Birthday in Paradise: Pirates Bay, Charlotteville, Tabago

[Two local guides pass by with their charges and join the party for a spell]

Wednesday 6th March 2024 was my 67th Birthday. My second spent in the Carribbean, but my first without all my family present. In 2017, Mick and I were on our first Atlantic circuit and stopped off at Jamaica, Sharon's birth place, and the entire family flew out to join me for my 60th Birthday!

Yesterday, no family, but such a wonderful group of people had turned out for the party on the beautiful beach at Pirates Bay, that yet another birthday will stay in my memory banks for as long as they last.

[Olena and Liesbeth exchange memories of their trips so far]

[Ananda offers me yet more food🤣]

On Monday I issued what transpired to be a slightly ambitious invitation to all the lovely sailors to whom we had been introduced by Lasse and Birgitte.

[Claudia and Socrate admire Birgitte's appetite 😋]

Ambitious because, as I mentioned in my previous post, Mick and I then discovered that landing on the beach was quite challenging. We went ahead as planned; but as it turned out, not without incident, thankfully though, without any casualties.

[From left: Lasse, Birgitte, Claudia, Liesbeth, Olena, Ronald]

Mick and I spent the morning preparing for the party. Mick cooked meat loaf and bread pudding and custard and I made rum and fruit punch and a pasta salad. I also went ashore to do some last minute shopping for party supplies and passed an interesting character along the way...

["Oi, keep off, this boat is mine]

Once we (or rather Mick) had finished the cooking and we had assembled all the paraphernalia needed for the party, we loaded it into the dinghy (minus outboard motor) and rowed over to the beach at around 1430. 

[Socrate holds forth!]

As we approached the beach it was clear that there was still a very significant swell running, risking yet another capsize if we tried to get through it. 

[Ellie opening a coconut 🥥]

Instead we anchored the dinghy as close to the breaking waves as we dared, in order to be able to wade ashore with our gear. Fortunately, just as we anchored, Jan and Ellie arrived at the beach having very sensibly walked from the village quay. 

[The Swedes amuse the British and the French]

Using the oars, I manoeuvred the anchored dinghy as close to shore as possible and then Mick jumped over the side only to dissapear completely into the water, which, at that moment, on top of a swell, must have been 8 foot deep! Thankfully he shortly reappeared apparently none the worse for the experience. After some more trial and error manoeuvring, I found I could position the dinghy next to a spot where Mick's head was above the water for about 50% of the time. Jan and Ellie then waded out to form a somewhat tenuous human chain through the breaking surf. Somehow we managed to get everything ashore without mishap, loss, damage, or spoiling of foodstuffs.

[Survivors of the surf and if only 🤣]

In the meantime, Lasse had been over in his dinghy to check on progress and had then gone off to the village shop to buy 4 bags of ice. Once back alongside our dinghy we transferred the ice on board and then ashore, via the same human chain.

[Fanny and Claudia share memories whilst Socrate looks on]

Then, after I had checked the dinghy anchor was still holding I swam/waded ashore to join the growing band of party goers.

Johannes and Ronald share a yarn while Socrate admires Damien's 'one that got away']

By the time I got ashore Mick and the others had almost finished setting everything up for the party. Fortunately there was quite a lot of useful stuff around including a table top and insulated ice buckets that we borrowed for the afternoon.

[Caudia and Olena share a joke]

Most of the party goers came by foot, but two couples came by dinghy. Ronald and Liesbeth anchored theirs next to ours and tied up to it as well and then swam ashore. All was well for a couple of hours until a particularly large wave pulled the anchors up and both dinghies were washed up on the beach. Theirs upside down and unfortunately they had their outboard motor fitted. A 'rescue' party immediately got the outboard off and rinsed it thoroughly in fresh water, of which there was, thankfully, an abundant supply from a stream running onto the beach via a plastic pipe.

[Father and Son]

The other dinghy, outboard motor included, 'manned' by Johannes and Olena made it onto the beach unscathed. Unfortunately I missed their arrival, it must have been quite a sight.

[Johannes grabs a drink after his daring landing through the surf.

Amazingly birthday presents arrived too. 

A gorgeous Suraname print from Lasse and Birgitte....

A wonderful wild flower from Damian and Fanny in a bamboo vase that they had gathered from the forest that morning...

A good luck charm and delightful drawings by Ananda....

A bottle of Gambian Gin from Ronald and Liesbeth.....

A beautiful coconut sculpture made locally, from Socrate and Claudia....

Our delightful guests at this a gorgeous location were undeniably the principal ingredients of such a successful gathering, but other important factors played their parts too. Chief of which was the wonderful food. Mick's meat loaf went down a storm but perhaps the crowning glory on the gastronomic front was his bread and butter pudding and custard! Even our French guests - our culinary superiors in normal times - were impressed! Our friends brought tasty dishes too. Birgitte brought one of her lovingly crafted sour dough loafs; Damien and Fanny made my Birthday cake (😋 Chocolate) topped with a very flattering pair of candles; someone, (Ronald and Lizabett I think) brought a tasty cuscus salad and there were others too that disappeared and so must have been good. 

My Rum Punch seemed to go down well - there was only half a cup left out of 5 litres by the end of the party. I'd got the recipe from my oldest son Charles -  an acknowledged expert in the field of Carribean Rum Punch - fortunately for all those present, Mick insisted I cut the alcohol content (which included a bottle of Vodka as well as three of Rum) in half and we made do without Vodka!!

Once the sun started to set....

.... a mad dash ensued to clear up and load the dinghy.  Despite loads of willing hands it was quickly apparent that total darkness would be on us before we  finished. We therefore decided to leave a stash of stuff on the shore to collect the following morning (when we would also need to finish tidying up and replace borrowed items in their proper homes).

Damian, kindly used his paddle board to ferry stuff out to his anchored dinghy which we were then able to collect, after willing hands helped launch ours and us, out through the surf. 

Mick and I completed our tidy-up task the following morning with some difficulty, but without further incident. Mick by now, had disappeared under the waves so many times when ferrying stuff to and from the dinghy/beach, that further duckings no longer qualified as incidents!

And finally.... Mick has posted a video of the party - follow the link to "Video Blog" by Mick at the top of the page and click his Playlist tab on YouTube to find it.

First few days in Charlotteville where Mick and I survive our first (and hopefully last) pitch-poling

Quite simply, Charlotteville is our best stop yet. We haven't explored much so far,  but first impressions are overwhelmingly positive. "Pirates Bay" where we are moored is a bay within the larger and equally evocative "Man of War Bay". We are moored close to the shore, framed by beautiful lush forest down to the waters edge except for a gorgeous sandy beach....

Nearby are reefs surrounded by torquise waters and home to Pelicans, Boobies and other sea birds who keep up a constant pleasant chatter. 

The village is nestled in a cleft in the hills is about a 10 minute dinghy trip away.

It's the quietest and most 'out of the way' place we have visited to date. Big positive factors as far as I am concerned. There are only 12 yachts here and by now, thanks to Swedish friends we first got to know in the Canaries, we have met the crews of most of them. Lasse and Birgitte, met most of the other yachts in Suriname earlier in the year, and lost no time in introducing us to a most delightful and interesting group of people. 

This social side of our experience here, is undoubtedly a big plus. I should not forget the locals, who are also very friendly and helpful - even more so than in Grenada.

We arrived around 1000 on Saturday 10th March and after greeting Lasse and Birgitte made our way over to the moorings in Pirates Bay.

No sooner had we picked up one than a friendly local came over in his motor launch to say that Customs and Immigration wanted us to visit them ASAP because they needed get to Scarborough, the main port at the other end of the island as a matter of urgency.bThen 10 minutes later as we were preparing the dinghy he was back with the Customs Officer. Initially she was a bit brusque but quickly became friendly once we had exchanged names. She wanted our passorts and ship's papers so they could get the check-in process underway whilst waiting for us.

Half an hour later we were ashore in the Tourism/Health office - clearly an extension to a family house. It was Saturday so the Officer had her two young kids with her which created a lovely informal atmosphere. After filling in a couple of forms to declare we were healthy and that no one had died on the passage, we went up the road to the Customs and Immigration offices at the back of the substantial Health Centre building.

First stop Customs where we met Natasha again, who this time was all smiles from the start. We filled out more forms clearly designed for commercial ships and paid the 'overtime' fee of about £40 (it was Saturday).

Then on to immigration and more forms and another overtime fee.

Then we bought the last two SIM cards in the village from a local entrepreneur. An interesting experience - it was not entirely clear whether the husband/wife team (she was out of town selling craft items at a fair in Scarborough and had to relay instructions to hubby over the phone) were authorised re-sellers, or just quick to spot an opportunity to make some extra cash from visitors. We paid TTD 203 but could see the Digicel price was TTD 177.  A 15% mark up but than we didn't need to pay the bus fare or spend the time to travel to Scarborough.

Then it was back to the boat for a very late fry-up breakfast consisting of proper English back bacon from the supermarket in Grenada; fried plantain; fried tomatoes and fried eggs. Delicious. Then two hours sleep and then back to the shore to join the other Yachties for a takeaway barbecued supper on the village beach.

Sunday - what the hell happened on Sunday? Not a lot I think. Got up late and went ashore to shop. 

CORRECTION... On Sunday morning we had breakfast with our new Swedish neighbours, Jan and Elli on board Jan's wonderful self built ferro-cement boat.

This was their "thank you" for towing them back to their boat the previous evening - they don't have an outboard motor and it's a long row from the village quay. We certainly got the best of the of the exchange. Such a wonderful couple. Jan is clearly a master craftsman with staying power. It took 10 years to build his boat and she is a delight to behold, but I have no pictures! Elli is dedicated to preserving the environment and is involed in all sorts of initiatives on that front.

After a wonderful breakfast with Jan and Elli we got ashore to shop and then back to the boat for dinner cooked by me - a sort of Bolognese with potatoes and Broccoli on the side.

Monday. Another slow start before heading to the village to shop once again. Ah yes, critical information... It's my 67th Birthday on Wednesday and we have decided to host a beach party with the other Yachties to celebrate - so we needed to shop - again!

First we needed lunch and so repaired to the local bar/cafe. Before long other yachties appeared. First the French couple, Damien and Fanny who with their 5 year old son, arrived from French Guyana earlier. Then Birgitte and Lasse and Jan and Elli. Of course more drinking and yarning ensued!

From left to right: Jan, Birgitte, Lasse, Elli and Mick.

Then we did the shopping! Then back to the boat and then headed back to the village to meet up with the others because there was a rumour that excellent rum punch was to be had locally. It turned out to be just a rumour! So, to drown our sorrows we went to a bar and then a local restaurant to eat.

On the way we stopped to watch the local catch of the day - a Sailfish - being prepared for sale...

Today - yes you guessed it, another slow start! Then more shopping, then we rowed over to the beach to check it out for tomorrow's party. We noticed there was quite a swell running and so in the extremely unlikely event of it providing a challenge to a beach landing, we removed the outboard motor from the dinghy and rowed to the beach complete with dinghy anchor. The plan being to drop the anchor before hitting the beach, which should help keep the bows of the dinghy pointing towards the swell as we let it gently push the dinghy stern first onto the shore. 

I was rowing the dinghy and in the swell just off the beach I turned stern on and Mick dropped the anchor. With me facing the beach I then rowed the dinghy backwards towards the shore as it serenely rode the swell. Suddenly I felt the bows of the dinghy being lifted near vertical by what must have been a particularly large breaking wave. Initially I struggled to keep the rearing dinghy at right angles to the breakers as we slid stern first at increasing speed down the wave. Then, as the nose of the dinghy passed the vertical I was flung fowards into the water. Two thoughts flashed through my mind. Firstly, that the solid transom of the dinghy might knock me out and secondly that the oars must shorely break under the strain. 

Fortunately neither came to pass and as I looked round I saw Mick emerging from the surf miraculously clutching his glasses. "Now that was a worthwhile test" he said as we struggled to bring the dinghy under control and out of the clutches of the breakers. 

Once we had done so we explored our immediate surroundings and they were quite stunning. We had been tossed onto a little strip of paradise..

A perfect setting for a party if only we and the others can get ashore without serious mishap.

Tune into the next post to find out whether we do!

To Charlotteville, Tabago

Everyone we had come across so far who had been to Tabago had raved about the island and so I was particularly keen to make the trip if at all possible. 

It's only 80 miles south east of the south coast of Grenada but the trade winds in these parts are usually from the east or south of east which would make for a long uncomfortable beat to Windward and could add 50% or more to the length of the trip. For the last couple of weeks the winds had been like this...

That's Tabago with the Capital Scarborough marked, our destination, Charlotteville, is on the extreme top right corner.

Winds like that would mean a direct beat into them ...

In fact, the challenge of making progress to windward  is even greater than the above screen shots suggest...

A boat's forward momentum creates a relative wind 'blowing' in the opposite direction of travel. That means, the boat and those on it, experience an 'apparent' wind, not the 'true' wind. The net effect of this when the true wind is blowing from in front of the beam (side), is an apparent wind which is both stronger and comes from further forward of the beam than the true wind. [When the true wind is from behind the beam, the apparent wind comes from further forward than the true wind but is less strong. The exception to that is when the true wind is coming from directly behind the boat, then, the apparent wind direction is the same as the true wind direction!]

Modern cruising boats can sail as close as about 45° to the apparent wind; Bonny probably does no better than 55°. She has a lot of surface area under the water and a long keel which makes her very seaworthy and safe; but combined with her rig (sail plan) she is less efficient to windward.

'Leeway' (the extent to which a boat is pushed sideways by the wind) is another factor to be taken into account when planning and undertaking a passsge. Thankfully Bonny's long deep(ish) keel is reasonably good at reducing leeway but you can see from the current screenshot below, that the current, combined with easterly winds, would push her off course to the south west.

A further complication is that for the first third of the passage the boat would be set further south west of its heading to Charlotteville by a strong current flowing in that direction. 

In the screen shot below the grey/blue colour to the south east of Grenada's southern tip, represents a 2 knot current. Factor in the fact that our sustained speed through the water wouldn't be much more than 5 knots and you can see we would be lucky to make any progress at all if we tried to beat directly into the wind. Once through that section we would experience a current flowing directly against us, but fortunately a much weaker one of about half a knot.

My 'crew' (🤣) clearly did not relish the prospect of taking on such conditions and so if we were to make the trip, we would need to wait for a better wind angle. Ideally, we could do with winds north of north east which would give us a beam reach to Charlottville.  

I'd therefore been keeping an eye on the weather forecast for the last week or so and fortunately a suitable weather window was forecast to open up for 24 hours or so commencing Friday 1st March. It turned out not to be quite perfect, but we both agreed it was doable. It looked something like this....

Such winds gave us a reasonable shout at making Charlottville without having to beat all the way there...

The bend in the track line is unintended but you get the idea - the true wind direction would be just forward of the beam whilst our progress into it would create an apparent wind direction from further forward. The green colour by the way, indicates expected wind speeds of 15-20 knots. 15 knots is a little stronger than ideal, 20 knots is when we start to consider reducing sail. 

We had one further minor hurdle to overcome before leaving Prickly Bay. On arrival there, the anchor chain didn't run out smoothly and when we hoisted it, (because it failed to dig in on the first attempt) it kept jumping off the 'gypsy'. 

Fortunately the local Chanderlry stocked replacements. It was crucial that we got one that fitted our windless and our chain size. After taking the key measurements...

I went off to buy the replacement which we fitted on the morning of our departure - Friday 1st March. We also had to check out with Customs and Immigration and top up our fuel and water tanks.

Finally we were ready to leave at around 1400 and by 1500 we had all sail set and were on course (ish) for Charlotteville.

As it turned out we had to sail hard on the wind for all 19 hours of the passage in order to stay close to our desired track. The wind direction and strength was more or less as forecast. I decided not to reef.  At times in some of the stronger gusts, we were perhaps a little over canvassed, but overall I think full sail produced the best performance to winward in the prevailing conditions. The Hydrovane certainly took it in its stride which is a pretty good indication that the sail plan was appropriate.

The passage was quite lively and wet at times - particularly when we overlooked the fact that the fore-hatch was open (the dinghy was stowed over it). As usual, Mick managed to be on watch in the heaviest weather and got a good soaking a couple of times when solid water swept over the boat!

The photo below shows our planned route in blue and our actual track in yellow. You can see the effect of the current on us during the early stages of the passage and of the wind veering further south in the latter stages, forcing us into making one tack to get into Charlotteville...

Mick has published some videos of the passage on YouTube. Click on the link in the top menu bar to view them.

When you get to Mick's YouTube channel, click on the Playlist link where you will find the playlist for Tabago.

Grenada Part 5 - Waterfalls, Last Stand of the Caribs and our last few days before departure for Tobago

Friday 23/2 was Mum's 90th Birthday with a big family celebration hosted by my brother Basty and his wife Gill, on the Saturday, which I of course missed, but it was a great success.

We got up early (for us) and walked to Saint George's Bus Sation to catch a bus, initially to the centre of the island to visit the Seven Falls or as they have more recently become known, the Seven Sisters falls.

We found our bus, half full, and waited another ten minutes whilst every seat was filled and then set off across the isaland at a rapid pace with music blaring.

Fortunately, like so much else on the island, the roads are in pretty good shape, so despite the enthusiastic driving along the mountain roads, we were only occasionally, in fear of our lives!

The Falls are located on private property and so we had to pay a small fee to enter and then took a treck of about half an hour initially down a track and then through lush vegetation which was surprisingly free of any obvious insect life...

We passed a steady stream of people returning up the path with many looking quite done in!

Finally we arrived at the lower two Falls, which it turned out were the only ones that were accessible. I went for a swim which was a little chilly but most refreshing.

After my swim it was time to head back up the path and appreciate why all those people we passed going up, whilst we were on our way down, looked so knackered!

We stopped for a beer at a little run down shack on the path and discovered to my surprise that it was run by the daughter of the land owner. It was probably the most delapidated drinking place we had come across. I was relieved when she reached into a large scruffy chest freezer for our beers, only to be extremely disappointed when I took one - it was not at all cold. 

We chatted to the propriettess while we drank our warm beer and she gave us a rather confusing account of the family history, which seemed to include a great grandfather from Sweden being enslaved. No doubt the real meaning of her words were 'lost in translation'!

Then it was back up to the bus stop and the bus for the lively town of Grenville on the east coast where we had a great value lunch in a caffateria style restaurant followed by a wander around, an ice cream and then another bus up to Sauteurs at the very north of the island.

"Sauteur" is the word for "jumper" in French and it turns out that the town of Sauteurs is named after a very tragic event of the 17th Century.

The cathlic church's graveyard at the top of the hill - Leepers Hill -  overlooking the town, backs on to a sheer drop down to the sea. This is the place where the Carib indians fought their last battle against the French occupiers of the island. Hopelessly outgunned and outnumberd the remaining Caribs threw themselves off the cliff into the sea below rather than be captured.

We learned of this history from the delightful Church warden/Tourist Information lady. 

The brick in the photo is from Glasgow and was thought to have been part of a ship's ballast from the period after the French ceded the island to the British in the late 17the Century.

We only went up to the Church at the insistence of two cousins we got chatting to in the town who said their relatives were up there!

He must have been in his late 70s but very fit and she was perhaps ten years younger. He ran a very low key bar/shop near the bus station where, surprise, surprise, we found ourselves after the bus journey. It turned out he had spent his young adult years in the swinging London of the 1960s and he seemed to have been a regular at many of the London clubs of that era. He clearly loved his time there. His cousin was visiting from the USA and they were in the middle of planning their next trip to Europe.

A long ride back to Saint George's on an

another bus got us back to the boat around 7pm.

Over the following few days we explored some more including a walk down the beautiful Grand Anse Beach and had an expensive lunch.

After that we took the boat round to the South East Coasts and explored a few of the bays there whilst we waited for the winds to shift round to the North East, so that we could untertake the passage to Tobago.

First stop was True Blue Bay where we found a lovely spot for a Rum Punch...

Then the strangely named "Clarkes Court Bay" that we explored by Dinghy over a couple of days

Our last stop before leaving for Tobago was Prickly Bay.  We spent a delightful evening with Gary over a pizza at the Spice Land Marina Restaurant and then back on his very impressive and incredibly roomy Hans Christian 41. It is though his home as well and so we decided his sumptuous surroundings were fully justified!

Next stop Tobago!

Grenada Part 4 - buses; cookers; the West Indies Brewing Company and another re-union.

On Thursday the 22nd (I think) we took a 'bus' over the peninsula to Prickly Bay, another major yachting centre but on the Island's south east coast.

"'Bus'" because Grenadian buses are actually mini buses. They appear to operate on the same basis as Barbados' private bus network. The routes are formally designated but the 'buses' seem to be privately operated and most play loud garage type music at full blast. Being minibuses there's no way that anyone can stand up, but they don't start a journey until every seat is occupied. The seating includes flip up seats on every row so that every square inch of space can be used by a fare paying passenger. Remarkably, despite starting off every journey packed with passengers, we rarely witnessed an occasion when the bus couldn't squeeze another passenger on board.

On arrival at Prickly Bay we first visited the Chanderlry in the hope of finding some replacement burner covers for the cooker. One of our existing burners has become so corroded that its increasingly difficult to use it except on full power. The second is now also becoming temperamental. We had no luck however.

We then decided to explore the area on foot and walked around the large boatyard and then a very extensive industrial area, which, whilst not the slightest bit photogenic, did underline the the feeling that the local economy was on good health.

Soon after we stumbled across one of the economy's jewels, the West Indies Brewing Company - a clearly very successful local craft brewing enterprise..

They were into re-purposing too...

Whilst sampling one of their numerous brews, a message came through from Gary on the OCC's Carribbean WhatsApp Group. He'd just arrived in Prickly Bay and discovered his outboard engine was kaput - did anyone know of anyone locally who could fix it? He would have a lot of rowing to do in the meantime!

No we didn't but we were local - did that count? Any excuse for (another) drink and so off we dashed to Prickly Bay Marina Restaurant to help Gary drown his sorrows.

The last time Mick and Gary had met was when we were all in Madeira in August, but Gary and I had met more recently in Pasito Blanco at Agustin's OCC party in November. We had a lot to catch up on and a drink morphed into lunch. Amazingly, they had bangers and mash on the menu and it wasn't at all bad - except that is for the total lack of mustard! Then  more drinks and then it was getting dark.

"Would you mind giving me a tow back to the boat?" Gary asked. "Not in the slightest." I replied. "The trouble is our dinghy's in Saint George's!"

Gary therefore had to row back to his boat in the dark and we had a long walk and bus ride back to Saint George's. He's also planning on heading for the USA, so we may well see him again.

Grenada Part 3 - Bonny's new Solar Wings

Sunday the 18th started (eventually) with consideration of how to make best use of the new solar panels. Initially the intention had been to replace the top panel of 150 Watts with the two new ones, which combined, would produce a theoretical 230 Watts. However, that would have required making a new frame for the new panels and would have left us with no good place to which to relocate the old panel. 

Mick then established that if we repositioned the existing side panels, there would be just enough room to squeeze the new panels on the guard rails. So that's what we did. 

The physical relocation of the existing panels and the installation of the new panels took the whole day. Luckily I had enough bits and bobs on the boat for us to do that. 

The next day after another slow start we got ashore and bought all the cables and connectors we needed to wire the new panels in. That took most of Tuesday but it was worth it. Our maximum charging rate has now jumped from 15 Amps to 25 Amps. Even with the fridge compressors running overtime to keep food cool and to make ice, we're now able to top up the batteries to 100% by midday. They typically start the day at 70%. 

So, with care we should now have enough Amps for all our needs on long passages too - in addition to the fridges, that includes, running the navigation stuff, the watermaker and the Starlink (sparingly). 🤞🤞🤞!