MAY_____________________________________________________________2006

Monday, May 1st

<Araksi> Our next destination today is only 15 miles away, so we wanted to get more out of this beautiful place: after breakfast Ruud and I went snorkeling on the reef. There were not a lot of reef fish around. The underwater world at Hillsborough, that we had visited with Helga, René, Anja and Hans was much richer. Back on Garabes I still wanted to climb the small island that was lying on our starboard side. Four of us on board we beached the dinghy on the golden sands and took a short hike in to the heights of the island. We had some spectacular views from out there.

Around noon time we left the anchorage. We had a very pleasant and fast sail to Terryl bay. The seas had even a gift for dinner in form of a barracuda. Usually Marcia and I prepared the food and the boys washed the dishes, which worked quite well for both parties.

Tuesday, May 2nd

<Ruud> We returned to Grenada today. This was a perfect sail which took us right over an underwater volcano called Kicking Jenny. Well, there are not many people that can claim to have been on top of these fire monsters, so that is another experience to be added to the list. Thankfully Jenny was peaceful and we could continue our sail without having to make a detour. We had planned to anchor at St George's. But the small harbor was just too full, so we continued to Prickly Bay where we found a peaceful spot for the evening. Araksi called a rental company to have a car for the following day.

Wednesday, May 3rd

<Araksi> After a rich breakfast with ham and eggs, we were ready for a tour along the western coast and the center of the isle. But before that there was one thing to organize, namely a pleasant restaurant for our farewell dinner this evening. We had nailed down two places, one in the True Blue bay and the other close to the airport, which is called Aquarium. After visiting both and checking their menus we decided for the latter.

Our trip begun in St. George's. After showing the town to Marcia and Ed we headed north along the western coast up to Sauteurs, driving through the old fishing centers of Gouyave and Victoria. We saw lake Antoine and visited the rum factory. The difference to the distillery we had seen in Martinique was amazing. While the latter could be considered a modern production site, its Grenadian counterpart came right from the stone ages of distillation history. Here the sugar cane is crashed by an giant old water driven wheel built in 1785; the sap from the cane is collected in stone moulds, and the air in the bottling area is saturated by the odor of rum that has been the product of this charming place for many countless years.

On our way back we took the road across the island from Grenville to St. George's. Driving on the island is quite an adventure with its narrow serpentine roads. Ruud, who was our driver for the day, was sweating. The poor boy had to concentrate on the narrow roads that in some places had deep ditches along the road and/or steep down hills, while trying to keep up with the left side driving system.

It was around 16:00 when we were back on Garabes. We were all tired and needed a little of rest before heading to Aquarium. The restaurant has a very pleasant atmosphere and its setting is beautiful along an idyllic beach which has on one corner gigantic rocks. Ed, who calls himself a Manhattanholic and had introduced this very tasteful drink to us years ago, paused his first and very crucial question to the waiter: "do you prepare Manhattans?". Was that a test or maybe a hope to get his favorite drink far away from home? I suppose it was both. Anyway, the respond was positive. So we ordered three Manhattans - it was Marcia's alcohol free day. The drinks were just superb; smooth, sensuous and romantic just as the whole atmosphere. The evening continued in this pleasant ambiance, with nice little surprises, such as the home made delicious bread rolls with chunks of butter and cream cheese, the crab cakes and a tasteful main dish. Topping all this was the very lovely live music sung by a lady whose beautiful voice was even smoother and silkier than the Manhattans we were having. This evening was a magnificent treat to us from Ed and Marcia.

Thursday, May 4th

<Araksi> The sound of our alarm clock chased us out of our beds at 04:45 this morning; it also was ringing the end of a very pleasant sailing week with Ed and Marcia. We drove them to the airport for their early flight, then returned back to Garabes. Ruud could continue his interrupted sleep while I was getting in the weather report and preparing the shopping list. Around 08:30 we headed to St. George's for provisioning.

We left Prickly bay around 12:00 and motored all the way to St. David's bay for 7 miles. We had a light breeze on the bow. At our arrival Ruud went to talk to Graig about the oil leakage and the rubber protection for the area between the sail drive neck and the hull (nothing major, it is just to prevent barnacles from growing in that difficult-to-clean-area).

We both were due for bed quite early in the evening. We had some wonderful sailing for around ten days and lots of fun with good friends. It was now once again time to deal with the work side of sailing, something that we had in abundance in this season.

Friday, May 5th

<Ruud> I convinced the yard owner that they haul out Garabes on Monday to look at the leak and the badly installed rubber. This settled we had a quiet day to relax.

Saturday, May 6th

<Ruud> We were invited by John and Kevin to sail on their wooden schooner Raindancer, a boat damaged by hurricane Ivan, and which they are now trying to repair. It was a gorgeous sail on this very classic boat so different in many ways from our modern catamaran. Of course I tried to catch a fish form their boat too, but didn't succeed.

Sunday, May 7th

<Ruud> I went to Raindancer again to install some nautical programs on John's computer so that they have some electronic charts while navigating the Caribbean, while Araksi was working on our homepage.

<Araksi> In the evening we had dinner on Raindancer. Chris and Jana from Moody Fin who had arrived today in our cozy anchorage had freshly caught fish that sought the heat of a barbeque. While John was busy cooking the fish we were listening to many tales, that continued during the dinner. We had lots of laughter to Keith's (the shipwright at the yard) adventures, and to many jokes uttered in this very pleasant circle.

Monday, May 8th

<Araksi> Garabes is out of the water again. We will re-glue the rubber protections to the saildrive cavities. I had done this myself two years ago in Marmaris and it had resisted the water flow of all those thousands of miles we had left behind. The ones that had come with the new saildrives and that had been glued here in the yard ten days ago didn't even resist all that water pressure of ten miles.

In the evening when we were in the bar with the group we spontaneously decided to go for dinner to the Plantation, the resort next to the yard. It was also a kind of goodbye to Jana who will leave tomorrow for England. Chris and Jana are old veterans of this yard and have had many crazy evenings with John and Kevin before.

Tuesday, May 9th

<Araksi> I was up and working under the boat already at 06:30 preparing the surface around the saildrive. Before the hot sun rays hit our spot I applied the primer for Sikaflex, that will glue the rubber protection on to the surface.

Ruud was busy with another nerve wrecking work, namely fixing the leakage that has been bothering us now since so many months. He repaired the spot at least three times and each time we had a heavy downpour it leaked.

<Ruud> The leak is indeed killing my patience. Michael from Lucie had spent many hours to repair it for us too just a few days ago, using a special anti-leak product he claimed to be foolproof. Alas the first heavy shower proved him wrong. So I went to the long procedure of taking of all the old glue and silicon, this time working securely to take the last tiny bits out. Then I used Sika primer 206 and had it dried thoroughly until the next day.

Wednesday, May 10th

<Araksi> Early morning hours are the best time to do hard work outside, so I was already busy applying the Sikaflex at around 07:00. The guys in the yard don't really know what to think about me. They are apparently not used to see a woman who contributes so much to the repair work on a boat.

<Ruud> I applied a thick coat of Sikaflex 291 over the primer I applied yesterday. If this doesn't work, I really do not know what will. Around noon Garabes was ready to be lifted back into the water, but every day we can stay on the dry will harden the Siklaflex products even better so we are not rushing the people from the yard to get us out.

Thursday, May 11th

<Ruud> It is slowly time to leave Grenada and so we are picking up our passports to go to immigration. While - for the first time - looking at the stamp the officer had put in these documents, we realize that our visa has expired a month ago, oops! The lady in Grenada Marine sits too low on the hierarchical ladder of Grenadinean authorities - more British than British - and so we are ordered to the capital to justify ourselves in front of the main man. Well, we wanted to go shopping anyway. And while I was already calculating that this was going to cost us a little fortune - Grenada is known to make infraction pay - Araksi is chatting in her most friendly way with the serious looking officer who is slowly melting in front of her smile. And so we talk about politics and the beauties of the island and are getting away with no amend at all. We do our shopping - most important some new hooks, because I am eager to catch some fish tonight.

Chris and I are going dinghy trolling. John, Kevin and Araksi are staying behind, they have seen us already going fishing for two consecutive days now, and the only thing we caught is the laughter of these unbelievers. But today is the day, Chris with a new lure and I with new hooks and half an hour later it are two fine Spanish mackerel that are laying inside the dinghy, victory at last! A feast is planned for tomorrow.

Friday, May 12th

<Araksi> We are still on the hard. I talked to Rachel this morning to schedule our boat as the last one to be put back in the water so that we can stay overnight in the slip. We then cleaned the propellers, it is incredible how quickly they look mat, as they get covered with calcareous growth. Apparently applying waterproof grease helps keeping them clean longer, so they got a thorough grease layer on now. We'll wait and see.

We went snorkeling at 16:30, after Garabes began dancing on the water again. Kevin, Chris, Ruud and I dinghied to the headland on the east side of St. David's bay where a wrack lies at a depth of 4 to 15 meters. The water was a little murky, nevertheless it was fascinating to see the size of some parts: the diameter of the propeller was almost 4 meters, the anchor was yet another monster.

The two fish that Ruud and Chris had caught yesterday were on our menu for tonight. John had arranged with Sam at the bar that they cook our fish while we have their drinks and salad. I had prepared rice to go with it. It turned out to be a very pleasant evening, with lots of laughter and music; Keith sang and played calypsos on his self made cuatro, a small guitar with only four strings.

Saturday, May 13th

<Araksi> While having breakfast this morning we were observing the work going on in the yard. Our subject of interest was the lift and the activity going around it, since we had to move to one of the buoys in the anchorage if the slip had to be free for possible haul outs. There was no movement at all and it remained that way, so we decided to stay in the slip.

Isabella and George invited us for lunch to the house where they are staying for a couple of weeks. We enjoyed their company, the lunch and the nice view. It also was interesting to have a glance at the houses people live in. This was one of the typical newly built houses, that do not have much charm but offer quite a comfort and beautiful views. It was a surprise for us to see the relatively high standard of living here, especially in this southern part of the island.

On our way back to the yard Isabella insisted that we go with them to Jenny's house to pick her up. Her place was quite a different story. It had charm, it was in the middle of green landscape with almost no neighbors, at least you couldn't see them, and it had a magnificent view. And above all it was open; open to the view, open to the breeze, open to mother nature. It was here that I, for the first time in my life, caressed a pig; a big, pink pig, called Prudence.

Back at the yard we were at the bar again having most probably our last drinks here in the yard with John, Kevin, Jenny and Chris. While they will be sailing tomorrow to Carriacou, we plan to leave on Tuesday. We do not know where. A week ago we were certain that we were sailing to Trinidad but today; who knows?

Sunday, May 14th

<Araksi> The crew (Jenny, John, Kevin, and Chris) of Raindancer and Keith were on Garabes for a small breakfast this morning. Jenny was telling about this nice place in Terryl bay where you can have very good pizzas. By the time they were ready to leave they had already convinced us to sail to Carriacou tomorrow and join them for a pizza.

We were still in the slip and would stay here for today, since there wouldn't be any haul-out activities on Sunday. Actually I prefer to be swinging on our anchor or on a buoy out there but we are to lazy to move the boat, and we have electricity here.

In the afternoon we had David from Cimarron on board for a drink, who has been sailing around the isles with his wife and knows Dominica quite well. So we had a lot to ask since we are particularly interested in seeing that island. It is still very unspoiled with lots of green and lots of healing plants, lots of volcanoes and a quite in tact rainforest. We met him a couple of days ago and his knowledge about Dominica reactivated our desire to see the island, that was dormant since St. Pierre in Martinique where we had discovered the problem with our saildrive and therefore couldn't sail further north.

Monday, May 15th

<Araksi> We decided to sail north, at least up to Carriacou to meet Raindancer with her crew. We could then decide if we should go further north up to Dominica or turn south towards Tobago and Trinidad. But first Ruud had to organize some business via internet.

By the time we left the anchorage it was around 11:00. The winds were light and blowing from the east. The first ten miles were therefore more of a beating in light winds and was an unpleasant sailing. But then approximately in the height of Telescope rock we had winds of around 14 to 17 kts and were doing speeds between 7 to 9 kts. That was a very pleasant sailing. We arrived in Terryl bay around 16:00. The bay was packed, a totally different picture than the last time we were here with Ed and Marcia just two weeks ago. Today we really had to go around to find a good sandy spot to drop the anchor. The first try didn't work because of the lack of that (sand). We were doing all of these maneuvers on the strict observation of The Crew. They all were namely sitting in the launch of the Yacht Club and watching us sweating. That, we found out when Jenny called us on the VHF telling us that we were being observed, and evaluated, and commented, and that we were being expected in the Club after we were done with securing our Garabes to the bottom of the sea.

So we did, we joined our friends for a drink at the Club, it was fun and we were happy to have come all the way up to meet them, and enjoy a good pizza with them. By the way pizza. That was the thing we couldn't get; no pizzas on Mondays. But instead we had a real local treat. The place was a shack, just as the ones you see all over the Caribbean where locals gather for a drink or a meal or a joint. While they were fixing for us grilled chicken with fries it was nice to watch Jenny explaining the boys who were smashing crabs on the beach that they shouldn't be cruel to animals and shouldn't kill them unless they needed to eat them. I always enjoy when in a whole picture many different pictures open up. In our case it was about six foreigners who were in a simple shack for dinner on the beach road in Carriacou. There was the woman who was, in her relaxed manners, preparing dinner, then there was her family with an infant, that had to be comforted. On the side of the street along the beach just across the shack there were the boys talking to Jenny and me who joined them to find out about the subject they were so deeply involved in. While the rest of us were having some pleasant conversations.

<Ruud> In the evening it was pouring, first of the heavy showers the Caribbean is known for in summer. It was also the first test to see how good I had repaired the leak that had annoyed us for so long. So every five minute I was running to our bunk to touch the ceiling for the slightest indication of water. Dry! I will wait a few more showers before glueing the panels.

Tuesday, May 16th

<Araksi> It was raining cats and dogs this morning. When the weather calmed down at noon time, we took a cab to Hillsborough. We wanted to have something for lunch and visit the internet café and just see the places again where we were two months ago. We like Carriacou, it is some how different than many other islands in a way that it gives you the impression of being in an unpretentious, unspoiled, cheerful and peaceful place.

Chris and Ruud went fishing and they caught two fish. They though will not be on today's menu. Turtle Dove and its pizzas were our culinary target for the evening. Finally a place where you spend your money without having regretted it. Their pizzas are simply great.

Wednesday, May 17th

<Araksi> Raindancer left this morning, I watched them preparing the sails and heaving the anchor in heavy rain showers. It has been raining quite heavily since the last two days; another good opportunity to see if the leakage that Ruud had repaired in the yard is holding. And yes it still does, what a relief.

We decided to stay for another day. In the afternoon we had a walk in the hills and enjoyed the scenery.

Thursday, May 18th

<Araksi> We left Carriacou at 06:30. Our sail to St. David's bay was marvelous. We had winds from E/SE at around 15 kts and did an average of 7.3 kts. The winds were at 50° and the main had a reef. The seas were about 1.5 meters. We arrived around 11:00 in the bay. John and Kevin helped us grab the buoy. They were observing us having difficulties to pull it in to attach the rope to it.

At the bar we had a nice time with the same people we were together for so many times.

John had prepared for dinner the two fish that Chris and Ruud had caught the day before in Terryl bay. He is simply an expert in barbecuing fish; he seasons them so deliciously and manages to cook them so juicy. We enjoyed the evening under a canopy of bright bright starts.

Friday, May 19th

<Araksi> We had a quite early start today; not that we had a certain plan but rather we were being molested by the heat. John, Chris and Kevin were for a goodbye lunch on Garabes. Chris left this afternoon for Trinidad and Kevin is sailing with him to help him out. It was otherwise a quiet day with lots of reading and writing.

<Ruud> The outboarder makes strange noises, so I went to Graig, the mechanic, and asked him to have a look. With his trained ear, he didn't need a second to find the problem: a damaged propeller; I, most probably hit a coral while fishing with Chris. The whole thing is easy to repair, but not in Grenada. Luckily, Trinidad has all spare parts I will need to do the job.

Saturday - Monday, May 20th - 22nd

<Araksi> We were mostly on the boat. I was busy surfing the internet almost all day long on Saturday. In the evening John picked us up with his dinghy for the usual happy hour at the bar.

On Sunday evening we were at the hotel resort, The Plantation, for dinner. The restaurant is a quite pleasant place which is located on the water. We were all three having a good time in the mild of the evening, without letting the bugs bugging on our good mood. By the time we will be leaving this bay we will have hundredths of scars on our legs caused by nasty sand flies. I keep on saying to myself that I am not going to participate in a Miss Legs competition so what's the fuss. But to be honest they don't look very good. By the way if you consider that the frantic itching and the wounds afterwards are not even caused by their sting but by their aggressive urine then you really think to get out of this place as soon as possible. It is worse than mosquito bite, because the wounds keep on re-infecting; they will only go away if you get away from this place.

On Monday morning Kevin was back from Trinidad with lots of enthusiasm about that place: the various chandleries with their huge stock of goods, the good and cheep restaurants, the efficient people, etc. So if that is the case we are now even more ready to leave.

Tuesday, May 23rd

<Araksi> Exodus from Grenada! Garabes and Raindancer are ready for departure. In the morning we paid our last bills, went to the immigration office to check out from the country, and said goodbye to all. At 18:30 we let loose the lines and followed Raindancer out of the anchorage. The winds were around 20 kts from the East, the seas were around 2 m high and we had 82 miles to go. The plan was to sail close to Raindancer, for they still had water leaking into the boat, and therefore we wanted to sail close to them in case the worst scenario happened. So we put a reef on our main and kept the genoa as big as a handkerchief. At the beginning it appeared to us that we were maintaining the desired distance but the longer we sailed the more it was obvious that we were sailing apart. Slow down Garabes was now the slogan! So we put a second reef on the main, which didn't really reduce the speed; we didn't have those hypes of 11 kts but were still keeping an average of 7 to 8 kts. This situation brought VHF channel 16 into the scene, that now had to serve as a sort of eyes and ears, so we could see and hear how they were doing.

Wednesday, May 24th

<Araksi> There was lots of traffic in the night. We kept two-hour watches while having a pleasant night sail. The wind came down to around 15 kts, we had a small squall, saw lots of fishing boats, admired the beautifully lit oil rigs in the middle of the sea, and reached Trinidad at 08:30 without even having caught a single fish, much to Ruud's big disappointment.

We docked on a pontoon at CrewsInn marina, checked in with customs and immigration and visited the marina office. Raindancer arrived later in the morning, thankfully without any problems.

Our plan is to stay here in the marina for two days until we sort out things and find, hopefully, a free mooring. In CrewsInn the daily fees are quite high, the ladies at the desk have the air of belonging to some elite circle, the guys at the marina couldn't connect us to the electrical supply for they had run out of adaptors and were expecting us to pay USD 150 to buy the device from the nearby chandlery. On top of all, there is a constant wake caused by the motor boats that rush by, and the water is filthy; we are almost certain that Garabes will look greasy and dirty after two days of stay in here. So far for being in a so called chique marina, but it is the only place that had a berth available.

Anyway, we had just arrived and were too full with curiosity and new impressions to let ourselves get frustrated about the marina. Above all we had an appointment with the Crew of Raindancer to go to the famous Indian restaurant.

Thursday, May 25th

<Araksi> This morning at 08:00 I was ready to go to Port of Spain with Chris and David. Chris wanted to buy material for his cushions, David had a flight back to Grenada, and I was desperately looking forward to buy some fresh vegetables and fruits. The city has a population of almost 300.000 and is not really a place that you would describe as appealing, nevertheless it has an air of authenticity; without the locals being so tourist focused as in many other Caribbean islands.

The republic of Trinidad & Tobago is a very diverse country. Besides a flourishing industry it also has a very reach wild life and vegetation. Trinidad is also the home for one of the most beautiful carnival festivities in the world. The country is a melting pot of different races: East Indians, blacks and many people of Latin America.

<Ruud> Wildlife is amazing around here, I have never seen so much big birds around, a clear sign that the waters must be full of fish. And so, it is hunters day again as friend and foe is crying for seafood. Thus Chris and I head direction Boca de Monos with the dinghy to catch some big monsters. And successful we were: first Chris got an impressive Jack and then we observed a mighty flock of pelicans hunting in the open. Quickly we speeded towards them and were soon rewarded by the catch of a Tuna. Feverishly, we rushed to the next flock and I could hardly say "let's hope not to catch a pelican", as we already had hooked one of these majestic birds. Slowly we hauled in the feathery creature and I succeeded in grasping his mighty beak and get it onboard. Chris turned into a surgeon and removed the nasty hook from the birds back. A few minutes later, the animal was free again, having lost a few feathers and all its dignity, but still able to fly quickly away from us. On the way back, another fine Jack was caught.

Friday, May 26th

<Ruud> We left dirty CrewsInn marina to fetch a buoy not even half a mile away. A much better place to stay. Fees are reasonable to Caribbean standards as the buoys are maintained by YSATT, a non-profit organization devoted to the development of the yachting industry.

In the evening, Araksi and John devoted their whole attention to the preparation of the fine fish we caught yesterday, a perfect goodbye dinner for Chris. Kevin did the dishes afterwards while the hunters had the important task of supervising it all.

Saturday - Sunday, May 27th - 28th

<Araksi> Chris left on Saturday. It was great to have him around; we enjoyed his humorous being.

Sundays is barbeque day in Chaguaramas. We went to Sails, at Power Boats, a restaurant run by an South African. The baby pork spare ribs were delicious. Eating out on this island is fun; huge variety and very reasonable prices. You can get for 20 Trinidadian Dollars (1 $TT = 7,3 EUR) a big portion of delicious lunch.

Monday, May 29th

<Araksi> Ruud is negotiating with Andy from Electropics, a specialist for electronic repairs and devices. We are hoping for some help for finding an alternative to our chart plotter.

We had an invitation from CrewsInn for a reception this evening. It is a holiday tomorrow (an East Indian holiday we were told); I guess we therefore had a group of dancers who were performing East Indian dances, and a buffet with Indian dishes. We met here Liz and her nephew, Michel, who are from South Africa. We also met a Dutch lady with her American husband. This is one of the big pros of sailing life; you meet lots of interesting and pleasant people, who also have lots of information about places which we still have to discover for ourselves.

Tuesday, May 30th

Every morning at 08:00 there is a cruiser's net on VHF channel 68 here in the bay. The net informs about weather, various activities, and is a platform for people who search for any kind of information, or advise, and are interested in buying or bartering parts (usually boat parts). It was on this net where we heard about the trip to the Orinoco river two days ago. So this morning we gathered at the Roti house and met there around ten people who are interested in visiting this second largest river in South America. We met there Tanja and Bernd, a German couple sailing on their aluminium boat "Upps".

In the afternoon I cleaned the dirt off the hulls. Garabes was shining again once the oil strip caused by the dirty waters of the "chique" marina CrewsInn was removed. At 18:00, or in Kevin's words at "Beer o'clock", we met Kevin, Liz and her nephew Michel at the bar. I was in my inquisitive mood again and the drink that Curtis, the bartender was preparing, looked to intriguing. It is a mix of seven different drinks all in very eye catching colors, and its name gives the last kick to your senses. So before I knew I heard myself spelling the words: "I as well would like to have a 'Patagonia' please". I think we shouldn't come very often here!

Wednesday, May 31st

Went for a walk with Liz and her nephew Michel. It was just marvelous. Trinidad is a very green island, full of exotic trees and flowers. The so called Bamboo Cathedral was just dreamlike and awestriking.

Michael and Annick are back from Germany. We met them at the Roti House for lunch. In the afternoon I went shopping with Liz while Ruud and Michel went fishing. Liz introduced me to many more shopping alternatives, such as the Price Smart, which is a semi-whole sale store.