Dave and Tom

Village

Looking for the trail

Cold beers at the finish

The finishers

Heading off into the bush

Washing the mud off at the end

Before the start

So cool, just so cool

Yesterday we bushwhacked and slid our way around the Saturday Grenada Hash. It was great fun and a top muddy outing that included steep slopes, streams, beer, dancing and an opportunity to meet a few more boaty people and swap information and tales.

Dave last did a Hash in Grenada in 2005 with Nick and Lisa and still has the t-shirt which he proudly wore, holes and all. As we drove out as passengers in a minibus taxi, the rain was sheeting down in heavy five minute bursts. Grenada is very lush, green and hilly, so the trails for the Hash were getting a good preparatory dousing in rain water, making them deliciously muddy and slippy.

My guess is there were about 100 people who headed off up into the bush following small piles of shredded paper that marked the trail. Occasionally the trail would split, one specifically laid for runners, another for walkers, then they’d join back together. We did a mix of the two. Dave has had a lingering cough / chest infection for a while which has been difficult to shift. The Hash would be a good test of his recovery.

He was fine and spent a good chunk of the time helping other people up and down particularly slippy sections. An American lass from Chicago was most grateful he was there for a descent where a hand-line had been pre rigged as an aid. Ironically, the slower folk get a worse deal, as the majority of the Hashers will have passed though already so the terrain is more trodden, more cut up and therefore more slippery.

The last section brought us down though the bush towards a welcome stream and the pumping reggae music at the bar marking the end of the trail. After a quick wash to remove the worst of the mud, the chilled beers were calling.

Looking around there were a sea of smiling faces and tales being regaled of experiences had. An award ceremony, dancing, food and beers then ensued. It was gone 7 and dark by the time we clambered back into the minibus and headed back to the town of St George. Still time however for the driver to stop at a rum shop on the way home.

Daniel Craig or Dave Savage?

Time to head back to the boat

Treats!

swing….

splash….. prize for best use of a grounded boat

One for Flynn

Evening on the beach

Colourful Grenada

If you work on one of these, you have to like polishing. That’s all the staff seem to do.

Grenada. It’s hot here. Not just a ‘take your jumper off’ kind of hot. It’s a ‘hide from the sun, wear a hat, drink lots of water, swim to cool off’ kind of hot. Being on the boat at anchor usually delivers us a bit of constant breeze. As soon as we come ashore the breeze seems to disappear. I did have a little dream about skiing last night. Blue sky sunny skiing, not blasting ‘in my eyes’ horizontal snow skiing. Maybe next year….

We had a champagne sail from Barbados to here. Lifted the anchor at 1pm. We motored around SY Little Coconut to say goodbyes then pointed Grace out to sea. Within 200m we had the sails up, engine off and a passage of about 150 miles ahead of us. Caught another big mahi mahi too so that was 4 meals taken care of.

Our last downwind passage for a while was a joy. We had our best 24hr stats, averaging  just a smidgein under 6 knots. Our friend Julian looked at the tracker and emailed us to say… 6.7knots. Have you run out of nutmeg? Very drole.

We decided to have a night in the marina at the Grenada Yacht club. Having access to power and a pontoon would be helpful for the jobs we had lined up. Dave spent about an hour up the mast the following morning as we retraced some halyards to try and solve a chaffage problem. We also took down the twin headsails on the fore stay and just put back the Yankee up. (A bit of sailing jargon there for you sailing types)

We’ve done some Unique Solutions work, talked about buying a hard bottom tender and decided that I will come back to the UK in June / July for 3 weeks to do a couple of weeks work with Nando’s and a catch up with friends and family. I’ll be in touch to book some b&b space the last week in June. Thanks in anticipation!

Harriet’s Cabin for a Lamb Srew lunch

Bridgetown shopping

And relax and swim

One for Chris Grist… it does rain here!

Whizzzzzzz….

Being British is not always a good thing in my opinion. Independence came to Barbados in 1966 after three centuries of British influence. Some of this influence remains today, red post boxes for example but more irritatingly, the British love for bureaucracy still pervades officialdom.

On arrival we had to visit three separate offices to check in to the country. This necessitated filling in a different set of forms in each office, these being health, customs and immigration. We filled in pretty much the same information on each set of forms, name, passport number, last port of call etc as we moved between offices. Speedy it was not.

It’s been a while since either of us has used blue carbon paper which allowed copies to made in triplicate. The official who guided us through customs was hidden behind stacks of paperwork and the spare desk had several teetering piles. Bear in mind, in our two weeks in Barbados at least one cruise ship or occasionally four a day have been docked in Bridgetown, that’s an awful lot of paperwork.

Today we checked out in preparation for departing tomorrow. Once again we visited three offices. And once again we filled in at least two forms in each office with the same aforementioned blue carbon paper. Some of the forms were exactly the same as the ones we filled in when we arrived. I suggest somewhat hesitantly so I don’t appear to be a ‘shouty shouty know all’ that the system could possible be more streamlined.

Our other recent experience with officialdom was with the American Embassy. The form filling online was frustrating and long. (There were some shouty shouty moments during this experience). The actual interview and delivery of the passports was smooth and straightforward. Our passports now each sport a 10 year visitors visa. Our short to medium term plan (which was actually plan A when we left the UK) is to cruise the Caribbean for the rest of the winter and spring then head north to the States to avoid hurricane season.

Tomorrow we plan to pull up the anchor and head to Grenada. Should be about 24 hours to our planned destination. Barbados has been so so friendly, welcoming and relaxing. We’ve been blown away by the helpful gracious nature of the people. Unsurprisingly, we’ll miss seeing turtles swimming around the boat, the wreck to snorkel on in the bay just a few hundred metres away and the welcoming hospitality of the yacht club ashore.

The benchmark has been set for the rest of the Caribbean now.

Relaxing on the beach

West coast of Barbados

Harrison’s Cave

Harrison’s Cave

Palm tree

Wild East Coast with Atlantic Rollers

coffee stop

Beach comeing (not sure that’s spelt correctly)

Nice place to be a lifeguard

Yesterday we hooked up with another English Couple, Polly and Andrew who are anchored next to us and headed off around the Island.

My impression is Barbados is an island of three parts. The East Atlantic Coast is wild and undeveloped. The day was particularly windy and rollers crashed continuously onto the beach.  No need to pay any money for a facial sand scrub on the beach here.

The interior of the island is green and lush. Unlike the rest of the Caribbean, Barbados is not volcanic. It’s also young in geological terms. A limestone ridge runs in the interior and it was here we went to visit Harrison’s Caves. We both thought it had potential to be a bit naff, especially with Dave’s caving experience, but actually it was very impressive and the formations were amazingly unspoilt.

The West Coast is completely set up for tourists with villas, shopping and hotels, especially around Holetown. Not really our natural environment but the beaches are beautiful and the sea lacking in rollers like the east coast.

Today we’re in the Yacht club printing out documentation as we have an appointment tomorrow at the US Embassy to apply for a tourist visa. Arriving by plane or cruise ship doesn’t require the same visa as arriving on your own boat. So hopefully we have everything needed now and the process is straightforward.

View from the boat

Food stocks were pretty low on the boat. Not much fresh stuff left at all. And the excitement of getting here has meant we’ve eaten out quite a bit. As some point we needed to get back to cooking for ourselves…. Although the jerk chicken and flying fish sandwiches I can highly recommend.

After some research online (we’ve sneakily managed to log onto the Radisson hotel internet from the boat at anchor using our wifi booster) we found a supermarket about an hour’s walk away up the beach.

We shopped, bizarrely the store had a fine range of pricy Waitrose products, then decided to get a taxi back.

We all meet people, sometimes fleetingly, who leave their gentle footprint and a part of their goodness with us. Victor, our the taxi driver, was such a man. A true smily open Barbadian, he talked about being proud of his country, its values of welcoming visitors from wherever in the world and the importance of education in broadening an individual’s view of the world. In practical terms he brought us back from the supermarket. But he gave us so much more.

In ten minutes he spoke more sense than a bunch of politicians can in a lifetime. The line that resonated most…”Even though we’re a slave nation, we have no animosity in our hearts.” Good on ya Victor. I shook his hand when we got out and told him he was the best ambassador his country could possibly have.

Not sure it’s appropriate to write anything else after those wise words. But I wanted to say a special Barbadian ‘hello’ to the folk at Penrith Grammar School who have followed our journey across the Atlantic. Thanks for watching! It’s appreciated. If you have any questions just shout and we’ll get back to you.

The weekend approaches. We will be heading down to a local fishing village tonight where you can get fish and chips, Barbadian style. Red snapper, tuna, sword fish, mahi mahi to name a few. Tomorrow afternoon there is a hash. It’s an organised run / walk so we’re going along to that to see a different part of the island and meet some locals.

No rush to move on from here. No rush at all.

We sailed an ocean to Barbados.

Here’s a few pics of the journey. And evidence of the fish!

Wahoo

Learning to fillet …bit tricky on a moving boat

Mindelo, Cape Verde, 30 mins before departure

Leaving Mindelo, Cape Verde

nice shape of twin headsails

Barbados….view from beach bar as a type this blog. We’re anchored out there.

Barbados….it’s nice here

On passage

Sunset mid Atlantic

Rounding the south of the island after 16.5 days at sea

The reeling in position

Our first fish – mahi mahi. It was big.

Our first fish – mahi mahi. It was big. And beautiful.

Glad we have a fridge

Fish….unknown variety but we ate it all the same

Another Fish….unknown variety….maybe a yellow snapper but not sure

Boys in Mindelo fixing the self steering

The forecast higher winds arrived yesterday evening (Saturday). As is usually the case with winds on the grib file forecasts of high teens we are getting low to mid 20s. Not in themselves dramatic winds but as they have been blowing for a few hours now a big sea has built up and the cockpit is regularly splashed.

Helen tidied all the lines in the cockpit as a final job yesterday evening so we haven’t lost anything overboard which is a possibility with Grace being rolled from one beam to the other in the waves.

We have just a scrap of the twin headsails out now and are still making 5 knots, fortunately in exactly the right direction.

Because of the conditions the routine on board is changed. There is no lounging in the cockpit this morning. No warming sun to enjoy. We have timers set on the iPhones. 20 minutes. H is in bed having done the 0300 to 0600 watch. Im lying on one of the saloon settees reading and listening to the sounds of the ship. All good thus far. When the timer sounds (constellation in my case) it’s time to haul upright, traverse to the companionway and climb the steps enough to get a head out for a scan of the horizon. It’s not raining so it’s ok to look out for a few minutes but not a place to stand for long so soon it’s back to the bunk and the timer is reset.

The generator is on so batteries are getting recharged and it’ll soon be time to try and coordinate some muesli and juice into a bowl. It’s a job that needs three hands so will be done over the sink in case of spillage.

There are some other yachts around but not in sight. We can hear them trying to contact each other over the vhf. I guess their routines today will be similar to ours.

No one will be fishing today.

Evening All (or morning, I didn’t post promptly….)

We are approaching the last few hundred miles now and have been looking at likely arrival times. We will not struggle to sail quickly for the next two days as we have strong winds forecast. Consistent 20+ knots. However, even sailing at full tilt we would be making landfall around sunset on Monday evening. And at sensible speeds more like midnight.

We have taken the decision to have another night at sea and approach Barbados with the morning light on Tuesday. In effect this means we have 12 hours to use up between now and 0600 Tuesday.

So, if you’re looking at the tracker and wondering why we have suddenly slowed right down, there’s your answer. Rather than get close and mooch about we will ease off and sail slowly for the last 48 hours or so.

We’ll keep you posted.

May 2010. The adventure starts
A goodly while before we can depart
The good ship Grace is now a Savage
That year too we squeezed in marriage

Summer trips to Scilly, Jersey and France
So we started the experience and upgrade dance
Weekends in Goole with tools and spanners
Grovelling in small spaces, thinking of fresh fish and sundowners

Years roll on, new sails, rig and generator
H gets a new hip, the NHS a speedy efficient saviour
Next year is the year, 2016, we plan to depart
Are they REALLY going, friends and family inquisitively ask?

It took us a while to sort house, health and business
Goodbye Hull, can’t say we’ll miss ya,
Away to the south to follow the sun,
France, Spain Portugal, here we come

Summer was amazing, an array of new places
Iles Cies off Vigo the dream like creation
But it wasn’t a dream, it was all beautifully real
Just me, Dave and Grace, a stunning idyl

To the Canaries, then gloom and engine woes abounded
We thought sea water had curtailed our future planned travels
But optimism reigned thanks to the genius man from Spar
He’s a new superhero, forget batman and his bat mobile car

New year in Mindelo, fireworks, parties and music
Spent with good friends, a special treasure to hold onto
The Atlantic then beckons, that big stretch of water
An ocean crossing, a journey, the challenge we’re after

The miles drop off as we sail to Barbados
Sun, sleeping, fishing, books, bread and emailing
The days roll by with a true sense of order
Closer each moment to that reputed blue sparking water

Land is still a few days away
Maybe 600 miles at lunchtime today
There’s still some sailing to be done
And looking after Grace, making sure she’s still number one
But here we are now seven months in
Having made it all happen and that makes me grin.

Eagle eyes will have spied our change in direction. We were running out of wind on our previous heading and also pottering towards a windless hole. So we turned a lot more south on the advice of our weather router, his professional persona is Mr B Dandridge but we know him as Ben. Thanks again for spending your evenings looking at synoptic charts, grib files and different computer models. (I hope we aren’t providing you with an excuse to get out of kiddies bedtime or washing up duties!)

Another friend Mark, who Dave happened to be emailing last night offered the same picture. This sailing lark is not just about where you are now. It’s about where you’re going to be and what the weather will be there.

We had a couple of small squalls come through last night. Dave timed his watches brilliantly and didn’t get wet. He was up though, give him his credit, supporting me from the dryness of the companion way steps as I winched away some sail. The radar is a great addition to have as it picks up areas of dense rain and we can track direction and estimate speed too.

20 odd hours later, we are now at a more southerly latitude. Sail plan has changed from Main and Yankee to our faithful twin headsails again. We have bright sunshine, 12 knots of breeze, a reasonably forgiving sea state and we’re doing over 5 knots in almost the right direction.

In the ‘to be rectified’ column, we are currently devoid of fish in our refrigerator. Wahoo in a garlic and herb cream sauce last night with green beans and sweet corn. Okay, the veg came out of a couple of cans but still good eating. The line is currently out so in the words of Delia Smith…. let’s be ‘aging you. (Sorry, another football reference. And you thought I’d got that out of my system)

Food is quite a big thing on the boat as you can imagine. Fresh wise, we still have sweet potatoes, new potatoes, garlic, ginger, squash, onions, a leek, a red pepper and an assortment of oranges, lemons and apples. We shopped on 13th Jan in Mindelo and set off the following day. Today is 24th. How many days to go? Well with that old caveat, weather depending, perhaps another 7.