Shit, bugger, damn and the Bionic Man

It’s been a long time since our last blog, largely because we have had the longest period of time off Viridian since we started out in May 2017.

You may recall at the start of the lockdowns in March 2020, we had been scheduled to return to the UK for Greg to get his hip replaced on 2nd April, but everything was cancelled and we ended up in lockdown in Martinique instead.

Well, the good old NHS has caught up a bit and Greg moved up the waiting list to get his operation at the start of July - so Viridian has been tucked up, out of the water, tied down on the hard in Spice Island Marine in Grenada for the last few months. 

Before Viridian was lifted, Greg was Home Alone in Prickly Bay for a month so he took the opportunity to refresh his diving skills and did several interesting dives with the local school. They visited the Underwater Sculpture Park and dived on a couple of wrecks off St George’s. 

Greg also bought us a barbecue which I had been asking for  over the last 4 years, but it appears that faced with cooking on the hob, the urge to get one was suddenly critical. 

There is post operative period of about 12 weeks before long-haul flights are advisable, so we have only recently returned to Grenada and are now back on board.  Luckily the lay period has coincided with hurricane season, so we wouldn’t have been travelling much in any case.

The new hip is titanium, which seems to set off the Xray machines at the airport. It’s a pretty impressive scar. I said to Greg, ‘I think it’s much cooler to pretend to have survived a shark attack than a hip op, so if we become grandparents at some point, you can impress them with it!’

Despite the madness that seems to be taking the UK in a direction we are very unhappy about, it was nice in many ways to be back home. We enjoyed being back in the buzz of London, seeing friends and family, having baths, going daily to the fantastic new gym at Braywick , shopping and watching the telly!!!!  All a bit of a novelty really.  I particularly enjoyed not wearing factor 50 every day and giving my skin some much needed respite. 

The herd of elephant sculptures in St James's Park

Sean and Greg enjoying a beer at The Windmill on Clapham Common

Day out in London with Sue Johne

 

Ed and Miranda have both moved home so it was great to see them in their new environments and to go out for dinner together as a family.

 

I got back in time to pick some dock leaves and get up to Yorkshire with Miranda in time to enter the annual dock pudding competition which had been thankfully delayed.  Much to the annoyance of my family and northern friends the ‘southern’ docks won yet again, but I was not allowed to take the trophy back to the boat, so it is with my mum for safe keeping.

Adding my secret, winning ingredient to my dock pudding

The southern docks win again!!!!

My mum Betty taught me to cook dock pudding.....but she didn't win!

 

Our trip coincided with my nephew Will’s wedding to the beautiful Leanne Doherty, so Miranda and I went to Leanne’s hen do in Liverpool and then Ed, Miranda and I went to Rathmullan in Eire to the wedding for 4 days.  Greg was only just out of hospital, so we left him on his own to struggle with getting his socks on. 

Great to bump into Shane and Tim Spall in Liverpool where Tim was filming

The hen do involved learning to dance like Beyoncé

The girls loving Liverpool night life!

Miranda arriving for the wedding at Rathmullan church

Waiting for the bride to arrive 

Ed and grandma demonstrating their moves on the dance floor

The beautiful couple - Will and Leanne in a stunning venue 

There was a second wedding celebration at my brother’s house for guests that weren’t allowed to the Irish wedding due to numbers under the COVID restrictions, so we went up to Yorkshire and raised a few more glasses to Will and Leanne.

By the middle of August, after doing all of his exercises and physio, Greg was recovering well and so he jumped at the chance to help friends Phil and Penny with their 46 foot new catamaran Obsidian, in the Ionian.  His doc said he could fly short haul, so off we went.  Greg handed Obsidian back all in one piece in mid-September; so imagine our shock to discover that 4 weeks later she had been run on to the rocks and sunk by the subsequent Skipper - sadly she couldn’t be salvaged. What a waste!

Phil and Greg at a great fish restaurant - Seven Islands in Ligia

Celebrating my birthday with Miranda in Kuoni - one of our favourite places

Miranda swimming underneath Obsidian

Dinner with Maggie and Richard from SY Hejira.  Great to catch up again in Greece

Sadly Obsidian is no more

Back from Greece, we then began saying our goodbyes and seeing as many people as we could before we left to return to the Caribbean. We spent a fab day on The Princess Matilda with Tim and Shane and had a great night out in Marlow for Phil’s 50th birthday bash.

 

On The Princess Matilda with Tim and Shane

Great to see the old Maidenhead crew for Phil's 50th birthday bash in Marlow

 

We managed another trip to Yorkshire to see my mum, before we returned to the boat and Greg took the opportunity to test his new hip on some more challenging hill walks which made us remember and miss our lovely dog. 

Yorkshire is beautiful when the sun is shining

During our weeks in the UK, I also managed to get my book finished which I started writing when we were crossing the Atlantic over a year ago.  It’s amazing how much time it takes to get the editing and formatting right, the photos for the recipes and double checking everything before it gets anywhere near ready to go public.  Anyway, for those of you not yet aware, Shit, Bugger, Dam is now available as an Ebook.  Its about the provisioning and cooking on our Atlantic crossing including the recipes and tips and hints which are probably useful for anyone involved in or interested in live aboard sailing.

  

I dedicated the book to my mum, who I have to say seemed less thrilled than I thought she should be when she saw the title and realised I had named it after her favourite swear words.  My mum is a lovely, kind person and at 90 she looks like a sweet old lady who helps people and goes to church.  However, in the kitchen, if things don’t go to plan, she can scare the pants off you and does swear even though she doesn’t want to admit it, - never mind publicise it.  

But all the sailors I know like the title, because let’s face it things go wrong quite frequently at sea, necessitating some stress reducing expletives.  Cooking down below in the galley in rolling seas for 20 days was a challenging experience, so shit, bugger, and damn were at the milder end of things as you can see in my book. 

 

Pete and Libby downloaded their copy immediately! Thanks guys.

 Buy SHIT, BUGGER, DAMN from Apple

Buy SHIT, BUGGER, DAMN from Google

We are now back in Grenada and aboard Viridian, after doing 48 hours quarantine at True Blue Bay resort.  It turned out we had to stay there for a few extra days because it was bank holiday and the yard couldn’t re-launch us. It wasn’t too tough to be honest!

The pool outside our patio

The rooms are very spacious at True Blue

We were very nervous and interested to see how the yard was going to get us back into the water, given that we were parked deep in a litter of boats.  But Johnny the yard manager has an amazing piece of hydraulic kit that reminds me of a transformer toy.  He coolly operates it with a remote control handset, lifting and lowering the boat as he moves it through small gaps. Mesmerising.  

 

The clever hydraulic kit

 

As expected, there are things that worked when we left Viridian on the hard, but now don’t work when we are back on board 4 months later. Greg has finally stopped assuming there is some vengeful God purposely torturing him. We now know this is typical and we have resigned ourselves to the situation which happens to all boats when moving parts are not moved for a few months in this very harsh, salty, hot environment.  

 

So, in the last 10 days since we got back on board, we have found ourselves getting the fresh water pump replaced, the gas supply fixed, the dinghy outboard motor serviced, the toilet pipes cleared and the fridge/freezer looked at.  Not having cold beer and white wine in these temperatures is a right bummer.  Sadly, the fridge is too old and cannot be fixed, so we are now in the market for a new fridge freezer and probable partial kitchen re-fit.  We are heading to Martinique in December to get this done – hopefully we won’t be at war with France by then. 

The good news is that while we were away, we had a new bimini and spray hood made with some lovely new side and back shades that attach and can roll up.  When we got on board we were shocked to find they had made them out of solid material instead of mesh.  It was like being in a little dark cave – no idea how we were supposed to see where we were going.  However, that has now been remedied and the gauze has been inserted. They are transformational.  I can’t believe I have been suffering for the past 4 years in blazing sun, not to mention the arguments and grumpiness it has caused.

 

One of the solid side screens

Now with mesh inserts- much better

 

Now we are happy and excitedly waiting for the arrival of our friends Ella and Rutger who fly in later this week from Frankfurt – our first guests other than our children since we arrived in the Caribbean.  Let’s hope we are moving towards greater freedom and normality.  

 

Sunset from The Sand Bar in Prickly Bay - certainly recommended! 

From Heaven to Hell

As we are endlessly sweeping ash from our decks and mopping floors, it's hard to believe that a few days ago we had climbed the boulder trail and were sitting at the top of Shirley Heights, overlooking Nelson’s Dockyard in Antigua.  Marvelling at the beauty and colours of our surroundings, with our boat safely anchored below in Freeman Bay, all seemed right in our world.

View from Shirley Heights looking down on Nelson's Dockyard and Viridian on anchor

We were feeling blessed having had two months in Antigua and Barbuda, and despite the lockdown and the evening curfew when we first arrived, reflecting on our time there, we agreed it had been a fabulous and varied experience.

Greg at Carpenter's Rock

We returned by way of the Carpenter Rock trail from Shirley Heights, along the coast to Galleon Bay which we highly recommend coming down rather than going up that way as its very steep! We also enjoyed the Goat Trail from Nelsons Dockyard over to Pigeon Beach.

There are goats and goat poo in abundance all along the trail

We celebrated Greg's birthday twice - first at a great Indian restaurant called Indian Summer in Falmouth Harbour - we can fully recommend the tandoori prawns and the lamb. Then again at Catherine's Cafe when we walked over to Pigeon Beach.

Happy birthday Greg!

It's a lovely spot and the food is excellent  - just waiting for it to arrive!

Lunch at Catherine's Cafe - the continuation of the birthday celebrations.....

Part of our enjoyment involved catching up with our friends Jaxs and Iain on FatJax where we met up in Jolly Harbour and in Falmouth Harbour and enjoyed a couple of lovely evenings with them and their lovely children Sophia and Dugald.

Viridian in Jolly Harbour - no filters!

FatJax in Jolly Harbour - no filters!

The colours of the sea and the sky in Antigua are breath taking.  We have not used filters on any of these photographs

Found a swing on the beach in Hermitage Bay

Fab views from restaurant Sheer Rocks
recommended and near to Jolly Harbour

Naomi and Guy who we met last year in Bonaire, were also in Antigua on SY Zambezi. We had a lovely supper with them in Freeman Bay.  I wondered why Guy was wearing a TShirt with SUNSET on it.... it soon became clear!

Lovely evening and sunset with Naomi and Guy on Zambezi

Then we had a very memorable experience.  There is a Nobu restaurant bang in the middle of nowhere on Princess Diana beach in Barbuda.  This has to be the ultimate destination location, because for sure there is not much passing trade.  

This beach is absolutely stunning and deserted - the only other we have seen to compare would be Whitesands in Australia.  The sand is absolutely perfect.  I even felt guilty thinking of using it as an exfoliant for my feet. 

Princess Diana beach looking south towards Viridian on anchor

Princess Diana beach looking North towards Nobu

ceviche

black cod in miso

Enjoying Nobu - hard not to

Enjoy heaven while it lasts, you never know what awaits!

We socialised with new yacht friends Bruno and Mimi on SY Silhouette who told us they had sharks living under their boat.  Greg was going to swim over to investigate but decided to go in the dinghy instead.  After a bit of research and consultation, he decided they were probably remora.  After Mimi and Bruno left, they all moved to live under Viridian, and we enjoyed chucking scraps of food overboard at night, and shining a torch to see them thrashing. They could probably give you a nasty suck as they were huge.

 

Remora usually live on the backs of dolphins, whales and sharks, suck their parasites off and eat their shit.  We decided not to bother trying to fish for one.

After bumping into Lance and Claire on Spirit of Affric, we arranged to meet up in Barbuda at Uncle Roddy’s restaurant for a lobster dinner.  It was a beautiful evening with wild horses running on the beach outside.  This was an amazing anchorage inside the reef and Greg made a brilliant drone video of Viridian serenely afloat, in viridian seas.

Wild horses on the beach

The lobster at Roddy's

Lance and Claire

We had a lovely evening just before Lance and Claire flew back to UK to get their Volvo 70 racing yacht experience, back in business, in readiness for end of lockdown.

It was a relief to find good yacht services and the Budget Marine chandlery, so we got the engine and generator serviced, sails cleaned and serviced and sadly an expensive repair to our new washing machine, which may still be in guarantee, but impossible to claim from here.

We hired a car on several occasions and explored more of the interior of Antigua, gasped at the abundant trees laden with wild mangoes and enjoyed the villages and towns. We visited Devils Bridge and Betty's Hope Sugar Plantation which collapsed with the abolition of slavery.  Some of the buildings are being restored.

Restoration of the Betty's Hope Plantation sugar mill

There are remembrance signs everywhere on the roadsides for loved ones who have died

This seemed an odd combination for a specialism 

We noticed that some businesses are very diverse, selling an odd range of products. This could give new meaning to essential oils! 

Wild mango trees everywhere - the season is May to September

There were a few things we liked less about Antigua.  Compared to most other Caribbean islands we have visited everything is very expensive, including supermarkets, repairs, car hire and  restaurants. Food in the supermarkets is definitely a lot more expensive than in the UK.

In some aspects, it doesn’t seem as environmentally aware as other islands we have visited; sadly the fish market in St John seemed to be selling any fish - including reef fish - we saw little cow fish and parrot fish on the slab which might be why the snorkelling was a bit disappointing.  The donkey sanctuary was also  alarming.

Greg was not happy about the condition of this donkey that he groomed and this was one of the
better looking ones

 

They all seemed very thin and unwell.  They were kept in a pen with no grass and a lot of faeces everywhere.  The donkeys and goats we saw roaming wild and not in the sanctuary, seemed positively glossy in comparison. 

But on balance Antigua and Barbuda  was a brilliant experience, and in retrospect, and compared to our current circumstances, we were surely in heaven!!!!

So now to hell!

Many of you have asked why we have not just run from St Vincent, given what is happening - hopefully this will explain it.....

We take many factors into account before embarking on a journey to a new country and that is even more complicated during the travel restrictions associated with the pandemic.  Each Caribbean country has its own protocols involving getting and reporting results of PCR tests, endless forms to complete and quarantine periods.  Some countries are closed to yachts altogether, others are open with provisos. 

In addition, we must consider the wind strength and direction, timing of arrival so we arrive in daylight, especially if it’s an anchorage with coral reef or other hazards, ensuring we know the checking out arrangements of the country we are leaving and any provisioning and pre-cooking for a long journey.

After two months in Antigua and Barbuda our plan was to start making our way south for hurricane season and it seemed sensible to head for St Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) because this country includes 30 different islands, at least 8 of which are suitable for visiting of yachts and which you can freely visit once you have checked into St Vincent. 

We applied to enter SVG and checked out the protocol.  We gained permission to visit providing we had a PCR test no more than 72 hours before leaving and we had to send the negative result along with our checkout documents as we left Antigua.  Then on arrival in SVG, we had to go to the quarantine buoys in Young Island Cut which is in the south of the island of St Vincent.  We must use an agent and stay on board until told to come for our arrival PCR tests.  We must quarantine until our results are returned and then as long as we have been in quarantine for 7 days in total including our journey travelling time, we are checked in and free to visit other islands.

We left Antigua on 6th April and arrived in St Vincent just before dawn on 8th April after a two-night journey.  I was on watch at 0530 and, I thought I could smell burning.  I ran around checking the boat and then got Greg up to ask if he could smell burning; he couldn't, so I went back on deck and took some photos in the daybreak as we approached the island and by then I could see and smell a massive yellow/orange cloud which could have been due to the sun coming up behind it, but it was plume like and looked like ash and smoke.  

The smell of sulphur was strong and the plume had an odd colour

As the sun rose, it was clear it was something coming from the volcano.  ‘It’s La Soufriere,’ Greg said, ‘I think you can trek up there and look into the crater, - it says so in the guide book’.  ‘Hmm’, I said, thinking of the demise of the sightseers during the Mount Pelé eruption in Martinique. 

But as we sailed on and the sun came up, we could see the island looked beautiful, very mountainous, lush, and tropically exotic.  We decided we would hire a car and drive around once sprung from quarantine, and Greg kept reading out exciting places to visit from the guidebook including the botanical gardens and the cove where Pirates of the Caribbean was filmed. 

A couple of hours later having settled on our mooring buoy for our quarantine, there were emergency broadcasts on the radio and the Prime Minister Ralph Gonzalves addressed the nation in a tremulous voice. At first we thought he was just not a very good public speaker, because he was very hesitant and uncertain, but then we realised he was overwhelmed by the enormity of the situation he found himself in, and was very emotional as he explained that he was putting in place the orders that allow him to announce the arrangements for evacuation of the northern part of the island nearest to the volcano. The scientists believed La Soufriere could be about to blow, it had recently grown a new magma cone about 1km in diameter and there were 500 earthquakes over last Easter weekend alone..... 

Growth of the cone

The new cone emerging rapidly

A couple of hours later he was back on the radio, with the very articulate and competent seismologist, Professor Richard Robertson from the University of the West Indies; advising that there were more signs of an imminent explosion, so the evacuation should start immediately and that NEMO (National Emergency Management Organisation) was swinging into action to get 16,000 people out of the red zone into shelters which were in churches and schools.  Cruise ships were on their way to help and other Caribbean countries were offering assistance to take people who were vaccinated.   

The red zone has been evacuated and many have also left  the orange zones 
A lot have moved to the south to stay with friends and relatives

That’s when we knew our caldera trek might be cancelled!

Well good old Prof Robertson called it right, because the following morning when we woke up, things had deteriorated.  There was a strong sulphurous smell in the air and through the haze we could just make out the cruise ships standing off in deep water. 

It was very hazy but the promised cruise ships had arrived overnight

The first explosion was about 08.30. We didn’t hear the explosion, but we could see the ash cloud in the distance.  The evacuation order had been in the nick of time.

The first sign of the eruption from where we were anchored was a towering cloud of ash

The prime minister came on the radio again along with Prof Richard Robertson and the Director of NEMO Michelle Forbes to give an extremely detailed report of what has happened, what is in place to help people and what people should do.  This is a prime ministerial broadcast unlike any we experience in the UK. 

First of all, the guy actually cares about his people, he cried on national radio, he took advice gratefully and said how overwhelmed he felt by the support he was getting.  He accepted that mistakes would be made, but he took full responsibility, and he clearly has faith in god to see him and the people through. It felt as though he was talking to every single person face to face and with care and concern. 

The aviation authority reported that the plume was 6km up in the air already. 

Then as we waited for the ash to descend on us all, the national radio station played very biblical and emotional gospel music throughout the morning which made us pretty tearful too.

 

Unsurprisingly, the nurse didn’t come to do our PCR tests at 0930 as scheduled, probably because she was busy doing vaccinations and helping elsewhere.  We were wondering whether to leave at this point, but where to go that was the question and would we be allowed in given the restrictions on movement?  We were anchored in the green zone which is the safest place to be, so when the agent contacted us and said the nurse was coming, we carried on with our plans and had our tests done at 1330.  All our paperwork and passports were now with the agent, so we accepted we would be here for the time being and were feeling optimistic because the cloud seemed to be blowing east and away from us.

We are anchored at the blue dot.  the volcano is in red

At first it seemed that the ash cloud was blowing eastwards out to sea and away from us

The second massive explosion was about 1430, just as we got back from our tests.  We could see the ash cloud towering above us and it was terrifying. The cloud formations around it were fascinating, creating what looked like a halo or a silk scarf wrapping around the blast material. We sat on deck with a glass of wine and marvelled at our view!

The second eruption was truly majestic apparently reaching above 50,000 feet

This is how it looked from space apparently

Overnight the wind changed and we woke up to find ourselves in deep ash which we have since been trying to clean up and  to which  we should have been playing Mendelssohn’s Fingal's Cave/ the Sorcerer’s Apprentice as a musical accompaniment, because it was falling as fast as we were sweeping.

It was morning but it was still dark!  The saloon windows were black with ash 

We had taken note of the advice of our hero Prof (now) Richie Robertson.  He gave a detailed description of the likely fallout of ash and he said sweep it first because if you add water to deep ash, it turns to mud and then can dry like cement.  Greg did most of the sweeping on decks, whilst I played WordFeud and chatted on Facebook down below😊 with the odd bit of interior floor mopping in between.  Finally, I went on deck in my mask and did a bit more to help, but to be honest it’s not an enjoyable task at all and feels downright unhealthy! 

That's exactly how I felt when I went on deck at first light

Greg did a brilliant job of sweeping it up, but I wish he would wear a mask!

Then last night there was another massive blast and we woke to more ash and persistent rain.  Operation clean up has taken place again, with me helping a lot more today. We can't afford to use fresh water, which has now become a precious commodity, so have been hauling buckets of sea water over the side of the boat to use for rinsing.  Who needs the gym!

Cockpit before cleaning 

Cockpit after being scrubbed with buckets of sea water

Luckily it started raining quite hard, so we just kept going and managed to make quite a big improvement.  The sea water is warm and the rain is warm and it was hard work, so all in all we didn't mind being wet.  However we were both absolutely filthy with ash running down into every crevice!

It requires quite a lot of arm and stomach muscle strength to haul hundreds of buckets of water up and  over the side of the boat and lift over the guard rail.

Looking a bit grim and very grimy after my efforts

So, although we are holed up in 'hell,' waiting to be released, we are grateful that we have 1200 litres of water in sealed tanks and lots of provisions, whereas the water supply on the island has been cut off and thousands of people are homeless. 

We will leave here soon, sadly without exploring the island, but you can be sure we will never forget St Vincent.

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 [JP1]