Whisper Cove Marina

Today we picked up a mooring buoy belonging to Whisper Cover Marina. This is a lovely French run Marina and restauarant with an excellent butcher and meat shop. I ordered several steaks and other meat cuts to be collected tomorrow all frozen and ready to pop straight in our freezer. We arrived this morning about 10am having left Le Phare Bleu around 9am and went ashore in our dinghy to visit the meat shop and book a table for dinner and brunch on Sunday. Back on the boat we relaxed and rested. Just as we were getting ready to go ashore for dinner we noticed the dinghy was deflated on one side! So outboard engine off and we hoisted the dinghy on board to investigate. The rubber had come unstuck at the front so Peter attempted a repair but it did not work. So....we called up the Marina and a very kind man called Silva came over to collect us and also took us back to the boat after dinner which was by the way excellent (as you would expect from the French!). So tomorrow Peter has a task to repair the dinghy. If not we just have to get another lift ashore with Silva. There is a firm that repairs inflatable dinghys here .....in Le Phare Bleu where we have just come from!! Maybe he can visit us here? Anyway if Peter cannot make the glue stick we have to get the dinghy professionally repaired on Tuesday as it is Easter holidays now. Easter Day and Peter has stuck a patch on the dinghy so we will have to see if it holds whilst we go ashore to the Marina for Brunch. We had a lovely buffet with roast beef and roast ham salads and even eggs bacon and sausages! We shared a table with a couple from Denmark who had their boat on the dock in the Marina. They have their son staying with them for 2 weeks before their boat gets hauled out for the summer and they fly back to Denmark. Their boat is called Pura Vida meaning pure life. After lunch we checked the dinghy and it had deflated a little so a bit of air was required to get us back to the boat. Once back on board Peter stuck some more glue on another patch and we will leave the dinghy inflated on the deck overnight to see if it holds...fingers crossed!! Tomorrow we will motor around the corner to Prickly Bay which is where the Budget Marine chandlery is and Peter can buy more boat bits. There is always something you think you need for the boat - even if it is only more dinghy repair kit!!

Le Phare Bleu

Today we left St Davids Harbour and moved around to Le Phare Bleu where there is a small Marina and a few shops. We picked up one of their mooring buoys which are really for hurricane use only but were allowed one night. Dinner was a lovely tuna steak with salad and potatoes at the restaurant. On the way over to the Marina restaurant the dinghy outboard suddenly stopped but fortunately we were nearly there and coasted onto the dock. It took Peter several minutes to find out a spark plug connection was at fault so thankfully we did not have to row back as it was against the wind and tide! There is another World ARC boat here Mr Blues who was attempting to get his repaired rudder back onto his boat. He was unlucky enough to hit a reef coming into Le Phare Bleu. It got too dark to continue but the owner Willi is hopeful tomorrow morning another diver can go down to do the job. Tomorrow we will move again to the next bay Clarkes Court Bay where there is several small marinas and shops. Hopefully we can pick up WiFi from the boat again.

St Davids Harbour

We left Port louis Marina yesterday morning for a short motor sail around to St Davids Harbour which is where Grenada Marine are based who will haul our boat and store it for the hurricane season. Well what a ride!!! It was slow progress as we were heading into the wind with tide with us so the combination of wind against tide created some big steep seas and we crashed our way up and down the waves. It was a good job the mileage was not great as Peter was finding it tough going. It took us 3.25 hours to do 10 miles. Anyway we are here now and the harbour and anchorage are lovely. The surroundings are idyllic and well worth the journey getting here. There is an upmarket resort with a few small cottages on the hillside next to Grenada Marine and apart from that there is nothing here so superbly peaceful. Last night we had the best sleep since arriving in Grenada. We had sailed around with the dinghy on the davits so it was easy to drop the dinghy and go ashore yesterday to explore and check out the facilities at Grenada Marine. The boatyard is not busy at the moment and there is plenty of room for storing boats and it is very well protected being surrounded by wooded hillsides. The staff are very friendly and the bar is actually full of workers who had just finished work as it was around 5pm. There is a small chandlery here but stocking the essential items you might need if you are working on your boat. We also talked to a French boat owner who confirmed that this was indeed a very good place to leave your boat as they have good 24 hour security as well as being a protected place. Apparently during the last hurricane in 2005 only 10 boats out of 200 stored here suffered any sort of damage so that is good news. He also told us the other hurricane shelter in Grenada is Spice Island Marine and they had numerous casualties as boats tumbled on top of each other. So...this is where we shall leave the boat for the hurricane season. Before we left Port Louis we did hire a car for the day and visited Belmont Estate which is the main tourist attraction in Grenada and where there is a large cocoa plantation. So we learnt how to turn cocoa benas into cholcolate and got to sample the dark organic chocolate produced by the Grenada Chocolate Factory! We also took the opportunity to visit a supermarket on the way back so we could stock up with bulky items whilst we had a car to transport them back to the Marina. We have paid for 2 nights mooring here at the ridiculously cheap price of US$6 per night!

Grenada Prizegiving

It was the usual prizegiving event last night here in Port Louis Marina where all crews gathered around the swimming pool and had rum punches listening to the steel band playing. Very Caribbean!! Trompeta managed to come first again in her class despite not being the fastest! We did sail the whole way though and had no engine hours recorded which does make a difference. Anyway Peter was delighted to receive a $100 voucher to spend in the Chandlery and together with a bottle of local rum it was the perfect gift! It is hard to believe that this was the last official leg and we have nearly completed our circumnavigation. All we have to do now is sail up to St Lucia for the final dinner on 13 April. There is a rendezvous in Marigot Bay (where Dr Doolittle was filmed) which is where The Moorings also have their St Lucia base on 10 April. So now it is sit back relax and enjoy the Caribbean. Today was the World ARC tour of Grenada where we visited a working rum distillery which was set up in 1785 by the British and still runs today using the old fashioned machinery including the original water wheel! The place was called Rivers Rum as it is on the River Antoine. We also visited a Nutmeg factory and saw how the nutmeg and mace are extracted from the kernal. Some nutmeg was purchased to try later. The bus stopped at the Grand Etang national park where we saw the local monkeys. Tomorrow must be a rest day as we are both tired out from the last two days!

Grenada

We arrived here in Port Louis Marina Grenada on Sunday afternopon and it is lovely! Our sail from Brazil was very fast as we had current with us most of the way so we had some good boat speeds and completed the passage in a record 9 days!! The seas were calm and the sailing was good using white sails all the way. No need to fly the Parasailor as no real downwind conditions. In fact arriving in Grenada once we rounded Point Saline we were beating to windward and took ages to get into the harbour but at least we did not resort to turning the engine on. Yesterday was spent getting stuff organised and repairs done (minor stitching in sails etc). I think it will be possible to get new cockpit cushion covers done here to match our existing ones and replace the one that blew overboard in Forteleza.So already achieved quite a lot here. The Marina is only 2 years old and everything is very smart and the bathrooms are so posh with individual en suite facilities and loads of room plus even a hairdryer! The Marina restaurant is very good so the last two nights we have not even gone into town prefering just to eat here as it is nearby and so convenient. We did manage a trip to the Chandlery yesterday which is a very short dinghy ride away and Peter bought lots of things for the boat plus lots of cleaning and polishing materials. We have asked a local guy called Ashley to polish our boat and he is also going to clean the waterline as well for a very reasonable US$130. It will probably take him around 6 hours to complete the job. He should be able to get rid of a scuff mark we have where the St Helena water taxi managed to scrape our side. At least we have no major jobs to do or big sail repairs unlike some of the other boats. We have booked in here until Monday 25 March as the Rally prizegiving is on Friday and the tour of the island on Saturday. Rally office closes on 24 March. Our plan is to go around the South side of Grenada to St Davids where Grenada Marine is based and where we intend to haul out and store Trompeta in a cradle for the hurricane season. There are some other good anchorages and Bays on this coast line so it is worth spending a few days here. Once we leave Grenada we will cruise up to St Lucia where we meet up in Marigot Bay with the other Rally boats on 10 April. We pass through the Grenadines so will stop in Tobago Cays which is where we spent Christmas before starting the Rally and it is very pretty and a Marine Park so a protected area. Today we are tidying and cleaning the boat and off loading surplus torn sails and other rubbish!!

Farewell Brazil

Tomorrow we leave Forteleza for our sail to Grenada which should be a fast passage as we have good winds forecast and a good positive current to help us along. Peter is predicting a 12 day passage but I think we may do it in 10 days. Just watch the fleet viewer to see who is right!! Start time is 12 noon local time which is 3 hours behind UTC. In the meantime we have fuelled up and topped up water and got provisions on board so we are ready to go. This is our last official leg with World ARC as when we arrive in Grenada our next trip is to free cruise up to St Lucia through the Grenadines. The Marina in Grenada is new so should have good facilities including a chandlery where Peter can stock up on boat parts.

Brazil cruising

We have arrived in Forteleza where the Rally rendezvous takes place after a very quick passage up from Recife. Only just got good reliable internet access here in Forteleza. Whilst in Recife we were at anchor with no convenient WiFi. So we left Salvador and had a slow trip up to Recife as the wind and current were against us so it took slightly longer than expected. Arrived at Pernambuco Yacht Club a week last Saturday afternoon and were met by a very friendly manager Eduardo who was happy to row us ashore in his little wooden boat whenever we needed a ride. The mooring was reasonably cheap at R$30 a night (about £10 a night). We stayed in Recife for 5 nights before leaving to sail up the coast to Forteleza. This sail was great as we had a good positive current of 2 to 3 knots with us so the ironic thing was we were actually trying to slow down so as not to arrive at night when it is more difficult to see the small fishing boats in the dark and these work close to the shore. Hence we tried to stay offshore a good distance so as to avoid the fishing boats which work on just off the continental shelf. Now we are here after a tricky berthing which involved dropping the anchor then reversing onto the floating pontoon which moves around alarmingly! There is a bit of a surge in the Marina so Peter has rigged up two old car tyres with ropes to act as spring lines to stop the snatching. It seems to be working! Yesterday I managed to find a really good hairdreser in a lovely air conditioned shopping centre so treated myself to a good hair do. The best one since Galapagos! Today we have been doing jobs on the boat. Peter repaired some carrs on the mainsail as we had ordered some new parts which came via another crew from Germany. Tomorrow we will refuel and go provisioning. Hopefully the supermarket will deliver to the Marina! Here in the Marina we can use the Hotel swimming pool which is delightful and there is a small bar which serves drinks and snacks so perfect for relaxing at the end of a busy day. Departure day is Friday when we will have our last long passage to Grenada which is around 1700 miles so will probably take us about 12 days or less if we have lots of positive current. In preparation we have customs clearances on Thursday morning and a skippers briefing later that afternoon.