Rugged Coast

As soon as you depart the channel the size and isolation of the terrain on the north side of the island is obvious and very beautiful. The following are just some of the photos we took to give you an idea of the size of the country which is huge, rugged, and undisturbed. The area reminded us of Fiordland although a little warmer. We did not find many other cruising boats as most just head north from Chaguaramas straight up to Grenada.

La Vache Bay

We stopped in La Vache Bay for the night, this was a huge bay with only two other fishing boats there and only a few rock fishermen.

Maracas Bay and Beach

Maracas Bay is one of the most famous beaches in Trinidad and is situated on a spit at the end of a river gulley below some spectacular hills. From the distance, there appears to be little housing but it is all nestled in the bush and only obvious closer in. There is a huge circular bay with the main beach to the southeast of the entrance and then several smaller beaches abound the edges of the bay with the main fisherman village to the South western end. It we had had more time we could have stayed and had a look around – maybe next time.

Also seen along the coast are all the coastal monitoring stations. North Coast Radio covers the area up to Grenada which includes the gas and oil rigs in the area.

Birds

There were many places along the coast where we watched the Pelicans and Frigate Birds – sometimes in competition with each other. Below are a few passing shots

Sailing across to Tobago meant motoring up the North Coast until we could get a good wind angle across Galleon Passage to Tobago. A distance of only 30 miles but we needed to avoid a large reef Drew Bank and Wasp Shoal at the Tobago end which were notorious for shipwrecks in the past. The charts showed depths of 6 meters with notes that considerably less water had been reported including breaking shoals – avoid the area! This area is littered with old sailing shipwrecks and legend has it many of them Spanish Galleons laden with treasure returning to Europe.

We had a great sail across with 15-20 knots of breeze on a tight reach, our first real sail for some months, it was good to blow out some cobwebs. We passed just north of the reefs and yes did see breaking water, a trap for the unwary as they are right on the rumb line from Trinidad to Tobago.

Next Blog: Tobago

Rodney Bay & Marina

Customs check-in was back to some bureaucracy, and only the Captain was allowed ashore to complete formalities. A very officious official wearing a customs uniform but claiming to be immigration didn’t believe Barb was the captain. She asked Barb how long she had been a Captain to which she replied 6 years on Eleuthera and 40 years as an airline pilot. This completely silenced her and caused the rest of the office to try very hard not to laugh out loud. The Port Captain was grinning from ear to ear in the background and the rest of the documents were stamped very quickly.

We came to Saint Lucia to celebrate the Offshore Cruising Club’s 70th Anniversary. Night one was a cocktail party sponsored by the Rodney Bay Marina and the second night was a dinner at Spinnakers a restaurant on the beach. It was a fun and interesting night as our table companions were members of the American group Salty Dawg Club, and they were raising money for a scholarship for young Antiguans to learn boat-building skills in America. They had been sailing up and down from America to the Caribbean for eight years but had not been to any French islands because they didn’t speak English!

Initially, we just anchored off the beach for the first night but the anchorage was very rolly, and the wind and seas were forecast to increase. So we decided to move into the marina for the night of the dinner. The normal floating docks were full so we ended up on the Superyacht dock. One day extended to three and we had a lovely time there. Hew did all the jobs that required flat water and we enjoyed the restaurants and ice cream bar. The marina was very well laid out and the staff were lovely.

The English couple who had organised the event are living on the island and restoring an old wooden boat they had inherited. They were living on their equally old wooden boat in the marina. Thinking they would be a good source of local information we asked about things to do and explore in St Lucia. These guys, along with others we asked, were not much use and other than commenting on bad roads and traffic jams seemed to think there was little to see.

The other reason for visiting Saint Lucia was that we were waiting for a new depth/speed transducer to arrive from the US as this had joined our ongoing instrument failures. At Saint Lucia, we could import it tax and duty-free via a local Caribbean courier, eZone. Since we had used eZone in Trinidad it seemed a good idea but it took nearly 7 days for the Duty and Tax free part to happen.

Pigeon Island and Fort Rodney

After three days and all the jobs done we couldn’t justify staying there so we shifted out to the northern end of the harbour under Pigeon Island. This was a better anchorage. After two days of unusually wet and windy weather, we visited Pigeon Island National Park. This was a lovely walk around the ruins of an English fort on the island.

Cruise Ships

The Park rents out one of the small beaches for private functions and while we were there a cruise ship had taken the beach for the day.

The cruise ship staff came in with everything; loungers, beach umbrellas, tents, tables, chairs, BBQs, and water toys. Everything had been transported off the ship with the only revenue going to the island being the fee to rent the area. The cruise ship industry leaves as little revenue as possible behind on the islands. The next morning it was back to being a local beach again.

Jambe de Bois

As we walked down the hill we came across the restaurant Jambe de Bois which was very cute. They also sold local paintings and had a book swap for cruisers. We loved the construction and the eclectic mix of furniture. https://www.facebook.com/pages/Jambe-De-Bois/171841426204962

Hew was enjoying the local beer.

The restaurant has its own dock but at some stage, the park has removed the planks so you must go ashore through the park gates. The only inhabitants now are the birds.

Then quite quickly it was time to collect our transducer and return to Martinique.

Next Blog: Dominica

Dingy Loss

The low point of the trip was the previous night at 1 am in the morning in rough seas with a 2m swell we had lost the dinghy. The shackle broke at the engine end and the stern hit the water. Next, the attachment to the floor at the front end ripped off and the dinghy flipped. We were then left with an upside-down dinghy in heavy seas and pitch black blowing 25-30kts. Too dangerous to try and jury rig a hoist to turn it over. As we discussed this the last two lines broke and we lost it. My favourite dinghy was gone. Usually called my racing car!! Very sad. We normally had additional straps on it for long voyages but just hopping from bay to bay around the coast we had got slack and did not think of the additional ties. That with the heavy weather should have sparked our thoughts of the strap but it didn’t. For six years we had sailed with additional straps after a shackle had broken once before. Too late lesson learnt.

Montego Bay

Officials

We arrived late on Sunday afternoon and anchored outside the Montego Bay Yacht Club https://www.mobayyachtclub.com/. Nothing was heard on the radio then. In the morning we called on the phone and told the office that we did not have a dinghy so needed to get a lift on the club boat to do our clearance. The boat duly turned up and the club assisted with all the paperwork. The staff at the club were always very helpful.

Unfortunately, our Yacht Registration had expired and our new one from New Zealand had not arrived. The officials in Cozumel had not been worried about it and were amused when I showed them the email from New Zealand saying the office was on holiday for three weeks. Unfortunately, the Jamaicans were more serious and so impounded our yacht until they could see the new form. The process involved waiting for the enforcement team so they could come to the yacht, look at it and then stick a notice on the door of the salon. The club would not let them use the club boat to take us out because they had their own boats! That involved another 2-hour wait until they found their boatman. The whole process took all day.

The next day we shifted onto the marina until we could find a new dinghy. It had to be first thing in the morning while it was calm so we were all up for a 7 am shift. Everyone else was still asleep, but dropping anchor and backing into the berth went well. Unfortunately, we were twice as long as the marina was intended for and we stuck out the end by some distance.

The bows were side on to the wind and by the afternoon the wind was up to 20kts and the bows were falling off. We got Dawson the dock manager out and he took our spare anchor and dropped it upwind right behind another anchored Gunboat catamaran. This anchor at a slightly different angle and tied to the bow instead of the centre of the yacht(b where the normal anchor is) worked well and held the bows up against the wind.

Boat Names

The Jamaican sense of humour.

Dinghy Hunting

The next three days were spent by Hew trying to find a new dinghy and motor somewhere in Jamaica. After much manoeuvering with locals, we located a small temporary replacement in Kingston. An outboard motor was also possible but seemed expensive. Discussions around a delivery from Kingston to Montego Bay ranged from USD700 to 1200!!! from the local mafia.

Dinghy and Outboard

Hew finally found a couple of locals with a pickup and for a fee less than a rental car (and much less than the mafia) they left for Kingston town early Friday morning. His new best friends Yam and David were great entertainment on the 2 1/2 hour drive to Kingston via the coast road and then over the Chinese-built highway toll road which runs north-south across the island. Fabulous road and high over mountainous terrain through central Jamaica although the tolls are quite steep for the locals at about USD10 each way. The journey was accompanied by explanations of how Jamaica worked and questions about New Zealand.

Arriving in Kingston we tracked down the company with the dinghy via google maps and local instructions – the local creole is essential. After a few wrong turns and trips down some “interesting streets” we found Marine Supplies and our dinghy, it turned out they had lots of them. Yam and David were insistent that we inflated the dinghy before accepting it and the mission was completed, onto the back the pickup it went. Next the outboard motor. David decided that Yamaha was too expensive and Yam thought we needed a local deal. With both of them on phones to everyone they could think of we finally ended up at an outboard mechanic working out the back of a steel fabrication shop who had a good deal on a Parsun 15hp. We then followed him for 20 minutes across town to another warehouse/shop which appeared to sell fans, air conditioners, water heaters, generators, and as it turned out Parsun outboard motors.

VAT Free

I next discovered that licensed fishermen do not have to pay VAT on “fishing equipment” and consequently we are now the proud owners of an outboard bought on David’s fishing license. Apparently, these licenses became very popular during Covid lockdowns as fishermen were allowed to go about their business. Once again David made sure it all ran properly before we took delivery.

The next stop was Duraes, the local chandlery as David was sorting some trailer parts. This operates out of a suburban house with no signage with Durae and his daughters running the operation which started over 30 years ago. It is one the larger and best-stocked chandlery I have seen spread over the rooms of a house and various lean to add ons. A proper Aladin cave of boat stuff.

Lunch

By now it was mid-afternoon and everywhere was a traffic jam and we were looking for lunch, David and Yam were starving. Doughnuts from a street seller were a sugar high only. I then discovered Kentuck Fried is a big deal in Jamaica, apparently, the store in Montego Bay is the biggest KFC store on the planet! After being passed by a police pickup with lights and sirens and a new fridge on the back (an emergency delivery of a beer fridge?) we found a KFC. It certainly is popular with a constant inside queue of 12 -14 people and a further 15 – 20 cars in the drive-in queue.

Police & Traffic

Once we were all fed it was back to Montego Bay which became a nearly 4-hour journey with traffic jams and hold-ups along the way. Lots of police everywhere including guys on motorcycles in dark uniforms, guns and balaclavas obscuring their faces. Generally traveling in groups of 3 they roared up and down the traffic..

The major hold-up was a village with a single set of traffic lights and a Reggae music festival. No guns, knives, or alcohol but joints and vegetarian food are freely available.

Finally, back at the yacht club, the boys decided we needed to launch the dinghy that evening and James appeared in time to be the test pilot. An 8′ dinghy with 15hp is slightly overpowered but we had transport again.

New Registration and Cruising Permit

We finally got the new registration form from New Zealand on Wednesday night so I took it into the club on Thursday morning and expected the officials back that day to release the yacht so that we could then apply for a cruising permit. No sign of them Thursday. Friday I was told they would be there in the morning. The person responsible finally turned up at 1600 on Friday. Apparently, I was told that the person who wrote out the ticket had to take off the ticket! Unfortunately, she had given a copy of it to Hew and she wanted that bit of paper. He had gone to town with it in his wallet and the official would not accept that the copy on the yacht was enough. Therefore it was delayed to Saturday.

Saturday another official turned up and as we were talking I explained that I needed the form for the cruising permit. The cruising permit took all day to organise between trying to pay for it and using the office to call the officials to process the permit on a Saturday. When it finally arrived it was for a steamship!!! (The one below was for Port Antonio and I had not thought to take a photo of the one from Montego Bay. You have to check in and get a new one at each port!! )

J22 Sailing

With all the delay I could not go to the J22 briefing so could not sail. Off the boys went and I was delegated to help with the starts!! Still, it was a good place to get some fun photos. The races were fairly casual but lots of fun. Hew and James were on different boats and the wind really got up.

Doctors Cave Beach and the Hip Strip

We got out of the marina late Sunday morning and took off across the bay to Doctors Cave Beach. It was a great feeling to be out of the marina and in clean fresh water and away from the afternoon wind. We parked not far from Marguerite’s Cafe and restaurant https://www.margueritesjamaica.com/ and went in for dinner because you can take the dinghy to their pier. It was a very nice relaxing place. If you are a cruise cat/boat you can tie up there and use the water slides as well.

We stayed the night and then returned to the marina the next day to complete the checkout before leaving.

Cruise ships

Montego Bay can handle 2 or 3 cruise ships at a time and they are huge. Right in front of the club is the turning area for these ships. The area is marked by lit buoys and you have to anchor behind the line. The larger ships get very close as you can see from these photos.

On the day after the races the club was hosting the Pineapple cup https://www.pineapplecup.com/so we watched the first boat come in and went to the welcoming party at the invitation of the club. The other two yachts had not arrived as it was a slow passage. One arrived in the middle of the night and as we at 6 am departed we passed the last boat as it sailed down the coast.

Discovery Bay

Departing Montego Bay in the Quiet of the morning we thought we would be able to carry the light winds and calm seas for half the day which would get us to Ocho Rios. Unfortunately, the wind and sea came up faster and so we decided to pull into Discovery Bay instead and then depart the following evening for a night passage to Port Antonio. This was not a planned stop and we were very pleasantly surprised at what a lovely harbour it was. We could have stayed several days.

Jamaica was the site of several James Bond movies and Discovery Bay was the site of “Dr. No,” where the villain’s lair was actually a bauxite storage facility owned by Noranda.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr._No_(film)

While we were there a French yacht that we had come across at Cozumel, then at Montego Bay also arrived. Due to the weather, they had decided to call in and stay for the weekend. They did not have the diesel to motor at all and were waiting for some favourable winds.

The next stop was Port Antonio. kiwiflyingfish.com/2023/03/beautiful-sheltered-port-antonio/