Apr 11
I added something new to my resume today. Pig herder. Over the last couple of weeks, I have encountered two or three medium sized pigs in the road not far from the marina. Like other loose cattle in this country, they take their time moving out of the way and really have no fear of cars or people. This morning, we were sitting at the bar and just happened to look down towards the office as a pig came around the end of the office building. This pig was followed by another, then another, then another, until there were seven of them rooting around under the deck by the bathrooms. I walked over and started yelling at them to chase them back up the hill and out the gate. They weren't really intimidated by me, and they took their time getting moving in the right direction. Of course, as they passed the burn pile where we burn garbage, they thought about stopping for a snack, but I kept them moving until they were outside the gate. Maybe we ought to start offering pork sausage along with our burgers.
This morning was shopping day. The usual dozen or so people showed up for the 10:00 bus to the grocery store. In the afternoon, we watched Day 2 of The Masters golf tournament. This is Ashley's day off, so either Barb or I was in the bar all day. A new boat came in mid-afternoon. Lady Hawke is a crewed charter boat that we have met before. The captain has brought the boat in to fill up with water on a couple of occasions. He liked the marina enough that we wants to use us as a base for guest pickup and drop off. They have been on a charter up in the Grenadines and the guests are leaving tomorrow. The guests were three couples from Salt Lake City, so they were enjoying their week in the warm Caribbean. They came up to the bar and had a few drinks before heading out to the Friday Fish Fry up in Gouyave.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 12
We did our grocery shopping today. Early in the afternoon we had a boat come to the dock without calling on the radio at all. They docked on one of the t-heads, which we usually keep open for boats larger than sixty feet, which they weren't. I went down and asked how long they wanted to stay, and they said a couple of days. This boat has been here before, and didn't call that time either. I think the captain is not confident with his English enough to use the radio. This time he came in because he needs to take down his sails in preparation for being hauled out for hurricane season in a couple of days. He decided that to take his sails down, he shouldn't have another boat next to him, so he asked if he could move to a different slip. We said sure, and later in the afternoon he moved without asking us for assistance. By the time we noticed him moving it was too late for us to get to the new slip to help him. He had another guy onboard and they did fine.
This afternoon was Day 3 of The Masters, and even some people who never watch golf are taking an interest since it's been on for three days now. It looks like Tiger Woods won't be getting his fifth green jacket.
In the evening we had a nice pot-luck dinner. There were about a dozen of us and the food was excellent as usual. We didn't do karaoke since everybody was having good conversations, and nobody but Bob and I would be likely to sing.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 13
Today is the final day of The Masters, and as expected, Tiger Woods didn't win. Tiger came from fifth to second, but only because all the guys between him and the leader screwed up and dropped back. Two boats came in today. Dream Weaver is coming in for four days to prepare the boat for hauling out for the season. Coram Deo has been here a number of times before, and they are stopping by for a couple of weeks before going to Trinidad for awhile.
Ashley works from noon to 16:00 on Sundays, and usually Barb will be in the bar before 16:00 to take over while I take Ashley home. Today, by 16:15, Barb had not come to the bar, so I called on the radio, but got no response. I then walked down to the boat to find her sound asleep in the back where she didn't hear the radio. After a few minutes to wake up, she came up and took over.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 14
I had a busy day today. We had three boats leave today. Misfa has been here several months and Terry & Carol are finally getting underway to Antigua where they will stage for an Atlantic crossing back to England. We've enjoyed getting to know them during their stays here. Lorraine has been here a couple of days getting ready for their haulout for hurricane season and left early in the afternoon for that. Good To Go with David & Laurel were the people who were here specifically because we could have the golf on TV, and now that the tournament is over, they are headed to Trinidad. One boat, Omarsea with Scott, Jean and their three kids, came in today. The kids were glad to have the large area to run around in, and soon were climbing on the piles of lumber near the office. I was in the bar when I heard the screams from the three kids. The largest of the three, who is about twelve, was on the pile when some of the boards slid and down he went with several ten foot three by eights pinning his leg. I ran from the bar and was the first adult there. My first thought was that his leg was broken, but as Barb and I lifted several boards, he squirmed out from under and was fine except for a little scratch. Of course I told them not to play on the wood anymore. It seemed like we was busy all day doing this or that for various boats, shopping for burger night, and general stuff around the marina.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 15
Today is tax day. Since we are just living off our savings, and those saving aren't large enough or invested well enough to generate much income, we didn't file at all last year. This year, we don't have enough income to require filing either, but I wanted to figure out if we could qualify for the tax rebate thing this year. So, I used Turbo Tax to figure out the taxes, and found that not only didn't we qualify for the rebate, but one of the withdrawals Barb made during the year had a $45 penalty associated with it, so she had to file and pay that penalty even though she didn't make enough to pay any tax. Bummer.
It was another busy day here today. Bob bought a new printer/copier/scanner to replace the dead one, so we spent a considerable amount of time installing it on both computers in the office. It installed fine on Bob's laptop, but I was having trouble getting it setup on the desktop I use. After much consternation, I figured out that the problem was the cable. To hook it up to the desktop, we have to use a USB extension cable. That worked fine with the old printer, but it won't work with this one.
The big project for the day was helping out our friend Neil on PK3. PK3 is a large catamaran that Neil bought over the Internet, sigh unseen. He was in England and the boat was here. When Neil got here, it turned out the boat's condition was badly misrepresented. Among many other things, it needed the motors replaced. Neil has been working for months obtaining used motors in England to ship over here. Since he was shipping a large crate anyway, he started amassing other stuff to ship along with the motors. Next thing he knew he needed a second crate built. A couple of weeks ago, the crates were finally on the way. Neil was excited about finally getting his stuff and continuing the project of making his boat work. It took several days after getting into the country for Neil to get the stuff all through Customs, but he did and made out very well on all the duties. He hired a truck to bring the two crates to the marina where I used the front-end loader to lift them off and set them on the ground. It was late in the afternoon, so he couldn't do anything with them today. The crates were right under one of our streetlights, and the security guard was notified to keep an eye on them overnight.
During all this, we had a couple of boats come in, and one leave. A boat named Shango with two neat Swedish guys came in, just for one night on their way to Trinidad. We visited with them for quite a while in the bar late in the afternoon. The other boat that came in was Island Kea. Kathryn on Island Kea is a cousin of Gilfy on Shangri-la who has been here for a couple of years. Gilfy and his wife are anchored just off the marina. Kathryn and Gilfy have not seen each other for thirty years. Island Kea is sailing around the world, and they stopped here to reconnect with Gilfy. Pretty neat. The boat that left was Lady Hawke.
Lola, Gilfy's wife is a hair cutter. She frequently gives haircuts to other cruisers, and she had several lined up today. She set up shop on the deck over by the office and did several haircuts and one perm. That took the better part of the afternoon for her.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 16
The rest of Neil's adventure happened today. PK3 is on a mooring over in Hog Island, just around the corner from us. The shortest route between here and the Hog Island anchorage has a reef across it, generally allowing only dinghies to take that route. Real boats have to go around Hog Island, into the open sea for about a mile and then back into Clarke's Court Bay. Neil was not comfortable doing that because only one engine runs and it's not reliable. But, being a catamaran, he only draws about three and a half feet. This meant he could come through the dinghy cut within a couple of hours either side of high tide. So with high tide around noon, Neil came through the dinghy cut about 10:00, using his one motor and five dinghies to help propel and steer the boat. At the marina, he turned around and attached a bow line to a mooring ball south of the south dock. As he paid out the line that was attached to the ball and let the boat drift back, we lined him up so that his hulls straddled the finger pier instead of coming into the slip normally. We attached several long lines to various cleats, another mooring ball off to the side, and a block onshore, leaving his aft deck a few inches from the end of the finger pier, and exactly at the same height. I then used the tractor again to move the crates as close as I could to the end of the dock. At that point at least six of Neil's friends starting unloading the contents of the crates onto the boat. When there was nothing left but the two motors, I came back with the tractor again and lifted the motors out of the crate. Scott from Omarsea produced a four wheel furniture dolly from his boat (not sure why he had that aboard) and I set one of the motors on it. Then four guys muscled the whole thing down the dock, down the finger pier, and aboard the boat. After all taking shelter from a short but heavy rain shower, we repeated the process with the second motor. All of this was accomplished in less than two hours, with no apparent injuries, no stuff in the water, no people in the water, and nothing broken. Everybody retired to the bar, where Neil bought beer for all during the hour left before he had to be back through the dinghy cut on the falling tide.
I got a text message from Gordon on Suhaila, letting us know that he and Sue would be back from their trip to the States about 16:00, and they were looking forward to burgers. It is, after all, burger night. This week I didn't forget any little details like the buns, and we had a good turnout. Smokey, the pan player, was here this week, and after he left, we put on a DVD of Tina Turner at Wembley Stadium.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 17
We had a pretty quiet day today. Ashley is here from 10:00 to 19:00, so we took advantage of her being here and not much happening to get away for a couple of hours. Lola from Shangri-la is going back to the States this weekend for three months to work. She and Gilfy invited us and a few other friends over to Island View Bar for a little get together before she leaves. A local guy that they know caught a couple of big fish and is going to barbeque them to make fish tacos. Lola brought tortillas and diced up all the appropriate stuff to put in tacos, as well as made two gallons of rum punch. We spent almost three hours over there visiting and enjoying the great tacos and punch.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 18
Today is Ashley's day off, so I hung at the bar most of the day. The regular 10:00 Friday shopping bus was scheduled, and people started showing up as early as 09:15. By 09:45, there were eighteen people here, so I called Elvis the bus owner, to make sure he was sending the large bus. He said he was, and it was on the way. By 10:10, there was still no bus. About 10:15, I called again. Elvis said he would check where he was and call back. He called at 10:20 and said the bus was five minutes away. At 10:35, the bus showed up. The driver apologized profusely and assured the folks that they would get an additional half hour to shop.
In the early afternoon, Omarsea left the marina. They aren't leaving the area for another week or more, but they went back around to Hog Island to anchor.
Our other activity this afternoon is playing parking lot for an event on the other side of the hill from us. The development of Hog Island by Four Seasons has been in the works for years. Today is the official groundbreaking ceremony, featuring the Prime Minister and several other ministers of various government branches. They had arranged a few weeks ago to park cars here and shuttle the people to the event, since there isn't any parking where they want to do the ceremony. The development company provided a couple of guys to direct traffic and ten buses (eighteen passenger vans) to transport everybody. People started showing up a little after 14:00 and came into the bar. At 14:45, they loaded everybody up and headed to the event. We had stocked up the bar not knowing if we would sell much or not. We sold a few sodas before the event, but not much after. There was an open bar in a tent at the event, so as people came back, they almost all took off without coming back in the bar. Bob attended the event also, and when he came back, he came in the bar with a few friends. Barb and I were invited to dinner aboard Coram Deo at 19:00, and usually on a Friday we are closing then anyway. Bob was still here with his friends, so I left him in charge and we went to dinner. We stayed at Coram Deo until almost 23:00, where we had a wonderful lasagna dinner. We had seen Bob close the bar about fifteen minutes before we came back, and I went inside to close out the cash register. I found that Bob had taken all the money, so I guess I'll do that in the morning.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 19
Bob came in early this morning and gave me the cash from last night. I did the close out procedures and remarkably, everything balanced out. We got a new boat in this morning. Toot was booked for a couple days from now, but they came in early. Mike & Marlene will be with us for about ten days.
The day was pretty quiet and we had our normal Saturday evening pot-luck dinner. We had about fifteen people attend and had a nice selection of food. I knew one of the attendees was going to be Neil from PK3, because part of his large shipment of stuff was some new karaoke CD's. This afternoon, we got a phone call from his wife, in England, informing us that Monday is his birthday. She asked that we be sure to sing him Happy Birthday at karaoke. So, after dinner, I got the machine setup and started off the session by surprising Neil with the announcement that his wife had called, and we sang to him. He was very touched by it all. We spent another couple of hours then with the karaoke with the usual suspects singing, as well as a couple of new voices.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Apr 20
Today defined quiet day. Sunday's are usually quiet, but today was extreme. The barbeque at Hog Island Sunday afternoons usually attracts a lot of cruisers, so they don't come here, but today there was the addition of a large political rally on the north side of the island that took many locals away too. Gordon & Sue from Suhaila made the mistake of choosing today to drive their rental car around the island, and they got stuck in the traffic near the rally. They said it was quite an event. We closed at 19:00 and enjoyed a nice dinner aboard.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.