latitudes and Attitudes, which is the most important items. After going through the mail, I looked at my parts. The new voltage regulator, battery temp sensor, and alternator temp sensors were there and looked to be the right things. The fuel filters that I had my friend John pick up at the Westerbeke dealer though were the wrong ones. Unfortunately, the mistake is mine. I ordered the wrong ones. The engine exploded diagram shows two fuel filters for my engine. In reality it only has one of them, and I ordered the wrong one. The dealer was going to send me both, but I thought I knew what I was doing and said I only needed the one. So now, I guess we'll have to go through the exercise again. At least this time we'll know exactly how to make FedEx happy.
Since it a pretty easy thing to do, I got right on replacing the voltage regulator. The new one is an improved version of the one that went bad. Amongst it's improvements is the way it displays data. The old one had eight LED's on it that you had to figure out what combination meant what. It was a pain to program and to read later to make sure it was functioning. The new one has a three position LED readout that actually displays letters and numbers. It's much more user friendly. I programmed it to tell it what type of batteries we have, and cranked up the motor. It was easy to watch the display and see that it was working and doing exactly what it is supposed to. I didn't install the temperature sensors yet. One project per day...
This evening, a north swell started sneaking into the anchorage again, making the boats roll quite a bit. Boats further out than us have it even worse, but it's uncomfortable for us too.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 17
The night was very rolly. I didn't sleep well as a result. Part of what makes the rolling so bad is that the wind dies down at night, so the boat swings around and takes the swell broadside. In the morning, the wind picks back up, and we take the swell more on the stern and it isn't quite as bad. We still move around a lot, but it's tolerable.
I took the computer in and uploaded the latest website updates. While there I downloaded another piece of the computer puzzle that I needed to finish making the new computer have everything I need on it. Weathernet is a program I use to download GRIB files for wind, wave, and precipitation forecasts when we are going to move somewhere. A GRIB file is a graphic way of displaying the data instead of you having to wade through a bunch of verbiage to figure out the forecast. I got it downloaded and installed with no problem.
I need more glue to try and repair the dinghy, so while in town I went to two of the chandleries to see if they had any. Wallace & Co. normally carries it, but they are currently out of it. He said he has some on island, but it's tied up in Customs and will be a few days. He asked me if I had ever tried a different type of patch kit that he carried. He showed it to me and I read the box, where it said it would patch all sorts of inflatable stuff, including boats. I figured I'd give it a try, especially since it didn't involve the messy two-part glue. Remember the old adage that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is? Well, I followed the directions exactly, prepared the spot to be repaired, cut the patch, removed the backing from the patch, and stuck it on the dinghy. When I removed my hand, the patch fell off. It didn't even try to stick. It stuck like pizza dough on a well floured counter top. So much for the miracle fix.
For the next couple of hours we just relaxed on the boat. Over the past couple weeks, we have noticed the boat boys installing more and more moorings. They seem intent on filling the entire south side of the bay with them so you can't anchor on this side. I was just looking out to starboard, and I noticed a mooring ball about fifty feet to our starboard where there hadn't been one this morning. I pointed it out to Barb and commented that they must have installed it while I was in town earlier. She had been on the boat all day and hadn't seen or heard them there. Then we noticed that the ball seemed to be slowly moving. Turns out it wasn't anchored there at all, it was just drifting by. At least it didn't have a boat attached. I hopped in the dinghy and snagged the ball and tied it off to the stern of our boat. The pennant that attaches to a boat looks brand new, but the chain going down to what ever used to anchor it ends about four feet below the water. It's odd that it would have let go without a boat on it.
Tonight we are going to another quiz night at The Salty Dog. Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical are going with us to be our team. They were both teachers before retiring, so maybe we'll do better than last time. We got to Salty Dog about 18:00, so we had plenty of time to eat before the quiz started. As before, the food was good, and we were glad that we were the first ones there. The quiz was Christmas themed. There were fourteen teams, ranging from one or two that just had two people, several with four, and a few with six. We did better than last time, finishing ninth out of fourteen. This week instead of the winning team splitting the entrance pot, the winners got their money back, and a bottle of wine. The rest of the pot was donated to a local charity.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 18
We had another rolly night. By morning, I was ready to be on solid ground for a while. After the morning nets, we headed to shore. We hopped on a local bus that took us over to Friendship Bay, which is on the south end of the island. When we boarded the bus, I said we were going to Friendship, so the conductor gave me a signal when we should get out, since that's not the end of the bus route. The bus was a typical island bus, which is to say a mini-van. The driver had some music on very loud when we got in, and once we were out of town, he cranked it up some more. The bus was not too full going this way in the morning, so we weren't uncomfortable. From where the bus stops, we walked downhill to the water's edge. The road continued along the beach a little to where we found the Bequia Beach Hotel and the Moskito Bar. It was only about 10:30, but the bartender ensured us that it was not too early for a beer. The Moskito Bar is quite nice and part of the resort. We sat enjoying our beers looking out at the bay, just a few feet from the water's edge. We know boats who have anchored in Friendship to avoid rolling conditions elsewhere, but even here there is a swell although not as bad as in Admiralty Bay. There is one charter boat anchored here today. From the resort, we walked along the beach to the other end. We passed a couple of construction projects where new resorts are being built. At the end of the beach we walked up by what I thought was a small hotel or restaurant/bar, but it apparently was a private residence. We walked up the driveway to the main road and had to open a gate to get out of the driveway. Conveniently there was a covered bus stop with benches right by the driveway we came out, so we sat there for about ten minutes waiting for a bus. The bus that picked us up was the same one that took us up there. The music was still blasting, but this time we had more guests. Barb and I weren't able to sit by each other, and after we made two more stops, we had seventeen people in the van. Where I didn't think Barb could have sat next to me, another guy squeezed in, and the jump seat in front of me was folded down mashing my knees between it and the wall. Good thing it's a short ride to town. Total cost for the round trip for two was $5 EC.
Back in town we went to Capt Mack's for lunch. I think I referred to this place as Capt Jack's in my previous log. Same place. Upstairs, across from the produce market, where we took refuge from rain a couple of weeks ago. We sat out on the deck, overlooking the market and the people below. We both had fish burgers and fries, which were quite good. As we finished eating, it started to rain lightly, so once again we were here taking refuge from the rain and we had more beer while we waited.
Once the rain stopped, we went out of town a little following the signs to the Maritime Museum. There are several model boat building shops here, and the most well known is Sergeant Brothers. One of the brothers, Lawson, has founded this museum in addition to their model shop to preserve some of Bequia's maritime history. Bequia was a whaling country back when whaling was commonplace, and they have an exemption from the international laws that prohibit whaling today. Once a year, there is a short season when they can hunt whales, using only the traditional methods. The traditional method is where a bunch of guys in a very small boat row out to sea looking for a whale. When they find one, they stab it with a harpoon that has a rope tied to it and to the boat. The now pissed off whale then gives them the ride of their lives. If the original harpoon, and perhaps subsequent ones find their mark, then the whale dies, and these guys tow it back to shore rowing the little boat. We had noticed some type of building on a small island just offshore of Friendship Bay. It turns out that is where they would process the whale. These days they are only allowed to take two per year, and the season is so short that they don't always get them. The museum is very small, and consists mainly of some old pictures showing both whaling and wooden boat building and racing. Mr. Sergeant, the founder, is there and gives you a guided explanation of all the pictures. The entrance fee is $15 EC per person, which for what you get is pretty steep, but it was still fun and for a good cause to try and get more exhibits.
It was mid-afternoon when we returned to the boat. Things are still rolling around a lot, but maybe a little better than last night.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 19
Things stayed fairly calm last night until about 02:00 when the roll reestablished itself. Not quite as bad as the previous nights, but enough to keep me from sleeping well. Barb had plans today to join Lynn from Seabbatical for some shopping in town. About 10:30, Barb and I dinghied over to Seabbatical and picked Lynn up. I dropped them off at the market dock where they unloaded garbage and began their shopping journey. I went over to the Frangipani dock where I set up shop in a nice beach chair using their free internet connection to make some Skype calls, get e-mail, and surf the net for a while. I learned that most of the States is getting a bad winter storm today. Makes the roll in the bay seem not so bad after all.
When the ladies joined me, it was about lunchtime. Barb and I decided to have lunch at Frangipani. We have had drinks here many times, but not food. We both ordered cheeseburgers and fries. The fries were very good, and the burgers weren't bad. They weren't CCBM burgers, but not bad. Just as we finished, several young people showed up with musical instruments. Looks like we're going to be treated to another Christmas concert. There were ten people, two adults and the rest teenagers, and they were from the Salvation Army. Three played trumpets, four had French horns, one had a snare drum, and one adult held the red pot and rang the annoying bell throughout the show. During the songs she attempted to ring it in time with the music, but in between songs it was just annoying. The music was about the quality of a sixth grade band after one week of playing together, but they were working on it. We all made donations and after about half an hour they packed up and moved on to another spot. I think the rule ought to be for every dollar donated, the damn bell stops for a minute. They'd get more money.
We spent the late afternoon and evening on the boat. Hamilton is the town/neighborhood on the northwest portion of the anchorage, and tonight is their light up. Each town has it's own day designated to light up and have a party with music etc. We heard the music playing loud but not obnoxious for about an hour before somebody started making a speech. We could hear the speaker pretty well, and after quite a bit of pontificating, he gave the command to light it up. A good sized display then came on. It's funny that all the lights and celebration doesn't start until a week or so before Christmas. I guess when merchandising isn't the driving force, you don't have to start two months early.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 20
We didn't do much of anything today. We never left the boat and just read and played computer games. We ran the motor for about six hours to get a full proper charge on the batteries now that we have the new voltage regulator installed.
Four almost identical charter boats from Sparkling Charters came in and took moorings near us. There appeared to be a family on each boat, and there were at least twelve teenage kids between them all. As soon as the boats were all secure, the kids were off racing around in the dinghies and making a lot of kid noise as they swam, jumped off the boats, etc.
Our friends Barb & Chuck on Tusen Takk II arrived from Carriacou today. We haven't seen them since last summer as they passed through Grenada on their way to Trinidad. They stopped by as they dinghied back from checking in with Customs and said hello.
Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical stopped by to say hi, and we invited them aboard. They had beers with them, but we didn't have any more, so we had to con them into a couple of rum drinks after their beers were gone. There is a guy who rows a tiny boat around the anchorage everyday whistling. He was coming by during their visit. He never approaches you unless you acknowledge him first, but if you do, he will come over and invite you to look at his jewelry selection. He introduced himself as Willie, which we already knew from reading about him in the cruising guide. We told him we didn't need any jewelry, but Barb asked if he liked fudge. She packed him up a dozen pieces in a Ziploc and wished him a Merry Christmas.
Something that I have mentioned before is the boat boys. The boat boys are not boys at all, they are grown men. But sometimes they don't act like it. Three of the boat boys who rent moorings here are African, Mystic, and Phat Shag. The three of them seem to work well together even though the are competitors. They are polite and don't hassle you. Recently though there have been a couple of other guys working the arriving boats. Their boat names are Move On, Bay Watch, and a guy in a regular inflatable dinghy like ours. These three guys are much more aggressive. I've heard them tell people they cannot anchor and must take a mooring, which is not true. They yell at each other every time one gets a boat coming in, the others will be yelling that he stole them. They are constantly yelling, and about every third word starts with f and ends with uck - and they aren't talking about fire trucks. Their behavior really is inappropriate, and they are why some boaters hate to deal with boat boys at all. It's too bad they don't get it.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 21
My big job today is diving under the boat. There are several things I want to accomplish. One is to just get comfortable with my SCUBA gear again. My only diving since we left the US has been twice to clean the bottom, and that was back in the beginning. While in the water, I need to put new zincs on our propeller shaft, I want to see what's on the other end of our mooring, I need to clean some stuff off the bottom, and I want to see if I can find a plastic clip I dropped overboard last week. When I first jumped in, I saw the prop and shaft was a mess. There was a growth on the shaft that was a combination of small barnacles and this hairy stuff that stuck out like your hair would if you put your finger in a light socket. The prop had a big wad of something on it, that I wasn't sure if it was growth or a net or what. I let the air out of my BC so I could submerge, and the first thing I found was that I didn't have enough weight on. It's funny that when I want to swim or snorkel, I sink like a rock if I stop swimming, but with my SCUBA equipment on, I have to strap fifteen pounds of lead on to submerge. I was a pound or two shy of what I really needed to dive, but I was right at the cusp, so I didn't bother getting out and getting more weight. I was able to barely go under water as I let all my breath out, and I swam to the prop. What was there was a bunch of plastic from a bag, and some plastic netting. I don't know where we picked that up, but it may account for why we weren't getting the speed I would have expected when we were motoring on the way up here. It's amazing how big an effect stuff on the prop has with disrupting the water flow and thus it's performance. I was able to rip the crap off without getting a knife, and I resurfaced and threw the plastic on deck. I then asked Barb to get my large wire brush to clean the shaft. While she was off hunting for it, I dove to the bottom. Being too buoyant, I had to actually swim to the bottom instead of just being able to slowly sink. We are in about twenty feet of water, and once I was down, I could stay there as long as I breathed very shallowly. If I took a deep breath I would start to rise. I looked around where I thought the missing clip should be, but couldn't find it. The bottom is flat sand covered with growth that looks like little trees, but they're only two or three inches high. The growth is thick enough though that unless I see the clip looking straight down between the plants, I'd probably miss it. I swam towards the mooring chain to see what's on the other end. From the boat, we are tied to a rope. That rope goes about fifteen feet down and it's tied to a shackle on the end of a long chain. On the end of the chain I found two drums, slightly smaller than your typical fifty-five gallon drum that were filled with concrete. We won't be dragging that anyplace soon. I swam over to the new mooring that Tjeldoy sank a few weeks ago to see what it was. It is a large engine block, which by itself would be a questionable mooring for a big boat. But there also is a secondary cable from the engine block to a huge ships anchor that is not from your average recreational boat. I could see one more mooring behind us, and it too had one of these big barrels on it. I'm sure if you had time to check them all, you'd probably find some bad examples too. I came back to the boat where Barb was waiting for me with the brush. I went under again and cleaned the crap off the propeller shaft. I resurfaced to return the brush to deck and get the zincs to install. Since I was marginally too buoyant and only a couple of feet under, I let the top of my head rest on the bottom of the boat to keep my in place while I bolted on the zincs. This resulted in a nice blue spot of bottom paint on my scalp when I came out. Before coming out for good, I took a plastic scraper and brush and cleaned the green hair off the waterline. This algae grows at the waterline where there is lots of sun and little bottom paint. Most of the bottom looks good as far as not growing stuff. There was the odd barnacle here and there that I popped off, but overall it's good. The only places that will be an issue for the season are a few spots near the bow at the waterline where you can already see the primer and where the stands were when it was in the yard. All in all I was in the water for about half an hour. I was more comfortable than I thought I would be since it had been so long since I dove, and I particularly liked the new mask I was using. I always used to have a problem with my mask seeping water and I was constantly having to clear it. This mask was part of the equipment that I got when my old friend Tilton passed away, and it fits me better and hardly seeped at all.
Mid-afternoon we joined Don & Devin from Liquid Courage and Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical and took a cab to Lower Bay. The beach at Lower Bay is not a good place to land a dinghy, so we went the dry route. We went to De Reef which is a popular hangout for cruisers and locals. There was quite a crowd there as well as the other places on the beach. We sat and had several beers and saw a number of other folks we knew. About 17:00, we took a cab back to town to a new place that was having it's opening tonight. Maria's is upstairs across from the main dinghy dock in a space that used to be Handy Andy's internet cafe. Maria and her husband John have done a very nice job of renovating the space into a restaurant and bar. Tonight, they aren't serving their regular menu yet, but they had a two-for-one happy hour and they kept bringing out free appetizers. This gave the kitchen a chance to prepare things without any stress. There was a good crowd there, and we had enough to eat to call it dinner. Other friends from Grenada who arrived here today joined us there. Fred & Kathy from Makai, and Craig & Liz from Salida were around Grenada all this past hurricane season and it was good to see them again. Just before leaving, I visited the restroom. When I came back, I asked several of the other guys, when was the last time they were in a bar restroom that smelled like fresh paint instead of beer and urine.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 22
The port was a busy place this morning. During the night, the large liveaboard dive boat, Wind Dancer, came in again and anchored off behind us. Then about 07:00, Lesley PG, one of the fuel tankers that calls here slowly made it's way up to the front of the harbor where it anchors and moors to make it's delivery. And right behind Lesley was a good sized cruise ship, The World, which anchored closer in than cruise ships usually do. When Lesley PG was ready to leave, the captain called The World to politely let him know that he could have picked a better spot to anchor. Lesley made a very slow pivot in the harbor and slowly headed out, coming closer to the cruise ship than he probably had to, but I think he was making a point. I later followed a conversation between Lesley PG and Eliza PG, another tanker from the same company, and Lesley's captain was less than complimentary about the cruise ship's choice of anchorage.
We took the computer to shore to catch up on things and ran into a number of friends doing the same thing. Frangipani has a couple of picnic tables that have plugs nearby, so lots of people use the free Wi-Fi there.
We took the computer back to the boat and then went back to town to do some grocery shopping. We only need a few things, but we have to think about stocking up for the extra days that the stores will be closed for Christmas. We got what we needed, including several produce items from a couple of the stands along the street. We have learned that the independent stands have better prices than the actual market.
The weather forecast for the next week is not good. The wind is supposed to be quite high, which results in high seas of course. There will be small squalls off and on for several days too. The good news is that the wind is from the east this time and not the north, so we shouldn't have a problem with the anchorage being too rough, other than the wind chop which will cause wet dinghy rides. The anchorage has gotten quite full in the past day. One of our friends who arrived Sunday told me that Customs said they checked in sixty-five boats yesterday. I don't know if the sudden increase in boats is because of the weather, because lots of people want to be here for Christmas, or because the boats that came from Europe in the ARC are fanning out from St. Lucia now. It's probably a combination of all three, but the anchorage is the fullest we've seen since we got here. The boat boys were doing their usual jockeying for customers, although it looked like all the moorings were full. One boater called the Port Control office on the radio to complain about Move On, the boat boy I mentioned a couple of days ago. According to the boater, Move On threatened him and told him he could not anchor. The boater captured the exchange on video and was insisting the Port Control people do something about the guy. Port Control said they knew who he was, but I doubt they will do anything. For whatever reason, Port Control here seems to not exert any control.
While we were ashore, there had been a distress call from a single hander on a sailboat a few miles outside the anchorage. Apparently he was taking on water and his bilge pump quit or wasn't keeping up. A boat boy went out and towed him in to where he dropped his anchor near another boat he knew. A different boat boy quickly arrived with a large gasoline powered pump and they started pumping water out of the boat. Eventually, everybody calmed down and the pump was taken away, so apparently they stopped the inflow of water. I learned later that the guy hit a mooring chain in Isla Margarita, Venezuela, and it has cracked the hull where the keel is attached. That's not a trivial thing, and I can't imagine why he would not have gone to Grenada or Carriacou where there are haulout facilities to get the boat out of the water for repairs. It seems to be another example of why it's good to have financial resources if you're out here. This guy apparently is short in that department.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 23
As forecast the wind is very strong this morning. It blew in the high teens all night but this morning picked up over twenty. We were watching as at least three anchored boats near us were dragging. They were having exactly the same problem we had when we tried to anchor. The sand is shallow and there is hard coral under it, so they slowly drag through the sand. The first one to be in trouble was the boat that had to be pumped out yesterday. The owner was not aboard, but his yapping dog was, and he seemed to know there was trouble. The dog was at the bow looking at the anchor chain as if he knew something had to be done. The people on the boat behind this guy were not initially there either, but they got there just before the boats met. They got fenders out and kept any damage from happening. What they didn't do, that I would have, was rafted the drifting boat to them so it wouldn't endanger anybody else. They were on a mooring, so the extra weight would probably not be a problem. Once the drifting boat was all the way past them, then one guy hopped onto the bow of the drifting boat to try and let out some more anchor chain. When that didn't help, he was able to get a line from his stern to the bow of the drifting boat to stop it. Eventually the owner of the offending boat showed up and moved. Last we saw him he was headed to the other side of the bay. Two other boats near us were slowly dragging too, and when they finally realized their problem, they moved. We could hear radio chatter that told us the same thing was happening on the other side of the bay too.
At lunchtime we headed to shore. We went to Mac's Pizza for lunch and had a sausage/mushroom/onion pizza. The table next to us had six people at it who were crew from The World. It was interesting that they didn't all know each other well. I'm sure on a boat that size, there are so many crew members that you can't know them all, and they probably turn over all the time too. While we were eating, the captain of The World came in. He sat with the lady who I think is the owner's wife and chatted, as they knew each other from previous visits. He was apparently "off duty" because he was dressed casually and I wouldn't have known he was the captain except I heard the crew mention it.
After lunch, we walked down to Frangipani with the computer. We found Craig & Liz, and Fred & Kathy there. I checked on mail and stuff while Barb walked to the store and got some butter. When she got back, we returned to the boat for a little while before our evening plans. If it was possible to top the number of boats that came in Sunday, today may have done it. During the late afternoon, there were dozens of boats coming in. The boat boys were all out for a while vying for their business, but they thinned out because all the moorings were taken. This left boats all over trying to anchor in places where the holding sucks. Several were near us, and we kept an eye on them as they drifted by. I never said anything to any of them, and eventually they seemed to get the idea that there was a reason there were no boats anchored there. One boat came right by us eyeing the spot where nobody can get their anchor to hold. This boat stuck out because the crew was five young, good looking Norwegian girls in bikinis. They circled the area once or twice and then went up ahead of us and I lost track of them. I finally couldn't stand to watch anymore. I put our fenders out in case somebody bumps us, turned the solar panels in so they couldn't be hit, and we went to town.
At 17:00 we met a bunch of folks for drinks at The Whaleboner. There was Chuck & Barb from Tusen Takk II, Don & Devin from Liquid Courage, Fred & Kathy from Makai, Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical, and Peter & Eileen from Appleseeds. We met here for drinks before going to church. OK, not really going to church, but going to a Christmas program at the church. The Anglican Church is having a Christmas concert followed by the lighting of the church. At least that's how it was described in the Bequia This Week paper. It turned out to be a little bit of church, a lot of speaking about the church's history, a lot of speaking about the new drive to raise money to restore the church building, and a bunch of singing. Some of the singing was the whole congregation, including us, and some was various church members, mostly young people. It got off to a good start, with two young girls playing Christmas songs on the pans. You gotta like a church service that includes steel drums. The place was packed, including the rear balcony, and people standing around the edges. There were at least as many visitors as locals I think. One of the ladies who put the program together made a speech and she mentioned right up front that the program was long and if you couldn't stay for the whole thing it was ok. We were sitting near the front, so we weren't aware of how many people had left by the time we gave it up. We made it past halfway, and I was looking forward to the lights, but our butts on the hard wooden pews told us it was time to go. We left with Mike &Lynn, and realized as we got up, that all our other friends had already left, as had most of the other visitors. We made a donation to the restoration project fund as we left.
A couple doors down is Tommy Cantina's. We were not hungry since we ate a big pizza earlier, but margaritas sounded good, and Mike & Lynn wanted a bite to eat. When we walked in, we found most of the rest of our gang already there at the bar. We enjoyed several margaritas, which we never found in Grenada, so it was a nice change from rum. While we were there Don from Liquid Courage told us about this boat load of girls that got a mooring near them over on the other side of the bay. He said that Daffodil's, who runs the fuel and water barge, gave them the mooring that the barge uses overnight. Guess it pays to be cute. After at least an hour at Tommy Cantina's, it was suggested that we go to the Hibiscus Bar. Hibiscus is more of a locals bar, around by the main section of town. Some of the folks had been there before, so off we went. There were eight of us who made the trip. When we got there, there were about a dozen locals there, including one guy who was pretty out of it. As soon as we walked in, the owner shooed the "out of it" guy outside. I guess it was ok for locals to be exposed to him, but if there were going to be visitors, we needed to be protected. We had several rounds of beer here, visited with the owner, and in general had a good time. For the second time in a week, I visited a freshly painted restroom. That's got to be a record.
While we had been at Tommy Cantina's, we heard a call for help on the VHF. A boat named Misty was about five miles out of Admiralty Bay, with torn sails, no engine, and no steering. Any one of those things would be bad. He did still have a radio, and was talking to Kingfisher, which is a local fishing boat. We had all brought our handheld VHF's so we would know if boats were dragging in the harbor, so we were all listening to this unfold. I think the Coast Guard finally made contact with the guy on a cell phone, so we never did hear the resolution other than we think they sent a boat out to tow him in.
When we got back to MoonSail, there was a boat anchored in "the spot". There was a lot of talking and giggling going on in the cockpit, and there were three dinghies tied to the back. We had one more drink before going to sleep, and while we were relaxing in the cockpit, we realized the boat next us was the Norwegian girls. I wonder why they would have given up a mooring.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 24
We awoke to another windy morning. There were a few short squalls during the night, but when I poked my head outside everybody seemed to be where we left them. The girl boat was still there, but it might be a little bit further back than it was. There was no sign of life on it. The morning radio stuff was different than usual. We heard Chris Parker the weather guy alright, and he confirmed that it was going to blow like stink through the weekend. On the Coconut Telegraph, Tom from Sojourn in Bonaire was hosting, and I was going to be his northern relay. I could barely hear him this morning, so it may be one of those times that I can't really hear what he is saying, but I can tell by his cadence when it's my turn. He asked for priority traffic, and got a response. We always hope to hear nothing on priority traffic. The first caller was a boat in St. Lucia that had been broken into during the evening before. I couldn't hear them, but somebody else relayed the message. Then Southern Cross, who is also in Bonaire, made an announcement about a boat somewhere between St. Vincent and St. Thomas that had been abandoned after being hit by a freighter and was possibly still drifting out there somewhere. I could barely hear any of this, but did my best to relay both messages and then gave control back to Tom. At that point, I could hear talking but couldn't make any of it out. All I knew was that it wasn't the normal routine of the net. It turned out that our friend Rick on Sophisticated Lady was in trouble up near Hispaniola. He had been in Haiti, where cruisers don't go. We aren't sure why he was in Haiti, but he checked in two days ago saying he was leaving and headed for the BVI where he does charters during the winter. Apparently, he got hit by gale force winds and blew out both his headsail and mainsail. Sometime after that, while motoring east, his raw water circulation stopped. Before he was aware of this, the hot exhaust which was no longer being mixed with water, melted his plastic Vetus water muffler. Then the engine overheated. So now he can't run the motor and has no sails. I know the boat, and he has no diesel generator, so without the motor, he'll be running out of electricity in a day or two also. I couldn't hear any of this at the time, and learned the details in an e-mail later. Since I couldn't hear Tom anymore at all, I don't think the rest of the net got done.
When all the radio stuff was over, the wind picked up again. Barb called me to the cockpit and said the girl boat was definitely dragging. By now two of the girls were in the cockpit, but they didn't seem to be aware that they were moving. I was considering yelling over to them, when they finally realized there was a problem. The other girls came above, and they spent a good half hour moving forward and trying to re-anchor. They finally gave up and left, following one of the boat boys to a mooring.
We called Daffodil's to refill our water tanks today. We probably have enough for four more days, but I don't know what their holiday schedule is like, so we'll do it early. When I called, the lady said it would be after 13:00 before they could get to us, and I said that would be fine. She asked our location, and I told her roughly and said that Junius had been to us before. Around 10:00, Barb yelled down from the cockpit that the water barge was pulling up. I guess it helps to have befriended him last time. While I was filling the tanks, Barb asked Junius if he liked fudge. She went and put a dozen chunks in a Ziploc for him. I bet we get good service next time too.
I got ambitious and installed the two sensors that came with my new voltage regulator. One senses the alternator temperature and one senses the battery temperature. Both are optional and are supposed to keep everything from overloading. I have never had them before and probably don't need them, but what the heck. It only took about fifteen minutes to install both, and I didn't break anything else in the process, so it's all good.
Barb made us sandwiches for lunch around noon. I was below and had just finished mine when she yelled from the cockpit that there was a boat loose in the anchorage. I ran above just in time to see the loose fifty foot Beneteau run into the moored boat behind it. The Beneteau was sideways to the wind and nailed the next boat at right angles on the bow. There was nobody on the Beneteau, but the other boat had seen them coming and ran forward to fend them off. As the Beneteau slid to the side and down along the side of the victim boat, we could see that it had been on a mooring that had broken. I saw a guy in the water swimming to the Beneteau, and I jumped in my dinghy and headed that way. By the time I got there, the swimming guy was aboard and had the boat running. Side note to boaters - ALWAYS leave the keys in the ignition. Big boats don't get stolen. But a good Samaritan can't help your drifting boat if he can't start it. I tied my dinghy to the stern and climbed aboard. While the other guy drove, I went to the bow to pull whatever was left of the mooring aboard. There was a lot of line, and a lot of chain. We're lucky the line didn't get in the prop which would have compounded the problem. Once all the stuff was aboard, I looked at the windlass to see how to operate it. I don't use a windlass, so I'm not that familiar with them. I went back to the cockpit and told the other guy to look at it and I would drive. He went up and said it was the same as his, but he didn't see where the controls were. I was reluctant to be responsible for anchoring the boat and leaving it anyway. I hoped maybe the owner would see his boat being driven around the harbor and come running out. After asking three boat boys for other moorings and being told there were none, we were running out of options. I just kept driving around staying out of the way of ferries and tenders from the cruise ship. I stayed away from the pack of moored boats, because this boat handles very different than MoonSail and the last thing I wanted to do was hit another boat. Eventually, the boat boy Move On came racing towards us. I asked him if the boat had been on one of his moorings, and he said no, but he said he would help us. He hopped aboard, tied his boat to the stern, and took the other guy to the bow. He knew right where to look, inside the v-berth hatch, for the remote control for the windlass. Once he showed the other guy how to use it, he came back and took the helm from me. He drove fast right through the pack of boats to very close to the shore. I was concerned about the depth, but he didn't seem to be worried about that. Once he picked a spot to anchor it, he asked me if I could drive his boat. I said sure, and hopped on it. It was still running, so he cast off the line and I idled out of the way. He didn't want his boat hitting the back of the sailboat as he anchored. He tried anchoring three times but the anchor was not grabbing. Surprise! On the third try, as the boat was backing up and not digging in, he was passing a mooring float. He grabbed the float and attached that line to the bow. That mooring isn't intended for a boat this big, but for now the combination of the mooring and the not quite set anchor will keep it there. Move On and the other guy then got in my dinghy which was still tied to the back of the boat and came over to where I was idling along in Move On. We swapped boats and I took the swimming guy back to his boat. We decided we had done our anonymous Christmas good deeds now and would have good karma points.
When I got back to the boat, I felt whipped. I hadn't done anything physically taxing, but the stress of the situation had worn me out. Barb informed me that it had been at least an hour and a half since the whole thing started, although I would have guessed more like half an hour. I fixed myself a stiff drink and relaxed. We laughed about the emotional roller coaster the owner is going to have. First he's going to come back to where he left the boat and be freaked out that it's gone. Then, since it's not far from where it started, he'll see that it's not really gone and be wildly relieved. I guess I have to take back a little of the bad stuff I said about Move On. He is the one boat boy that gives people trouble, but he helped out this time. I suspect he only helped because it really was his mooring, even though he didn't admit it. But all's well that ends well. Nobody got hurt and even with the initial collision there didn't appear to be any damage to the boats.
About 16:00, a charter boat came in and tried to anchor next to us. We just watched, knowing the lack of success that every boat that tried has had. He tried once, hauled it back up and tried again. It appeared he might be hooked, but we know how deceiving it is here. The people aboard were French, and we all know how boaters bad mouth the French and their anchoring techniques. This group was the rare exception. The guy was looking at how close he was to us, and kept studying whether he was dragging or not. Eventually he decided to put out a second anchor so he would be pulled further away from us. After doing that he still watched for quite a while to see how we all swung and making sure he was ok. I still wouldn't surprised if he drags during the night, but it won't be my problem since he'll go backwards.
We went out to dinner tonight with Craig & Liz from Salida, and Fred & Kathy from Makai. Besides being Christmas Eve, we were celebrating Liz's birthday. We went to Maria's, the new restaurant that opened last Sunday. We got there first and ordered drinks. The view was spectacular, with The World all lit up, and Royal Clipper also in the harbor lit up. There was a hint of light left in the sky, and I attempted to get a couple of pictures of it. When the rest of the gang arrived, they too got drinks and we started looking at the menu. I went for a beef filet with blue cheese sauce, and Barb ordered sautéed scallops with a leek garlic sauce. I also ordered a shrimp cocktail for a starter. The food was all very good. The timing of delivery of the starter and salads and entrees was a little off, but they've only been open a couple of days, so we couldn't complain. There was a singer there name Raphael "Socony" Holder. He is a native of Bequia, although he lived in the States for nineteen years. He played acoustic guitar, harmonica, and sang. He had been playing in the background while we ate, and just about the time we were finishing our meal, he started playing Margaritaville. Of course, Barb and I joined in which made him very happy. When he finished the song, he moved his chair over to the end of our table and started playing just for us. The first song he played for us was off his CD. One of the lines was "So While Mr. Buffett's wasting away, Ill be chilling in sweet Bequia, livin' above the poverty line in paradise". (For a poor quality video of him singing the song see this YouTube link.) Then he had a game to play with us. He would play a song for each lady, while the her partner had to think of the answer to a question he asked. The question could be either about US state capitols, or US presidents. I immediately thought oh boy, we're going to be embarrassed about our knowledge of the US by a guy from Bequia. Sure enough none of the three guys got their question correct. Then the girls got a question that they could collaborate on and they got theirs right, so they got a free CD. I told Raphael that I wanted to buy a CD too, and he looked at me funny and said "Just copy that one". I told him I would copy Jimmy Buffett's CD's, but not independent artists. He was impressed.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 25
Merry Christmas! My Christmas present was sleeping in an extra hour, since there is no weather net on the radio this morning. We did have a Coconut Telegraph net at 08:00, and lots of people checked in, all sending Christmas wishes to their cruising friends.
It continues to be very windy here, as forecast. Fortunately though the wind direction is such that we are not getting any rolling in the bay, just a little wind chop which can make a dinghy ride to shore a wet one. We went to shore around noon to make our Christmas calls to friends and family on Skype. This was a perfect example of when I'm glad we got the Skype phone, so we didn't have to be right at the table with all the other people using their computers to call on Skype. We were probably on the phone for an hour to many folks, and were thankful for the $.02/minute rate.
The comings and goings in the anchorage were not as many today as the previous two days, but there still were some. Yesterday the St. Vincent Signal Station made a general broadcast on the VHF warning mariners about the weather conditions. We were already aware of the forecast, but I think most charter boats don't even check the weather. Despite the warning, a number of boats left the anchorage in the morning, and a batch came in later in the afternoon. I guess when you just have your one week vacation to spend on a boat, you go regardless. Of course as with every day, we had a couple of boats attempt to anchor near us in the dragging zone. One was apparently successful, but they are not too close to us, so it's ok.
We are going to join several friends for a pot-luck Christmas dinner this afternoon, so I am making the old family recipe stuffing. Of course there is no real recipe, and everybody in the family makes it a tad different, but it always gets rave reviews. Barb had sliced and diced the onions, celery, and mushrooms for me earlier, and I set about cooking the bacon and sausage, then sautéing the veges. It takes almost two hours to do everything, especially when you only have one burner to work with. I did the bacon first, so then I could be crumbling bacon while the sausage cooked. Then the veges, which take a while to soften up without burning, and finally boil the water for the basic stuffing mix. Everything came together about 16:15, and we were due at Salida at 16:30, so it was perfect.
Dinner was aboard Salida, a forty-two foot catamaran. There was Craig & Liz the owners, Fred & Kathy from Makai, and Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical. We were enjoying some appetizers in the cockpit before sundown when who did we see but Santa in a dinghy! Santa was dressed in his southern Christmas outfit, which is basically the same as his northern one with the exception of the long pant and boots being replaced by shorts and bare feet. Santa was being driven around the anchorage waving at everybody in a large center console dinghy that I think was probably from the mega-yacht on the other side of the bay. He was cool. Our dinner menu was two small Butterball turkey roasts, the dressing, mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce. For desert, we had a homemade cheesecake. Of course there was an ample supply of wine and rum to wash it all down. We had a great time visiting and enjoyed Fred playing DJ and taking requests for Christmas songs from his extensive collection on his iPod.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 26
Today is Boxing Day, which means nothing to us US folk. It's a holiday with British origins. Everything is quiet in town and the ferries are running on a limited Sunday schedule. Early in the afternoon, we took the computer in to Frangipani to catch up on things. Barb brought her book to read while I messed around on the computer. Several of our friends were there doing the same. It also was an excuse just to get off the boat for a while since the wind is still blowing over twenty knots with higher gusts.
Not many boats came in and out today, but there were a few, and of course some of them eyed that spot near us that looks so inviting. We did end up with a new neighbor who isn't too close, and for the meantime seems to be holding.
We met Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical for drinks and dinner. We dinghied to the main town dock and tied up. It was low tide when we got there making the climb from the dinghy to the dock a little more of a challenge. Our plan is to try the hamburgers at Maria's for dinner. We weren't ready to eat yet, but the ladies went to Maria's just to confirm that hamburgers were available. They were, so we walked up the hill first to the Salty Dog for drinks. We were the only people there at that point, besides Andre the owner and three workers. We had two rounds of drinks there while enjoying the great view overlooking the harbor. Salty Dog has a real Christmas tree near the door, and it smells wonderful. Andre told us that every year somebody imports a small container of trees. Every now and then as we were sitting there we would get a whiff of the tree. It was great. There was an informal street party going on near Salty Dog, with a van parked in a driveway with all the doors open blasting it's stereo full bore. A group of locals was gathering, dancing and drinking. We walked to Maria's and were seated at a table right at the edge of the deck overlooking the street and the harbor. All the other tables have "reserved" signs on them, so I guess they have reservations pending. As with Europe, it's not uncommon for people to wait until 20:00 or later to have dinner, so we were ahead of the crowd. We all ordered cheeseburgers, two with bacon and two without. While we were waiting, we got a small bowl of mixed nuts and a small appetizer of toast and their olive spread, on the house. The burgers came and were quite good. I would have to say they were the best we've had since leaving Grenada. There didn't seem to be any filler stuff in them and they were cooked to order. The French fries were good also, and we even ordered desert. Mike & Lynn each had a small bowl of ice cream, and Barb & I had crème brule. We intended to share one, but the waiter misunderstood and brought two, so we struggled and ate them both.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 27
The day started with a haircut. Several of our friends have been talking about doing haircuts on the beach, but putting it off since it's so windy. It's hard to cut moving hair. But, since my haircut requires simply buzzing it all off with the clippers, the wind is a good thing. The hair will all blow away. I sat on the swim platform with my feet down the steps and my butt at deck level and Barb stood behind me. She used my beard trimmer to buzz off the hair, and then I trimmed my beard with the aid of a mirror. Cleanup was a breeze (pardon the pun) as most of the trimmings never hit the deck before they were blown astern.
Fred from Makai came by to show us the brochure from Sam's Taxi in St. Vincent whom we will be using for an island tour Monday. They have about eight canned tours depending on what your interests are. The brochure and the tours are intended mostly for cruise ship passengers. We want to see a waterfall, the Pirates of the Caribbean set and the Botanical Gardens. None of the tours fit that exactly, but we're guessing we can customize a little, since we all want the same thing and will be in our own van.
About 16:30, we headed in to Frangipani to meet Mike & Lynn and Don & Devin for drinks and pizza. We found Fred & Kathy and Craig & Liz already there on their computers. We had several drinks at Frangipani and then headed down to Mac's Pizza. Fred, Kathy, Craig and Liz had left for Mac's also, but a few minutes ahead of us. They got the last table that wasn't reserved in the regular seating area. There were three picnic tables downstairs in the lawn, but the waitress pointed out that if it rained we'd be on our own. There was no imminent sign of rain so we took our chances. Barb and I got the lobster pizza again, and it was excellent as usual. I had rum punch to drink and it seemed a little different than what I have had here before.
After we finished dinner, we stopped at The Green Boley on our was back to the dinghies. The Green Boley is more of a locals bar than a tourist place. The owner, Liston, served us our drinks and chatted with us some. Another boater who splits his time between Atlanta and here also came in. George was the boater, and he told us that Liston was the best proprietor in town because after thirty years in the same place, he still had the same menu and almost the same prices and both were good.
Several very large (one hundred foot plus) sailboats came into the harbor today. Because of their size, they are anchored out behind everybody else. Boats like that always leave their spreader lights on, which illuminates the deck, and shows off what big masts they have. It made for a very pretty scene to look over the harbor as we returned to our boats. At least one of the boats is a beautiful old wooden boat with lots of teak. I commented that while it might be an old boat, it obviously has a modern generator aboard to keep all those lights on all night.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 28
We did pretty much nothing today. We ran the motor to charge the batteries, so I had the inverter on and could use the computer all day to write and play games. Barb read most of the day and proof read the logs. There was one little boat task that I did, and that was patch the dinghy again. I had gotten the two-part glue a week or so ago, but had been putting off the repair because I wanted to wait until we could take the dinghy out of the water and try to give it two days for the glue to set again. But, I'm getting real tired of pumping it up every time we go somewhere, so I'm going to try doing it the shortcut way again. The new glue has different instructions than the brand I had before, and I followed them exactly. I cut the patch, prepared the spot on the dinghy, and mixed the glue. I applied a thin coat of glue to the patch and the dinghy, and let it dry for thirty minutes. I then spread a second coat of glue on both sides and let it dry for five. Then I applied the patch to the dinghy. Since the dinghy is in the water and bouncing around wildly in the chop, I didn't line up the patch exactly as I wanted, but it should be close enough.
We are invited to Tusen Takk II this evening for sundowners and snacks. When I patched the dinghy this morning, it was pretty deflated and I left it that way so the patch could cure. When we were ready to go to Tusen Takk, I thought it looked even flatter, which made me worry that maybe there was another leak somewhere. I pumped it up and we headed over to Tusen Takk at 17:00. Tusen Takk II is a Kadey Krogen 48 North Sea. It is about seven years old, but Chuck & Barb keep it immaculate, and it looks brand new. Chuck had just finished re-varnishing the cap rail today, so we had to be careful not to put fingerprints in the soft varnish. We were joined by Fred & Kathy from Makai, Mike & Jackie from Gypsy Dancer, and Paul & Maggie from Island Time, whom we had not met before. Everybody brought an appetizer and Barb (from Tusen Takk) made two pizzas that were excellent. It was great catching up with Chuck & Barb again, as we hadn't seen them other than to say hi in passing since they got here. When we were ready to return to the boat, I was thrilled to see that the dinghy was still hard! The patch worked.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 29
Today we are taking a ferry to St. Vincent for a tour. I know, we have our own boat, so why take a ferry? Well, St. Vincent has a couple of nice anchorages, and also several that are questionable due to security and boat boys who hassle you. Since the ferry is cheap, we figured we'd just tour St. Vincent while the boat is safely here and not stop in St. Vincent with our boat. The ferry leaves at 08:30, so we left the boat a little before 08:00. We locked the dinghy up at the main town dock and walked towards the ferry dock. I wanted to get some more cash before we left, and was surprised to see a line of more than twenty people waiting outside the RBTT bank waiting for it to open. I don't use RBTT ATM's unless they are the only choice, since they have a reputation of ripping you off. Many people have had the problem where the ATM doesn't give you the cash, but your account still gets charged, and also many people have had their card information skimmed and then used elsewhere. I went around the corner to the NCB bank and found nobody in line and the ATM working fine. I got my cash and headed for the ferry. Maybe the people in line at RBTT are pissed off people that the ATM ripped off over the holiday weekend.
At the ferry, we met Fred &Kathy from Makai, Craig & Liz from Salida, and Don & Devin from Liquid Courage. We learned from them that we had missed some excitement in the anchorage last night. I'm not sure if it happened while we were on Tusen Takk II, or after we got back to our boat and went to bed, but another boat had broken it's mooring and drifted through the anchorage. Salida guessed that it came near our boat based on their vantage point. A couple of the boat boys raced out and got aboard and re-secured it. The VHF wasn't on while we were on Tusen Takk II, and we never turned ours on when we got back to the boat, so we missed it all.
We paid our round trip fare of $30 EC each and went aboard. The ferries here are all old Scandinavian ferries. You can tell that because the original Scandinavian names were welded into the steel, and have just been painted over. These ferries carry cars and trucks, freight, and people. They have big ramps at the stern that fold down onto the pavement of the dock for loading. There are several passenger areas. Downstairs, below the car deck is an air conditioned lounge with a TV where there is a bar and smoking is allowed. Above the car deck and forward is another air conditioned non-smoking lounge with TV. The aft half of the second level is an open air seating area that is covered by a canvas roof and has roll-up canvas sides for inclement weather. You can also go up to the bridge level and stand along the rail out in the open. Most passengers sit in the open area in back. The wind has been blowing over twenty knots every day for the past two weeks, so the seas are quite big out in the open water. Bequia is about eight miles south of St. Vincent, and there is nothing but open Atlantic out there. Before we even rounded the tip of Bequia, we were feeling the swell increase and the boat started to rise and fall making huge splashes with it's bow as it did. Fred and I went up on the top level where we were in the wind and could watch the seas. Once we were clear of Bequia and headed north, the seas were at least ten to twelve feet. The seas came from the northeast, so we not only would rise and then crash into the trough, but sometimes roll side to side quite a bit. To walk around on deck you put on a show like the town drunk and grabbed for the next stationary object as fast as you could. I didn't see anybody get sick, but you could tell some people weren't enjoying the ride. The trip takes an hour, and by the time we got there, I had enough of the movement, even though I had been up in the fresh air the whole time.
We had arranged our tour through Sam's Taxi, and our driver Roger was waiting for us in the ferry terminal parking lot. Kathy had made the arrangements, and they had insisted that we pick one of their canned tours, so we had picked the Dark Falls six-hour trip. Once we were all aboard the van, Roger asked us which tour we were planning on doing. We figured he would have known that already, but he didn't. We said we wanted to see Dark Falls, and the Pirates of the Caribbean sets at Wallilabou. Wallilabou wasn't part of the Dark Falls trip according to the brochure, but you go right by it, so it made sense to us. Roger was fine with that. The main city in St. Vincent is Kingstown, and it is quite a large city. We made our way through the city traffic slowly, and finally got out of town. From Kingstown there are two main roads, one up the west coast and one up the east coast. There are no roads that cross the island, other than on the south coast in Kingstown. We are going up the west coast today. This is where several anchorages are, although these are the anchorages that have questionable security. The road up the coast is similar to the road up Grenada's west coast, in that you climb over the mountain and then drop down into the next town which is built at a bay. Then you will climb up over the mountain again and drop down into the next bay. This goes on and on and is not a ride for those who easily get car sick. While I don't normally have a problem sitting in back in a van like this, after the ferry ride I was feeling a bit queasy by the time we got to Wallilabou. We turned off the road down a narrow steep driveway where a sign welcomed us to the "Home of Pirates of the Caribbean". The first movie was shot here in 2003. My overall impression of the place was disappointing. There is a bar and restaurant there that was in many scenes, and it has lots of props from the movie as decorations. There is a building that looks like a stable, that isn't really a building at all. It is just a facade which is held up with scaffolding behind it. What looks like old stone blocks are really plastic. There are a bunch of coffins there that were featured in the movie, and they look like they are wooden, but closer inspection reveals that they are thin fiberglass. Further along the beach is a large building that looks like it is stone blocks with big wooden doors, but in the archways, you see sliding glass doors a couple of feet behind the front. This was a small hotel that they built the false front on. I couldn't tell if the hotel still operates at all or not, and what looks like it once was shops on the first floor, is just storage now. We did peek in an open door and saw a curious sight. There were shelves that had at least a hundred ancient telephones on them. These were big black desk phones that did not have dials. They were from the era when you just picked up the phone and an operator made the call for you. What was probably the switchboard was there too. This would not have had anything to do with the movie, so why it is here was a mystery. Off the north end of the beach was a structure out in the water that has a gallows on it. If you bring your boat here, the boat boys have you drop your anchor and then they take a line to this structure, so every boat is then stern to the beach. The allure is that now you are tied up to part of the set from the movie. It looked like a terrible option to me, and I was very glad we are seeing it by car and not boat. As I said, all in all it was a let down for us.
The next stop on the trip is Dark View Falls. It is further north, and almost to the end of the road. We drove up a narrow side road alongside a massive wooden pipe. The pipe carries water from up in the mountains to a power generating plant. It is made out of wooden planks that are bound together by steel hoops like a barrel. We saw a couple of places where there were little streams spraying out of leaks in it, but it was mostly watertight. At the end of the road was a parking area, and bathrooms where we could change into our bathing suits. The guys all changed, but the ladies passed. The first challenge to get to the falls is to cross a bamboo suspension bridge over a small river. The fact that there were three guys working on repairing the bridge didn't inspire confidence in it. We all crossed the bridge, but we never had more than two people at a time on it. It probably could carry more weight, but the more people at a time were on it, the more it moved around. From the bridge it was only a few hundred feet up a trail to the falls. After initial picture taking, the guys all waded out and stood under the falling water. It was quite cold water, but not take-your-breath-away cold like I expected. There was a lower pool that looked like it would be deep, but when we waded out there we found it was full of mud and small stones, and was only knee deep. We dried off and walked back to the van via the bridge again.
When we left the falls, it was 12:30, so we stopped in Chateaubelair for lunch. The restaurant was right on the beach. Our first disappointment was they were out of Hairoun beer. That's the local beer that is in 275ml bottles. All they had was Heineken in the little 250ml cans. We refer to those as beer shots. We ordered a round and then ordered our food. A few of us got fish and chips. Fish and chips in the islands is not like in the US. The fish will be a thin steak of some type of fish that has been deep fried, bone in. That's not necessarily bad, but these were fried to the point of being leather. The fries were good though. A couple people had rotis that were ok, and a couple had chicken and chips, and the chicken was pretty overdone too. We had quite a few of the little beers, and at least they were cold.
We left Chateaubelair about 14:00 for the ride back to Kingstown. It's deceiving how a tour that covers only two points of interest and less than twenty miles can take six hours, but when you see the roads you understand. Unlike Grenada, where the roads were in quite good condition for the most part, the roads here are full of pot holes and narrow. Of course they are so twisty and hilly also, that if you ever get over twenty mph, you're lucky. On the way back, a potty break was requested, and Roger stopped at the next police station. Apparently that's not an unusual request, and probably was the most exciting thing that happened in Layou that day. When we got back into Kingstown, Roger took us to the Sam's Taxi office so we could pay for our tour. The girl wanted to know what name to put on the receipt, and had trouble understanding that we didn't need a receipt so she could put whatever she wanted on it. Then she multiplied the $91 EC per person rate times eight and told us a total. Of course we wanted to pay as couples, which totally screwed her up. She was totally flustered at how to figure this out, and I finally took control and told her exactly who to give how much change to etc. Once that was resolved, Roger took us back to the ferry terminal. We considered hanging around Kingstown for an extra two hours and getting the next ferry, but opted instead to get on the 16:00 ferry which will be leaving in a few minutes.
The ride back was not as rough as the ride over, although we still rolled around some. The seas weren't any smaller, but now we were going with them, so we weren't slamming down in the troughs. We had a few beers on the return trip, but sat out on the open aft deck, not down in the bottom of the ship where the bar is. When we got off, we went across the street from the ferry terminal for a couple of drinks at The Bistro. After that, everybody except Fred & Kathy went to Tommy Cantina for dinner. I learned since our last visit here, that if you want stuff like sour cream, you have to ask for it and pay a little extra, but they have it. The food was better than last time, but it still ain't Texas.
We finally walked back to the main dock and found our fully inflated dinghy and headed home. We had new neighbors, but they weren't too close, so all was well.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 30
I was up a little before 08:00 to host the Coconut Telegraph this morning. The weather guy has been on vacation between Christmas and New Years, and his stand-in broadcasts at the same time as our net, so I don't have to get up as early, but also we have fewer people checking in because they want to listen to the weather instead. We charged batteries, and I updated the log, while Barb read. A ton of boats left here this morning. The wind is finally abating a little, but I would be giving it at least another day to let the seas calm down myself. Around lunchtime, we dinghied in to Frangipani for lunch and internet. We found several friends there as usual.
After lunch, we headed back to the boat to drop off the computer, and then met Seabbatical over on Princess Margaret Beach, where Barb is going to trim Lynn's hair. Barb has made Lynn aware of the fact that she doesn't know how to properly cut hair, and only does mine because a buzz cut with electric clippers is hard to mess up. Mike and I sat safely in Jack's Bar enjoying a cold one, while Lynn and Barb went down the beach a little ways to snip. When they returned, the hair looked acceptable, and Lynn had a new necklace that she just bought from Willie, the guy who rows around the anchorage each day. Mike had told me that Lynn was bummed because she had just broken a favorite necklace this morning. I mentioned that if she was going to replace it, this was the beach to do it on since Willie's table is here. Well, Barb & Lynn stopped at Willie's table to look. Barb asked Willie if he enjoyed the fudge, and he lit up when he recognized her as the person who gave it to him. He introduced his grand-daughter and said she enjoyed it too.
After another beer, we went back to the boat. It was about 15:00 when we got back, and looking west we saw a huge parade of boats coming towards the harbor. Today has been the first acceptable travel day in a while, and lots of people are taking advantage of it. At least as many boats are coming in this afternoon as left this morning. The boat boys were racing around trying to get each new boat to take a mooring, and the guy on Move On was doing his usual yelling and telling people they can't anchor and must take a mooring. It was quite a circus for a while.
We had a quiet evening aboard, with a nice homemade dinner. We have too many good choices of places to eat out here, and have either been having dinner out, or large lunches out and skipping dinner most of the time we've been here. It was nice to have a simple dinner at home.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.
Dec 31
We had a fitful night, but for entirely new reasons. For the past ten days the wind has been honking and we have bounced around or been rolling side to side, and we've had to worry about boats breaking lose and hitting us. Last night was the opposite. The wind died entirely. At first it was a wonderful calm sleep like you dream of and see in the Tourism Board advertisements. But then the tide changed, so boats started drifting around in odd directions relative to one another since there was no wind to hold them steady. The first indication we had that something was odd was when we heard the knocking on the bow of the boat. Our mooring ball apparently wanted to come in because it kept knocking and knocking. We were drifting up over the mooring, so the ball which normally is out in front of the bow several feet was now alongside. The dinghy, which I tie alongside at night, was also turned around against the bow of the boat contributing to the noise. I looked around and saw that every boat was pointing in different directions. Luckily for us, we didn't have anybody anchor too close yesterday, but even with all our neighbors on moorings, the spacing of the moorings pretty much counts on everybody swinging the same direction. I went back to bed, but now every few minutes I would look out the window to see where we were. I dozed a few minutes but then woke up to the sound of water splashing on a hull close by, and it wasn't ours. I looked out to see the stern of the boat in front of us about twenty feet away. I got up again and went to fend off if necessary. We had turned around entirely backwards from how we normally point, and the other boat hadn't, so we were coming close stern to stern. We didn't get any closer, and slowly drifted apart, but now I was nervous, so I spent the next hour or so in the cockpit awake, watching the dance. I guess the good news is that if you bump, there is no speed involved and probably nothing would be damaged, but you still hate to even bump. After an hour, a slight breeze started to blow again, so everybody started slowly getting back in line. I went below and slept a few more hours, but lightly.
A big freighter came in and anchored in the back of the pack last night just before we went to bed. It is still there this morning, and I'm just waiting to see where it is going to go. I think it's too big to go on the dock, but there are boats anchored around the big moorings that the tanker uses each week who would have to move if the big ship is going to use them. Maybe the big ship is just off duty for the holiday and came to watch the fireworks tonight. Around lunchtime, the Port Authority made an announcement on the radio that several sailboats that have anchored way up in the northeast corner of the bay will have to move by tomorrow morning at 09:00 because the weekly tanker is coming in. This ought to be interesting to see how many move voluntarily.
We went to shore for lunch and groceries around noon. We had lunch at The Bistro. We have had drinks there a couple of times, but not food. Barb had conch fritters, which were way too salty, almost as if they had mistaken a tablespoon for a teaspoon in the batter. I had a bacon cheeseburger that was ok, but not great. I can't recommend this as a great place, although it's a nice looking place.
After lunch we hit the grocery store for a few things. At one of the stores, there were four old men inside having a lively debate about what constitutes the exact time to celebrate New Years. One insisted that it was England time because that was where Greenwich Mean Time is. Another insisted it was New Zealand time because that's where the International Date Line is (I don't know if that's correct or not). Another insisted it was New York time because it wasn't New Years until the ball dropped. The fourth just kept shaking his head and laughing, saying that it was local time wherever you are. I wished them all a Happy New Year whenever they celebrated it. We remembered to bring our roll-behind cart this time, so my back was not killing me by the time we got back to the dinghy. Town was very busy, and the dinghy docks were all crowded. I guess everybody is getting ready for the big night tonight. We even heard somebody already blowing on a noisemaker at 14:00.
We see boats with cute names frequently. More often we see ones that we have no clue what the mane means. My brother once suggested I could write a book about boat names and what they meant. We figured for the ones I didn't know the meaning of I could make up stuff. A catamaran came in today and took a mooring near us. It first caught our attention because it is a Gunboat, which is very large and has a distinctive look. When I looked through the binoculars, I saw the hailing port was Las Vegas. Then I saw the name on the bow. It was Looking for Elvis. To make it even funnier, they have a dinghy named Priscilla. Gotta love someone with a sense of humor.
I did do one boat fixing task today. While we were in the Tobago Cays, the tachometer quit working. Normally that wouldn't be all that big a deal, but it was annoying when we had the fuel problem coming in here to not be able to see for sure that we were losing rpm as opposed to just hearing things. Today, I followed the wire from the terminal block near the engine, to the little alternator where it senses the rpm. I found the wire to be burned and almost disconnected where it goes in the alternator. This should be an easy fix. I pulled the wire off, cut about an inch off the end to where there was good clean copper and put a new connector on it. I plugged it in and had Barb start the motor. No tach reading. I wiggled the wire and still got nothing. Thinking perhaps something inside the alternator fried, I figured I would just hook it to the other alternator. It has a wire for a tach that is not connected. I ran an extra couple of feet of wire to the other side of the motor and hooked it up. Barb fired up the motor and still no tach. Also, after the motor ran a minute the new wire got very hot. So, back to the little alternator, I got a mirror so I could see the connection point to see if it looked burned. It didn't, so I just plugged in the wire again. Barb started the motor and the tach worked. Maybe when I plugged it in the first time the blade went alongside the female part instead of inside it. I don't know, but it works now.
Late in the afternoon, the Port Authority made an announcement again on the radio about moving the boats that are anchored where the tanker anchors. This time he was asking the boat boys to "move your customers". The boat boys seemed to ignore him, and a few made fun of him. So much for the "authority" part. An hour or so later, a couple of the boats did move. Of course by then their other options were limited, as the harbor has become extremely full.
Several of our friends are going to be moving on tomorrow for St. Lucia. Makai and Salida are planning on departing in the wee hours so they can arrive in St. Lucia before dark. We saw them on the street after lunch and said our goodbyes. You never know in this lifestyle when or where or if you will see friends again. We made the decision to stay here another ten days or so. We are waiting on a package again, this one containing the correct filters that I should have gotten with the last package, and a new USB to serial port adapter for the satellite phone to hook to the computer. The one I have does not work right with Vista and causes the computer to crash frequently. The manufacturer has not made a Vista driver for it, so I have to replace it with another brand. I could have our forwarding service hold the package and ship it to St. Lucia instead, but I still have to clean what's left of the fuel also, so we aren't ready to go in the next day or two. Besides, we really like it here. Once we had made that decision, we needed to tell Ashley, our boat boy, that we would be staying on the mooring. We flagged him down the next time we saw him nearby and asked if it would be ok to stay on the mooring another ten days. He said it would, so I asked if I should pay him in advance or work it out when we decided exactly when we were leaving. He said we could pay him "next year". We gave him a beer and wished him a happy New Year.
Last night, there was a catamaran several hundred feet off our starboard side that was party central. There were at least four couples on board and they were singing and dancing and whooping and hollering late into the night. I don't know if they had their days mixed up or if they were just practicing. They have been quiet all day, but late in the afternoon they started preparing for tonight's party. We can see through the binoculars that they have the cockpit decorated with various things and they have started blowing up balloons and hanging them all over the boat. When they were done with the balloons, there looked like there may be enough to keep it afloat if it started to sink. While it looks fun, the problem with the balloons is that eventually they will all get popped, and most of the bits of rubber will end up in the water where it could easily look like a tasty morsel to a fish or turtle. As the night wore on, the party on the cat didn't seem quite as vigorous as last night, but they were still having fun.
There is a boat anchored in front of us that is pretty close. When we swing to the east, their stern is about fifteen feet from our bow. When we swing northeast, they look ok, but if the wind dies down we could have a problem. They are close enough that we got to watch them dispatch four lobsters that they are going to have for dinner. A common way to prepare lobster here is to cut the whole thing lengthwise from head to tail and then grill the halves. The guy was on his swim platform with a big knife doing the cutting in half while we all watched. Of course the lobsters didn't think much of this and put up a fight. I imagine a local would have done the job with one well aimed whack of a machete, but his guy was slowly hacking his way through with a big kitchen knife.
The anchorage has gotten as crowded as we have seen it all month. All the moorings were taken by early afternoon, and people kept making their way up front and anchoring in places I wouldn't even consider. A few boats are rafted together, which is not a bad idea in crowded conditions as long as you trust the anchor or mooring you are on. Every dinghy dock was packed before dark, and dinghies kept going in throughout the evening. There were several sources of music coming from shore, the loudest and earliest being under the almond trees by the main dock. I never did hear Auld Lang Sine played, not even the reggae version which I heard here on Christmas. It probably was at some of the restaurant functions, but the bass of the DJ in town pretty much prevailed in the anchorage.
Our plan is to have a nice dinner aboard, relax in the cockpit, probably fall asleep, and then be awakened by the fireworks at midnight. The plan went pretty much as expected with a couple exceptions. Barb made us a nice dinner, of pork chops, leftover stuffing from Christmas, and green beans. At 19:00 a bunch of boats started blowing horns and yelling. A couple even fired off aerial emergency flares (more on that later). It took us a minute, but we realized that these were the European boats and it was midnight in Europe. After a few minutes they quieted down and we went back to taking in all the sounds and traffic in the anchorage. At 20:00 there was another round of horns and yelling. New Years in England. After that, things calmed down a little. Not to say the music or activity got any less, just nothing unusual happened. We both fell asleep in the cockpit as expected. I woke up about ten minutes before midnight as if my internal alarm clock had gone off. I woke Barb and we moved our seats to the foredeck to have a good view of the fireworks. We listened for any change in the music from the beach, hoping for a countdown or something to know exactly when the stroke of midnight was. We never heard any change in the music though, and just knew it was midnight when boats started honking and yelling.
The fireworks started promptly at midnight. They were being fired from a barge that has been here for a couple of weeks. We have heard that the last few years, the fireworks were not much to write home about, but that this year a full fifteen minute show was promised and it was supposed to be the best ever. It was about fifteen minutes, and having not been here before I can't argue if it was the best ever. It was however a little less than I expected. The fireworks were the kind that you can buy yourself in some parts of the US. They were the high end of what you can buy, but they were not professional grade fireworks. They were pretty, but they didn't have any altitude or volume. Those of you who live in parts of the US where you can't buy fireworks may have never seen anything but a professional show, so you can't envision what I mean. We were only a quarter mile from the launch site, and we looked across the water at the show, not up in the air. You never heard the dull thud of the launch, and there were no chest thumping concussions from the aerial explosions. I don't mean to belittle it too much, as I'm sure the organizers spent a lot of time and money putting on the show, and it was nice. It just wasn't what I was hoping for.
Now the subject of flares. I hate to be a party pooper, and I like to see everybody have a good time. However, shooting aerial emergency parachute flares for fun in a very crowded anchorage is just plain stupid. Last year somebody shot one in Clarke's Court Bay and it hit our mast and fortunately bounced into the water next to the boat and not onto our canvas cockpit enclosure. In the US, anybody caught burning an emergency flare for fun in an area where there is a Coast Guard presence would be asking for a nice big fine. I mentioned before that the "authority" here is lacking, and thus people think this is a license to toss their common sense in the drink. (There's probably an analogy there. The common sense went in the drinks they had earlier and now there's none left.) People who think this is harmless fun will argue that the flares go out before they hit the water, or a boat. That was true of about 75% of the thirty or so fired off last night. That means eight or nine of them could have landed on a boat still burning. At a minimum this would leave a nasty mark on the boat, and worse case set it afire or burn the occupants who would be madly trying to deal with the flare. We happened to be in the lucky position in the bay where about 25% of the flares landed within a few hundred feet of us. I would accuse somebody of aiming for us, except that's also part of the problem - you have little control where the flare is going except up. There was a substantial wind blowing last night which carried the flares well out into the anchorage with no control of where they landed. Enough bah humbug. If anybody reading this would consider firing flares for fun, please think twice.
Happy New Year everybody. May it be a good one for all.
GPS N 13000.049 W 061-14.372 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9642.