Follyfin’s progress South towards Trinidad: part 2 The Grenadines in pictures 9-22 March 2016

I Still nominally part of St. Vincent, the Grenadines are a collection of islands that spread south-west for about 37 miles from St. Vincent towards Grenada. The main inhabited islands are Bequia, Mustique and Canouan in the northern Grenadines and Mayreau and Union Island in the south, each with its own particular flavour. Also in the south are the most wonderful and beautiful uninhabited Tobago Cays. So what else could we do but go island hopping?

BEQUIA: 9-13/3/16

Admiralty Bay

Follyfin dead centre right in the distance near Princess Margaret beach … because she swum there once.

Sunset from Admiralty Bay

Sunday morning visit to:

Running from 1995, dependent on charity donations

Baby Hawksbill turtles raised in tanks from egg (collected locally) to 6-years old then released to the sea

A Hawksbill raised from egg

A Leatherback rescued from the beach after losing a leg

CANOUAN: 14-15/3/16

View from Tamarind beach; Follyfin anchored in the distance

Tortoise crossing road

Skipper performs daring rescue

Unfortunate Caribbean sheep; the grazing is wanting (not like North Yorkshire!)

TOBAGO CAYS: 16-18/3/16

Wonderful snorkelling on Horseshoe reef which protects the five uninhabited islands

Follyfin anchored inside the reef

Turtle watching beach, Baradel Island

Baradel resident - one of about 20 iguanas that we saw; probably quite a few more that we didn't.

UNION ISLAND: 19-22/3/16

Sunset from Clifton - a very crowded anchorage

Entrance to just one of many eateries

The best thing about Clifton was discovering the Yummy Stuff Bakery and Cafe, hiding down a back alley, where Rose bakes delicious breads and cookies. She will also rustle up a sandwich even when she has run out of her daily specials. Unfortunately no photo of her nor the shady little terrace area with no view but a big overhanging shade tree.

And that's about it from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Having cleared out on Monday 21st, we departed Union Island on 22nd March in high winds and rain. Many boats were coming in for shelter as we were leaving. We felt safer out of the mellée! We were on our way to Carriacou and Grenada.

Follyfin’s progress South towards Trinidad: part 1, Martinique to St Vincent 1-9 March 2016

Deeming Skipper's birthday as auspicious for the start of southern progress, and having provisioned, watered and fuelled up, we set off round the corner to St. Anne's bay again. Such a charming spot, 

and there is the wonderful patisserie, and the clearing out process would be so much more pleasant there… only to discover the following morning that Snack Boubou (doubling as the clearing office) is closed on Wednesdays. So… another day in paradise, to coin a phrase; such hardship.

4 March: waved goodbye early to Martinique and its Diamond Rock (at extreme left of photo below), commissioned by the British as a ‘ship’ to guard the island against marauding French, who were determined to win it back in the end (which they did). After all, Martinique was the birth place of Napoleon’s Empress Josephine.

Great excitement mid-morning when the fishing line went taut: a catch, a catch!

It was a Great Barracuda, weighing 2-3 kg, with extremely sharp teeth! Delicious eating and enough for a couple of days … Sailed right past Rodney Bay on St. Lucia, not wishing to repeat the awful clearing-in procedure (see previous post) and anchored in lovely Marigot Bay instead, where we could clear in and out in one go and at no charge! See our boat anchored outside the lagoon below, and some of the opulent craft that ply these waters

6 March: 06:30 weighed anchor and set sail, past the beautiful Pitons, for the 40-mile passage to the next island south, St. Vincent. Although Customs and Immigration are in Chateaubelair, it was Sunday ($$$) so we decided to sail past a couple of miles to Cumberland Bay and ‘clear in’ the following day. Cumberland Bay is beautiful

but the beach shelves away steeply, so it was necessary to anchor stern to the shore and take a line from the stern and tie it to a palm tree. 

Very helpful William, a local, assisted us with this so we promised to dine at ‘his’ restaurant (see below - which turned out to belong to Joseph, but William helped with the cooking) the following night. An excellent meal was had of barbecued fish, fried plantain, macaroni cheese, potato and salad all washed down with a couple of rum punches. Simple!

The only way to get back to Chateaubelair from Cumberland was by local bus, more accurately minibus, of which there are many ferrying locals on the one main road north and south between Kingstown and Chateaubelair. William had assured us that there would be many passing by Cumberland Bay on Monday morning. What he didn't say was that they would all be full! One hour later standing in the hot sun, and six having passed us, we eventually squeezed into the seventh. It was a 30-minute ride to remember, taken at breakneck speed on a narrow, winding, cliff-top, single carriageway road with no barrier between the road and the precipitous drop to the sea far below, screeching to a halt every now and then to pick up or drop off passengers. Needless to say, the brakes, tyres and shock absorbers were tested to the extreme. We had to hope they had all been serviced recently. And we enjoyed this ride for the princely sum of 2 EC$ (~50p).

Arriving in Chateaubelair at 10:30 on Monday morning, imagine our dismay on learning that the Customs officer had left early for some business in Kingstown, so the office was closed. When would he be back? After 4p.m. came the reply from helpful policeman who also acted as Immigration officer, and of course immigration could not be completed until after customs had been cleared. So waited for another ‘bus’ to take us back to Cumberland - nothing else in Chateaubelair to divert us - but this time their being full (at least 4 passed us by) played into our hands as a local man suddenly approached us to say Customs man was back, unexpectedly early! Cut a long story short, formalities were completed, eventually got another hair-raising ride back to Cumberland and a quiet afternoon was spent swimming and recovering. Phew!

Original plan was to call in next to Wallilabou, where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed, on our way southwards. However we heard that a chartered catamaran had been boarded there during the previous Thursday night and a German yachtsman shot. Preferring not to take the risk, we continued past to Blue Lagoon at the southern tip of the island, deemed to be safe for visiting yachtsmen. Took the opportunity to take a taxi into Kingstown (could not endure another one of those bus rides). With its opulent government buildings, cobbled streets and colonnades in the old centre, it had an air of faded glory, sadly not sustained as one walked out from the centre.

‘Little Tokyo’, the fish market built with Japanese money, was fascinating though. Such variety and profusion of fish! As the Marlin steaks were too big for us

we bought 8 balahoo, small fish with 6-7 cm long razor sharp points on their noses. Tasty but a bit of a pain to prepare.

One week Caribbean cruise: Martinique to St. Lucia and back 8-15 February 2016

JOINING AT MARIN, MARTINIQUE

Competent crew (temporary), Penny (volunteer galley slave) and Duncan (deck hand extraordinaire & ‘sous’). Tasks before embarkation included provisioning, water tank refill, refuelling, paying dues to the marina.

Day 1 ST. ANNE’S BAY, MARTINIQUE

A gentle 3-mile jaunt just round the point to anchor off this pretty little seaside town. Still recovering from the 3000 mile voyage across the Atlantic, no need to exert ourselves too much on the first day was there? Order of the day: swim, lunch on deck, explore St Anne, dinner on board.

Day 2 RODNEY BAY, ST. LUCIA

07:30, set sail for the 20 mile easy reach south, and a cracking sail it was too, enjoyed by all. Anchored off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay by 11:15. Pigeon Island was the main base for the British navy in the area, being in sight  (on most days) of Martinique so ideal for repealing any marauding French. Order of the day: swim, lunch, dinghy into lagoon to Customs and Immigration (see below), provision shopping, swim, sundowners on deck, supper. Honestly, the temperatures down here are high, regularly over 30 degrees C and often up to 35, so frequent swims are essential.

Note on Customs and Imigration

Visiting yachtsmen must complete the clearing-in process for every new island they visit. They also must clear out again on departure. This is done at the Customs and Immigration offices which are not always in the same place. Clearing-in in Rodney Bay had to be one of my worst experiences of red tape. Talk about bureaucracy! First fill a complicated form in quadruplicate with carbon paper not long enough to reach the bottom of the page; then fill another form for each member of the crew; then queue up to see an officious young woman in uniform (with ne’er a smile passing her lips) who checks your form, checks your passports, stamps your passport and then tells you to take the yellow form to Immigration… a fellow sitting at the next-door desk in the same room. You queue again to see him, he checks your form and your passports again and then takes money off you for an immigration fee. At least this chap was a little more friendly and was in the same building as the awful Customs woman. 

Day 3 SOUFFRIERE AND THE PITONS

During the morning, another visit to Customs office was required to complete some minor details of paperwork before we could depart… so Follyfin motored right into the lagoon, during which very short passage there was an almighty downpour - a veritable tropical rainstorm!

14:00, sailed SW out of Rodney Bay towards south-western tip of the island. Arriving 17:30, lucky to get the last available mooring between the Pitons, ‘petit’ and ‘gros’, two conical-shaped, forest-covered mountains around 2500 ft high. Being part of the Marine Park, yachts pay a Coral Conservation fee. This is reasonable whilst the constant pestering by ‘boat boys’ in dinghies which swarm around visiting boats wanting to sell you everything from baguette (so called) to taxi rides and tours is not. Despite this annoyance, it was a magical if somewhat rolly spot to moor for the night. A little late for sundowners (sunset in these parts occurs around 18:00 and its pitch dark by 19:00) but we managed to squeeze some in anyway.

DAY 4 stayed put. Changed our mooring boy to a less rolly one nearer town, north of Petit Piton. Employed Francis to take us ashore in his ‘taxi’. Soufriere was disappointing although lunch at Petit Peak was interesting… a curry ‘roti’ is basically some curry mixture in a wrap. Quite tasty washed down with local beer. Nice location, the building having previously served as the town courthouse back in 1898, with plenty of draft and looking out over the bay. Water taxi back, swim, sundowners etc....

Day 5 MARIGOT BAY

Heading north to this completely sheltered, mangrove-lined bay and famous as a hurricane hole. Legend has it that a British admiral hid his fleet in here from a pursuing French fleet by tying palm fronds in his masts to disguise them. Of course the French sailed straight past. Having anchored, order of the day: swim, lunch, dinghy ashore, provision, drink in bar (preferably one with wifi), sundowners on deck … you get the picture. Great sunset.

Day 6 RODNEY BAY

Reluctantly returned here in order to refill water tank and clear out from St. Lucia at Customs and Immigration. Not well timed as this was a Saturday and staff overtime fees are payable - 100 EC$ (£25). Will know better next time! Order of the day as usual!

Day 7 ST ANNE’S BAY, MARTINIQUE

07:15, St. Valentine's Day. Arrived 11:45 to be greeted by heavy rain storm. Ashore to clear in to Martinique again. This accomplished much more easily than at Rodney Bay, at the ‘Snack Boubou’ on a computer provided for the purpose. The French have got it right! Excellent patisserie provided tasty desserts for Valentine’s Day supper. Competent Crew got busy swabbing the deck…

Day 8 MARIN, MARTINIQUE

Reluctantly returned to the marina. A leisurely cruise completed, skipper and first mate well rested after Competent Crew (temporary) had looked after us all the time. Just what was needed after our transatlantic adventure!

Winding up Follyfin’s Atlantic Odyssey

Apologies for the extended break since the last post to this blog. It’s over 2 months since we set sail from Tenerife on 9 January. And so much has happened since Follyfin landed in Martinique 6 weeks ago on 1 February, including a 10-day visit to UK to meet our new grand-daughter Flora who had just turned 2 weeks old when I arrived in London.

Additionally I have been undergoing digital detox (expression aptly coined by 2nd Mate) as well as recovering from a hectic year of Odyssey planning. Now relaxing in the Caribbean sunshine I suddenly felt like opening the log book of the voyage again and had some fun compiling some statistics as follows:

TIMING AND DISTANCE

-Total time taken for passage: 23 days, 1 hr, 45 mins

-Total mileage covered: 2942.3 nm

-Deviation from the rhumb line: 142.3 nm 

-Greatest mileage covered in 24-hour period: 157 nm on 11/12 January from 16:00. This unusually high mileage presumably was achieved as we felt the effects of Hurricane Alex which passed to the north of us. More usually, once the Trade winds had established in week 2, the daily average was nearer to 135/140 and occasionally around 150 nm.

-Lowest mileage covered in 24-hour period: 84 nm on 9/10 January from 19:00, i.e.the very first night!

MOTOR USAGE

Total time engine used on passage: 89 hours 5 mins, i.e. 3 days 17 hours 5 mins motor sailing

Diesel used: 90 litres, i.e. approx 1 litre per hour.

Longest single period motor sailing: 17 h 45 min on 15 January.

WINDS AND SPEEDS

Maximum boat speed recorded: 10.3 knots (kn)

Average boat speed over whole passage: 5.3 kn

Average boat speed over first 2 days of passage: 4.1 kn

Average boat speed over last 16 days of passage: 5.6 kn

Maximum wind speed recorded: 34.6 kn, force 7 to 8, mainly  E or NE

GLOBAL POSITIONING

Departed Tenerife 09/01/16  28 degrees 22 minutes N,16 degrees 16 minutes W

Arrived Martinique 01/02/16  14 degrees 28 minutes N, 60 degrees 52 minutes W

Degrees of Latitude crossed: 15 (going South)

Degrees of Longitude crossed: 44 (going West)

FISH AND CETACEANS

Numerous pods of dolphins swimming all around the boat plus...

One Grouper

Three Dorado (aka Mahi Mahi)

and one that got away - ‘huge’ according to 2nd Mate

PROVISIONING

Menus were worked out in advance so provisioning reflected this. We had hoped to catch fish, which we did but just in case we didn't, or in case something untoward happened necessitating us staying at sea longer than the 25 days expected as the upper limit, extra allowance had to be made. You can easily skip the next bit which is only a list!

Amongst other things…

Water - 390 litres drinking in bottles, all masterfully stowed by the skipper (playing to his strengths)

Milk (long-life) - 24 litres

Fruit juice - 38 litres

Tomatoes (chopped) - 22 packs

Baked beans - 17 tins (emergencies only!)

Tuna - 9x 200 g tins

Sardines - 10x 100 g tins

Anchovies - 14x 50 g tins

Weetabix - 8x 24 biscuits

Muesli - 6x 500 g

Various tinned fruit and vegetables, about 6 tins of each

Dried beans and chick peas

Rice, pasta, 30 flour tortilla wraps

Flour for bread-making - 9 kg (Cabin Boy Special)

Fridge

Cheese - 3 kg

Butter & Spread - 1 kg each

Eggs - 5 dozen

10 chicken thighs

3x 500 g chorizo sausages

500 g minced steak

1 kg braising beef

600 g diced lamb leg

600 g fish fillet

Fresh fruit and veg

27 onions

6 heads garlic

30 large potatoes

12 large carrots

6 cabbages

2 heads celery

12 large tomatoes

6 courgettes 

3 aubergines 

24 lemons

24 oranges

6 limes

24 green bananas

Cabbages kept really well; we even had one left over which was still edible when we arrived. Citrus fruits good too, and onions and potatoes. Other fresh stuff was consumed pretty quickly, as was the meat in the fridge, so no chance for it to go off.

MISCELLANY

As dedicated followers of this blog will know, a few posts were managed en route, with the help of Our Girl on the Ground, by using the Iridium satellite connection to send drafts by email. Second Mate was also using the Iridium ‘Go’ to send tweets on a daily basis and these can be seen on Twitter.com by searching for @Ivorbennett. The ‘Go’ acted as a satellite hub, allowing all the crew to use private email for communications via smart phone and/or tablet. Also was very quick and efficient at sending SMS text messages - essential when birth of a grand child is imminent!

The weather was mainly warm, fine and sunny, occasionally overcast, with only a few really wet squalls experienced towards the end of the voyage. A Follyfin milestone was passed on the 3rd day out when her mileage log reached 10,000 nm. This was cause for a small celebration with a drop of port after dinner… although initially this was intended to be ‘dry’ voyage, Skipper was fearful of a mutiny and therefore took various opportunities to splice the mainbrace whenever a celebration was called for. These included the catching of a fish, Noah's birthday, Flora’s birth, above-average daily mileage, logging 1000 miles under the keel, the arrival of the Trade Winds on 17 January (at last!) passing half-way mark in estimated passage time, and again in distance. Then there was occasionally a need for a little cheering up, notably around the end of week 1 when everyone seemed slightly depressed and a bit tetchy, mainly because by this time we should have covered a third of the estimated distance (about 960 nm) but had actually only covered just over 800 nm.

From week 2 the rig we used was ‘gull-winged’ with the jib poled out on one side and the main let right out on the opposite side (usually on starboard tack). We learned to reef the main sail just before night-fall, usually two or three reefs. This for safety in case a squall came up. Reefing the main sail in pitch dark is not easy! Fortunately there were no serious breakages or malfunctions. There were two accidental jibes in quick succession towards end of week 2. A potential breakage was discovered after making landfall: the main halyard, which holds the main sail up, was almost worn through. Had it broken whilst on passage, that would have caused a major problem. 

Minor difficulties were encountered because of the increasing prevalence of the Sargassum weed as we progressed south and west. It clogged the fishing lines, the Duogen propeller and the Hydrovane rudder. 

Very few other vessels were sighted nearby after the first few hours. One tanker British Ruby, one sail boat Tamala, and one rowing boat Washingtons Crossing - a contestant in the Talisker Challenge for Rowers, it was 23 ft long and only its light was visible 3 nm off when we overtook during the night of 24 January. Otherwise a few tankers were picked up on the AIS but usually over 10 nm away. The Atlantic Ocean is a very big and lonely place!

BEST PIECE OF KIT

Hydrovane “Jane”, allowing the watch-keeper to relax whilst she ‘steered’ the vessel without using any battery power.

MOST DISAPPOINTING PIECE OF KIT

The Duogen water/wind-driven battery charger turned out to lose too much voltage across the regulator, thus not charging the batteries as efficiently as it should.

MOST EXHILARATING MOMENTS

Swimming in the Atlantic 14 deg 44’ N, 59 deg 40’ W on 31 January, whilst boat ‘hove to’ but still moving at 1-1.5 kn in the current.

MOST EXCITING MOMENT

Receiving news of safe arrival of grand-daughter Flora.

WORST ASPECT OF THE VOYAGE

The constant roll of the boat, every kind of which way! There was a cross-swell from different directions for almost the entire voyage, making sleep very difficult and patchy, and preparing meals very challenging.

BEST ASPECT OF THE VOYAGE

We did it! And all remain friends at the end of it!