Haul Out in Trinidad

Thursday, June 30, 2011

We removed the engine from the dinghy and then put the dinghy up on top of the boat. We

hoped to get fuel from Power Boats fuel dock but they said they were expecting a big boat so we had delayed our departure from Crew Inn after checking out. the electric bill for our stay at Crews Inn running the refrig and AC was only $21.00. Amazing! Then Power Boats called us back on VHF saying we could come in 5 minutes. We hustled and got there in 10 minutes and topped off our fuel tanks with 200 liters. That bill was not a bargain.

We moved the boat into the area for the haul out. We were met by the operator who asked Charlie where to put the slings. They were very considerate and attentive. We followed the hoist to the place they were going to set our boat. they put us at the end in the middle of the roadway between two rows of boats. Just as they were getting ready to put the supports up, we had a cloudburst. It rained off and on for several hours, but we were plugged into shore power and hooked up to water.

Several of the service providers came by the boat to inspect and give us estimates of their work. The sails were taken off using the halyard and electric winch sothey could finally be evaluated.

Our bags which we will take home were taken off the same way. They could not install the portable air conditioner until after the rain stopped and the top dried off. The bottom painter came by to inspect the hull and showed us blisters through the barrier coat and that based on the water line, either our boat heels to one side or the stripe was not painted in the correct location on one side.The water line was in the stripe on starboard side but several inches below the stripe on the port side. He will correct this when repainting. We finally stopped working about 5:30 p.m and finished off the Cream of Coconut

by making "Pain killers" for cocktail hour on the boat. We got to our apartment which has a nice kitchenette by 6 p.m. We emptied all the food from the refrigerator and freezer on the boat placing it in the apartment. We will use some of it but will donate most of it before we leave. We showered and went out to the restaurant "Sails" in Power

Boats yard. Charlie had 3 delicious lamb chops. I had chicken, only half of which I could eat. We were early to bed in air conditioned comfort.

Friday, July 1, 2011

I was on the boat early anticipating that some of the workmen might show up at 8 a.m. I hung out wet lines on the boom to dry before storing them. I allowed the cockpit cushions to dry and stored them below. Charlie and I hung the wet staysail on the boom to also dry before we put it back in its bag and stored it below. The air conditioner guys showed up about 9 a.m. and installed it. What a difference that made. We finally got our salon cushions returned and they look so much cleaner. It only cost us the equivalent of $90.00 USD for 8 cushions! the sails lady came by and gave us a very reasonable quote for repairs to the jib, main and stack pack sailbag.

Charlie griped that we hadn't had breakfast. He was looking forward to a big breakfast at the restaurant. Unfortunately when we walked there, they were not open; so we took cereal off the boat and used the milk in the refrigerator, toasted bread, made coffee and tea in our apartment for breakfast. I had saved a yummy cinnamon roll from the day before. We continued to work on the boat the rest of the morning. I had most of the plastic cockpit surround cleaned and removed except for some troublesome zippers I couldn't budge. Charlie was working on the zincs on the hull and propeller. The dinghy man we had been trying to contact came by and fixed the dinghy. We can deflate it tomorrow and fold it up for storage.

After having a lunch of my leftover chicken tenders, we obtained the paperwork from Power Boats office that we needed to check out at Trinidad Immigration and Customs. We walked out to the road and caught the bus to Crews Inn road ($ 3TT each which is $0.50 US). Since we had already organized the necessary papers, it took us less than 30 minutes to clear out! It had begun to rain again. We caught the water taxi back to Power Boats. That cost us 20TT ( not as good a bargain as the bus, but less walking). We continued to work on the boat between the rain showers.

After showers again, we walked up the road to eat dinner. One place we stopped was mostly a bar and no dinner would be available until after 8p.m. We chose Joe's Pizza which also has a more extensive Italian menu. Once we had walked back to Power Boats, I did two loads of washing of towels, sheets and some clothing we had worn the past two days. Unfortutately they did completely get dry and I didn't have any more tokens to use. I will have to get more tomorrow so I can dry the towels and return them to the boat before we leave about 1 p.m.

July 2, 2011

We ate a quick breakfast of sweet rolls and coffee/tea at the apartment. The day began sunny so we continued to take off the canvas after drying the dew off it. We also hoisted the dinghy to the ground and deflated and rolled it up putting it into our old dinghy bag. Then we hoisted it back up to the boat placing it before the mast.

We did get a breakfast at the Sails restaurant this morning. I guess they serve breakfast only on the weekends. During breakfast I was able to dry the clothing that did not dry the night before. After folding it, I replaced it on to the boat. I was able to clean out the refrigerator disposing of the many water bottles. I was also able to scrub down the top of the boat. Having the boat in the yard tracks a lot of sand and mud up onto the deck. We left it clean. We were both back at the apartment for showers by 11:30. We ate the leftover pasta from the night before. Our taxi came about 12:45. we loaded our two bags and many smaller bags onto the van. We also gave him the food left over from the refrigerator and freezer to donate to the needy.

It took about an hour to arrive at the Holiday Inn Express out by the airport in Port

of Spain. Port of Spain is the capital and is very big. There are lots of highrise buildings downtown. The government center is turquoise and gold. It is always amazing to see the restaurants and businesses one sees in the States here in the Caribbean: Cinnabon, KFC, Pizza Hut, Home Store, etc. We saw some apartments near the hotel which our driver said were low income housing. they really looked nice.

We checked into the hotel. Charlie downloaded and printed our boarding passes for tomorrow. The hotel provided a shuttle over to the mall and to the golf course restaurant for dinner. We took the shuttle about 6 to the mall to eat at Joe's Irish Pub.

Charlie had Bangers and Mash and I had Shepherd's Pie. Since it was Friday night, the mall was busy. It looked as busy as ours would look at Christmas! The driver said it was "pay day" so everyone was out shopping. Sunday was also a holiday. We returned to the hotel via shuttle in the rain and went to bed fairly early as we had to get up at 4 a.m. to catch the shuttle to the airport at 4:45.

July 3, 2011

We awoke at 4 a.m. and caught the shuttle to the airport at 4:40. We checked our big bags and carried 5 smaller bags: 2 computers, breathing machine, and two small duffle bags + my purse. The security area did not take long to pass through. The plane did not board at 6:10 a.m. There was some problem with the airplane so we did not board it until 7:40 or so. Many others missed their connections in Miami. Luckily we had a very long layover. We didn't arrive in Miami until after 11:30. Then we walked about 3 miles (it seemed) to the US Customs area where they had about 20 stations to choose from to pass through. The lines weren't very long. We had some more walking to get to the baggage area. We retrieved the bags and got into a huge line like a big traffic jam to get through 1 of only 4 US Customs stations after the baggage claim. The whole process took about 2 hours, a record for Customs during our trip.

We were able to have a leisurely lunch before getting in line to go through the security again. Here the "gestapo" wouldn't let us get into line until we had everything down to 2 bags including my purse. So I had to put both my computer and purse into the small duffle. Charlie's breathing machine got a free ride but I had to take one of Charlie's bags as mine to allow us to get into the line. Of course I had to take both my purse and the computer out of the duffle and put them onto the conveyor belt for scanning. Charlie had his computer, watertight camera bag, small duffle and breathing machine. Due to the plane being American Express, we still had to check our small duffles at the plane. The plane was on time.

We arrived back in Charleston at 8:15 p.m. Friends from church, the Brauchs picked us up and took us home. We got the garage door open but the door from the garage to the house was locked. Luckily the girl who lived across the street who had been watering the plants was home and had the key so we did get into the house. Charlie decided he was hungry so we tried to start the cars. Two would not start: the Ford Explorer and his Porsche 911. We were lucky that the Porsche 968 did start so we could go out for some late dinner. We stopped by the grocery for breakfast staples before returning home and to bed. It felt good to be back home and to sleep in our own bed.

Since we have many obligations here in the States between now and December, we will not return to the boat until early January. This ends this chapter of our cruising, but check for new posts in January 2011. We appreciate those of you who have followed our adventures on our blog.

Haul Out Preparation Continues

Monday, June 27, 2011

We are having another drizzly day. the weather was supposed to be very hot and the marina docks were going to be making repairs to the electrical power. We did not have power most of the day.

We visited Power Boats boatyard to give them our boat papers and customs check in document. We located where the apartments are and checked out their small grocery. It is not a great one but has essentials. They also have a restaurant called "Sails" which serves breakfast, lunch and dinner. We also went to Peake's boatyard to visit "Just Imagine" , now on the hard; but they were not on their boat. We looked at Peake's restaurant called Zanzibar. It had a great menu and Charlie was hungry for lunch so we ate there.

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We made it back to our boat before deluge of rain. I also visited Customs and Immigration to see if we could check out on Friday instead of Saturday. They said we could. This will allow us to check out in regular hours not overtime hours and we will be less rushed on Saturday when we will leave to go to the Holiday Inn near the airport. I also asked exactly what documents we would have

to have to try to speed up the process.

Charlie helped the French captain on a catamaran docked next to us set up his wifi. They asked us over for a drink. They are Lilly and Franciose (sp) and now live on their boat. We also visited with another newly arrived boat docked on the other side of us. It had been so hot that they had already added a portable AC to the boat using the bow hatch. I think they are from the Chesapeake. We ate on the boat trying to deplete our food stores.

I started packing the purple duffle bag we already had on the boat to try to see how big our second bag needs to be. The colder weather clothing we needed in February almost filled the entire bag. Though we will leave most of our clothing on the boat, we will need to bring some of it home.

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The sailmaker was supposed to pick up the sails to check them for repairs and give us an estimate. We waited all morning and they did not show up. Since our cell phones don't work

here it is difficult to contact people. We were also waiting for another business to pick up our salon cushions to steam clean. I did finally use the phone in the hotel lobby to call them. They showed up at 1p.m. to pick them up. We asked the boat next to us to let the sails people pick up our sails if they showed up. As we were leaving to go to the mall, Cheryl from "just Imagine" arrived to borrow our computer to get their flight information for checking out of Immigration. I volunteered to print it out, but she not necessary.

We needed to go to the shopping mall to buy another bag for items we wanted to take back to the states. We walked out to the main road where we could catch a bus. A gypsy taxi stopped and

asked where we needed to go. He told us it

would cost 5 TT (less than $1 US) so hopped in. He picked up another young lady along the way. Then he picked up a rather large older man further along. The man got in back with us, making it a tight squeeze. It was quite a long trip and I was be

ginning to worry, but he let us out across the street from the mall and we climbed up to use the walkway over the highway. We were on the outskirts of Port of Spain one of the major cities. It was a very modern and beautiful mall. It could have been in any US city. We quickly found a store where we could buy luggage. We set aside a bag and went browsing throughout the mall. It had a large food court and many really nice shops for clothing, shoes, jewelry, hallmark, etc. We found a nice bookstore where we bought 3 paperback

books for the trip home. We also browsed in a Crafts store which had art and crafts by local artisans. After picking up our luggage, we exited the mall back to the highway where we caught a "bus" back to the Marina. This "bus" was a yellow and white van. It was almost totally full. It had the prices listed on the window. It was 5TT

unless we wanted it to take us all the way into the Marina for another couple of TT. I felt we were almost like native Trinidad/Tobagans. The US cities should use this system instead of the big smelly inefficient busses. These busses travel back and forth but I don't thinkthey have a set schedule. You go to a bus stop and just wave the bus down.

Back to the boat, I began to pack more items in the new bag.

We took the dinghy to Peake's Boatyard where we had drinks on "Just Imagine" . It took them 2 1/2 hours to check out because Immigration wanted a copy of their itinerary. Cheryl should have let me print a copy as they ended going back and forth across the harbor to get it done. Another couple from "Alberta Crewed" also joined us. We proceeded to Zanzibar where we had a delicious dinner together. "Just Imagine" leave for the States early Wednesday.

Wednesday, June 28, 2011

The metal fabricator came by in the morning and discussed a motor davit for the outboard engine. We were to meet him at his shop at 1:30 to view one he had in the shop. We ate our last lunch on the boat using up some more food. We visited the metal fabricator's shop via dinghy. Charlie was impressed with his workmanship. While there we tried to find the dinghy craftsman in the same yard, but we missed him. We went back to Power Boats to give them some more documents. The rain came often during the day. We had hoped to deflate the dinghy and fold it up, but now we are waiting for the dinghy guy to see it before deflating it. We ate left overs from Zanzibar on the boat for dinner. Tomorrow we haul out.

Trinidad, preparing to haul out

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

It rains hard several times a day in Trinidad. We ate lunch at the Lighthouse restaurant and then went to find the chandlery at CrewsInn. We had to buy a courtesy Trinidad flag for the boat. We tried to visit several other shops in the same area only to discover they were only open from 8-12. During one dry spell, we untied the dinghy and hung it off the side of the boat so we could try to get the sand from beneath the inflated floor. We deflated the floor and hand scrubbed beneath it. In the middle of doing this, it started to rain hard again. Once the sun was shining again, we lowered the dinghy into the water, inflated the floor, and put the engine on the dinghy. Now we could travel on the water.

We needed some Trinidad-Tobago money. We had been told that there was an ATM at the Coral Cove Marina. We went over there because we also needed to tell them that we would not be staying at their marina and to confirm our haul out date. It was good that we did this because they had no record of a reservation or a haul out. Since we had not been impressed either with their marina docks or the way they had the boats on the hard in their

boatyard, we were somewhat relieved. This left us free to explore using other yards. After obtaining money from the ATM, we returned to our boat at CrewsInn. We discovered that during one of the rains, the electricity had gone off. "Just Imagine" ( Cheryl and Robin Wilson) is now docked next to us on the outside dock so I invited them over for London Broil. Cheryl volunteered to bring a vegetable. Since it was still raining off and on we did not go up to the CrewsInn pool for cocktails. We joined the Wilsons on their catamaran deck until we convened on our boat to eat dinner. The electricity had come back on by then so we could use the AC to reduce the humidity. We had a lovely time visiting.

Wednesday, June 22, 2011

Evidently if it is cloudy and rainy early in the morning, you will have rain all day. This is what we are experiencing today. However we need to do some errands. The most important one is to visit YSATT which is an organization of local businesses and yacht service providers who have list of recommended craftsmen. They also recommended Power Boats Marina and Boatyard to us. I had called them on the VHF in the morning asking if they had room in their yard and found that they did and that June 29 and 30 were available for haul out. We dinghyed to the yard and asked many questions. We were impressed with their boatyard and the preparation of the boats. They also will cover the boats with plastic so work can be done beneath it and protect it from the rain. We signed up with them and made reservations for an apartment after we haul out. Many boaters stay on the boat on the hard, but Charlie did not want to do this. Neither do I in this heat and humidity! The office was very patient with us in answering all our questions. The maintenance manager and two painters, bottom painter and brightwork painters will come on Friday to see our boat and give us recommendations. We also visited their sail maker and our sails will be picked up next Tuesday for evaluation for repairs, etc. We accomplished a lot today.

I found the nearby grocery store and a bakery. I also discovered that there is a glass recycling container by the grocery store. The laundry rooms here at CrewsInn have token operated machines and the token costs 12 TT or $2.00. What a bargain! We ate on board. We ned to eat up all the food we have left or give it away or throw it away.

Thursday , June 23, 2011

It is a beautiful day. No rain. We helped "Just Imagine" take down their sails and fold them up.

I cleaned the wooden slatted inserts that for the floor of our cockpit. Then I began cleaning the floor under the inserts. All kinds of crumbs, dirt, hair, lint fall beneath them and collect. We

had a lazy day working on the computers,

staying in the AC. We did go up to the Crews Inn pool at cocktail time with the Wilsons on "Just Imagine". The water was cool and refreshing. We met some other cruisers up there. Cheryl invited us to have dinner with them. She is trying to eat up all they have, too. She made sausage, chicken, vegetable stew. I added some left over rice. It was delicious. The night was cool and we didn't need the AC.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Another beautiful day.

During the Cruiser's Net, held every morning at 8 a.m. on the VHF, channel 68, I was able to get the phone number of a place which might steam clean our interior cushions. Another person also wanted to have theirs done and she had a cellphone so she called and scheduled it for both of us. HOORAY!

We helped "Just Imagine" get their lines off to go get their boat hauled out. They will be staying on their boat while it is on the "hard" at Peake's boatyard.

The asst. manager from Power Boats came by with the brightwork painter to look at the boat and give us estimates. Charlie and he decided we could just leave the boat plugged in running the battery charger/monitor to keep the batteries charged up while we are gone. the painter gave me a reasonable estimate to do all the brightwork.. He will take to bare wood and put 5 coats of Cetol (my choice) on it. The bottom painter will be there at the haul out and advise us on that.

We began to take our sails down. We got the staysail down and took it in a cart to the grassy area near the CrewsInn Hotel pool to fold up. Then we tackled the main sail. Ours was easier to take down than "Just Imagine's". We again too the cart to the grass where it is much

easier to fold up and bag. After a shower we went to the Lighthouse for hearty salad lunches. I finished cleaning out the floor of the cockpit and waxed it. I also polished the compass binnacle stand and wheel removing any bits of rust. Now we began to untie the lazy jack lines from the main sail bag. I labeled the lines and we tied them together. We then pulled the sail bag off the boom. We only have the jib left to take down and it was a bit windy and late in the day to do it.

We celebrated our efforts by going for a dip in the pool. No other cruisers were there today. I had taken my left over chili con queso to share with others.

I made reservations in Port of Spain for the night before our flight home. we were worried about getting there from here in time for our 6:55 a.m. flight. It takes about an hour to get to the airport from here so we would have had to leave at 3:30-4 a.m. I'd rather be closer to the airport! We had another cool night on the boat.

Saturday, June 25, 2011

We are having another rainy day. It was raining by 6 a.m. It woke me up and I quickly closed all the cockpit surround and the hatches. Charlie helped with the hatches and then we both went back to bed.

I spent the entire day doing our financial update. I put all my receipts into the computer and then justified the Visa bill which I downloaded. All the charges have foreign transaction fees which we don't have records of except off the Visa bill. They are about like paying sales tax in the states. Here in Trinidad the VAT tax seems high to me, much more than our sales tax at home plus other taxes are added to it. I also balanced the checking account which I can download. This marina has very good wifi for which I am grateful!

Sunday, June 26, 2011

We were able to get the jib down and folded up ready for pickup. I scrubbed the cockpit cushions and set them out on the dock to dry. Before they were dry, it rained , of course. At least is not an all day rain today. One of the cushions has more stain from the teak than

the others so I decided to see if I could wash that area of teak. Once scrubbed with a scrub brush, the cloth used to wipe it was black and so was the water! No wonder the cushion is stained. I ended up doing the entire cockpit and the result was amazing. the teak had looked old and weathered and grey. Now it looks fresh and new and light brown! In the picture the cleaned is at the bottom and the not cleaned is at the top. It was well worth the effort. Maybe this is why young sailors of old had to "scrub the deck".

I spent the afternoon playing Mexican Train Dominos with other cruisers who meet at the Crews Inn breezeway near the pool. This area is protected even if it rains. Charlie spent the afternoon sleeping and reading and making lists of inventory to be left with the boatyard. We ate on board because we are trying to use up all our food.

Grenada and sail to Trinidad

Friday, June 17, 2011

We took the din

ghy to the Yacht Club to check to see if the Customs were open on Sat so we could check out then instead of Friday. Customs were open both Sat and Sun 9-2.

We continued on into St. George' s harbor and the Carenage, which I think means rows of government buildings. One side of the harbor

was filled with medium size fishing boats rafted 2-3 deep. We tied and cable-locked our dinghy up to a stepladder giving access to the walkway and the road. We began to explore the city by

walking up some streets. Tikal is a shop with local and interesting but we did not buy anything. The streets were narrow and many only one-way. We took pictures of one the old buildings which had some broken and open windows. Later we discovered it was the Grenada Public Library. The front faced the harbor making it part of the Carenage. It was a block long. Adults and youth were evidently using it. I stepped inside and it looked well-used and I could see full bookcases.

There was even a place to leave book bags and a "guard" at the door. By now, Charlie was hungry for lunch so we ate at the Ocean Grill right on the water. We were the only persons in it. I asked the waitress if they had more customers at happy hours and dinner. She said that it was the end of the season. I asked about locals. She said the economy was not great. Later however, more tourists and a local man did come in for lunch.

After lunch we decided to walk around the harbor which is like a big U. We browsed through shop. The "Best Little Liquor Store" shared space with a garden and yard store which seemed bizarre. It started raining so that gave us even more reason to duck into various shops. A gentleman "Herman" started talking to us, telling us Grenada's history. He continued to walk with us suggesting shops. Charlie found a nicely painted tray in one of the shops and we bought it. Herman walked us around to the tourist office where we got maps and various brochures. He was impossible to shake. Charlie tried to give him some money after the tourist shop but he said no and walked us back to our dinghy. Then he suggested a tip.

The rain continued but lighter as we returned to the marina and our boat. It continued to rain. I had a very large ripe avocado I needed to use so I invited several of the other cruisers to meet on our boat for cocktail hour. I also made chili con queso and had some salsa to put out. I told them to bring their own libation thinking it would be too confusing for Charlie to be mixing drinks, too. We had invited 10 others but only 8 showed up so that made 10 in our cockpit! Some brought something to also share. We had a nice time and got to know each other a bit better. Many were staying at this dock for the hurricane season.

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Another couple came by the boat saying they were interested in going to Trinidad with us. They were anchored out instead on in the marina. while Charlie took the dinghy over to the Yacht Club to check out with Customs, I made another trip to the grocery store. It was pouring down rain again when I came out. We had thought to go over to the nearby beach, but it kept raining off and on. We did take the motor off the dinghy and tied the dinghy to the top of the boat. Andy and Sharon asked us down for cocktails and I offered to bring a pork tenderloinI needed to cook. She did some vegetables and I also took leftover guacamole and salsa as well as some fresh pineapple +apple chunks for a salad. We used their boat, a big spacious trawler due to rain which continued. We couldn't even grill outdoors as we had planned due to the rain. They shared their cruising experiences with us as well as some helpful websites. We had rain all night long.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

After an early morning rain shower, we checked out from the marina and were on our way to Prickly Bay, a more southern anchorage by 10:30. It didn't take us long to get there so we were anchored by noon. One of the large Grenada Boatyards, Spice Island is nearby. See picture of it in the background with many masts.

Since we had the dinghy on the boat, we couldn't go anywhere. The couple on "Just Imagine" who were going to Trinidad with us came by to check on us. They had decided to change the time of leaving from 5 p.m. on Sunday to 2 a.m. on Monday. They wanted to be sailing in the dark for fewer hours. If we all made at least 6 knots/ hour we would arrive by 4 p.m. We had an early dinner of leftover seafood pasta and I went to sleep. I don't think Charlie got much sleep. He kept trying to get online to check the weather once again.

Monday, June 20, 2011

I set an alarm for 1:30 a.m. We got up, dressed, started the hot water kettle for tea and coffee. Then we began to take the snubber off the anchor, raised the sail in the dark and then retrieved the anchor. That was the first time we had raised a sail while still at anchor. At least we were headed in the wind. It was slightly tricky but we managed it and proceeded out of the anchorage. We were about 10 minutes behind the other 3 boats which had started sailing to Trinidad. We had two catamarans and another 44 ft monohull. All of us had at least one reef in our sails and some had two reefs. We had only put one in ours. the wind was from the East and our heading was 180-190 so we had a great sail. The winds started out at 15-18 but eventually slowed down to 11-14. the waves were 4-6 ft for most of the way and we had no heavy rain until we were closer to Trinidad.

As we approached Trinidad, the sky got very dark and almost made Trinidad invisible. Luckily the wind was not bad and the rain only lasted 10 minutes or so. The wind actually died to below 6 knots. The waves were huge rollers of 8-10 feet.

A pod of dolphins were playing in them welcoming us to Trinidad. We proceeded through the Boca de Monos channel between Trinidad and Monos Island after the rain. This was Trinidad's Labor Day and many boats were out on the water. Many were also in Scotland Bay along this channel. We passed a large Coast Guard station, a dry dock (for ship building and repair) and then to Chagauramas Bay were will have the boat hauled out and left on the hard (land).

You are supposed to go to Customs and tie up on their dock as soon as you arrive. We did find this dock which is at the Crews Inn Lighthouse restaurant. We had to go past it, turn around, go back beyond it and turn around again before trying to approach it. One of the Cats we had traveled with was tied up and there was just enough space for us. Someone in the marina helped grab our lines and tie us up.

We were very hot and sweaty! Charlie took off for the Customs and Immigration offices. I stayedon the boat until someone told me that I had to go to Immigration, too. I grabbed some US money to pay our fees since we did have any Trinidad money. They have their own currency which is 6TT to 1 US dollar. At Immigration we met up with some cruisers we had met along the way: Bonnie and Maurie on "Smidge". they were checking out to return to the states (PA). They gave us some names of craftsmen they have used. It took us 1 1/2 hours to clear Customs and Immigration. That is the record for length of time! Everything is done in duplicate or triplicate and on paper, not computers. At least they did supply carbon paper here. Immigration used this HUGE log book to record entries. Customs recorded it in 2 different books.

Once we were through "checking in", we needed to move from the "Customs dock" and find a place to put the boat. While coming into Chagauramas, we had tried to contact Coral Cove Marina where we had made a reservation months before. However, they were closed for Labor Day so no one was at the marina. the Crews Inn dock person had told me they could give us a slip. It was close by and it even had a finger dock. Coral Cove had stern to docking without finger docks. We moved the boat into this nice slip. Maurie and another gentleman, Jim, from a Catalina from Chicago, IL across the dock from our slip, helped the dockhand tie us up. Maurie and Jim invited us to join them and others at the Crews Inn pool where they were having cocktail ( bring our own) . I convinced Charlie to just change his sweaty shirt, make a drink and go join them. there were about 10 cruisers there. Jim later invited us to have dinner with him (dutch). We ended up eating at the Crews Inn as his restaurant of choice was closed due to the Labor Day.

We checked ourselves into the marina, plugged our electric in, turned on the refrigerator, had nice hot showers on the boat; switched to the air conditioner and slept well.

Grenada

Monday, June 13, 2011

We left Union Island at 0830 heading for Grenada. The wind was 16-18 knots from the ESE. Our heading was 232 degrees and the wind was 140 degrees so we had a great sailing day on a beam reach. We even had a current pushing us so Speed over the ground was 7knots plus, even hitting 8 knots for a brief time. We passed by wide Hillsborough Bay and Tyrrel Bay of the island of Carriacou within two hours. Between

Carriacou and Grenada there are several rocky islands and an underwater volcano which must be avoided.We stayed about 2 miles from it, but the waves did kick up some while we passed it (5-7 feet). Evidently a few days later it was more active and the waves were higher and shorter distance apart making the passage rougher in that area. We passed it safely and proceeded down the west coast of Grenada to St. George's Bay towards the south end of Grenada .. We arrived about 2:30 p.m. into the bay and went into Lagoon to Port Louis Marina. This marina does uses a mooring ball for the bow and ties the stern up to the dock. Since we have a canoe stern, we have to have the mooring ball tied to our stern and then tie ourbow to the wall. They tried to put us on a mooring but couldn't get the mooring pulled up even after two tries. They only have 110 electrical service on this one dock, the one they were trying to place us. Instead they gave us a slip on the 220 dock so we had to use our generator to run our refrigerator,battery charger, and air conditioning. This marina is fairly new with most amenities and even have holding tank pump out stations. This is the first place in the Caribbean we have seen pump out facilities. They have wifi but it is weak and doesn't really reach the docks. You can get a modem for a deposit. If we were going to be here longer, we would do that. The wifi signal is associated with their restaurant, but even there the signal is weak. They also have many services for boats here in the marina in small

colorful one room cottages. Is is beautifully landscaped.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

We found the laundry place at the marina and left 35 pounds of laundry to be done. It was not a do it yourself, but we had to have sheets and towels cleaned. I also had our rugs washed.

We spent the morning getting ready to check into customs at the Grenada Yacht Club ( also in the lagoon). We had to get the dinghy off the cabin top and put the outboard engine on it to go check in. We ate lunch there. Charlie had pork ribs which were good and I had chicken fingers which were terrible. The building was much more utilitarian than the Charleston Yacht Club.

We noticed that some American and Canadian boats have a transformer which allows them to use either 100 or 220, so we thought about buying a transformer which would give us more flexibility. We went to the nearby Island World chandlery to try to buy a 220-110 transformer. They did not have them and sent us to a nearby hardware store. They had some but not what we needed. In researching it further, we discovered that we might destroy our refrigerator's and air conditioner's compressors. We decided it was too much of a risk. So we spent another day using our generator instead of being plugged into shore power. That night we began having some short but heavy showers.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

We had had a lot of rain overnight and it continued throughout the day. Charlie had the marina call a computer store which sent someone to pick up his computer to try to fix it. He got it back in late afternoon and it is now working fine. The marina moved us from the 220 dock to the 110 electrical dock before noon during a lull in the rain. We have begun to meet some of the other cruisers. Some we had met during our travels southward. I was able to walk over to a nearby grocery store for some supplies. Walking back to the Marina I noticed that our Canadian friends (Rick and Elizabeth on "Sojourner") had arrived at the marina and were on the same dock. We visited with her and then were invited to board another boat along the way for a cocktail. A young couple, Scott and Brittany on "Rasmus" from Chicago that we had met in Rodney Bay introduced us to an older couple, Andy and Sharon in a trawler "Finally Fun". The older couple have a daughter who lives in the Charleston area. It is a small connected world.

We had hoped to use the Cruisers Net which is on VHF channel 68 every morning at 7:30 to try to find other cruisers who planned to sail to Trinidad to form a convoy. We discovered that we could hear only some of the net. Luckily we met a couple visiting the marina who currently had their boat in Prickly Bay where the net was broadcast. We gave them our boat card and they were going to contact one of the boats there that seemed to know and organize activities to see if they knew of boats planning to go to Trinidad. This couple e-mailed both of us and through them we were able to contact two boats planning to go to Trinidad.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The rain is not constant but showers and the sun come and go throughout the day. Since it has been rain ing a lot, there should be many rainbows but I have only caught one so far. I 'm not sure it will be visible enough.

We continued to try to get together with the Trinidad bound cruisers. One couple on a 60 foot boat would travel much faster than out boat can so that did not work out. Another couple, Cheryl and Robin Wilson have a catamaran "Just Imagine". They came over to our marina this afternoon so we could meet each other and explore the possibility of sailing together. They are a very nice couple and we plan to leave here, sail to Prickly Bay where they have their boat, and then we will sail together on Sunday afternoon . It is 85-100 miles to our destination in Trinidad so it will take more than 12 hours to get there. Therefore you leave in late afternoon so you will arrive the next day during daylight hours. If you are delayed, you still have 8-10 hours of daylight to arrive at the destination. If we go 5 knots, it will take us 17 hours. If we can go 6 knots/hr we can arrive in 14+ hours. If we were to go 7knots/hr, it would be just over 12 hours, but neither boat would be able to average 7 knots/ hr even using the engine.

We went to the small pool at the marina in late afternoon and visited with the cou

ple, Glory and Bob, on the catamaran "Tranquilla" next to us. They have been cruising for many years. Several other boats that we have seen before came into the marina on our dock today. It was nice to visit with them again. We had cocktails tonight on the Canadian boat (Rick and Eliz) and looked at some of the pictures they have taken during their cruise. We ate dinner at the marina restaurant. There we met and chatted with the captain of a HUGE expedition yacht in the marina. The captain is from Spain and the crew of 10 is international. the owner is European and spends about 5 months total on the boat during the year. This boat could go

anywhere: Alaska, Chile, Europe, etc. The owner likes to go to the more unusual places. He is not at the boat at the present. In the picture, the catamaran is 46 feet to give you a sense of the boat's size.

Tobago Cay pictures

A friend who was at Tobago Cays when we were took the pictures below. They anchored near the Turtle preserve island and swam with the turtles. We were anchored off Petit Bateau which shows the lovely beach. (first picture) The turtle Island was Baradel which had a small hill and beach in the front of it. (2nd picture) The third

picture is an underwater picture of a turtle.

Bequia and Grenadines

Friday, June 10, 2011

The above picture is of Bequia Harbor. Charlie wanted to get a haircut. The Cruising Guide said that a woman named Emma did both men and women, but we discovered that she had closed her shop. The other person was Clive, whose shop was in the back of a building. We had to ask several times to find his shop. He was a young man of late 20's or early 30's. He had a short line waiting. He actually did a good job on Charlie's hair. It doesn't stick out everywhere any more. We also had to hunt down Doris' Food Store. The guide said she had many delicacies and frozen foods. We were not impressed and did not find any better place on the island within walking distance. The new modern store reported in the cruising guide must have not been built. There were several places which were bakeries with breads and sweets. The local outdoor market had beautiful fruits and vegetables. I bought some bananas, an avacado and fresh pineapple that the seller cut up for me. The vendors who come around in boats also have great vegetables. In Rodney Bay the vendor in his boat had great grapefruit, tomatoes, bananas, huge avocado and lettuce. he even had some fresh basil which I bought . We are still enjoying his tomatoes and

grapefruit. YUM. We had some lunch at the Gingerbread House called such due to the wooden "Victorian gingerbread" trim". Since they are managed by the Fragipani Hotel people, the menu was almost the same....nothing very exciting.

During the afternoon Charlie went to customs to check out so we could leave the next day. It took him 45 minutes. We bought some beer and cokes. Then we went over to the beach near our boat. It was long, wide and even had some shade. We enjoyed a Pina Colada at the bar/restaurant at the beach. Then we sat on lounge chairs in the shade and read. We also

enjoyed the cool refreshing water. A group of local students were enjoying the beach and several couples were out snorkeling. I

wished I had brought my snorkeling gear to the beach. It was a pleasant afternoon. We ate dinner on the boat because we had not seen anything during our exploring which tempted us.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

We removed the outboard engine from the dinghy and placed the dinghy up onto the cabin top of the boat. We had a delivery of ice to the boat and then took off for the Tobago Cays. We had an absolutely beautiful day of sailing. The wind was just right, coming out of the east at 16-18 knots. The trip was not very long. We arrived in time to fix lunch. We later went ashore to the nearest island and walked to the other side where there was supposed to be an area to snorkel for beginners. Some areas in the Tobago Cays have a lot of current. The beach was littered with seaweed so it was not a nice beach to lay a towel on. I walked along the edge but did not really see anywhere I wanted to snorkel and the wind was 16-17 knots so the water was rough. We could see the island that is the turtle protected area. It is a very small island with only a few palm trees on it. It doesn't have any high hills on it. There is huge reef along the back of it extending both ways. Back on the side of the island where our boat was, I found an area of small rocks in which I could see some colorful fishes. I had forgotten to put the bag with my snorkeling mask in the dinghy. I saw what looked like a clown fish, some angelfish, and a drum. We were somewhat disappointed in the beaches of the Tobago Cays.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

We had a big storm early this morning and the clouds lingered. The winds were still 16-17 knots as they had been all night. We decided that we should head over to Union Is, only 6-7 miles away. We had to go there to check out of the Grenadines, either early Monday in town or today at the airport. Charlie is getting very tired of getting the engine on and off the dinghy. It is hard work as the engine is quite heavy. We use the halyard and the electric winch, but it is still a struggle. We got the engine off but decided to drag the dinghy behind the boat since the distance was not too great. We had another great day of sailing with perfect wind from the east at 16-18 knots. We made it to Clifton in Union Is which is almost surrounded by a reef. Markers helped to keep us off the reef. Across from Union Is is a beautiful Palm Island with a pretty beach. We had to search around the anchorage area for a clear enough spot to anchor. It was pretty full with moored boats used for day trips. After a leisurely lunch, we again put the engine on the dinghy and took off for shore. We landed at a dinghy dock for a restaurant which did not seem to be open but one of 3 persons sitting around chatting offered to take us to the airport. It took Charlie almost 45 minutes to check out. I was glad we did it today instead of tomorrow as it would have delayed out departure in the morning. Back to the boat, we again took the engine off the dinghy. We will put the dinghy up on top of the boat tomorrow before we leave to sail to Grenada. I did not get any pictures of Union Is or the Tobago Cays. I did get some pictures of other beaches in the Grenadines. Mayreau which is just in front of the Tobago Cays has several lovely beaches with anchorages.

Trip to St. Vincent's and Grenadines

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

We hoped to get an early start to St. Vincent Island which is the next island south of St.Lucia, however the Customs personnel were 15 minutes late arriving to work and Charlie had to fill out an identical copy of a document he filled out to check us in in order for us to "check out". Then the marina had to tally our bill including electricity and water which were metered. Finally at 0930 we left Rodney Bay heading south. We had had an early morning downpour, but no rain the rest of the day. The winds were light; 5-9 knots when we started out and steadily built up to 12-13. However, they were on our bow. Our heading was 226 and the wind was 200 degrees. We were motor sailing which helped bit. We sailed by Choc Beach and Marigot Bay on our way south. We also sailed by the huge Hess fuel storage facility. As we were passing the famous volcanic Pitons on south St. Lucia, we picked up a west setting current as well as rollers, white caps and the wind was exactly what our heading had to be. We realized about 1:30 (1330) that we could not make the

20 miles to the north side of St. Vincent before dark so we turned around and headed back to Soufriere and its twin pitons. A boatman met us as we were approaching offering to find us a mooring near Benny's restaurant. He helped put us on a mooring. It was on the ourtskirts of this bay so it would not take us long to be underway the next morning. Several other boatmen came buy trying to sell us fruits or calabash shells decorated. Benny's wife came by to welcome us with her daughter-in-law and her granddaughter. Several water taxis stopped at the nearby shore to let persons off or pick up others from the beach. We had dinner on the boat because Charlie did not get much sleep the night before.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

We were hoping to get an earlier start this morning but when Charlie went to check the oil in the engine, he discovered that the oil dip stick was missing. It took us a while to find it under the engine and were very lucky it had not yet fallen into the bilge where we would never have found it! Once we were underway, the wind was still coming from the

direction we wanted to go and was 14-18 knots. We put the second reef in the main sail and were glad we did when the winds increased up to 23 knots between St. Lucia and St. Vincent. We were still motor sailing and were only making 4.3-5 knots speed with the engine. Luckily the cl

oser we got to St. Vincents the wind direction was a bit better. Once we were in the lee of the island, it died back to only 10-14. We had hoped to make it to Young IS and Blue Lagoon which are on the south tip of St. Vincent. we were not going to make it this far by dark so we chose to go into Buccament

Bay. We tried to anchor where the cruising guide had told us to and hit bottom so we asked local boater nearby where to go and he sent a young man in a dinghy over to the other side of the bay to obtain a mooring for us. They didn't even charge us for it. There is a large resort in this bay taking up half the beachfront. The houses are colorful stucco as we have often seen on the islands.The bay was very rolly. We heeled back and forth 15 degrees on each side. During dinner, both of us had our wine glasses fall over. We have experienced worse during this long cruise, but it is never easy rocking back and

forth. It was interesting to watch the activities onshore as well. A sunset cruise came sailing back to the resort and later there was a big bonfire at the resort. We ate dinner on the boat and enjoyed the beautiful starry moonlit night. The night was pleasantly cool.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Finally a beautiful sailing day. We had 11-14 knots of wind and we could sail without the motor with full main and jib. We sailed directly to Bequia skipping Young Is. and Blue Lagoon. We left about 0900 and arrived about 1130 into Admirality Bay in Bequia which is the first island of the Grenadines south of St. Vincent. We tried to anchor twice before taking one of the many mooring balls in this wide bay. Then we had to get the dinghy off the top of the sailboat

and put the motor on the dinghy. We did not get to shore to check into customs until 1:30p.m. It took quite a while so we did not have an opportunity to get some lunch till almost 3 p.m. We ate at the Fragipani Hotel. There was a plaque saying that the family had been involved in shipbuilding and were now in hospitality since 1897!

We had had the last medicine which was filled on Monday shipped to us a Bequia. While Charlie was at Customs, I dropped by Solana's Boutique and it had arrived! I was amazed!

It is very hot and muggy. As on most of the island stops we have made, there is little airconditioning

Most of the shops and restaurants are open air. We had thought to go over to one of the several beaches in the bay but there was a heavy rain shower just before we returned to the boat. Charlie did not think going over and sitting on wet sand sounded appealing. Since we had eaten lunch so late, we just enjoyed cocktails and snacks tonight. I was able to get online by subscribing for 24 hours to HotHotHot. Again we enjoyed sitting in the cockpit, where it is cooler, looking at the moon and stars. We will explore Bequia more tomorrow.