dommyp – Page 5 – Sailing Azimuth

September 5, 2023September 5, 2023

On to the Land of Blue Drinks!

Last time we left you in Trinidad, we were in the boatyard getting Azimuth ready again for the next season. This time we will tell you about the rest of our time in Trinidad and an eventful sail to Curacao.

It was seriously hot in that boatyard. The temperature on paper was not that high, about 32 degrees, but Trinidad is a very wet country full of steamy rainforest and the humidity most days was 85%. Its easier to deal with such heat in the trade winds of the Caribbean. At anchor, you can pretty much guarantee a steady flow of air through the boat and a cooling breeze across the deck. In the boatyard? Nothing! So after a month of it we were pretty well ready to get the hell out of there. Some vicious mosquitos too!

What really makes a place though is the people. Trinidadians are a lovely crowd and can not do enough to help you. They also like to party, and life is pretty good! After all they live in a beautiful place, and the oil industry has bought some prosperity to the country. Crime rates are still a problem though, although we never felt threatened during our time there. I guess though we really didn’t travel far and lived in a tight community of boatyard life and other cruisers

The cruisers put on some really nice events. Every Thursday night at the adjacent boat yard called Power Boats.

Every week we also went to a local outdoor restaurant place with lots of food stalls called the fish fry for some tasty food and a good chinwag with the other cruisers

We never got bored of watching these crazy guys romping around in the tree behind our boat!

Finally though the guys managed to finish the gears and after some mucking about, put the steering gearbox back together. I refitted it to the boat, tested the autopilot and everything worked as expected! It was time to depart!!!

I put together a video of the launch. We were both pretty nervous!

It felt pretty amazing to be back in the water again, and we were soon heading on our way out of the bay and out to open sea again with the long sail to Curacao ahead of us

That first couple of hours were amazing sailing. It was light seas, good winds, and Azimuth was leaping through the water with clean bottom! Even the autopilot sounded happy…. oh but wait a minute! Whats that grinding noise??? Oh no!! The autopilot decided to pack up!!!! Alarms went off … no rudder response. Now what?

Well, after playing around for a while, trying things out, I came to the conclusion that the motor that drives the autopilot (which has many gears inside it) must be the culprit. It couldn’t possibly be the gearbox that we had spent so much money fixing right?

What to do? It was getting dark, we were about 2 hours North of Trinidad. We both decided then that we couldn’t go back. For one it would be like admitting defeat, and for two if would be a bit embarrassing turning up again having been so happy about leaving. So, it meant that we had to hand steer all the way to Curacao, at this point about 450 miles away

The winds were very light or non existent after the first 24 hours, so we actually just stopped and had a rest for a few islands, drifting in the right direction towards curacao at about 1.5 knots on the equatorial current. There were some large squalls and thunderstorms around. After two days we were both in to the swing of it. The wind seemed to pick up at night and die in the day. The squalls were not too strong and so we had the full sails up. Unfortunately about 3 in the morning on the third night we were hit by a really nasty squall! it went from no wind to about 30 knots. All hell broke loose! I was asleep below and poor Ailsa had to shout and scream to wake me up. The rain was lashing down and we fought to get the sails under control for about 15 minutes. Unfortunately, in that time, we managed to do some damage to poor Azimuth! Mainsail ripped at the top, and one of the winches got stripped when the furling line became jammed, and someone (who remains nameless) carried on pressing the button!

The next day revealed the damage, but we still had a functioning genoa, and we managed to sail the rest of the trip with no incidents. it took 4 days and we arrived in Spanish Waters in Curacao, dropped the anchor and pretty much collapsed!!!

It all gets stored in the sailing experience file. I don’t think you ever stop learning. We will definitely pay closer attention to squalls in the future, and of course it was more difficult, because we were having to hand steer, and you could literally do nothing else, especially at night when the other person is asleep.

The night time was really quite special on that trip. The sea was lit up at times by the bioluminescence in the water. The wake went out behind the boat for many tens of metres as a green streak, and the crests of the waves were lit up. The stars were spectacular too, with the milky way plastered right across the sky, and I used the stars at night as a reference for easier navigation than using the instruments. I wish you could capture that on camera, but its only something that you can experience first hand, very cool.

Anyway, we made it to Curacao and motored in to the very protected anchorage called Spanish Waters. It is a huge shallow lagoon with a very narrow entrance to the sea. Lots of boats at anchor and a very vibrant cruiser community.

We anchored close to a boat called Sans Souci, Jessica and her young family were people we had met in Martinique. Jessica did a video about us and Azimuth on her YouTube channel called Boat Life. We stopped by to see them, and they very kindly filled us in on how to check in to the country, even giving us the bus fare we needed to get in to the local town Willemstad! We set off to town the next day and had the customs and immigration done in about an hour which gave us the chance to go and explore the town a little and first impressions very really good. Its like being in Amsterdam in the Caribbean! Willemstad is based around a channel that leads to the perfect enclosed harbour. The river splits the town in to two, one side is called Punda and the other is called Otrabanda, and the two sides are connected by a floating bridge across crystal clear azure water. When boats want to come in and out of the channel, the bridge disconnects it self from one bank and swings across floating on its pontoons. A very bizarre process that seems to work very well!

It was a lovely introduction, but we were still pretty exhausted so caught the bus back to the boat and went to bed early!

First order of business was getting any repairs underway. From experience we know that these things can take ages in the Caribbean, so the sooner things get started the better. I was kind of gutted really, we had spent a month in the boat yard in Trinidad getting Azimuth up to scratch and here I was looking at a long list of boat jobs! First thing was to get the main off. We found a sailmaker on the island who actually came to the dinghy dock to take it away to his workshop. Were still waiting on that one, but fingers crossed it can be mended. It is only torn at the seam, so should be fixable.

Then it was on to the autopilot. Firstly I took the motor off, dismantled it and fully tested it. It worked perfectly! Damn! Actually, not such a bad deal, because replacing that would have been very expensive. So now I am scratching my head, it cant be my brand new assembled gearbox??? I climbed back in to the hell hole under the cockpit floor and lo and behold, i discovered that the bolts that hold the sub gearbox between the main gearbox and the autopilot motor had somehow shaken loose. The whole thing was moving, and the gears were not meshing properly. Of course these particular bolts were not accessible without a complete gearbox strip down! So, back in to the heat, I got the whole assembly out. Dripping with sweat, and managed to strip it down, apply thread locker to the offending 4 bolts, reassemble with as much force as possible, reassemble and then shoehorn the whole thing back in to place in the hell hole. We need to do a sea trial to check it, but as of today the thing is fixed!

The last thing to sort was the winch. All we did in that case was swap the damaged bits for a winch that doesn’t get used that often. Hopefully we can source replacement parts at some point!

That was a few days of boat jobs then. Time to explore a little more. Right across from where we are anchored we found a really nice beach, a bar and an old fort to explore. The water here in curacao is about the clearest we have seen in the Caribbean.

Yep, that is a huge drill rig you can see in the photos. It is just parked in the bay right next to the fort, a real contrast of old and new. A reminder of all the oil activity in this area of South America

On another day we took the bus back to Willemstad to go and explore some more. This time we visited the old market which is now converted in to a food hall where we had a delicious lunch of local food. That afternoon we visited the slavery museum. Whilst obviously a tough subject, it was very well done and we both learnt alot about the history of slavery in Curacao and the surrounding islands.

There is a huge and vibrant artist quarter in Willemstad and all over the town there are public art works mixing with the vivid colours of the buildings. Very cool place to explore

Thats all for now. Join us next time as we go and explore some more of Curacao!

August 12, 2023September 3, 2023

Its HOT in the boatyard!

Last time we left you we were having fun with friends in the beautiful isle of Tobago. This time we sail to Trinidad and get the boat lifted out for some much needed TLC before heading further on our adventures. It has been over two years since we lifted Azimuth out of the water. Since that time, we have sailed over 10,000 miles in her. Six months in the Caribbean had been hard on the old girl. Most of the antifoul had come off from all the sailing we had done and Azimuth had her own reef ecosystem growing on the bottom complete with crabs and mussels. It was definitely time for a clean and also to fix some stuff, most importantly the steering / autopilot.

So after our fond farewell to the Thompsons at the airport in Tobago, we flagged down a taxi to Scarborough and went about trying to check out of Tobago and get permission to sail to Trinidad. We arrived at immigration at 11am that morning and we were told to come back at 2pm. Not a great start, so we went and did the customs checkout first and went looking for somewhere to get lunch and kill a few hours. Whilst we were wondering around the docks and the edge of the town, we bumped in to the woman who owns and runs the Wonky Windmill, the restaurant we had been in the night before with the Thompsons. She immediately recognised us, and to show just how friendly everyone is here when we told her we had a few hours to kill she insisted on driving us to the top of the hill so we could go and visit the fort! It was well worth the trip

After a pitstop for lunch at a local place that was recommended to us, we turned up back at immigration and several of the other cruisers from the anchorage were also there!

It was all sorted within an a hour or two and we headed back to the clubhouse for one last drink before departing for Trinidad early the next morning.

It was a glorious sail across. So much easier than getting from Grenada to Tobago. Now we were downwind and had the current behind us. We decided to anchor for one night on the North coast of Trinidad at Vache Bay, and had the whole place to ourselves. It was a steep sided bay with no access to land surrounded by rainforest. Unfortunately a rolly night, but very peaceful.

We got up early the next morning. There was no wind, so we had to motor round the corner to get to Chaguaramus to check in to Trinidad. It was a very beautiful and dramatic coastline along the North coast and through islands.

On arrival in Chaguaramus we dropped the anchor and headed to the customs and immigration. Another drama unfolded as we were told that Tobago had made a mistake and checked us entirely out of the country instead of doing the paperwork that transferred us to Trinidad! Come back next week we were told…. which we did, only to be told to go away and not bother them until we wanted to check out! Oh well, as long as we are not in the country illegally we said? The response as curt and so we left! Customs were all good though. Its amazing how the place seems to run ok with all the bureaucracy?!

Chaguaramus is a pretty port, but not the most inspiring anchorage to sit and wait for 3 days before we got lifted out of the water. So we headed a mile away back the way we had come to a very pretty anchorage called Scotland Bay

Expecting it to be a peaceful anchorage, we were surprised when the party boats turned up that weekend! It became the battle of the sound systems. Reggae blasting out and everyone having a good time. They all disappeared by midnight and then we were left with the sounds of the rainforest. A very beautiful place.

The day came for the lift out, and we headed back to Chaguaramus, all nervous about the next steps. We needn’t have worried. The Peakes Yard team were consummate professionals. They sent a diver down to position the straps under the boat. Azimuth was lifted out of the water in no time. The crane was huge so I didn’t have to remove any stays or equipment from the boat (a lot of hassle avoided!).

I got a well deserved ribbing about the state of the bottom! But 5 guys had the thing scraped off in no time and the high pressure washer had her very clean.

Then the guys transferred Azimuth to a special truck and drove her off to her new home in the yard. From water to new position in about two hours! No messing!

So now the fun really started …..!

Step 1: Fixing the Steering

First job was to check out the steering and get a fix started. That meant going down in to the hell hole that is the space underneath the cockpit floor. Have I told you how hot is was yet? With the gearbox removed without too much cursing and swearing, it didn’t look very good, and it was immediately obvious that the unit needed some serious TLC. A good job really that we had caught it now, because I don’t think it would have been very long until the whole thing fell to bits, and thankfully not whilst we were at sea! After a few days asking around, we managed to track down a local guy who had experience of fixing these very units. All the bearings in the unit would need to be replaced, and then as we got further in to it, it became clear that two of the cone gears that turn a 90 degree angle to where the autopilot is attached were beyond repair. This was the cause of the slipping and crunching sound when the autopilot was engaged, as well as all the play in the steering system.

We went round the houses trying to find some replacement gears on the internet, but nothing could be found. That in case then, the only option was to have a new set made by a local metal basher. Expensive!

The guys at the metal shop really knew their stuff. They even sent me a video of the process. Being the geek I am, I thought it looked like a cool process. Here it is for those of you interested!

Unfortunately, as good as these guys were, stuff doesn’t happen quick in Trinidad. In the end this was to be the major holdup for us here in Chaguaramus, but it had to be done, or Azimuth wasn’t going anywhere!

Step 2: Fixing Toilets!

Well doesn’t this sound like we are living the dream?! Talk to any serious sailing cruiser, and all of them have had the dreaded blocked toilet onboard. Everyone also has there own fix or solution! Azimuth has three “heads” and on arrival, only one of them was actually working any more. Time to get serious! Ailsa took it upon herself to dive head first in to fixing this whilst I got on with some of the other jobs on the boat.

Out with the old pipes andreplace with new

What a job. Basically all the toilet pipes needed replacing. Easy right? Sounds it until you find out where those pipes are routed, inside cupboards, behind wardrobes, buried deep in a rats nest of pipes and cables in the bilge. Oh and add in the 32 degree heat and 85% humidity inside the boat, and it all started to add up to a nightmare. We bought the entire stock of pipe from the local chandlery, all 47 feet of it! Turns out we had about 15 cms left over when the job was done. Very lucky or amazing measuring?

I will leave it up to your imagination as to the cause of pipe blockage… but it was not pleasant. The pipes calcifies up over the 26 years they had been installed and a 32mm pipe was down to about 3mm!

It took about a week in all, but they are all replaced, tested and no leaks!

Step 3: Bottom Painting

Definitely not my favourite job! Two days of sanding the horrible old stuff off the bottom. One day applying a coat of primer and then three days to paint the bottom with new antifoul, where you have to cover yourself up in one of those paper suits and goggles. The antifoul paint is evil stuff that you don’t want to get on your skin.

Step 4: Polishing the Hull

Another favourite! Whilst balancing on a bouncy plan on the top of two A-frames, apply a rubbing compound and use the polisher to take the top layer of oxidation off the gelcoat. Then apply liquid wax, allow to drive and polish with a cloth. 3 days to do Azimuths hull. I think I collapsed a couple of times from heat exhaustion and my arms felt like rubber every night!

Step 5: Sit and wait

Sit and wait for the parts to be made for the steering, see step 1! That’s pretty much where we are as of writing. I think we have been in the yard nearly 4 weeks now and both of us are distinctly looking forward to leaving!!!

While we sit and wait with have seen some interesting stuff though. Check these guys out that live in the trees at the back of the boat

Here’s the view from boat. They pack them in here! The sunsets aren’t too bad either.

We have met some lovely people whilst we have been here in Chaguaramus. There is a great cruiser community. Lots of stories to hear about everyone’s travels. Several of them seem to have been here far too long though?! Got to the yard and never left? We don’t intend to end up like one of those.

We even had one notable day out away from the boat yard when a fellow Brit, Susy offered to take us to the beach one day on the North side of Trinidad. It was a lovely day out and a very welcome change from yard life.

Join us next time when we fingers crossed manage to leave the yard, get the boat back in the water and sail off to the Dutch Caribbean, ABC islands

July 22, 2023July 22, 2023

Old friends and new in Tobago

Last time we left you we were still in Grenada. This time we will regale you with our recent adventures in Tobago. We are a little behind at the moment, so please bear with us. I am writing this sat in Azimuth on the hard in a boat yard in Trinidad. Its been a crazy and enjoyable few weeks. Let me tell you more…

Our good friends Sally and Andrew and their daughter Erin had made a brave choice…. to join us on Azimuth for two weeks on the paradise isle of Tobago!

We were very excited to be leaving Grenada and heading for Tobago to meet our friends! Being only a short walk from a marina where the guide book told us there was a customs and immigration office, checking out of Grenada should have been simple right? Further investigation revealed that infact that office no longer existed. So a new bus route had to be negotiated to get us to the marina in St Georges. I think we must be getting better at finding our way around. It was an easy trip and no problem checking out of the country.

The trip to Tobago looked a bit more tricky. Having got thoroughly used to sailing on a beam or broad reach for the last 6 months, now we were faced with a tricky upwind 70 mile sail. We left that evening and things got progressively harder. As well as the tight wind angle, there was also a strong current against us, the so called equatorial current that flows around the top of South America through the gap between Trinidad and Grenada with Tobago slap in the middle. The winds were light and the sea state was calm for the Atlantic, and it was a lovely sail. Sunrise bought us in sight of Tobago in the distance, and a negotiation with the Trinidad coastguard allowed us to drop anchor in Store Bay on the South West corner of the island. We were one of only 4 boats in the anchorage, a rare feeling in the Caribbean where most anchorages are rammed full of boats.

The rules about checking into Tobago seemed to be quite complicated and arcane in comparison to the rest of the Caribbean. Firstly we had the phone the medical officer. He told us to wait on the boat until he arrived and issued us with a medical certificate? It took about 2 hours for him to get there and then he told us to come to shore. He didn’t ask us any questions, just issued a certificate on the beach?! I don’t think we have ever started a checking in process to anywhere on the beach?! Then he gave us loads of help on where to get money and how to get a taxi from Store Bay to Scarborough to get to Immigration and Customs, who he informed us were waiting for us. The 20 minute taxi ride cost £2 for both of us! The way it works is that everyone shares taxis and they go on set routes. A very easy and sensible system.

On arrival at immigration, the number of forms was bewildering. All filled in in triplicate with the old style carbon paper. I had to find a local photocopier to make multiple copies of boat papers and passports too. However, the people were very friendly, and we got through the process in a couple of hours.

So we had a week to wait before the Thompsons were due to arrive and we decided to get to know the lay of the land. The great joy of that week was meeting all the cruisers anchored in Store Bay. We had a truly international bunch. Tom, Kate and their son Marley from Australia. Gustavo and Danielle from Switzerland, Mark and Susan from USA and Pascal and Veronique from France. What a lovely bunch of people all sharing the same sailing life as us. We were the newbies on the block having only been at sea for a year!

Tobago is a relatively hard place to get to from a sailing point of view. And people are also put off by the reputation of the difficulty of checking in, as well as a history of piracy in these waters. That meant we were only one of about 6 cruising boats on the whole island. So different to other parts of the Caribbean, and we really felt like we had the place to ourselves.

The local beach bar was right next to the anchorage and this became the “clubhouse” for the cruisers! We got to meet everyone in there for a few beers regularly. This is where we found out about “Sunday School”, a local tradition held every Sunday night where we could experience a proper Caribbean party. So a plan was hatched. Some of us sailed up the coast to Irvine Bay, whilst others opted for the taxi route. it turned out to be a relatively small affair but great fun none the less. A huge PA system was blasting out reggae tunes. Many people were competing to see who could smoke the largest joints. There was a distinct smell in the air. Later in the evening the local Steel Band struck up a tune. They were really good. Here’s a little taster…

So we had a couple of days in Irvine Bay and then headed back to Store Bay for the arrival of Sally, Andrew and Erin.

The guys had there own ordeal to deal with first of course, the travel from the UK, a night in a hotel in Port of Spain and then negotiating the ferry to Tobago. What could possibly go wrong??

Well there had been an issue with booking the ferry. It turned out that the weekend they were arriving in Trinidad was the end of the school year. Apparently its tradition in Trinidad for all the new school graduates to head to Tobago with their families and party. Everyone was trying to get to Tobago from Trinidad!

So the poor old Thompsons had to queue on standby to try an secure their seat on the ferry for three hours. Bless them though they managed to get on, and in premier class too. Phew. No sooner has the ferry left than the dreaded sea sickness kicked in …. The poor guys renamed the fast ferry the “vomitarium”. Three hours of hell apparently! However, they made it and negotiated the taxis in Scarborough and we met for a great reunion in Store Bay. Well done guys for the supreme effort!

No sooner had the Thompsons found the sanity of land and started to recover from the ferry ride, than we whisked them off to Azimuth in the dinghy and got them settled in. Unfortunately it was a bit rolly, and this did not help the sea sickness recovery process. It took them 24 hours to acclimatise, but hopefully they weren’t ready to jump ship at this point and check in to the nearest hotel, thinking what have we done???

Actually the next few days were very relaxing. Life consisted of lots of swimming off the back of the boat. Cursing at the jet skis as they used the anchored boats as a slalom course. Giving in to the heat of the afternoon with a tactical siesta and several trips to shore to sample the delights of Store Bay restaurants and the clubhouse.

A few days of relaxing as hard as possible had the trick and hopefully everyone settled in OK, despite the challenges of living in a confined space aboard a yacht.

We had Mark and Susan from the USA in the anchorage. They very kindly invited us all to celebrate the 4th of July with a BBQ on the beach. Bring your own potluck food and drinks.

What a great afternoon. Mark cooked up a feast of chicken and we all enjoyed the ambience of the beach.

Some of the guys bought along a couple of sets of the French game Boule. Later that afternoon, Pascal gathered up willing players and adjudicated over the game. Easier said than done given that a few of us had maybe had one or two beers. It was great fun. Apparently we were in two teams, but I don’t think many of us actually knew which team we were in?! It didn’t seem to matter. Eventually the teams were properly identified… of course it had to be Trinidad versus Tobago. The competition was fierce, but Trinidad took an early lead and Tobago just couldn’t make up the difference.

Thanks to Mark and Susan for putting this together. We all had a great time!

So, we wanted to take the Thompsons for a sail up the coast to show them a little of the island. But before we did this, it was time to first see Buccoo Reef and the Nylon Pool and for Erin to have a try at diving.

The Nylon Pool was pretty cool. Essentially it is like a swimming pool in the sea with an amazing aquamarine colour. Buccoo reef is huge and very shallow across much of the area, so we took the dinghy along the Tom, Kate and Marley to go and visit it. I took a short video on the GoPro

Our visit to the Nylon Pool

It was to be a day of watersports. After we got back from the visit to the Nylon Pool, many of the guys decided to go and dive on the reef in Store Bay. Tom is a dive master and he offered to take Erin for a dive too. The rest us non divers went for a snorkel which was pretty good, although the visibility was not the best.

So the next day we weighed anchor and set sail up the west coast of Tobago. The wind was a little tricky so after about 2 hours of beating upwind we relented and pulled in at Plymouth Bay and dropped the anchor off a huge sweeping beach

The next day we took a visit in to the town. This was very different in comparison to Store Bay, a more traditional Caribbean town free from the trappings of organised tourism. We visited James Fort, built by the English to protect the bay (probably from the French). We then found a great little shop serving up a delicious lunch and sat looking out over the bay.

After Plymouth we moved Azimuth down to Irvine Bay where we had been before and there is a really cool beach bar. More chilling for a few days here. We had a great night out at a local restaurant called “The Fish Pot”. The meal was delicious and the rum punch was flowing freely.

We had one or two evenings in the beach bar where things may have got a little silly at times? Good cheap food was served too, cause by now we couldn’t be bothered to cook on the boat!

Whilst in Irvine Bay, we managed to get some details about a rain forest guide called Peter, a renowned botanist who took people on rainforest tours. We managed to arrange a tour for the next day. Peter insisted on a 6:30am start! That hurt … but we managed to assemble on the shore in time, and Peter picked us all up. It was a very memorable day and Peter was an excellent guide , hugely knowledgeable, and really lovely with it. Peter could whistle bird song of many of the forest birds and they would reply. He could also spot lots of different kinds of wildlife that we would have just missed if we were on our own.

On the trip to the rainforest we stopped at several beautiful bays on the way. All of them anchorages, shame we didn’t have the time to visit

The start of the trail. Hanging birds nests

The trail is called the Gilpin Trace. A Gilpin is an old Carib Indian word for a Machete. It was the Indians who originally cut the trail as a route across the island.

Peter caught this evil looking whip scorpion to show us. No one wanted to get too close!

Peter also found and opened a trapdoor spiders lair. He couldn’t get the spider to come out though. Perhaps for the best as I would have run a mile!

Here is a video I put together with some clips from the forest. Listen to the sounds in the background. It really was a magical place, and felt very prehistoric. I expected a dinosaur to appear on the trail at any moment.

Clips from our visit to the rainforest

Back out of the forest at the end of the walk

What an amazing day. For me probably the highlight of our visit to Tobago.

Irvine Bay also had a really pretty reef that you snorkel to from the anchorage or by swimming off the beach. I put this video together. Look out for an eel sticking its head out of a hole in the coral, spotted by Sally. Erin got the best footage as she followed a shoal of fish as they swam around the reef.

All good things come to an end, and eventually it was time for us to head back to Store Bay and deliver the Thompsons to the airport. They had very sensibly decided to avoid the ferry journey back to Trinidad and opted for easier plane trip! As it happen the airport was only 5 minutes walk from the anchorage, easy!

Time for one last evening out and a meal at the Wonky Windmill. A few drinks at the clubhouse too

It was with a tear in the eye that we delivered the Thompsons to the airport the next day. Thankyou guys for coming to see us and making the huge effort to get to Tobago. We had a ball and we hope you enjoyed it too!

Join us next time as we head to Trinidad and get hauled out of the water in Chaguaramus for the dreaded boat work!

June 17, 2023June 17, 2023

Grenadian Life

Last time we talked, we were exploring Grenada. Now having been here in this beautiful place for well over a month, we feel like we are well settled in to Grenadian life! It really is a very relaxed and easy going place. So lets give you a taste of what we have been up to for the last few weeks….

We had been anchored in Prickly Bay in the south of Grenada for a couple of weeks and were taking the dinghy in to shore when we happened to pass our friends on Water Music, Ken, Caroline and their dog Mitsy who had arrived a couple of days earlier. These were the guys we had previously met in Tobago Cays. We decided to set off to see some of Grenada together. We planned a trip on the bus to travel to the North of Grenada to see a chocolate plantation and visit Concord Falls, another popular waterfall.

After a long bus journey along the west coast of Grenada to the little town of Victoria, we took a walk up a winding road through the rain forest until we came upon the Jouvay chocolate plantation and factory. Ailsa was immediately in her element! Many years of chocolate eating had fully prepared her for this immersive experience. The brief tour of the plantation and the factory to see the making process was very interesting. The culmination was the factory shop where Ailsa was able to fully indulge her passion complete with tasting session.

We wondered back down to Victoria and met many of the locals on the way who came out to say hello. In the town there was some sort of small local festival going on, and we had lunch from a street stall with free beers! Everyone was very welcoming, and we even got to chat with a local politician who had just returned from a trip to the UK. We had a long wait for the bus for the next leg of our journey to Concord Falls

We arrived at the road to Concord Falls and were lucky enough to get a Taxi to take us up the 2 mile road. Another stunningly beautiful place, and really tastefully developed. You climb down some stone steps from the road to get to the falls. We all took the chance to go for a swim (including Mitsy!) which was really refreshingly cool in the heat of the afternoon. Some other steps led to a bar with views over the falls where the rum punch had to be sampled. The 2 mile walk back to the main road to catch the bus back to St Georges was down a windy track in a steep river gorge surrounded by magnificent rain forest clinging to impossibly steep cliffs. A couple more buses got us back to Prickly Bay via St Georges after a lovely day out.

On the days we are not out exploring (most days really!) we pretty much like to relax. Of course there always jobs to do on the boat. See the picture of me above. I have no idea how I managed to squeeze in to that space! Its not all sunshine either here in the Caribbean. Now its rainy season and the squalls and rain showers roll through pretty much every day.

Ken and Caroline were having their boat lifted out at the Spice Island boat yard in prickly bay and heading back to the UK to end their sailing adventure for a few months. Before they left, they wanted to explore some more of the little bays on the South end of Grenada. We decided to go along and join them. First stop was the next bay along where we dropped the hook in Petit Calvigny.

As well as numerous evenings on each others boats for the obligatory rum punches, we had a great night out in a very cool place called whisper cove.

A few days later we both moved round the corner to the lovely anchorage called Egmont Cove. This was the first non rolly anchorage we have had in Grenada, a very narrow entrance completely protects it from the sea. The trip round the corner was eventful when we got hit by 30 knot winds and torrential rain. All over in about 5 minutes though!

After a few more days in Egmont Cove we said a sad goodbye to Ken, Caroline and Mitsy on Water Music as they headed back to Prickly Bay to prepare to be lifted. All the best to them for their trip back to the UK and i’m sure we shall meet again, probably somewhere in the Pacific?!

Since then, we have stayed in Egmont Cove. We took a walk over the headland and visited Phare Bleu Marina and had lunch at their excellent restaurant

After lunch we decided to walk off the burgers and visited this unusual light ship moored in the marina

Then we stepped out on a long walk around the Egmont headland where there is a huge amount of building going on of some very impressive millionaires homes. Huge plots of land with bespoke houses, some of them with their own waterfronts and docks.

On another day, we decided to walk back to Whisper cove for lunch. It was a really hot day and we had to walk up and down some really big hills and cut through fields and forest. After all this effort, we found that the place was shut! Luckily there was another place called the Little Dipper just down the road that was open and it was a fantastic local cuisine meal. Really cheap too!

Finally, we cant leave with out mentioning the large number of birthdays that the Pearce family celebrate in June. We wish could have been there to celebrate with Caleb for his 21st and Vinnies 19th. It looks like they had a great time.

A certain someone else celebrated her birthday too. I can’t possibly divulge the age of this person for fear of being thrown overboard. Ken and Caroline couldn’t extract that information either, even after several glasses of wine!

Join us next time as we head towards Trinidad and Tobago!

May 31, 2023June 17, 2023

Decent Beer, Rainforest & Waterfalls

Last time we left you in Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines. This time we sail south again and visit the island(s) of Grenada.

First stop was the Island of Carriacou, where we signed in to the country after dropping the hook in Tyrell Bay.

It felt like a partial return to civilisation after islands of the Grenadines. Tyrell Bay was full of yachts at anchor in front of a long sandy beach with a port at one side and boat yards. The town even had a couple of supermarkets and some nice restaurants that we took advantage of. It wasn’t the most inspiring of places though and maybe we have been a bit spoilt in the Grenadines? We did have a great dinner of red snapper though purchased still barely alive from the local fisherman delivered directly to the boat

We spent a few days here and then decided to move South again down towards the main island of Grenada. Our interest was piqued by the little Ronde Island on the way down and we decided to stop the night in a delightful anchorage.

We took the canoe to the little scrap of beach and landed in the swell and then spent a couple of hours snorkelling off the beach where there was a large reef teeming with fish.

The next day we set sail to Grenada proper. It was a glorious sail across smooth seas and down the west coast of Grenada which is a very dramatic island

We ummed and arred about an anchorage on the west coast but it looked like we would have to take a mooring buoy, so eventually we sailed round the south west corner and dropped the anchor in the attractive Prickly Bay where for the purposes of this post, we have been ever since.

Time to go and explore the local area. First stop, the marvellous discovery of decent beer!!! After a little stroll along the main road in Prickly bay we came across a place we had spotted in the guide book called the West Indian Brewery Company. It had to be investigated further and we were not disappointed!

As you can see, a proper micro brewery was hidden inside and the really friendly staff bent over backwards to make sure you sampled all the delights they had to offer! Real beer at crazy cheap prices is a recipe for success if you ask me and we have spent one or two visits enjoying the delights.

Just round the corner from this is prickly bay marina who have a great restaurant too and the promise of live music. So one Friday night we paid them a visit and enjoyed this steel band

We’ve taken a couple of day trips out on the local buses. They are as ever excellent value as long as you are willing to brave the crazy driving the cramped conditions and the distinct lack of suspension. Also great fun too, but it is sometimes difficult to talk over the large reggae sound system that each bus carries! So we took the bus to go and visit Grenada’s captial St Georges. It was a very vibrant place full of hustle and bustle. The main attraction for Ailsa had to be the Grenada Chocolate Museum and Shop. For me it was the vies of the town as we strolled around.

With our confidence improving, we decided to embark on a longer bus journey to go and explore the mountainous interior of this beautiful island. This time it would involve picking up a second bus from St Georges and working out where to get off to go and visit the Seven Sisters waterfall. We made it relatively easily with a tortuous ride up the mountain, reminiscent but arguably not quite as crazy as our previous St Lucian bus experience. We paid our 5 $EC entrance fee (about £1.50) where given bamboo walking sticks and sent on our way with some brief instructions in to a magical rain forest experience.

The temperature we realised was a much balmier 25 degrees compared to the 30 or so degrees at sea level. So it was a pleasant stroll through the bamboo, navigating our way down some precipitous and slippery steps towards the waterfall (thank goodness for the bamboo walking sticks). The sounds of the birds were pretty raucous and it felt altogether very prehistoric. Finally we came upon a river in the forest and walked up towards the sound of falling water

I couldn’t resist the opportunity for a swim and it was lovely and refreshing although I couldn’t manage to get right in to the falls as the current was quite strong.

We took our time enjoying the falls and then hiked back out to the road. A couple of miles further along and we came to Grand Etang, a crater lake in a volcano that has been extinct for 12000 years, and was now full of goldfish! It let us know we were in a rain forest and started tipping down with rain. So refreshing though in this heat.

We even saw a couple of monkeys in the park!

After the long bus journey(s) back to the boat, we were pretty exhausted, but it was definitely worth the effort.

Join us next time when we explore a bit more of Grenada.

May 12, 2023May 12, 2023

Exploring the Grenadines

Last time we left you, we were still anchored in Bequia, and having such a nice time, we were somewhat reluctant to move on! But move on we must, and actually, there was a huge amount more of the Grenadines waiting to be explored!

The first attempt to leave actually failed miserably. When Ailsa pressed the button to pull up the anchor there was nothing! The windlass was completely inoperable, so engine off, I then spent the next 3 days trying to find and fix the problem. Our windlass is hydraulically driven by a pump that is driven from the engine. Some of you may recall I had already had some issues with the windlass and had to come up with a fix in Martinique. Now it was looking like a more serious problem. Initially I thought damn, we are going to have to head to Grenada, the nearest place with boatyards, and get someone to help us diagnose and fix the hydraulics. It was quite depressing and it looked like we would have to try and get the anchor up by hand. This is something I had done once before in Scotland and it was far from easy. So I set about trying to diagnose the fault myself and learnt a good deal about hydraulics in the process. The pressure in the system actually looked good under load. This had me confused as the windlass was working the last time we used it when we left St Lucia. I could hear fluid flowing through the windlass motor, but there was no resultant movement. It took me three days in the end and I found that the issue was the gearbox again. Basically there was no oil left in it, it was full of dirt and pretty much seized up. So after a dismantle, clean and oil, we were back in business. After three days in the heat stuck in the anchor locker, I was overjoyed when it jumped to life. My celebration was cut short when a big gust of wind blew the door of the locker (heavy!) which proceeded to land on my head!!

They say cruising is doing boat jobs in paradise??? I am definitely starting to understand!

Attempt two to leave was successful, and we were both sad to say goodbye to Bequia. We left the harbour on a downwind sail and got a look at Bequia’s “moonhole”, a bizarre group of houses built in the 1960’s in to the side of the cliffs which have since been abandoned.

It was a gorgeous sail south to the little island of Canouan where we dropped the anchor in what turned out to be the very rolly bay of Charlestown.

We decided not to dwell here, so after an uncomfortable night, we left early the next morning and headed for Tobago Cays. Now this was something else! It is a tiny group of islands south of Canouan which makes up a marine national park. Tobago Cays was made famous by the film Pirates of the Caribbean as one of the islands was where Jack Sparrow got washed up and buried his treasure??

We anchored right in the middle of the islands, pumped up the canoe and set off to explore.

The place is stunningly beautiful, a small group of islands, surrounded and protected from the Atlantic ocean by horseshoe reef. Its hard to describe the colour of the sea here. Hopefully the pictures do it some justice.

The snorkelling was amazing and we had our first ever encounter with Turtles in their natural habitat. Have a look at the video I shot with the GoPro…

We had a lovely day exploring, and that evening we went to the main island for a barbeque of fish and chicken. It was a very cool little place, all set up as an outdoor restaurant. Before we ate we spent some time watching the fish and the spotted rays feeding on the fish scraps being thrown in to the water as the chefs were preparing the food.

We met up with another cruising couple called Caroline and Ken from the UK and Australia. They invited us back to their Catamaran “Water Music” for drinks and we had a lovely evening chatting about their and our adventures so far. A lovely couple and we hope to meet them again as we both cruise south towards Grenada.

It costs a fair bit to stay in Tobago Quays so the next day we moved to the Island of Mayreau which is about 2 miles away and anchored in Troisant Bay off the beach with great views of Union Island. Unfortunately it was another rolly night! So we didn’t actually land on Mayreau but headed for Union Island where we had to check out of St Vincent and the Grenadines within a few days.

Another short but beautiful downwind sail had us dropping the hook in a stunning anchorage called Chatham Bay on the west side of Union Island.

This bay was really sheltered from the swell and with a beautiful colour to the sea, it was like having our own enormous swimming pool.

First order of action was to go for a swim!. We chilled out for the whole day, swimming and snorkelling and watching the rays and fish nibbling on the growth on our chain.

All along the beach is a number of ramshackle bars and throughout the day we were visited by all the proprietors inviting us to visit their bars for the happy hour at sunset. We decided to visit the one recommended by the guide book, Seki and Vanessa’s place. It was very chilled out, drinking rum punch, listening to reggae and watching the sun go down, whilst meeting some of the locals, including Eldon who lived in a shack next door to the bar and had been fishing and living on the beach for the last 40 years!

We were short on cash and there was no ATMs around here other than in Clifton, about 5 miles away. Seki and Vanessa were very relaxed about the whole situation and just trusted us to pay for our drinks the next day after we had chance to get to the bank! We promised we would be back to try out their food too.

The next day we got up early and had a fantastic walk right across the island. It was pretty hot and we had a big climb to get out of the bay, but the view was well worth the effort. We made a new friend too, when one of the local dogs decided to come along for the walk. He followed us for about 3 miles until the heat got too much for the poor chap and he collapsed under a tree in the shade.

Close to Clifton, we walked past some salt flats that claimed to have resident flamingos. We didn’t see any!

Finally, after a 5 mile walk in the heat, we made it to the town. First we had to check out of the country which was pretty painless, then visit the bank and then we went to look for a cold drink. As in often the case, we were accosted by one of the locals, an old guy called Parrot. He insisted that we needed to avoid the local tourist bars and he would take us the locals bar! It was actually very cool. The bar had about 20 people in there, and they looked after us. One guy gave Ailsa a piece of cardboard for her to use as a fan because she looked so hot. Seats were provided at the bar, and we spent to next hour talking to lots of interesting people … the local musician, Bert, Andre the bar owner, and Chris the local “gangster” who was well in to his third rum of the day celebrating his 66th birthday!

We finally managed to extricate ourselves from the bar with promises to return someday, flagged down a local minibus and got a lift back to the top of Chatham Bay Hill. A lot easier than walking.

By mid afternoon we were back on the boat, swimming and relaxing, and then that evening we headed back to Seki and Vanessa’s bar where we were treated to a delicious dinner prepared on the BBQ with the sunset views of the bay. It don’t get much better than this!

We have to say that the Grenadines really are special and well worth a visit if you ever find yourself in this part of the world. The experience was made really special for us by the friendliness of the local people and welcome they gave us everywhere we went.

Join us next time as we sail south to Carriacou and Grenada to continue our windward islands adventure.

May 11, 2023May 11, 2023

Green Flash

So some of you may have heard of this phenomenon? Under the right conditions, when the sun sets (or rises), just as it disappears over the horizon, there is sometimes seen a green flash of light which lasts a couple of seconds. We are sure we have seen a few of these now and Bequia was a great place to observe it. I have been trying to capture it on camera for a while with not much success, but this time I think I might just have got it. Using our Nikon camera I took a fast sequence of shots as the sun set over the horizon

Zoomed in! Ok its blurred, but can you see green????

So why do we get a green flash? Here’s what Wikipedia has to say on the subject …

Green flash occurs because the atmosphere causes the light from the Sun to separate, or refract, into different frequencies. Green flashes are enhanced by mirages, which increase refraction. A green flash is more likely to be seen in stable, clear air, when more of the light from the setting sun reaches the observer without being scattered. One might expect to see a blue flash, since blue light is refracted most of all and the blue component of the sun’s light is therefore the last to disappear below the horizon, but the blue is preferentially scattered out of the line of sight, and the remaining light ends up appearing green.

So there you go, I will keep trying to capture this amazing phenomenon!

April 29, 2023April 29, 2023

More from Bequia

Last time we left you I was celebrating my birthday having just arrived in Bequia. Now we have been here for a few more days let us show you around a bit more of this beautiful Island. Definitely our favourite of the Caribbean islands we have visited (so far!)

Admiral Bay is a gorgeous setting. Steep sided hills around 3 sides and a great view of the sunset from the back of the boat every evening. We decided to the explore some of the Island with a couple of walks. We even tried to get up early to avoid the heat of the day! Not sure we succeeded though, as we move towards summer it is definitely starting to get alot hotter here. Infact as far as the Bequians are concerned, this is almost the end of the season for them, as they wind everything down and shut up at the end of May, and then take the summer off.

The first walk we did was to explore the large hill to the South of Admiralty Bay called Peggy’s Rock

The first part was a nice easy stroll down the road to friendship bay with great views to the south of the island

Then we found the little track that started the climb up to Peggy’s Rock. Things got somewhat tougher! It was hot and the track was steep and rocky. It was quite a slog to get to the top.

However, it was well worth the effort. The view from the top looking in all directions was spectacular. We spent a good 30 minutes catching our breath and cooling down.

Arguably it was even harder getting down! The path made its way down a treacherous old river bed at an alarming angle which involved a good deal of navigation on our behinds. Finally we hit a concrete road that dropped us to Lower Beach and the chance to cool off in the crystal clear waters! Also, a great lunch stop at “Da Reef” bar for a well earned burger.

We pretty much collapsed on our return to the boat and needed about 2 days to recover!

The sunsets here are really spectacular. Here is a flavour. We get this every night as entertainment as we sit and eat dinner on the back deck.

We decided to risk another walk, this time towards the North end of the Island, a loop that would take us on to the top of the hill and out to Spring Bay hopefully for another swim at, this time on one of the windward beaches that faces the power of the Atlantic.

The start of the walk was a long climb out of Port Elizabeth up past some very fancy houses. Bequia has another side to it, playground of the rich. We were rewarded with some nice views on the way up and at the top. Here we are looking out over the west coast of Bequia and North towards St Vincent.

After reaching the top, the path followed the road steeply down towards Spring Bay beach, past some seriously nice millionaires villas.

Finally we arrived at Spring Bay and were definitely ready for a swim, but we were sadly disappointed, the beach which should have been fantastic was piled high with rotting Sargasso weed. This has been very prevalent in the Caribbean this year, and piles up on the windward beaches. The smell I’m informed was pretty bad. I guess losing my sense of smell over a year ago was an advantage today

We headed back along the road, and finally dropped back in to Port Elizabeth for a well earned lunch at Maria’s café which is on the sea front looking out over Admiral Bay

We’ve had a couple of nights out at a lovely restaurant on the bay with its own dinghy dock called the Fig Tree. The staff there are incredibly friendly. Infact, everyone in Bequia is incredibly friendly, no hassle and really genuine. They really welcome yachties here. If you get the chance, a very cool place to go on holiday too.

Join us next time as we sail south again and go and explore some more of the Grenadine Islands.

April 15, 2023April 15, 2023

Bequia Birthday!

Last time we left you we were in the Rodney Bay in St Lucia. In this post we explore St Lucia a little more, make some new friends, and sail south to the beautiful island of Bequia, one the Grenadines in the country of St Vincent and the Grenadines.

So we met some lovely people in the last two weeks. In Rodney Bay we were anchored next to a striking boat called Endorphin Beta, a Moody 54. We had been there a couple of days, and Colin came over to introduce himself. We invited him over to Azimuth for a sunset beer that evening and I think its safe to say we all got on very well! Dr Colin Porteous, a retired surgeon from Scotland is a character for sure. Colin and his wife Izzi had just completed their 10 year circumnavigation by sail. Congratulations to them on this amazing achievement! Izzi had flown back to Germany to visit their new grandchild who had been born whilst they were sailing from South Africa to the Caribbean.

We had several lovely evenings with Colin during our stay in Rodney Bay and got to hear many of the stories of their travels around the world. Very inspirational stuff for us as we settle in to our own journey. By all accounts, the things ahead of us sound truly amazing and we look forward to what is to come!

Later in our stay in Rodney Bay, some more friends of Colin arrived on their boat Maia, They had met each other in South Africa. We had a lovely evening together. Laura and Dick had also nearly completed their circumnavigation. They were headed North up the East Coast of America. We hope to keep in touch and maybe our paths will cross again! Laura and Dick have complete a mammoth sail over the last nine months, all the way from Queensland in Australia to the Caribbean!

We wish Colin fair winds as he travels back to Scotland across the Atlantic in the next couple of months. Fair winds to Laura and Dick too on their passage up to the USA.

Whilst we were in St Lucia, we celebrated our 23rd Wedding Anniversary with lunch in a nice restaurant next to the marina.

So we had one other adventure of note whilst on St Lucia and that was a visit by local minibus to visit the little town of Soufriere nestled beneath the volcanoes (the Pitons) on the South end of the Island. We set off from the marina dock early, unsure of the logistics of the local buses. As soon as we arrived at the bus stop, a local minibus was already picking up other people and whisked us off the capital of St Lucia, the bustling town of Castries. So far so good, and extremely cheap too. We negotiated our way through the bustling market place, with mountains of tempting fresh fruits and veggies and found the back street where you catch the bus for the next leg to Soufriere. There were two seats left, which we squeezed ourselves in to with the other locals and off we went. The next hour and a half was exhilarating indeed! The road winds its way up and down the steep precipitous mountains with tortuous hairpins. We clung on for dear life as the driver of the bus drove like a rally driver, taking the hairpins at speed with the tyres squealing, performing overtaking manoeuvres on impossible sections of roads that would have impressed any rally driver, whilst the engine screamed for mercy! Looking about the van, the rest of the passengers didn’t seem to think anything of it, just another day on the bus?! But oh the views were something else, the jungle would suddenly give way to spectacular panoramas as we hit the next summit, and we would drop in to pretty bays and seaside towns at the bottom of steep ravines. Still it was nice to arrive at our destination! it was already lunchtime when we arrived and the last bus was leaving again for Castries at 4 that afternoon. So we took a few hours to have lunch at a local restaurant and explore the local area. We made it to the Diamond Falls botanical gardens which boasts volcanic rock pools for bathing only to find it was cash only and we didn’t have enough money, doh! Still it was worth the effort to see the rest of the town before boarding the crazy bus to get back to Rodney Bay!

In total we were in St Lucia for over two weeks. Our friends were moving on, and we felt the same urge too. So we planned our next sail to head to St Vincent and the Grenadines. We had heard some bad things about crime and hassle in St Vincent, so we decided to skip that Island and head straight for the Grenadines instead. We left at 5 in the morning to allow us enough time to sail the 72 miles south and reach the island of Bequia just before it got dark.

It was a lovely sail with a bit of motoring to get through the lulls down the sides of St Lucia and St Vincent. We arrived just before dark and dropped the hook in Admiral Bay in Bequia. The next day it was my birthday!! What a place to spend it…. first impressions of Bequia was that this place is stunning…. We woke early and checked in to the country and then headed for a walk down the St Margaret Trail to see the local beaches

We had passed some great bars and restaurants on our walk so we headed back for a birthday lunch at Mac’s Pizza Kitchen. Oh and a couple of cocktails ….

After that it got a bit silly…. the rum punch was flowing a little too easily at the “Whalebone” Bar. We had a great afternoon and met some cool people.

One cocktail too many I think, but somehow we still managed to stumble back to town, board the dinghy and head back to the boat via the anchorages floating bar! Once there we realised Ailsa had left her phone in the previous place …. doh! Amazingly it was still there when we zipped back to their dock in the dinghy. Back to Azimuth where we pretty much collapsed for the evening! All in all a pretty perfect birthday I would say?

We are looking forward to exploring more of this island, so join us next time!

April 2, 2023April 2, 2023

Fixing Stuff, Resupply and South to St Lucia

Last time we updated you on our journey we were enjoying the Carnival experience in Fort de France in Martinique. In this update, we move the boat to the south of Martinique to Le Marin and then head south to St Lucia, the next of the Windward Islands.

We took a couple of days to recover from the Carnival! It was a great experience, and hopefully something we will get to do again in other parts of the Caribbean.

So we pulled up the anchor and sailed south towards the port of Le Marin. This port is well known as being one of the best places to get things fixed on your boat in the Caribbean, and we definitely had some stuff to fix. It was almost as if Azimuth knew this, and as we rounded Diamond Rock for the final leg in to Le Marin, hard on the wind, there was a bang from the top of the mast as the Genoa sail head webbing snapped and the sail started to fall down! Fortunately it didn’t fall too quickly and we were able to the furl it away before disaster struck. On with the engine to get us the last 5 miles in to the bay.

Le Marin is a bewildering place. It’s a very protected anchorage which is rammed to full with yachts! We estimated there must have been a 1000 yachts at anchor or on moorings, as well as a huge marina. We squeezed ourselves in to a spot quite far out from the shore as there was not a lot of room and further in all the boats are on moorings. You also have to avoid the many shallow reefs that litter the bay, as well as the many boat wrecks that also seem to be prevalent!

Someone climbing on one of the many wrecks in Le Marin!

Marin certainly did have lots of places to get work done on your boat as well as numerous chandleries, restaurants, shops and supermarkets. We navigated our way around the various districts and started to make lists of all the stuff we needed. First job was to get the sail repaired. We had been keeping the Genoa going all season, but the UV strip had been getting more and more frayed, and now with the failure of the webbing at the head, it was time to get it properly fixed. There are at least 3 sail lofts in Marin. All of them were complaining of being stupidly busy. Eventually we agreed to get it fixed with North Sails, but we were going to have to wait 4 weeks to get it done!

Oh well, plenty of other things to do right?! One of the biggest issues apart from the sail was our anchor windlass. It had been sounding pretty bad of late, and also after a particularly difficult anchorage where we got the anchor stuck under a rock, and another where our anchored snagged a chain, the whole assembly felt loose and at an alarming angle! I almost dreaded opening the locker and taking a look. A new windlass would be very expensive. The prognosis didn’t look good! Under our windlass their is a heavy duty wormgear gearbox that bridges the connection between the hydraulic motor and the windlass shaft. This gear box is made of cast aluminium, and the flange that held the gearbox in place underneath the windlass had literally corroded completely away! All 4 mounting points had failed, leaving the gear box hanging on the shaft and free to rotate and presumably eventually fall off. Not a great situation. The windlass has to deal with a huge amount of force to lift the anchor up. There was no chance of finding a replacement, and in fact, the actual gearbox itself was still working fine, it was just the mounting points that had failed. Time to make a plan. I decided to build a metal frame around the whole assembly that would hold the gearbox firmly in place using the original mounting bolts. A trip to the town, and in my our best French, we managed to purchase lengths of M12 threaded A4 rod, nuts and washers. A visit to a metal basher followed where we ordered the lengths of aluminium bar for the frame which was duly cut to size and delivered a few days later. Three days of fabrication, sweat and cursing, mostly drilling holes and climbing in and out of the anchor locker later, I had the frame finished and assembled. The whole gearbox is now solidly held in place, and the whole thing worked pleasingly well when it came to pulling up the anchor after it had sunk in to the mud for a month when we finally left Marin.

Fingers and toes crossed this fix will last a good while. Total cost about £150 quid instead of 10 grand for a new windlass!

So we didn’t actually do a lot in the four weeks we were waiting for the sail to be repaired. Money is a bit tight so we only went out a couple of times. Most of the days passed relaxing. Ailsa rediscovered her talent for writing. I spent a lot of time reading. We made more trips to supermarkets than I would care to mention to restock the stores on Azimuth. The leader price supermarket was great with its own dinghy dock, and where you could push your loaded trolley all the way to the waters edge and transfer your shopping straight in to your dinghy! An absolute godsend for all that heavy stuff you really don’t want to lug in the heat. We managed to get lots of stuff sorted. New outdoor lights for the back deck. A monthly phone contract with Digicel that covers the entire Caribbean, all negotiated in French! Oh and the purchase of the numerous weird and obscure parts that you never knew would break on various parts of the boat.

We grew to actually really quite like Le Marin, and it felt sad to leave.

Finally the day came, we collected our sail from North Sails. They delivered exactly on the day they said they would (does that ever happen with marine contractors????). We got the sail back to the boat and hoisted it in a rare lull in the wind. It looks great!!!

But leave we must! It was nearly the end of March. I don’t think either of us thought that we would be in Martinique for over 3 months (with a return to the UK for good measure)

It was a lovely sail south to St Lucia. A short hop of 21 Nautical Miles across the gap between the two. A beam reach too, up to 25 knots, and a good Atlantic swell. We were followed almost the entire way by a flock of birds picking up the flying fish as Azimuth’s bow disturbed them in the waves. It felt great to be back out sailing again after over a month!

We arrived in St Lucia at Rodney Bay. A huge sweeping bay that is very protected in the North by Pigeon Island. Not many boats at anchor here either, so no problem finding somewhere to anchor in the middle.

There is a lagoon at the back of Rodney Bay which can be accessed through a narrow channel, and inside is a little haven of beautifully manicured buildings, a marina and shopping district. So we checked in to the country and went to explore.

So far we have had some very pretty sunsets here too. The bay looks out to the west and the wind always blows from the East, so in the evening we sit on the back deck, drinking a mojito or too and watch the sunset

We took a visit to Pigeon Island the other day and it turned out to be a fantastic day, well worth the effort of the climb to the top of the peaks. Pigeon Island was where Admiral Rodney built a fort to spy on the French in Martinique. Its the perfect vantage point. You would be able to see them coming from miles away and prepare for any attack!

We had a great afternoon walking round the park, see the ruins and the fort and taking in the breath taking views

We ended up at a very cool little bar restaurant for an obligatory cocktail before heading back to the boat. They made their chairs and tables from old ships wheels and drift wood!

Join us again next time as we explore more of St Lucia!