DAVE B's LOGS : St Lucia to Trinidad

About time, huh.....well we have been busy....soaking up the sun and beer.....and putting some miles on Tydewi....It's now the first week in February and we are in Chagaramus, Trinidad....the carnival is still a few weeks away and we have been busy working on the boat and getting ready for the big party....

Let me fill you in on where we have been since last log entry from St. Lucia..... Spent Thanksgiving and Christmas and New Years in St. Lucia at Rodney Bay Marina....had a wonderful time and met a lot of euro cruisers that came in with the ARC.....about 225 boats made the trip, they lost two boats one was scuttled and one was lost at sea, also had one death, never found the guy....anyway...we we made friends with Craig, he was from South Africa and was the hired captain for a J160 sail boat. A really nice guy, had dinner with him on New Years eve, then sailed the J160 with him the following day....wow what a boat, for 1.6 million...left him and Rodney Bay and spent a few days in the Pitons, very beautiful bay at the southern end of St. Lucia....Betty spent most of the days in the water with her new fish friends, they were in the thousands all around the boat....

Next stop St. Vincent, we bypassed the main island, we had been here a few years ago and really did not like it too much. Went straight down to the island of Bequia, pronounced Beck-way....really a neat place, lots of beach bars and sailor stuff....stayed only two nights as we were anxious to get to the Tobago Cays. Had a wonderful sail to the Cays, passed Canouan and Mayrou and went straight to the Cays. This place is unbelievable, like parking your boat in someone's swimming pool....the clearest water we have seen yet. It was crowded and we had to get close to some other boats that were anchored but the wind is always steady here as there are no mountains in the way to block the wind, Horseshoe reef blocks the water movement, and on a clear day you can see half way to Africa......the reefs were just a short swim from the back of our boat, and we spent hours each day on a different part of the reef....just beautiful....we moved closer to the reef after a few nights and many of the charter boats had left, we had the whole place to ourselves one night....they had boat boys that came over from Union island with bread and ice, and of course limes, so with a generous supply of beer and gin on board we were set for a long stay, wound up staying 10 days.....

Left finally for Union island just a short sail of 15 miles or so and picked up a mooring ball for a few nights of city life on this very small, but quaint island.....had to walk from the pier to the airport to clear customs when we left, and the island hopper airplanes where landing right over our heads...left this neat place for Carriacou, just another short sail of 15 miles or so...spent the first night in Hillsboro harbor and it was very rolly, the sea came right into the harbor and we rocked and rolled all night at anchor....went ashore and cleared customs for Carriacou and Grenada, both the same country...left that afternoon for Tyrell Bay on the southern part of Carriacou. Tyrell Bay was quiet and not so rolly, but the town was very small and country, cows and chickens in the streets, watch where you are walking Betty....cow dung does wash off with sea water....we spent a few days here, not much happening but it was very peaceful....

Left finally for Grenada, the spice island...had to pass over "kick em Jenny", an under water volcano that is still active, we only knew by gps that we were near it but about an hour past it we saw and smelled sulpher bubbling up thru the water surface, kinda scarry. Just as we passed the volcano a water spout dropped down out of some storm clouds that were forming east of us, deja veu of oklahoma tornadoes, it disapatted in a few minutes but we watched it very closey........the sail down was good about 55 miles and good wind and sea all the way to St. Georges harbor. Dropped anchor in this very small harbor which was just a short walk from the main city of St George.....

Tydewi spent many years in this bay and seemed to be at home once we dropped anchor....several fishing boats and most of the folks at the marina knew David J, the man we bought the boat from, and all wished him well, if you are reading this David, they remember you well, "Father Dave"....the city was very busy and bustling with horns and traffic and trucks and all kinds of noise, it was a big adjustment after where we had been for the past few weeks. Harbor was very calm, no wind and lots of rain on the mountains that trickled down to the harbor. Very green, and you could smell the flowers and spices whenever it rained....

We stayed about a week in St Georges and decided to go to Prickly Bay a few miles on the south side of Grenada. The bay was once again very rolly, hard sleeping, kind of like rock a bye baby in the tree top, only with a giant pushing the cradle.....the bay was beautiful. We did our laundy at a hotel nearby, and the folks at the hotel were wonderful to us.....the place was a paradise, flowers and spices growing wild every where you looked.....walked to town one day to get US dollars and on the way back hooked up with a cruising couple from Australia....they cruise six months of the year and then go back to shear sheep on their farm....very nice folks that gave us some info on Trinidad, as we gave them some info on Tobago Cays...

Next sail is the big one, Grenada to Trinidad, about 115 miles across a rough open sea. We decided to leave at midnight as we wanted to get into Chagaramus bay in daylight, always wise when you have not been there before....any way, no moon that night, a lot of stars, and no wind for the first two hours or so....had to motor sail into six foot seas, which is very wet and rough....finally picked up some wind and shut the damn engine off for some peace and quiet that sailing brings...It was DARK....the most light came from the north star and lit up the ocean like a beacon....of course we were on GPS heading and really did not need the light, but let me tell you it was feeeking dark....

It seems like the sun would never come up and when it did, it was a grey morning....I was waiting for this glorious sun rise and it pooped out on me...but the wind held and got stronger as the day wore on. The ocean became confused, waves were coming from the North and North East and never consistant, so the boat was struggling with the auto pilot to keep on course.....just about the time I spotted Trinidad the wind came around from behind and died to nothing, so back on the diesel fumes with the engine running...there is a pass between a small island and the main land of Trinidad that we had to go through to get to our destination...the mountains are very high in this pass and I know we would have to motor through.

About three miles from the pass the engine died......nada....nothing....just flat died out on me.....I still had the main and stay sail up and we were making about five knots so we had head way and were heading for the pass....no engine, wind will die in pass, currents usually strong in passes like this.....hmmmmm...back down below on my hands and knees praying to John Diesel, make this bitch start, please.....grinding away on the starter it wants to start then just as it gets fire it stops again....I came back up to see if Betty had jumped over board yet...not so she was the real trooper, hanging onto the steering wheel and sailing like she was in the Americas cup....back down below and on my knees again....this time success, it picked up fuel and fired, purring like a kitten....wonderful beasts, diesels....motored through Monos Pass just like we knew what we were doing....old pro's .....hah.....exhausted by now, it was 3pm in the afternoon..

We had to go directly to customs dock do not pass go. Found the customs dock, it was full of boats and no where to go, called customs on Vhf radio and they told me just to tie up to some one elses boat at the dock, we did, they were Russians, just off 22 days at sea,,,,I was just one night out and they looked and smelled like I felt.....any way after playing the customs game, and then paying over time fees, we found dock space at a marina that looked like southern California, a beautiful place called Crews Inn....it was expensive, but Betty needed security, so we spent the first few nights in Trinidad tied securly to a wonderful dock, it was like heaven....six weeks at anchor and finally the security of having all four sides of your boat tied to a solid dock...you cannot understand how sound we slept that night, with the help of Tangurey and Chardenay...both our close friends that first night in Trini......... Next, boat on the hard and getting Tydew up to the 21st century......after that my mind is on Venezuela and points west...stayed tuned, more exciting adventures of ma and pa tydewi to follow:..........................)