Grenada Island Tour

We had been in Grenada for a couple of weeks now but yet to go on the infamous island tour done by a local guy called Cutty. With another cruiser organising a bus, we jumped at the chance of getting someone else to deal with the admin and eagerly awaited our pick up time of 9am.

I was all intent on wearing a dress until Dylan told me we would be doing a lot of walking so I decked out in shorts and tevas, totally unnecessary in hindsight!

There was an interesting mix of people on the bus with us. A couple with an adorable 3 year old daughter, an overly flirtatious Texan woman who insisted on sitting next to the bus driver and “whispering” in his ear. In summary, all Americans and us the token Brit and Saffa. Cutty was a really informative tour guide explaining the days route and stopping points of interest. 

We made regular stops en route to our first destination to sample or review the various native fruits and flowers. All the while Cutty explaining the medicinal properties or what it is used for. The first thing we learnt about was a Noni. A white waxy fruit that smells like ass. The juice is used as a health drink to boost the immune system. To get the juice, you have to let the fruit “ferment” in a glass and you drink whatever oozes out of it. Needless to say we did not try it or bring one home yet we were assured they are all the rage in health shops.

To counteract the pungent smell left in our nostrils we were then shown ylang ylang, honeysuckle smelling leaves used in perfume. Much better!

Eoucou

As with most of the Caribbean islands we have visited, the chinese have arrived. On Grenada they rebuilt the cricket stadium after Hurricane Ivan knocked the old one down. To thank the Chinese, the Grenadians had a big ceremony and then played the Taiwanese national anthem. Chuckle chuckle. We also looked down on the prison (figuratively and literally) which is in an old fort, where we heard about 5 British people being held there. All (surprise surprise) being held for drug smuggling. Further down the road, the Grenada police force band has its own building for it to practise in. We did not notice many houses adjacent...a bad sign? On the same road we passed a Coca Coca bottling factory, no wonder this soft drink is cheap over here!

Cocoa pod

There were many many fruits, herbs and veggies that Cutty pointed out but I shall only mention the more quirky ones. EouCou are a funny looking red soft spikey flower that locals use for red lipstick, colouring and nail polish. Basically it stains the hell out of everything a kind of reddish colour. I have a bunch sitting in a vase in our saloon, pretty looking flower decorations. Not all fresh produce is in abundance though, the hurricane destroyed 90% of the nutmeg trees. We drove past many abandoned nutmeg processing plants. Sad to think of the loss of an entire industry after a day or two of severe weather. Grenada was apparently 3rd largest producer of nutmeg in the world prior to Ivan.

Eoucou

We stopped off at an old plantation where we sniffed, prodded and tasted cocoa, golden apples, tumeric (good for fighting skin cancer – but then again most things that Cutty pointed out were apparently “good for fighting cancer”), nutmeg and mace, rockfig (like a banana), cloves, cinnamon bark (which we chewed and was very cinnamony), lemongrass, allspice berries and soursop (anti cancerous and they export it to the US). Just before we got back in the taxi, we were shown “Sleeping Beauty”, a grass like plant who's leaves curl up at the faintest touch. Apparently slave owners would plant this around the slave quarters to see any tracks of escaping slaves. I spent a good 5 mins touching these leaves, rather therapeutic!

Our first official stop was Annandale Falls. Most people decided not to swim, but we did. Why on earth would we pass up on the chance of wallowing in fresh water?? Leaping into the pool we swam under the waterfall and were stung on the head by the falling water from 30ft above us. Feeling like I hadn't bought any souvenirs for a while, I purchased a spice necklace, loaded with the spices we had previously been sniffing and prodding in the plantation. It now has pride of place hanging in our boat, giving off a wonderful fragrance of cinnamon and bay leaves.

Next on the agenda was the cocoa processing plant. We were just in time to see the farmers bring their buckets of cocoa beans to sell. They received about $18 EC for a bucket. Seems like a lot of hard work for £4! Interestingly they still use the old method of drying the cocoa in the sun on these enormous drying racks placed on narrow gauge tracks. If it starts to rain the racks are hauled under cover. The cocoa is still placed in hessian sacks and probably hand sewn shut for the trip abroad to be processed into cocoa power / chocolate. 

We drove to a stop off point where Cutty honked his horn a few times and out popped a pair of male monkeys. Here Cutty held bananas out for them and they would leap on people in order to get them. So perched on someones shoulder, they would then endure stroking by admirers while they ate their bananas. Great to have your photo taken with a monkey on your shoulder, until it decides to have a pee on you! Luckily I didn't get the pee but I did have a monkey shove his hand in my eye, they were so tame! Apparently Cutty was the only person that came to feed them when hurricane Ivan tore down their usual feeding habitat so now they even recognise the sound of his engine!

Off to Rivers Rum Distillery next where we had lunch. Fairly average lunch for the $35EC's /pp we were charged. This distillery is one of the only still using a traditional water wheel to drive the mechanism to crush the sugar cane. Huge mounds of cane stalks litter the distillery and Dylan couldn't resist climbing up one. It is a very impressive sight to see the waterwheel in action crushing the cane. We toured the premises with a lovely lady providing the tour that she had done a thousand times and had long ago lost interest in both the tour and the patrons. Sampling the rum was an experience not to be missed. The rum produced is specifically for the local market. It is all white rum and at 75% alcohol content is enough to use as cooking fuel if ever needed. Drinking it should come with a number of health warnings. The mere fact you are not allowed to fly with a bottle of the stuff should be warning enough. It tasted terrible and smelt like nail polish remover. It had a numbing effect on ones mouth and would probably make a good substitute for rubbing alcohol in a pinch.

Suitably fed and watered we headed back to our boats, stopping at a crater lake on the way where we saw a mongoose run in front of us. A fantastic tour that we would whole heartedly recommend!

Get Stuffed!

We thought we could manage with the steadily increasing drip of the stuffing box. 

Until we were emptying the bilge multiple times a day and the drip had become a trickle and was threatening to become something else sooner rather than later.

We were literally sinking at anchor. 

Our aim was to hold out until we next hauled out. We were a bit wary of anything that requires work on holes in the yacht while water desperately tries to invite itself onboard.  

Once we realised that it was A) too expensive to haul out just to do a packing replacement and B) it would not last the next 3 months until we planned to haul, we decided to bite the bullet and replace the packing while in the water.

We made sure we did it on a week day and in close proximity to the local haul out in Prickly Bay (Grenada). Just in case!

All a bit daunting as i had never replaced packing let alone in the water!

Tools used: 

Grease 

Rags

Packing (over 1 ft for a 1 inch shaft)

Cable ties

Screwdriver

Pool Noodle (or something to hold the rags in place)

2 x Large pipe wrenches

Packing removal tool

Stanley Knife

Duct tape 

What we did:

First, we needed to block the stern gland to prevent water from coming in while we were working

Step 1:Tear a rag into strips and coated them liberally with grease.

Step 2: Dive down and wrap the grease coated rags around the propshaft and jam them into the gap between the hull and the shaft. I did 3 separate strips and only wrapped one all the way around the shaft. The other two were used to stuff the gap above the shaft. The rags were pushed in with a screwdriver. Check that the water is no longer coming in. This can be done by loosening the stuffing box housing.

Step 3: I then cut an end off a "pool noodle" and placed it around the shaft. Securing it in place with 2 cable ties. This would hopefully keep the greased rags in place for the duration of the work. It was probably unnecessary in hindsight as the rags were in there good and proper, however I am a "belt and braces" type of guy. I also wrapped some duct tape around it too. Overkill maybe.

Step 4: You should have an idea as to the correct size of packing that your boat needs. If not buy a few other sizes. (It is cheap enough). Our Tartan 37 with a 1 inch prop shaft takes a 1/4 inch packing. This i found out from reading various forums. But some people had used 3/16 inch so i bought 2 feet of it just in case. While you have a bit of the shaft exposed between the coupling on the gear box and the stuffing box, wrap the packing around the shaft more and then using a sharp Stanley knife (Boxcutter, craft knife) cut the packing. You should get 3 strips just the right size.

Step 5: Open up the the stuffing box using large monkey wrenches or spanners (if you have the right sizes). Do it carefully to test for any water dripping out. It is not a catastrophe if you do have some water leaking as you are not trying to place the packing in the area with the water flow.

Step 6: Remove the old packing. I had a packing removal tool that looked like a cork screw. You could probably use a cork screw or a piece of wire with a hooked end.

Step 7: This was probably the hardest part. Trying to clean out all the old packing from the housing. The 3 main pieces came out but there was all sorts of bits stuck in there. If i had to do it over I would try have a spray can of compressed air and a thin long nozzle to blow into the housing to clear it of left over material. I used the packing removal tool and removed most of it.

Step 8: I inserted the first piece of packing and scratched a line on the bronze housing where the join between the two ends was. I then tightened up the nut and this forced the packing to the end of the nut in an even manner. (i.e. if i had tried to do it with a screwdriver i would have ended up pushing in one side then the other etc.). I reopened the stuffing box and placed the next piece of packing in and ensured that this was 120 degrees or so from where the first packing split was. Another mark on the housing and I tightened it up to press it in. To do the final one I reopened the housing, added the last piece of packing and ensured that the join was mid way between the other two marks on the nut and then tighten it up.

Step 9: A big one is to only HAND TIGHTEN the stuffing box. Tighten it up as much as possible to make sure it is as water tight as possible.

Step 10: Remove the greased rags one at a time. I had my partner keeping an eye on the the coupling as i removed each rag. After the second rag was removed, there was a drip happening every two seconds. I HAND TIGHTENED the nut a little more until it stopped dripping and went back in the water to remove the final rag.

Step 11: Test run the engine at anchor or in the marina by putting it astern (if on anchor) and tighten or slack off the nut until you get a bit of a drip when the shaft is turning. Better yet take your boat out and run the engine at your normal revs and adjust the stuffing box until you get the required drip. It should not (preferably) drip while at rest (read engine off). It may drip in neutral due to the vibration of the shaft in the stuffing box.

Warnings: If you over tighten the stuffing box, you introduce a lot of friction. The result will be more work for the engine and more heat applied to the packing and the stuffing box. 

If you over tighten the packing, it also has a tendency to harden and can then score your prop shaft with a groove. So change your packing rather than keep tightening!

A look back at the Eastern Caribbean

Over the last 6 months, we visited most of the Eastern Caribbean islands all the way to Puerto Rico. Along the way we learnt some useful tips and tricks that may just come in handy for other cruisers following a similar route.

Admittedly we did not go to Trinidad so cannot comment about their services. We also didn't hike every island, see every beach, buy every trinket but here are a few of our musings based on what we saw.

1. Communities. Grenada has the best cruisers network in the Caribbean in our opinion. St Martin a close second. There are loads of yachties who seem to live in Grenada. There is always loads to do too. Everything from cooking classes to hashes (think of them as fun runs in interesting places) to BBQ's and cruiser specials. 

2. Stocking up. There are a variety of places to go to do this. Of course, Walmart in Puerto Rico is good for some bulk shopping, however certain items (funnily enough) you will find cheaper in other places. For instance, tinned tomatoes were really cheap in the main supermarket in Jolly Harbour (Antigua). Walmart / Cost Co are fairly cheap, but lacks a wide range of products and not everyone is interested in going all the way to Puerto Rico just to stock up. Grenada has some decent stores (CK Value) and reasonable prices as does St Martin (Grande Marche).

3. Booze. St Martin was probably the cheapest place for imported booze. Recommend stocking up if you happen to have a weakness for russian vodka, gin, whiskey etc. If you are like me and happy to slurp Caribbean rum, then find a place with decent tasting rum (at a decent price) and stock up there. Every island makes their own rum but for me, Grenadian rum is tops from a price and quality perspective. Westerhall or Clarks Court are good rums and at $7 USD a bottle not bad value!

4. Best snorkelling. An interesting one this as the usual caveat ensues (it depends…). We found a lovely reef off of Carriacou (Grenada) at Sandy Island. Loads of fans, brain corral etc. But I am a fish person and for fish of decent size, I really loved the BVI's.

5. Best fishing. Without a doubt the Virgin Islands (US and British and Spanish). We once had 3 takes in a single day passage of 8 hours. Fantastic fishing. You only have to count the amount of pleasure fishing boats in Puerto Rico to realise how big an industry it is and that there must be loads out there to catch.

6. Best sailing. British Virgin Islands and the Grenadines (St Vincent & the Grenadines). You can see why charter companies operate out of these two areas. One could spend a few months in the BVI's just pottering around and going from anchorage to anchorage. Planned well, no sail would take longer than a few hours before you are swinging on a mooring enjoying a cocktail (if you are a charterer). 

7. Best diving. I think that every island in the chain has dive schools and something to offer. We did not do enough diving to provide a well rounded opinion on diving in the caribbean other than to say that most dive schools have interesting dives to offer. We dived on the RMS Rhone in the BVI's and loved it.

8. Best fruit and veg. This had to be Roseau (Dominica). The market there was so well priced that it topped our list. We paid very little for fantastic fruit and veggies. The ladies that run the stalls are also really enthusiastic to tell you recipes and consult on how to cook certain unknown veggies. 

9. Best treat. For us, it had to be a Soursop (type of Caribbean fruit) smoothie from Spice Island Mall (Grenada) from a place called Native Food and Fruits. Cost is about $3 USD for a smoothie but boy is it worth it. They do all sorts, but that is our best.

10. Most relaxing. Tobago Cays. Surrounded by turtles and rays in clear shallow water. It is a great place to chill out for a few days. Charterer's love it for the same reason so it is popular year round, but out of season it is definitely much quieter.

11. Best local vibe. Montserrat closely followed by Dominica. We loved the locals of Montserrat, a country of hand waving people so willing to help you. They all stop and say 'morning' or 'afternoon' when they pass or get on a bus. Dominica is very similar.

12. Best boat boys. Dominica - Portsmouth. These guys have sorted themselves out with an actual authority keeping things organised. The boat boys don't hassle, they actually offer proper services and at a decent price. 

13. Best hiking. Dominica. This island has a well marked trail covering the whole island from coast to coast with segments able to be accomplished within a day. There are guides available, its rustic and takes you right into the heart of the local villages and forests.

14. Best beaches. Barbuda (part of Antigua). The beaches here are a pink colour from the coral and gorgeous long sandy deserted strips with coconut palms lining the shore.

15. Best shell collecting. Dog Island - Anguilla. The shallows of this small island are teaming with deserted shells of a decent size.

16. Best souvenirs. St Lucia. Where else do dread locked rhastafarians paddle out on a beaten up kayak to sell hand carved calabash and regale you with stories of Jah.

Grenada Carnival

We made it back to Grenada with a day to spare until Carnival. Hearing all the stories from last year we were keen to get involved with the Carib float - the local beer. 

Getting hold of a Carib pack each, we opened the bag feeling like it was Christmas. Inside the plastic package was a t shirt, glow bands, glow in the dark headband, a beer mug, necklace and wand. Not liking the frumpy t shirt in my goody bag I set to work customising and unpicking the sleeves and neckline. 

That evening we got dressed up for Monday Night Mas and headed into town with a bus full of other cruisers. We were dropped off at 8:30 which was already past our bedtime! 

The bus turfed us out on Lagoon Road and we went in search of the Carib truck. Hardly 2 mins passed when we spotted the hundreds of other people dressed in the yellow t shirt uniform and glow in the dark accessories. As we neared the yellow sea of people, the music started up, vibrating inside our chests as the boom boxes got down and dirty. Locating our friends we went in search of a drink. Not that I like beer, but that was the only beverage on the menu this evening! To get a drink we had to stretch up to the top of the beer truck, fending off the locals, ignoring the jabs in the chest and eyes and get your mug balanced on the top of the float for the beer man to fill from his tap. All of this went on whilst the truck was in motion. I (not thinking) had just worn flip flops so every step I took the local behind me would step on the backs of my shoes sending me flying. Was an experience! O and the beerman would fill the mugs to the top and not really caring, the locals would bring the mug back down to mouth height, sending the contents slopping over the sides, giving us a lovely beer shower. Yum. Reminded me of standing near the front at a music festival.

To really blend in with the locals, you couldn't just walk behind the boom box float, you had to do a kind of shuffle. Very similar to what I imagine someone would look like if they had shat themselves. Stick your bum out, legs apart (second position for fellow ballerinas out there) and then shuffle one foot at a time whilst shaking your booty. After a night of doing this my hips were killing me!

As we did the shuffle down the streets we were contained with a rope either side separating us from the street crowds that had come to watch. The rope was moving with us, guys were employed to hold it at waist level and knock away anyone that dared enter the Carib crowd. As we were all wearing bright yellow, it was pretty easy to spot an intruder!

After a good hour of exercise in the humid evening, we slipped the rope and went in search of food – coming across a chicken shack. Not the best I have ever tasted and I'm thankful we never got salmonella but we happily devoured the cold chicken and chips that were put in front of us with a generous helping of tomato sauce. Suitably fed we joined the throng and once again started the shuffle. You should see how the locals dance, wow they can move. The ladies felt nothing to grind any man that came behind them! I too was propositioned but gave them my best death glare and they soon scuttled away.

The chicken shack

Yum yum

The atmosphere was electric, everyone having a great time, suitably inebriated and shaking their thang. Don't get me wrong, you could totally tell who the cruisers were but we were loving life so it didn't matter. By the time we got to Port Louis we were aching, drenched in sweat and tired! But wow these locals now how to party, far from letting up, they were just getting started and they had already been doing this for 2 days straight!

Their songs of choice that played over and over were 'Getting High', 'F**k Off' and 'Grenada has vibes'. We even knew the lyrics to sing along by the end of the evening. We pondered how Grenada managed to play such lyrics as 'I said f*ck off' full blast down a street at a family friendly party and were soon put straight a couple of days later by a taxi driver. Apparently the lyrics say 'its good for cough'!!

Midnight came and we spotted our ride home, more than ready to call it a night we piled into the taxi and scooted back to Orion. What an experience!

The next day was Fancy Parade where all the colourful costumes paraded the streets. Getting dropped off by Port Louis we could immediately hear the boom boxes so just followed our ears to the start of the festival. When we got there the teams were just getting ready, gorgeous sparkly costumes everywhere. Each float had a different costume and anyone could enter for a fee of $150. So a couple of cruisers were mixed in with the locals.

Getting ready to put on the costumes

One of the many boom boxes

Dylan and I had no money on us so we decided to leave our friends and walk to the carenage to an ATM. Hoards of locals lined the streets as we walked by, the sun was hot hot hot with little shade to protect us. We welcomed the air conditioned booth of the ATM and stayed in there a good few minutes to bring our body temperatures back down to normal!

Found a peanut stand!

Our perch for the day was at a reserved table in Grenada Craft Centre, looking over the main road where the parade would be passing. We could see everything from the shade of a balcony, what luxury. There were pretty amazing costumes going past with huge head dresses and feathers. God knows how they put up with it in the hot weather.

Crazy man about to run up a hill towards the spectators

Cute kid dancing away

Parade over we sampled more local fried chicken and called it a day. We absolutely loved Grenada Carnival, so much so we have added Rio Carnival to our bucket list :) 

Heading South

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 13^th 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.

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!

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!

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.

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.

Bedding the anchor

Lunch aboard Orion

A short hop from Tobago Cays is Union Island and thats where we went next, Chatham Bay. As we neared the bay, another boat was leaving which meant we had the whole bay to ourselves for most of the day. Anchoring in the lee of the headland, the place was full of pelicans and ashore the beach was dotted with a couple of huts serving drinks and beach BBQ each evening. A boat boy came by letting us know of happy hour at his place, Palm Leaf Restaurant. Not one to pass up on a cheap beer, Dylan rowed us ashore and we pulled the dinghy up on the beach. Rum punch for me and beers for Dylan whilst we made friends with Tim and the owner Jerry. Tim let me feel his dreadlocks and even posed for a picture. Palm Leaf Restaurant like the other shacks in the bay is literally a shed on a beach, no electricity, no running water. When it got dark we had a paraffin lamp on the table and they switched on a generator to power some naked lightbulbs. Flying ants loved them though which caused them to hit the light and go into a death dive on our table so they got switched off again pretty quickly!

Tim and I

The Palm Leaf Restaurant

Dylan attempting to drag the dink by himself

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.

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!

View from Ashton out to Frigate

Town of Ashton

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!

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!

Black fin tuna