Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada South Coast
Austins' Travels
Chris & Lynn Austin
Wed 21 Mar 2012 22:39
12:00.197N
61:43.433W We decided
to move into the marina a week early because our engine started to get a bit
slow to start – so we decided to get going while we were still mobile! I think
it might be as simple as a sluggish battery but we can now investigate without
stress. We have so much weed and barnacles that the very short trip took a
couple of hours – sometimes at 2.5 knots when motoring into the wind.
Fortunately our final trip will be downwind and only a few miles so we can clean
the hull when lifted out of the water.
So we are
in this delightful tiny and incredibly picturesque marina until we leave. It has
a great seawater pool, lovely bar and restaurant, almost no-one around and the
showers and library (yes, library!) and outside lounge are on an old Swedish ex
lightship which we are moored right beside.
Chris also
has a new job – ferrying four local fishermen who spear fish out to the local
reefs. He met them when in the dinghy on the way into the marina and they asked
for a lift (quite cheeky you think but not unusual here – where people tend to
help each other). When they returned we walked down the beach and saw the
incredible array of reef fish that they had collected and were cleaning. Oliver
was transfixed and didn’t want to leave. They gave us four small and delicious
lobsters that we killed and cooked immediately. This was a lot for them to repay
as lobsters are a prime cash generator but we couldn’t refuse when they
insisted. So Lynn offered Chris’ services for the next morning and as a result
he is becoming an expert on offshore reef navigation (they go a fair distance
out to sea) with a boat full of five people and snorkelling gear and various
spear guns, sticks with hooks, buoys, and various other gear. The only
nervousness is when one of those hooks gets close to the inflatable tubes on the
RIB. But today we refused the offer of fish on their return and instead gave
them a cold beer each. It was just nice to help some hard working guys who
really appreciated it and save them a mile of so of swimming and get them to a
more plentiful area .....and they certainly had a very good catch.
We started
the clean up jobs today with the anchor and anchor chains and anchor locker. The
chain has weed growth on about 15 metres due to having been anchored without
moving for three weeks which is hard to shift (and will take more work) and
another 15 metres had a lot of mud which was easier to wash off. At least we now
have an extra week to do all the decommissioning jobs.
Pictures
will follow
soon. |