Aug 1
Today is Barb's birthday. As is our tradition with birthdays, we pretty much didn't so anything special. We have dinner plans tomorrow that will count as special.
I spent a good part of the day online trying to research an insurance deal that I was told about. Friends just got insurance from a brokerage called Edward William. The price was about $700 for $75k of coverage. That's cheaper than anybody has heard of lately, and there was no hurricane box. The "hurricane box" is the area you cannot be in during hurricane season. All marine insurance these days has a box, the size and duration of which varies a little from policy to policy. The main feature of the box for us is that the southern boundary used to be north of Grenada. After Hurricane Ivan in 2004, most insurance companies moved that southern boundary further south so Grenada is now inside the box, meaning you have to go to Trinidad or Venezuela to be covered. We are not covered here in Grenada for damage caused by a named storm. I sent a quote request off to Edward William and the next day got a quote of $1550 for $150k coverage. No survey required and no hurricane box. This seemed to good to be true. I started doing some research on the insurance company offering this deal, Northernreef Insurance SA, in Spain. I found a few references on boating discussion boards about the company being a sham, but the links to details didn't work anymore, so I just had innuendo to go on. I found one reference that implied the company was a one-man-show, and that the owner had been associated with two previous insurance companies that left policy holders empty handed when it came time to pay some claims. My concern was increased as much by the lack of information I could find out about this company as it was by the innuendos. Checking four different resources that rate insurance company's performances, I found no reference to the company at all. I found a Canadian government website that had them on a list of companies trying to sell insurance in Canada who were not authorized to do so. I sent an e-mail back to Edward William, the broker, and got a nice reply that yes the guy who's name I had found was associated with the company, although they implied he isn't a one-man-show. They explained that Northernreef re-insures itself through international insurance markets and would be there to pay claims, but there is no public record of their finances available. As I said before, this all sounds too good to be true, so I'll be taking a pass on it unless I hear more later to change my mind.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 2
Today is shopping and errand day with Dave & Sue. Bert the taxi driver picked us up at 10:00. We dropped Sue & Barb at the IGA grocery store and went further into St. Georges. We dropped Dave at Island Water World, one of the boat parts stores, and then on into the Carenage where the FedEx office is located. I am shipping our stabilized binoculars back to the States for repair. They have become increasing unreliable in that sometimes the stabilization feature won't engage. Unfortunately, they are no longer under warrantee, and it will cost over $100 each way for shipping, but they cost over $1000 originally and we rely on them whenever we are underway, so they need to be fixed. Once done at FedEx, we retraced our route and picked Dave up at IWW. We actually found him next door at the Ace Hardware store. Then we stopped at an inn that we were looking at online. We are looking for a place to stay while the boat is on the hard at the end of the month getting the bottom painted. I went in and looked at the apartment they are offering and approved of it. It's not fancy by any means, but it looked clean so I left a deposit to confirm our reservation. It will cost $320 US for a week, has a kitchenette, and is right on the bus route that we can take back and forth to the boatyard. We then met the girls at the grocery. They were just about done, so it was all perfect timing. We loaded up the groceries and headed back to the marina.
This evening we are going to a dinner event at a new marina near here. Le Phare Bleu Marina & Resort is on the other side of Clarke's Court Bay near the southern end. You can't quite see it from our marina because it's slightly around a corner. The marina docks are complete, and their restaurant is open in an old lightship, the Västra Banken. The rest of the resort is still under construction. It will include some retail space, a dozen or so bungalows, and another beach bar/restaurant. The event tonight is a dinner buffet followed by a drum show and limbo contest. The buffet is supposed to include oildown. So what's oildown, I hear you ask? It's a casserole, cooked on a fire on the beach in a huge bowl shaped similar to a wok, with breadfruit, coconut milk, callaloo (a bit like spinach), dumplings and cooking bananas. If you like you can throw in meat or fish. There was chicken and fish in the one tonight. (I stole most of that description from the resort's website.)
When we arrived, we were dropped off by our taxi near a path to the marina docks. The Västra Banken is all the way at the end of the main dock. There were about ten other sailboats in the marina. At least a couple are lived upon by the owners of the resort and some staff. The first thing we noticed was how rolly the marina was. It is much more open to the ocean than we are up at the head of the bay. It made the surge at Emerald Bay back in the Bahamas seem like nothing. I could not see staying here unless they build a breakwater. We walked the length of the dock, past tables set up for dinner, and checked in with the hostess. We paid for our dinner tickets and got drinks from the bar. The ship has three levels open to the public. The lower level has a large room where the buffet will be served and bathrooms and shower facilities for the marina guests. The middle level has an inside room that is the restaurant and bar, as well as covered outside seating on the fore and aft decks. There is then a third level that is open to the sky where they had tables set up also. We went aboard to get drinks and found lots of other folks we know from the marina and the anchorage. Turns out they had run a free water taxi that we could have used instead of using Bert. Oh well. We visited until about 19:00 when they announced that the buffet was open. We made our way to the line and in no time were in the serving area. There was a good choice of food, from fish, lamb, and chicken, several sides, and of course the oildown. It was all very good, although once seated we couldn't see what we were eating. Our table was out on the dock and was far enough away from the lights they had on the side of the ship that we were pretty much in the dark. Once everybody had been served, Alex, the Austrian chef, came around making sure everybody was happy. I was surprised though that there was no desert. There was another table set up that looked like it was there for deserts, but none ever appeared. And I had saved room for desert.
After most people had finished eating, the entertainment began. The entertainment was a group of drummers from Tivoli, a town on the northeastern corner of the island. There were six large conga-like drums, two bigger bass ones, and several other percussion instruments. The show consisted of several choreographed numbers where the drummers also moved around, switched drums mid song, and danced. There were also several where they were just sitting and doing more of an improvised session playing off each other. The African roots of the beat were obvious. What wasn't obvious is how one young white girl became part of the group, but she held her own. There was supposed to be a limbo contest also, but we left about 21:45 before that happened.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 3
We had a quiet day today, but had some fun in the evening. We took a bus trip to Gouyave to the Friday night fish fry. We did this a few weeks ago when the trip was coordinated by Inga, the cruiser who organizes tours regularly. This time we have arranged a bus just from our marina for $5EC per person less. There are fifteen of us going, and Elvis the driver has a real bus, not just a mini-van. The bus was pretty new with working air conditioning and comfortable seats. It could probably hold twice as many people, so we were all very comfortable. The only problem with the driving, was that Elvis didn't seem to understand that it was not an automatic transmission. On hills he would lug it down almost to the point of stalling instead of downshifting. A few times when it would not make the hill in the gear he had it in, he was going so slow by the time he tried to shift, that he had to come to a stop and start over in first gear. Twice when he came to a stop, he just stopped without ever putting the clutch in and stalled it. I can't imagine why he thought this was the right way to drive it.
We went through several rain showers on the way to Gouyave and hoped that by the time we got there it would have stopped. It did, but unfortunately, it started again. It never really was a downpour, just a light rain off an on the whole time we were there. There were a couple of tents people could gather under, and we spent most of our time in front of a building that had just enough of an overhang to keep us dry. Since we had coordinated our own bus, we had intentionally come about an hour later than the trips Inga organizes. This allowed us to see a little more of the local flavor that comes out after the bulk of the tourists have left. There were definitely more locals out and it was fun watching them. There were a couple of guys either drunk or permanently fried, dancing to the music in their own worlds. There were lots of families and many people dressed up like it was a big night out.
The fish fry itself was good. We tried a few things we missed last time. There are just too many choices to be able to sample everything in one visit. This time we started with shrimp kabobs which were good. We followed them with a slice of fish pizza, and a fish cake from the next booth. Next came a portion of three good sized pieces of breaded and fried marlin. It would have been better with tartar sauce, but all they had was ketchup or hot sauce. I was getting full, but then Sue gave me half of her tuna kabob. The tuna kabob consisted of at least ten cubes of tuna, each more than an inch on a side, with thin slices of onion between them. Even just the half I ate was a lot of tuna, and it was good. We then hit the ice cream shop, hoping this week to get there before they sold out of the local flavors. They already had no nutmeg or sour sop, but they did have cinnamon and Guinness. Barb got the cinnamon and I got the Guinness. We both thought the flavors were so weak that it basically just tasted like cold sweet ice cream without definitive flavors. Of course that's not a bad thing either to finish a meal off.
We both had beers with our food, but after we were done eating, I went to the rum booth. This is the guy who pours two parts rum to one part Coke. He was pouring the same this week as last time, so the drinks were sippers. As we were leaving to walk back to the bus, I ordered one more drink. He poured the rum and then realized he was out of Coke. I took the rum and continued down the street hoping to buy a bottle of Coke, but everybody seemed to be out. At the end of the street was a rum shop (little bar and grocery that primarily sells rum). I popped in there and asked the lady to top up my cup with Coke. She did and indicated there was no charge, but I gave her a couple EC anyway. When we got back to the bus, the driver and his wife who had ridden with us, weren't there yet. We had agreed to meet at 22:00, and we were a few minutes early. There were five or six young boys there begging for money from the rich tourists. We saw this last time we were up here and just ignored them, but these kids were not taking no for an answer. Some of the group tried to make them earn a buck by dancing for us. They did some moves and were given a few coins. They weren't happy with that and kept pestering us until the driver got there. Once we were in the bus, the driver's wife chastised us for giving them anything. Apparently begging from tourists is a relatively new behavior here by young people, and the adults feel that giving them anything just encourages them to keep doing it.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 4
We had another quiet day of reading a surfing the internet. Our Saturday pot luck is this evening. Again, we weren't sure about how large a turnout there would be, because a lot of boats have left for points south. But, there were fifteen to twenty people there and we had a nice meal. There were more deserts than usual this time, so while everybody got dinner food, there was none left over, but then there was enough desert for everybody to have a small piece of each of the four choices. Oh darn.
After dinner we got into the karaoke again. Dave and I were the only guys singing, and the only ones who actually take a chance of looking silly by performing by ourselves. I actually stretched and did almost all songs I have never done before. The rest of the singing was done by all the ladies as a group. That way nobody really stands out. Not exactly what karaoke is about, but everybody has fun regardless. As a tribute to missing Pat doing Willie Nelson songs, Dave and I did a duet that was originally done by Willie and Julio Iglasias.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 5
Another quiet day at the retirement home. We spent the morning reading and then joined Dave & Sue for dominoes after lunch. With the number of people in the marina dwindling, it is quite quiet around here today. We left the bar about 17:00 and went back to our boats. Bob actually got to close up early and go home with less than a twelve hour day.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 6
Today we never even went to the bar. We stayed aboard and read all day. It was a pretty hot day, with zero breeze, so staying in the air conditioning was appropriate.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 7
Another day of reading, but today it's because it's been raining most of the day. There is a system moving through which went primarily north of us, but we just caught the southern edge enough to get a lot of rain. The local VHF communications have been screwed up for three days now, because somebody has an open mic. In places like this where many cruisers congregate, it's common to use channel 68 as a haling channel and leave channel 16 for use by boats underway and commercial traffic. Well, since Friday afternoon, there has been an open mic on channel 68. The problem with an open mic is that when the mic is keyed, the speaker shuts off. So there is no way to let the offending person know they are transmitting. Usually an open mic only lasts a few minutes until the person notices they aren't hearing anything and look at their radio, and in fact, most modern radios will automatically stop transmitting after five or ten minutes of continuous transmitting to avoid exactly what has happened here. The inability to use channel 68 has everybody monitoring channel 16 which means we also hear a lot of crap we don't care about. We did hear a funny thing though because of this. Island Water World, the boat parts store, will accept packages for people. We heard IWW hail a boat and get no answer. The boat happened to be tied up at the Grenada Yacht Club, so IWW hailed the GYC dockmaster next. The dockmaster answered and said the boat owner was at the restaurant. IWW asked the dockmaster to pass a message that he had a package there for him. The dockmaster acknowledged that he would pass the message. IWW then said "You may need to yell at him because the package is his replacement hearing aid."
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 8
Another day of off and on rain. I guess this is why they call it the rainy season. We have a plan to get out this afternoon though. Wednesday evenings, the stores along the Carenage stay open late to encourage people to come out. Nine of us hired a taxi van to take us there at about 17:00. When we got there we found a "sport bar", which means they have a big screen TV showing soccer. The food here is cafeteria style and looks ok. After one drink, the women hit the streets to shop. The guys stayed at the bar. We drank, visited and watched soccer for a couple of hours until the women returned. The plan was to eat when they returned, but by then the food selection was being reduced since they were closing the food service within the hour.
The women reported back about their shopping. They had found many stores, including a Levi's store (the real Levi's), a place with all sorts of kitchen stuff, and a place called Art Fabrik. Art Fabrik is a store that makes and sells batik clothing. This is the same kind of stuff we saw in St. Lucia. I was proud of Barb, because she didn't buy a thing.
We decided to go to a different restaurant for dinner and walked to the far end of the Carenage to BB's Crab Back. There was only one other couple in the place when we got there and we confirmed they were still serving before sitting down. They said they were, so we sat down. BB's is a nice place, and they put a lot of stock in the service and presentation, so they probably weren't the best choice since we were under a little time crunch. We had told out taxi driver we would be ready to go back by 20:30, leaving us less than an hour to get served and eat. We ordered drinks, and that alone took fifteen minutes. We then placed our orders, and told the chef/owner himself that we were in a bit of a rush. I don't think he could hurry his food, so once we got it, we were eating in a hurry. The food itself was ok, but nothing to write home about. Some folks (not us) had come here for lunch a few weeks ago with a mediocre report also, so I guess it's two strikes you're out for this place. When we thought we were about fifteen minutes from ready to roll, we called the taxi driver. He must have been in the neighborhood waiting, because he came in the front door about two minutes later. We were home about 21:30.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 9
This morning, I cleaned the filters on both air conditioner's raw water intakes. This has become a chore that has to be done every three or four days, because there is a lot of stuff in the water. The first time they clogged with blades of sea grass. The subsequent times it has just been sludge and a mossy kind of growth that eventually clogs the screens. Cleaning them isn't too big a deal, except that to get to the front one I have to move quite a bit of stuff in our v-berth storage area.
In the afternoon we had a game of Dominoes with Dave & Sue, and Ron and Beth from Gypsy Wind. That took most of the afternoon, and we sat and visited with some folks during happy hour after the game was over. We bid farewell to another boat on our dock this afternoon. Gary & Nicole on Chateau left for Trinidad. That leaves only five occupied boats in the marina now.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 10
Today is our errand day. We had been doing grocery shopping on Thursdays, but were told that Friday has a better selection. Bert the taxi guy picked us up at 10:30. We first dropped Sue at a hair salon for a haircut. We then dropped Barb & Dave at the IGA to grocery shop. Bert then took me all the way into St. George's to a doctor appointment. I am going to see a dermatologist about getting a couple of raised moles removed. I've had them forever, but one especially bugs me and since medical stuff here is cheap, I might as well get them taken care of. I waited about tem minutes before being seen by the doctor. The "paperwork" to be done before I went in to see her consisted of writing my name, age, birthday, and local address on a blank piece of paper. No insurance forms, no privacy act forms, no repetitive health history crap that has nothing to do with getting a mole removed. The doctor took a look at the moles, said they were actually skin tags, not moles, and said they'd be no problem to remove. We checked her schedule and set up an appointment for a couple of weeks from now. The only reason it is in a couple of weeks is because next week everything is closed half the week for Carnival, and then she is on vacation the following week. I was back in the cab in less than thirty minutes. Our next stop was Island Water World for a couple of parts, then on to the IGA to pick up Dave & Barb, and then we picked Sue up on the way back to the marina. At IWW, I noticed they were boarding up their windows. This is in preparation for Carnival. They are on one of the main streets where parades will be, so they aren't taking any chances.
This evening we are invited to Solstice for dinner, along with Dave & Sue. We met Kevin and Amanda on Solstice back in New Bern, NC, at the Southbound Cruisers Rendezvous last October. They caught our attention there because they were yet another Manta catamaran, as is Pirate's Hideout, Dave & Sue's boat. We have met so many Mantas in two years that it is comical. They also were unique because in a sea of old retired folks like most cruisers are, they are in their early thirties. Once we got to know them, we found that I had another connection with them because they were from the Phoenix area and had worked in the computer world also. They actually lived about a half mile from where my house in Chandler was. Amanda fixed dinner, Sue brought appetizers, and Barb made desert. Everything was excellent and we enjoyed spending a few hours with them. While we were aboard Solstice, a rain shower passed through, which is nothing unusual. As we prepared to leave about 21:00, we heard the wind was picking up. We got our stuff together and went to leave. Just as we stepped off the boat onto the dock it started to rain again. We were already outside so me made a run for it. Being dark we couldn't tell if it would be a sprinkle or a downpour. It turned out to be something in between, but by the time we got back to our dock we were pretty wet. Of course, the rain stopped just as we got to our boat. The wind continued though, and I turned on the instruments to see how fast it's blowing. There was a weak tropical wave forecast to pass through tonight, and this must be it. The wind was blowing in the mid twenties steadily with gusts over thirty. That lasted about an hour and then it slacked off a bit. Glad we're tied to a dock.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.