HURRAY and A BIT OF TRADITION

Well there is a smile on my face because with the last lick of paint in the tin I covered the last bit of the centerboard and unpainted bottom. The lift driver Edwyn is very accomodating leaving me high in the slings so I can drop the board scrape it and get a coat of anti fouling on it.

The smile is also there because I am escaping from boatyard hell for another year. Dust, mosquitos, ladders, goats and the blind rooster all make it a place to avoid.

Anchored out again I noticed this.

Now while it says TRADITION Anguilla I was sure that was a Carriacou built sloop wit that traditional curve to the transom. So it proved to be, built in 1978 and not long out of a major refit which involved a desperation call for some Carriacou boat builders to help out their Northern friends when their woodworking skills failed them.

It has some unusual features, a bowsprit for a start. I have seen bowsprits on Carriacou decked sloops but they usually only appear for races. But I have never seen one carry a liferaft or display the correct daymark to show she is at anchor.

BACK IN GRENADA

They say trouble comes in threes. Well it started when I picked up a large sail which must have been lying on the bottom. A few strokes with a saw got me clear but it was one of the times I wished I had someone on the throttle and helm because I had raised the mainsail before raising anchor and we were sailing around other boats trailing this sail from the anchor.

Clear of the bay I unrolled the genoa and a fishing line. Within seconds I had a fish, a large barracuda so roll up the genoa and reel in the cuda with a pair of pliers to hand to unhook the toothy fellow. Just as I got him to the boat he broke the line and made off with my last pink squid.

Ah well I turned back on course hit the autopilot button and felt the clutch bite but after a few seconds it became clear that there was on autopilot steering happening then I got the error message “DRIVE STOPPED”

Ho hum so it was hand steering down to Grenada, which was quite fun as we were doing 8 to 9 knots with a big following swell which made us a bit squirrely running down the face of the waves.

A REPLICA A RESURRECTION and A ZOMBIE

REPLICA Alice Wragg

is Canadian built boat using wood and epoxy to produce a 40 ft gaff cutter which owes much to the Bristol Channel Pilot cutters. The UK owners hail from Bristol and she is sitting next to me in the boatyard in Carriacou getting some minor woodwork done.

RESURRECTION Alongside her is a very similar boat

but this one was built on the beach in Petite Martinique.

Beauty was built in 2008 by Baldwin “Balo” DeRoche for Jeff Stevens, owner and captain of the 65-foot Windward schooner Jambalaya, built by Alwyn Enoe & Sons at Windward, Carriacou. The new 48-foot six-inch wooden sloop is similar in design to the 40-foot sloop Balo built for Jeff last January, but before Savvy was launched, her purpose and destiny changed. She was purchased by a prominent businessman to promote his new marina development in Grenada, presenting a well-timed opportunity for Stevens and DeRoche to make some innovative changes to the new vessel’s design.

“She’s going to be a green boat,” says Jeff, who is wearing a shirt the same shade of blue as the top stripe on Beauty’s two-toned blue hull. “Not green the colour, it’s bad luck to paint a boat green,” he explains with reverence, “We’re using green technology.” She has a an electric motor some serious storage cells plus a water driven charging system as well as solar.

Douglas Pyle chronicled what he thought was a dying art in 1981, when he published Clean, Sweet Wind, visiting the same islands and families whose descendants have somehow managed to keep the tradition alive with little outside assistance. But the ancient art of traditional wooden boat building has been resurrected!

ZOMBIE Dead but not yet buried. In a corner is this sad sight.

At first sight she seems all there and might be saveabale however there are holes in the deck and cockpit suggesting that water will have been getting inside so I guess the interior will be rotting.

Finally here is mine looking quite spiffy

and waiting to be splashed. I was expecting to be back in this Monday but the boatyard is on Island Time so it will be tomorrow. Probably maybe hopefully!

BEST LITTLE BOATYARD IN THE CARIBBEAN

Well I was chided for my late arrival and they hauled me at 8 am on the day after I sailed up. Which was fine as I would only be pussyfooting around doing small stuff.

As usual they put a diver in to check the slings and although it is always worrying to see your home up in the air it was fine.

The usual Clarks Court Bay

waterline crud seems worse seems worse this year. Still I have some magic cleaning stuff that shifts it. I spent two days just on the waterline before. 2 hours with On and Off is all I need.

The red stuff on the prop

looks like it is out of a science fiction horror movie. Still it scraped off quite easily,

The pressure wash guy did a good job

but as usual can not touch the barnacle bases. Time to get the scraper out.

Finally made it to Carriacou

The sky was a bit mucky looking on Monday and it was raining so I wussed out again.

To be rewarded on Tuesday with a sunny day and no squalls so the cat and I had a pleasant sail up to Carriacou.

LOOKING BLACK AND EVIL TO THE NORTH.

Well I stuck my head out this morning and it was looking pretty ' DARK AND STORMY ' to the North so it was back to bed for a Sunday lie in.

I will go on Monday.

Before I left Clarks Court Bay I dove on the bottom which was pretty clean just a few barnacles.

The prop and shaft however were another matter. Yup somewhere inside that flower basket is my prop.

I also have a few pics from my last snorkel with huge amounts of newly hatched fish fry hanging out in the spines of the sea urchins.

NORTHBOUND TO CARRIACOU TOMORROW SUNDAY

That is providing the scary things that the cruising weather pundits don't happen. The blob of convection mid Atlantic is falling apart and the wave which has some stuff on it should go through tonight.

But I have learned to make a final decision in the mornings I make passage. A quick look at the sky and a check on Barbados weather radar.

TACK THE CAT and PIRATES OF THE AERIAL KIND

I am off round to St Georges tomorrow if everything goes to plan. It wil be Dizzy Sox's first REAL sail of any length. Some cats hate sailing but others!

Well on my last boat Carpe Diem Rumba a cat of no brain just a Random Number Generator up top used to make passage on the boom.

Hence the extra line in the tacking instructions.

"READY ABOUT

TACK THE CAT!

LEE HO"

Dizzy has been a bit freaked out today because we have had a big shoal of fish around the boat which has attracted the gulls and terns who have been diving for them.

The frigate birds then steal the fish from the gull.

The successful frigate then gets mobbed by other frigated until the fish is swallowed or dropped.

Some truly amazing aerial manuvres were executed.

Hnnn where has the spellchecker gone. sure there should be an o in manouveres maybe not.

Hmmmmmmmmmmm now saying it is maneuvers does not look right who cares.

A GRAY AND RAINY DAY - DIZZY SOX FALLS IN

I awoke to the sound of rain drumming on the deck. The farmers and those who catch rainwater will be glad but it stopped my varnishing work.

Normally my solar panels keep me fully charged but with the cloudy conditions I was getting less from them so was being a bit more diligent in aligning them to the sun. Dizzy likes to come and oversee this giving a final nod of approval.

I did some scut work on the computer tiding things up and backing up my hard drive but finally the rain tailed off and the sunset

was quite amazing with the waters in the bay turning blood red. Yes it really was that colour.

I watched until the last faint wash of colour faded out of the sky and went below, switched on some tunes and started to make dinner. Fortunately I did not have the volume up and I caught the faintest of cat cries and some splashing. Yes, Dizzy had fallen in. I looked over the side with a torch and could not see him so jumped in to find him clinging to the top of the rudder. I picked him off and put his front paws onto the netting which I have over the side and he scrambled back on board on his own.

Here he is after some shampoo and a fresh water rinse.

He looked pretty unhappy at that moment but seems back to normal this morning.