2009 October « of Butterfly and Barnacle

… is something we haven’t done at all since arriving in the Caribbean. So a few days ago, we decided to give it an airing. There was just a little too much wind for the large spinny, so we opted for our favourite – the small 75 sq mtre. It’s a nicely cut sail, very obliging and flat bellied enough for a beam reach as well as a broad. I’d love to show you a pretty shot of it – but was too busy helping Dick to get it set, so forgot to get the camera out. Too bad, it’s a handsome sight.

However, I did remember the camera after we’d belted out to sea some distance, and then, needing to turn back, tucked the asymmetric back into its bag and stowed it away. But with no bright bag of stripes to fill the lens, I settled instead for shooting the view aft as we whipped along on in a lively breeze. The excuse for the sailing was a trip round to Clarke’s Court Bay Marina to book Butterfly in later this year. But if truth be known, the sailing itself was reason enough. See that whoppa cloud – that sight is common enough around these parts – so much heat, so much moisture, and hence so much potential for trouble. It’s not unusual to see great mushrooming explosions of clouds billowing high into the stratosphere – huge great giants puffed fat on hot sea air. Although of late things have been more settled with a prolonged dry spell and skies full of sunshine and benign white fluffy monsters like that one. Yesterday, however that situation changed and today has been repeatedly squally and very, very wet on and off throughout.

Last two nights and this morning, we anchored off the Calivigny resort – a pretty complex in a lovely quiet spot – Butterfly fair danced and swirled on her chain as gust after gust careered across the water. We had travelled there to talk to Mike from Palm Tree Marine who’ll be doing some work for us, once warranty spare parts finally arrive from African Cats. Mike has a good reputation, well deserved. If you’re cruising in this neck o’ the woods, in need of any repairs, services, new fittings relating to generators, motors, diesel engines etc – he’s your guy. Nice to chat with a fellow Brit, too.

It was gorgeously peaceful there and – thanks to the wind whistling down the funneling valley – refreshingly cool at Calivigny. The view off the back of the boat was serenity itself. Sky and sea and nothing but the horizon between the two. I love that – give me the big wide open spaces and seclusion and I’m a very contented bunny. At night, we were spoiled with a glittering moonriver thrown down by a pale lemon moon. Oh, and a deliciously cool night breeze to accompany all that eye-candy, too. Take a look at the shot coming up – the last thing we saw before calling it a day and putting up gentle zzzzzzs.

Would have gladly stayed longer at Calivigny if we didn’t have to get back to Prickly Bay to buy some parts and start the next repair project. As it happened, once we had hoisted the anchor, yet another bullying squall came rocketing through, and we left Calivigny with the wind gusting 35 knots and the sea a lush and lively froth-pot. Heavy rain pounded the deck clean and cooled the temperature nicely, so not a grumble from us. In fact it reminded us of when we were closing on Brazil earlier this year – the ITCZ – squall territory if ever there was one.

Prickly Bay is somewhere we seem obliged to return to again and again. It isn’t my favourite spot, nor Dick’s, but it is very convenient for many things – not the least being it has a branch of Budget Marine chandlers right by the dinghy dock near de Big Fish bar and restaurant. Nicholas, who runs the store, is invariably helpful and will order most things in, if they haven’t got it in stock. A short(ish) bus ride away from de Big Fish, and there’s Island Water World at St George’s, run by Jonathan, who also dj’s the morning Cruisers’ Net on the radio. IWW is also a fairly well-stocked chandlery and between the two – Budget Marine and IWW – most common boat spares and items can be sourced.

Prickly Bay is also a good, lively social scene. The two bar-cum-restaurants, de Big Fish and the Tiki Bar are, to some degree, in competition and the cruiser definitely benefits from this. Both venues have regular Happy Hours (usually 2 rather than singular), and both offer live music of a good – and sometimes great – calibre. For instance, tonight we could have boogied on down at the de Big Fish with Stan and Cora and David dishing out the jazz and blues in great foot-stomping style, or we could have joined friends, Neil and Tracy, for a quiz night at the Tiki. With frequent rain showers stopping play, we in fact did neither – though staying in when there’s good entertainment on hand, is unusual for us. We’ve made many good friends amongst the cruisers who are more or less resident at Prickly Bay – so that’s another attraction to keep us coming back. Dick’s chess partner, Chris (on Magus), is another PB reason for us to return. The two guys are well-matched and both enjoy their battle on the board, an hour or three of cerebral exercise lubricated by serial martinis for Chris. He’s the only chess player we know who swears blind he plays better after some alcofrolical imbibition.

Prickly Bay is also good for getting around and about. Always a bus to be had nearby – most calling in at de Big Fish to pick cruisers up from the dinghy dock. A convenience not to be sniffed at given the extreme heat of these late summer days making walking a fair distance, just too hot an exercise. These buses (in reality, people carriers rather than proper buses) run with unfailing regularity and with little waiting time between. So tomorrow, we’ll dinghy over to the dock, buy what we need from Budget Marine, bus to the local supermarket and stock up once more on some provisions – and later – pick up some diesel from Prickly Bay Marina – with the hurricane season still some weeks to go, we like to keep enough diesel on board for a quick emergency get-away if necessary.

But the attractions and usefulness of PB are not enough to keep us. We like sailing far too much, and enjoy a frequent change of scene, to stay put there for long. Besides, it’s so nice to intersperse the social buzz of PB with time out in quieter anchorages where boats numbers are far fewer and the skyline less cluttered with evidence of man.

Somewhere like this, for example. Where all we could see from our vantage point of Butterfly’s cockpit yesterday evening at Calivigny was that one distant sailing vessel. Those dark, gaunt sails silently gliding across the horizon the only reminder we were not alone.

With the cockpit table lowered to form a bed with the seating surrounding it (and made comfortable with lots of foam cushioning) – what could be more soothing and yet paradoxically more inspiring than lying back and feasting on that almost surrealistic scene as the sun takes its leave and melts into the sea? (Ah, then, if you prefer the clamour of big cities and bright lights, you’ll be yawning in disagreement here. And if that ennui is genuine, then pay no attention to me floating on my Ommmmm cloud again!)

But in truth it’s hard not to warble on. For there are many times, like last night (and so many, many nights) – when the view from Butterfly is straight off a postcard, it’s so tropically, exotically perfect. I would certainly loathe to ever arrive at a point where we take these views for granted. Certainly, these idylls of glorious natural beauty are still visually powerful enough to enthrall us both and it’s more than we can do to just wonder at our luck to be here and to be fortunate enough to bear witness. In fact, sometimes, you find yourself wondering if the perfection isn’t almost too perfect to be real. And that’s when it hits you, the carpe diem thang – the wisdom of revelling in the ‘now’. Because – and I’ll resist the urge to get maudlin – approaching your mid-fifties, you know you don’t have forever to feast on such marvels. So, bugger it, by that logic, where’s the harm in uploading another lyrical sundowner – one taken towards the end of yesterday:

Are you blissed out alright, already?!

By the way, a little more prosaically, that AB tender – a 9.5ft aluminium lightweight version – is proving to be top-dollar. Combined with a 9.8 2 stroke Tohatsu it’s everything we could need. And comfortingly, it rows easily too. Spent a happy hour rowing on and off around Butterfly, the other day, so I could access her undersides and polish some of the hard-to-reach bright work.

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Want a laugh? Grenada is a gentle island. It is not a hot spot for crime and piracy and violence – thankfully. So when a crime is committed, it meets with a lot of attention and fuss. Some time back, a boat was burgled in St George’s Bay and the unlucky owners lost several electronic gadgets including laptops and phones. A big public brouhaha ensued – the crime being reported on the Cruisers’ Net and a lot of air time given to the subject. Boat theft is rare around here – and naturally folk are concerned enough to want it to remain that way. Well, hooray, they’ve finally caught the perpetrator – excellent news. Not so excellent, however, is the news the stolen property cannot be returned to the poor owner. Why? Because the daft dude who nicked it, had wrapped the various electronic items in – wait for it – clingfilm! prior to jumping back in the water and swimming with his loot to the shore. His soggy snatchfest no good to him or anyone. Clingfilm! I kid you not … well, it tickled me, anyway.

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Not so funny was the T-boning accident that happened to some guys we know also cruising these waters. Another boat, about to raise anchor and move off, started their engine(s) and then went below to sort things out. The engine was in gear – and the inevitable happened. Boof! Straight into the broadsides of our pals. But the T-boners insurance won’t pay out the full sum to the injured party, and nor will the injured party’s insurance pay for them to stay in rented accommodation while their boat is on the hard having repairs – despite the fact some of the work to be done is deemed by the boatyard to be hazardous to health, especially since they have three young kids aboard. So, through absolutely no fault of their own, the hapless family will be well out of pocket and will have to weather a shed load of hassle getting the boat fixed … but I guess that’s boating for you: great fun but a risky business at times.

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I recently mentioned we had bought a Wirie - a wifi adaptor to boost wifi reception and get a wider range of signals. Well, it’s proving to be a success. Housed in a Pelican box (fully waterproof), we now have free wifi access almost all of the time. Sometimes, we need to anchor a little to the left or right of a geographical obstacle – like a hill! – to get a sturdy signal, but mostly it’s drop anchor, hoist the Wirie onto the stackpack and tape into upright position and Bob’s yer sister – we have a connection. How far the range is, I’m not sure, but for our purposes, it’s been good enough.

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Well, Tropical Storm Grace has hurtled well out of reach of Grenada and is apparently belting off NNE, heading towards Ireland and Scotland nearer our home shores instead. So some wild weather – at least some wild winds – due on the west coast of the UK very soon. So from a hot and humid Grenada to a cool and windy UK, it’s time for me to wrap this post up before my ailing laptop battery dies – which – aarrgghh, the warning beep has just sounded – so it will do any minute now!

‘Night all!