Canouan, Grenadines: The circle is complete

We have been here before, on 11-Feb-2010.

The circle is complete.

We have properly checked in, into "St Vincent and the Grenadines". Now, lets celebrate....

A last day on Tobago

We met Sandra and Peter in Englishman's Bay. They are from Berlin, vacationing on Tobago, rental car and a rented cottage. Peter tried his fishing luck from shore without much luck.

A day later we anchored in Pirate Bay and saw them again, Peter still trying his fishing luck. The water along the shore was too murky from the rain days ago. We invited them on the boat, to fish in clear water and have a drink aboard. We did catch a few fish, small, and before they went home we supplied them with some Mahi Mahi filets from our freezer.

Pirate Bay

In return, they took us for a day trip by rental car, plus we had lunch at their cottage. Situated in the rainforest, landscaped by a botanist, this is a wonderful spot to relax.

View from the cottage

Sandra, Dirk, Silvie

For the evening we ended up on our boat again, catching, and loosing, a few more little fish, drinking a few more little beers.

Next day we checked out and left Tobago around noon.

A few more days, bay-hopping around Tobago

We continue to enjoy "green, green, serene" Tobago. The best place so far was "Englishman's Bay", a small bay, with had everything: A moon shaped golden beach surrounded by rocks and cliffs, palm trees, and a fresh water creek.

English Man's Bay

Lots of lush vegetation growing up the mountains. We had our Christmas lunch here, in the one restaurant on the beach, a bit upscale (for Tobago), serving local dishes with a great view.

The 26th and 27th are holidays since the 25th was on a Sunday. We think about checking out on the 28th, then head North, via the Grenadines, St Vincent, St Lucia, to Martinique.

Head Rant

About every six months we have to rebuild one of our two heads/toilets. It's raining here in the rain forest, so today we tackled this job, this gives us two working heads, ready for the next one to fail.

Don't you also think there are a few too many parts? It is made from great materials, Porcelain, bronze, stainless steel. Link to manufacturers website

The rebuild kit costs as much as a simple head made from plastic. Next time, in the US, we just put in one of the simple JABSCO heads, they work. And if they don't, we toss it and get a new one.

.... rant end ... lets enjoy paradise ;-)

Tobago, check in

We checked into Charlotteville, Man of War Bay, Tobago. A very laid back little village, we are sooo not ready for the crowded Caribbean, this looks more like a place from xx years ago.







Officialdom in Trinidad & Tobago is a bit special. Even for a small island like Tobago, one has to check out of this port, then check in at Scarborough to see the Southern part of the island.

Land Ho, Tobago

Looks like Tobago, the Great Precision Sextant didn't lead us the wrong way ;-)

Macaws, Iles De Salut

The day after our arrival on the Iles Du Salut, a cruise ship came into the anchorage and anchored a 1/4 mile behind us.

The crew of the "Seven Seas Navigator" erected a day-tent ashore to welcome guests with shade & refreshments. Then there was an all day activity of two orange shore-boats, bringing batches of "affluent" clientele (read: filthy rich) to shore and back.

The three islands have lush vegetation, including coconut palm trees, on basalt rock. There is not a single sandy beach. The water is murky brown. There is really nothing to see at shore. One backpacker style hotel, a few barracks from the way-back penal colony, falling apart, some modern maintenance buildings, fuel tanks. Besides being the scene of a few books, written by criminals, what is the point of coming here by cruise ship? We guess, the "well aged" clientele needed to be walked a bit. Some younger backpackers were brought by catamaran from Kourou, but to see what?

For us it was a good stop to rest, but that was it. One highlight we did have, we saw three large colorful Macaws flying over the trees, not hard to spot, they make a lot of noise.

We are underway again, 500 miles to Tobago.

Anchor down, Iles Du Salut

1h past midnight, 3-4 other sailboats are here already. A rain squall washed us, and the boat, just when we dropped anchor.

Magic Carpet

We finally found the magic carpet, and enjoy riding it.

At first, we were too far off the Brazilian coast, but here, just 20 miles off the continental shelf, here it is: It is one of these invisible rivers in the oceans. This one pushes us with an extra 2-3 knots past Brazil, towards French Guiana. Up to this morning we were able to sail, despite light winds we still averaged >8.5 knots in 24h. By now we feel the effects of the ITCZ, towering white clouds around us, 100% humidity, scorching sun, no wind, possibly some fireworks (thunder and lightning) tonight.

Princess Yanmar, our little engine, is helping us to make the Iles Du Salut by Wednesday morning.

00 00.000N

This is what the GPS showed for a second when we were crossing the equator, (probably) for the last time on this journey. For this occasion, we brought a bottle of South African "Champagne".

We got light winds, but some favorable current keeps us moving.

735 miles to go, to Devil's Island: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Devil's_Island

Half Time

We keep chipping away on the distance, 1200 miles behind us, 1200 miles to go, to the Iles Du Salut.

The weather has been good, the humidity is increasing, as are the number of little rain squalls sneaking up at night.

We aren't sailing fast, but still make 140-150 miles a day, we haven't found a strong equatorial current. A boat 700 miles ahead of us reports 1.5-3 knots of current, but they are much closer to shore than us.

We should continue like this for a few more days, when we come to the influence of the ITCZ. There we expect sometimes no wind, then lots of wind in squalls, thunderstorms, torrential rains, all typical for the ITCZ. You can see the actual position of the ITCZ here: http://weather.noaa.gov/pub/fax/PYEA11.TIF

A good rain will be welcomed, the boat needs a washing: Every night we have at least 2 medium size brownish birds looking for a spot to sleep. They prefer the radar dome, or the solar panel way in the back. There they also do their business, and, with wind coming from the aft, the back deck looks like shit. We clean it daily, but a good rain would help.

One moonlit night, we saw a large pack of dolphins coming to the boat. They behaved a bit different than usual, they moved very fast, in a jerky motion, didn't play with the bow wake. We didn't understand until Dirk got hit in the back by a largish flying fish. These dolphins were hunting, not playing!

For most of the South Atlantic we haven't met any ships, but this changed. We now see a few ships every day, heading North or South, crossing our path. And we are now within the 200 mile "economical exclusion zone" of Brazil, here the Brazilian fishing boats pull their nets or long lines. Last night we got called by one of the fishing boats, in Portuguese. The only English words we got out of them was "good night", but we understood "pesca", possibly fishing with long lines, we gave them some extra room and passed their stern some 3 miles behind them.

Fishing Luck

We have been trolling two lures most of the days without luck. We have been seeing swarms of flying fish, a good sign, there must be Mahi-Mahis around then.

Today, two good size Mahi-Mahis bit at the same time, we landed/boated them both. One will be eaten fresh, over the next days, we freeze the other one for leaner times.

1950 miles to go to Isles Du Salut, or, Fernando De Noronha is 640 miles from here.

South America is closer than Africa now.

Left Ascension, to ... don't know yet ...

It's 1150 miles to Fernando de Noronha, islands belonging to Brazil. We learned from another cruiser about the anchorage fees and national park fees. For the two of us, it sums up to $120 per calendar day. If we even stop, it will be very brief.

From there we are going to follow the Brazilian North coast, sailig ~100 miles offshore in deeper water, avoiding oil platforms, fishing boats and also ride the South Equatorial Current. If needed, there are a couple of places to stop, like Fortalezza.

By Christmas, we hope to be in the Iles Du Salut (Devils Island has an old prison, stage for the book "Papillion"), with possible shopping in Kourou, or Cayenne, all part of French Guiana.

Ascension, a wasteland of lava flows and cinder cones

Green Mountain, often hidden in clouds


Cinder'n'Lava


Cinder Cones

We toured the island by car, drove on each km of the 40km tarred road. For a moment, the clouds disappeared and we drove, then walked up Green Mountain, and had good views.



Up Green Mountain is a lot of lush vegetation, the mountain catches the clouds and water is dripping everywhere. The existing vegetation was planted by the English, including a Bamboo forest at the very top, around a Dew-Pond, used to catch water.



Wikipedia has a good write up on geography and history of Ascension.


Anchorage

Somebody must have really 'liked' this island, giving names like: Comfortless Cove (a nice protected beach), Devil's Riding School, Devil's Ash Pit, Devil's Cauldron, Broken Tooth (one of the mountains), Breakneck Valley.....

Piranhas?

Some cruising guides mention large amounts of small fish in the anchorage, the size of a hand, the larger ones are maybe a foot long. They are supposed to clean the hull of boats from algae, growth and barnacles. We don't have barnacles, we got fresh antifouling paint in South Africa. But along and above the waterline we did have some growth. As the books mention, the fish were there, eating away, while we were still doing the anchoring dance, still letting chain out.

One book suggests a relation of these fish to Piranhas, we are not sure about that, this is salty ocean water, not the Amazon river. But these fish do behave like Piranhas: We fed them a few pieces of bread, chips, chocolate, meets, and once they figured it out, swarms of these fish were fighting for a bite, sometimes moving on top of each other, out of the water.

BLACK DURGON/"BLACKFISH" / Melichthys niger

"Prolific is the word which comes to mind. A member of the Trigger family, it is found in most tropical waters, but nowhere is it so overwhelming as off Ascension. The many colours of the blackfish are brought out by flash light. It is a scavenger and will eat most things. At night they sleep on their sides on the seabed."

Dirk did hang a foot in the water, which was inspected closely, but had no takers. What would happed when you put a piece of bread between the toes?

Besides, the water is too cold for a swim, to us.

We spent the day playing with fish, some maintenance on the boat, and watching the RMS St Helena being unloaded.

Ascension Island

This was a comfortable, but also very slow passage. A day out of St Helena, the wind calmed to 8-10 knots, except for times in squalls. We changed sails and course often, trying to get the most out of wind and some current. We needed almost 6 full days for 700 miles, as the crow flies.

We are checked in, the Entry Permit got approved while we were ashore.

The anchorage is better, less rolly, than St Helena. But the dinghy landing is even more interesting:

There is a floating line between two large buoys, where the dinghies tie up to. But first you have to fetch a tender, tied with a long line to the stairs of the pier. Bring the tender with the dinghy to a free spot along the floating line. Tie up the dinghy, jump on the tender. This tender doesn't have an engine. Pull yourself to the stairs by pulling the line in, time it right with the large swell at the stairs, don't jump, it is very slippery, get off the tender, let the tender out by its line in a controlled way, not to smash into the dinghies. On the way back, reverse the procedure and at the end try to direct the tender towards your dinghy, with one oar.

Tomorrow is Ship Day. The RMS Helena is arriving early in the morning, unloading passengers first, a few of whom we have met on St Helena. Then there will be a lot of movement by small barges, "lighters", to unload containers from the RM S Helena and bring them to shore, where a mobile crane is already waiting to pick the containers from the lighters. Then containers will be brought from shore to the ship. We do want to take a few pics of this.

We have been warned that we can not land, by dinghy, when the goods are brought to shore, too dangerous. This is just fine, we have to keep up with some maintenance items on the boat.

The supermarket will be stocked up and we are going to provision for the next ~20 day trip.

We booked a rental car for Thu/Fri and want to see some of the island.

Leaving St Helena, heading for Ascension Island

By forecast, this will be a slow, light wind, down wind sail. Right now, we have blue skies, little swell, enough wind to fill the sails, a good start.

Ascension is a communication center for the British and US Air Force, the BBC, Cable & Wireless, the European Space Center, etc. The island is supposed to be littered with antennas and satellite dishes.

We had to apply for an Entry Permit, but had gotten the wrong (old) form from immigration on St Helena at first. Yesterday we faxed and emailed a new application, but we didn't receive an answer back from Ascension before we set sail. We hope to be allowed for a stop, 700 miles from St Helena, otherwise it is another 1150 miles to Fernando de Noronha (Brazil).

We missed ship day on St Helena, but the RMS Helena will then travel to Ascension and we should meet her there.

There is always a cloud over St Helena

St Helena Island II

On approach, St Helena looks uninviting: No signs of vegetation are visible until a nearer approach is made, when it can be seen in the valleys and on the summits of the hills, in striking contrast to the precipitous and almost inaccessible cliffs, which form the coastline.

The anchorage at Jamestown is in-famous for big swell, gusty winds, and bad holding. At anchor, we are rocking and rolling, like we would be sailing, sleep is not good. The landing by dinghy is interesting. A couple of ropes with knots, hanging like a swing for children, or for Tarzan, are supposed to make it safer.

So, why even stop here? After 1700-1800 miles from South Africa a stop is a good thing. This island is known to be a friendly, welcoming place, with more to show than the rough outer layer. For centuries it was a stop for sailing ships (well, there aren't many possible stops in the middle of the South Atlantic), to take on water and provisions.

Jamestown, view from Jacobs ladder

We hooked up with Christina (from Austria), and Louisa (from Germany), working here. We got to see some of the lush interior of the island, some old fortifications and churches. The contrast of the different zones of vegetation is amazing.

It is hard to get fresh produce, most of the locally grown stuff doesn't make it to the market, being sold from each farm to the locals. On the tour we were able to buy some eggs and bananas.

Contrasts

The island is trying to identify itself in the world of tourism, and find a niche. Today, there is no airport, access by Royal Mail Ship only, or by small yacht. An airport is going to be built. Tourism is supposed to get the economy going. But once the tourists come by plane, it won't be the same anymore :-(

Sunday 11/11 was Remembrance Day, and the islanders remembered wars, fallen soldiers, with parades, minutes of silence, etc. A ship, the Darkdale, was torpedoed while at anchor along these shores in WW-II with many lives lost.

On the way to here, we had to motor for a couple of days, we want to buy some diesel, but, at 8$/gallon, we can wait. We called the fuel station on Ascension Island, it is much cheaper there and only 700 miles from here, almost on the way.

"Ship Day" is when the RMS (Royal Mail Ship) Helena comes, and it must be a great event on the island. Restaurants and bars have schedules like: open Tue, Thu, Fri-Sat, and Ship Day. We had hoped to see the ship, but it had a delayed start in Capetown and we will miss it.

St Helena Island

Arrived, all is well, had our first few drinks ashore at Anne's place, which is famous with sailors. Typical for this islands seems to be a very relaxed attitude to payments. The fees for Immigration, Port, as well as the drinks, can be paid later, on Monday, when the bank is open to change some money.


Anne's Place

Restaurant du bateau: Chez Silvia

Uwe and Brigitte on Momo have bragged about the good meals they had on the passage from Reunion to Africa. Everything in life, specifically for sailors, seems to be a competition. Here is our entry:

Over the eight days, the culinary highlights were:

* Filet de ostrich avec choux de bruxelle
* Confis de kudu antilope et springbock avec legumes grilles
* Malayan pepper beef
* Chinese stir fry
* South-Aafrican potijes a la mode
* Medallions de tuna filet, a la poelle, caught 10 minutes before
* Bisque de tomate avec filet de Tuna

The main courses were presented with rice, Italian pasta, couscous, or freshly baked bread

As for greens, diverse vegetables and salads keep the crew healthy. We hope to get some fresh greens and eggs from the market in St Helena.

Deserts:

* Fruit-salad with a hint of Angustura rum
* Kaiserschmarrn, the raisins were soaked in the Angustura rum

We had bought this rum in Trinidad, back in March 2010. It is a good rum, but we just don't drink rum, beer and wine is our poison. It would be a shame to bring back the rum to Trinidad, 2 years later, some mere 4300 miles from here.

Jimmy wrote: Dirk, you look like you didn't miss a meal ;-)

It's a tough Life on Lison Life.

St Helena: 660 miles to go. Light wind, sailing slowly, buy comfortably.