Jaw Jaw
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Tue 26 Jan 2010 17:27
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12:37.8N 061:21.5W
19th - 26th January
From when I last wrote a blog which was on the 18th
of January we have had quite a lot going on. So go make yourself a cup
of tea and take a 10 minutes out to read this "war and peace" edition of
our blog.
The diagnosis of the electronic problem was not as
I had supsected correct and it seems we need a new course computer for the
autopilot. This also feeds the data round the network but seems only to be able
to push the data to a couple of metres away from the main course computer unit.
So as a temporary fix I have moved the autopilot control to the course computer
which then works. That however is at the navigation station which is below and
is therefor a little un-nerving at the helm when you are running on auto pilot
as you have to use the remote control to bring the helm back to manual.
Otherwise you would have to dash below to stick the autopilot control back
to standby. So this is fine as long as you keep the remote control safe, near
the helm and fully charged. The plan is to have this fixed permanently along
with the main sail furling gear and the SSB radio, while we are back
in Scotland.
On Sunday the 17th we pulled out of Antigua
first thing in the morning and made the 250 mile passage to St Vincent. This
took about 28 1/2 hours and was a fairly good sail close reaching all the
way. It seems most of our sailing if we are not really close hauled or
trying to get deeper down wind than 145deg is between 8 and 10 knots if we have
wind between 12 - 18 knots and we are mostly passage planning at about 200 mile
days.
When arriving at Young Island cut in St Vincent we
had the usual approaches from the boat boys to take their mooring bouys,
but we chose to anchor initially. The space left to anchor however was
extremely limited due to the spread of their mooring buoys which looked in
dubious condition. This is becoming a very annoying trend in the Caribbean -
filling up good anchorages with chargeable mooring buoys and seems to me to be a
negative trend. I prefer to anchor and know what we are hanging on rather than
hanging off some of these mooring buoys of dubious quality. If we are
forced to take a mooring buoy as we were in Young Island cut St Vincent, as
we could not get sufficient room to get a good hold with our anchor, then
I always try to dive on the buoys to inspect them and would recommend
the same practice to everybody. If you are not able to inspect from the water at
least try to pull up the buoy from your dingy to inspect
the mooring immediately below the
water.
While we did not find these boat
boys aggressive to us they were bitter and vociferous in their opposition
to to each other in competing for our business, and this in itself is off
putting. Though St Vincent has had a bad reputation for boat boys behaviour
both here (including Walliabou Bay) and later in the Grenadines we had no
problems and in fact I think I have noticed an improvement in their approaches
over the years. Both we and they have a part to play in the successful and
sustainable tourist development of the area. They need to be polite and friendly
and trustworthy and we in turn need to give them some business. We need to
realise that of course they are trying their best to earn a living (almost
certainly an extemely meagre living) and are being as enterprising as they know
how in trying to do that. So placing some business with them when you can is
good. However at what price? Do you buy something you really don't
need?
Do you buy something you dont need? On the one hand
why would you? It is the sellers job to stock things that people do want or need
and to make a pitch that captures your attention. On the the other hand it
may be all he or she knows, and whats a few dollars? Our reaction is often to
block them out at first approach which ultimately will frustrate these vendors
and perhaps make them resentful that we wont even give them a few minutes of
time or a few dollars, which in the sche. However there are only so many T
shirts or beaded neclaces and bangles that you can buy just to give something to
the vendor and the local area. This for me is an interesting
dilema.
At what price? It seems churlish of us to negotiate
a few dollars off a small purchase even when the price of bread is perhaps
double what you would pay ashore - but the guy has delivered it out to you and
is putting a few extra dollars into the local economy not good if you can afford
it? The guy is being enterprising, providing a usefule service and at least he
is not running drugs or involved in some other illicit activity. On the
other hand in Antigua for example, we have had guys wanting to clean the boat -
deck and hull and asking with a straight face - "fo ree al man" - for
350USD for the job. To me paying this, while it would undoubtedly
put 350 dollars into to local economy does not encourage any kind of work
ethic nor does it encourage enterprise. It simply delivers a fast easy buck
to someone in a culture which already needs to seriously look at developing a
stronger work ethic and a more productive economy. The total output of any
economy can only ultimately be the sum total of the output of the
individuals in that country. So for every one that does nothing somebody
else needs to do twice the average.
I am not just talking about small Caribean
countries check the imbalance in Scotland between Public Sector and Private
Sector. When will government wake up to the fact that they cant just keep
dumping the heavy and ever increasing burden of their fat public sector on
the enslaved private sector. When will individuals wake up to the fact
that we all have to contribute before we can all benefit in the long term.
Interestingly in St Vincent I had a long talk with
a hard working and deeply thoughtful and socially concious taxi driver who
pointed out the small but beautiful parliament building in in Kingstown "where
all dem jokers meet and jaw jaw". He described how he felt that the majority of
their politicians and public sector were self interested and inefficient;
overpaid, and to boot, received fat and generous pensions, which hard workers
like him had to work to pay for. Sound familiar? It seems
across many areas of the world the Orwellian phenomenon of some pigs being
more equal than others is contagious and nowhere more than the UK. Time for
change and smaller government and politicians, parliamentarians, and public
services that ealisethat they are their to serve the public - not
themeselves.
On Monday afternoon (18th January) after collecting
Grant and Jan Sword from Kingstown airport in St Vincent we set off directly on
a close reach to the rarified atmosphere of Mustique for two days -Monday and Tuesday 18th and 19th January. Jan
found the crossing uncomfortable but after a day or two found her sea legs and
really settled in to life a board. In fact we were never sure whether it was our
anchor chain crunching on subsequent noghts or the snoring coming from the
forward cabin.
On Mustique, having visited several times before we
were able to organise a program of Basils bar, tour of the island by mule (
a jumped up golf cart) and lunch at the beach restaurant before going swimming
and picnicking to Macaroni beach. The evening program was dinner at the Cotton
House and cocktails at Firefly.
What was not on the program was bumping into
Mick Jagger. For those that dont know Mustique is a private island leased by the
Mustique Company from the St Vincent government and run for the benefit of the
residents - like some sort of toy town mini state. There are about 100 houses
there now and most are owned by the very rich and very famous. Princess Margaret
famously had a house here as did David Bowie. Currently Mick Jagger has two
houses, Brian Adams, Shania Twain, Tommy Hilfiger, the guy from the T shirt
company with the crocodiles on them, and so on and so on. I suspect however that
most villas are currently owned by semi anonymous hedge fund
managers and private equity partners and others
from the financial world.
Anyway ....... here we were leaving the beach
restaurant - all six of us piled into our mule, which we had hired for the day.
I was pleasantly full and in full tourist mode ready to wind our way round the
island to the beach when I came to the crossroads. These are all vey single
track roads. I was contemplating going left or maybe right and I had not yet got
round to contemplating going straight ahead when I am confronted with a
pensioner in a four by four Toyota or some such thing.
Here was Jagger taking the Mick out of me and in a
mild state of road rage. Gesturing right then left then shrugging with his scary
and abundant lips upturned in a frown he seemed to be wandering which way I was
going and encouraging me to make my mind up but on the other hand despite
being a resident there of many years I think he is going senile and was lost and
was wandering if we could tell him which way to go. We will never know as I just
ignored him in case he started taking pictures of me. I like my privacy.
Anyway the next day we got off of his cloud ( a
little bit like cloud cookooland really - but very beautiful and well worth the
visit).
We then sailed down to the Tobago Cays which are
spectacular and though we have visited several times before they never fail to
captivate me. You are anchored just inside Horseshoe reef and the view out your
front window is across the open Atlantic Ocean to Africa. There is an
area in the Cays which is always frequented by turtles and we snorkelled
there. Having been here several times before and always seen turtles we
were surprised this time just how many turtles we saw and how big and healthy
they appeared. This has been a common story since the day we left Southampton.
What we have seen in the sea and on th ereefs and the sky above would lead
you to believe the planet was in rude health. The reefs have been bristling
with all kinds of marine life, we have seen whales, sunfish, dolphins in their
hundreds if not thousands. Even the harbours and marinas along the Spanish
and Moroccan coasts were full of large fish. In the BVI's our boat was
surrounded on many nights by very large Tarpon and in general it seems we
have been in a marine life wonderland. I know it is not very fashionable to
say so but maybe the world is not in terminal decline due to climate change
and just going through another of the many shifts in the balance of nature
that have happened endlessly since the beigining of time. I really don't know
but it is certainly wonderful to see abundant marine life and certainly in the
areas we have sailed in we seem to be seeing more marine life over the past 10
years not less.
In the Tobago Cays we barbequed aboard the first
night and the second night we had a take-away dinner with
a difference. We did a deal with "Mr Wonderful" (this was one of the many
colourful names the boat boys trade by) for three large lobsters split in two
and barbequed ashore and delivered to the boat hot. This was along with
vegetable rice and cooked plantain all of which was wonderful. A memorable
night. We snorkelled and swam and explored and generally chilled at the cays
and it was good for the soul. It was also good for our guests Grant
Jan who were blown away by the scenery and the tropical environment and whole
adventure so far.
The next morning - it was Thursday, or so my
Blackberry said - we headed for Saltwhistle Bay in Mayreau for a swim and lunch
stop. After some refreshments of the tropical type, consisting of Rum, Coconuts
and Pineapple in various mixtures we decided to walk it off on the beach. There
at the end of the beach I saw it, one large coconut hanging all lonely like at
the top of its tree. So Grant and I decided to knock it off the tree by firing
some of the many empty conch shells that were lying at the base of the
tree. Grant's accuracy was testament to stone throwing abilities gained from - I
dont know - must have been a mis-spent youth. However the direct hits that were
made had no effect at all so nothing for it but to shin the tree and get
it.
The technique is this: take a grinder to your
fingertips to improve your grip, get your hands right round the trunk
of the tree finger tips touching, lean right back with straight arms get your
first foot flat across the tree trunk, toes pointing out, then your second in
the opposing direction, and bend your knees till your bum is on
your heels. Then walk up the tree leaning right back and dont look down!
The only problem comes at the top when you have to let go one hand to get the
coconut off, or on my case two hands to get the stubborn blighter off. To take
your both hands off requires the ability to clamp your thighs together tighter
than ....... we won't go there, but you know what I mean. The whole
process leads to something akin to a gravel rash inside your ankles and
forearms but well worth the effort for the fun of
it.
After getting out of my tree in Mayreau we hauled
the anchor and set full genoa and main for a perfect beam reach to Canouan.
Nice. Very nice. In Canouan there is a large development of the north end of the
island by, I believe, Italian developers. It has a golf course and hotel and I
also think a casino which all seems a bit bizarre but on the one hand while it
has clearly put money into the island, on the other hand it is a gated
development and these always make me feel slightly uncomfortable. Outside
the development, in the village you have people asking if you have any spare
shorts or tee shirts they could have while clearly inside it is divorced from th
ereality of the island economy. Slightly divisive I think.
In the morning it was fun when we went to the local
shop and the old black woman behind the counter was mocking our accents and got
a great laugh out of us rolling our "R's" when we said thank you veRy much. Next
thing you know the PC brigade will be down on her to stop mocking the white
folk. That would be a shame.
From Canouan we set off on Saturday morning for
Bequia. This is a well known and favoured island among the sailing fraterinty
and is always worth a visit. On leaving Canouan for the 25 miles to Bequia
(pronounced Bekway) we were again on a beam reach and I gave the helm to
Grant. I only needed to explain the tell tales on the genoa once to him and he
was off. Helming perfectly and over 10 knots for two solid hours. I couldn't
even get near the helm. The grin on his face was almost joining his left
ear to his right ear. I explained to him however that he would have to be
careful, being spoilt like this on his first time helming,
as sailing is very addictive and very
expensive.
Grant and Jan treated us to a great dinner at the
Devils Table in Bequia where we were surprised by the quality and presentation
of the filet steaks we (all) had.
Then off to St Vincent with Grant at the helm again
(this boy has potential) on Sunday morning. To save time on our route back up to
Antigua via St Lucia we decided to drop Grant and Jan off at Walliabou bay on
the west coat of St Vincent which was the scene of the movie Pirates of
the Caribbean. Unfortunately there was no time to be saved as I had
stupidly forgot to clear out of customs and immigration, which I could have done
in Bequia. I had therefor got to take a two hour round trip by taxi with
Grant and Jan to the airport to clear out. This left us arriving in St Lucia, at
Rodney Bay in the dark. This was slightly tricky and of course it is always
preferable to arrive in daylight.
That evening, Sunday Craig and Laurey went off
to get some peace from us and eat at a restaurant while Trish and I ate at the
restaurant right by the marina for convenience. This left me with vomiting and
diarreah through the night and a very fragile tummy the next day. On Monday we
toured around St Lucia in a hire car and I had to make one or two emergency
stops - and not for the traffic.The island was beautiful and the Pitons were
majestic. We had a great lunch stop at a restaurant called the Mango Tree
overlooking the pitons which was simply beautiful. We visited the Diamond falls
and the Botanic Gardens which we thoroughly enjoyed. The plant life and scenery
of St Lucia must be among the most dramatic of the Caribbean Islands and we will
make a longer visit another time.
Monday evening was a fantastic surprise for us when
we met up with friends Jean and Francoise from "Gala" who had just completed
their Atlantic crossing in 21 days and invited us to dinner aboard. We had a
wonderful meal in great company and shared experiences from the trip so
far.
Today, Tuesday we have made an early stary for the
200 mile passage to Antigua to catch our flight to Scotland tomorrow. It is time
to catch up with friends and family and most importantly all my friends and
colleagues at Gael Force.
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