Tobago Cays and Bequia

From Union Island we headed over to the Tobago Cays where we stayed for two nights. Everything that can be said about the Cays has probably already been said either by us or by Julie but it is still a beautiful place to lay down an anchor. It was even better this time because there were not a lot of boats there - mostly charters - so we didn't have to worry about other boats swinging or dragging anchor or whatever. We also didn't need to take as much care about mad "dinghyists" roaring around. We took some time and snorkelled again in the turtle area and this trip spent some time exploring the reef. It was great snorkelling as usual although the turtle area was a bit murky this time, likely due to boat boys bringing people into the roped off area from the yachts so they could snorkel off the beach.

Griff swimming with the turtles

Colourful reef fish

We decided to only stay two nights as there was a lot of wind chop which roughened up the water a bit for swimming. Cheryl has started to swim around the boat 12 times each day for exercise and the more choppy, the more un-nice it is. One of the good things about the Cays is your are exposed to the full east wind without experiencing the easterly swells. The down side is that the full east wind usually produces lots of wind chop - at least whenever we have been there (3 times now - wow).

So, on to Bequia. By the way, as short as it was, the sail to the Cays from Union was great - good wind and good seas - and that proved true for the trip to Bequia. We came out of the Cays via Baleine Rocks and then passed Canuoan on the west side so that we would have good winds the whole trip. Cheryl even passed the boat in front of us - super sailing. We got to Bequia in good time and anchored off Princess Margaret Beach. We stayed well back this time. Before we would have to get a little closer to town so that we would have internet but with our new wifi rig we are able to get it practically anywhere within a couple of miles. We only stayed at Bequia 2 nights - mostly for laundry, a bit of shopping, got a guy we had used before to do some work on a pump that I couldn't figure out (a spare) and then we also had to clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines. We did a bit of walking around but since we had seen everything we had wanted to on previous visits, it was mostly an anchor drop and lift.

Princess Margaret Beach

Onward northward!!!!

Union Island - October 2009 - Going North

Well, we left Carriacou for Union Island in the morning. We weren't in a hurry because it is only about 8 nm. Had great winds and seas so sailed pretty quickly and when we got to Union we found it relatively deserted. It is really quite early in the season. A lot of people can't go north of Grenada - some even further down - because of hurricane insurance regulations but ours allows us to go up to Bequia before hurricane season is over.

We anchored facing east on the reef that is on the east side of the harbour. In front of us was the little island bar we mentioned in our last blog from Union Island. It's nice there because we get the winds but not the seas and we were mostly the only ones there. We were surprised at the number of charter boats that are out. First of all, hurricane season is not officially over until November and secondly, the "real" cold season has not really started up north. I think I would wait until I was freezing my butt!!

Anyway, it was nice in the anchorage and when we went ashore, we were able to find some really neat things we had not seen before Went up an alleyway that had a sign for Castello's and it was this funky little path that went through gardens and past little shops that were open but had no one there and then a few little bars and a bunch of bird sanctuaries (huge cages). At one of the bars there was a lady who looked transplanted from the 50's. She was about 70 (a guess) and had long dyed black hair with bangs, shorts and a vest and some kind of boots. A guy I took for her husband/partner looked like I imagine Ernest Hemingway to look like - big bushy beard, big belly and glasses on the end of his nose. He was working on a carving and there was also a lot of art work by this "Castello" - maybe that is who the woman was???? The people we talked to indicated it was in demand and it was expensive but I didn't see a lot of talent to it. But beauty is in the eye of the beholder and all that. All in all it was a really neat place.

We also went for a walk over the "saddle" of the island on a road that took us to a bay on the other side. We had previously walked to Ashton, a town along the coast from Clifton Harbour, but this time we crossed to the other side of the island. It was quite a pretty bay but the water was way to shallow to anchor. We didn't even see any fishing boats although there were a couple of small resort buildings.

So, even though we had been to Union twice before, we were still able to find new stuff and this is amazing on an island about half the size of Calgary with a population of only about 15,000. Maybe this being the last time we would see this island clarified our vision!

Next stop - Tobago Cays

Farewell Grenada

We have spent our last few days in Grenada and now are headed north. Yesterday we went for a two hour sail towards Prickly Bay to test the engine. No problems occurred so we feel confident about heading out on longer trips. The afternoon was spent doing laundry, the last chance for awhile to do it ourselves rather than paying to have it done, and last minute shopping. Bought KFC for a simple supper.

We had spent the past couple of days watching locals set up nets for fishing. They have a unique method of doing so. They have two rowboats connected with long wooden poles and nets hanging down along the sides of the boats and poles. They also put out a net held up with floats that they partially hauled in one night and then would continue to haul in the next day. There were also guys snorkelling, supposedly looking for more fish.

We had a spectacular evening for our last evening in Grenada. Just as we were finishing off our daily bath in the ocean the sun was setting. Sure enough we got to see our second green flash. As I said a spectacular ending to our stay. (Griff here) - got to thinking that regardless of whatever decision we make next spring about sailing, it is almost a given (99% sure) that we won't be sailing down island again so everything we see as we make our way up is likely being seen for the last time in these circumstances. Very poignant thought and it will likely have quite an effect on the way we see everything as we go.

Today (Thursday) we started off early, 0600, for Carriacou. Very little wind and the seas were flat. We hoisted the main and foresail with hopes that the wind would pick up eventually, which it finally did. By 1000 we had all three sails up and the engine turned off. We were actually sailing. It is the first time since we got back from Canada that we have been able to sail with no motor. I forgot how exhilarating it is to sail that way. The winds were 10 - 15 knots and the swells were about 1 metre from just off the starboard bow. For me that was excellent. (Griff here - 15-20 would have been better!!) We were getting about 6 knots of speed over ground even against about a 1.5 - 2 knot current and we weren't heeled over too much. Just before the wind picked up we saw a pair of dolphins swim across our stern. Griff said if we had been moving faster they probably would have swam closer to us and maybe played in our wake.

We travelled along the west coast of Grenada and then across to Carriacou. There is an 'active' volcano NW of Grenada that we had to make sure we stay clear of. We went between the 500 metre exclusion area of the volcano and a group of uninhabitable islands that include The Sisters, Ile de Ronde, Caille, London Bridge, Les Tantes and Kick'em Jenny. Once we passed the Sisters and Kick'em Jenny we were clear to Carriacou. At about this point we had a discussion about whether we wanted to anchor in Tyrell Bay or Hillsborough. We have to check out of Hillsborough so if we anchored in Tyrell Bay we would either have to walk to Hillsborough today or sail there tomorrow and anchor again. We decided to anchor in Hillsborough. That is where we are now.

Griff set out his lure for part of the trip. No luck today even though there were brown boobies flying around and diving for fish.

We are going to pick and choose where we want to stop on the way up the island chain because our main focus this trip is all the Virgin Islands. But we will be stopping at our favourite places on the way up so we will keep you informed with hopefully more regular blogs. We have a new wifi antenna that up to this point is working wonders so we should be able to keep in touch in most places.

On the Move Again

Finally we are on the move again. Yesterday morning we left Prickly Bay for St. George's Harbour on the west coast of Grenada. It was a great motor sail. Not enough wind to put up the mainsail, but we were able to use the foresail. The trip was relatively uneventful. Relatively because about 1 hour into the trip we heard a loud noise that sounded like a motorboat or a plane overhead. We couldn't see anything and the noise stopped. A little bit later it started again while I was downstairs and it was obvious the noise was coming from the engine area. Griff quickly took the engine out of gear and reduced the revs. The noise sounded like a grinding sound. He thought maybe it was coming from the stuffing box. That's the area on the prop shaft where it goes through the hull. We had it repacked when we were on the hard because it had been leaking. After about half an hour we tried the engine again. No more noises and we were able to finish the sail. Fortunately we had the engine for anchoring because we had to turn into the wind to anchor, therefore, we had to pull in the foresail.

The anchoring went very smoothly. One try and the hook was set in sand. We both went in to swim the anchor. That is we put on our snorkel gear and swam along the length of the chain to the anchor and then Griff dove down to see how well the anchor was dug into the sand. As it turned out the anchor was so well dug in we really couldn't see it. In fact some of the chain was buried as well. This is the best we have anchored for a long time. Usually some part of the anchor is visible and the anchor is lying on its side.

This morning Griff went ashore to go to Spice Island Marine to talk with the fellow that repacked the stuffing box. He couldn't really remember the job, but he did say he just repacked the box, he didn't move the prop shaft. Now we have to decide whether to head back to Prickly Bay and have it checked out or head north to Carriacou.

That's right, we have decided to head north and then west rather than west and then north. Heading west first would add about 180nm to the trip. As of now we plan on going as far north as Portsmouth, Dominica and then head west to St. Croix or Culebra (Spanish Virgin Islands). We still plan on being in the British Virgin Islands for Christmas and Antigua the end of January when my son Scott and his girlfriend are coming for a week.

For my part there have been a lot of mixed emotions this time around. I really enjoyed the time spent at home with family and friends especially Eva, our new granddaughter. Even working in the garden pulling weeds at the acreage made me realize how much I enjoy the life we have there. Right now being on the boat does not really seem like home, but it also doesn't feel like a vacation either. Somewhere in between. I think these feelings have played a large part in the indecision about where we want to head.

Fortunately we haven't had to worry about weather so far. There have been very few named storms this hurricane season, in fact, there has been very little 'weather' at all. We will stick around in the Grenadines and Bequia until November 1. That is when our insurance says it is okay to be north of 13 degrees N. That it is the latitude of Bequia.

So, Griff is going to re-check the prop and prop shaft this afternoon and tighten down the bolts for the stuffing box and then we will decide whether to go to Prickly Bay and see if we can hear the noise again or whether to "decide" that the noise came from something getting caught on the prop or prop shaft and head north. I think (Griff) based on what we know and hopefully what we find that north it will be. The winds and seas favour us for the next few days so we want to take advantage of it.

See you in Carriacou (or not - keep your fingers crossed!!)

Back in Grenada - Again!!!

So, here we are. Just to finish off our trip to get back here - we had a very smooth time!! Planes were on time, departure gates were close to arrival gates (important since we stopped in Miami and San Juan before we got here), customs were great (didn't ask about the wifi antenna disguised as a fishing pole - well, not really but the package looked the same!!), the pick-up taxi was waiting and the accommodations people were there when we arrived at about 9:00 PM. A long day though, 4:00 AM to 9:00 PM so we just kind of collapsed when we got there.

Friday we went to get a few groceries (milk for my tea!!) - after taking a quick look at Mystic Journey of course. She looked good although bare, as we had pretty well stripped the cockpit down to bareness and we had also removed the foresail and staysail, wrapped the main and lowered the lazy jacks (look in old blogs for definitions if you HAVE to - you should all be old salts by now if you have been following the blogs!!), tied all the running rigging up on the mast, taken everything off the deck fore and aft and even put the life raft in the fore cabin. We had non-skid put on the coach roof and part of the cockpit, had our sails checked out and got some stitching done on the bimini so it was just easier to take it all down.

Of course that meant we had to put it all back up - a process that took up the whole weekend. We also had to track down a source for plexi-glass as I had cracked one of the windshield panels while disassembling the boat.

Eventually it was all done though, so on Tuesday (our splash day) we went and got a complete re-stock of groceries and put them on the boat before we went in the water. Of course a small glitch occurred - as they were moving the boat over to the launch site, the sky darkened, the winds came up and the heavens opened up. It was a strong wind and very strange in that it came directly from the south, which meant that it had the ocean south of Grenada to build up some swells that of course funneled into Prickly Bay and directly into the launch site. Not a biggie, however, because since we were the last to splash that day, it was okay to just stay in the sling overnight and launch in the morning - which we did. However, we did not have a place to sleep, having checked out of the apartment that morning. So we just climbed onto the boat and slept in our own bed for the first time since we went on the hard in August.

So now we have been back in the water for a week. We have stayed in Prickly Bay because Nick, from Nicktec, was making us a mount for our new wifi antenna and we also had lots to do to straighten out Mystic Journey. We replaced some running rigging (ropes) - the traveller line, the topping lift line, the prevent line we keep in place on the boom and the "swing lines" for the dinghy davits.

Mostly we have been readjusting, however, to being back on the boat and away from home again. I (Griff) found it much more difficult to adjust this time than I did when we originally came down. I didn't go home last year when Cheryl did so hadn't been back for about 18 months. It is different!!! More said maybe next blog.

We have also gotten off the boat to walk every day - as usual it seems we are "out in the noon day sun". We usually average about 3-4 hours for a walk so the exercise is good. Today we found somewhere we haven't been before by just turning a different way at a fork in a road. We ended up in an area of very expensive houses, most with really beautiful landscaping and apparently owned mostly be Grenadians who made their money off island and came back to retire here. As nice as the homes were though, they would not persuade us to leave Canada and live down here permanently, even if we could afford one of them.

Right now we are set to leave. We know where we are going - we just aren't sure what route we want to use to get there. We have decided to spend Christmas in BVI but also want to explore the Spanish Virgin Islands and the USVI. Although we were up in the BVI's and the USVI's when we first got Mystic Journey, it was more a matter of getting used to sailing and anchoring. We never really got off the boat and explored for any length of time so this time that is what we want to do. There are a lot of little islands in those areas that need to be "discovered" by the Cheryl and Griff Exploration Company.

So, how do we get there you ask??

There are really three options

1st - we can sail up island as far as St Marten and then sail West to the BVIs. Neither of us want to do that because we have been up there before and it doesn't appeal

2nd - we can sail west from here to the ABC's again and then around the end of November we can sail up to Culebra in the Spanish VI's and start exploring. Although our 7 day trip from the ABCs was rough in January this year, this time the direction and time of year (and thus the winds and seas) would be different and most likely much more pleasant and certainly shorter

3rd - we can sail partway up island and just stop at the places we really want to see again - Tobago Cays, Dominica etc and then cut over west to Culebra for about a 3-4 day open sea sail. Going in that direction the winds and the seas would likely be quite favourable and it would be a great sail.

What to do, what to do

Right now we are waiting for a big blow to go by tomorrow. Then what will we will likely do is make a spur of the moment decision and leave.

Stay tuned!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheryl here. Sorry for the lack of pictures. Like Griff says it's sort of like taking pictures when you have children. You take lots with the first child and fewer with each additional child. Well it is our third time in Grenada and we haven't taken many pictures so we will try to improve with subsequent blogs.

It's Time

Guess it is time to post another blog. A lot has been happening since our last blog which left us visiting with family in Toronto.

We headed out west after that. Some of the highlights of the five weeks we spent there:

- meeting our newest granddaughter. We spent a week at her new home with proud (and rightfully so!) parents. It was amazing to watch them as parents rather than as my child. Not being biased, but She is a fantastic, beautiful little girl.

- watching Jason doing improv with a group he had been attending improv classes with. Not being biased (Griff here), Jason was an absolute natural up there (although it of course requires a lot of work to get to that place) and it was quite obvious that he was comfortable and quite at home on stage. He filled in a lot of holes in the beginning that might otherwise have appeared as blank (unfunny) spots.

- we got a chance to do an overnight with the Sparks family. It was astounding how much the kids have grown in the seemingly short time we have been away sailing. Of course they hadn't grown so much that they wouldn't play at the playground with Grampa Griff. Unfortunately we were not able to bring our golf clubs this trip so couldn't go out with Zac to enjoy the links (and get our tales dusted by the Cochrane Golf Club Junior Net Champ). Joey swore that he was going to wear the shirt we brought back "every day" and I guess he did for a while!!

- we managed to fit in a golf game at Boulder Creek - results as expected - good thing we didn't play with Zac

I think that wraps up the first week in Alberta although there was a lot more running around than we will relate here, including driving down to Lethbridge and back so we could pick up our car.

So - off to Lethbridge and the following highlights: if we missed anyonoe or anything when doing this list, please don't be offended. As expected we had an absolute whirlwind time while we were home with visiting. working on the acreage, catching up our shopping etc etc etc::

Some of the highlights:

-first weekend was spent with Cheryl's family. A barbecue at her brother's house on Saturday and then a baptism on Sunday

-The next week was spent pulling and spraying weeds at the acreage; seeing doctors and dentists; golfing a couple of games, we finally found our clubs; and catching up with friends by phone. The week ended with a barbeque with our irreplaceable friends Randy and Aleitha. Not only is their friendship and love so supportive but without them we likely wouldn't be able to do what we are doing (they look after our "home" stuff like the acreage). It was a long weekend so lots of people were away but it was really good to feel welcomed by those who were able to come and as usual we had a great time.

-The second week saw us doing more work at the acreage, more golfing and visiting with friends. Cheryl headed to Vancouver Island for her 40th Nursing Reunion which she thoroughly enjoyed. Jason came down and spent the weekend with Griff while Cheryl was gone.
-Our last week in Lethbridge was a whirlwind trying to get final visits in with everyone and settling things at the acreage with our new renters. We managed to get some golfing in with the Ward's, a visit
 with the Gunn's, a birthday celebration for Cheryl and her brother with her family, dinner with
Laraine and the Fast's and Cheryl had a dessert night with her lady friends.
-Back to Calgary for another week with Cheryl's kids. Also managed a dinner with the Hick's, a barbecue with Cheryl's kids and her sister and a lunch with Jason. We did spend more time with the Sparks' family and gave Zac the opportunity to beat both of us at golf.
Then it was back to Toronto on September 28th. First night we were back Rob hosted us and the Perry's with a great East Indian menu. The Perry's provided a birthday cake for Cheryl's birthday. The next day we re-packed our clothes into the hockey bags and later in the day took the subway to meet Rob and Jennifer for Japanese food and then took in the musical "Jersey Boys", the story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. Great music, great company and a great day.
On the Wednesday, Maurice and Sue (S/V Strider), who we became good friends with in Grenada, came down from Caledon, where they are home visiting and we had lunch on the waterfront. Again, great company and good fun.
That evening, Graham and Julie brought the kids over again and Graham sprang for the Chinese food. The evening went by far too quickly but it was just as well as Cheryl and I had to get up at 4:00 to catch the Express to the airport. Jennifer had borrowed Rob's car as her neighbour had beaten hers up. Rob had said he could go and get it to drive us to the airport but as we discovered this time when we got to Toronto, that Express bus is just so handy that getting Rob up at a ridiculous hour to drive us to the airport just didn't make sense. I think we will continue to avoid traffic whenever we come to Toronto by using it. Rob - we really do appreciate the many many many times you have driven us there and back.
Watch for the next blog installment - Back in Grenada