Aleria Update 7

7. Paradise just as we imagined it – New Year’s in Grenada @ 11°59N 61°45’W

Hello all –

When we arrived in Barbados on December 23rd, we rushed ashore after a lengthy check in with four officers (immigration, customs, health and harbor) and bought fresh vegetables and bread at the street market. We could not get near the supermarket as it seemed every man, woman and child in Barbados was doing their Christmas shopping that day. We tried to buy Christmas presents the next day (Christmas Eve) but the duty free shops were jammed. So we went back to the boat, relaxed, and cooked a feast. We had an international menu with Ukrainian sour borscht that I had started in the Canary Islands, our fresh vegetables and a pork roast we had frozen for just such an occasion, topped off with Christmas pudding and brandy butter. We listened to carols all day from our iTunes collection and opened our Christmas package from Alex’s mother. Along with the perfect presents (books, etc), there was a tray of Christmas cookies she must have baked way back in September and the travelling cr¨che. We had a lovely Christmas Eve with our little tree lit up on the aft deck providing ambiance and inspiration to the entire crowded anchorage.

Late on Christmas Eve, our friends from Santa Cruz, Ali and Shane, on the catamaran Talulah pulled in. Ali had tears in her eyes as she saw our Christmas tree. They had lost all power several days out and had to hand steer in one hour increments for the last three days. As their SSB radio was not working, they couldn’t call to let anyone know. When they saw Aleria anchored there, they knew they had made it to safety. They have one remarkable story to tell, as does virtually every boat that comes across.

As everything was closed from mid-day Christmas Eve right through the weekend (Dec 23-28) we had no choice but to relax and enjoy some of the world’s most beautiful beaches. The water was so clear and so warm we never wanted to get out. Yet, it wasn’t paradise yet. Barbados is not a very yacht friendly destination. We had major repairs we needed done and there was no facility here that could handle them. Moreover, the only anchorage in Barbados is Carlisle Bay. It lies along a huge expanse of beach but is rather exposed and open to a considerable swell. After a few days, it became uncomfortable. As there was no marina with transient berths there except a crowded one a considerable distance up the coast, the anchorage was the only option. We had been looking forward to a nice broad protected Caribbean bay where we could anchor in relative comfort, take swims off the boat in the morning, and head to the tiki bar for happy hour in the evening. That meant we had to move on. Technically, we also felt we weren’t in the Caribbean yet as Barbados is about 150 miles east of the Lesser Antilles which form the Caribbean Sea.

We departed Barbados January 29 en route to Grenada about 160 miles or just one 24-hour overnight sail away. If the wind stayed with us, we should get there some time on January 30^th with plenty of time to settle in so we could spend a nice New Year in the Grenadines! After a passage of light and variable wind and once again massive and confused seas, we dropped anchor in beautiful Prickly Bay, Grenada. It’s a small bay surrounded by hills upon which are stately homes and cottages strewn colorfully amidst the lush foliage. Quite the decadent setting and well worth the move. It was full of yachts from all over the world, but there was still plenty of room for new arrivals.

We missed booking into the local pig roast for New Year’s Eve so we stayed onboard and had grilled Mahi Mahi (=Dorado, or Dolphinfish) that we had caught. We celebrated the arrival of 2010 at UTC time (what used to be GMT, which here is local minus 4 hours which meant midnight came at 8 pm) and fireworks all around at the local midnight hour. Very lovely, great anchorage here. It’s paradise just as we imagined it.

We are now sitting onboard with wifi on our computers surfing the net and catching up on emails. Ashore is a great chandlery where cruisers buy duty free, their sailmaker is a new Doyle acquisition and topnotch, there is a machine shop, and an engineer that can fix our steering, and a laundry where you drop off your stuff and they wash, dry and fold for the same it would cost to do it yourself in many other places. We feel very much at home here. There are three small restaurants varying from pizza to middle to high range and a mini mart. A short bike ride away is an ACE hardware store and Grand Anse, one of the world’s great beaches. The Grenada University Medical School is a short walk away. A beautiful new marina at St Georges provides the potential for a stopover in the middle of restored and resurging colonial St Georges town. The job they have done rethinking and rebuilding since the hurricane is just astounding. And there are numerous anchorages surrounding by high jagged peaks covered with lush forests to partake of first. It is simply beautiful here. Better than we remembered from our last visit by air more than ten years ago. Most important, the people are so very nice, gentle and kind here. If that isn’t enough, the whole chain of Grenadines is within day sailing from here: Carriacou, Petit Martinique, Mustique, Bequia, Mayreau, and others. We’ll be here for a while.

We have had a chance to meet some of the people from our Madlantic Net who came this way. Luterna, which was attacked by the false killer whales, and Ascension, who stood by us when our steering failed, are here, as is now Talulah. It’s interesting to meet people after hearing their voices for weeks on a daily basis and chatting with them like best friends. They never look like you imagined them. But we’ve had a great time with them all.

The young British sailor (who incidentally won the Ostar not just sailed in it) and his partner are here. And our friends with our TackTick parts are finally on their way. As it turned out, we were among the last boats to leave the Canaries and cross the Atlantic in 2009. Those few that left a day or two behind us or were slower than Aleria were becalmed so badly that they spent Christmas at sea and barely made it in for New Year’s Day. Those behind them never made it out. A series of severe storms brought southwesterlies of high force that pinned hundreds of boats in the marinas in the Canaries. The marinas filled up, and the storm surge wreaked havoc as boats pulled out deck cleats and damaged hulls against bulkheads. Mostly, they were disheartened. The large fleet of 27 high tech rowboats that were to cross the Atlantic starting December 6 have just left La Gomera January 6. Those poor rowers were stuck in hotel rooms or on their boats for a month after provisioning and preparing so carefully for their ordeal.

The thought of provisioning brings to mind how acutely aware we become of how we use our resources when dependence on them increases. Storing non-decomposable waste for three weeks and disposing of decomposable waste properly at sea makes us mindful of wasteful and inappropriate packaging. In Barbados, there was no way to get water at a dock so if you needed it you filled containers with water and lugged them to your boat from wherever you could find it ashore. Here in Grenada, waters costs 20 cents US per gallon, but at least you can fill up at the dock. In other places, you pay and carry. In the Canaries and Madeira, water was scarce and precious as the droughts have become more severe with every year. Madeira and Porto Santo are now self sufficient with new desalination plants throughout the islands. But thousands of acres of once fertile farmland have been abandoned among these Atlantic Islands. The haze of sand that fills the air from the Sahara has been getting steadily worse as the heat continues to increase and the desert expands. Even Onyx was coughing and sneezing the whole time. They were thrilled when it rained in the Canaries, not so much for the water as to clear the air of the sand. Not only are we thrown into a conservation-intense mode out here, we become acutely aware of how climate change is rapidly accentuating our challenges for survival. It’s a lesson everyone should learn firsthand.

We'll be in the Grenadines for much of January as we have some repairs and exploring to do here and then want to spend some time along the smaller islands which are supposed to be among the best in the Caribbean. Then we'll move on to St. Lucia, Martinique, Dominica, and Guadeloupe for February. March we'll be heading up to Anguilla, St Barts, St Kitts, St Martin, etc. April in the British Virgin Islands and Antigua. Then on to Bermuda and the Azores in May/June. That gives you a general sense of our “schedule�. Things change daily here.

We are almost exactly on the opposite corner of the North Atlantic having travelled diagonally from 54°N 09°W to 12°N 62°W. Whereas it has been dismally cold back home in Ireland, it’s quite hot here during the day so a swim is in order. Our choices are to dive over the side of the boat, take a dinghy to the little beach across the bay, go snorkeling on the reef, or ride our bikes to the spectacular Grand Anse beach. Let’s see, today perhaps just a swim off the boat. We’d hate to work up a sweat before happy hour at the tiki bar.

Love you all and wish you all a happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Daria & Alex & Onyx

Ps: off to the Tiki Bar now, where we will drink a toast to you all!