That was when the virus trouble all started and since then our plans have been changing by the day.  Originally we were sailing to Florida and hauling out in Fort Pierce, but that is not going to happen.  They would not let us into the country even if we turned up there.  Hopefully BA will let us change our flights without too much penalty (currently booked from Miami to the UK on 1 July)!

 

For a short while the plan was to sail up to Martinique to have access to the free (for now) European medical facilities, but the hospitals are likely to be swamped and what chance for a post-Brexit patient getting access to a respirator? 

 

Remaining in Grenada was the obvious choice.  Hobson’s choice really, since all the islands (except Dominica) have now closed their borders.

 

So here we are anchored in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, waiting to see what happens with the Corona virus.  Apparently it was sunshine and fresh air that cured the Spanish flu, so at least we are getting plenty of that.

 

We have enough fuel to make power and water for six months.  We have food for a couple of months, although we will run out of fresh vegetables in a few more days.  At some point we will have to venture out to the supermarket. 

 

This is starting to sound post-apocalyptic.  Particularly since Grenada has no recorded cases yet, although I think it is only a matter of time.  You can’t stop the spread of a pandemic, only try not to be one of those that make up “the hump” in all those graphs people are sharing.

 

On a lighter note, we spent a few days on the mooring balls at Sandy Island, which is a beautiful spot with good snorkelling.  Here is a photo and more drone footage. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yD2rY18LycA&t=7s

 

 

My brother Stephen and his wife Hilary just happened to be visiting Grenada for a conference at the university, so we sailed round from Benjy Bay to the St George anchorage to meet up with them.  They were very pleased to get to see Anastasia at last.  They both came onboard on Sunday for a look around, and on Monday we took Stephen for a sail up the coast (Hilary gets travel sick and did not want to risk getting seasick before their flight home).  Stephen enjoyed the sail despite his foot being swollen by some nasty tropical bug.  

 

On Tuesday evening Stephen treated us all to lobster Thermidor at the Aquarium restaurant.  A delicious meal in a beautiful setting.

 

Stephen at the helm

 

Hilary in the tender, Anastasia in the background

We arrived back in Grenada in the evening of Saturday 18th January.  The flight was an hour late, not a big deal.  There was a minor glitch on arrival at the boatyard because the girl in the office had forgotten to leave the room keys with the security guard, but it just meant we had to take our bags to the restaurant with us while we had dinner and waited for the keys to arrive.

 

I had scheduled the launch for the Monday, forgetting that everywhere would be closed for the weekend, which meant we would not get our new cushion covers through customs until Monday, or have access to water/electricity to clean Anastasia and recharge the batteries etc.  On Monday morning I moved the launch time to Wednesday afternoon, so we had more time to prepare, including buying food and doing laundry.

 

Wednesday went reasonably smoothly.  The main issue, which was surprisingly not a problem with Anastasia, was that someone parked their car in the shade underneath her and we had to wait an hour with the lift sitting there.  The guys considered dragging the car out with a tractor (no obvious attachment point) or breaking into the car (noone had the right “tools”).  Eventually the woman came back, but was too embarrassed to come over and sent a friend over with the key to move the car.

 

The guys lifted Anastasia and we re-inserted the rudders, which I had removed to pull out the prop shafts and redo the seals and bearings.  Once in the water, both engines started and we managed to pull back out of the lift pontoons fast enough that the brisk breeze on our beam did not mash our fenders on the downwind side.

 

Motoring over to the anchorage the port engine bilge alarm went off.  There is some problem with the raw water supply hose.  Not a real problem because it is not leaking when the engine is off, but something I need to fix before we can leave the anchorage.

 

Getting ready to lift, but there is a car parked underneath Anastasia

 

Blair came over to help insert the rudders and Andrea made sure they got it right

 

Anastasia is only 23 tonnes, but I guess this manhole cover was not rated for that load.  Lucky it was just a bit of crumbling at the edge and not a large sinkhole.

 

Over the water

 

Lowering into the water

 

Floating at last

 

 

 

 

 

The hull new has a new coat of coppercoat.  Even the props have been coated.

 

Some people don’t bother sanding down the coppercoat to activate it.  You don’t have to go mad with the sanding, but as you can see here there is a big difference between the areas where the copper particles are exposed and where they are still embedded in resin.

 

The steering wheels had flakes of paint sloughing off, so they needed a fair amount of sanding to get a decent finish to the carbon fibre and mahogany.  I just used 2 cans of spray on varnish (from Ace’s hardware) on each wheel and they came up pretty well.

 

The steering on the outboard was totally seized up.  It took a couple of days (and a lot of hammering) to strip down but you can see why the steering bracket needed replacing.

 

 

The first eleven days have flown by, and it is touch and go whether I will get everything completed.  The way I see it, as long as the propellers are back in before we launch then I can do pretty much anything else at sea (although repairing the outboard is difficult when you are bouncing around in waves).

Here are some photos of the more interesting(?) parts work.

 

The pitting was really quite severe on some of the prop blades

 

The guy in the chandlery suggested filling with stuff called JB weld, a metal reinforced epoxy filler

 

The filler sticks well enough that it can be sanded down flush with the good parts of the blades

 

And when they are primed with epoxy undercoat the prop blades look good as new

 

 

I got caught out by the “no see ems” (midges) that live in the shade under Anastasia.  They really like eating my ankles.  I am making sure I wear plenty of repellent now.

 

This cutlass bearing was a real bugger to roll up for removal

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here I am, on a solo trip to Grenada to do some work on Anastasia which(who?) is hauled out in Clarkes Court boatyard.  I had thought this was going to be a total working trip, but then some cruising friends, Blair and Edie, contacted Andrea a couple of weeks ago to say they had seen Anastasia in the boatyard and whereabouts were we.  It would be antisocial for me not to go out for a couple of drinks with them, right? 

 

Well, to be honest it was drinks Thursday evening, and drinks Friday lunchtime followed up by drinks and chicken wings at happy hour Friday evening and then drinks and a swim at Calivigny island today (Sunday) followed by a BBQ and drinks on Honalee this evening.  

 

But I have been ticking off some of the chores as well.

Pretty boring stuff (and a lot of getting worse before it gets better) but here are a few pics I took.

 

 

 

 

While we were anchored in Marie Galante, Andrea took the opportunity to clean the hulls.  She was amazed at what she found there.

 

 

 

The anemones were quite well developed

 

Groups of little orange sponges

 

You have to wonder how the feathery sea fans can stand up to 7 knot currents pulling at then which we sail.

 

And in the through-hull holes you find things that like to hide in holes, like this little spiny lobster.

 

All gone now.  Thanks to the coppercoat it all scrapes off easily. (well three days hard labour easy! AT)

 

Andrea also found a sea urchin she has never seen before, while snorkelling off May’s beach, and got a good photo of it.  This is the “Magnificent Urchin”, which is rare and not often seen in shallow water.

 

One final observation on Marie Galante.  The walk to the supermarket was fairly ordinary, along a road through a sugar cane plantation.

 

But then we came across this.

 

I guess the farmer curses the clogging of his drainage, but we appreciated the display.

 

 

 

 

Marie Galante is a part of the Guadeloupe group of islands and, like Les Saintes, it is different and unique.  It has never been developed for tourism, has no large hotels and some of the small ones differentiate themselves by advertising that they have hot water.  Having said that, it is still a part of France and you can buy anything you need at a fairly large Super-U within walking distance from the main anchorage.  There is a shop selling fresh bread and paninis for lunch right next to the dock.  There is a daily ferry service from Guadeloupe, whose arrival and departure made the only swell we felt for the week we were anchored here.

 

Why stay a week?  Take a look at the view.

 

The beach is miles long and almost deserted.  Walking along it feels like a real tropical island.  The trees come down to the waters edge in places.  Land crabs scuttle back to hide as you walk past.

 

The water around Anastasia was crystal clear.  No problem making water at anchor.

 

We rented a car and toured the island.  The major industry is sugar cane, obviously for a large flat island, but it was also a source of indigo to Europe in the time when dyes were made naturally. Indigo plants grow wild in the hedgerows.

 

The rum distillery (Distillerie Bielle) we visited has their own mill for the sugar cane.  It was working when we visited, a digger forking cane onto the conveyor belt headed for the crusher.

 

 

 

There is quite a history of machinery in the yard, some for visitors and some more functional.

Look carefully and you see that some enterprising local engineer ran cables from the wheel to support the rotting timbers of the tower behind.  We just came out of that door.  Health and safety?

 

Another stop on the tour was L'Habitation Murât, a partially restored sugar plantation.  Here we learned that moulin is not, in fact, windmill as Le Moulin Rouge would suggest.  The low structure Andrea is striding towards is the moulin à bêtes, literally the “beast mill”, although they used oxen rather than any old beast.  The windmill on the left was built later. 

 

The house was pretty much derelict.

 

It has now been restored to its former glory.

 

On the way home Andrea suggested we stop for a break at Anse de Mays (the Mays bay)

 

 

 

And finally back to Anastasia for cocktails while we watched the sun set behind Guadeloupe.

 

With a bit of time to spare we decided to take a detour after Guadeloupe to visit Marie Galante.  This is an island we had never been to because it is upwind from the normal route south.  We are really glad we did so because it is a gem of an island.

 

First things first, we had to get there.  Not relishing that feeling of not getting anywhere fast when tacking upwind and uptide, we decided to head up in stages

I would recommend this approach to anyone wanting to visit Marie Galante.  The only word of caution is that you should steer close to the wind when heading north-east from Les Saintes, regardless of the fact it feels like you could sail it on reach.  The Guadeloupe mainland gradually turns the wind to the north as you approach  

 

The Ilet du Gosier was interesting because we had never visited it before.  The anchorage is in the lee of the island and is pretty calm if you can get a central spot.  We started out anchoring between the island and the mainland behind a reef (the anchorage marked on the Navionics chart), but we moved from there after lunch because the reef does not do a great job of suppressing the swell.

 

Here is a view of the island from our lunch stop behind the reef

 

From the picture you might be forgiven for thinking that Gosier must be goose in French, but Google translate tells us it is Throat Island.

 

Someone decorated the lighthouse.  At least it is a sea creature.

 

It was clear that the area around Ilet du Gosier is a major tourist destination.  There were a lot of serious swimmers passing around the anchorage, towing inflated buoys to ensure they were visible to all passing boats. 

 

There was also a major race of the local boats that passed by us, with some serious sponsorship by the looks of their sails.

 

We left Anastasia in Jolly Harbour for a month while we returned to the UK to meet Florence, Estella and Bertie’s new baby (all doing well). 

 

It doesn’t take long for the wildlife to move in to an empty boat.  We shoved bits of swimming noodles into the end of the boom, but unfortunately the sail stack pack had an opening at the end.  

 

If the incubation period for an Antiguan pigeon is 17 days then they must have moved in the week after we left.  We were hoping the nest just had eggs, but when we unzipped the sailbag we found these.

 

 

Meanwhile mummy pigeon was on the dock fluttering around, doing her best broken wing impression.

 

 

What to do? I suggested drowning them, but Andrea said I could only kill them if I was going to eat them, and I didn’t fancy that idea.

 

We placed the nest in a cardboard box and waited until the evening when mum was settling down with her chicks.  Then I closed the box lid and transported the family (with a very angry mum) to a tree we had chosen earlier.  There I duck taped the box onto a branch and opened the lid.  Mum shot off to a neighbouring tree, but surely she would return and they would all live happily ever after?

 

 

From St Lucia we moved to Le Marin in Martinique to pay a visit to Inboard Diesel, who are the only people in the Caribbean I have found that really understand Volvo engines.  They came over to inspect the Helm Information Unit, only to inform me that the new model may not work with my engine, but they will check with Volvo for a software update.  Fortunately Volvo supplied the update and we now have working instruments on both engines.

 

We also picked up 100m of shiny new anchor chain.  Our old chain (which we already had re-galvanized in Florida) had reached the point where it was depositing rust in the windlass so my chain depth counter was not working.  It still does not work reliably - I think the windlass will have to be stripped for cleaning.

 

In Le Marin we met up with Edi and Blair from Honahlee (formerly Kind of Magic) and heard the full story of how Kind of Magic sank, which does require an evening and a few beers for the telling.  We were lucky that we did meet up because they helped us install the new chain.  A barrel filled with 100m of 12mm anchor chain weighs about a third of a ton, so you can’t lift it.  What you can do is snake it around a bit at a time, which involves lifting 3 kilos 100 times rather than the full 300 kilos at once.

 

So we took the dinghy over to the chandlery and snaked the chain in. 

 

We had berthed Anastasia bows first (which meant we had to use the dinghy to get on and off), but we could dump the anchor and old chain straight onto the dock.  It sounded like just a question of pressing the “down” button on the windlass,but in a Catana catamaran the chain loops down from the windlass to a pair of pulleys under the beam at the front and the chain will not run out without the weight of an anchor on the end.  This meant that a person (thank you Blair, that would have been me if you weren’t in our chain gang) had to stand at the front and pull all the chain over the pulleys. 

 

After that we just parked the dinghy under the bows and hauled up the new chain using the windlass, fixing on the anchor when we came to the end.  It wasn’t a complex operation, but I underestimated how laborious it would be.  It would have been a challenge (impossible!) for me and Andrea alone.

 

From Le Marin we drifted downwind to anchor at Anse D’Arlet overnight, passing HMS Diamond Rock as we went.

 

And then we sailed up the coast to St Pierre in the north-eastern corner of Martinique.  In the past we have anchored close to the town, but this time we anchored a mile south, off a picturesque little beach.  Nice breezes and as calm as St Pierre.

St Pierre with the volcano that destroyed the old town in the background.

 

The anchorage to the south.

 

Of course, with the beach at St Pierre being the best sea glass beach of the Caribbean, I had to drop Andrea off a couple of times for beachcombing.

 

She says she was very selective and only took the best and smallest pieces

 

 

 

While we were in Union Island we went for sundowners on Happy Island, the little island in the harbour that a guy built from conch shells.  It was a great wind for kitesurfing and the instructors were out showing off for the audience on the island  They would race up to the edge, bringing their kite overhead so that they catapulted into the air and flew over the heads of the spectators.  Some stunning displays of skill. 

 

Some of them were earning tips by taking members of the audience on their shoulders. Mostly these were petite young girls, but one big drunk guy bought a ride, much to the amusement of the audience (and dismay of the surfer who had to carry him).

 

 

From the Grenadines we sailed up to St Vincent and anchored overnight in Buccament Bay.  There was a beach resort here until quite recently (Andrea discovered it is listed on Expedia although rooms are unavailable for any dates). It now seems to be deserted except for the security guards.  We observed the bay’s strange weather effect, where the clouds are constantly raining at the head of the valley, but are totally dissipated before they reach you at the coast.

 

From St Vincent it was an exhilarating sail up to Marigot Bay in St Lucia, where we would leave Ian and Denise.  I had avoided Marigot in the past, because my recollection was of a close, humid, mosquito ridden mangrove swamp, but this time we anchored at the mouth of the bay and had a delightful few nights in a calm anchorage with a nice breeze to keep us cool.

 

Their flight was in the evening so during the day we took the dinghy out and headed south from Marigot Bay to find a beach.  We found one, but there was a bit of a swell so, while we anchored it offshore, it was still quite a challenge getting on and off the dinghy.  Denise has not had good experiences of our dinghy in a swell, but we managed to get her on and off without a repeat of the classic “Denise forward roll”.

 

 

 

 

 

So we got almost everything fixed (still no instruments on starboard engine) and set sail for the Grenadines.  First stop was Bequia, to clear in and visit the town.  Then on to Saltwhistle Bay to eat lobster on the beach. 

 

Yesterday we spent the night in Tobago Cays with the wind gusting to 30 knots.  Good job the holding is good there.  The wind is at 60 degrees right now.  Fingers crossed that it drops and veers in the next couple of days, or we are in for a rough passage back to St Lucia.

 

In the Tobago Cays we decided to walk up to the top of the little island (Baradel) behind the turtle sanctuary.

  

 

to take in the views of Canouan to the north

 

and Carriacou (behind Ian, Denise and Anastasia), to the south.

 

We had seen iguanas here before, and once again a couple came out to see if we had food.

 

The climb down was a bit steeper than the route up.

 

And finally we swam with the turtles

 

We are presently anchored at Union Island, preparing for cocktails on Happy Island, followed by catch of the day in the Waterfront restaurant.

 

 

According to the Caribbean Security Network, St Lucia leads the table for crimes against cruisers.  Only yesterday we heard a cruiser reporting theft of his dinghy during the night.  Someone is going round the bay at night with a pair of wire cutters.  You would think the police would spend a few days with night vision goggles to catch the culprit. 

 

The cruising community is very influenced by the security reports.  There are currently 30 yachts anchored in Rodney Bay, a bay that can house hundreds (there are around 500 yachts anchored in a similar bay in neighbouring Martinique).  It doesn’t help that there is no policing of the jetskis speeding around the yachts, which makes it dangerous to swim off the back of the boat.

 

Enough of the complaining.  The water is pretty clean here and you get some good sunsets behind the “Barrel of Beef” rock at the entrance to the bay.

 

Not only that, but the local inhabitants come and clean your hull for free!  Andrea got this picture of a filefish feasting on our rudder.

 

And you do get some amusement from the other yachts.  We can only think these people were having a lie in and didn’t hear their mainsail slapping against the water.  (They emerged after half an hour to recover the sail.)

 

It has been quite windy recently and some people have been unfortunate with their sails. 

 

For anyone interested in the ongoing saga of repairs, our port engine instruments blanked out as we were anchoring.  The Helm Information Unit has failed and needs to be replaced.

 

The generator boiled when we tried to make water on the way here, which was disappointing because it was one of the few things that seemed to have survived the two year break.  After cleaning intakes, strainers, filters and impellers it still boiled over.  I removed the thermostat for testing, but it opened fine in a mug of boiling water.  So I removed the heat exchanger to find the two years of corrosion heaped up inside it.  Obviously the first couple of runs just served to shift the sediment to the lowest part of the system, the heat exchanger, which was just letting a trickle of water through.  Half an hour with acid inside and it is all sorted and we made water today.  Yay. 

 

The engine room bilge pumps were coming on periodically during our crossing from St Vincent.  I think is the shaft seals leaking because all the sea-life on the propellers was causing them to judder when rotating.  We have cleaned the props and will see if that fixes the leak.

 

 

 

We are now in Bequia, preparing for the hop to St Lucia.  We were going to take it easy, to arrive in St Lucia for 19th, which is when our friends Ian and Denise arrive.  Unfortunately Andrea broke a tooth in Carriacou on some of “Lucky’s” fried chicken and so we booked her in at a dentist in Rodney bay on 15th.  Still plenty of time, except...

 

We checked in to St Vincent and the Grenadines at Union Island, which is just 5 miles from Carriacou.  Then we chilled out on the foredeck, watching the kite surfers showing off for the crowd on Happy Island.

 

The chilling out came to an end when Andrea pointed out that water was pouring out of part of the dinghy that should be filled with air.

 

So, we decided to hurry up and get to St Lucia so we could get the dinghy fixed.

 

Next day we moved up to Saltwhistle Bay and ate Red Snapper at the Coconut Shack on the beach.

 

The fish was excellent and, as you can see, the table was about as close to the sea as you can get.

 

The view from our table.  Anastasia in prime position.  Good job the wind did not change, our anchor is pretty much on the beach.  Still, it is all sand if we did touch bottom.

 

Spot the swordfish.  Yes, that is its tail sticking up on one side of the boat and the sword on the other.

 

We left Mayreau this morning and sailed up to Bequia.  We were going to make water on the way, until the port engine room smoke alarm went off accompanied by a burning smell.  The generator had boiled off all its water and overheated.  I changed the impeller recently, the water strainer is clear and the fan belt looks fine, so this may not be a trivial fix.  I will take a look at it when the engine room is not filled with smoke and hot as hell.

 

 

We are now in Carriacou having finally left Grenada.  Miserable weather spoiled our last visit to Sandy Island, but this time the sun was shining.

 

Andrea beachcombing, watched by a couple of pelicans

 

Not only was the weather great, but the local boat “Isle of Reefs” persuaded us to go ashore in the evening for a lobster dinner.  100 EC (~£29) for a lobster too big to fit on the plate.  The layout was particularly impressive when you consider that they brought everything out to the island on a little boat.

 

Place mats and cloth napkins!

 

Lobsters, potatoes au gratin, rice and salad

 

A palm bonfire to keep the bugs away.

 

 

Sandy Island as we departed around the western end

12:02.53N 61:45.45W

 

In final preparation for our departure I was checking the mainsail.  Unzipped the sail bag and then did a double take.  A dead cat??  No, the cat made a huge effort, lifted his head to look at me and then flopped back, exhausted by the exertion.  His name was Ace and he came from the yacht across the way.  They were a classic yacht, racing every day during Grenada sailing week.  Ace decided to hide away in our sail bag, rather than go out sailing with them. 

 

 

He departed when his owners returned from their race (and food was on offer), but that was not the last we saw of him. He has the disconcerting ability to hide in plain sight.  Andrea was down in the cabin for 10 minutes stowing stuff away when I heard an exclamation.  Ace was on the bed, but it took a while for her to spot him.

 

 

Ace had the last laugh.  He left us a present on top of the sail bag.

12:01.268N 061:40.750W

 

We have been in Grenada for a couple of weeks now, so it is about time for a blog entry (overdue some would say).  Once again the majority of our time has been spent fixing things during the day and then slumping in the evenings, although we did manage a daily cool down swim at the little Port Louis marina beach.  In fact Andrea also went for a snorkel along the reef in the mornings and saw quite a few interesting things, the most notable being a swarm of baby lobsters crammed under a ridge, so numerous that they were spilling out into the open.

 

A major maintenance item was replacing the shrouds (the lines at each side of the yacht that hold up the mast).  Anastasia has Kevlar shrouds which must be replaced every 5 years.  The only problem was that the new shrouds were missing a connecting piece and so part had to be used from the old shrouds.  This involved taking the old shrouds away to be worked on.   Not a problem, they told us, the main halyard can hold up the mast just fine.  Even so, we had an uneasy night anticipating tons of mast crashing through the cabin ceiling.

 

The new shroud is a thick piece of Kevlar attached to a stainless steel plate.  The temporary shroud is the main halyard attached to a cleat with an old piece of blue rope.

 

We have had some interesting experiences with fruit.  It is out of mango season, you cannot get them in the supermarket, yet one of the locals who hangs out outside the supermarket selling miscellaneous produce manages to acquire green “Julie” mangoes which ripen in a few days.  I was very sceptical the first time I bought them, but we were pleased when they turned into sweet juicy mangoes, and we went back for more. 

 

What is in season is the local mandarins.  Tropical mandarins, like tropical oranges, are actually green, although the flesh is orange, unlike the oranges which have yellow flesh.  The most remarkable thing about the mandarins is their pip producing capacity.  On average about 3.5 pips per segment.  Here is a photo of the pips from one mandarin, to put it in perspective.

 

 

 

We are currently at Grenada Marine having our old diesel pumped out.  After two years of a daily hot/cold/damp cycle, the diesel bore little resemblance to what originally went into the tank and it was slowly destroying the engines. 

 

Getting to Grenada marine was a bit fraught, since we could not use our engines and it was upwind/tide.  Added to that, we first lost the external chart plotter due to a power supply failure and then the bouncing killed all our navigation systems (turns out we have a dodgy power cable to the master plotter).  Andreas ipad could not get a GPS fix so we ended up navigating by eye with the landmarks from the cruising guide!  

 

Hopefully with the new diesel, and a couple of new batteries, all our engine problems will be resolved...