As long as we
constantly checked the weather, we were pretty comfortable continuing
to visit the islands we wanted to back down the chain despite it
being late in the season. My condition was that we got back to
Grenada in time for Carnival! Weather dependent when leaving Statia
we wanted to re-visit Dominica, Bequia, Tobago Cays, Union Island and
Carriacou before arriving in Grenada. Worked out well as we were
rewarded with quieter anchorages and a more local feel to the islands
now the majority of the cruisers and tourists have gone.
Dominica is
still one of our favourite islands we have visited so we went to both
of the anchorages, Portsmouth and Roseau. When entering Portsmouth,
rather than seeing the bay rammed with boats like when we were there
this April, we were one of only 2 others! Spoilt for choice on our
anchoring spot we dropped the pick near to shore in the hope of
picking up free internet signal. But alas no
cruisers means no wireless it would seem. The boat boys still as
friendly as ever, were a little more desperate for business. We
bought a few things to help them out as we have a lot of respect for
the Dominica boat boys who do not harass yachties and in season put
on a great show every sunday with a loaded BBQ.
We
go for a wander into Portsmouth town and bump into a local boy
on a bike who tells us its his 13th birthday. He then
proceeds to ask for my sunglasses as a birthday present! Erm no, he
won't be getting my ray bans despite how much he may like them. He
continues to follow us into town stopping us every so often to ask
for my sunglasses. Finally we get through to him that he won't be
receiving my glasses and he sulks off.
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| Trying to get a 2 day old kitten to come to me |
A couple of vendors were out on the
street selling their wares from the road side. We bought a fruit we
hadn't seen before called 'ganepas' – although they pronounced it
'canip'. Its a small green fruit, you make a hole in the skin with
your teeth and then suck out the inside. Its similar consistency to
lychee but tastes sweet and creamy. May make an interesting smoothie
if you could squeeze enough of them!
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| Ganepas |
Keen
to keep moving, the next day we headed to the south of the island,
Roseau. Its steep to in this bay and most people pick up a mooring
ball but with it being off season, most of the balls had been
winterised leaving only plastic bottles to mark the location. We
puttered about trying to find a spot sub 50ft and eventually found
one. Roseau to me means cheap fruit and veg so we wasted no time
rigging the dinghy and going to the market. We tried 2 new items from
here, a sapote and toloman. Sapote is a brown fruit that tastes like
perfume – I won't be buying that again. Toloman is powdered
arrowroot and acts like a thickner. When we got back to the boat we
tried it to make porridge and boy does it thicken! Only 2 teaspoons
turns water /milk into a thick thick paste. Doesn't have any flavour
so I'd liken it to cornstarch.
Back in Roseau, we got hungry so went
to check out a local place to eat. Passing Itala we saw it packed
with locals, a great indicator that it must be a good place to go. I
ordered a 'chicken dinner' and Dylan was going to order a fish until
he saw that it was fish heads and opted for chicken too. Even he
isn't that adventurous. Wow it was a lot of food, packed with
chicken, rice, spaghetti, breadfruit, plantain, baby banana and salad
– I waddled around afterwards with a massive food baby. As we sat
eating our lunch a local came over with one arm and started chatting
to us and telling us his sob story. We rarely give money to tramps
but as we wanted to eat our lunch and not be put off – we gave him
5EC and he went on his merry way.
Next passage was
an overnight sail to Bequia. On the way we managed to lose another 2
lures, one to a big strike that got away and another to the wind
gen...That takes our total loss to 4 now, we must buy better traces!
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| Raising flag for SVG |
Whilst
ashore in Bequia we wandered down the back roads and came across a
guy selling lettuce in his garden. This was Dennis the Lettuce
man. He actually cuts them straight from his raised lettuce beds and
bags them for you. Costs you $5 EC per head (we had a bunch of young
leaves instead). His 3 year old son raced around the garden with a
spade and proceeded to blow me kisses. Dylan on the other hand
received zap signs which the little guy and Dad thought to be a grand
joke with much hearty laughter shared between father and son.
On the way back to Orion we stopped in
at the book swap in Porthole restaurant and met Bequia's local
grinch. A surly old bat who did not subscribe to a customer service
mantra. But we got some interesting books though to restock the
library. Dylan was pleased with his haul until I bagged them all,
sprayed them with baygon and relegated them to the cockpit for
quarantine.
Dylans note: God knows when I
will be able to read any and when I do the fumes may force me to
succumb
From Bequia we
headed down the Grenadine island chain to Mayreau with the intention
of going to Salt Whistle Bay. When approaching though we saw that the
bay was rammed so we gave it a miss and headed for one of our
favourite spots, Tobago Cays. A lot quieter than when we were last
there, we anchored right near the turtle area. Snorkelling was made
very interesting with the strong current that we had to swim against,
as I jumped into the water and was busy putting my fins on, I was
pushed about 2 boat lengths away from Orion. Sleeping was also
difficult as the water had a chop on it and the wind howled through.
A small price to pay though for 2 days in paradise.
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| View from the galley |
Never letting us down, Tobago Cays
sealife was great. As I dived down to bed the anchor, a trunk fish
greeted me and showed me where to find it, even blowing the sand off
to reveal the shiny metal below. How very friendly of him! Once I had
finished playing with the little guy, I turned around to see a ray
swimming by with its followers of 2 fish. The area we were anchored
in was teaming with turtles. On one snorkel we came across a bale of
6 turtles looking like they were having a meeting that we
inconveniently broke up. Just a few yards away we saw 2 moray eels
having a squabble over who was going to live in an abandoned conch
shell. The bigger one won and the smaller one remained a safe
distance away scowling at us, trying to make up for the fact it had
just been beaten.
At the far end of Chatham Bay is Aqua,
a posh looking bar and boutique. They have thatched roofs but we were
most put out when we touched them and realised it was plastic! In the
dark it looked most convincing. Dylan tested out his rock climbing
skills and then I ushered him back to the shack as we had decided to
have their combi BBQ – conch, fish and chicken. The meal was
amazing, table was piled with barracuda, conch in some yummy sauce,
chicken drumsticks, garlic potatoes, baby banana, rice, coleslaw
salad. We were stuffed by the end of it. On the table next to us was
a huge family of white Barbadians with a funny rhasta accent!! Dylan
made his usual cringe comment, asking them whereabouts they were from
in the US! Only Dylan can get accents so terribly wrong, this is the
same guy that asks Irish people where they are from in Scotland!
As Dylan rowed back to the boat and I
eased the waistband on my dress (food baby), we were navigating in
the dark, with no torch and no moon. As each oar stroke hit the
water, a cloud of phosphorescence glowed beneath us. It gave the
impression that we were throwing out magic fairy dust as we inched
towards Orion.
Early the next morning we were hailed
by one of the Barbadians in a dinghy. Turns out he went for a morning
fish, caught a barracuda and Spanish mackerel and had come to give us
one. Such nice people we of course accepted and ate very well that
evening.
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| Land ahoy! |
Next stop, Frigate
Island, another spot we hadn't checked out when going up the chain
earlier this year. A lovely anchorage nestled in the lee of the
island and close to the sleepy town of Ashton. We were treated again
to the place all to ourselves. Needing to clear out of SVG we took
the dinghy ashore to Ashton and walked to the customs office in
Clifton (the only other town on Union Island). A boiling hot day we
shadow hopped under the trees along the road as we commenced the
walk, checking out the great views out to sea. Locals were very
friendly stopping and saying 'afternoon' every time we passed. The
shops in Ashton were plentiful but had almost bare shelves. We walked
into a store in search of ginger and were greeted with naked shelves
apart from a few bottles of Clorox, bags of nuts and a cooler full of
local fruit juice. This seemed to be the case for the other shops
too, rather than feeling frustrated at not being able to get what was
on the list, I lapped it up. How bizarre, it certainly makes you
wonder how these people get by when they have such little stock on
sale. In one shop as I was scratching my head, a song from Adele came
on. It seems even in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere, the
British music industry can still reach it!
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| View from Ashton out to Frigate |
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| Town of Ashton |
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| Orion near Frigate Island |
Almost at Grenada now, we made one stop
in Carriacou to clear in before reaching our destination.
As always seems to be the case with us,
we reached the customs office just as they decided to break for
lunch...so we did too. We sought out the roti place that we
frequented last time we were here but I made the mistake of not
asking for boneless chicken so had an awful time chewing on gristle
and spitting out bone. Don't think I could ever get used to that,
it's enough to turn me vegetarian where as Dylan is in his element,
sucking the bones until every piece of meat is digested. Bleurgh.
From Hillsborough (the capital of
Carriacou) we motored across to Sandy Island and found the best reefs
so far in the Caribbean. BVIs are definitely the best for sea life
but here, the reefs were amazing. A marine protected area, all boats
have to pick up a free mooring ball. The island was too far to swim
to so we got in the dinghy and went to the east side for some
snorkelling. One of my fins broke when swimming against the strong
current here so I started to lose the battle and headed back to the
dinghy. Typically, the only time I wimp out early, Dylan spots a 2ft
nurse shark! Intent on not missing out, we take the dinghy over to
where he spotted it but alas it had finished it nap and disappeared.
Not keen to stay overnight in the
unprotected area of Sandy Island, we slipped our mooring for the
second time that day and sailed around the headland to Tyrell Bay,
anchoring near shore to pick up the free internet. This bay was even
busier than we saw it in high season, with many boats opting to
hurricane here due to the nearby mangroves.
Dinghying to shore we went in search of
Venus aka crazy shack lady that we had met back in February. This
lady sells fruit and veg from a shack at the bottom of her garden. We
found her 'liming' with a competitor. She remembered us and took us
back to her shack where she proceeded to sell us custard apples,
mangoes and a coconut. She is totally in love with Dylan and
continually calls him 'baby' and tells him 'you make me fall down'
(meaning you make me laugh). Venus had a new wig but wouldn't let us
take her photo making us promise that we would return and go for a
walk to the beach so we could snap her in her bikini instead! Scary!
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| Looking for Venus |
With only a couple of days to go until
Carnival we made our final island jump to Grenada, catching a decent
sized black fin tuna on the way. Now all we need to do to prepare for
Monday Night Mas is pick up our Carib packs and get out the glow
sticks!
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| Black fin tuna |
