Trip Report-Jun 19-Jul 2- Moorings Canouan-Awful - 07/14/2004 10:55 PM
(When I say "we" below I refer to myself, wife a 16 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. ) My wife and I have chartered boats in the BVI' s (twice) , Antigua (once) and once in the San Juans and sailed quite a lot on rivers in the NW.
We left from NW USA on a Saturday night flying overnight through Chicago into Canouan via San Juan with American Airlines. The Moorings travel arm (Mariner Travel) had arranged our flights and had been helpful in changing our itinerary when we decided that some of the connections were a bit tight. No great problems with the flights down but as I'm six foot tall some of the seats were a bit tight for me but I guess that's par for the course.
We arrived in Canouan about 5 o'clock on the Sunday evening. Canouan airport is very small and we had flown there with some 10 others. A party of eight arriving with us found that one of their bags had gone astray and they were told that the bag would probably follow them on the Wednesday next when the next flight would arrive. I don't know if that happened.
We arrived at Moorings in Canouan (10 minutes drive by taxi) and having requested a 43.3 with three cabins we found we had been assigned Betty Mae. As has been pointed out, the base at Canouan has no big dock and the boats are on buoys. So we were transported with our bags to Betty Mae via dinghy to do an overnight stay onboard before leaving the next day. We had ordered a kind of half and half provisioning from Moorings to have breakfasts and snack lunches for four days plus a welcome "sundowner" for that evening. Which meant that we had enough food, wine and beer to start with. Plenty of provisions with these "plans".......cheeses, cold meats, quiches, chips salsa etc. My only comment is that to pay for a full jar of, say, mustard for ten days was a waste of money.
Our first impression of the boat was that it was ok. Lines in good condition, dinghy needed inflating and was not new. The front main cabin was set up so that two single bunks were laid out as well as the main double bunk. The doors between the two single bunks and the main master cabin were broken off their hinges and hanging so had to be secured. The cutlery and plates etc were the minimum expected. The pots and pans were stored under a cushion in the main cabin which was annoying because you had to move the cushions each time you wanted to use or store pots or pans. Plenty of towels and sheets but the pillows were horrible. One of the hatches in the main cabin didn't seat properly and had to be jiggled to be closed. The lock for the hatch into the main cabin didn't work.
That evening we went to the less formal bar at the Tamarind beach hotel to just have pizzas and pasta. Apparently the Tamarind Hotel had just doubled the prices of Heineken which mean't they were 6 USD for a small bottle . Quite a nice bar but not crowded.
Quite a peaceful night if just a touch rolly. First morning we had arranged to get the boat briefing.Had arranged for a boat brief at 8am which duly happened. Relaxed and helpful briefing with not too many queries We had some experience with chartering which definitely helps in such briefings because most of the boats' equipment seems to work the same.
The charts and locations briefing from the Moorings Customer service lady was very good. To the point helpful and knowledgeable. Only six of us at the briefing, leaving that morning on two boats so not much of a zoo feeling in the base. The little store at the Moorings base itself is useful for last minute things forgotten. We got the dinghy inflated.
First day sailing up to Bequia 4 hrs . We reckoned to sail northwards the first day to get a good long sail under our belts and also check the boat out under sail. The jib sail was a bit frayed and one of the of the self tailing winches seemed to be a bit inconsistent locking when used with one of the winch handles so we learned to use the "good" winch handle on that winch.
The weather was mostly cloudy and the sea and wave height were challenging but we had a bracing sail up to Bequia. Unfortunately both children were sea sick and miserable. We anchored in the bay but as soon as we had done that we were visited by a French guy off a Cat moored behind us who said that the previous night had been very windy (the wind comes through a funnel into the Bay) tonight would be worse, and he advised us to get a buoy to stop any possibility of drifting, even though he was anchored. Go figure.
So we picked up a bouy with help from African Pride ($20).
That evening we ate at the Gingerbread..only one other couple in the dining room. Food pretty good and the setting is nice. As it was the St Vincent carnival time there was Jump up in the town so we took the dinghy to the dinghy mooring dock and checked that out. Pretty raucous but all in good fun. Interesting to experience it.It was quite windy that night and slightly rolly but nothing like the force that our French Cat man had thought.
The next day dawned cloudy, squally with some sunbreaks and with the children being sea sick the previous day, and a relatively long sail behind us we decided to stay in Bequia for a second night. Wife plus children went to the Turtle Museum which was apparently well worth a visit. We were also able to provision easily because the town has plenty of stores with most of what you want/need. We found a pharmacy to get some motion sickness pills for the children. A weather check via the Internet at an Internet cafe did not yield any good news about the weather changing ....squalls, thunderstorms expected.
Ate on the boat that evening with plans to dope up the children and sail to Mustique the next morning.
The news day dawned suprisingly sunny and warm...yippee....a good day was in store.....Errr....Prior to leaving we went to buy some fresh veg from the Market in town. Vendors very interested in selling you produce and if you are uneasy about high pressure selling attention then perhaps the market is a place to avoid. We did the fair thing by buying a little stuff at each vendor.
We left the buoy and started to leave the bay only to find that our main sheet line was caught around he light on the mast..our bad....we had looosened it the night before to move it away with a bungee cord, from banging against the mast and then been careless with tightening it back up. We didn't have a chair so had to get someone with a chair to get hauled up to release the tangle. Very frustrating and expensive - $50 EC.
Anyway once we got underway, had a great couple of hours sail down to Mustique. 8-9knots. As we were approaching Mustique we turned on the engine, only have it die about 20 seconds after it turned on. We had checked that we had full tanks before leaving Canouan so knew we had not run out of gas. Tried to fire up the engine again only to have the same thing happen..
We got on the cell phone to the Moorings who basically said the only thing that we could do was to return to Bequia because they didn't have anybody at Mustique who could look at/repair the engine or help us. Thinking back now, I do recall being singularly unimpressed with the Moorings support during the incident. With two drowsy children, after a challenging sail, the last thing we wanted to hear was some vague idea about returning to Bequia with no idea what was going to happen there. However we decided that we would have to sail back and arrange some kind of tow if possible when we got back to Bequia if we thought that sailing and dropping a hook was going to be unsafe.
So we turned around and sailed back to Bequia. Being met by a boat boy named Bequia (his nickname) we asked him to give us a tow...rather strangely there was hardly enough wind for us to sail into the bay so we thought a tow was the safest route to go. Bequia gave us a tow....a 40 hp Yamama huffing and puffing pulling a 43.3. It was while sorting out the tow, that we found that the longest line on the boat was a nylon one with a serious chafe in it so we held our breath as we were towed onto a buoy. Our thanks to Beqia but we did have to donate him $150 EC for the tow but at the end of the day it was worth it.
As we moored on the buoy, Tyrone from Carb diesel turned up and he had apparently either heard our tow requests over the radio or had been called by the Moorings. I don't recall which.He got to work on the engine and was a star. Friendly, worked without fuss but with knowledge and experience. The upshot was: bad fuel ( he took a cup of water from the fuel system) a completely black filter (as if it hadn't been changed for ever) The engine was repaired and we went out to dinner and Mac's Pizza...nice fresh pizza although the table we sat at overlooked the rather shabby back yard of a nearby house.
The next day we got a water fill up from Daffodil and ice from them. (we didnt need to fill up the second water tank which was full but see later) We sailed again to Mustique and picked up a buoy. Again the two lines we had to use to secure the boat to the buoy chain were very short and only just long enough to be useable.
The wife and I had some drinks at Basils, looked at how expensive the food menu was there and decided to eat on the boat. The night was very rolly (as indicated in Doyles) but the day had been sunny and warm.
We left Mustique the next morning after a brief visit ashore to buy some tee shirts. It was disturbing to note that some idiot from konradsailing.com thought it was good idea to leave stickers for their web site in the public bathrooms on Mustique. Thank you very much for your graffiti. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />
Another squally day sail down to Mayreau. At the entrance to the Salt Whistle bay we loosened the cleat to take down the main sail only to have the main sail rip half way up. As we were taking down the sail anyway, the rip wasn't crucial in the great scheme of life but was the first time it had happened to us in many years of sailing and just prompted the thought of how old and worn the sail must have been. At least it didn't rip when we were really sailing.
The bay which was fairly busy but not heaving so dropping the hook wasn't a problem. The swimming and bay was lovely and a call to Moorings (again) to ask them to get to us and replace the sail, got us a new sail fitted within a couple of hours.
Went to the Salt Whistle Bay Club bar to drink a couple of beers. Had to wake up the barmaid there. Ate on the boat that night and even though the bay is relatively sheltered , the night was still fairly rolly. $20 EC for a block of ice from a boat boy.
Next day we sailed down to Union Island to check out Clifton. To try and ensure a non rolly night we decided to get a mooring at the Anchorage Yacht club marina/dock. With the wind, manouevring to do a "stern tie" to their floating dock was a challenge but the guys at the dock helped a lot and we did it without too many tears.
Clifton was interesting to my 16 year old daughter because it's not touristy and she really saw a Caribbean island away from the normal tourist influenced routeways. The other thing I remember being at the Anchorage Yacht Club is that the airport is just outside so you can see planes landing very closely , onto what looks like a road from one's boat.
That evening we waited for a long squall to finish and then paddled our way to Lambis restaurant only to find we were the only people there apart from Lambi so we opted to find another venue to eat at, eventually ending up at a place called West Indies. Other yachties seemed to be there, including a French crew of six who chain smoked through their meal. Food pretty good, service ok , especially the French owner (?)lady who was very caring about her customers. Not a bad sleep at all (at last).
Topped up with water at the AYC and left to sail to Petit Martinique. When we got to approaching PM, we couldnt really see any other yachts anchored where we expected and evryone seeme to be anchored over the channel at Petit San Vincent so we made our way over there to anchor there. We took the dinghy over to PM to walk around. As it was a w/e (I think) there were plenty of people hanging about "chilling". Not much open and we didn't stay or walk around very long, electing to use the dinghy to hit the beach at PSV . We did visit the bar at the PSV resort and had a very pleasant beer there. My favorite bar. That evening we ate on the boat.
Next morning we rang the PSV resort to see if they would give some "yachties" breakfast and they were happy to do that. Our first slap up breakfast of the holidays. Even the kids liked the idea of pancakes, waffles, bacon and eggs and it raised their ( and our) low spirits.
Left PSV, perhaps our favorite anchorage, to go up to the Tobago Kays. With the weather still overcast, windy and squally we debated whether or not to go to the Cays or duck into Salt Whistle which we thought would be more sheltered but in the end we got to the Cays and easily dropped the hook. Sorted out a fish (couvale ?) from a boat boy, went snorkelling ( coral very close to the surface but still very pleasant just paddling around). Beautiful water.
That evening we took the barby to the beach and did our own fish barby with some success. Not too rolly that night which was quite a surprise because it was windy.
As it was going to be our last night before having to get back to Canouan, we decided to just motor around to Salt whistle bay to be ready to get to Canouan in good time the next morning. We went ashore and got a taxi ride into the "center" of Mayreau ( $20 usd there and back) Interesting to find out that the island has only had mains electricity for a couple of years and that the road from Salt Whistle into the village is a relatively new construction. The taxi we travelled in was the only car we saw on the road. Great views from the top of the hill above the village.
We ate at the Salt Whistle Bay Club paying too much for the food. And it seemed bizarre to me to eat at a stone table on a circular stone bench but the setting of the restaurant very near the beach is great.
The next day was our last on board so we sailed gently up to the Moorings base in Canouan (much to the pleasure of especially my daughter who by that time had had enough being away from her friends and 21st century comforts and we'd had enough of her as well <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/duel.gif" alt="" />)
Picked up a Moorings buoy and started to clean up the boat only to find that we had run out of water. This was somewhat perplexing because we had not switched to the second tank. Then when we tried to switch over either the switch valve didn't work or somewhere along the line the second tank had drained - who knows but by that time we didn't care either way) THe debriefer who got his ear bent about the boat didn't know the answer to the water problem either.
We had decided to stay at the Tamarind Bay hotel that night prior to getting an early morning flight (6.30 am) back home. Nice hotel with nice rooms very close to the sea...great air conditioning ( almost too cold), nice balconies....a flushing toilet and a bed that didn't move. Joy !!!!! And the meal we had in the more formal restaurant at the Tamarind was probbaly the best we had on the vacation.
The next morning we got up really early to find that the plane we were catching from CAnouan was delayed in Barbados due to a mechanical problem. With a three hour layover in San Juan this wasnt going to be a problem for us we thought.The airline advised us to elect one person to go and check in so I went to do that at the airport, only to return to the Tamarind BAy to wait the call to the plane.
At 11 oclock the plane was cancelled and we were informed the only available flight out was going to be 18 hours later and we would have to go to St Lucia and then on to San Juan, an extra flight for us back to NW Usa. After some hours of angry negotiations with unhelpful American Eagle reps /personnel it became apparent that another overnight stay at the Tamarind was the only alternative.Went back to the airport to pick up checked bags. Beware.....Canouan is a small island and a small airport. If a plane has a problem they can't just get another replacement at the drop of a hat like on the mainland. God help all those people going to the new Trump resort they have just opened on the island.
At the moment the infrastructure and the air port seems woefully unprepared and unable to cope with problems. (For regular travellers who know about Rule 240 where airlines have to get you to your destination if a long delay is their fault - that is seemingly ignored by American Eagle in favor of a shrug of the shoulders and a blank stare)
Now an extra night at the Tamarind hotel in normal circumstances would be just great, its a nice hotel but a days delay can really put domestic arrangements (like jobs) under strain.
The next morning we got on board what was the inaugural American Eagle flight from Canouan to St Lucia. A much bigger plane than usual (to take more passengers to and from the Trump resort)...same short runway as before so the pilot had to really gun it to get airborne. I'm sure we clipped a goat grazing at the end of the runway (soon to be lengthened)
Home by 11pm Pacific Time.
Conclusions:
1. Middle of June is cheaper through Moorings for a reason - the weather, the strong winds and the bigger seas.
2.The impression of "maintenance" when required (rather than preventative) was confirmed by our experiences.
3.The Betty Mae was by far the worst boat, condition wise, we have ever chartered.
4. Moorings support was inadequate dealing with our engine problem, itself avoidable by good maintenance.
5. The Grenadines were interesting but not to our children. I thought that Doyles was very charitable with some desciptions when the words "quaint" "pretty" etc are being used. BUT the choice seems to be the overcrowding of the BVI's or the relative peacefulness and "real non tourist life" of the islands.
6. Allow at least 24 hours more time to get home at the end of your vaca than you think you will need.
We left from NW USA on a Saturday night flying overnight through Chicago into Canouan via San Juan with American Airlines. The Moorings travel arm (Mariner Travel) had arranged our flights and had been helpful in changing our itinerary when we decided that some of the connections were a bit tight. No great problems with the flights down but as I'm six foot tall some of the seats were a bit tight for me but I guess that's par for the course.
We arrived in Canouan about 5 o'clock on the Sunday evening. Canouan airport is very small and we had flown there with some 10 others. A party of eight arriving with us found that one of their bags had gone astray and they were told that the bag would probably follow them on the Wednesday next when the next flight would arrive. I don't know if that happened.
We arrived at Moorings in Canouan (10 minutes drive by taxi) and having requested a 43.3 with three cabins we found we had been assigned Betty Mae. As has been pointed out, the base at Canouan has no big dock and the boats are on buoys. So we were transported with our bags to Betty Mae via dinghy to do an overnight stay onboard before leaving the next day. We had ordered a kind of half and half provisioning from Moorings to have breakfasts and snack lunches for four days plus a welcome "sundowner" for that evening. Which meant that we had enough food, wine and beer to start with. Plenty of provisions with these "plans".......cheeses, cold meats, quiches, chips salsa etc. My only comment is that to pay for a full jar of, say, mustard for ten days was a waste of money.
Our first impression of the boat was that it was ok. Lines in good condition, dinghy needed inflating and was not new. The front main cabin was set up so that two single bunks were laid out as well as the main double bunk. The doors between the two single bunks and the main master cabin were broken off their hinges and hanging so had to be secured. The cutlery and plates etc were the minimum expected. The pots and pans were stored under a cushion in the main cabin which was annoying because you had to move the cushions each time you wanted to use or store pots or pans. Plenty of towels and sheets but the pillows were horrible. One of the hatches in the main cabin didn't seat properly and had to be jiggled to be closed. The lock for the hatch into the main cabin didn't work.
That evening we went to the less formal bar at the Tamarind beach hotel to just have pizzas and pasta. Apparently the Tamarind Hotel had just doubled the prices of Heineken which mean't they were 6 USD for a small bottle . Quite a nice bar but not crowded.
Quite a peaceful night if just a touch rolly. First morning we had arranged to get the boat briefing.Had arranged for a boat brief at 8am which duly happened. Relaxed and helpful briefing with not too many queries We had some experience with chartering which definitely helps in such briefings because most of the boats' equipment seems to work the same.
The charts and locations briefing from the Moorings Customer service lady was very good. To the point helpful and knowledgeable. Only six of us at the briefing, leaving that morning on two boats so not much of a zoo feeling in the base. The little store at the Moorings base itself is useful for last minute things forgotten. We got the dinghy inflated.
First day sailing up to Bequia 4 hrs . We reckoned to sail northwards the first day to get a good long sail under our belts and also check the boat out under sail. The jib sail was a bit frayed and one of the of the self tailing winches seemed to be a bit inconsistent locking when used with one of the winch handles so we learned to use the "good" winch handle on that winch.
The weather was mostly cloudy and the sea and wave height were challenging but we had a bracing sail up to Bequia. Unfortunately both children were sea sick and miserable. We anchored in the bay but as soon as we had done that we were visited by a French guy off a Cat moored behind us who said that the previous night had been very windy (the wind comes through a funnel into the Bay) tonight would be worse, and he advised us to get a buoy to stop any possibility of drifting, even though he was anchored. Go figure.
So we picked up a bouy with help from African Pride ($20).
That evening we ate at the Gingerbread..only one other couple in the dining room. Food pretty good and the setting is nice. As it was the St Vincent carnival time there was Jump up in the town so we took the dinghy to the dinghy mooring dock and checked that out. Pretty raucous but all in good fun. Interesting to experience it.It was quite windy that night and slightly rolly but nothing like the force that our French Cat man had thought.
The next day dawned cloudy, squally with some sunbreaks and with the children being sea sick the previous day, and a relatively long sail behind us we decided to stay in Bequia for a second night. Wife plus children went to the Turtle Museum which was apparently well worth a visit. We were also able to provision easily because the town has plenty of stores with most of what you want/need. We found a pharmacy to get some motion sickness pills for the children. A weather check via the Internet at an Internet cafe did not yield any good news about the weather changing ....squalls, thunderstorms expected.
Ate on the boat that evening with plans to dope up the children and sail to Mustique the next morning.
The news day dawned suprisingly sunny and warm...yippee....a good day was in store.....Errr....Prior to leaving we went to buy some fresh veg from the Market in town. Vendors very interested in selling you produce and if you are uneasy about high pressure selling attention then perhaps the market is a place to avoid. We did the fair thing by buying a little stuff at each vendor.
We left the buoy and started to leave the bay only to find that our main sheet line was caught around he light on the mast..our bad....we had looosened it the night before to move it away with a bungee cord, from banging against the mast and then been careless with tightening it back up. We didn't have a chair so had to get someone with a chair to get hauled up to release the tangle. Very frustrating and expensive - $50 EC.
Anyway once we got underway, had a great couple of hours sail down to Mustique. 8-9knots. As we were approaching Mustique we turned on the engine, only have it die about 20 seconds after it turned on. We had checked that we had full tanks before leaving Canouan so knew we had not run out of gas. Tried to fire up the engine again only to have the same thing happen..
We got on the cell phone to the Moorings who basically said the only thing that we could do was to return to Bequia because they didn't have anybody at Mustique who could look at/repair the engine or help us. Thinking back now, I do recall being singularly unimpressed with the Moorings support during the incident. With two drowsy children, after a challenging sail, the last thing we wanted to hear was some vague idea about returning to Bequia with no idea what was going to happen there. However we decided that we would have to sail back and arrange some kind of tow if possible when we got back to Bequia if we thought that sailing and dropping a hook was going to be unsafe.
So we turned around and sailed back to Bequia. Being met by a boat boy named Bequia (his nickname) we asked him to give us a tow...rather strangely there was hardly enough wind for us to sail into the bay so we thought a tow was the safest route to go. Bequia gave us a tow....a 40 hp Yamama huffing and puffing pulling a 43.3. It was while sorting out the tow, that we found that the longest line on the boat was a nylon one with a serious chafe in it so we held our breath as we were towed onto a buoy. Our thanks to Beqia but we did have to donate him $150 EC for the tow but at the end of the day it was worth it.
As we moored on the buoy, Tyrone from Carb diesel turned up and he had apparently either heard our tow requests over the radio or had been called by the Moorings. I don't recall which.He got to work on the engine and was a star. Friendly, worked without fuss but with knowledge and experience. The upshot was: bad fuel ( he took a cup of water from the fuel system) a completely black filter (as if it hadn't been changed for ever) The engine was repaired and we went out to dinner and Mac's Pizza...nice fresh pizza although the table we sat at overlooked the rather shabby back yard of a nearby house.
The next day we got a water fill up from Daffodil and ice from them. (we didnt need to fill up the second water tank which was full but see later) We sailed again to Mustique and picked up a buoy. Again the two lines we had to use to secure the boat to the buoy chain were very short and only just long enough to be useable.
The wife and I had some drinks at Basils, looked at how expensive the food menu was there and decided to eat on the boat. The night was very rolly (as indicated in Doyles) but the day had been sunny and warm.
We left Mustique the next morning after a brief visit ashore to buy some tee shirts. It was disturbing to note that some idiot from konradsailing.com thought it was good idea to leave stickers for their web site in the public bathrooms on Mustique. Thank you very much for your graffiti. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/thumbsdown.gif" alt="" />
Another squally day sail down to Mayreau. At the entrance to the Salt Whistle bay we loosened the cleat to take down the main sail only to have the main sail rip half way up. As we were taking down the sail anyway, the rip wasn't crucial in the great scheme of life but was the first time it had happened to us in many years of sailing and just prompted the thought of how old and worn the sail must have been. At least it didn't rip when we were really sailing.
The bay which was fairly busy but not heaving so dropping the hook wasn't a problem. The swimming and bay was lovely and a call to Moorings (again) to ask them to get to us and replace the sail, got us a new sail fitted within a couple of hours.
Went to the Salt Whistle Bay Club bar to drink a couple of beers. Had to wake up the barmaid there. Ate on the boat that night and even though the bay is relatively sheltered , the night was still fairly rolly. $20 EC for a block of ice from a boat boy.
Next day we sailed down to Union Island to check out Clifton. To try and ensure a non rolly night we decided to get a mooring at the Anchorage Yacht club marina/dock. With the wind, manouevring to do a "stern tie" to their floating dock was a challenge but the guys at the dock helped a lot and we did it without too many tears.
Clifton was interesting to my 16 year old daughter because it's not touristy and she really saw a Caribbean island away from the normal tourist influenced routeways. The other thing I remember being at the Anchorage Yacht Club is that the airport is just outside so you can see planes landing very closely , onto what looks like a road from one's boat.
That evening we waited for a long squall to finish and then paddled our way to Lambis restaurant only to find we were the only people there apart from Lambi so we opted to find another venue to eat at, eventually ending up at a place called West Indies. Other yachties seemed to be there, including a French crew of six who chain smoked through their meal. Food pretty good, service ok , especially the French owner (?)lady who was very caring about her customers. Not a bad sleep at all (at last).
Topped up with water at the AYC and left to sail to Petit Martinique. When we got to approaching PM, we couldnt really see any other yachts anchored where we expected and evryone seeme to be anchored over the channel at Petit San Vincent so we made our way over there to anchor there. We took the dinghy over to PM to walk around. As it was a w/e (I think) there were plenty of people hanging about "chilling". Not much open and we didn't stay or walk around very long, electing to use the dinghy to hit the beach at PSV . We did visit the bar at the PSV resort and had a very pleasant beer there. My favorite bar. That evening we ate on the boat.
Next morning we rang the PSV resort to see if they would give some "yachties" breakfast and they were happy to do that. Our first slap up breakfast of the holidays. Even the kids liked the idea of pancakes, waffles, bacon and eggs and it raised their ( and our) low spirits.
Left PSV, perhaps our favorite anchorage, to go up to the Tobago Kays. With the weather still overcast, windy and squally we debated whether or not to go to the Cays or duck into Salt Whistle which we thought would be more sheltered but in the end we got to the Cays and easily dropped the hook. Sorted out a fish (couvale ?) from a boat boy, went snorkelling ( coral very close to the surface but still very pleasant just paddling around). Beautiful water.
That evening we took the barby to the beach and did our own fish barby with some success. Not too rolly that night which was quite a surprise because it was windy.
As it was going to be our last night before having to get back to Canouan, we decided to just motor around to Salt whistle bay to be ready to get to Canouan in good time the next morning. We went ashore and got a taxi ride into the "center" of Mayreau ( $20 usd there and back) Interesting to find out that the island has only had mains electricity for a couple of years and that the road from Salt Whistle into the village is a relatively new construction. The taxi we travelled in was the only car we saw on the road. Great views from the top of the hill above the village.
We ate at the Salt Whistle Bay Club paying too much for the food. And it seemed bizarre to me to eat at a stone table on a circular stone bench but the setting of the restaurant very near the beach is great.
The next day was our last on board so we sailed gently up to the Moorings base in Canouan (much to the pleasure of especially my daughter who by that time had had enough being away from her friends and 21st century comforts and we'd had enough of her as well <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/duel.gif" alt="" />)
Picked up a Moorings buoy and started to clean up the boat only to find that we had run out of water. This was somewhat perplexing because we had not switched to the second tank. Then when we tried to switch over either the switch valve didn't work or somewhere along the line the second tank had drained - who knows but by that time we didn't care either way) THe debriefer who got his ear bent about the boat didn't know the answer to the water problem either.
We had decided to stay at the Tamarind Bay hotel that night prior to getting an early morning flight (6.30 am) back home. Nice hotel with nice rooms very close to the sea...great air conditioning ( almost too cold), nice balconies....a flushing toilet and a bed that didn't move. Joy !!!!! And the meal we had in the more formal restaurant at the Tamarind was probbaly the best we had on the vacation.
The next morning we got up really early to find that the plane we were catching from CAnouan was delayed in Barbados due to a mechanical problem. With a three hour layover in San Juan this wasnt going to be a problem for us we thought.The airline advised us to elect one person to go and check in so I went to do that at the airport, only to return to the Tamarind BAy to wait the call to the plane.
At 11 oclock the plane was cancelled and we were informed the only available flight out was going to be 18 hours later and we would have to go to St Lucia and then on to San Juan, an extra flight for us back to NW Usa. After some hours of angry negotiations with unhelpful American Eagle reps /personnel it became apparent that another overnight stay at the Tamarind was the only alternative.Went back to the airport to pick up checked bags. Beware.....Canouan is a small island and a small airport. If a plane has a problem they can't just get another replacement at the drop of a hat like on the mainland. God help all those people going to the new Trump resort they have just opened on the island.
At the moment the infrastructure and the air port seems woefully unprepared and unable to cope with problems. (For regular travellers who know about Rule 240 where airlines have to get you to your destination if a long delay is their fault - that is seemingly ignored by American Eagle in favor of a shrug of the shoulders and a blank stare)
Now an extra night at the Tamarind hotel in normal circumstances would be just great, its a nice hotel but a days delay can really put domestic arrangements (like jobs) under strain.
The next morning we got on board what was the inaugural American Eagle flight from Canouan to St Lucia. A much bigger plane than usual (to take more passengers to and from the Trump resort)...same short runway as before so the pilot had to really gun it to get airborne. I'm sure we clipped a goat grazing at the end of the runway (soon to be lengthened)
Home by 11pm Pacific Time.
Conclusions:
1. Middle of June is cheaper through Moorings for a reason - the weather, the strong winds and the bigger seas.
2.The impression of "maintenance" when required (rather than preventative) was confirmed by our experiences.
3.The Betty Mae was by far the worst boat, condition wise, we have ever chartered.
4. Moorings support was inadequate dealing with our engine problem, itself avoidable by good maintenance.
5. The Grenadines were interesting but not to our children. I thought that Doyles was very charitable with some desciptions when the words "quaint" "pretty" etc are being used. BUT the choice seems to be the overcrowding of the BVI's or the relative peacefulness and "real non tourist life" of the islands.
6. Allow at least 24 hours more time to get home at the end of your vaca than you think you will need.