A fabulous time with Dick & Cathy

On Jan.13, 2024, we were preparing for a visit from our good friends Dick R. and Cathy P., when a fuel leak was detected in the bilge, just as the boating gods would have it! Fortunately, Andrew was able to trouble shoot it, thinking he may have over filled the day fuel tank since its’ gauges and refueling system weren’t working properly. The boat didn’t smell too much like diesel when our guests arrived (at least not to us)!! We celebrated their arrival (in the rain; of course, the first deluge in weeks) with dinner at Victory Bar & Restaurant at Port Louis Marina.

The next day, after a banana pancake breakfast on board, we took the dinghy to St. George’s, where we walked up to the fort, the fresh market, the Chocolate Store and my favorite shop in the islands (Art Fabrik, which was closed… ugh)! We picked up fresh ingredients for Andrew to make his fish in vanilla cream sauce specialty that he created last season after having it at a French restaurant in Martinique.

The weather looked “sporty” with 20-25 on the nose going north and 6-8 foot seas, but knowing we had competent sailors on board with us, we set out for Carriacou the next day. Andrew said it would take 4-5 hours but with the conditions as they were, it took 7! We arrived at Paradise Beach around 5pm, too late (and too rough) to snorkel but we jumped in for a quick swim, took naps and enjoyed cocktails before dinner. I made a chicken curry that I got from the book “ Embarrassment of Mangos”, which tuned out pretty good (if I may say so)!!

The following day, we moved the boat to Tyrell Bay in Carriacou to check out of Grenada and head to The Grenadines. Hoping to show Dick & Cathy a bit of the town, we decided to walk from the ferry dock to the Customs dock and back. It was a long, hot walk and by the time we arrived, the Customs agents were taking lunch. Fortunately, there is a good restaurant right there, where we enjoyed cold beers and fish & chips. We were still waiting for Customs after lunch but eventually got thru and went back to the boat. Cathy prepared a very yummy cassoulet that evening for dinner.

We woke up the next morning to a squall, waited for the storm to pass and set off for Union Island where we had to check in to The Grenadines. We had almost made it to Clifton when the engine surged and then shut off! Remember that day fuel tank from earlier? It’s supposed to auto fill but we had turned it off since it wasn’t working properly. We didn’t check the gauge before we left and ran out of fuel! Once again, Andrew’s skills came to the rescue and he was able to re-fill the day tank, re-prime and restart the engine but by then we had sailed almost all the way to Chatham Bay and decided to anchor there. We bought a ridiculously over priced, (but fresh, at least I hope) tuna from Dr. G, who was right on us in his skiff with an offer to take our papers to customs as well. But we knew Seckie, from last season, who runs a restaurant in Chatham Bay with his wife, Vanessa, and he was able to take our papers over to Clifton for Customs, so we could settle in for cocktails and a swim. We saw Leon (s/v Nomad, from last season in Antigua) on the AIS and Daryl & Wendy (s/v Scirocco, from this season in Trinidad) in the harbor, so we invited them all to join us at Seckie & Vanessa’s for dinner that evening on the beach.

With the wind still howling out of the north, the next day we decided on a short hop to Mayreau, where we initially anchored in the ill-defined ferry channel. After the first ferry blared its’ horn and put up a good wake close to our stern on the way in and then across our bow on the way out, we got the picture and moved (even though there were at least 3 other boats closer to where we thought the channel was. I guess they weren’t on board to intimidate!). Safely out of the way of boat traffic, we took the dinghy in for a walk about on the island. First stop was Lola’s Bar by the dinghy dock, then a walk to Ranch Escapade on the western beach, overlooking Tobago Cays. It’s a beautiful spot we found last year for pina coladas but this time we stayed for lunch too. Back on board that afternoon we had swims, naps, reading time & cocktails before Andrew whipped up some tuna ceviche for dinner.

One of our main objectives was to get Dick & Cathy to the northern most Grenadine island of Bequia but we were waiting for a good day for the long(ish) run. The next day, it blew a pretty solid 20 knots but with enough wind coming out of the east, we could reach a good long way before we had to motor sail into the wind to make Admiralty Bay. On the way, we had leftover ceviche wraps, a new invention for offshore provisioning.

On arrival, we grabbed a mooring from Daffodil, and set the dinghy to go into town. We walked around, visited the gourmet grocery, Bequia clothing and a few other shops before opting for a cold drink overlooking Elizabeth Harbor upstairs at The Chameleon Cafe. That evening, we had dinner at Open Deck (off Daffodils), where the ladies ordered deliciously tender octopus and the guys had lamb ragou (reportedly very good as well); probably the best meal we’d had so far despite very good eating every day!!

The next day we did almost nothing, which was perfect given the traveling we had been doing. We got some laundry done, the boys bought cigars in town, we swam, napped, read and ate all our meals on board. 

Some of us stayed up a bit too late and we got a late start the next morning but it was gusty and rainy and nothing to rush out in. We were headed for Tobago Cays but the weather was not cooperating! We wanted to take Dick & Cathy snorkeling to see the turtles in the sanctuary there but the conditions were not good. I went in the choppy, cloudy water with Dick and saw maybe two turtles when last time I was here, they were all over the place. However, it may be the wrong season too since I saw far more giant starfish this time (in January) than I did last time (in April). Because the weather remained crappy, we decided to have our lobster dinner delivered on board instead of going into the beach, which was a brilliant decision, especially when it started pouring right after the meal arrived!! I don’t have a lot of pictures but this is the one I regret not taking the most: we had 6 large stuffed lobsters halves, fried plantains, baked potatoes, grilled vegetables and banana bread for dessert and it was scrumptuous!! 

It was time to head further south, check out of The Grenadines and sail back to Grenada. It blew gusts to 30 knots for two days as we made our way back. We arrived at Prickly Bay on 1/24, after a nice downwind sail from Union Island. The morning of the 25th, we had lobster scrambled eggs (it was supposed to be a frittata but I messed up) on the boat before catching a cab to St. George’s to check in. We found Art Fabrik open this time and enjoyed lunch and splits at The West Indies Brewery to celebrate Dick & Cathy’s last evening on board. The next day, they flew out on the 4pm flight right over our heads in Prickly Bay. It was a fabulous, fine eating and sailing adventure and we are so glad they made the trip!!!

Two weeks in Grenada

12/4/23 - For the last few weeks, Andrew and I have been hanging out in Grenada with no major boat issues other than monitoring the charge held by the house batteries to see if they need to be replaced. At first, we were anchored off Grande Anse Beach outside of Port Louis Marina in St. George’s, where we caught up with good friends Edwin & Karen on s/v Frog’s Leap, while they made a pit stop to buy and install a new windvane. We enjoyed cocktails and the beautiful sunset together!

On Thanksgiving Day, we made plans to meet up with our Canadian friends, Mike & Alison on s/v Zola, at a French restaurant on Coconut Beach. When we got there, we didn’t find the French restaurant but we found our friends at a table in a lively Caribbean place. The food was good but clearly not French! Apparently, the French restaurant was around the corner on the beach.

On Nov 24th, we moved the boat around the southeast corner of the island to True Blue Bay, where we found a nice protected anchorage with no swell and only one other boat. We were a short dinghy ride from the very cute True Blue Bay Marina & Boutique Resort, complete with dock space for a boat or two, a few moorings, a nice restaurant & bar, bakery, pool, spa and a very rickety dock! 

Everyday we came to shore, we walked like drunks on the shaky dock and tried not to entertain the naked couple sitting in the cockpit of their boat at the dock, as if there were nothing unusual going on. They tried to hide things with their computers, books or knitting, but they weren’t fooling us!

Andrew and I had a nice lunch and brunch at the resorts’ Dodgy Dock Restaurant, admiring Billy Ruff’n in the distance and always entertained by the birds trying to share our meal. On board, we entertained ourselves by using up all our data, primarily to watch the Eagles beat Buffalo, and then had to find a ride to the mall to re-up our hotspot.

We arranged an island tour with a taxi driver named Albert, whom we had met last spring. He took us to his favorite stops, where people he knew offered him free drinks and referrals for cab rides, I suppose! I enjoyed letting a guide feed the Mona monkey (only found in Grenada and the African country where they originated) on my shoulder and swimming in the waterfall at Annandale Falls. 

Andrew and I both enjoyed the tour of the Rivers Rum Distillery, where they still make rum mostly the way it was made in the mid 1800’s, using the original sugar cane press and ladling the slurry by hand. The result is 150 proof ‘fire water’ that you are not allowed to take on an airplane… We bought two bottles!

We took Albert off his normal route to the western shore to visit Mt. Edgecomb Plantation, a boutique hotel & restaurant with an infinity pool and a fabulous view of the Caribbean Sea. The food was good, albeit the menu was limited and Albert was intent on telling us that we could have had much better food & selection with larger proportions for half the price, if we had gone for lunch where he normally takes his clients (and he’s probably right). Oh well, you never know if you don’t go (and the view alone was worth it)!

The next day, Andrew and I had a most excellent full body massage at the Spa at True Blue Bay, followed by a walk to St. George’s University campus, where I have decided to go to medical school (in my next life). On the way to the campus, I met a local artist, selling his paintings on the street and visited The Container Park, a fast food court on the waterfront, with every kind of meal a group of international students could possibly want. I returned to the boat with chicken & lamb schwarma from the best Lebanese restaurant in Grenada.

One day when Andrew preferred to keep himself occupied with a head (“bathroom” for you landlubbers) project, I took the opportunity to go snorkeling at the world famous Moliniere Underwater Sculpture Park, which apparently has 31 new statutes this year, joining the 75 already in place. It was pretty cool but unfortunately the only underwater evidence I have is a video on our Go Pro, which I am technologically unable to post here. Below is a picture of the boat we went in and a picture of some scuba divers we went with, which we thought were whales when they surfaced next to the boat.

On Dec 1st, we moved to another new (for us) anchorage at Calivigny Cut, off Clark’s Court Bay, on the southern end of the island, where we anchored next to our friends, Darell & Wendy on s/v Sirocco. The breeze there was awesome, with the wind generator and batteries fully supporting our power needs, and there was no swell, given we were in the lee of a reef. 

We dinghied in to Whisper Cove Marina & restaurant for a lunch of pumpkin & ginger soup w/ fresh marlin salad and then over to the sailmaker’s loft and The Treasure Trove (boater’s candy shop) in Woburn Bay. The moonlit evenings were beautiful as was the lit up resort on the shore of the Cut.

One day, Andrew and I dinghied in to the other side of the cut where Phare Blue Bay Resort has a Santa Claus welcoming you to the marina, a restaurant, pool, coffee shop and the Meat & Meet Gourmet Food Store. We stocked up with $100 worth of pate, cheese, French bread and chicken tornanados. The next day, Wendy and I returned to enjoy a drink at the the pool and the Christmas Bazaar, offering beautiful fabrics, hand made jewelry and locally written books for sale. I couldn’t resist the book titled “White Spice”, particularly when I found out the author, D. E. Ambrose, went to Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, where both my parents graduated. Small world!

Currently, we are one week away from flying home for the holidays. We are in Prickly Bay, where we have access to more good restaurants, a brewery, half- price pizza night, a laundromat, a small grocery and a butcher. We will spend the time getting some service providers out to the boat to review boat projects and maintenance while we are away. In the meantime, the weather is 79-83 degrees, mostly sunny, occasional showers and always a steady breeze! Not a bad place to wait out the winter!!

On to Grenada!

After almost 3 weeks of boat preparation, we were ready to head off to our first port of call for the season, except Andrew came down with a severe sore throat and we had to spend the next few days getting him back into shape. One of Jesse James’ drivers took us to the local clinic at West Shore where, with great efficiency, the on call doctor declared it a virus and gave Andrew scripts for pain meds and antibiotics (just in case it wasn’t).

While Andrew was recuperating, I took the opportunity to get to know more about Trinidad and the community. I met Chickie, who sets up her tent outside of Powerboats every weekday and makes the best chicken and roast beef sandwiches ever, enhanced with her homemade cheese, pumpkin or spinach spread, salad and tamarind & other hot sauces. They are so popular, she sells out for lunch by 10:30-11am. It took me another few days to get that right once I learned to pick up my sandwiches at 9:30 in the morning!

On Nov. 12th, the Hindu community in Trinidad celebrated Diwali, a Festival of Lights honoring the victory of light over darkness and good over evil. Jesse James organized 3 bus loads of yachties to go to the village of Felicity, where local families gathered to light candles, create sand art in the streets, dress up in their finest and enjoy a meal together. We were greeted at the local school by 3 musicians beating out a persistent thud with their drums & cymbal, in order to welcome us. Then we walked around the corner and took off our shoes to enter the nearby Hindu temple, adorned with elaborately decorated elephants, monkeys and painted ladies, set up as tributes to the various gods.

After snacking on roti and drinks provided by Jesse, we walked around town in the rain, visiting with locals that were handing out treats, and singing & dancing in the streets while the children set off fire crackers. Even Jesse’s family joined us to participate in the celebration. 

Once Andrew was fully mended, we were watching the weather and looking for our next window to leave. It eventually came down to leaving on a Sunday, with a better weather window but requiring overtime payments at Customs and no opportunity to buy duty free rum vs. waiting till Monday, with slightly lighter breeze but avoiding fees and having more rum! What would you do? Well, once our dock neighbors (s/v Zola and s/v Felicity) confirmed that they were leaving Monday, we opted to make it a convoy!

On 11/20 at 11am, we left the dock at Power Boats and headed for Scotland Bay, on the northwestern end of Trinidad, where we anchored and went for a swim, had some lunch and lay down for a nap while we waited for our convoy to convene. Felicity arrived around 2:30 and eventually Zola motored by at our intended departure time of 4pm, enabling us to avoid overtime fees and make an overnight passage to Grenada that had us arriving at daylight. The passage was thankfully uneventful and a beautiful moonlit evening sail, cruising along at 7-7.5 knots in a steady 15 - 20 breeze. Except for being a little lumpy and stirring up my stomach, it was an easy crossing. We slowed ourselves down, picked up a mooring around 7am and took a nap. We were up around lunchtime to blow up and launch the dinghy, check in with Customs, do a little provisioning and go back to the boat for another nap.

Today, the day before Thanksgiving, we are grateful to be her, mooring off of St. George’s and Grande Anse beach in Grenada and planning some adventures before we fly home for Christmas. We’ll keep you posted…

Hello season 5!

Since my last blog on June 5, 2023, we have had a busy summer, hanging out in Devon, Pa., cleaning out & selling my mom’s house and visiting friends & family in Newport, RI, S. Dartmouth, MA and Vail, CO. It was great to be home and catch up with everyone but the adventure bug always beckons and by Oct. 19th, we were up at 3am to board a 5:30am flight to Miami that connected with our flight to Trinidad, landing us in Port of Spain at 2pm. Just like that, we kicked off our 5th season of adventure on Billy Ruff’n Sailing!

Of course, most of the adventure at first (for Andrew anyway) is identifying, following up on or working on projects! He was neck deep in it by the following day, toiling in 100 degree heat. Fortunately, we had a cool, air conditioned apartment to take respite in after the long days of cleaning, lubing and loading stuff back on the boat. 

One of my first jobs was to clean the moldy anchor locker. I neglected to get a before pic but here’s the after pic, complete with all the dirty rags it took to change the grayish-brown interior to a relatively, sparkling white!

It’s hard work but we try to enjoy the fabulous local food and fun community of sailors at Power Boats Marina, where we have been on the hard all summer. One of our favorite breakfast treats is Doubles (a humble sandwich of curried chickpeas stuffed into fried flat bread and drizzled with tamarind & coriander sauces, mango chutney and cucumber) and Saheena (spinach fritter made as hot as you can take it with split peas, spices & hot sauce). Not much to look at but as tasty as it gets!!

On Thursday nights, the sailors from Power Boats and other nearby marinas, gather at the Roti Hut for a barbecue. Everyone brings their own meat or fish for the grill and makes a dish to share. There are all sorts of salads, appetizers & desserts representing each boats attempt at a local delicacy or family favorite. I’ve made Trini Potato Salad twice now, which seems to go over well given how fast it disappears!

Meanwhile, our favorite painter, Rawle works steadily on the finishing touches of our bottom paint and Andrew sands and polishes the prop.

Most Friday nights, Jesse James, the local cruisers ambassador,  organizes a group to go to the Fish Fry, an open air market where multiple vendors sell all sorts of (you guessed it) fried fish, shrimp, conch fritters, potato’s, etc. We buy whatever looks good and share it with the table so you get a good sampling of what’s available, along with plenty of beer!

Andrew finds it difficult to tear himself away from the boat projects while I take every opportunity to enjoy the tours that Jesse James offers as a way to get to know the island. On the Taste of Trini Tour, eleven other cruisers and I joined Jesse for 12 hours of bumping around the country in his van, stopping at every roadside stand or shop as well as all his cousins houses and sampling over 60 different local foods, including cow heel soup, BBQ pigs snout, blood sausage, chicken feet and other gruesome sounding things, most of which tasted delicious!! Here’s Jesse introducing our first course and a few other pictures from the day…

One evening, Jesse took a group of us to a local pan drum 70th birthday party for one of the most famous pan drummers named Boogsie. The locals get dressed in their finest and dance to the beats of 4 different bands set up outside on four stages, until the wee hours of dawn. Andrew managed to get a selfie with the guest of honor before we left the party well past sailors midnight (at 11am).

Looking out over a sea of masts and plastic boat covers, I marvel at how the landscape will change over the next few days and weeks. Covers come off, boats are launched and soon the yard will look almost empty. The day before we were to go in the water, our friends’ boat (Roxy) was on the travel lift when it got a flat tire! The process to secure the boat back on stands, raise the lift (with a small jack mounted on a 3-legged metal stool), remove the 4 foot diameter tire and support the damaged appendage on a stack of blocks, was quite a hair-raising undertaking that took the rest of the day!!

Amazingly, we still got launched by 11am the next morning and continued to load & stowe all the stuff we had put in storage. We had a 3 foot high pile of treasures from the bilge that we had already given away but somehow we still had a cockpit full of lines, buckets, brushes, etc. to be stored somewhere on board!

I took another break to go on the Caroni Swamp Tour. Of course, it was the rainiest day so far for motoring thru a swamp looking for red & blue ibis, other birds, snakes and crabs, but we managed to see a lot! The most spectacular part was witnessing the evening ritual of thousands of Ibis flying in flocks by the hundreds to land on this one island, lighting it up like a Christmas tree with bright red ornaments.

Another unplanned highlight on the swamp tour was being treated to a performance by an up-and-coming rap star, Keem Fazo, who ending up sitting right next to me on our boat. The film crew with him wanted a video with Keem delivering his message of peace & love in the midst of “all these lovely white people”. I got a starring role in the video and got to chat with the young man afterward.

This week we are replacing our engine mounts in hopes of resolving the knocking sound we heard when we first fired her up after the long, hot summer. The plan is to head off to Grenada as soon as we are able to start the real sailing stories for the season. Stay posted!