Yacht Aditi

We anchored in Prickly Bay a couple of weeks ago. Spares for the mainsail furling motor are on their way and are currently passing through Kentucky but the latest news from the workshop is that the hydraulic (car starter) motor has suffered a meltdown. So we will be stuck here a while whilst we order another motor. Of course whilst sitting back in the office perusing pictures of turqoise seas at 32 deg C, palm lined beaches and sunshine this looks like a good deal; hang out, wait for the odd part, plan the next move. In reality it has

Generating power has been an ongoing issue and as the months roll by the aggravation has slowly ratcheted upward. We have to generate for on average 5 hours per day, 2-3 in the morning and 2 or 3 at night. Not only does this create heat and noise during sunrise in the morning but it also means some late nights. If we are out particularly with friends and we return to the boat at midnight then we have to stay up generating power until 2am, sometimes this approaches 3-3.30am. And when not generating we are simply running off all that

We now know that due to issues with furling gear we are going to be too late to transit the Panama Canal for a Pacific crossing in Feb/Mar 2014. The alternative is to slowly make our way through the ABC Islands, Columbia, San Blas, Panama and down to Ecuador. From there we would cross to Galapagos early in 2015. But we are thinking the unthinkable; not to transit at Panama. We remained totally committed to a circumnavigation until arriving in the Caribbean. We can’t quite put our finger on it but we are not so enthused at the idea any

The Chocolate Factory on the Edmonton Estate; beans are cleaned and washed before being crushed to form a chocolate paste, then pressed into chocolate. After much discussion about the high cocoa content chocolate that they produce, purity of the bar, and good health benefits we bought a couple of bars. Once back in daylight we were somewhat surprised to find that the bars are only 60% cocoa.

The Rum Factory; described as a working museum the rum factory uses a water wheel to crush sugar cane, heats the juice in progressively hotter vats, then ferments in large tanks before going round the distellery to produce a rum that is 75% achohol.. Somehow this activity employs 100 people. Following the factory tour we had rum tasting. We all found it about the same as syphoning petrol…

Taking a break from the industrial stuff here are some local flowers:

The Cocoa Processing Plant; it’s stacked so the seeds dry in their own heat, then sun dried on racks, washed and polished. A factory has now been built to grind the beans and it opens in about a month’s time (taken a few years for some vertical integration). It was all very dark and very basic within the cocoa barn.

More plants, seeds and spices along with a few local houses that we passed along the way together with the purchase of the famous ‘spice necklasses’;

The Chelsea Flower Show gold medallist – many times over! Holder of an OBE he has met with the Pope, Queen, Prince Charles and many Prime Minister’s but his interest is making natural medicines from the island plants.

We took Cutty (actual name Cuthbert) Island Tour of the Spice Island. It’s amazing to see what’s growing on every corner. As we toured in his taxi Cuthy, who is a farmer when not driving, stopped every 10 minutes to show us more plants and spices, fruits and vegetables. These included from what I can recall: Pineapple, Papaya, Cocoa, Castor Beans, Ginger Leaf, Nutmeg, Star Fruit, Lemon Grass, Cashew Nuts, Limes, Traveller’s Palm, Poinsettia, Chelsea Flower Show winners, Cinnamon, Breadfruit, Bread Nut, Noni, Cloves, Turmeric, Cocoa Pods                         Cocoa