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Larry's LogAfter clearing in, we didn't spend much time in Hillsborough. Although it was calm, we were told the anchorage was rolly and we wanted to get to Tyrell Bay for the night. First though, we went to Sandy Island, a small sand and coral island just off Hillsborough. It has a nice reef both north and south of the island and we stopped there for lunch and to walk around a bit and do some snorkeling. It was a very pretty little island and just barely above the sea, with just a few palm trees holding it together. The snorkeling wasn't too bad - a Spotted Moray and lots of small fish, but I guess we were spoiled by the Tobago Cays. After lunch and some snorkeling, we upped anchor and went to Tyrell Bay, on the western side of Carriacou (pronounced carry-a-coo). Diane snorkeled over the anchor and although it was on its side, I felt we would be OK for the night. We would try to move up a little tomorrow anyway. We were invited to go to a local pizza place but we were both tired and just stayed on the boat for the evening. The next day we were invited to go fishing. But not just fishing; we went on Gabrielle, a 65 foot Cherubini Motor Yacht, with John, Bridget and Melanie, their niece. John is an ex-commercial fisherman and knows how to fish. They had also invited Kristali and Legacy. At 7:30am, John picked us up and we started out. It was a beautiful morning and everyone had packed a lunch and had drinks. As we left the bay, John said we would be going south towards Grenada to try to catch the northern end of the Equatorial Current, which should have fish. OK, let's do it. It was a great day. The first fish we caught was a small tuna about 30 minutes after we left. Steve brought that one in and John gaffed it and brought on the boat. We had 4 lines out trolling at about 6 knots. John kept the boat moving across a small bank making 45-degree turns. After another 2 hours or so, we hadn't caught anything else. Of course, it was my turn to bring in the next fish. Then one of the lines started to zing. John told me to start to reel in quickly, and after about 30 minutes of reeling and pulling, a 70 pound Wahoo was alongside the boat. John gaffed him and cleaned him right on the stern platform - he was too big to get in the boat. What a gorgeous fish; the colors right after we brought him up were fantastic. (Actually, John did most of the "fighting" but I did bring him in close to the boat.) We stayed out until about 2, and that was the last fish we caught, but it really was enough. John said we would all have a barbeque that night of Wahoo and whatever side dishes people wanted to make. After he showed us how to cut the fish, and clean some conch he had traded the fish head for, he brought us back to our respective boats. We would be back later. That night, we went back to Gabrielle and feasted on Wahoo and numerous side dishes people had brought over. We met several new cruisers, some from South Africa, Switzerland and England. It's truly an international community. The party lasted well into the night and we all felt very well fed. The next morning it started to rain pretty hard around 5am so we had to get up and close all the hatches. We usually try to leave them open to let the boat remain as cool as possible, but of course, we don't want to get everything wet either. After that, we were so tired that we slept through the morning radio nets. At around 9am, I heard someone call out "Good morning, Destiny", and got up to see Ron from Jacobite in his dinghy next to the boat. He called out "Happy Canada Day" (he was Canadian) and presented me with a small jar of Canadian Maple Syrup wrapped up in pretty napkins with the Canadian flag on them. His wife Lena had bought them back with her from a recent trip home and Ron was distributing them to his friends in the anchorage. Thanks Ron. Diane made biscuits for breakfast and we tried the syrup on them - delicious. The morning started out overcast but cleared up later, but there wasn't any wind in the anchorage so it felt hot. Of course, the wind generator doesn't have any output when there's no wind, and since it had been the same the day before, the batteries were quite low. I knew I would have to run the engine today so we decided to move up in the anchorage also and run the water maker at the same time. Diane wanted to do some hand laundry and we had planned to give Joe on Legacy a party for his 60th birthday on Monday, but since there was some bad weather on the way (the next tropical wave) and since the pizza place we had wanted top get pizzas from was going to be closed, we decided to do it a day early, on Sunday. Ruth, Joe's wife of 40 years, was trying to organize it and Connie from Kristali was helping. We got about 10 boats (21 people) to come. During all this other activity, Diane and I re-anchored Destiny 4 times. I originally moved to get closer in and be out of the swell that caused the boat to roll a bit during the night. Unfortunately, after moving the anchor wouldn't set. The next time I tried, I thought it did, but after I dove on it I saw it was caught on a rock and wouldn't hold. The next time, it set OK but we were too close to another boat. The last time we managed to get it firmly in the bottom and with good distance between our neighbors and us. The LAST thing you want to do is try to re-anchor at night during a storm! So with Destiny set for a blow, the laundry drying and Diane making brownies as a present to Joe, I watched the laundry, updated my logs and waited to go to the party at 5:30. At the appointed time, all the boats met at Gabrielle, the large motor yacht since she was anchored in front of Legacy and Joe wouldn't be able to see the congregation of dinghies. We went to Legacy as a flotilla and started singing Happy Birthday as we got to the stern. Joe was actually surprised to see us. The party was really nice and I'm sure Joe enjoyed it. The pizza was pretty good too. On Monday, the ladies had planned a "luncheon" at the local yacht club. Mind, this was NOT a fancy affair but Diane seemed to enjoy it. She told me that about 18 women showed up to talk about the cruising life and such things. She was gone from about 12 until 4:30. During that time, I checked the engine, ran the water maker and did several odd jobs. Then I continued my book. It was also raining on and off, so I tried setting up a water catchment system, but it didn't work too well. We had more luck just putting a bucket under a steady drip from the bimini. What was needed was a canvas that could be spread out with a drain leading to a hose. It would have to be made at some point as a custom project, by either Diane or a canvas shop. |