December 2016

Date: 22nd December 2016

Position: Jolly Harbour, Antigua

Hi Land folk and Salty Sea Dogs,

Time to let you all know what’s been happening since we left Trinidad in October.

Since there are a few newcomers to this publication, let me introduce myself. My name is Bonzo, I am the Captain of sailing yacht Ari B and I am a rather handsome white stuffed dog. And yes, I know all the associated jokes already.

After launching Ari B in Trinidad, the crew was looking for a weather window to get them up to Grenada, an island they had not visited yet. The trip up can be a bit tricky when the wind is NE, as a strong west setting current flows past the north shore of Trinidad.  Didn’t have to wait long, and the wind was right, so we started the engine and made some easting along Trinidad’s north shore before heading north to Grenada. The trip was uneventful, and after the summer break, all boat systems and the crew were in satisfactory working order.

Arriving in Grenada, the AIS signal of our friends Jack, Fizz and woofs Ben and Lucy on Carpe Diem guided us into a lovely bay (Benji Bay near Clarkes Court), which was to be our base for the coming weeks, while we explored Grenada. Many thanks to the Carpe Diem team, who showed us around, lent us their car and introduced us to loads of people. A few days later Graham and Joan on Karma sailed in and when Carla and Graham get together talking fishing there is no stopping them. In Grenada the crew also did their first hash. The Hash Harriers arrange runs/walks every Saturday on a number of Caribbean islands and are very active on Grenada. They lay a paper trail that you follow but there are many false trails along the way. The hash the crew joined was a special one and included a boat trip to and from the hash on the Rum Runner. Basically after a fairly short walk/run at a beach destination, the boat cruised around the bays, music blaring, hips grinding and beer flowing.  As it was the crews first hash they had to be initiated i.e. doused in beer. Lovely. Grenada has some excellent hiking and the crew joined Carpe Diem for a half island rain forest walk. It was spectacular, if a bit on the wet side.

Tim, Gayle, and my best woof friends Gem and Pip on Wild Bird joined us a couple of weeks later, motoring the 500 or so miles from Curacao due to lack of wind. They went through some terrifying thunderstorms but luckily arrived unharmed, so the team was united again.

Unfortunately we were not to be united for long, We decided to head north a few days before Wild Bird as we wanted to stop in Carriacou and the Grenadines. We anchored in Tyrell Bay in Carriacou and immediately fell in love with this quiet, laid back island. An added benefit was that lobster was only 10ec a pound in the fish market in Hillsborough, that’s less than $4 a pound. I’m not partial to lobster myself being stuffed and all that, but the crew made sure they had their fill. Whilst we were in Carriacou, Tim got a bad spider bite on his knee which meant Wild Bird had to stay put in Grenada for a while. We continued through the Grenadines stopping at Petit St Vincent, Mayreau, Tobago Keys and Bequia. It was nice sailing and sometimes we just went out sailing with no particular destination. Haven’t done that for a while. In Bequia the crew hiked up to Peggy’s Rock for 360 degree views over St Vincent to the north and the Grenadines and Carriacou to the south. Apparently a lady called Peggy used to sit on Peggy’s Rock and guide the fisherman to the fish as she had extraordinary eyesight.

Next stop was Rodney Bay in St Lucia. We decided to skip St Vincent due to ongoing security issues on the island. At this point Carla was getting very frustrated due to lack of fish. She tried every lure, dragged Alex out of bed at 5am to set sail, all to no avail. The crew were not very enamoured with St Lucia – lots of traffic, lots of cruise ships, lots of tourists and locals not very friendly in comparison to other islands. So after a couple of days we set off again to St Anne’s, Martinique. Wild Bird were also heading up to St Anne’s and were already there to meet us when we dropped the anchor. Carpe Diem came in a few hours later and John and Jill on Petronella the next day. Karma was also already there. Carla even managed to catch a couple of fish on the way!

After a night in St Anne’s we decided to go into Le Marin, together with Wild Bird so the crews could do some serious provisioning in the French supermarkets. That night a thunderstorm came through blowing 35 knots from the west. We were ok in Le Marin but the anchorage in St Anne’s is open to the west and they had 8 foot breaking waves and a couple of boats had to be pulled off the beach. The conditions caused flooding in Barbuda and beached boats up and down the island chain. To our knowledge no lives were lost, fortunately.

Unfortunately Tim on Wild Bird got another infection on his knee and eventually it got so bad they had to go to hospital in Fort de France. We were expecting our friend Thomas to visit us in Antigua on 15th Dec so very reluctantly we had to leave them to head north. The crew have been very worried about him but thankfully Tim is now slowly recovering after having an operation to remove an abscess. 

Meantime the Ari B team island hopped north to take advantage of some good sailing conditions and arrived in Antigua just 2 days before  some strong winds set in – which stayed for almost 2 weeks.  Apparently that happens so frequently that these winds are called the Christmas winds. Antigua is nice as always and crew friend Thomas arrived from Cuba on the 15th Dec. The winds allowed us to take him for a trip to Falmouth harbour, for a short stay, and then the team decided to shelter from the 30 knot + winds on the leeside of the island, making use of a hire car to explore the island and do short day trips to the bays on the west side of Antigua.

Visitor Thomas is departing Antigua again in 2 days time and the crew is getting ready to celebrate Christmas with the other boats here in Antigua, sadly without Wild Bird, but we are hoping that Tim will be out of hospital shortly. We will be having a huge party when we are reunited.

Let me as Captain take this opportunity to wish all friends and family a lovely Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Safe New Year!   Woooffff

Ari  B out

Captain Bonzo

Spice market, St George, Grenada