More Photos

Helen: Hey guys, more photos at http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlieandhelen
No time to organise them...but will do soon. My favourite is the chickens under the fire engine...
Lots of love
H&C (off to see our first potential boat in 10 mins...)

Much better now...

Helen: Thought I ought to write a couple of lines to say we're both feeling a lot better now. And thanks to everyone who comments on our blog - it makes us smile and not feel so far away to hear from you all :)

So...we spent yesterday fixing everything. I stowed (found homes) for everything that moves on the boat (was tempted to include the skipper and cat in this process) which is one of my favourite things to do - having decided that we were going to stay on board I figured I might as well make the place livable so I cleaned all the cupboards and sorted out all the food stores. We bought herbs and spices yesterday too, and arranged all the books on the bookshelves. Small things, I know, but it makes the place feel more homely. C mended everything that needed mending too, and we convinced the skipper to buy lots of new gear. To make things even better we saw our friend Marco, who we met in Las Palmas, for a few rum and cokes last night, and our other friend from the ARC, Joel is going to join our crew in a few weeks time which will make it all not just bearable but lots of fun.

And, best news of all, C and Joel have both decided that buying a boat might be a good idea. So, if all goes according to plan we'll buy one together and it won't sink and we'll have adventures and lots of fun, and you'll be able to come stay with us. Yesterday I found an advert for a 41ft boat well within our budget in Grenada...so we're going to investigate tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow, cos EVERYWHERE is closed, but on Monday. Then we're off up the coast towards an island called Carriacou for those of you with atlases.

Before I go, here's a thought for you - on the wall of the internet cafe there is a little poem, and there is one line that I like so much I think I might stick it above my bed so that I see it every morning: "What I do today is important because I am exchanging a day of my life for it". Good sentiment for a new year's resolution indeed.

Ok, gotta go now.
Hx

PS think I forgot to tell you C's favourite memory of the trip so far - when we were in Trinidad he bought a fresh coconut (big green thing, with the small brown hairy shell that we know in the UK on the inside) from Johnny who had a huge machetee and just chopped the top off. He spilled coconut juice all down his front and then ate all the insides. What a piggy. (If I did tell you already, sorry - better twice than not at all) xx

PPS HAPPY NEW YEAR incase we don't get to write before...

Not turning out as intended at all :(

Helen: ARRRRRGGGGHHHH! Feel better now. Let me explain...

Had the worst Xmas day on record. So bad that I was even thinking how preferable it would be to be at home being forced to go out for a walk with my father - an annual 'tradition' that I usually hate. This year, father Christmas brought us: a broken jib furling system, an engine that would only go in reverse, another incompetent skipper and seasickness. And, for an encore, a seasick cat. Yup, the only thing worse than feeling seasick is, I have discovered, having to clear up after a vomiting moggy. The novely of having a cat on board is definitely wearing thin now.

But...having said that, C did marvelously and fixed the furling system in minutes, and rigged up some Heath Robinson affair with ropes to make the engine go the right way. It was a bit like being on a large boat with the helmsman shouting instructions down to the engine room. The skipper is pleasant enough, but he hasn't tested his boat, knows less about sailing than we do, hasn't prepared at all and has Parkinsons, so isn't very mobile. In fact we nearly lost him over the side a couple of times on the way over. We wanted to be learning on this trip, but so far it seems that we've been more experienced than the skippers we've sailed with...which has got me started thinking that maybe we ought to just do it properly and buy our own damn boat. Yes, I know owning a boat has been likened to standing in the shower stuffing 50 quid notes down the drain...but if we don't do it, I feel like we'll always be living someone else's dream, not our own...

For the moment, we have no option but to stick with the current boat as we don't have any other options, but, we are definitely thinking of alternatives. It wasn't meant to be this way!!!! I've even been reading a travel book about biking round the world, so, much to C's delight, that may even be a possiblity.

Anyway, enough whining. What good news do we have? We're in Grenada, and are actually able to explore this time - we're in St George's, the capital, and it's lovely - lots of old buildings and the people are so friendly. We just asked someone in a shop where the internet cafe was and he walked up the street with us to take us there. How kind!

Right, have to go now as have to look up boats for sale on line...

H&Cxx

PS just seen the most gigantic yacht in the whole world ever dock next to us - she must be at least 240ft...

Leaving TT - Xmas in Grenada...

Helen: Just getting ready to leave Trindad - off course we didn't have all the right forms when we went to customs so it's taking slightly longer than we'd hoped, but we should be in Grenada for Christmas day. No Xmas pud or mince pies and not a turkey in sight...but we do have a bottle of bubbly so not all bad.

The boat is great - she's pretty roomy for 40ft and we're both looking forward to doing some 'proper' sailing - you know, pulling ropes and that sort of thing rather than just pushing buttons like on the last boat which was pretty much automatic...
We tried to get into the hills yesterday but totally failed to hire a car (it appears everywhere was shut cos it was nearly christmas - how does that work!!?? Shouldnt that be the busiest time of year?) So we went to Port of Spain (TT's capital) instead. LP said that the city isn't for tourists (they've got oil money so don't need tourist dollars) and that it's big, bustly and a bit dodgy - having spent the last couple of weeks being hastled by street vendors on tourist beaches it was actually quite refreshing to just hang out with normal people! We didn't see any other tourists (although it's harder to tell here as at least 20% of the population is white - v disconcerting to hear them speaking with broad caribbean accents!) but bumbled along through the noise and busyness of the Xmas street market. I even bought myself some typical 'Soca' music (mix of Calyspo and soul) and had the yummiest honeyed cashews ever. Hmmmm.

The day before our P.o.S adventure we went to a shopping mall/supermarket and got stuck in a 2 hour queue (line) for the tills. People were fighting for trolleys Bonkers! I guess it was just because of Christmas, but still, it's funny to come half way round the world, and find out that, perfectly reasonably, people do just the same stuff that they do at home - go shopping, get stuck in queues and traffic jams (we ended up in jams on both Gran Canaria and St Lucia - both made worse by the fact that both islands only have one road all the way round so a jam really does block everything up! the one in St Lucia wasn't too bad though as it was moving so slowly we managed to hop out and get beers from a passing pub :)

Right, gotta get back to customs
Hxx

PS we've been keeping a look out for crazy signs, and think these two might make Olly, Bob and Will smile - we found 'Cock flavoured soup' in the supermarket (yes, I know it's childish but it's still funny), and also 'Extra concentrated Joy' in a bottle (Joy is a brand of washing up liquid). Gimme some of that for the festive season!!

HAPPY XMAS all :)

Trinidad and Tom, the ship's cat

Helen: well, we finally made it to Trinidad yesterday at about 1am in the morning - if we hadn't overhead some fellow guests in the hotel lobby who had just found out about a secret flight, and blagged a lift to the airport though, we'd probably still be stuck in Grenada.... When we got to the marina it probably won't surprise you all to find out that we couldn't find our yacht so had to spend the evening with a guy we met from the plane on his boat (merci beaucoup Alain!!) This is becoming a bit of a habit
But, this morning, the sun's up and we've found our yacht Santana, our skipper David and his black and white cat, Tom, who can open cupboards with his paws and seems to be very good at getting in the way all the time on board. David is really lovely and switched on and the boat is much more of a vessel than the previous one, so fingers crossed...
I feel much more positive today than I have for a while - I've been really sad the last couple of days to have left our friends in St Lucia - travelling is great and all...but just when you find folks you get on with and want to get to know better you have to move on. So I've joined bloody facebook to keep in touch with them all. Grrrrr.
In fact, the only thing that isn't going quite according to plan just now is that I'm covered in bloody mosquito bites. :( 18 at the last count. C has one.
Right, off to get clean now - we're sailing for Grenada tomorrow or the day after...
Hxxx

ps suppose I ought to say something about the island - from what we've seen Trinidad is much bigger than the other Caribbean islands we've been to so far, and much richer (oil). You can actually drive for 20km or so on a 3 lane road in a straight line (Graham will know how different this is from the windy single track roads on Gran Canaria and St Lucia). People are much more multicultural here (lots of Asian and white faces as well as black) but they don't seem to be as friendly! Looking forward to getting back to St Lucia - the least developed of all the places we've been so far - reminded me of Africa.

Photos

I've put all of our photos on Flickr, sorry there's very little commentary, I'll try and add some at some point, but if you can't remember what we look like, have a look here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlieandhelen/

Slight detour...

Helen: See what happens when you don't sail places? We got on a flight to Trinidad yesterday - got nearly all the way there and then had to turn around and land at Grenada cos it was raining so much the airport at Trinidad was closed and we didn't have enough fuel to hang around. Thought they'd put us up in some crappy one star b and b, but actually we landed up in the 'Grenada Grand Beach Resort' - right on a white sand beach with 2 pools and a 5 star restaurant - all for free (well, so we are hoping!) No news yet about when we might actually get to Trinidad (there's a cabin crew strike too today which isn't helpful - apparently it's an 'unofficial' industrial action - loads of staff just called in sick at the same time!) Not sure if we'll get a chance to explore the island this time as it looks like we might have to wait around the hotel til they tell us what to do...but we'll be back.
Charlie's sitting by my side reading the Grenada brochure and he wants you all to know that the island is the world's second biggest producer of nutmeg and mace. So there you go.
Only other thing to tell that I forgot last time, is about C's hair - it's just a daft haircut in the UK, but over here it makes getting around rather problematic as every rasta in town (about 1 in 20 of the general population in St Lucia) wants to stop and chat to you (v slowly!) and invite you round for tea and a smoke. They're all v friendly, but because it's a religion for them not just a daft hair style, you can't just ignore them like you might someone who's just trying to sell you stuff. So you have to stop lots! Good ice breaker no doubt, but I think we might have to get him a hat for when we actually are in a hurry to do stuff (but, as this is the Caribbean we might not be in a hurry for a while)
Right, all for now
H&Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Whoo Hoo - we made it!!

Helen: In St Lucia now trying to get over the unbelievable heat and get used to all the greenness - all we've seen for 3 weeks has been blue but this island is so lush... It's nice to not be rocking about all over the place anymore - I did a little land dance when we finally got in yesterday.

Not got much time (think this will be a regular feature of trying to keep a blog in stolen minutes in internet cafes), so here are the edited hightlights of the trip:

- being on a boat is like being a student - you stay up really really late (to be on watch), lie in really really late, stumble about all over the place and eat shit food out of tins!
- everything on the yacht fell apart! I kid you not - it was the least sea worthy yacht in the whole world and all the gear failed - 5 halyards up the mast (C went up in a climbing harness while at sea which was quite adventurous), a genoa (which we had to stitch up), and we shredded the genniker. We also took on about 2 ft of water in the engine room on day 1...
- the skipper was unbearable - arrogant, unprepared and useless - but the rest of the crew were great - we've made a wonderful friend in the most laid back Swede you'll ever meet :)
- we were boarded by illegal immigrants off the W African coast - was v scary to begin with as all we knew from the other yachts was that there was a speed boat with 25 people on it coming our way much faster than we could outrun them - didn't know if they were armed or what their intentions were. we had to fire flares over their heads and stamp on their fingers to stop them from swamping our boat but 2 of them got on board. after it was clear that they weren't trying to hurt us though, it was just really really sad. i felt ashamed that we were trying so hard to stop them having what we had when they had so little - all they wanted was food and water but we didn't have enough for all of them so we couldn't help. we called the coast guard and they sent a military boat to pick them up so we did the right thing, and without our help they would all likely have died, but that doesn't make it any easier on my conscience. Eventually a Danish cargo boat picked up refugees (reluctantly) before the military boat arrived and we went on our way - apparently there were 48 people on the tiny open launch, in 12 ft seas, 300 miles from land, 12 days at sea. 2 of them were already dead. Can't imagine how shit life must be for that kind of a journey to seem like a good idea.

Anyway, now we're here, we've got clean and been to a couple of parties. We're off to Trinidad on Tuesday for some more Caribbean sailing - will be different this time as we'll just be island hopping and not night sailing thank goodness

Hxxx