Another Season Ends!
Eowyn
Tue 9 Jun 2009 08:52
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Éowyn is now ashore in Grenada
Marine, St Davids in position 12:01.384N 61:40.730W Chris & I are
relaxing in Barbados after a tiring season. Apart from the usual maintenance, we
have been working hard to prepare Éowyn for the World ARC and trying to sort out
a number of equipment failures.
My last posting was from
Bequia in the Grenadines.
We set sail from there towards
Tobago Cays with a brisk easterly wind giving us yet another passage averaging
over 7 knots. The Tobago Cays is an idyllic group of Islands off Mayreau, spoilt
only by the presence of yachts such as ours!!! In recent times the SVG
government have created a "Marine Park" to regulate anchoring and provide some
mooring buoys. Many die hard cruisers are against this move and I was undecided
myself until this year. What we discovered was a massive increase of hawksbill
turtles within the protected area. It does seem that the restrictions in
anchoring have given the sea grasses on which the turtles feed, a chance to
grow.
Carole and John were
particularly taken by these islands and would love to have had more time
here.
Whilst we were there, I
spent some time considering 2 equipment problems on Éowyn. firstly, I had
discovered significant wear in the top swivel of the headsail furling. It was
clear that the swage of the halyard was hauling too far into the sheave and the
sail could not be tensioned properly. Later I
discovered the same problem with the twistle yankees which have the same luff
length. The only possible explanation is that the luffs of all 3 sails have
stretched. Before we start the World ARC, the sailmaker will have to remove 3"
from the head of each to correct the problem.
 Not where it should
be!!!!!!!
Armed with my new salinity
meter, I also discovered that the Watermaker membrane has reached the end of its
life and must be replaced at the end of the year.
After the Cays, we spent a
night in Saline Bay, Mayreau with the usual hike up the hill to the Catholic
church to enjoy spectacular views of the Grenadines.
 The Tobago Cays seen from
Mayreau
We cleared out of SVG at Union
Island and after a short sail cleared in to Grenada at Hillsborough, Carriacou.
The clearance procedures are a little more complex now as the immigration
officer must see each of the crew to decide if they have swine flue.
Hmmm.
After anchoring in Tyrell Bay
we made an early start on Tuesday May 26 to arrive in The Lagoon, Grenada., It
is clear that there is virtually no construction work at the ambitious
development of Port Louis and later we learnt that virtually every development
in Grenada has stopped due the economic crisis. We motored round to Prickly Bay
to await Mike birch's arrival the next day. He was flying in on Monarch Airlines
to start 2 scuba courses at Scubatech. I had strongly recommended Scubatech and
thankfully Mike found them to be a most professional and friendly operation.
Chris and I took the opportunity to do half a dozen dives each and John &
Carole also dived for the first time for a couple of years.
I have previously spoken
volumes about the excellent Grenada bus system. John & Carole used the buses
to ravel to the Grand Etang lake and rainforest walks. John is a keen birder and
really enjoyed the different species to be found here. Closer to our temporary
home, a tiny humming bird had made its nest in one of the light fittings at
Scubatech and the bulb had to be disabled to stop the eggs frying!!
On Friday we used the
excellent taxi services of Cutty who had laid on 3 buses to take cruisers to
Gouyave for the fish fry. a little different this time though as this was the
first "Rock d'Spice" music festival and as well as the usual fish fry there was
music till the early hours - we left just after 11pm when the locals were
just arriving!
On Monday we sailed to Le
Phare Bleu marina to take down & flake the sails and to discus some
canvas issues with Dave Royce of The Canvas Shop.
 The Crew are Exhausted and Collapse
in the Lightship at Le Phare Bleu
Carole & John departed on
the BA flight the next Tuesday and the 3 of us continued to prepare for Éowyn's
lay-up, finally motoring to St Davids last Friday for our haulout. Mike was able
to help then but Friday evening he said goodbye and went by Taxi to the Rex
Grenadian where he was staying for the few days before flying home. Once the
yacht was hauled we transferred to "La Sagesse" nature resort . We worked hard
the next 4 days and completed all the tasks in hand before flying LIAT to
Barbados where we are spending a few days relaxing at the first rate "Little
Arches" hotel
 Éowyn in Lay-up
Plumage
We plan to return to Grenada
on 10th September to complete much of the outstanding maintenance.Our World ARC
adventure starts for real on 4th December when Mike & Graham fly out to
launch Éowyn and sail north to St Lucia for the start of the rally.
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