What a haul!

We were at Daffodils just before 8am to get our LF tests done, but island time kicked in and it wasn’t until 8:45 that the nurse arrived and then lots of trips to her car as she was missing some vital item! Quite a few impatient yachties were waiting to see the nurse, she has the power of the department of health, and clears the paper work for entry and departure. It all happens island style.

Relieved we were both negative and we had our official certificate, we set off for Canouan, where we planned to refuel and check out of SVG (St Vincent and the Grenadines) heading to Grenada tomorrow. We just exited the bay and hoisted the main sail, which was a little nerve racking, hoping like mad our new halyard would work properly. It was causing a bit of an issue for the last five feet when there was a strange noise in the engine, I looked overboard and could see a severed fishing buoy. All a bit tense as we heading toward land, but Rowan got the rest of the main sail up in the end, dodging other boats leaving the bay. We turned around and set sail in very light winds to Canuoan. We suspected we still had something on the propellor or the rudder as there was a ghastly noise, the noise went when we switched off that engine, we hoped the offending fishing line would slip off.

St Vincent with a halo of clouds

We limped very slowly along, even had another Arc boat call in wondering how we were doing, going so slowly. We were averaging between 2-3 knots of boat speed. We ended up motoring as the winds died, putting only the good engine on. We anchored on the beautiful beach just outside the fancy Canuoan marina, so that Rowan could go and check out what our issue was. A good excuse to use his brand new Nemo, a battery powered scuba gadget. Well I pulled and pulled the fishing line that Rowan gave me until I couldn’t budge it. We had obviously towed something big. All was revealed when Rowan’s strength got an enormous metal fishing cage onto the back of the boat. Two very drowned fish inside we assumed were red snapper and thought might make a good meal!

The crazy demolition of a hill for the Canuoan marina

An American take on an Italian waterfront, done to a very high spec

The gorgeous beach

6 boats anchored and a plane landing

Rowan about to investigate the heavy load with his Nemo, look at all the line we had hauled in

A huge cage and two lion fish, at least we drowned them, they are invasive and causing havoc in the Caribbean

We pulled up the anchor and went into the marina, going straight to the fuel dock to full up. Two of the marina guys recognised us from last year, mainly from the name PolePole. They were very amused that we had towed a huge fishing cage all the way from Bequia. They also enlightened us that the two fish were poisonous lion fish and not red snapper. We can imagine some irate fisherman still looking for his cage.

The marina guys impressed with our haul

We got onto our berth and Rowan checked us in at the marina, he had to go and check us out of SVG at the airport next door (you can check out 24 hours before departure). The marina lady photocopied our documents and vaccination certificates, but somehow, something she copied went wrong so she shredded it, and inadvertently Rowan’s vaccination certificate dropped into the shredder at the same time. No more certification for him! Keeping in mind we were vaccinated here in the Caribbean in two different countries, getting a new certificate will be impossible. The marina came up with a scheme with the health officer and we just hope it works. They gave us a covering letter which we hope does the trick. It is all fun and games this sailing malarkey!

Regrettably!

I did my provisioning shop, hugely disappointed they had no bacon! We decided to go down the far end of the gorgeous beach to Scruffy’s Bar which was never open last year. We arrived and it was closed so we had a cool swim and tried to read on our ipads but got savaged by mosquitos. We decided to go and have an early supper as we were starving, we just got up to the road and a local couple arrived with a very cute dog, to open the bar. We couldn’t resist finally having a sunset drink there, and it did not disappoint, it is a magical setting. Some other people arrived as we were leaving, but the whole marina appears to be as quiet as last year, just not many boats at all. More boats anchored outside than in the marina. Everyone seemed very upbeat and it is still being kept immaculately. They do have a few big super boats in which most probably pay the bills.

Union Island in the distance

Closed Scruffy’s bar

Finally a sundowner at Scruffy’s bar

We decided to eat at their restaurant Shenanigans on the beach, only to find them not serving dinner tonight which was disappointing, so we had to go to the restaurant in the marina buildings. We had a good meal and a delicious bottle of wine. Rowan remembered from last year that they had good wines. Off to bed earlyish as we have an early start heading for Grenada tomorrow.