(Power) Systems Failure

Being in France again feels strange. Of course, we're still also in the Caribbean, but at the same time it feels weird walking around in a large supermarket. It's the largest store I've been in since the Canaries in October.

We arrived in Martinique yesterday and while visiting Fort de France today we entered a Casino supermarket to get some drinks. And of course I ended up buying Brie and Dan'Up drink yogurt. And then it hit me, about the supermarket. I'm exactly seven months away today, and I'm not yet thinking about tomorrow.

So we shopped and later today I hope I'll get some good news about our alternator which is acting strangely, that is to say it doesn't work anymore. We've been keeping the batteries topped up with the solar panels, but sooner or later the alternator had to come out, and this morning it did.

In the line of things electro-mechanical breaking down, this was the first to go. After that, the spark plugs of outboard and generator gave the ghost, and the shore power circuit shorted.

So we were saving energy for a few days while I was busy altering power cables and checking supply and demand. Then we got to Martinique and now the electrical systems are getting fixed. Who says cruising is all fun and games?

But of course, being in a place like Cumberland Bay St. Vincent like we were yesterday, it just isn't all that urgent.

Tobago Cays Turtles

After a blustery stay in Union island, we sailed to the Tobago Cays. A marine park, it is perfectly isolated and uninhabited. We anchored for three nights between Petit Bateau and Petit Rameau. The first snorkel around the boat, I saw three arrow squid swimming together. The second snorkel on the other side of Petit Bateau, we saw hundreds of fish and lots of corals. We did a drift dive on Mayreau Gardens in which we saw sharks and finally, on our last snorkel the day of our departure I saw three turtles grazing in the waters off Turtle beach. And on that beach I saw a lizard.

So the wildlife around the Cays was exactly as promised and then some.



We had left for the Cays around noon for a short hop of four Miles from Union. Union was fun but it was a bit spoiled by the fraudster trying to get away with delivering us three gallons of diesel less than we paid for. So I had to go to the police to get them to talk to the guy (named Des, drives a boat called Angelo) and get him to return the money.

The sail was rough because it had been blowing force sixes and sevens for three days. But once we got into the reefs, the waves subsided and we only had some current to contend with while looking for a nice anchorage.

The procession of vendors started immediately with bread, T-shirts, ice, lobsters and fish. The next three days, we were repeatedly reminded of what was on offer and even bought a T-shirt. More useful items were baguettes at the somewhat elevated price of 15 EC dollars apiece and ice at 25 dollars a bag. But it was all very cheery and never too much of a nuisance.

The snorkeling was fantastic and when the outboard handle broke, the park rangers were kind enough to offer us a tow back to the boat.

When we snorkeled Turtle beach on the last morning, we saw hawksbill turtles underwater eating and coming up for air in a very gracious dive.



After we got back to the beach, a giant lizard was observing us and only very slowly, as we got closer to look at it, did it seek a higher vantage point.



The sail out of the Cays was a short pleasant hop to Canouan with a lasting memory of a wonderful experience.

A year's worth of water

After the great water party a couple of weeks before Victor Too left Ostend, we were carrying 500 liters of Bru spring water. Everybody had a good laugh and so had I, but I had my cherished source of drinking water for months to come.



So far, every bottle has been handled seven times: once when getting it from the store, the second time when delivering it to the pontoon, third was when we hauled it all on board, a fourth time when the lazarette had to be emptied to work on the engine from the lazarette hatch. Then a lot of the bottles were taken from the lazarette to the storage underneath the bunks or from the aft cabin to the saloon, which makes five. Finally, many bottles in the aft cabin were taken to the saloon to be replaced by Brisa, a Madeiran soft drink and Guarana, a Brazilian soft drink bought in Madeira. About half the bottles in the aft cabin were taken out of storage from underneath the bunk, because of water ingress from the wind vane supports. All the remaining bottles in the lazarette were transferred to the aft cabin, where the surplus was temporarily stored in the heads. And then, about 250 have already been drunk, which makes seven.



So after all this shifting of water, am I still enjoying every single drop? Well, to tell the truth, the natural carbon is slowly going out of the water, so the taste is altering slightly. The remainder will not last me the whole of the trip. But I’ll probably get across to the Azores on my final bottles, which was exactly my intention and I guess I can live without Bru for a month or two.

But it will be hard.

Lagoon Mud

After a week in Prickly Bay, I got out of my relaxation mode and got around to explore some of Grenada's sights. I went to visit St. George's after we got into Port Louis in the Lagoon. We also booked a guide for a visit to the Grand Etang rain forest. So on Friday January 8, we took a bus up into the mountains and spent 4 hours trudging through the tropical forest. The guide was a 71-year old lovely man called Telfa Bedeau. He knows all about the rain forest and its plants and animals, and showed us in an exquisite way how to not kill yourself while getting a good look at them.

We had a good 20 minutes of drenching rain at the start of the hike, in which time Telfa cut us some good bamboo walking sticks. After that, we walked around the old crater where a lot of damage from hurricane Ivan was still visible.



Then we walked through the crater and across the two streams that now drain the once vast crater lake. Later on, we walked across to the other crater to the lake which gives the Grand Etang park its name. This is a bit less jungly with a wide road down to the lake edge. We saw some monkeys next to the road on our way there.



After lunching together with our guide, we took the bus back down to the Annandale Falls along the road to St. George's. This is a very scenic waterfall with a small botanical garden surrounding it. Spencer and I jumped in the water which was nice and fresh after a rough forest walk.

When our friends Peter and Annelies arrived on Saturday, we upped anchor in the Lagoon to head for True Blue Bay, which is closer to the airport and a nice marina. But we had to shove spadefuls of black mud from anchors and chain and we had to clean the boat for two hours to get everything off, as the mud clung to everything. A very nice anchorage but with a bit of a sting in its tail.

Party 2011

Celebration the New Year at 28°C is quite the experience. Together with everything else, New Year 2011 will not be easily forgotten. We got the crew from the crossing together and added Ingrid to celebrate at Prickly Bay Marina.



The party started with a local steel drum band that got everything nicely going. We stood at the bar for a while with a Carib, the best local beer. When we got hungry, we decided not to get the buffet but go for a la carte and got two nice lobster tails.

While the party continued and 2011 got closer, we switched lazily to gin and tonic whenever we could get an order from the now frantic action at the bar.



After watching all the fireworks across the bay, the dancing continued with the live band playing 70's and 80's hits, and the crowd of mainly Westerners enjoying the ambiance and music.

When the party started winding down, we took off for another party with mainly locals and blood pumping black music. Quite different, but an unforgettable thing to experience. Very rhythmic club music, with proud and assertive lyrics. Caribbean culture is a very live thing indeed.



Ingrid started hugging palm trees on the beach of the club, amazed at finding trees on a beach.



We got a bit tired around five, so got a ride back to the marina where a guard was still keeping an eye on the pool, so we gave the early morning swim a miss. Still a night never to forget!