Back to Tyrell Bay

Well we are back in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. It's Tuesday - the day after all the Easter festivities so our favorite place, the Lazy Turtle bar is open. We've planted ourselves here to internet and enjoy the view as well as a few cold Caribs.

The picture on the left is our view. This bay is amazingly clean - the water is so clear you can see the anchor hit bottom. Scott has been busy scraping the hull. He has progressed from scraping just below the water line (I never go any deeper than that!) to diving down to the keel. He actually scrapped the bottom of the keel the other day. Inconceivable! So while he's accomplishing deep sea diving I'm still thrilled to be able to breath with a snorkle. It just isn't normal to breath with your face in the water.

On Easter Sunday we sailed over to Sandy Island - a 3 mile jaunt around the corner from Tyrell Bay. We actually did sail most of the way and felt a difference in our speed after all the barnacles and fuzz got removed from Enee's bottom. We can tell we're a little rusty with our sailing though. As we tacked out of the bay the port jib sheet got caught up on the forward hatch fitting.
'Come on...why aren't we tacking? Oh darn - I'll get it....luff up luff up it's too tight!' We finally tacked and as we got near Sandy Island it was time to tack again. 'Now the starboard sheet is caught. We've got to do something about that hatch!'

Once we anchored Capn Snappy pounded in the bolts so they no longer stuck out and tied a small line in between them. That should fix the problem.



Here is a picture of Sandy Island. Yes it's sandy and that's about all. The island is only about 200 yards long and about 25 yards wide. It's barely there and very beautiful. We anchored between the reefs on either end and after setting the hook snorkeled off the boat. After being in Prickly Bay, Grenada where the water isn't very clear, this was quite a treat.




We spent the rest of the afternoon and early evening watching the birds (mostly gulls but some boobies and a pelican or two) fly over then dive for their dinner. Every so often there would be a fish boil in the water as the bigger fish chased the small fries.

Well you can imagine what happened when a gull landed on our bow. Mismo went wild! She started chattering like crazy. Of course the bird flew away but now she was on guard. There were so many birds flying around her boat we thought Mismo's jaw was going to fall off. What a crazy cat. She stayed on the bow until nightfall when the birds finally flew off and gave her some rest.

Usually Mismo sleeps all day but this day she was on duty.........






.....Don't even think about landing on my boat!









After the sun set she decided to perch on the dinghy (which is up in the davitts) where she had a full view of the boat and any possible predators. Of course there were none. But she was ready anyway.

The next morning we listened to the weather and learned that trade winds were on the increase with some squalls so we decided to leave Sandy Island (not a good anchorage in unsettled weather) and mosey on back to protected Tyrell Bay for a few days.


Sure enough on Monday morning some small rain squalls. Hey now we can test our new rain catchers. Hurry - get the buckets!












Ready for Rain - - - well only a few drops this time but at least we know it will work. This is trial 2 of installing through-hulls in the bimini. The first version didn't have rubber gaskets and Mismo managed to power her way through them. We'll see how long these last. The fabric of the bimini is already getting thin. It has been almost 4 years in the Caribbean sun and a 9 pound cat lounging on top doesn't help.








Well - what can I say. Sometimes things break and we have to fix them. Sometimes we fix (or clean) things before they break. For example today Scott cleaned the outboard before we launched it. It had barnacles growing in the cooling water intake! There's always something to take care of on the boat. No matter where you live - that's true.