Take one Holiday with the Archers

We decided to catch the bus and go to meet them from the airport - although Sym could not find where their flight number was so we were not too sure which flight they were on - as it happens they were delayed five hours so we got there in enough time. We arrived in the hotel later in the evening so we had a few drinks on the beach and parted till the next morning cos everyone was a bit jet lagged. It was so lush to see them, and the kids had grown up so much just in the last year it was unreal. We made it over to the hotel around late morning to find them all in the pool on about their 8th cocktail (all inclusive rocks) walking up to the bar so freely, we would have gone crazy!!! We chilled out by the bar drinking and catching up for the rest of the day. Can you believe by the end of the day (apart from baby Jenson – who was wearing factor 40 odd) I was the whitest there…. The bums had only all gone and cheated, they had been on the bloody sun bed for weeks before they came and were bronzed up already. Cheating Rats!!

Sym and his nephew Brandon messing in the pool!!



Baby Jenson looking cute as ever!!!



We went to the restaurant with them that evening and had a meal out! It was quite expensive really, but the only option was ‘All you can eat buffet style’ so Sym took advantage and had, a whole rack of ribs, three steaks, two breasts of chicken and that’s not including all the rice, salad pasta and desserts (so I guess it was worth the dosh really) it felt really good to eat steak again, it was amazing!!!



The next day we decided to take them out sailing on the boat. We did not go far just around a few bays down to Grafton Bay were there was a gorgeous beach. The boys all went snorkelling round the rocks while Lisa, Jenson and I chilled out on the beach.



It was such a wicked day, the weather was gorgeous and Brandon loved the water and snorkelling, he picked it up really quickly considering it was his first time and he loved it on the boat…proper sea dog. Baby Jenson was a little bit poorly for the next few days. So we decided to chill out around the pool and on the boat until he was better before hiring a car to do a tour of the Island.

Those few days involved me and Lisa having a massage by Jackie on the beach ( highly recommended to anyone who goes there) which was the best ever….chilling out sunbathing and drinking lots of Pina Coladas….oh yeah not to forget to mention that me and Lisa being threatened on the beach. This local guy scared the shit out of us…calling us lying dogs and saying he was going to kill us. He was a complete nut job – One evening there was a turtle on the beach so he came to tell us and then demanded money…. We said no and he went all nutty. Oh well Sym and Bev went over and had strong words with him, but there was no reasoning with the guy so they went and called the hotel manager who said he is crazy and he would sort it out with the police. In all fairness we were a bit worried at first but that man never bothered us for the rest of the holiday…we only actually saw him once, cos I think he peed off all the other local guys cos they said its really bad for business…one guy even threatened to chop his arm off…NICE!!

Part Two Tobago

A few days before they arrived we met some South African people off a few boats which had just travelled up the coast from Brazil. They were really nice people and we met up for sundowners on their boats for a few nights. We absolutely fell in love with their boat. The owner of Alley Cat used to own the company and the boat is called an Island Spirit. Really beautiful and spacious Catamarans and made us excited about getting one.



Option 2 for when we sell Quarter moon is to fly over to South Africa and build this boat. You buy them as a complete mould (hull, deck and bulkheads, even all the internal moulds such as the heads and galley and berth) and then all the rest is the easy fun stuff!! Well that’s easy for me to say. The guys were from Cape Town and said it was beautiful there, so you never know…South Africa or Australia. I love the whole part of not knowing where you will be in a years time – what country will you be in and what you will be doing? I suppose it all depends on when and we sell Quarter moon. We have had loads of interest now over the last few weeks and an offer, so fingers crossed one day soon!!

We spent a few days in the anchorage Store Bay and just of Buccoo Reef ( which is apparently the third best dive site in the world). We went snorkelling on afternoon and it was lush there, got to see a turtle again but the only downfall was that it was a bit choppy and it was quite hard work swimming in it. We made our way a couple of days before and anchored in the designated anchorage of Plymouth.
What can I say, we were hoping for it to be really sweet there, just like the two previous bays a couple of miles down the coast. Well the first 24 hours was bloody horrible. We anchored ok with good holding and decided to use the tender and moor on the public pontoon to go and have a look around and check out the hotel. What a relief: Lisa would be fine and the place was really nice, wicked pool and the hotel right on the beach , we checked out the drinks menu which was not too bad either!!

Anyway when we got back we found that the bollard we had tied our rope to had been smashed off – Thank god we actually locked it as it was hanging on by the metal wire . God it made us so angry, whoever did it was no content with just un tying us to make a point we were not welcome there, but to go to the trouble to smash off a concrete bollard – What a twat!!
Then the following morning we are awoken to the fishermen pulling a net right across the boat, he was so close he was holding onto our anchor. We asked him if he wanted us to move… and where can we move to so we wont be in the way - of course we did not mind, if we are in the way its no problem for us to re anchor, but the ignorant git totally blanked us then starting making gestures with his hand to move…..but the idiot by this point had his net running alongside the boat and so we could not pick go forward to pick up our anchor. All we could do was let out more chain and drop back a bit! We were really shocked of the total arrogance of this guy…but what could we do. To top it all off that evening when we were swimming we noticed that our boat had been damaged. Can you believe this – all this is just over 24 hours. It says in the pilot and cruising guides that Tobago is a real treat to visit because not many yachts come compared to the other islands and it is well worth the trip…..well this anchorage was by far the worst we have been to and we have never felt so unwelcome in a place as of yet. We picked up our hook and drove round o the next bay which was only a five minute tender ride form Turtle beach . The reason its called turtle beach is every season between June and Nov these massive turtles walk up onto the beach and bury their eggs in the sand then go back out to sea, when the baby turtles hatch and run straight for the ocean and do not return until they are adults and lay their eggs on the same beach they were born…. Mad really, don’t you think.

Check out this pic of a tiny little turtle that had just hatched…it was so cute.

Scarborough , Tobago

Sorry i've been so slack on the blog for the last few weeks….I know your all dying for an update because my writing is sooo entertaining!!!. Our family have arrived and gone again. (So Sad) It was so amazing to see them …but Sym was wiping away his tears when they left for their flight yesterday.Lol





Anyway... we arrived a week or so before they were due so we went to check in in Scarborough, which was probably the longest procedure in customs and immigration yet!! Sym went to go on his own and he was gone nearly all morning and then came back cos I had to be present as well. Bloody typical (the first time I don’t go with him) but we had a KFC as a treat so it was well worth it!! Not as good as back home mind – the skin on the chicken was like the popcorn chicken we get back home…quite dry and crispy – certainly not my cup of tea!
Our first impressions of Scarborough were really nice. The people all seemed friendly and we noticed there was a massive amount of Indians here. We met this nutter of a boat called “Cariad” which means “Love” in Welsh, which I thought was such a lush name for a boat. (Even though he was from New Zealand). We think that our next boat that we buy we are going to call Carried for sure!!
This guy Watty was on his own on the boat and tried to persuade Sym to sail down to Trinidad with him. He has never sailed on his own and the crew he took with him on the Atlantic crossing wanted to get off in Tobago and so he has been stuck in this grotty harbour for months now. He managed to upset one of the locals because when he went to fill up with water on of the local guys stopped him, being a bit of a bully I think cos he is quite old man (as no one said anything to Sym when he went to fill our tanks) Anyway, after a bit of beef, he tells him to go back to Africa where his ancestors come from…can you believe this….the guy and all his family were bloody born here for god sake!!! Well unsurprisinly the guy goes a gets a knife and threatens to chop him up!! I was so shocked!!

When I mentioned earlier that the harbour was grotty, it was not really dirty or anything I just meant it was a big commercial harbour with a massive fast ferry going in and out a few times a day (Oh yeah and every morning at 5.30 am he would sound his horn 3 times and he was less than 100 metres away..Can you imagine how load that was…we shit ourselves with shock every morning we were there) It was built up and industrial compared to anchoring off a luxurious sandy beach in clear waters, what we are used to.

Heres a pic of the t& t cat theat woke us up every morning!!



The next day a barge comes in and ties up really close to where we are anchored. Sym rows over to ask if they want us to move, but they ignore us…or can’t be bothered to answer, either way rude unhelpful bastards. Then they take a line to the shore right past our boat….well every time a gust came it rode right up the side of our boat, so Sym kept having to jump in the tender and move us away with the engine….so unprofessional really…im sure that would never happen anywhere in Europe (or the majority of the world comes to think of it)
Sym ended up radioing through to ask when they were going cos we could not keep doing that every five minutes- a strong gust and it could have done some serious damage, like rip our guard rails to pieces!

Anyway enough of my moaning now, after a couple of days we moved on. We thought we would check out some of the bays on our way up to Turtle beach, where the Archers were staying. We planed to get there a few days before they arrived cos we wanted to put Lisa’s mind at ease and check out what the hotel was like. Lisa, bless her is possibly the fussiest person for cleanliness I have ever met in my life!! She usually brings her own pillows to hotels just in case, haha, so we had our fingers crossed she was going to like it.

A view from their apartment at sun set



Quartermoon anchored up in Turtle Bay

Sailing to Tobago

Since Syms birthday we have been waiting for a good weather forecast to sail to Tobago to go and meet Bev, Lisa, Bran man and Baby Jenson, who are coming to stay at Turtle Beach in Tobago. Jesus Christ….how come every time we want to sail to meet family and friends the weather turns crappy and the wind goes in the wrong direction to what we want. We have been checking everyday for the last two weeks and have been waiting for the wind to have a slight North to it, or even a bloody straight and normal East will do...but no everyday has got a bloody south in it… Can you believe of all the five odd months we have been here, its always east or north east.

Anyway , enough of my ranting, we get the best we can get before leaving it too late and head off on the 10th May. The forecast is east (maybe some south east but not too much)and about 13 - 16 knots. We leave the anchorage in Prickly Bay at about midday and head 82 miles to Scarborough, Tobago!! Our plan is to sail as close to the wind as possible and prob do a far bit of tacking. So more or less we are expecting a choppy sail. We plan to do an over nighter and get there for the following morning. We reckon we could make that distance just within daylight hours, but we are going to be sailing into 2 or so knots of current so the daylight option is out of the question. One nighters are always horrible. We hate them for the simple fact that it always takes a a day or two to get into the rountine and we can never sleep comfortably on the first night,hence we always end up awake for most of it and completly knackered the time we arrive!!

Well the whole day and night is horrible( for me anyway). In all fairness the sea conditions were great and we managed to sail it hard to the wind all in one tack…how amazing she sailed - we were going about 5 to 6 knots the whole way (This may be because Sym spent the previous two days scrubbing the hull of the limpets, fish and weeds we had living on our boat. We also had no water and not much fuel so she was light as chips!!
The only bad point was that I felt sick as a parrot the whole way. All these sea miles under my belt and I go and get ill on a one day sail…perhaps its cos its our first sail in about 5 months ( well anything over a few hours) and I had to get my sea legs all over again..
Feeling queasy on a boat is possibly the horriblest thing known to man kind, you feel so helpless and sorry for yourself and you are a complete waste of space. Anyone who has been sea sick knows exactly what im talking about. Sym did all the cooking and making drink while I just stayed on deck all night keeping watch.

Finally we arrived at first light and sailed slowly around into the Port of Scarborough. By then I was starting to feel better and I got cheered up by catching yet another Tuna fish… We are becoming the kings of fishing now!

Syms Birthday

Sym trying to cover up his greyness!!!!



I bought Symian a Leathermans knife for his 38th birthday which he really loved as the Gerber I bought him the year before had all rusted up and the quality was absolutely cack. I would not recommend any one to buy the crappy Gerber. We went to the little bar by the customs office for happy hour for 5 – 6pm which worked out sooo cheap. It was less than a quid for a rum and coke but the measure was massive….easily over a double with the tinest amount of coke. I think Sym managed to squeeze in six beers in that hour…so we were quite tipsy by the time we went out for our meal.
Its been ages since we had a meal out so we decided to go for a Chinese, which we figured out has been over 6 months since we have had one. Not like our days in Gosport where we went for a ‘ All you can Eat’ and a litre of red nearly every friday night.
The food was lush and, especially because ive been on a series diet for over a month now and if I ate one more salad it was gonna kill me. Being on a diet seriously sucks, but it was called for considering ive been eating and drinking like a beast since we left England, alongside not much exercise…ive turned into a Hippo!
We ended back in the bar after our meal and carried on with more drinking on Quartermoon,followed by diving off the boat skinny dipping until the early morning….bet the neightbours loved us!!!

Sym giving it large!!!

Prickly Bay, still Grenada

We spent a few evening with Alissa and then they departed for Trinidad. They plan to go up to Cuba, Jamacia and through the Panama and we plan to stay in Trinidad for the summer to find work so we may not see them for some time. Goodbye Guys… see you soon! Have a safe trip…Vita Multcar Baby!!

We met up with some other friends Curly Sue and Nick from Yacht Ayesha from England. They had been stuck in Antigua for four months waiting for a new mast to be delivered cos the poor buggers got de - masted on the Atlantic crossing 500 miles off shore. We went over with a bottle of rum and had some drinks aboard Ayesha where we compared whose boat was the best varnished. I think Quartermoon has won hands down in all fairness…. You guys had four months… we did ours in less than a week… and the outcome, well lets say our is still better!! Ha Ha! Nick cooked up a yummy curry and we all had a good evening. We took the camera with us to take some pics, but got a bit pissed and forgot to take any pics... it’s always so annoying when that happens...
Anyway… we are all alone again now… all our friends have departed, gone either up north or back home! Good luck with the crossing Boo! That’s great though cos it gives us time to work on the boat until our family come see us in a month. Can’t Wait!!! You know what it like when you have too much of a social life, nothing gets done no matter how much you promise yourself.



Anyway, we left the hot sticky horrible water anchorage in St Georges and we are now in Prickly Bay… where it is windy and the water is semi good - swimmable ( if that’s a word ) . At least we are not having to out the engine on every day to charge the batteries… now the wind charger can do its job.

The Beautiful beach next to where we are anchored!!



Our new Ensign… hand made by a cute little local man from St Georges.. Our old was looking so old and tatty. Sym was so proud of it; he kept staring at it for hours (weirdo) until I pointed out a couple of holes in it!! We had a bbq the night before and some of the flames had burnt small little holes in it. Sym was soo upset,