Tyrell Bay Part 2

At Tyrell Bay yachts leave and arrive constantly. Sooner or later friends and acquaintances you've met while traveling are bound to turn up! Just as we were feeling a bit lonely, in came Doug & Katie on S/V Casa Tu with pals Chris & Elaine on S/V Nemo and we got on very well indeed. We went snorkeling together on the other side of the island and entertained each other for drinks etc.....then S/V Chrystal Blue arrived ( Neil & Ley), a pleasure to see again...then S/V Galatea, Ernst & Anne Marie, who gave us information including brochures from further north, very handy! We also visited fellow Hunter owners Michael & Pam aboard S/V Moorhen of Yorkshire, who entertained us for afternoon tea and delicious homemade cake.

S/V Crystal Blue

Walking back from snorkeling 

We had discovered a big mama pig chained to a tree near the boatyard and we collected our peelings, carrot tops etc to feed her. We had checked on the internet what was ok to feed pigs and the owner said it was ok and that she was pregnant.

Lovely Mama Pig

A disturbing feature of Tyrell Bay, was the poisoning of dogs by one individual or more....very sad. The Lambi Queen was where we went to get wifi and one day their puppy started foaming at the mouth as Alison was stroking him. She rushed in the bar to let the owners know that the puppy had been poisoned. We don't know what happened however we didn't see the puppy again.

On one trip ashore, we pulled our dingy up on the beach, then some more. We popped into the local shop and along to the greengrocer. When we returned 'Lil'Arty', the dinghy was gone!!!! A French couple had just landed and we asked them if they had seen it...no they hadn't. Looking out into the bay we eventually spotted it, almost back to Artemis...unmanned. Luckily for us a couple of local guys who had a floating bar/restaurant in front of our boat caught it for us. The French guy offered to take me to the dinghy and we set off to retrieve it. Unfortunately he ran out of petrol a few yards off shore but it was ok as he had petrol on his yacht which was close by.....oops his wife had the key back on shore 'C'est la vie' said I. By this time, the local guys had started our dinghy engine and brought it to us with theirs in tow. We thanked them profusely and tipped them each $10EC...thanks again guys! After that incident we always tie or chain the dinghy to a tree or post.

Another dinghy related mishap, was when locking it to Artemis on an evening, l dropped the padlock overboard. The next day Alison got her snorkeling gear on and tried to find it and retrieve it. She managed to find but had difficulty trying to reach it which was about 6 meters down on the sea bed. Then I had a go, with instruction from Alison ( She's a much better swimmer than me) on my technique. By taking a small breath instead of a big one, l could almost reach it. Alison inspired and rested had another go and came up victorious with padlock in hand...well done!

Got the padlock back!

After quite a number of weeks we set off for Bequia, highly recommended only a couple of islands away (about 4 hrs).

Weighing anchor proved quite a challenge...even when the boat was directly above and breaking out the anchor, I found it extremely difficult to pull the anchor up. When it surfaced the reason became  clear. I had not only pulled up our 20kg Bugle but also a rusty 35lb CQR with attached chain of unknown length as well. Thankfully it wasn't in use by another yacht but part of the discarded/lost items that foul many popular anchorages. I dislodged the extra anchor from ours as we exited the bay. If it had been a Rocna or other good anchor I would have got it aboard some how some way! Haha!