A Glimpse of a Week in Grenada

Grenada is a nice change from all the other islands. It looks a lot more like a little town in Europe than a Caribbean island. It is an extremely friendly island. The lagoon where we are anchored is calm but crowded. I guess every harbor has a list of positive attributes and a few negative ones. St. George’s Bay it is calm (no rolling) and has several dinghy docks all close to marine stores or really nice grocery stores. It is also surrounded with great restaurants and one of the best features is the free wi-fi accessible from your boat. That is a first for us. The only really bad thing about this harbor is that you cannot swim from your boat because it is so protected the water is not clean enough to swim in.

Last Monday we toured the town with Raggy Chap and Cliff’s Note. We finished the day with nutmeg ice cream but of course Glenn stuck to his favorite rum raisin. The next day we did boat projects and grocery shopping and that evening had Highland Light over for Happy Hour. Doug and Lisa are cruising on an Endeavour 42, which is like our boat but two feet longer. They have been to Trinidad so we picked their brains for information. Later that evening we met Raggy Chap and Rhiannon at the Yacht Club for dinner. Wednesday brought lots of rain. Glenn worked on the steering cable all day and had so much assistance from other cruisers at one time I thought the boat would sink. Later that evening we went to dinner at the Horny Baboon. We had a huge group with a great mixture of cruisers that we have known for the whole season and a few we just met. (Raggy Chap, Delilah, Cliff’s Note, B’Sheret, Highland Light, Scooter and Rhiannon)

The next day Jill (from Delilah, Boston) and I took the bus to Spice land mall to an awesome grocery store. When we got back our friends on Amanzi had arrived. Kim on Amanzi is an excellent cook and brought us vegetable roti’s for dinner. Friday morning consisted of boat projects for Glenn and laundry for me. That afternoon we went to the market. It has all kinds of spices, fruits and vegetables. Later we stopped at the Nutmeg restaurant for ice cream and yes we got nutmeg and rum raisin again. Yum! Yum! Later that evening we had Delilah, Amanzi and Cliff’s Note over for grilled hamburgers and fried green tomatoes. Kim is Canadian and David is from South Africa so neither of them had ever tasted friend green tomatoes. Glenn did a superb job of frying and I made a dipping sauce to go with them with mayo, worcestershire sauce and sriracha hot chili sauce. I also made a huge pan of brownies to celebrate Jill and Dean’s (Delilah’s) anniversary.

Saturday, we were on a mission to get to Art Fabric - a very cool shop that makes beautiful batik fabrics and clothes. We picked up Melanie - our fashion consultant and Katarina (11 yrs old) and headed to the shop. We had a great time trying on clothes and getting feedback from the women in the shop. They are extremely direct. Later that evening we watched the new Jimmy Buffet movie, “Hoot”. It was great fun watching it on Escape Velocity. Bill and Nina have a huge catamaran with a wonderful deck that could probably have 20 people on it. We really enjoyed watching this cool movie outdoors with other Buffet fans from Raggy Chap and Cliff’s Note. Glenn made fried plantains and Bill made a ton of popcorn to munch while we watched the movie.
Sunday- Glenn and I broke down and finally got skype. For those of you like me that have not heard of skype, it is a way to talk on the phone by using your computer. We had not signed up for this before because most places that have wifi in the Caribbean don’t have great bandwidth so we thought skype would be a waste. We changed our mind and decided to give it a shot. When I tried to call Joyce it was very strange, you speak and then you have about a 10sec. delay, then she speaks and you have another 10 sec. delay. Our friends that love it say this is not always the way it is. So we will see. Later that day Glenn ran his first official run with about 50 runners. The Olympic day run was supposed to start at 3:00 in the afternoon. HOT! HOT! It of course started a little late (Caribbean time). He got a free t-shirt and a certificate handed to him by a Grenadine Olympic runner. Later that evening we made homemade pizza with Delilah and Amanzi.

More as it happens…

Riding the "Wave" (6-12-06)

We survived our first tropical wave (the things that hurricanes are made of). We rode out the high winds and squalls on a mooring in the nicely protected harbor of Port Elizabeth, Bequia. The anchorage is well protected from any wave action but the hills to the East actually accelerate the winds. On any given day, the “Bequia Blast” would run through the harbor with 20-25 knot winds. We wondered what would happen when the wave caused the wind to really pick up.

The wondering ended around 5:00 Monday afternoon (6-12-06) as the first squall swooped down from the hills. Crossroads heeled over 10 degrees in the first blast of wind- big lean for not having any sail up. Then the rain came. The wind driven rain was so loud we couldn’t even hear the 35 knots winds screeching in the rigging. We stood in
the cockpit behind the protection of the dodger and watched the visibility drop to a boat length. We could not see the shore or town and could barley see the boat in front of us. Should we do something? What? So, we sat and nervously watched the storm, wondering what we would do if the mooring chose now to break.

I had run two lines through the mooring line and back to the boat - one to hold us and one to take over if that one broke. I also ran a line from the boat to the mooring itself (a rather large engine wrapped in chains). This last line was back up in case the mooring line couldn’t handle our boat sailing back and forth in the storm.

Every thing held. That squall passed and we were able to sleep fairly well with only occasional high winds and rain. Until 5:00 AM when we had another squall come through. It was a lot like the first one but not as scary, since we had already done this once. It passed in an hour or so and the rain settled into more of an all day pace.

By now we figured the decks were clean enough to eat off of so we opened the water fill caps and plugged the deck drain to let some free water flow into the tank. That afternoon the wave had about blown itself out and Michele was able to take advantage of the nine inches of fresh water in the dinghy to do some cleaning.

It looks as though the next couple of waves will pass way to the north of us. We’ll be tucked in Grenada before another one comes through.

Glenn

Happy Father's Day from Grenada

[N12d02:48, W061d45:31]

What a day! There were times today when we had no wind or engine we were going .5 knots. Our engine decided to act out today. We finally made it to Grenada. We are in a very safe and protected anchorage. We will be in the Spice Island for a couple of weeks. Tomorrow we will find out what is wrong with our engine and make sure it is in tip top shape before we sail to Trinidad.

Random Thoughts on Paradise

I noticed the other day that I haven't written a reflective piece in a long time. Honestly, I've been in a bit of a funk lately. I know, I know you are probably thinking how can you be in a funk when you are in paradise. I am going to try and put into words what I have been thinking. Those of you that know me well know I would rather speak than write this. I also thought it important that we share some of the rough times as well as the good times. I assume you want a realistic view of our journey. So hear goes with my thoughts: When we started this journey on December 21st by leaving St. Pete we were filled with excitement, wonder and lots of butterflies in our stomach and, yes a good ole healthy dose of fear. We were so green we didn't know anything about our boat. We were honestly too busy learning the boat, the weather and navigation to even think about home (sorry). I guess that was a good thing. Then we had the challenge of the Bahamas. Boy, that was not an easy place to start our trip (reversing currents, small, narrow entrances with rapids, reefs and lots of shallow water). To top it all off we had the northerly cold fronts that brought extremely high winds. We kept saying, "let's just get to the Dominican Republic and we will figure it out". We had options; we could turn around and go home, we could stay in the DR for hurricane season or we could go south to Trinidad.
By that time the Caribbean sailing class of 2006 was most definitely formed. We were a tight group of cruisers heading south together; we hiked, did waterfalls, ate, shared stories and treated each other like family.
So we sailed on to Puerto Rico and stocked up on all the US goodies we could possibly find. We loved getting so many boat projects knocked off our list at the Ponce Yacht Club. So again filled with excitement and surrounded by our class of 2006 we sailed on for the southeastern Caribbean islands.
Glenn and I have discovered that we prefer to see fewer islands and stay a little longer at each one. Saying that, we still did not have the time at each island that I thought we would. I guess the biggest disappointment about the trip so far is the lack of opportunity to meet the local community. The highlight is without a doubt meeting the cruising community. I think we will have a much better chance to really get to know the local communities in Panama and when we head back up the western Caribbean.
I was really looking forward to the lower Eastern Caribbean - basically from St. Martin down to Grenada. The islands have a much more dramatic landscape. But with the month of May came the heat and the rain showers. I would not mind rain, in fact I would love it if it would rain hard enough to clean the boat or shower outside but noooooooo… it rains about 5 mins, just long enough that you have to close all the hatches. Crossroads has 4 overhead hatches and 16 side windows for a total of 48 latches, so we spend a lot of time latching the hatches. And of course these 5 min. rain showers happen several times during the day and about 3 times a night. So you just out of bed and do the hatch dance. With the rain and heat also come the rolly anchorages. I can handle a lot of things but a rolly-a anchorage gets on my last nerve!!! It is also exhausting to move every day or so. We have to prepare the boat for sea and take the dinghy engine on and off every time we move, I know, I know - cry me a river.

May also brought great things, our first visitors. Ken and Becky's visit was so helpful for us. More than they will ever know. It was so good to be with home folk and share our new life with them. It was also a great treat to get goodies from the states; sundried tomatoes, dried blueberries and a copy of People magazine! I was so deprived of pop culture I did not even know who won this year's Oscars. Oh my! I wanted everything to be perfect for our guest. I guess that's when I realized just how much control over things we really have (like, very little). We got a marina in Guadeloupe thinking it would be easier to get on and off the boat with luggage. Well French marinas are very different, they don't have a finger pier so you have to crawl over the bow of the boat to get on. It would have been much easier to get on from the dinghy. We also had some of the rolliest anchorages that we have experienced to date. This made it difficult to cook and hang out on the boat. Ken and Becky were real troupers about it.

On our own again, we moved on to another beautiful French island, Martinique, and yes the first two stops on that island were also rolly. I thought I might be going crazy, I didn't want to stay on the boat because it was so rolly but I didn't want to stay in town because it was so hot. I longed to be back on the boat, go figure! Finally, we arrived in Merin, Martinique a beautiful well protected harbor, no rolls, great breezes and the best chocolate crepe I have ever had. Hallelujah! I think I like cruising again. We stayed there 5 nights! Yeah! , We didn't really want to leave but we needed to go south. Marigot Bay St. Lucia was also a very nice harbor and we could swim from the boat. We decided to skip St. Vincent because of time and stories we had heard about dangerous harbors (pirates of the Caribbean). That gets us to Bequia in the Grenadines. Bequia has a ton to offer for the cruising community. It has a calm, safe and clean harbor, nice beaches and lots of restaurants. We will stay here until the wave passes. It is due to hit the Eastern Caribbean on Tuesday night and should not be a big deal. You just don't want to be underway while a wave is in the area. I have gone on long enough but I want to finish by saying that today I am happy to have my health, a beautiful view from our house and a nice breeze. Glenn and I are very fortunate to be living our dream one day at a time. Thanks for listening.
Michele

viewer mail

We have gotten a lot of emails (but very little sympathy) in responce to our post about the island internet access. Thought we would share one (slightly edited) with the rest of our readers:

Put A COCONUT ON EACH EAR AND YELL. Hummpph, paid three Euro for thirtyminutes of slow internet usage on a French keyboard and din't even say where the blue eyed hammerheaded heck you were !How in the bloody blazes can we live vicariously if we don't know what youre're doing on a day to day basis? We know it's tough scraping salt off yourstern while consuming free lobster and it's a real bummer rechargingyourselves in front of the fire station but don't get snippy with us that'sgot 14 gigs tied up in a map of the bloody drooled all over Caribbean dreamyand wooly minded Sea trying to imaging cramming daily mal de mar pills andcarving salt sores from our imaginary feet and forcing more conch down ourthroats, and, and, and, AAAAARrrrrrrggggggggthhhhh !!!!!!!!!!(Excuse me, sometimes the quiet of the studio gets to me... but, DON'T GIVEME YOUR GRIEF, I'M STILL HERE, HERE,HERE !)I know, I know, don't worry about us. Just straighten your anchor, haveanother French pastry, another bottle of wine, watch another volcano blow,motor on to another island, watch another sunset, eat another barnacle,climb another waterfall, and... NONSENSE ! Stood too many underway watchesand never had computer. Bang out what happened on the last island and dumpit when you get to the Next. Then, your mother will be happy. Get on south, enjoy, and don't let the landlubbersbug you. Fair Winds

another:
I wanted Glenn to know even in jest I have to shudder when I see a reference to Al inventing the internet. He was serious when he said it and it was the first sign that he had lost his direction and most of his mind.

never thought ya'll took this stuff so serously.
-glenn

Bequia,

[N13d00:40, W061d14:42]

We arrived in Bequia yesterday at 4:00 PM after an extremely exhilarating motor-sail. We left St.Lucia at 4:00 am, and started our day with a 2 knot current going against us. Yuk! That killed our boat speed. We had high winds, very high, sometimes in fact we saw 33knots on the wind indicator. At one point in the day, we saw a pod of about 30 dolphins. I have never seen that many at one time. Very cool. As we were coming into the harbor at Bequia, after a very long day of boisterous winds our engine would not start . I was steering under sail and the wind was very fluky at the entrance of the harbor. Glenn ran below to bleed the injectors and thank God it worked. Meanwhile, our friend Jeff called on the radio , all I said was "can't talk - no engine". So Jeff quickly put his engine on his dinghy and came out to rescue us. By that time Glenn had fixed the problem but it was a very nice try from Dragonfly.

Bequia is part of the Grenadines just south of St. Vincent. We plan to stay here a few days waiting on the upcoming wave to pass. It is a very safe enclosed harbor.

Michele

Marigot Bay, St. Lucia

[N13d57:98, W061d01:42]

We arrived in St. Lucia Sunday at noon; this was our fastest sail to date. We had a 20-mile an hour wind on the beam. We sailed up to 8 knots. We traveled 32 miles from Martinique. Wahoo!!

Coconut Telegraph

I am sure that when Al Gore invented the internet he had no idea how it might trickle down to the islands. To be fair, all the countries and territories we have visited even third world types- have been on line. It is only a question of what line they are on and how they follow it.

As Americans we have come to take high speed internet for granted. One can pop into any coffee shop, library or hotel and zoom, your on line. Not so out here in the islands. We have found ourselves in curious circumstances while trying to "stay connected". We have shared the floor of an electronics store with eight or ten other cruisers all trying to use the same feeble connection. It was slow but at least it was only two bucks a day. Today we paid three Euros (about $4) for thirty minutes of slow internet usage with a French keyboard. Why would they move four letters to different places? In Louperon, DR we used Spanish key boards in the Verizon office. There is a special, secret combination of keystrokes to get the "@" thingie-can't send email without it. We have used the internet in bars, restaurants, a hotel office and even under a tree in front of a fire station. The second bit of local knowledge passed on to new boaters entering a harbor is where to get on line (the first is where to take your trash).

So, if we are slow to answer emails or update the site, it's not for lack of trying. Well, some days it is.
Glenn

Merin, Martinique

[N14d27:87, W060d52:32]
We arrived in Merin, Martinique on Tuesday. We were so excited to be in an anchorage that didn't roll. It is a big enclosed harbor with hundreds of boats and marina's. We had yummy pizza for lunch today. We were excited to reconnect with Dragonfly and Delilah. The wine and cheese is so inexpensive in the French islands, we decided to have a wine tasting, so we would know which $2 bottles of wine to stock up on. The fresh breads and brie are out of this world. We hope to sail to St. Lucia this weekend. We will miss the French islands.