Saturday, 24 January 2009
Monday, 12 January 2009
More sailing
Well it's been a ripping couple of days. Andy and I took Cocoa, the little boat belonging to Hutch, into the mangroves with a bottle of fizzy white and some left overs for lunch. (Rice with a mess of sweet potato, plantain, beans, pumpkin, onion, garlic, chillies, peppers, aubergine, callaloo, ginger, nutmeg and hot pepper sauce in coconut milk. We sailed across the bay into the mangroves and dumped our sail on the beach. We then rowed into the mangroves and let the wind take us all the way down to the end, about a mile, or so. We drifted while we drank Buck's fizz and ate our lunch and fended off trees when we bashed into them. There were a lot of brown jelly fish in there and oysters growing on the tunks of the mangrove trees. These trees put down long shoots downwards into the water, where they grow roots. The best bit was siting comfortably in the stern while making Andy row me all the way back out of the mangrove. My goal is for him to develop a six pack like Beckham's. Haven't made much headway in that direction so far. More of a barrel than a six pack.
Anyway, after we sailed back, finished the wine and had a swim we went to the pizzeria, where we managed to firm up on an invitation for a sail with Frank Pearce on Tradition. She is an old Carriacou workboat which he has restored and this was her inaugural shake down sail. It wasn't long, but it was really fun. There were about 8 of us crew all hauling and heaving on the ropes. This is a wooden gaff rigged boat, not a winch or an electric button in sight. It was most interesting. Once we were back on her mooring and sucking up beers and a wicked rum punch brought along by Andy Smelt who runs a sail loft here, we saw Nutmeg sail into the bay. We had met Ollie and Sarah and their two little girls on Nutmeg in France and Spain last summer. They crossed on the ARC (Atlantic Rally Crossing) in November/December. We shall be meeting up with them again soon for drinks and to point them at the sights.
I'm going to start cooking now as Ted is coming for dinner before he disappears to England for 6 weeks. He seems to think we've volunteered to take care of the sailing club while he's away. HEEEELP! At least I'll be able to put Acting Commodore, Yacht Club, Caribbean, on my CV!
Anyway, after we sailed back, finished the wine and had a swim we went to the pizzeria, where we managed to firm up on an invitation for a sail with Frank Pearce on Tradition. She is an old Carriacou workboat which he has restored and this was her inaugural shake down sail. It wasn't long, but it was really fun. There were about 8 of us crew all hauling and heaving on the ropes. This is a wooden gaff rigged boat, not a winch or an electric button in sight. It was most interesting. Once we were back on her mooring and sucking up beers and a wicked rum punch brought along by Andy Smelt who runs a sail loft here, we saw Nutmeg sail into the bay. We had met Ollie and Sarah and their two little girls on Nutmeg in France and Spain last summer. They crossed on the ARC (Atlantic Rally Crossing) in November/December. We shall be meeting up with them again soon for drinks and to point them at the sights.
I'm going to start cooking now as Ted is coming for dinner before he disappears to England for 6 weeks. He seems to think we've volunteered to take care of the sailing club while he's away. HEEEELP! At least I'll be able to put Acting Commodore, Yacht Club, Caribbean, on my CV!
Friday, 9 January 2009
Getting some sailing in
Well I suppose I’d better drag myself onto the keyboard to tell you what we’ve been up to. Oh, it’s such an effort. I feel myself being sucked deeper and deeper into the space-time continuum that masquerades as normal life here. We always used to call this place “the land where no one gives a flying fuck.” I have not changed my opinion. Do you know that song that goes: “I’m busy doing nothing, working the whole day through, trying to find lots of things not to do. I’m busy going nowhere, isn’t it such a crime? I’d like to beeeeeeeee unhappy, but I really don’t have the time.”? That’s my life. I love it.
We have done stuff, though. We went sailing on New Year’s Day with Chris Morejohn in Hogfish Maximus, which he designed and built himself. It was really a most interesting boat and he was a most interesting man. He’s done so much stuff, building boats, houses, painting, making sculptures. He’s just finished building himself a house in the Bahamas. His boat, a 34ft sailing yacht, has a flat bottom and a big centre board which is winched into position, giving a draft of about 7ft. It sailed brilliantly, which is just as well, as he doesn’t have an engine in it, so he had us tacking through the anchorage and between the islands and reefs. It points well to windward and is a good stiff sailing boat. It has lots more room inside than a conventional boat of that length has, and he can pull up the board and beach it!
One afternoon, I took out Hutch’s little Mosquito, called Cocoa, with the distinctive red, gold and green sail, while Andy sailed one of the Optis. We just tooled around the anchorage, looking at the boats, and trying not to hit them. The owners don’t like that. I find these little dinghies really uncomfortable to sail in and I was glad to put the thing back on the beach and go for a swim.
We did enjoy, however, going for a sail with Ted and his son, Josh, in the Yngling which belongs to Jeff, who owns the boatyard. He has a lot of boats. Collects ‘em. I think people sometimes take boats to the boatyard and forget to collect them again. He also gets hurricane damaged boats and fixes them up. He has a motor yacht which he rescued from the bottom of the bay after the last hurricane. The Yngling is quite a big dinghy, which is sailed by women in the Olympics. She was the best sail I’ve ever had – slips though the water like nobody’s business. We were hoping to get a team together with Ted and sail it in the regatta coming up in a week or two, but Ted’s just told us he’s going to England for 6 weeks to try and sort out an education for his children. Thoughtless bugger. I don’t think Andy and I are up to racing on our own. We could learn a lot from Ted and were hoping he’d give us a lesson in deployment of the spinnaker, although we’re not sure if “Little Bloody Mary”, the Yngling, has one.
We also had a fun day out this week in Lady M, which is a 57ft ketch built in a traditional style, except that she’s 33 tons of ferro-concrete. We sailed up to Union Island with Captain Bananas, had lunch off Frigate Island, and sailed back. Captain Bananas is an American with, shall we say, a chequered past. There seem to be quite a few blokes like that around these parts.
As far as the house goes, Joy has now brought us another curtain. We’re still waiting for the last one. He’s not keen on getting us another bed, so we’re going to have to borrow one if we get any guests.
Do you like the pic of the little post office? It’s a bit of a hot walk up there to collect any post. I went up there on the morning of Friday 2nd Jan and a guy hanging around the rum shop next door told me she was supposed to open at 10 am, but that she’d probably be there at about 10.30. I went for a walk and hung around under a tree for a while, but she never turned up at all. It was the Friday between New Year’s Day and a Saturday, so she evidently thought it wasn’t worth her while to open at all.
Andy is still fibre-glassing away on the GP 14, in between mending the Optis. It’s all one step forward and one back, though. He only does a couple of hours a day on them. As he says, a man needs to rest!
We have done stuff, though. We went sailing on New Year’s Day with Chris Morejohn in Hogfish Maximus, which he designed and built himself. It was really a most interesting boat and he was a most interesting man. He’s done so much stuff, building boats, houses, painting, making sculptures. He’s just finished building himself a house in the Bahamas. His boat, a 34ft sailing yacht, has a flat bottom and a big centre board which is winched into position, giving a draft of about 7ft. It sailed brilliantly, which is just as well, as he doesn’t have an engine in it, so he had us tacking through the anchorage and between the islands and reefs. It points well to windward and is a good stiff sailing boat. It has lots more room inside than a conventional boat of that length has, and he can pull up the board and beach it!
One afternoon, I took out Hutch’s little Mosquito, called Cocoa, with the distinctive red, gold and green sail, while Andy sailed one of the Optis. We just tooled around the anchorage, looking at the boats, and trying not to hit them. The owners don’t like that. I find these little dinghies really uncomfortable to sail in and I was glad to put the thing back on the beach and go for a swim.
We did enjoy, however, going for a sail with Ted and his son, Josh, in the Yngling which belongs to Jeff, who owns the boatyard. He has a lot of boats. Collects ‘em. I think people sometimes take boats to the boatyard and forget to collect them again. He also gets hurricane damaged boats and fixes them up. He has a motor yacht which he rescued from the bottom of the bay after the last hurricane. The Yngling is quite a big dinghy, which is sailed by women in the Olympics. She was the best sail I’ve ever had – slips though the water like nobody’s business. We were hoping to get a team together with Ted and sail it in the regatta coming up in a week or two, but Ted’s just told us he’s going to England for 6 weeks to try and sort out an education for his children. Thoughtless bugger. I don’t think Andy and I are up to racing on our own. We could learn a lot from Ted and were hoping he’d give us a lesson in deployment of the spinnaker, although we’re not sure if “Little Bloody Mary”, the Yngling, has one.
We also had a fun day out this week in Lady M, which is a 57ft ketch built in a traditional style, except that she’s 33 tons of ferro-concrete. We sailed up to Union Island with Captain Bananas, had lunch off Frigate Island, and sailed back. Captain Bananas is an American with, shall we say, a chequered past. There seem to be quite a few blokes like that around these parts.
As far as the house goes, Joy has now brought us another curtain. We’re still waiting for the last one. He’s not keen on getting us another bed, so we’re going to have to borrow one if we get any guests.
Do you like the pic of the little post office? It’s a bit of a hot walk up there to collect any post. I went up there on the morning of Friday 2nd Jan and a guy hanging around the rum shop next door told me she was supposed to open at 10 am, but that she’d probably be there at about 10.30. I went for a walk and hung around under a tree for a while, but she never turned up at all. It was the Friday between New Year’s Day and a Saturday, so she evidently thought it wasn’t worth her while to open at all.
Andy is still fibre-glassing away on the GP 14, in between mending the Optis. It’s all one step forward and one back, though. He only does a couple of hours a day on them. As he says, a man needs to rest!
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