Greneda to Martinique!
Arion's West Indian Adventure
Hermione & Douglas Pattison
Fri 22 Jan 2016 12:29
Greneda is a lovely place but the anchorages were really busy and water not crystal clear!! This sounds awfully fussy, but many places up until now have had crystal clear water, such that you cannot wait to jump in the water for a swim…….… so up to St Georges for some much needed water and supplies and back to Carriacou for a stopover.
We had a cracking sail from Carriacou to Myrau, very quick upwind fetch doing 7 ish knots. Slung out the fishing line and within 20 minutes had a fish. Danny Boy will be happy to hear that, of course, this was using the ‘lucky lure’. I have never fished in my life. I happened to have gone down below for something and suddenly Doogie started to shout. It is hard to hear down below so I raced up on deck weirdly thinking that the rudder had gone….. I was momentarily relieved to hear that we had caught a fish, the relief soon disappeared when I had my brief on what I had to do. Vegetarians and animal lovers look away now; Doogie reeled the fish in and held it over the stern. I then managed to spike it with our enormous hook (Christmas pressie from the Aytons-thank you!!) and get it into the bucket. While Doogie held the thrashing fish, I had to pour gin over its gills to drown it. The poor thing would not die, so I got the chairman’s reserve which finished him off pretty quickly! All this doing now about 5 knots to weather in reasonably big seas, both of us hanging off the back. When we arrived in Salt Whistle bay at lunchtime we got some odd looks as the entire transom was covered in blood. However, after gutting and filleting the fish, we had a delicious lunch, supper, breakfast and lunch….. needless to say that we did not feel like tuna for a while after that.
Myrau is a wonderful little island- tiny, with one road running through it. We walked all the way to the top where you can see all of the surrounding islands. There is a sweet Church and a school at the top. Arthur and Alice loved watching the children going to school. This school has probably one of the best views in the world. We then walked down the other side of the island and spent the rest of the morning swimming. By the time we walked back, the children were exhausted so we set sail for Bequia arriving just before sunset. We bumped into Richard and Jo again the following day and spent a lovely afternoon playing on the beach together. Richard was able to give Douglas some great advice on how to keep your head (loo for non- yachties!) running smoothly…. cheap cooking oil down the pan ever few days!- the difference is amazing! Thanks Richard!!
Our trip from Bequia was interesting. Firstly the Windlass remote started electrocuting me, and then broke. (Windlass is the thing which pulls the anchor up and down). Normally I control the anchor from the foredeck where I can see what is going on, while Douglas steers the boat. Our second Windlass switch is in our cabin down below. We discussed various ways of how to lift the anchor with two of us, one of whom would be ‘blind’, plus it is tricky to hear down below especially with the engine on. Then we realised we had the perfect solution…. Arthur!! So; he was sent into our cabin. The VHF (Radio) down below was turned up to full volume so Arthur could hear instructions. Douglas on the helm and me on the foredeck with the portable VHF telling Arthur when to press the button. He did wander off half way through (I was shouting “up” and nothing happened for a while) but in all he did a remarkably good and useful job for us!!
The sail North proved more difficult than usual due to the wind being slightly more round to the North, and a horrid Northerly swell. The wind was up and down which was frustrating, as with this swell, at some points we were making 3 knots. We hit a mini squall off St Vincent and managed to break a reefing line meaning full mainsail up (not a safe option due to wind being up and down) or no mainsail at all, so we set off across the St Vincent gap to St Lucia with just the jib plus our engine to help through the swell. This helped massively but we did have to refuel mid sail due to using more engine than anticipated. It is always tricky doing this (we have done it before…!) and I am going to save myself a fortune on petrochemical free cosmetics when we get home as I had a lifetime’s dose through my skin in the form of what seemed like a Diesel bath! Because of this wretched swell, and no mainsail, (our Stacker bag on the boom also decided to break in a couple of places, so the main was lashed to the boom!) we limped on and the Pitons of St Lucia seemed to never get closer. It took us 14 hours in total and the Children were AMAZING. We went straight into Rodney Bay marina where we were for 5 days doing repairs. Every day I took the children off to play on the beach or do other exciting things while poor Doogie spent his time getting all of the repairs done. The boat is now looking great and a lot of little problems have been sorted for now, fingers crossed!! I had to go up the mast again and when it was time to come down everyone had disappeared from sight. I caught sight of Arthur through our fore hatch playing on our bunk. “Arthur, please can you ask Daddy to get me down?”. Pause. “Daddy says you can stay up there ALL DAY,” (evil laugh followed shortly after) I therefore had some ‘me time’ and this episode reminded me of a similar event in earlier life when my cousin Nick hoisted me to the top of a tree and left me there…….
We have now arrived in Martinique at a place called St Anne’s. We have yet to explore, but things are looking positive as the customs check in is located in an ice cream shop. To be continued…..!