TTSA Pot Luck BBQ

Each Monday night we do a Pot-Luck Barbeque at the Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA). Lately, we have been combining the meal with home-grown entertainment from within the cruising community.
Evelyn of S/V Sierra Echo supervises the grille.














The best stuff goes first, so don,t be late at the serving table. William the boat kid from S/V Alouette digs in.




















The bar staff at TTSA takes good care of the international yachties, and they do a good business on Monday nights when we have one of our BBQ's.














The boat kids make toasted marshmallows to sell to the cruisers for desert: Emily S/V Avallon, William & Katie from S/V Alouette. Ten TT cents buys a delicious toasted marshmallow with whipped cream, chocolate sauce, and a cherry on top. YUM YUM - and they are GOOD for you!














Once dinner is done, the tables are cleared, and it is SHOW TIME!














Tony of S/V Tarnimara plays the keyboard as Smitty of S/V Sarah Noble (aka "The Mighty Yachtie") strums his quatro and sings. Tony is the core of the entertainment as he accompanies the various acts. Tony also plays the bass fiddle - and he has one onboard his boat!















Candice runs the Cajobe Restaurant at TTSA, and even though Monday is her only day off, she still came in and sang for us. What great Trini hospitality! She has classical music training, lots of personality, and all the old-guys love her!



















Josie from S/V Cover Shot was a professional jazz singer in a former life. She and Tony really sound great together.














Suzanne & Smitty of S/V Sarah Noble never miss a chance to dance.



















Serge of S/V Sierra Echo enjoys one of the boat kids' marshmallow specials. He never had a marshmallow before - apparently they are not sold in France. cruising life exposes us to all kinds of new experiences - including marshmallows!















Even the curmugions seem to be having a good time; r to l Ian S/v Marsha Claire, Hunter S/V Arctic Tern, Don & Heather of S/V Asseance.

TTSA

The Trinidad & Tobago Sailing Association (TTSA) has become our base in Trinidad for the past 3 years. TTSA is located on Carenage Bay east of boatyard row.
















The open air Spinnaker Bar is a great place to relax and take in Trinidad's sailing scene.















The TTSA dinghy dock is used primarily by the international cruisers, as the members come and go to their boats on the mooring by club launch. The main docks are available to visiting internationals to bring their boats for daytime use during the week.













The Cajobe Restarant serves good food at reasonable prices, and is operated by "Kajobe Candy" and her parents.

There is an adjacent boatyard owned by TTSA, with a small Travel-Lift. 40 foot is about the largest size vessel that can be safely accommodated.

















It is an absolute joy to watch the young Trini sailors learning to sail in the associated Sailing Association's well organized training program. This program is producing some really crackerjack young sailors who presence will be felt on the international sailing scene.















The affiliated Sailing Association has excellent facilities with a wide range of sailboats available for training and for hire.
















Several Caribbean sailing regattas are staged out of TTSA, and race day festivities really liven up the club on weekends.















We enjoy meeting and being around Trini families, and their is no place better to "lime" with the locals (just hang out) than around TTSA's pool.














Ed "The Pan Man" is an American artist & sculptor who sailed here, and fell in love with Trinidad's foremost art form, the Pan. He has performed with some of Tridad's very best pan bands. As you can see Ed pays a lot more attention to his music that his boat maintenance...

















Regarding boat maintenance, the work shed on the back lot of the TTSA grounds is available to visiting Yachties for their projects. It is really great to have a place to get those dirty / dusty jobs off the boat, and have a secure area to spread out. We did some extensive work on our hard dinghy in this shed.
















Hart's Cut, immediately south TTSA's mooring field is perhaps the best anchorage in the Chaguaramus area. The beautiful Pui Trees that surround Harts Cut and TTSA bloom twice a year to mark the seasons; first in January to mark the beginning of the dry season, and the second blooming in May indicates that the wet season is starting. Does anybody else see Big Bird here?






















S/V Jean Marie lies quietly with her head to the northeast Trades. Things can get a little boisterous when the wind pipes up, so bring good anchors and plenty of chain!

Duquesne Seine Fishing

The fishermen deploy their nets; all the work is done by muscle.

The village of Duquesne is located on a picturesque cove on the northwest corner of Grenada.














Most of the residents of Duquesne turn out to help pull the nets to the beach.

Many of the houses in Duesquene are built on the cliff overlooking the cove.

Tom went down to the beach and helped these fellows pull their net in.

































The exciting part was when the net came ashore on the beach full of tuna.


























While we were watching the seine net operations, this fellow came down the road selling his bananas.

Belmont Cocoa Estates

Belmont estates is an old cocoa plantation in northeastern Grenada. Today they buy cocoa beans from the farmers, process the beans, and then sell them to the cocoa exporters. Henry the plantation foreman took us on a tour of the processing facility where the fermenting, drying, polishing, and bagging of the beans takes place. Henry has been at Belmont Estate for over 40 years, and he really knows his cocoa! The remainder of the grounds are kept up for the enjoyment of the tourists that visit the estate.

Antione River Rum Distillery

The Antoine River is located on Grenada's northeast coast. There has been a rum distillery on this river using the power of the running water to crush the sugar cane for over 200 years, and make their signature 150 proof River Rum.

The river is diverted to the waterwheel by a system of channels and gates down the hillside.















The huge waterwheel was made from cast iron segments in England.





















The waterwheel drives the cane crusher.









The juice flows to the boiling room by way of this gravity trough.



















Crushed cane waste is dried and stored, and then used for fuel to heat the boiling pots.



















Once the juice has been extracted from the cane it is directed to the boiling room where it is boiled in large pots.

After the cane juice is boiled and reduced, it is sent to the fermenting room to be fermented in large concrete tanks. It certainly isn't very appetising looking yet!

Once the cane juice is fermented, it is directed through a system of gravity fed pipes to the still where it is distilled in a triple effect process.

Patty was our guide, and she was quite proud of the final product. The chalk board is used to keep track of the various batches of rum being processed.
River Rum is at least 150 proof (that would be 75 percent alcohol). Here, some of the cruising ladies sample to final product. Their expressions are testimony to the power of this stuff!

If you get to the Spice Island of Grenada, come visit the Antione River Rum Distillery - it's an interesting part of Caribbean history.

Grenada the Spice Island

While we were anchored on Grenada's south coast at Hog Island, we hired Mike - a local Taxi-Man with a mini-van who operates out of Whisper Cove Marina to take 12 of us yachties on an all-day tour of the Spice Island - GRENADA! The above pic is a panoramic view of the harbour at St. Georges, looking down at the yacht Lagoon, and the ship's Carenage.
Below:We stopped at a roadside spice stand and were educated on all the various spices that are grown locally.

Annandale falls was a beautiful spot, unfortunately the natural attractiveness has been diminished by it's development as a cruise-ship tourist stop...

Cocoa is grown throughout the island, and is a major cash-crop in Grenada's agricultural economy - which is eclipsed by their major industry - the cruise-ship trade.

We stopped in Carlton at the Cocoa Growers Association to see how they process Cocoa. The farmers sell their beans to the Association, where they dry, and sort them, and then they export the bagged cocoa beans to chocolate users all over the world.

First the beans are fermented in these fermenting bins. They are worked every few days to ensure that they are evenly heated by the natural fermenting process.

Covered with banana leaves, the heat really builds up, and the moisture sweats out of the beans.

After they leave the sweat boxes, the beans are spread in the sun on these drying racks to reduce their moisture content. The drying racks are rolled in under the shed during the night, and in the event of rain. This work is all done manually.

The machinery in the warehouse is all built on site and is quite ingenious and well crafted. They have dryers, sorters, husk removers, and baggers.

After touring the Carlton Cocoa Growers Association, we proceeded north up the east coast of Grenada and stopped for lunch at Ebony's Restaurant in Grenville. We had a great lunch and enjoyed discussing the mornings adventures.

This is the view of the main street in Grenville, looking down from Ebony's restaurant with the Police Station just across the way. Grenville is a busy little town, typically Caribbean, with thankfully very few tourists. It is a good place just to nose around and meet folks, and getting the real flavor of the Spice Island - Grenada. From Grenville we headed north up the east coast to the rum distillery, and the Belmont Cocoa Estate, subjects of following posts.

Asa Wright - Caroni Swamp

The Asa Wright Bird Sanctuary is located on the southern slope of Trinidad's Blue Mountains in a tropical rain forest. It was formerly a cocoa & coffee plantation, and the manor has been converted to a quaint hotel and conference center. The Asa Wright center is one of Trinidad's national treasures. We visited there with Jesse James' Memebers Only Maxi-Taxi Service from Chaguaramus. (By the way you don't need to be a member of anything to tour with Members Only - it is just a name.)

The Caroni Swamp is located on Trinidad's south shore. It is a huge mangrove swamp inhabited by quite a variety of flora & fauna. This little Boa was taking a nap in the heat of the afternoon.
Perhaps the greatest draw for visitors to the Caroni Swamp is the return of the Scarlet Ibis each evening to roost in the safety of the mangroves.

Greetings from Grenada!!

Yep, you’re right – Grenada is the opposite direction from the Venezuelan rivers of South America. Since my Trinidad visa was due to expire on the 17th of March, we sailed up here for the rest period and will return to Trinidad in April. Earlier, back in Trinidad, we did take in a few Carnival festivities culminating on Tuesday, the 5th of February, with the “Pretty Mas” road march. We were able to enjoy a kid’s parade of Old Time Carnival (Viey La Cou) characters, where each school group had studied these historical characters and then made their costumes for the parade and judging. Viey La Cou in 2006 was one of our favorite activities, and we were pleased to see some of the adults who traditionally portrayed these characters on hand to help the youngsters get the “feel” for the presentation of the various characters. The traditional street Mas on Tuesday was in the typical Trini-style – very loud music, bright colors and teensy tiny costumes for women of all ages, shapes and sizes. Men are also in costume, but there are more women participants and they draw the attention, naturally. Prior to any departure, we always have a “work list.” At the top of our current work list was inoperative solar panels – a very important part of our electrical system. Within very short time span both of our Kyocera 120-watt solar panels quit working for no apparent reason. We were days away from ordering two new panels ($1500) when, through the cruiser grapevine, we learned that Kyocera had some faulty production of panels in late 2000. Our panels were, in fact, manufactured in October 2000. One phone call to Kyocera and THREE days later we had new solar panels in Trinidad – no charge! They also bore the cost of shipping the old ones back. We are Kyocera fans for life!! In the middle of our departure “To Do” list – canning 36 jars of meat, repair parts and stores load out, engine and transmission repairs, scrubbing the boat’s bottom and propeller, and new alternator installation – was a day off to visit two of Trinidad’s renowned nature conservatories, Asa Wright Nature Centre and Caroni Swamp, which is where the pictures in this post were taken. Avid “birders” come from all over the world to pursue serious bird watching at Asa Wright. We have finally found a weirder group of humanity than the American Ham Radio Nut; it is the English Birder… A brief guided tour from the main house on the nature center gave us an overview of the nearby grounds, as well as some of their more abundant species and their habitats. I could have spent the entire day sitting on the veranda at the main house just watching the humming birds! Such diverse species! The vibrant colors After a delicious buffet lunch, Jesse (of the famous Jesse James Maxi Taxi Service) had us back on de bus for a 1600 arrival at Caroni Swamp, where the Scarlett Ibis nests at nightfall. Our guides gave us an “up close and personal” swamp experience in their open pirogue, pointing out many of the swamp’s inhabitants. Thousands of Scarlett Ibis fly in just at dusk, and they are a beautiful sight. Our overnight sail up here to Grenada on the 11th of March was exciting, boisterous, even surprising. The weather forecast was for 10-15 knot NE to E winds, falling off to less than 10 knots after midnight; so we left Trinidad with the expectation of having to motor sail the last half of the voyage. However, the winds held all night, more in the range of 15-20 knots; and we averaged 7.5 knots for the passage, sometimes even reaching up to 9 knots!
Things have been quiet here in Grenada. We’ve renewed some old cruiser friendships, and made new ones. The highlight of our stay has been a tour of the island we did with nine other cruising friends. We hired a local taxi (mini-van) driver for the day and organized our own personalized tour of some of Grenada’s most interesting areas. Some of those included: Grand E’tang Lake in the rain forest, lunch in the seaside town of Grenville, a tour of the River Antoine Rum Distillery with a tasting of their white rum, a Belmont Estates Cocoa Plantation tour followed by a chocolate tasting (yum, yum!). Our driver Michael was also a very knowledgeable and accommodating guide, as he made several unscheduled stops to point out various crops growing and buildings or areas of historical significance. One of the highlights came toward the end of the day as we were driving south along the west coast by Duquesne Bay, where we came upon fishermen laying their seine nets, and then pulling them in full of fish. This stop offered Tom his first opportunity at seine fishing as he helped them pull in a net (after taking a few pictures).
Later this week we will be heading back to Trinidad. Fair winds to all…..!!

Tom Service and Schatze the Dog
S/V Jean Marie
Hog Island, south coast of Grenada