Tasting Trinidad, and how

Coconut Bake and Smoked Herring

We signed up to go on a "Taste of Trinidad" tour with Jesse James (his firm, Members Only, provides lots of support services to cruisers visiting Chaguaramas).  There were cruisers from six different boats, including us, and a total of 12 folks including us.  We have been hearing about the tour since we were in Trinidad last year, but this is the first time we have been able to go.  It's gotten amusingly competitive; Jesse and his customers are always trying to set a record for the number of foods (and beverages) consumeed in the course of the tour.  From our first dish - Coconut Bake and Smoked Herring, at 9:24 a.m.

Starfruit

to our last, Starfruit, around 8:12 p.m., we had a wonderful time wandering around Trinidad on our stomachs.  We sampled 59 foods and beverages and covered around 120 miles or so, starting in Chaguaramas, heading west and south through Valencia and Sangre Grande to the east coast at Manzanilla, then south to Mayaro and back west through Rio Claro, then northwest through Chaguanas and back to Port of Spain, then home to Chaguaramas again.  I'm not sure I can really name a single favorite food (least favorite of mine - and most of the 12 folks on the tour, I think) was a pickled pommecythere (a local apple-like fruit that might have been okay without the pickling) - but among the highlights were the smoked herring, barbecued pigtails (think seriously tasty, well "marbled" pork), a garlicky "patchoi" (a form of baby bok choy), and a green fig salad.  I would try to make any and all of these, along with a number of other things we sampled.  One nice thing about a tour like this is that it sends me searching for recipes.
Here's a slideshow with photos of one sort or another of most of the 59 foods - and yes, this was indeed a new record, though I am sure Jesse is already plotting how to break it on the next tour.  Of course, we will go again when we get back in the winter, so we will be sure to try to break whatever records get set in the meantime.

Farewell Sweet Grenada (and cruising, for now)

I just finished updating our Voyage Summary (see Pages to the right; just click on the link if you want to see the day-by-day detail since our October 2010 departure), and I think our tattered Grenada courtesy flag tells the story.  We have had four legs in the voyage so far: 

• down the ICW from Chester to Fort Lauderdale, October to December 2010
• across to the Bahamas and down to Georgetown (Emerald Bay) in February 2011
• south from the Bahamas to the Caribbean, ending in Chaguaramas, Trinidad, April to June 2011
• around the southern Caribbean from Chaguaramas in December 2011 and back to Chaguaramas in June 2012  

We and Raconteur have logged about 3,900 nautical miles since we started out from Chester - 80% of those miles we logged in the first three legs.  We have spent 107 days underway - only a quarter of those during the fourth leg.  We have spent 26 nights at sea - exactly 2 of them on the fourth leg (Trinidad to Grenada in December, and Grenada to Trinidad on Thursday/Friday this week).  We have spent a total of 241 days in port - more than two-thirds of them on this fourth leg.  And, of the fourth leg,which was a total of about 170 days from start to finish (21 of them off the boat all together), we spent all or part of 95 of them in Grenada...thus the state of our Grenada flag.  I bought a new one and tucked it into our nav table for our hoped-for return there next season.

We left Grenada on Thursday around 1800, and got to the dock at Crews Inn in Chaguaramas the following morning around 1000.  It wasn't a bad passage; JP and I basically stayed on deck the whole night and we alternated snoozing off and on, which is not our normal passage procedure.  It worked fine, though we were quite crispy by last evening.  We had dinner over at Coral Cove with Receta and Arctic Tern - they were out there with us, though both had shorter trips than we did, by a couple of hours.  It was great to have dinner with them (a delicious and incredibly generous barbecue), and since we were all in more or less the same state, no one minded the early face-planting.

This morning we started on the rather extensive list of Things To Do before the haul-out, which is scheduled for this coming Friday, the 22nd.  Our beautiful new upholstery fabric has arrived, and we met with the upholsterer yesterday.  We ordered probably twice as much as we need (Sunbrella Dupione Seafoam anyone?) but I think it will be fabulous.  I must remember to do a "before" photo so we can do an "after".  We tried to get the jib down; no luck, but the riggers are coming Monday so they will help with that.  We got the hatch covers and window screens washed and stowed, made an appointment with the guy who is going to replace the anchor windlass, and will empty the diesel from the jerry cans into the boat tank, fill and bleach the water tanks, and sort the laundry before the day is out.  Tomorrow's big project is taking the 200 feet of anchor chain out of the anchor locker, washing it, letting it dry, and re-marking it.  
After that, only about another fifty items to check off on our way to haul out.

Wednesday we will pick up a rental car so we can make a shopping expedition for various things, including a printer (ours died), and get ourselves into Port of Spain late Friday.  We'll stay in Trinidad and come back and forth to the boat on the hard, and maybe get some leisure time on the island before we fly on the 28th. 

Cruiser friends, and our 100th post

Since this is our 100th post on the Raconteur, Southbound blog, I felt it completely necessary to lead off with a sunset photo.

We went on Tuesday night with our friends Gus and Terry on s/v Nino to the Cave House at Mt. Hartman Bay Resort.  We met them when we got to Grenada in early December; among other things, Terry organizes cruiser participation in the Thursday cooking class at True Blue Resort with local chefs Omega and Esther, and often flips the burgers for the Wednesday Burger Night at Clarke's Court Bay Marina, two of my favorite Camp Grenada events.  We caught up with them in St. Lucia in April, and then they beat us back to Grenada by a few days in May.  The Cave House is in a lovely setting on Mt. Hartman Bay, not far from Secret Harbour Marina.  The food and service are both excellent as well, and we got to see one of the rooms and it was quite nice, spacious, touches of luxury, very comfortable - and it was not the best room in the house.  Those are some rooms that are right down on the beach. Here are two photos of us having drinks on the terrace before dinner, the first taken by JP, the second by Susan - so I am actually IN both of them, exceptionally.

Meanwhile, our friends Bob and Janice on s/v Tsamaya - we met them after the Great Swordfish Adventure last year in Trois Ilets, Martinique - have set off, just yesterday morning, from St. Martin/Sint Maarten, to cross the Atlantic.  We are following them by position 

Follow s/v Tsamaya to Europe

and on a blog that they set up

Tsamaya Underway

They can't read comments until they get to their destination, but it is fun to follow along and enjoy a little vicarious living.

We are planning to hang around Grenada until Susan leaves on the 14th to attend a graduation party for her nieces; JP and I will probably try to head out overnight on the 14th, or perhaps even the day before, depending on what we see for weather.  We are in a squally period; it may settle for a day or two at the end of this week, then will kick up again Sunday/Monday, and we may see some higher seas.  It's not a very long passage - about 85 miles door to door, I think - but with south in the wind can be annoying.  We (re) made the list of things that need to be done to de-commission the boat, so we need at least a few days at the dock and then another day or two once she is on the hard.  JP and Susan did most of it in three days last summer, so with a week or more we should be fine.

A cruising quiz

This, or

This?

This, or

This?

Correct answer?  Both, and I could come up with many more pairs like this, too.  The only common ground is that I took them in the last few days, and they give a little visual of the what-it-takes, and the why-we-do-it of cruising.

So the top photo is Susan finishing to re-hang the dinghy engine on a specially-built plate that is mounted to our arch; we (mostly JP and Susan) go through a multi-step exercise nearly every time we move from place to place, to remove the dinghy engine and mount it and then secure the dinghy to davits.  The procedure is repeated in reverse, of course, each time we arrive and when we need the dinghy (and that is also nearly every time, and often immediately so that we can clear in).  

The second photo is of Happy Island (we sent a Christmas poem to to tune of Jingle Bells on the subject some years ago), a man-made conch shell island bar set in Clifton Harbor on Union Island in the Grenadines - we were on a mooring in Clifton for a few hours on Monday 28 May to have lunch and clear out.  In the end, we didn't visit Happy Island this time, though we had done when we came through on our way south last spring.  Isn't the water perfectly amazing?

The story of the third photo begins with some trouble Susan started experiencing with our electric anchor windlass.  We carry a 40 pound Delta anchor and 200 feet of 3/8" chain, and have been very happy with our anchoring experiences since we arrived in South Atlantic and Caribbean waters in 2011.  We have the originally installed electric anchor windlass, and this makes raising and lowering that hook and many, many feet of that chain (the norm since we left the shallow Bahamas) much easier (versus doing it by hand, for sure).  We have become pretty good at it, if I do say so.  On Sunday 27 May, we moved from the Tobago Cays (see walking photos here and snorkeling photos here ) to nearby Mayreau to spend the night on our way to Union, and to have dinner at Dennis' Hideaway.  In the Cays, Susan noticed that the windlass was making a little bit of an unusual noise, but she raised with no problem and we got to Mayreau.  There, the windlass quit entirely at one point during the process, but with some finagling, JP got it going again and we set the hook.  After that and a little investigation, it was clear, at least to JP, that the windlass was dead or very nearly dead.  This required that the anchor be raised manually at Saline Bay on Mayreau - we had a LOT of chain down, so JP and Susan were exhausted and I was traumatized from helming and trying to help and not hit anything or anyone.  We came on to Sandy Cay, Carriacou for the night, and took a mooring ball, and then on the 29th on to Clarke's Court Bay and a mooring ball at Whisper Cove Marina.   Yesterday, the 31st, Mike from Enza Marine came to have a look, and said not only is it dead, but it was one of the most spectacular exits he has ever seen in any motor.  We can't easily replace it here, so will do so when we get to Trinidad, where we will, Poseidon willing, be able to dock with no interim anchoring before the haul-out.

The last photos is just the sun setting over Sandy Cay - as said, the reminder even on hard(er) days of why we do this.

It's lovely to be back in Grenada, despite the ROLLY conditions (unheard of when we were here in the winter) in Clarke's Court.

Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent - the other Caribbean

This is a last view of the shore at Cumberland Bay on the west coast of Saint Vincent, just before we left on Tuesday morning.  

We anchored there for several days; it is a bit off the beaten path, though we were never alone.  Various other boats came and went every day; we gather that in full season (December to maybe March?) the bay is often quite full of boats. One of the restaurants there - we didn't try it - that is run by a French couple, so it seems that many of the French-speaking cruisers make a point of stopping at Cumberland and eating at the Black Baron.  We heard one boat ordering "deux poulets et quatre Tartares" on our second night.  We ate out once, with "Old" Joseph, a local who cooked bonito, rice and a warm potato and tomato salad for us.

I think of it as the "other Caribbean" in part because the west coast of St. Vincent developed a reputation some time ago - even at the time we chartered in SVG in 2003 - as being somewhat unsafe for visiting boats.  It's true that some of the inland parts of St. Vincent on the west coast are centers of a pretty active marijuana industry, and that some crime spilled over into the visiting cruiser community, but the problems were perhaps somewhat blown out of proportion (that happens often - one story multiplies itself into many, details are lost, and a place gets a reputation that is probably unwarranted), and now it appears that the local residents are trying quite hard to support their visitor trade.  It's also about as far from the much visited Caribbean ports that center on land-based tourism as it's possible to be - almost no one comes to Cumberland who isn't either a charterer or a cruiser.

JP had wanted to explore the area for some time, so when we left Marigot Bay on St. Lucia (see: land-based tourism at its finest) we decided to make a St. Vincent stop.  It's a different (for us) kind of anchoring experience, as the bay is very deep very close to shore, and it's necessary to anchor with the boat pointed out to the west (definitely away from the prevailing easterly winds) and then back up toward shore and tie the stern to a tree on shore.  Several of the locals make a little money (about 20EC or about $7US) by meeting incoming boats and helping them with this unfamiliar manoeuvre.  Our guy was called Rico, and he did his work very professionally.  He visited us a couple of times, helping us re-set when it seemed that we had a bit too much chain out, and brought us several gorgeous water nuts (young coconuts prized for the water inside) as a kind of parting gift.  All the locals we met were equally kind to us, and we look forward to a return trip on way north next time.

I have somewhat mixed feelings about these kinds of stops - nothing very original.  We came here to the Caribbean to see another way of life, not just to sun ourselves on the beach (or off the transom of the boat).  We try to engage in conversation and contact with local people whenever possible, and we generally find the experience interesting and often rewarding.  The hard part, for me anyway, and I think for all of us, is the economic disparity between "us" and "them".  Even between cruisers who travel on considerably tighter budgets than we do, and locals (specifically locals who offer their services to visiting boats) who are relatively prosperous, the differences can seem enormous.  And whenever we try to offer something (beyond paying for the services), we are nearly always offered something in return, from people who seem to have so much less to give. 

Anyway, I'm glad we stopped at Cumberland, and we will return.  Thank you Rico, Joseph, Old Joseph, and everyone for a great and memorable experience.

Diving and Snorkeling Saint Lucia

Alas, I was not clever enough to catch both JP and Susan making their dive on the wreck Lesleen M in Anse Cochon, Saint Lucia; that is JP in the far right of the photo, with a couple of their fellow divers.  We all three went on the expedition, since they could dive and I could snorkel.  There were two dives and two snorkels, with lunch in between; we went with an outfit called Dive Helen out of Marigot Bay, where we are on a mooring ball for a few days.  It was really a great day; it rained off and on, but that makes the changing light on the reef more interesting.  We will be here until tomorrow, or at least that is the current plan, and then will make a long sail to the west coast of Saint Vincent.

On Sunday, we went to the last day of the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival (now just called Saint Lucia Jazz - this was the 21st year).  The lineup included a young performer called Melanie Fiona - she is from Toronto, but her parents were born in Guyana - and a group called The WESPE POU AYITI Project, then the fabulous South African Hugh Masekela.  The final two acts were Toni Braxton - I don't think she was having her best day, but she had a LOT of fans in the mostly Caribbean audience - and Diana Ross, who really makes clear the difference between "Star"  and "Superstar" - or, as JP said, "legend".  She is 68, still has an amazing voice, incredible energy, and real joy in performing.  It was a privilege to see and hear her.  It was dark by the time she came on stage, but here is another photo from the concert; that's Hugh Masekela.

We have not done many boat projects since arriving in Saint Lucia, but JP and Susan did take apart the carburetor for the dinghy engine (which was not working) and after cleaning it, put it back together AND got the engine working again.  They used a YouTube video that described how to do it for the specific engine we have - how cool is that?  We have chosen the new upholstery for the boat interior and are in the process of ordering it and arranging for it to be shipped to Trinidad; we seem to need something like 60 yards of fabric for the project. 

Strange sight: Sunshine

Normally this would be a boring photo, but it's thrilling today, because - the sun is shining!  We have had overcast, rain, squalls (rinse and repeat) for about two weeks - I don't actually remember the last really sunny day.  

We came down to Rodney Bay, where I took this photo this morning, on Wednesday the 9th.  We had a great motor sail; we could certainly have sailed but we have been missing our solar power and so the battery charge needed a serious boost.  Au revoir to Martinique, after a final stop at the Leader Price (grocery store) for rum and red wine.  In the end, I think we all enjoyed the Martinique stay quite a lot, and will happily go back next season.  

We have several of our cruising friends (and a number of folks we know by their presence on the Grenada Cruiser's Net) here with us in Saint Lucia - Msichana is over in the Lagoon behind the marina (Sam is taking the last of her pre-college admission tests here); we wound up anchored right next to Mr. Mac.  And yesterday morning I was on line, and got an email from Terry on Nino, asking where we were and saying she hoped it was raining less than in Rodney Bay...of course I got on the radio immediately, and it turns out they are behind a dark blue hulled boat that is not far from us.  We had both boats on board Raconteur for a "heavy hors d'oeuvres" cocktail party - I made my mom's (and now sister's) recipe for deviled eggs, and we had tapenade on melba toasts, three-pepper Rondelé on melba toasts, a great tuna salad with walnuts and pineapples that Terry brought, and fish tacos.  It was a lot of fun - and seven on board including us is just right.

We have tickets for the last day of the Saint Lucia Jazz Festival (on Pigeon Island, just a dinghy ride from here) tomorrow, Sunday - Diana Ross and Toni Braxton, among others - and on Monday we will probably start meandering down the Saint Lucia coast, with a first stop at Marigot Bay.  For the moment, there is too much sea to take a mooring between the Pitons, but perhaps it will be possible before we head further south after the 20th.
We are starting to make plans for leaving her in Trinidad; we have a reservation at Crews Inn starting the 20th of June, and have let Rico at Power Boats know that we will be hauling out with them again.  We are planning to have the upholstery re-done while we are away, and have some fabric samples on the way from the US, so we will entertain ourselves with choosing the new scheme over the next couple of weeks.  We have a few other projects on the maybe list - lifelines, standing rigging - that we will finalize once in Trinidad.

Marooned in Martinique

Rainbow, West Coast Martinique, 29 April 2012

Yes, that's a joke.  We are still here; we sailed down from Dominica on Sunday and Monday last - such a good sail on Sunday that we made 65 nautical miles, all the way to an anchorage at Case Pilote, northwest of Fort de France, before sunset on Sunday.  Monday was nice at the beginning, but then the cotter pin on the starboard side of the davits gave way (not the first time), causing the dinghy to swing wildly, which in turn caused all four screws on the catbird seat to come out, and knocked the strobe light from its perch on one of the bimini supports (we didn't discover that until about an hour later - and more on that in a moment).  JP and Susan got the dinghy lowered into the water, so there was no weight on the davits, and we then started the eastward slog into the anchorage at the Marin.  

We anchored this time on the northwest side of the Cul de Sac du Marin, and arrived just in time for our friends on Nino to have cleared out, so we bid them farewell by radio and they headed on to St. Lucia.  We will probably catch up again in the Grenadines.  Ann and Chris on Mr. Mac heard us calling Nino, so they let us know that they were over at Ste. Anne, and we made plans to get together later in the week.

The generator part finally turned up late Wednesday, so Didier came Thursday morning; he completed part one of the project, and returned Friday for part two.  HOWEVER (isn't there always one?) now the gen, though working, is putting out copious quantities of white smoke, not generally a good thing, and JP and Susan are trying to diagnose it this morning.  

Yesterday morning we rented a car again, and Susan and I went with Ann and Chris, who had moved over to the Marin anchorage on Thursday, to the big Carrefour in Genipa that we had finally found a couple of weeks ago.  They invited us for a shared dinner on board Mr. Mac last night; Chris grilled a delicious pork tenderloin, and Ann and I contributed the veggies (carrots and a christophine gratin, respectively).  At one point, when I pointed out the Douane (customs) boat going out, Chris remarked that one night when they were at anchor in Ste. Anne, he noticed a strongly blinking white light at water level, and, concerned that someone was in the water, called the Martinique Coast Guard.  He said they were very responsive, but didn't find anyone, and after about 11 pm he stopped watching and went to bed.

Hmmm....what do you suppose are the changes that OUR lost strobe light made its way to the anchorage at Ste. Anne?  Actually, probably pretty good.  Now, the odds that people we KNOW would spot it...too funny.  Of course, we will never know.

We are waiting for a package that my sister sent with some valves for the dinghy pontoons; it arrived and cleared Customs on Thursday, but they decided against delivering it on Friday, for some reason.  The wind has died, anyway, and what wind there is comes from the southwest, which is of course the direction of our next stop in St. Lucia. And there is a strong possibility that Didier's services will be needed again for the gen, so...Martinique it is, for the moment.  Luckily, I like it much better than I did after our first stop here on the way south last year, the anchor is well hooked, the boat is well provisioned, and various services are close at hand.  All in all, not REALLY a marooned experience.

Saint Pierre, and a great sail

We left Marin on Sunday morning, hit a squall almost immediately - wet, not terribly windy - then had a good sail most of the way up to Saint Pierre, on the northwest coast of Martinique.  We had information from an old guide that suggested that we might have been able to clear out from there on Sunday, but that was out of date, so we decided to stick around on Monday and visit the town.  Saint Pierre was wiped out in the last major eruption of Mont Pelee, on May 8, 1902.  It was a 200-year-old city of 30,000 people, known as the "Paris of the Caribbean" - gone in under two minutes, and the entire population (except one prisoner in his underground cell, and a cobbler in his cellar, and a few people on one boat in the harbor) with it.  This is a photo of the ruins of what was the 800-seat theater; the current town is full of bits and pieces of ruins like this, and some buildings are built on top of the rubble.  The volcano gave plenty of warning; it had been rumbling for weeks, and had already killed about 150 people a few days before the eruption. 

To the right is Mont Pelee today, in one of the moments when you can actually SEE the top - it is often covered with drifting clouds. We had a somewhat hot but interesting walk around, and crossed a small river to the Fort district, which was the site of the original town, founded about 200 years before the eruption.  Of all things, we encountered a feed and grain store, and so of course we had to snap a couple of photos:
 

 

We left Saint Pierre very early (around 0630) Tuesday morning, and had a truly fabulous sail (with dolphins) up to Dominica; we had originally planned to stop at Roseau, which is about 35 nautical miles or so from Saint Pierre, but we were making such good time that we came on to Prince Rupert Bay (Portsmouth).  Here's photographic evidence of the speed:

And the dolphins ("Talk to my agent"):

Conjuring people up

When we were in Prickly Bay in January, I looked up from the boat in the late afternoon and thought I saw our friends on Cattiva anchored nearby (they had gone to St. Lucia a couple of weeks earlier).  When I looked closer I realized it was not them - and about 15 minutes later, I saw them sail around the point and into the bay!  I joked that I had conjured them up.  

Yesterday, we were at lunch and I saw a guy from a great distance who looked like our friend Gus from s/v Nino - we last saw him and his wife Terry when we left Grenada in early March, and corresponded with them before we headed for Europe, but not since.  On closer inspection, I realized it was NOT Gus.  An hour later, we made a dash into Caraibe Marine to look (unsatisfactorily, it turned out) for boat wash - and there was Terry.  They had just arrived in Martinique sometime in the last hour (and it definitely was not Gus on the dock).  Weird - and the more so because Terry cut my hair a couple of times, and I was just thinking it would be too long before I would be back in Grenada, and made an appointment with a local hairdresser.  

We also got lucky and go to see our friends Janice and Bob on s/v Tsamaya late last week; we had hoped to meet up with them in Antigua, but decided against going that far north.  They had told us that they were heading out to Guadeloupe from Martinique, so we didn't expect to see them.  JP wanted Susan to call the Capitainerie by VHF, to get them to take a final water reading before we left for Sainte Anne - but she decided to go to the office instead - and ran into Janice and Bob, clearing out.  So, we got to spend a few minutes with them - for the first time (I think) since either Bequia or Trinidad.  

It makes me realize that this cruising world is rather small, really; we do all more or less haunt the same few anchorages, marinas, chandlers, customs offices, bars, restaurants, and Internet cafes.  It's kind of nice.  We are getting together with Gus and Terry for drinks in a couple of hours.

We have decided to fix versus replace the generator, and the part is being ordered from Germany, so we will take a week and head north to Dominica, after doing some provisioning tomorrow with a rented car at the BIG Carrefour near the airport.  Maybe then I can stop whining about the difference between shopping in the "Metropole" (mainland France) and in the "outre-mer" (overseas France).

Martinique, continued

We left the Marin for the anchorage at Sainte-Anne last Thursday, the 12th; it's a really pretty spot and JP and Susan felt moved to rig the dinghy for sailing (or rowing), so we never deployed the outboard while we were there. We were planning to head for Saint Pierre and then on to Dominica starting tomorrow, but when we ran the generator yesterday (because it was a cloudy day with off and on rain showers) we discovered major corrosion that was causing it to leak. Susan caught it by realizing that the bilge pump was running for no apparent reason. SO - this morning we headed back to Marin, this time into the anchorage (an interesting maneuver - I managed to run us aground, though we got off immediately), and a technician will come aboard tomorrow morning to diagnose the problem and give us the possible solution(s). JP assumes that it is rather serious, and will involve ordering a part or parts from Fischer-Panda. We may wind up heading for Dominica while the part(s) are on order and then coming back for the actual repair. Between the normally very reliable sun and the boat engine, we can manage our power needs in the meantime.
Here is proof of some of the strangeness of being in the Caribbean and in France simultaneously (version politique):
















and version culinaire - Bouillabaisse edition:

Matoutou de Crabes

We arrived back in Martinique at the marina on Thursday the 5th, and spent the day Friday getting re-acclimated - I was suffering worse jet lag coming this way, for some reason - and then we resumed work on the installation of the 110-220 transformer (Frederic of Tilikum does wonderful work), and rented a car so that we could re-provision, since we ditched everything when we left. Many cruisers are very enthusiastic about provisioning here, but I joked with Susan that it is hard to share that feeling when one has come from France and not the Grenadines. Spoiled, spoiled, spoiled we are.
On Sunday, which was Easter, we took a break and drove around the island, stopping first at this lovely beach and having our first swim since Bequia (heavenly), then making our way up the windward side of the island, stopping at a fishing village that appeared to yield no lunch options. It was interesting to see the huge investments that have been made there; we would guess that the fishing "shacks" - there were maybe 40 of them - have been built in the last five years, there is a giant ice tower (we saw them in several other places too), and it's hard to believe there could be more than 20 or 25 folks fishing from there, if that. The joys of being a French department.Of course, Martinique is also much bigger (over 400,000 people) than most of the other islands we have visited in the SE Caribbean, except Trinidad of course.

We were driving along the main road and saw a sign for "Matoutou de Crabes" and after a quick U-turn, found a newly opened (two weeks) restaurant and function space called La Brize Des Alizes ("Tradewinds" or "Tradewinds Breeze"). We learned that Matoutou de Crabes is a traditional Easter dish in the French Antilles, so of course we ordered it. It is an even messier version of crab than the Maryland blue crab that we love, as it is served with a sauce. Most delicious, though everyone needed a bath afterwards.

Today we are still at the marina, but hoping to head out to the Sainte Anne anchorage tomorrow; we have decided against making the push for Antigua, with some regrets for the Classic Yacht Regatta that starts next Thursday. We have a good weather window for the 200-mile push now until Saturday, then the seas kick up again. So, instead we will take it easy here, mosey to Dominica at some point, and then likely start making our way south again.

On a quitté le Kansas, Toto.

After a 22 hour slog from Bequia (wind wrong direction, current wrong direction, seas a mess), we arrived in Martinique yesterday morning. We will be here for a couple of days, and then head for Europe, and return on the 5th of April, so the boat will be tucked into her Mediterranean mooring while we are away.
This place is so different from many of the other islands, partly because it is France, and partly because it is much bigger than, for example, Grenada - about 400,000 people live here, versus around 110,000 in Grenada. There is only one marina, and it is enormous, with many private boats and charter boats permanently berthed or moored here.
On the more positive side - cappuccino, baguette, fromages, croissants, rhum agricole...
We are working on getting to a solution for the power problem that we encounter nearly everywhere in Caribbean marinas - they advertise that they can provide for boats that run on 110 - but they lie. It matters less to us now that we have the solar panels, but while we are away we like to have some extra insurance that we can keep the boat dry, with fans and the de-humidify setting on the a/c unit. It's always something...speaking of which, the Internet service here is less than wonderful, so posting photos may have to wait for Europe.

Bouncing Bequia

We did indeed leave Grenada, on Friday the 2nd of March. We spent the night of the 1st back at the dock at Clarkes Court Bay Marina, to load some water, and had a lovely "farewell" dinner, impromptu, at Whisper Cove Marina, kindly invited to join the table of Olga and Don on Richard Cory.
We had some hopes to make it to St. Lucia or even to Martinique, but there was a lot of sea and the wind was just not on the right quarter, so we motorsailed to Sandy Island, opposite Hillsborough on Carriacou for the night. The sunset photo was taken on Friday night at Sandy Island. We headed off early on Saturday the 3rd, and continued to get beat up so pretty much immediately decided to head for Bequia to wait out the spell of high winds and seas.
JP and Susan decided to take advantage of the (reverse) weather window to get their PADI certification from Dive Bequia; they started on the written materials on Monday night and had their first course and dive yesterday. They are back today for more learning and a second dive, then for the final session tomorrow, Thursday. So far, they are doing very well and loving it.
It is EXTREMELY rolly here; today is the worst so far. I vividly remember that when we chartered in the Grenadines many moons ago, we had our first experience with rolling at anchor, in Friendship Bay, which is on the windward side of Bequia. Admiralty is in theory leeward, but I guess there is so much swell out there that there is no avoiding the roll even in a relatively protected spot. Granted, we are not way inside - many boats there, charter and otherwise - but it is still a bit annoying to have things sliding on the stove. Oh well...I managed Tortilla Española and some veal bacon that I had found at Whisper Cove Marina.
Bequia remains a very pretty and convenient place to hang out; lots of restaurants, good shopping, laundry, ice, trash pick up, water and diesel all directly to the boat...what's not to love?
We are thinking that we will set out for the full 100nm passage to Martinique on Sunday, to arrive on Monday the 12th, so we will have a couple of days to prepare for being away from her for three weeks. Both wind and sea are supposed to cooperate...

Definitely maybe moving soon, if...

Since my last post, Susan has returned to Raconteur (on the 14th of February), and I have left and returned (out to Lauderdale on the 15th, back on board on the 19th). The solar project took place mostly while I was away, but I was back for the final connections and the first power on the 20th; we are just thrilled with it so far. It powers the fridge, the computers and the phones and keeps the batteries at a reasonable level throughout; our inverter is not big enough for getting hot water using only solar, but we have found a couple of improvisations for that - a solar shower (the water heats during the day and we just hang it on the transom when we want to wash off the salt and shower in the late afternoon), and a small teakettle that we use to heat water to wash dishes.

I ran the gen for an hour or so this morning, as it was raining and I wanted to charge up the pc for managing some photos; I think that is only the second time since in nine days. We had been running it TWICE a day just to keep up with the refrigeration needs. So, the solar project (two 205-watt panels, mounted above the bimini and over the transom) is on its way to being well worth the money, time and aggravation.

Meanwhile, however, we missed a good window for going north, and then rejected, probably mistakenly, a fair window. At the moment we are looking at winds 20 gusting near 30 and seas well over 10 feet, so it's a no-go. Our redoubtable weather guru Chris Parker says we will see the wind down in the 18-20 range and seas down to 8 feet at an 8 second interval by late Friday into Saturday, so IF that holds we will make a first jump, from Grenada to Bequia in the Grenadines. Next week's forecast models have not yet converged (one has much milder conditions than the other), but we think we might get a second window around the 10th of March. We want to be in Martinique by the 12th, and we fly on the 15th to Paris and then on to Nice.

Our stay here in Grenada continues to be delightful, despite the future-travel-date stress. Leigh took a "watercolor for dummies" class last week and will take a second; I even produced a first effort that is not totally embarrassing (see above). I'm really doing it for fun, and it was that.

We are continuing to (mostly) cook on board, though I never seem to be able to remember what we've had. Let's see - more callaloo soup, more pumpkin soup, a first attempt at christophene soup (delicious - we had it cold); chickpea and cauliflower curry; a fresh grouper filet (about a pound and three quarters) dusted in flour, dipped in egg and cream, dipped in panko, and sauteed in butter; geera pork; guacamole and salsa island-style. I'm going to try a callaloo lasagne tomorrow.

I'm sure I am forgetting many things; here is a slideshow (sorry, lots of boat project and at-the-dock photos). I am playing with Picasa's new photo effects (sorry Alex) - just to keep things interesting.

A random day in the life on Raconteur

I picked a random day to take some notes about life aboard; I knew we would be moving but these notes were taken as things happened.

Sunday, 12 February 2012

I awake with the sun but decide to sleep in a bit. On most days, I would be up for the 0730 Grenada Cruisers Net, but it runs only from Monday to Saturday, so today I get up just before 0800. JP had been up for almost two hours already, working on various things to get us ready to leave the dock at Secret Harbour. He is in Scheherazade trying to open the lock that we keep on the dinghy engine; it's been in place about a month, but is stuck shut. I get some spray lubricant for him from the lazarette in the saloon (this involves removing three cushions) but that doesn't work so the lock is still on.

I make a third trip up and down the companionway to get my camera, because it is such a pretty morning; JP bungees the small blue kayak back onto the dinghy in preparation for our trip back to Prickly. At JP's request, I take a photo of the totally chafed rode that is part of the device we use to keep the anchor in place once it's down. JP then puts away the hose that is still out from the water top up he did yesterday. Moving the hose, filter, dock lines and power cords in and out of the cockpit lazarette is one of the joys of being at a dock.

I try calling Cattiva (Maria and Maurice) on VHF 68, the channel cruisers in Grenada use for communicating with one another; we know that they are heading to Trinidad soon but I am hoping they are still in Prickly and that we might be able to see them tonight before we go. No answer.

JP asks me if I will make breakfast; I say yes, and then I 1) Clean the last pot and two implements from yesterday (from the callaloo soup), dry them and put them away. Putting away the large pot involves getting down on my knees on the galley sole (there's a rug so it's not too painful), lifting out three smaller pots, and nesting them into the big pot. 2) Dig in the (top-loading) freezer, under the bag of ice and two bags of assorted protien) to find some kind of breakfast meat, and select two bratwurst. 3) Dig in the refrigerator for butter, English muffins and mango juice. 4) Move the large, heavy butcher block that covers the stovetop, and remove the pressure cooker and the pot holders that we store in the oven. 5) Cut mangoes, cook sausage, toast English muffins under the broiler (we had a toaster at one point but debarked it because it is useful only when we are plugged in somewhere. 6) Eat breakfast at the saloon table - Rosie-the-Veggie-Lady's mangoes are sweet, the sausages are good, and the EM's aren't burned.

I do a small fridge purge (not too many casualties - I am doing better with provisioning and using things timely - and then we decide to take a few things up to the Cruisers Jumble sale that starts at the marina at 1100 - in about 10 minutes. We select two small Breeze Boosters that work well but don't work for us any longer because we installed a dodger and it covers those particular hatches; the ionizing air purifier that runs only on a/c; the Seal-a-Meal that we used before we set off and maybe once while underway; the small OXO mandoline that I sent down to Trinidad with JP and Susan untested, because it is so much smaller that the one I had on board. Smaller - and MUCH less convincing; a full-length men's wetsuit size Large; and, after some deliberation, the port bike that we have used a few times on the ICW and once in Chaguaramas.

The sale is well underway when we arrive; we take a small table and chat with various folks we know; after a while we sell the wetsuit for EC100 to a guy on Starstream (not Larry), the mandoline to Hope on Starshine (for a contribution to the fund for the cruiser JT who suffered sunstroke), and the Seal-a-Meal to Larry on Starstream for EC40. We have some interest in the bike and the breeze boosters, and some curiosity about the ionizer, but these we take back to the boat. I have a long and fun chat with the folks on Miklo III about American politics, JP finishes up our departure preparations by taking a final electrical reading and putting away the cable, and we return to Raconteur.

I call Cattiva again, and this time Maria answers. When I tell her what we are doing, she offers to come handle the lines for us at Spice Island - such a sweetie. JP has said of course we can do it, but I am nervous, so happily accept.

We make a flawless (if I do say so myself) departure from the dock, and make our way out of the narrow entrance to Secret Harbour with no problem. It's blowing pretty hard (20 gusting 25) and the seas are maybe six or seven feet, but it's a very short trip.

It's a good thing the departure was flawless, because my arrival was anything but. We call Cattiva on our way in, and they jump in their dinghy and head over to Spice Island. I am so nervous about backing the boat into the slip (it's a concrete pier, really) that I don't notice the channel markers and I run us aground, briefly. It's soft mud and I know my baby pretty well, so I get us off in about 5 minutes. THEN I am backing pretty well, but TOO CLOSE to the corner of the pier, so I whack the rub rail on starboard toward the stern HARD, but Maria and Maurice are there to help straighten and the rest goes well. It's about 1600, and we agree to meet for pizza at the Tiki Bar (about a half mile back around into the bay for us) at 1800. They tell us that they are indeed heading for Trinidad overnight.

I take a most luxurious second shower of the day (very short) and change; JP also showers and changes and then gets the dinghy ready to roll (he had removed the gas tank this morning, for our trip). We dinghy over, tie and lock the dinghy to the dock, and take a table at the Tiki Bar. It's Movie Night and the kids feature is Aladdin; Maria and Maurice remember their kids (a boy and a girl) singing the entire score to them on long car trips. We share three pizzas and a lot of good talk (over the movie), and then they set off to get a little sleep before their passage and we head back to Raconteur.

We both stay up for a very short while after returning; it's rather warm for sleeping but it's only for a night or two (we hope).

A busy weekend, and a sojourn to Secret Harbour

After a little whirlwind of weekend activities - the Mt. Airy Young Readers Program, the (disappointing) Super Bowl at de Big Fish [funny aside: Rikki was showing it on the big screen using ESPN on satellite, which was a great picture, but had to change it to the feed from Miami because...none of the commercials were being shown on the satellite version], a trip up to St. Paul's for the community center's pre-Independence Fair, and a visit to the Independence Day Parade at the stadium(and then back to St. Paul's for steel pan and oil down, cooked by our friends Stephen and Sean), we escaped rolly Prickly Bay for a few days. We motored over to Secret Harbour, the bay just to the east of Prickly, and tied up at the marina here. Other than the occasional workboat disturbance, it is really quiet. It's still blowing like crazy, though the wind is supposed to lay down for a day or two, Saturday to maybe Monday ("laying down" seems to mean less than 20 knots).

On Wednesday JP and I celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary with a dinner at a relatively new place near Secret Harbour; it's called The Cave House at Mt. Hartmann Bay, and it is both lovely and delicious, with wonderful service. Check out the website:

http://www.mounthartmanbay.com/

Early Monday we will head for the docks at Spice Island Marine (a boatyard, not a marina), where the solar project will be done (we hope). Susan and JP have done most of the wiring and installed the controller; TechNick will do the necessary welding and bending to mount the panels and then we will hook everything up with fingers crossed.

Susan is back in NH until the 14th, and we think we will start trying to head north around the 20th or so. It will not be easy to leave.

Here's a second slideshow; sorry, no captions, but I think most of what's happening is reasonably self-explanatory.

A brief month end post

We came back to Prickly Bay from Clarke's Court a week ago; we THINK the solar panels were on the boat from Miami that arrived last Friday and will clear Customs today or tomorrow. Our installer THINKS that he can have the project done by the end of next week (though when we reminded him that Grenada Independence Day is next Tuesday, his confidence fell a bit).

On Thursday last week, we did a double excursion, first to the north again, to see the nutmeg production in Gouyave and the cocoa production at Belmont Estates; in the evening, after a quick stop back at the boat to turn on the anchor light, we headed up to St. Paul's parish for a concert of the steel pan band Lime Comancheros and a little barbecue, Grenada style. The sub-set of the band that night were the young folks (under 20, mostly under 18); they are so talented. It was a rainy evening, so we were dodging raindrops between sets, but no one wanted to leave early. There was a bit of cooking (of "mannish water" - goat parts with seasonings, vegetables and handmade dumplings)going on for the band and we poked our heads in to get a little local cooking advice. We wound up inviting a couple of the guys who recruit and train young people for the band to come on the boat. Stephen and Sean are both in the late 20's (we think); Stephen has a number of family members in Canada and the US and has traveled there and to other Caribbean islands; we had a great evening liming and consuming copious quantities of that favored local product. I even cooked for them, with some trepidation (Bahamian style Mac and Cheese; a doctored version of the lambi and seacat chowder that I had made the week before; and a Beth-style Chinese cabbage with a bacon/vinegar/sugar/egg dressing).

We went back for a second time to the Mt. Airy Young Readers program on Saturday; it's not really clear to me how effective we are, but it's a way to try to give back just a little bit of what we get from being so welcomed here in Grenada. I know our dollars are very welcome (the unemployment rate is probably 30% here) but if you stay for more than a few days you start to want to feel some other kinds of connections.

We are scheduled to fly to Nice from Fort de France in Martinique on the 15th of March (returning on the 5th of April) so we figure if we leave here by the end of February we can still make it...it's about 170 nautical miles.

I'm going to be a great-Auntie! Cass called on the 23rd to tell us that she and Adam are expecting "Baby L"; her due date is the 2nd of September, one day before their first wedding anniversary. Everyone is over the moon, me included (after the initial shock wore off).

Here is a slideshow of our pictures since we came back from Almost Paradise on the 8th.

You've really got a hold on me

We briefly considered heading up to Bequia for a week or two, but since the solar panels are reported to be on the boat from Miami and arriving in Grenada this week, we decided to wait and hope we can expedite the project if we are on hand when they arrive. So, what have we been up to?

--we broke a dinghy oar, so ordered a new pair that arrived from St. Martin late last week. Susan and JP epoxied them Saturday but they are taking FOREVER to dry.

--we all three got haircuts from a fellow cruiser (thank you, Terry!)

--we've been to cooking class every week (though JP skipped thus past Thursday)

--we've discovered the joys (fresh baguettes, nice meat and fish market, breakfast, lunch, dinner and great Internet access) of Whisper Cove Marina, run by a very nice French-Canadian couple

--we finally made it to Roger's Beach Bar for their Sunday BBQ

--we bought (actually, we traded - for a case of Carib IN CANS - now a scarce commodity because the Carib bottling plant folks are on strike here) a 19" flat screen as a temporary replacement for the dead screen on our Qosmio laptop; we'll get a new boat pc when next Stateside, but now at least we can watch movies and use charts again

--we entertained a few times; Saturday night we had Jamie and Casey from Santa Magdalena. We made vichyssoise, fish in gravy (a recipe from cooking class, and skate from Whisper Cove), basmati rice, and an apple tart that produced an interesting effect; I'll try to post a photo if the smoke filled galley)

--Leigh went to an every other week farmers market that re-started after a holiday break

--we participated in the Mt. Airy Young Readers program, a cruiser/community partnership to provide several hours of tutoring in reading, spelling and arithmetic. We missed this last weekend but will try to return this coming weekend I think.

We have gone swimming every day (except yesterday, as it rained all day until we headed off to Roger's), gone to burger night at Clarke's Court Bay, had lunch at the Phare Bleu, read a lot...it's been really nice to stay put. Tomorrow we will pick up a couple of kayaks (a local business is sadly struggling with a greatly reduced number of visitors, and reports that there will be even fewer cruise ships stopping in Grenada next season); we will get one single and one double, for less than half the price of one new single.

A northern tour

We left Raconteur on Friday and headed first to the east coast (the Mt. Carmel waterfall and the town of Grenville) and then north to stay two nights at a place called Almost Paradise. It's a B&B (though they cook dinner too, on request) run by Canadian Kate and German Uwe; they have had the place about nine years, and it's really an amazing spot. They have a number of cottages, plus a bar/eating porch, that perch above the northern coast with spectacular views to the small islands and then to Carriacou. Lovely people, very comfortable "eco" style accommodations, and just the right spot for a cruising crew looking for a touring base.
We took the usual TOO MANY photos, since we also drove around on Saturday and stopped at a couple of places on the way back south on Sunday as well.
Today I am doing a little cooking (we got two lobster tails from the local guys right before we left on Saturday, and I am finally going to make my peanut-sesame noodles to go with them), Susan is reading and JP is taking advantage of our good Internet connection to do some work, though he keeps threatening to take the car off on a few errands as well.
Tomorrow or Wednesday we will go back on the hook; it was good to have her safe and sound in the marina while we made our tour, but I miss swimming from the transom.

Starting 2012 in Grenada

Photo: Rainbow in Prickly Bay

We have moved around the corner (about five or so miles) from Prickly Bay, temporarily. We want to do a couple of days of driving around Grenada and so wanted to leave the boat tied up and plugged in, so we came to Clarke's Court Bay yesterday and Raconteur will stay here while we drive north to a B&B called Almost Paradise overnight tomorrow and Saturday. It's an interesting place, but no swimming off the transom so I won't last long once we get back on Sunday.

We have made a decision on how and where to install the solar panels - over the bimini toward the back - and so are waiting for the various parts of that project to come together. We are really looking forward to having a way to charge the batteries - and thus run computers, the fridge, and the fans - without running the gen twice a day. We are considering adding wind power at some point, but it has taken such an effort just to get the solar project kicked off, who knows when we might do that?

We did some entertaining this past week - Chris and Yanni on Magus, who hosted us when we were in Trois Ilets in May, then Vicki and Bob on FoxSea (we met them in Les Iles des Saintes, Guadeloupe, and re-connected in Chaguaramas), and finally Michael, Karen and Sam from Msichana. Sam is 14 or maybe 15 and planning to apply to Wellesley early decision this year - finally, a live one! She has been a "cruiser kid" nearly her whole life, and I think Wellesley will love her.

I've been enjoying shopping and cooking, but I'm doing a lousy job recording my efforts. I've made Pumpkin-Ginger Soup, Cream of Callaloo Soup, Curried Lobster, Stewed Lambi and Lobster, Sorrel (drink), Ginger Beer, Passion Fruit Nectar, Saffron Rice, Roasted Carrots and Christophene, Eastern Curry Dip, "Pizza Crackers" (pepperoni and cheddar on a Triscuit melted under the broiler), Lobster Broth (using the lobster carcass, carrots, potatoes, spaetzle)...really enjoying it. I tried breadfruit again - I love it when we get it in restaurants) - and again felt it was a failure (breadfruit salad, breadfruit undercooked, I think).
I will soon be out of real saffron, but I am going to need a care package from my sister at some point anyway so I will add that to the list. AND our supply of Trini channa and split peas (roasted and spiced, used at cocktail hour) has dwindled to a mere SIX bottles. Might have to go south again.

We are actually still doing some work. One of our old colleagues is joining MCP for a little while, transitioning to more flexibility, and helping us keep our hand in at the DoD. JP is working for our European client, and Susan is providing some advice to an old mentor. As I said to someone this week...as long as it doesn't involve a cubicle, life is good.