We arrived in Falmouth Antigua with plenty of time before Laurie’s flight home – and therefore ample time to cook me some dinners!! Not sure quite how I’d manage without Laurie’s cooking! She’s so good to me. But, a couple of days after we arrived, there she goes, and leaves me with a long list of boat project to work on!

A week into it and progress is being made:

• The engine’s strange misfiring (it was frequently stalling on us) is fixed! Finally traced it to a leaky elbow joint in the fuel line attached to the Racor filters… Difficult discovery but fortunately once found, an easy fix!
• I beefed up the mounting for the autopilot ram with an additional rather large stainless-steel bracket. Hopefully it’ll no longer flap about while steering the boat!
• Replaced the drain hose from the sink. Eugh! That was far worse than replacing the head hose! I’ve no idea what we’ve been putting down there – but it appears to have collected over the whole 10 years of Toodle-oo!’s life!
• Serviced the head (easy compared to the sink!)
• Serviced all the winches
• Checked all the rudder mounting bolts, tested the thruhulls and replaced a couple of badly corroded hose clamps.
• I’m now completing the varnishing of the companionway steps which were in AWFUL condition. This has been avoided in the past because the treads all have rubber inserts to assist grip… getting those out was really laborious. I started varnishing but quickly realized I had not done a good enough job on the rubber – the brush was picking up dozens of tiny black particles – so I had to re-do it and then sand everything again and start over. So far, I have 4 coats of 2-part Poly-urethane (not used this before) and it’s looking good. 2 more coats to do then the fun part – replacing the rubber inserts using a nasty black goopy Sikaflex product – can’t wait to see how badly I screw that one up!

Since I’d been working so hard, I gave myself a day off from boat projects, climbed up the hill to the remains of an old fort looking out over the harbor entrance and took in the sights of the Antigua Classic Regatta. Makes me feel lucky we only use 2 sails at a time for the most part! Spectacular boats!

A bit of a scramble on the start line!

Another class starts

Columbia gets a late start with Topsail problems

Big boats rounding the mark

Columbia chases the field around the mark

While I was photographing the boats I suddenly realized this little fellow was busy building its nest right in front of me!

Humming Bird building a nest

Meanwhile, Laurie is swanning around with all her friends and family – but payback will come when she has to heft back a whole bunch of boat parts…

It’s amazing how time gets away from you when sailing – here’s a blog about Grenada – which we left nearly a month ago!! So, not the most up to date report, but here you go…

Our aim this year was to get ourselves down to Grenada rather earlier than last year – when we felt that everyone around us was packing up their boats and heading home for the summer. We didn’t want to feel like we were in that transient mood… Turns out, whenever you’re in Grenada someone is having their boat hauled out so that they can head home!

We initially arrived in Prickly Bay where we were happy for 3 or 4 days – our part of the anchorage was nice and smooth while we got to watch others rocking and rolling all day long. Then all of a sudden we start rolling with them. We decided that there must be somewhere better so we moved a couple of bays east to Clarkes Court Bay – where there was a lovely collection of OCC boats – and the water was flat(ish)!

We did 3 HASH’s while we were in Grenada – always fun – and we took some lovely walks. We attempted a bit of a bushwacking walk – which turned out to be impossible – we initially walked past the trailhead but then found it – completely overgrown. Not a chance.

Pipeline Trail – and off on the Marijuana Trail!

I spied out a potential alternative route and it started out in a village – where we asked directions and they promptly had their 5 year old son guide us up to the ‘Pipeline’. An excellent guide, he took us right to the pipeline which we followed for a very enjoyable walk. We took a slight diversion close to the end on a meandering trail – which we were thinking would end up at Marijuana farm – no such luck!

Our best walk on Grenada started off as a repeat of last year’s hike from the Grand Etang up to Mount Qua Qua – but just before the summit there’s a trail that takes you to Fontainebleu and Concorde Waterfalls. The trail down is very overgrown and challenging, but we managed and ended up for a swim in Fountainbleu – once the nubile beauties had vacated the place.

Boy this is steep!

Wow – this is steep too!

Yes, I was there too!

Fountainebleu Falls

Bathing Nymphs

We enjoyed a guided tour with renowned tour guide ‘Cutty’ who took us along all the narrow roads all the way up to the old rum distillery, while he described the flora and fauna of the island – very interesting. We ended back at the Grand Etang where he tried to coach some monkeys down for us, but they were playing coy today…

We left Grenada on March 30^th and headed towards Antigua where Laurie was to take a flight back home. We stopped along the way in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou where I dived on the boat to clean off the bottom – which was in horrible shape. We next stopped in Le Marin, Martinique after an easy overnight sail and we ended up staying in Martinique for nearly a week.

After our extended visit to Fort de France, we left Martinique and sailed for St. Lucia’s Rodney Bay where we were to pick up ‘Damsel in Distress’ Lorraine – who’s crewing experience didn’t quite work out as planned, so rather than have her stay in a hotel for 2 weeks waiting for her flight home to Canada, she joined us aboard Toodle-oo! Lorraine had kindly paid for a mooring inside the Lagoon at Rodney Bay where we checked in with 2 people and out with 3!

We left the following morning (not keen to stay in St. Lucia which continues to fail to deal with some security issues) and headed straight to Bequia, past St. Vincent – another island failing to secure the yachties – a long trip with some wildly variable winds arriving just before nightfall.

Unfortunately, our anchoring spot was not that great and we ended up gently dragging in some pretty breezy weather, so in the morning we moved to the other side of the anchorage and found a nice secure spot where we stayed for the next 10 days.

Bequia’s Admiralty Bay from Peggy’s Rocks

On the way up to Peggy’s Rocks

Rum Shack on east coast

Interesting flora – an Eggplant??

Our friends Bob and Anne on Baloo were in the harbor and so were a few other OCC boats – so we had a rather nice sociable week or so and managed a few great hikes. I also got to do a dive with Bob – and saw some really nice coral and wide variety of fish.

Lorraine left us after about 10 days aboard Toodle-oo! – heading via ferry to St. Vincent and then by plane to St. Lucia and then a murderous trip back to Vancouver by numerous connections. We had a lovely visit from Lorraine and Laurie is still trying to fix her up with some unsuspecting single-hander!!

After Bequia we headed to Mayreau where we spent a couple of very rolly nights in the anchorage. It’s a small island but sports a very nice beach at the north end (unfortunately full of charter catamarans – which we tend to avoid when possible) but we enjoyed a few beers on the beach taking in the beautiful scenery.

Beach with deck chairs and waitress service!

We checked out of the Grenadines with a quick stop in Union and then sailed the short distance down to Carriacou where we checked into Grenada. Last year we didn’t do justice to Carriacou at all – leaving Tyrrel Bay after just a couple of days.

Relaxing in Hillsborough, Carriacou at La Playa Beach Bar

Kitty likes La Playa’s fish!

OCC Friends in Tyrrel Bay

Double in Tyrrel Bay

This year was very different and we had an excellent stay, meeting new friends Steve and Carol on Innamorata II and did a couple of excellent hikes. We succeeded in climbing to the top of the second highest peak at 954 ft,

Made it again!

View from the Top of Tyrrel Bay

followed by a failed attempt at the highest peak (955ft!) which turned into a nice walk with Steve and Carol around the north end of the island. The following day however, we managed to find the trail head for the ‘summit’ trial which turned out to be a short, steep, Cactus filled trek. Once at the top, we tried looking around for the trail we’d tried the day before but there was no evidence – so it must be very overgrown.

Walking around the North End of Carriacou with Steve and Carol

Highest Peak

Woohoo!

After our trek up to the peak, we came back to Bogles and enjoyed a fantastic lunch at Bogles Round House – best meal we’ve had in the Caribbean – not bad since this was our 15^th wedding anniversary!

We finally left Carriacou and made our way to Grenada and while we were hoping to anchor in St. George’s anchorage, it turned out to be way too rolly, making setting the anchor impossible. We therefore continued round and found a spot well into the anchorage at Prickly Bay.

This brings you all up to speed as to where we’ve been and since we’ll be in Grenada for a few weeks, I’ll update the blog with Grenada stuf

Carnaval in Fort de France – a 4 day affair… Pictures do it better justice than words…

Oh how Cute!

Earthy folk??

A Band

The Couple

Ardys and Carl

Jeff and Marcia (UJAM’n)

Looking Good!

Another Band

We think this is Mr. Trump getting…

Oh Boy! I’m behind! Sorry…

We left you last in northern Martinique – St. Pierre… from whence we sailed down to the capital, Fort de France where we figured we’d stay a night. The sail down was horrid! After a reasonable start, the wind came up dramatically – so much so that we ended up sailing as close as possible to land in order to receive some shelter! We still saw winds in the high 30’s and motor sailed with two reefs in the main – but we made it to Fort de France where the real fun began!

The anchorage was pretty full, so we picked a spot quite far out. The anchor bounced along the bottom… lets try again. Same thing. Third time’s a charm – except in this case! We moved a bit and tried again – same thing. For our fifth attempt we moved to another spot altogether – nada. The sixth try was in the same spot – eureka! It held! We were at the very back of the anchorage, closest to where the ferries went back and forth (constantly), kicking up a big wake each time. It was rolly, but at least we were attached – though we didn’t feel like exploring the town! We settled in for the night – and fortunately, the ferries stopped at a reasonable hour so we were able to sleep.

In the morning the ferries stared at 6:00am – and so did the swells, however, several boats left the anchorage early so we decided to move again in order to be out of the swell. We continued our anchoring count – and attempt 7 didn’t catch, but when picking up the anchor it was apparent why – the tip had sunk into a large old piece of coral – we shook that off and tried again. Attempt 8 managed to hook the same piece of coral! We tried again… something wasn’t right and fortunately, Jeff on UJAM’n was out and about in the anchorage and swam over to take a look – the anchor was wedged under a rock – all well and good while the wind was in this direction, but if it changes… Jeff then swam off to look for a better spot – and well into the anchorage he found a great spot – in sand, so we moved over there and attempt 10 set immediately!

Then the currents in the harbor all went crazy and we found ourselves turned through 180 degrees and now sitting on the bottom! Meanwhile a Catamaran was still afloat when the wind changed back and we were really close to touching boats before we managed to extricate ourselves!

Attempt 11 saw us move just slightly from our nice piece of sand – but we put out a stern anchor as well – to prevent going through the 180 degree gyrations! All is good and we’re so far into the anchorage that there’s no swell! But then, the wind and current play another trick and a different catamaran comes too close! Fortunately, I was able to avoid them by snugging in the stern anchor some, but the proximity was a little disconcerting…

In the morning, an adjacent boat left the anchorage – so we decided it would be prudent to move into that spot – eliminating the need for the stern anchor and at the same time getting away from the cats… I launched the dinghy in order retrieve the stern anchor and came back to the boat. We then lifted the main anchor and reversed away from the cat in front and suddenly there was silence! The stern anchor rode had spooled out of the dinghy during our reversing and the slack generated was now fouled in the propeller! We were adrift in a crowded anchorage…

I quickly got back in the dinghy and tied it alongside and maneuvered Toodle-oo! to where I wanted to anchor next – all was well right up until the stern anchor rode decided to attack the dinghy’s propeller! Once again we were adrift in the water! Now it’s time to yell for help! Fortunately, another OCC friend, Bob on Oasis was to hand and he towed us with his dinghy to where I wanted to drop the anchor.

Our 12th anchoring attempt proved to be the winner! We were well set in sand (and deep enough water) with no obvious targets to collide with us during the night!

By now there were about 7 other OCC boats in the anchorage – all here to enjoy the Carnaval celebrations – so we decided to enjoy them too and ended up staying in Fort de France for 10 days!

Plans laid in sand at low tide…

Unfortunately, internet has been extremely difficult to come by – finally got this post up and will slowly add photos as I can… 

We returned to Dominica to find rather more boats in the anchorage than when we were there in December and more and more arrived over the coming days – with over 40 boats anchored or moored each night by the time we left a little over a week later.

While we were there a bunch of cruisers got together to assist the Dominicans in their rebuilding efforts – at the communal food pantry ‘The Lambs Feast’ at the local radio station and simply helping locals out with whatever project they were up to. I had an interesting morning with John and Chris from Saphira Blue and Mark from Calypso K, assisting a gentleman called Alexis and his cousin Monty put a new roof on Alexis’ house. What we did in a morning together would certainly have taken them a couple of days.

We also did a fantastic hike to ‘The Boiling Lake’ with John and Chris and with Martin and Lydia from Cheglia, guided by Sea Cat. This had to have been the most interesting and most arduous hike I’ve ever undertaken. We left Toodle-oo! at 6:00am, were at the trail head at 8:30 and didn’t get back for another 8 hours! The route took us over a big hill and down, across a river, up a mountain (and down again ☹) across the valley of desolation and up to the boiling lake. The second largest in the world and it is BOILING! The trek was very steep and quite challenging, but along the way we got to enjoy fresh pineapple, rum punch, fresh boiled eggs (boiled in the fumaroles) a blue mud pack and lunch at the lake all courtesy of Sea Cat who provided a wonderful dialog about the flora and fauna along the way. Anyone considering this hike will be well pleased if the go with Sea Cat.

Unfortunately, the hike took it’s toll – in the hot steamy and wet conditions, Laurie’s camera (which I had chosen to bring instead of mine) suffered a death and the card is unreadable – so no photographs ☹

We bid adieu to Dominica and enjoyed a brisk sail down to St. Pierre in Martinique. There were a couple of OCC boats anchored around us and we had sundowners aboard Toodle-oo! with Jeff and Macia from UJAM’n and Neil and Helen from Milvinia. We had already decided we wanted to hike Mt. Pele, the large volcano that last erupted in 1905 ? killing about 30,000 people in St. Pierre. As it turned out, Neil was planning the hike the following morning, so we opted to join him.

Last year when we attempted this walk with Peter and Patty (Serendipitous) the weather was awful and we called it quits at the first major ridge we came to. Turns out that ridge was not even half way to the top… This hike was another strenuous effort – taking over 5 hours – but this time we had perfect weather and the sights on the way up and from the top were breathtaking. We completed the walk with Neil and with Fletcher, Kristopher and Ward from ‘Lovely Cruise’, a younger family taking a 12-18 month sabbatical…

Last year’s “Summit” turned up to be not even half way to the real summit…

View from the lower reaches of Mt. Pele

It goes up, then down then up again…

No that’s not the top – you have to go down and then up again – over here!

Still not there – you go down again, then up again 🙁

Finally made it! With Neil McCubbin – a mere 74 years young!

The crew of Lovely Cruise – Ward Kristofer and Fletcher

We’ll be heading south along Martinique’s coast for the next few days before moving to the next island – probably Bequia…

We came into the Marina in Pointe a Pitre, Guadeloupe with one goal in mind – fix the generator! It has been making a heck of a lot of noise recently – so much so that when I first heard it while we were down in Dominica, I thought the main bearings had gone, however it continued to run, just with lots of noise.

I ordered spare parts – including engine mounts – which I hoped might solve the problem and had Neal bring them to us on his visit.

This was always going to be a messy job – lifting the generator out and working on it’s oily extremities in the cockpit – and it lived up to expectations! Fortunately, we discovered the cause of the noise… an Aluminium plate between the engine and generator had broken and one of three mounting bolts was therefore inoperable. However, of the two remaining mounts, one had lost it’s nut and the other’s nut was loose. Basically the thing was held together by the drive belt!!

Messy Generator

Cleaned up

I spotted a tech working on a Halberg Rassey a few slips down and confirmed that he is a welder – he came and took a look and confirmed that he’d be able to weld it up – though because it’s aluminium, there were to be no guarantees! I gave him the piece the following morning and he brought it back in the afternoon!

Broken Mount

Fixed!

It took all this morning to reassemble the thing and get it back into it’s spot on it’s new engine mounts. Turned the thing on – and bliss – purrs like a kitten!!!

I love it when a plan works out!

We’re off tomorrow – back to Dominica!

Having a great visit with Neal and Kathy – enjoying the opportunity to land cruise around Guadeloupe and take advantage of their apartment’s WiFi and washing machine! WooHoo!!! Our livers on the other hand are looking forward to them heading home!!

Looking across to ‘Les Saintes’ from Guadeloupe

Did a super walk up the Volcano Soufriere – apparently the highest point in the Antilles… Quite a hike!

It’s a long way up!

Every once in a while the cloud would break for a few seconds

It’s steep!

So did I!

Made it!

Amazing lichens and mosses

The descent

On the ‘Rim’

Timing was rather tight to get out of Antigua after Abigail’s visit and down to Pointe a Pitre in Guadeloupe in time for the arrival of Laurie’s brother Neal and his girlfriend Kathy. We had a very salty 2 day sail but arrived unscathed on Saturday.

Neal and Kathy are actually staying on land – in an Air B&B adjacent to the Marina we use as a dinghy dock. Couldn’t be more convenient.

So, getting right into the program, we headed out to inspect the local beaches and bars – and found several of both! Day two we decided to go for a bit of a walk in the rain forest – and it obliged by showing itself in it’s full glory – wet, wet, wet! And muddy! No matter we survived to live another day and drink another rum!

The walking dead?

Aww – It’s Muddy!!!!

A little uphill…

Debating in the Rain Forest

Hunting Tree Frogs!

Washing off the mud

All Done!

We had a lovely Christmas in Les Saintes with David and Leanne of Perigee – Christmas Eve on Toodle-oo! and Christmas Day aboard Perigee – excellent food, far too much alcohol and a little bit of snorkeling for good measure!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Lights

Toodle-oo! was nicely lit up for Christmas, but unfortunately, the last night we were there, we went ashore for the evening and came back to find the boat in darkness… the lights had shorted, and caused a small fire before the electricity was automatically cut. We were very lucky that the only damage was a small hole burned in the sail cover and mainsail. We fixed the main the following morning with a handy little manual sewing machine we were lent by Frank on Infinity B and then hightailed it up towards Antigua where we picked up Abigail and spent New Year.

We took the mainsail into North Sails who did a great repair very quickly – highly recommend them! And then we moved the boat around to English Harbour with David on Perigee aboard to act as coach for our first experience of “Med Mooring” where one sets an anchor and then backs in to the dock stern-to, held off the dock just be the anchor – and hoping you’re not putting your anchor and rode over someone else’s! The whole thing went smoothly – largely because the wind was cooperating!

Laurie then organized a Beach Bar pub crawl for all the OCC boats assembled in the vicinity… we had a tremendous time visiting 4 very different beach bars on Antigua’s western coast.

Best Girls!

Hanging out in the bar!

Beach Bar Crawl

New Year’s Eve saw 5 OCC boats on the dock host appetizers for about 30 OCC members and then on New Year’s Day we had a Bocce Ball tournament! Quite the weekend!

Not such a fine performance!

We’re now in Green Island – a very secluded bay in Antigua – protected from the Atlantic by just a reef – so the next land east of us is Morocco! Abigail steered us here – having the inevitable race (and winning) with 2 boats headed in the same direction as us!

Showing them how it’s done!

Racing – and Winning!

As you can see, all’s well aboard Toodle-oo!