C A R I B B E A N On-line C MPASS SEPTEMBER 2011 NO.NO.192 192 The Caribbean’s Monthly Look at Sea & Shore CARRIACOU REGATTACANNON LOOSE COURTESY 2011 DAVON BAKER (3) See story on page 19 See stories on page 14 & 15 SEPTEMBER 2011 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 2 DEPARTMENTS Info & Updates ......................4 Book Reviews ........................34 Business Briefs .......................7 The Caribbean Sky ...............36 Eco-News .............................. 10 Cooking with Cruisers ..........37 Regatta News........................ 12 Readers’ Forum .....................3 Meridian Passage .................17 What’s on My Mind ............... 40 All Ashore ..............................26 Calendar of Events ...............41 The Caribbean’s Monthly Look at Sea & Shore Sailor’s Horoscope ................ 32 Caribbean Market Place .....42 www.caribbeancompass.com Island Poets ...........................32 Classified Ads ....................... 46 Dolly’s Deep Secrets ............33 Advertisers’ Index .................46 SEPTEMBER 2011 • NUMBER 192 Caribbean Compass is published monthly by Compass Publishing Ltd., P.O. Box 175 BQ, Martinique: Ad Sales & Distribution - Isabelle Prado Tel: (0596) 596 68 69 71, Mob: + 596 696 74 77 01 Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. [email protected] Tel: (784) 457-3409, Fax: (784) 457-3410 Guide? Good! [email protected] Puerto Rico: Ad Sales - Ellen Birrell Dominica day-tripping .......... 26 www.caribbeancompass.com 787-504-5163, [email protected] Distribution - Sunbay Marina, Fajardo ANN CLOUGH Editor...........................................Sally Erdle Olga Diaz de Peréz [email protected] Tel: (787) 863 0313 Fax: (787) 863 5282 LENA PADUKOVA Assistant Editor...................Elaine Ollivierre [email protected] [email protected] St. Lucia: Ad Sales & Distribution - Maurice Moffat Tel: (758) 452 0147 Cell: (758) 720 8432. Advertising & Distribution........Tom Hopman [email protected] [email protected] St. Maarten/St. Barths/Guadeloupe: Art, Design & Production......Wilfred Dederer Ad Sales & Distribution Stéphane Legendre [email protected] Mob: + 590 690 760 100 Accounting............................Shellese Craigg [email protected] [email protected] St. Thomas/USVI: Ad Sales - Ellen Birrell Cool Canal 787-504-5163, [email protected] Compass Agents by Island: Distribution - Bryan Lezama Panama without stress ......... 18 Antigua: Ad Sales & Distribution - Lucy Tulloch Tel: (340) 774 7931, [email protected] Tel (268) 720-6868 [email protected] St. Vincent & the Grenadines: Distribution - Doc Leslie Tel: (784) 529-0970 Barbados: Distribution - Doyle Sails Emerald City Tel/Fax: (246) 423-4600 Tortola/BVI: Ad Sales - Ellen Birrell SEPTEMBER 2011 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 3 Curaçao’s wondrous Willemstad..20 787-504-5163, [email protected] Curaçao: Distribution - Budget Marine Curaçao Distribution - Gladys Jones [email protected] Tel: (5999) 462 77 33 Tel: (284) 494-2830, Fax: (284) 494-1584 Dominica: Distribution - Hubert J. Winston Trinidad: Ad Sales & Distribution - Chris Bissondath, Dominica Marine Center, Tel: (767) 448-2705, Tel: (868) 222-1011, Cell: (868) 347-4890, [email protected] [email protected] Grenada/Carriacou/Petite Martinique: Venezuela: Ad Sales & Distribution - Patty Tomasik PETRA VERSOL Ad Sales & Distribution - Karen Maaroufi Tel: (58-281) 265-3844 Tel/Fax: (58-281) 265-2448 Cell: (473) 457-2151 Office: (473) 444-3222 [email protected] [email protected] Caribbean Compass welcomes submissions of short articles, news items, photos and drawings. See Writers’ Guidelines at www.caribbeancompass.com. Send submissions to [email protected]. We support free speech! But the content of advertisements, columns, articles and letters to the editor are the sole responsibility of the advertiser, writer or correspondent, and Compass Publishing Ltd. accepts no responsibility for any statements made therein. Letters and submissions may be edited for length and clarity. Freshwater Feast Grenada ‘Dog Days’ ©2011 Compass Publishing Ltd. All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication, except Always something in Suriname ...23 Volunteering while cruising .. 28 short excerpts for review purposes, may be made without written permission of Compass Publishing Ltd. ISSN 1605 - 1998 Cover photo: Davon Baker gathered images at the multi-faceted 46th Annual Carriacou Regatta Festival Compass covers the Caribbean! From Cuba to Trinidad, from Panama to Barbuda, we’ve got the news and views that sailors can use. We’re the Caribbean’s monthly look at sea and shore. “I look forward to every issue!” David Hall Maine Click Google Map link below to fi nd the Caribbean Compass near you! http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?t=h&hl=en&ie=UTF8&msa=0&msid=112776612439699037380.000470658db371bf3282d&ll=14.54105,-65.830078&spn=10.196461,14.0625&z=6&source=embed increased their confidence that 2011 will be an active Atlantic hurricane season from 65 percent in May to 85 percent. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center updates its Atlantic hurricane season outlook every August. Gerry Bell, Ph.D., lead seasonal hurricane forecaster at the Climate Prediction Center. Said, “Storms through October will form more frequently and become more intense than we’ve seen so far this season.” Across the entire Atlantic Basin for the whole season — June 1 to November 30 — NOAA’s updated seasonal outlook projects, with a 70 percent probability, a total of Info 14 to 19 named storms (top winds of 39 mph or higher), including seven to ten hurri- canes (top winds of 74 mph or higher), of which three to five could be major hurri- canes (Category 3, 4 or 5; winds of at least 111 mph). These ranges extend well & Updates above the long-term seasonal averages of 11 named storms, six hurricanes and two major hurricanes. As this issue of Compass goes to press, Hurricane season 2011 has made the record books by having had eight Tropical Storms so far without any reaching hurricane status. So if the predictions are correct, the next couple of months will be busy with NOAA Updates Hurricane Predictions, Caribbean Prepares hurricane watches. Last month, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Meanwhile, the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CCRIF) is helping issued its updated 2011 Atlantic hurricane season outlook, raising the number of Caribbean nations prepare for the expected tropical cyclones. This assistance takes expected named storms from its pre-season outlook issued in May. Forecasters also two forms. The first is that CCRIF has made available its Real-Time Forecasting System NOAA (RTFS) to all its members. The RTFS is a storm-impact forecast tool which provides users with real-time hurricane hazard and impact information and can support users in effective disaster preparedness and response, evacuation decision making, and planning for pre-positioning of equipment and supplies, as well as in contingency planning to secure critical infrastructure and operations prior to a hurricane. The second form of assistance provided by CCRIF relates to the provision of train- ing in the effective use of the RTFS. During July, in collaboration with the Caribbean Institute of Meteorology and Hydrology and Kinetic Analysis Corporation, CCRIF provided two sets of training on the RTFS. Seventy-eight persons from 18 countries in the Caribbean region participated in the two-day online training course. Participants included personnel from disaster-management departments and meteorological offices, ministries of planning, agriculture and finance, as well as a number of international development agencies working in countries across the region in disaster risk management. CCRIF was developed through funding from the Japanese Government, and was capitalized through contributions to a multi-donor Trust Fund by the European Union; the World Bank; the governments of Canada, the UK, Ireland, Bermuda and France; and the Caribbean Development Bank; as well as through membership fees paid by partici- pating governments: Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks & Caicos Islands. Yachts & Grenada’s Beausejour/Moliniere Marine Protected Area MAYAG reports: Grenada’s Beausejour/Moliniere Marine Protected Area was launched last year and encompasses Beausejour, Flamingo and Dragon Bays, as well as Moliniere Bay — the home of the world’s first Underwater Sculpture Park cre- ated by Jason deCaires Taylor and currently being maintained and developed by a Remember 2008? It was as active as this year’s new projection, with 16 named Grenadian team. storms, including eight hurricanes and five major hurricanes. This image shows —Continued on next page simultaneous Fay, Gustav and Hanna SEPTEMBER 2011 CARIBBEAN COMPASS PAGE 4 — Continued from previous page fishing ground, a beach recreation area and of course these bays are used The objectives of the MPA are to protect the biodiversity of the area, and ensure as anchorages. the many different groups using the area can do so without conflict. While the MPA So what does the MPA mean for yachts? falls under Grenada’s Department of Fisheries within the Ministry of Agriculture, it is Anchoring is not now permitted anywhere within the MPA boundaries — marked managed by a Stakeholder