Cruising with Mr Mac

Cruising at the Other End of the Spectrum

2012-02-01T10:22:00.000-05:00

Nice inflatable water slide on Teleost


How big is Hemisphere? Look at the guy on the bike on the dock

For us, cruising is an inexpensive lifestyle relative to living on land, or living on the boat at a dock. And in an anchorage, we see all kinds of boats, large and small. Recently in Grenada we’ve shared anchorages with a few megayachts. I looked a couple up online, and it’s enough to blow your mind. One was Teleost, a 161-foot motor yacht with all the toys, including jet skis, water skis, underwater scooter, SCUBA gear, and a huge, inflatable water slide. Check it out here. The other was Hemisphere, a 145-foot, brand-new (launched in 2011) luxury catamaran, also with all the toys. Check it out here. Despite her size, which makes everything around her look out of scale, she’s a really beautiful boat. (And her crew was friendly, waving when we went by.) The price of a luxurious week in the Caribbean on these vessels? Well, Teleost goes for $240,000. Yes, that’s for a week, not a year. Hemisphere’s price is even more dear, ranging from $245,000 during the low season to $266,000 during the high season. I’ve got to say, even if I had that kind of money, I don’t know if I could make myself blow it in a week, regardless of how nice the boat is. So we’ll stay on our cozy boat, walk or take public transportation, and eat at the street vendors, and stretch our money so we can cruise much longer than a week.

Anyone Interested in an Abandoned Restaurant with a View?

2012-01-09T17:32:00.000-05:00

Front pond


Lobby

All the little things hanging down are bats


The long, red roof above is the restaurant

Chris and I walked over to Mount Hartman Bay to explore an abandoned restaurant. It’s situated on a hill above a marina/resort, and I truly hope they refurbish it one day, because the place it spectacular. You pass by a pretty little tiled pond with water lilies at the entrance, and wander into the lobby. The walls are brick below, white plaster above, with dark-wood ceilings and rough-hewn timbers and supports. The floors are tiled and the rooms large and open, with large brick archways, a patio, and balconies with beautiful views of the bay. Right now it’s being used only by a colony of bats, which hang happily from the ceilings and flit all around. And, while the bats are fun to watch, I’d rather come here to enjoy the food and view.

Cooking Class

2012-01-09T17:09:00.000-05:00

Esther (right) showing off her new knife while Omega looks on

Preparing the guacamole

Last Thursday I attended a cooking class (really a demonstration class) at True Blue, a resort nearby to Prickly Bay, Grenada, where we were anchored. The classes are held weekly, and originally were intended for resort guests, but now a lot of cruisers attend. It was great fun, and I got to meet several people whose voices I’ve heard on the radio for months, but have never seen face to face. Two women run the class. Esther seems to do all the preparations and cooking, and Omega is her sidekick. This week the foods were guacamole and salsa, which I already know how to make, but that was okay because they served out plates of both with fresh tortilla chips. Other weeks they’ve prepared fish or vegetable dishes, I’m told. It was a nice way to spend a couple of hours, and only cost $10 EC ($3.75 US). Plus, they had delicious rum punch specially priced for the class at $5 EC (~$1.88 US) per glass.

Serving out to hungry observers

Sunrise, Sunset

2012-01-06T10:18:00.000-05:00

Sunrise


Sunset

Just a couple of pictures from our anchorage at Prickly Bay, Grenada, where we’ve been anchored for several weeks so that we could finish up editing of the fourth and final book of the Scimitar Seas series, Scimitar War.

Interesting Date

2012-01-06T10:14:00.000-05:00

Yes, it’s a bit dated now (ha ha), but I thought this date and time combination was pretty cool.

Some More Asa Wright Nature Center Critters

2011-12-15T14:08:00.000-05:00

Staring contest

Here's looking at you!

Blue beauty

Asa Wright Nature Center: A Birder’s Paradise

2011-12-05T09:29:00.000-05:00

Blue-crowned motmot


Beautiful basolina flower


Green honeycreeper

Violaceous trogan


The verandah above the bird-feeding tables

We love to check out new flora and fauna in the places we visit, and we certainly got our wish when we took an overnight trip recently to the Asa Wright Nature Center here in Trinidad. The center is deep in the mountains of the Northern Range, at the end of a long, narrow, winding road through the rain forest. We’d had quite a bit of rain lately, and there were piles of red mud where landslides (or landslips, as some of the newspapers called them) had occurred. Fortunately the road was passable all the way to the center; to come from the other direction takes several more hours. En route we stopped at a roadside stand for some traditional Indian treats such as doubles, saheena (calaloo leaves rolled, sliced, dipped in batter and fried), and aloo pie (slender fried dough filled with potato)—delicious! Before we even got to the center, we stopped to see a blue-crowned motmot, a beautiful bird, sitting on a tree branch by the side of the road. As we disembarked the van, an aguti (a rodent about the size of a large housecat) scampered across the road with a piece of fruit in its mouth. We hiked through the forest, saw and heard incredible birds (Trinidad’s avifauna is more akin to that of South America rather than the other Caribbean islands), quizzed our guides on everything we could think of, and sat for hours on the covered veranda of the Main House, sipping tea and coffee and watching the hundreds of birds that fed on the fruit, bread, and sugar water that they put out as

attractants every morning and afternoon. Some highlights of the trip included marking off at least a couple dozen new species in my Trinidad bird book, seeing a wild toucan (albeit from a distance), and watching bats swoop through the veranda after bugs (and one actually hit Chris in the head). Two exceptional highlights were things I had to force myself to do, and felt better afterward for facing my overcoming my fears. The first was to touch the hairy leg of an enormous tarantula crawling along the veranda rail. Normal spiders don’t bother me, but this guy was HUGE! The second was eating termites (only two, and they were little) that our forest guide, Barry, found. He said that they’re a good source of protein if you’re lost in the forest, though I think I’d stick to the abundant fruit. By the way, they taste like minty carrots.

Bananaquits on feeder


LARGE tarantula

Another Great Review for Scimitar’s Heir!

2011-12-02T10:13:00.000-05:00

Barb Theisen, editor of the Seven Seas Cruising Association bulletins, previously reviewed (and loved!) Scimitar Moon and Scimitar Sun. Her review for Scimitar’s Heir was just published in the December bulletin (page 33). For those of you who aren’t SSCA members and therefore can’t access the bulletins, I’ve copied the review for you below.

At last, the next book in the Scimitar Seas series has been released! For those of you anxious to continue the high seas adventure tale of the seamage Cynthia Flaxal, you’ll be happy to know that your wait is over. Scimitar’s Heir is the third book in a series by award-winning writer and SSCA member Chris A. Jackson. Scimitar Moon and Scimitar Sun, the first tow books of the four book series of pirate fantasy novels are both GOLD winners in Fantasy for Foreword Magazine Book of the Year Award.

The action packed Scimitar’s Heir has Cynthia Flaxal and Feldrin Brelak searching for their son, who was stolen at birth by the mer. The mer have taken the seamage’s heir and left in search of the long-abandoned, floating city of Akrotia, which the mer hope to return to its once enchanted glory with the life of the child.

While Cynthia and Feldrin are gone from the Shattered Isles, pirates seek revenge, cannibals seek prisoners and the emperor seeks justice for the crimes of the seamage. Perils near and far threaten to destroy all that Cynthia has achieved. This is another entertaining tale filled with unforgettable characters and boasting a plot loaded with twists and turns.

Author Chris Jackson and his wife, Anne, are fulltime cruisers. Visit Chris’ website at www.jaxbooks.com where you can download several chapters of Scimitar’s Heir for free. Then pick up your own copy at any bookseller. You can follow the Jackson’s cruising adventures at www.sailmrmac.blogspot.com.

Read My Latest Article!

2011-11-24T19:31:00.000-05:00

My second article was just published in the Caribbean Compass! It's entitled "A Taste of Trini: Feasting Your Way Around the Island," and tells of our trip with Members Only Tours, run by Jesse James (yes, that's his real name) and his wife, Sharon Rose. Jesse drove us over much of the island, stopping at road-side stands here and there to sample local foods. It was fantastic, and we all waddled at the end of the day. Check it out at http://issuu.com/caribbean-compass/docs/compass_online_december11?mode=embed, pages 24-25. These are pictures of Chris eating a barbequed pig tail (yup, it's just what it sounds like), and a woman selling hot sauces outside of her home. We bought a couple, and they really light up our food (in a good way!).

Divali: Hindu Festival of Lights

2011-11-22T18:46:00.000-05:00

Entrance to the Divali fair

Not only for sale, but many women were wearing similarly gorgeous outfits

Some of the Hindu gods

The population majority here in Trinidad is of East-Indian descent, and many are Hindus. Divali (pronounced Diwali) occurs in October on the new moon. We went to two events associated with the festival. First was a fair, which was much like the state fairs you might visit in the states, except with lots of statues of Hindu gods, and pepper rotis instead of elephant ears. There were booths selling all manner of goods, a long row of food booths, but no alcohol. And unlike many state fairs, where casual is the name of the game, here everyone was in their finest Indian clothing. Women wore saris and other traditional outfits glittering with sequins, and the men wore beautiful long brocade coats. Absolutely gorgeous. In the main tent, we watched dancers and singers (OK, Indian singing isn’t really to my taste), and listened to the Trinidadian president give a speech (typical politician chatter). The second event was the actual night of the new moon. Jesse James, tour guide extraordinaire, took us to a Hindu village in the west-central area of the country. There we had a traditional Indian vegetarian meal, then, as dusk fell, we wandered the village streets to look at the lights. The streets and many houses were decorated with electrical lights, but the highlight was the lighting of the deeyas (clay bowls of oil and wicks). Long shelves made of bamboo stalks cut in half lined the streets, with dozens of deeyas on them. Other deeyas were positioned in various shapes and designs. We walked all around, exchanging Happy Diwali greetings with the many residents who sat outside their homes offering traditional sweets to passersby. What an intriguing look at a different religion and culture.

Friendly boy in traditional Indian garb

Lighted deeya

Cruising Kids

2011-11-06T15:17:00.000-05:00

We’ve met several boats with kids of all ages. Most times it’s a family that’s taken time off to cruise for a few months, a year, or more. Here in Trinidad we met another kind of cruising family: Hans, Eva, Lola, and Luka on Kamiros. Hans and Eva left Gemany to cruise about 13 years ago, and have been cruising ever since. Their daughter, Lola, and son, Luka, have lived their entire lives aboard, except for two years on New Caledonia in the South Pacific. They’re as at-ease on a boat and in the water as anyone I’ve ever seen. And beautiful to boot!

It’s So Good To Be Back In The Water

2011-11-06T15:10:00.000-05:00

The painting is done, and we’re back in the water. Here’s a picture of a beautiful sunrise from where we’re anchored in Carenage Bay, Trinidad. It’s just a taste of some of the beautiful photos I’ve got coming up.

Doing a Bottom Job: Sounds Rather Personal, Doesn’t It?

2011-11-06T15:07:00.000-05:00

It’s the boat bottom, so quit thinking whatever you were thinking. Painting the boat bottom requires just as much work as painting the topsides, but work of a different kind. Fiberglass boat bottoms develop osmotic blisters when seawater intrudes and reacts with the fiberglass resin. These blisters are usually localized and small, and dealt with by grinding out to dry fiberglass, then re-glassing and/or filling with epoxy. Antifouling paint then goes over all. The bad news: it’s a lot of work. The good news: the bottom is underwater, so it doesn’t need to be as pristinely smooth as the topsides.

Let’s Hear It For Cruising!

2011-10-07T05:32:00.000-04:00

If you’re a cruiser or a cruiser-wannabe, are you a member of the Seven Seas Cruising Association? If not, you should be. The minimal annual fee is well worth the information derived from the monthly bulletins, and flying the SSCA burgee is a great way to meet new people in an anchorage. If you are a member and out there cruising, consider writing up your experiences in a letter for the bulletin. How many times have you drooled over descriptions of far-flung anchorages, or silently thanked a letter writer for describing exactly how to find that hidden Laundromat in some unfamiliar port of call (I’m thinking Beaufort, NC here). You don’t need a degree in the literary arts, and your subject doesn’t have to be about some exotic location. Write about your favorite anchorage, a must-visit shoreside restaurant, or the ins and outs of your home port. If you are cruising far afield, tell people about your experiences so that they, too, will realize that cruising is not just something to read about in a glossy magazine, but an obtainable and worthy goal. Send your letter to Barb Theisen at editor@ssca.org, and thrill to seeing your name in print!

This Is One BIG Travelift

2011-10-07T05:03:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in a previous blog what a large Travelift they’ve got here at Peake Yacht Services (yes, sometimes size does matter). It goes back and forth by Mr Mac every day, hauling this boat or that. But sometimes, you really take notice. Recently they’ve been hauling these huge fishing boats and taking them over to their commercial craft yard. This one cleared the ground by only a couple of feet.

Work, Work, Work

2011-10-05T06:10:00.000-04:00

Chris mixing up noxious paint; note his goggles and respirator

Look at the difference already between the dull hull and the shiny paint

We’ve been quite busy since we arrived back in Trinidad, working on the boat. Our biggest (and most dreaded) project was to paint the topsides (the hull above the waterline). Who knows how old the former paint job was; we’ve owned the boat nearly twelve years, and the paint job wasn’t new when we bought it. The paint had become faded and so worn down that you could see through to the gelcoat in some places. We considered having a contractor do it, but the price quoted would take too big a bite out of our cruising kitty, so we did it ourselves. And I must say, it looks beautiful! We met some folks here in Trinidad who use Awlgrip to paint their topsides, and they gave us lots of tips. Chris exhausted himself with the seemingly endless sanding to get the hull smooth and clean. We devised an efficient two-person method of painting—Chris rolling on the paint and making sure it was even and free of bubbles; me filling the paint tray, ensuring the optimal consistency of paint and reducer, handing him the brush for small sections, and being basic quality control—and were able to paint the entire hull in less than two hours, one coat per day. We lucked out and had several days without the typical noon-time rain shower. Five coats of paint, and we’ve got a terrific mirror shine! We’ve gotten loads of compliments on it and spent minimal funds, which makes all the effort worth it.

I can see myself in our shiny new hull!

Thank You, Elmer!

2011-09-28T06:06:00.000-04:00

Chris and Jeff (not Elmer) in front of our ride

Our borrowed-car route

Special thanks go out to our friend Elmer, who saved us a bundle in car rental fees during our seven-week odyssey throughout the eastern U.S. He loaned us one of his cars, a 1980 Mercedes (the first I’ve ever driven!) that he runs on vegetable oil, but which he switched back to diesel for us. We drove from central Florida to Indiana to upstate New York to Massachusetts to Atlanta and back to central Florida, for a total of approximately four thousand miles. Not only did the car always start without a hitch, but it held all the paraphernalia we require when we attend conventions (boxes of books, posters, display panels, decent clothes, etc.). What a great guy!

My Favorite Dragon*Con Vendor This Year

2011-09-27T08:29:00.000-04:00

When we attend Dragon*Con we have a table in the dealers’ room to sell our books, so we get a good look at the varied goods being sold. Some of them are quite interesting. My favorite this year was the Giant Microbes booth. I just had to have one. It was hard to choose from their wide variety, from the deadly (black death) to the unsightly (mange) to the annoying (mosquito) to the reproductive (egg and sperm cells) to the tiny critters that inhabit the waters around us (amoeba). Each comes with a tag providing the scientific name, a picture of what the real entity looks like under the microscope (the plush microbes are based on their actual forms, except the plush ones have cute little eyes), and biological information about it. I considered getting the STD gift pack, but I finally settled on this adorable copepod (Centropages hamatus) that came under the “Aquatics” category, because I counted literally thousands of them when I did plankton sampling and sea anemone gut-content analyses for my masters degree. Check them out at http://www.giantmicrobes.com/us/main/giantmicrobes-originals/.

Dragon*Con – A Taste of (Un)Reality

2011-09-22T07:58:00.000-04:00

Mona Lisa lives!

Beautiful dress

Metal and leather, together again

Is this not the sweetest little con-goer?

Once again, we attended a fantastic Dragon*Con. For those of you who haven’t heard of Dragon*Con (you obviously don’t live in Atlanta), it’s one of the largest science fiction/fantasy conventions in the country. It takes place every Labor Day in Atlanta, GA, occupying most of the large hotels downtown. Take a stroll through the streets of Atlanta over the weekend and you may run in to Darth Vader or squadron of storm troopers from Star Wars; Victorian-era ladies and gentlemen boasting steam-punk gear; elves and superheroes and robots and Klingons and Vikings and Spartans; even that annoying woman from the Progressive Insurance commercials (I kid you not; this year there was a woman dressed up like this). It’s a real family affair; lots of parents (and even grandparents) attend with their kids, sometimes all wearing coordinated costumes. Here are just a few costumes that past by our table in the dealers’ room. Chris always does well selling his books here, and this year was no exception. We have a problem though; he’s got so many books out now, it’s hard to fit them all on a six-foot table. But that’s a good problem!

Zombies galore!

Colonial marine, aliens, and a poor sucker-face victim

Reading – A Way of Life

2011-09-10T10:01:00.001-04:00

What more do you need to be totally content than a blue-skyed day on a beautiful Cape Cod beach, a comfy chair or blanket, and a book in hand. Here are Chris and our nieces Lauren, Hannah and Tess (in a pink hat, nearly hidden behind Hannah) all enjoying the day.

Woo Hoo! Anne Is Published!

2011-09-07T10:58:00.000-04:00

As most of you know, we saved up for years to cruise, and plan to stay at sea until the money runs out. So income is important to us. Well, Anne just got her first article, Dominica Daytripping, published in the Caribbean Compass! Very excited! Check it out at http://issuu.com/caribbean-compass/docs/compass_online_september11?mode=embed, page 26-27. Dollar-wise, it’s not a huge payment. But as an eternal optimist, I prefer to think of it in “doubles” terms. Doubles are delicious curried-chick peas-on-flat-bread breakfast food in Trinidad, obtained for fifty cents each, and I’ve just earned ninety of them!

Blast From The Past, And Fun With Family

2011-09-07T08:01:00.000-04:00


Quiet campsite


Heading out in Greg's boat

Our first stop in New England was Clearwater Campground in Meridith, New Hampshire. This is where we McMillens used to go camping when we were little, and you know, it still looks almost exactly the same as it did back in the 70s. We met up here with Anne’s siblings Linda, Greg, and Karen and their families. Our campsites were side-by-side, making it easy to visit back and forth. Greg brought his boat for tubing and water-skiing, as well as a peaceful early morning coffee/tea cruises. We squeezed under the canopies and tents when it teemed with rain the first afternoon, cooked marshmallows over the campfires for s’mores, swam in the lake (a one-minute walk from our campsites) and played on the beach, got make-your-own-sundaes at the Kellerhaus in Weirs Beach on Lake Winnipesaukee, and had an all-around great time.

The kids: Hannah, Erin, Aidan, Matt, Terry, and Lauren in back, Tess and Bridget in front

The adults: Chris, Greg, Meg, Paul, Karen, Linda, Bill, Anne, Dianne, and Ellen

Back in the U.S.A.

2011-08-30T08:27:00.000-04:00

Well, I’m way behind in my blogging, but that’s what happens when I get out of my routine. We’ve been in the U.S. for a month now, traveling to conventions and visiting friends and family. We started out in Tampa, staying with Joe and Kim at Chateau Rogers in Tampa, our home away from home in Florida. Then up to GenCon in Indianapolis, where Chris visited with a troll friend while Anne was out on the town with Darth Vader. This was a new con for us and we did so well with book sales that we had to order more books – cool! Next, we headed to far-upstate New York (take a left and you’re in Canada!) near the Adirondacks to visit Jan and Kimberly, friends from our graduate-school days in Texas, whom we haven’t seen in nearly twenty years. Then southeast to New England to visit Anne’s family, which I’ll pick up my next blogs.

This Is Just Wrong

2011-08-18T07:33:00.000-04:00

Boats belong in the water. I just hate being hauled out. It’s a necessary evil to haul Mr Mac every few years to paint the bottom of the boat. But to watch it ease out of the water and hang in the slings is awful. Our home and everything we own, suspended over hard concrete. It’s like a traffic accident; you don’t really want to see, but you have to look. Anyway, being hauled at Peake Yacht Services in Trinidad was probably the least traumatic hauling experience we’ve had. First, they’ve got the largest Travelift we’ve ever seen (though there’s a larger one at a nearby boatyard). Second, they send a diver into the water to make sure the straps are situated correctly beneath the hull and keel. Third, instead of the boat swaying in the Travelift sling as it’s transported through the yard, they put it on a boat-mover that cradled it in sturdy hydrolic chocks. Finally, these guys were so professional and clearly skilled at their jobs, it was much easier to leave it in their hands. So Mr Mac’s new home for the next few months is tucked in amongst the other boats in the yard, awaiting our return from a trip to the states.

Beauty is a Beast

2011-08-10T07:02:00.000-04:00

Beautiful markings

See just a glimpse of blue at the top of the wing

While hiking, we glimpsed an iridescent blue amidst the green of the forest, and this gorgeous butterfly flittered out and landed on a nearby leaf. With its wings up, it’s not nearly as beautiful, though the under-wing markings are still striking. We harassed it, trying to get a picture of the dorsal side of the wings, but it easily avoided us by heading deeper into the forest. We saw another one later, with a gimpy wing (no, we did not make it gimpy) that afforded a peek of the blue coloration. I looked it up online and discovered that it’s a Peleides Blue Morpho (Morpho peleides), common to Central and South America as well as Trinidad. The beast part? The larvae are cannibalistic.

Because Vampires Like Music Too

2011-08-10T06:36:00.000-04:00

Well, this sign threw us for a loop. Was it really an all-night concert? Just across the road from our anchorage was an amphitheater. Only a few days into our stay, this sign appeared on the marquis, advertising a concert/get-together. About mid-day, they started the sound checks. We had gone hiking up a nearby hill, and could hear the music plenty loud from there. It was even louder down in the anchorage, and grew louder throughout the evening. True to their word, the real music began VERY loud and clear at 11 p.m., and continued straight through until 6 a.m. Needless to say, we didn’t get much sleep that night.

Shopping in Trini

2011-08-02T08:09:00.000-04:00

Bustling fresh market in Port of Spain

Unlike some of the islands we’ve visited, Trinidad is a bustling country with all the modern amenities, like supermarkets selling products from around the world. But when it comes to produce, local is better, so we took a trip to the fresh market in Port of Spain, a 20-30 minute drive from our anchorage. The vast selection of tropical fruits was no surprise, since mango, banana, and bread fruit trees grow everywhere you look, along with lots of items we don’t recognize (but are usually tasty). Well, they were all on display and for sale at the fresh market. Ditto for the vegetables, including some truly tremendous squash/pumpkins. We avoided items like big, round tomatoes, which were in boxes indicating their Florida origin, and went for the smaller local tomatoes. There also were tables laden with local spices – cinnamon, nutmeg, anise, etc. – as well as lots of curry powers (about 40% of the Trinidad population is East Indians whose ancestors arrived from India as indentured servants and stayed after their terms of service were completed). The prices in the picture may look high, but those are Trinidad dollars (TT); to convert to US dollars, divide by six. They also had very fresh fish and meats (as in live chicken and ducks), as well as these live land crabs, trussed up with long grass stalks. We’re eating well here!

Live land crabs for your dining pleasure

Leatherback Turtles

2011-07-25T11:30:00.001-04:00


This lady jumped in front of us when Jesse was trying to take our picture,	so we're kind of hidden on the right.

Is that not the cutest little thing?

The first of the eggs are laid!

Wow! That’s about all we can say about an experience we had the other night. Trinidad is the second-largest nesting site for leatherback turtles. The females nest March through August, and the eggs incubate for two months before hatching. So we got a twofer when we visited Matura Beach, on the east coast of Trinidad. Jesse James, who is a force of nature here in Chaguaramas, took a group of ten cruisers to see the turtles. We left about 5 p.m., fought traffic through Port of Spain, then headed across the country. We stopped close to Matura for a Chinese-food dinner (although the town is famous for its specialty of BBQ pig tail). It was well dark as we drove through the Matura forest, with fireflies blinking away in the trees. Near the beach, we met with members of Nature Seekers, a local group formed to prevent the turtles from being slaughtered for food. They patrol the beaches during nesting season, collect data on nesting turtles, and conduct tours. We followed Donnie, our tour guide carrying a red light – which doesn’t disturb the turtles – onto the beach, and within minutes he spotted some hatchling tracks. Four of the cutest little turtles had been left in the nest by their siblings, so he dug them out and had us rub their backs, which stimulates them to crawl. It worked! Soon their little legs were flapping, and we watched two crawl down the beach and into the surf. The other two went in a bucket to revive a bit more before being released. Continuing down the beach, Chris saw a shadow in the surf, and Donnie checked it out.

It was a female coming ashore! We stayed back so as not to disturb her until she was settled. Only then would they let us come forward to watch her dig her nest using her rear flippers. Once she starts laying her eggs, she goes into a kind of trance, and we were then allowed to take pictures and touch her. She was enormous, as long as Anne is tall, and Donnie estimated she weighed about 800 pounds. The turtles are called leatherbacks because they don’t have hard shells like other turtles, but a hard, leathery skin. This skin was so smooth and hard, it felt like plastic, while the skin on her flippers was silky soft over massive muscles. Her head was the size of a watermelon, and when she occasionally moved it, it seemed more animatronic than alive. Once she finished laying her eggs, we all had to back off and turn off our lights while she refilled the hole with sand and tamped it down. Then she slowly made her way back down the beach, stooping to flip sand all over the place to camouflage the true location of the nest. Finally she reached the water and swam away. Like I said before – Wow! During the height of the season, Donnie said they’d have more than 200 turtles nesting in a single night. That would be an impressive sight, but I’m glad we got to see the hatchlings emerging. On our way out through the forest, we had to stop to let a porcupine cross the road. I had made cookies to give Jesse some sugar to keep himself awake during the long drive back to Chaguaramas, and we arrived back at about 1 a.m., sleepy but very happy with the experience.

Look at the size of her head!

Trinidad, Here We Come!

2011-07-20T10:50:00.000-04:00

The definitely commercial work area of Chaguaramas

The much prettier and more peaceful anchorage at Carenage Bay

Well, we’ve arrived at our home for the next few months. We had an easy overnight crossing from Grenada (easy except for the nasty chop the first couple of hours out), and arrived in Trinidad July 5^th. We anchored in Carenage Bay. It’s a great place: away from the commercial traffic in Chaguaramas Bay, surrounded by wooded hills, and next to the Trinidad and Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA), where we can use the bathrooms and showers, pool, internet, book exchange, and bar and restaurant. We’re within walking distance of all the boatyards at Chaguaramas Bay, so we can plan our haulout. Although it’s hot and humid, there’s often a nice breeze to keep it liveable and sleepable. And, although we’re right next to a coast guard station with boats large and small going in and out all the time, they’re really polite and don’t send wakes through the anchorage. This is such a delight after experiencing the “hospitality” of the Grenadian coast guard in Prickly Bay, who seemed to delight in plowing through the anchorage at full speed, requiring us to hang on for dear life and catch things before they fell off the counter. And this wasn’t when they were answering a life-or-death call, which you could understand, but when they were taking school kids out on a tour. But enough about that. I’ll be posting blogs on Trinidad over the next few months to let you know what it’s like. We were told by a cruiser up island that people either love Trinidad or hate it. So far, we’re loving it!

Coast guard trainees rowing through the anchorage. Could these guys move!

Grenada

2011-07-20T10:44:00.000-04:00

The anchorage at Prickly Bay, Grenada

We spent ten days in Grenada, and wouldn’t mind spending many more. We anchored in Prickly Bay, convenient to a dinghy docks and roads to town. But the hills surrounding the bay are definitely residential, and there are some beautiful houses. We walked up and down and all around looking at them. It’s a far cry from the tiny villages and settlements that we’ve anchored near recently. But there’s a medical school the next peninsula over, the capital city a few miles away, and a beach front loaded with hotels nearby, which explains the congestion. Here we met up with some old and new friends: Steve and Lynn on Celebration, Keith and Jaime on Kookaburra, and Carl and Carrie on Sanctuary. We walked and talked and ate and drank and had an all-around good time. There are lots of facilities for boat work and supplies, and we might have considered staying here except that our insurance requires that we be farther south in order to be covered for named tropical storms and hurricanes, and we are committed to haul the boat out in Trinidad. So, despite our enjoyment of the area, we were a little antsy to be headed out again.

Nice hillside homes

Volcano Sail-by!

2011-07-20T10:39:00.000-04:00

Okay, this was pretty cool. En route between Carriacou and Grenada on the leeward (western) side of the islands, you pass by Kick’em Jenny, a submerged volcano. There’s a one-mile exclusion zone; you have to sail outside this zone at all times. When the volcano is restless and seismic activity increases, there’s a five-mile exclusion zone. The volcano gods were apparently sleeping when we went by (our position is inside the concentric circles on the electronic chart in the picture, and the thick blue line is our route), and we had no problems, though the abrupt shallowing (1,500 meters depth to 150 meters) caused a steep little chop in the vicinity of the volcano. Although it would be fascinating to see the effects of an eruption of a submerged volcano, I think it would be healthier to stay well outside the exclusion zone.

Out to Dinner on Carriacou

2011-07-20T10:36:00.000-04:00

Neville, Glenys, Jeff, Chris, and Anne in front of the adorable Round House. Don't you love the windows!

Inside the little restaurant

Working our way down to the southern end of the Grenadine archipelago, we visited Carriacou, which actually belongs to Grenada. We checked in at the little town of Hillsborough, then moved over to Tyrell Bay. While there, we went out to dinner, which we rarely do, lunches being ever-so-much less expensive. But a restaurant in the cruising guide intrigued me: Bogle’s Round House. We went with some recently met cruisers – Neville and Glenys on Alba, and Jeff and Pam on Foggy Mountain. With six people, the restaurant provides transportation, so a van picked us up, and we got to sightsee on the way to the village of Bogle. The restaurant lived up to my expectations. The building itself is, of course, round (hence the name), and the lights coming through the open windows looked warm and cozy. We had drinks at a picnic table overlooking a pretty lawn and down to the water. Inside the restaurant, the main support is a cement-filled tree trunk. The place only seats about a dozen people, and there were two additional couples besides our six. Dinner was delicious. Chris and I shared a little bleu cheese soufflé, then I had the herb-and-cheese-stuffed chicken breast, while Chris had the barracuda. For dessert we shared the chocolate fondant, which Chris said was too chocolaty. Ha! There’s no such thing as too chocolaty! Okay, there actually is, but this wasn’t, it was heavenly, especially since it was offset with vanilla ice cream with nice flecks of vanilla bean in it. The chef is Roxanne, a cute little thing who twice has been named Grenada’s top chef. Chris just had to hug her in thanks for the delicious meal. And the price wasn’t too bad, considering the quality of the food and the great atmosphere. All in all, a terrific evening.

Yummy!

Tobago Cays and Union Island

2011-07-11T16:58:00.000-04:00

The quintessential tropical paradise. Tobago Cays is a small group of uninhabited islands in the Grenadines. The water is clear and beautiful. Turtles are everywhere, especially over the seagrass beds off of Turtle Beach. We loved it when we were here on the crewed charter, and just had to come here in our own boat. We snorkeled the inner reef and dinghyed around and explored one of the little islands. It was windy and choppy, so we weren’t able to snorkel on the outer reef, but that was okay. You can’t have everything, and we already have so much!

Tobago Cays anchorage

Chris exploring one of the little cays

Union Island was our next taste of civilization. We anchored in Chatham Bay, which had a beautiful white-sand beach lined with small huts that serve as bars and restaurants. There’s no good road (emphasis on good here, as there is an incredibly rutted dirt road that you’d definitely need a four-wheel drive or high truck to navigate) to the beach, so most of the vendors come around from the towns by boat. We went ashore for rum punches at the beach bar owned by Vanessa and Seckie, and ending up having a nice chat with the crews from Celebration (our friends Steve and Lynn from St. Pete), Alba (Neville and Glenys from England), and Sheer Tenacity (Rod and Mary from South Africa). We also took a long walk one day up some very steep hills to some beautiful views.

Chris and his new friend, Pepper

Happy hour!