Aug 11
This evening is the steel drum (a.k.a. pans) orchestra competition for Carnival. It is called Panorama. It is supposed to be held at the National Stadium. Barb does not want to go because she doesn't like big crowds. I really did want to hear the pans, so I arranged to share a cab with Kevin & Amanda from Solstice, and Ali & Joy from Seagulls. We had pre-purchased the tickets to the event and the tickets said it started at 19:00. We had seen a brochure earlier in the week that said it started at 20:00. We had the cab pick us up a little after 18:00 just to be sure.
The National Stadium is a large, brand new cricket stadium. It was built by the Chinese for the International Cricket World Cup that was held in the Caribbean a few months ago. The Chinese are very generous to the Caribbean countries, hoping to buy their United Nations votes against an independent Taiwan. The new stadium rivals any stadium in the US, and was built right next to the remains of the old stadium which was destroyed by Hurricane Ivan. All that is left of the old stadium is the concrete stair-step base that the chairs were bolted to. We assumed the event was in the new stadium, but we were wrong. There was a large stage set up in the middle of the old playing field, a chain link fence had been erected around the whole field, and temporary tent roofs had been setup over the concrete where we sat like bleachers on what used to be the floor of the seating area. There were food and beverage tents all around the area also.
Our first inclination that the event wasn't starting at 19:00 came as soon as we got there. The gates for general admission were not open yet and we were directed to the rear gate where the bands we going in. We got out and walked through a dirt parking area where all the bands were setting up there equipment. We wound our way through the lot to a gate into the seating area where we joined the other dozen people who foolishly thought it started at 19:00. Ironically, all the early birds were obviously tourists or cruisers like us. Somehow the locals knew better. We did find that there were some food booths open in what used to be the concession area of the old stadium. One was The North Pole Bar from down by the market. George, who we met at the permanent location greeted me and served us some beer. We asked him what time the bands were supposed to start and his answer was "What time is it now?". Meaning, it would start when it started. We took our beers and walked back out to the lot where the bands were setting up because we heard them practicing. We got to listen to three of the bands run through their numbers several times.
The way the bands work is that their pans are mounted in large steel framed carts that are various sizes, but mostly about eight by ten feet. The smallest band had five or six of these carts, and the largest had at least fifteen. The carts were small enough that six or eight people could roll them. They had to roll them from the lot where they all staged first, several hundred feet to the gate into the stadium field, across the field and then up a large ramp to the stage. Since it had rained heavily the night before, the ground was quite soft and they struggled to get some of them across the grass. I suspect the damage the carts would do to the grass was the reason the new stadium wasn't used. The first band finally started moving their equipment to the stage about 21:00, so we were hopeful. At 21:30, the emcee finally came on stage and apologized for the delay, but said we were about to start.
I think I have explained this before, but for those not familiar with pan bands, there are no instruments other than steel drums, with the exception of a drum set and maybe a few other percussion instruments like a cow bell. The smallest band we saw had thirty-five people playing fifty pans. The largest was seventy-five people playing one hundred and fifty pans. The sound from an orchestra like that is amazing. My only complaint about the whole show was that the stage was about two hundred feet form the seating, and there was no amplification. So if you wanted to stay seated, you didn't appreciate the sound as well as we did when we were standing right in front of them during practice. You could walk up right near the stage, but it was pretty muddy and you'd be standing.
Each band gets to play one song and each performance is at least ten minutes long. Most of the bands had a corporate sponsor, so they had matching shirts and the carts were decorated nicely. The smallest band was unsponsored, but has been competing for forty-two years. Remarkably, once the show started, it only took fifteen or twenty minutes to clear the band off the stage and roll in the next one. There were eight bands to play so it was still going to take a while. We were enjoying the show, but decided to call our cab and head back before it finished. We left a little after midnight after hearing five of the eight bands. Unfortunately, we learned in the morning that we missed the winning band. I was on the boat and in bed about 01:00.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 12
Today is one of my days to host the Coconut Telegraph SSB net at 08:00. Given my late bedtime, I set the alarm just in case. I got up about 07:45, got my wits about me, and started the net right at 08:00. Sunday mornings are usually a little light on check-ins with the net. Possibly because people party more on Saturday night, or perhaps because the SSB weather guy and the local VHF net don't broadcast on Sunday's, so people sleep in. I did the whole spiel for the net and then only got one boat checking in. Ironically, it was Northstand, who I know was also at Panorama and stayed until the end.
It was a rainy day today. Not the typical off and on showers that we expect everyday, but a steady rain for most of the day. That kept us in reading and surfing the net all morning. In the afternoon we met Dave & Sue at the bar and played dominoes for several hours. Ah, the retirement home is good.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 13
I don't recall if I have ever explained Carnival to those who may not understand it. Stolen from Wikipedia - "Carnival or Carnivale is a festival season. It occurs immediately before Lent; the main events are usually during February or March. It typically involves a public celebration or parade combining some elements of a circus and public street party. People often dress up or masquerade during the celebrations. Carnival is mostly associated with Roman Catholic and, to a lesser extent, Eastern Orthodox Christians; Protestant areas usually do not have carnival celebrations or have modified traditions, like the Danish Carnival. The world's largest carnival celebration is held in Brazil, but many cities worldwide have large, popular celebrations." Grenada's carnival is held in August, outside the normal timeframe, specifically so it doesn't compete with Trinidad's very popular celebration. Mardi Gras in New Orleans is the same thing as Carnival in other countries. The main Carnival event today is J'ouvert. Also stolen from Wikipedia - J'ouvert (pronounced 'joovay' locally) involves calypso/soca bands and their followers dancing in the capital cities of the various islands. The festival starts well before dawn and peaks a few hours after sunrise. Part of the tradition involves smearing paint, mud, or oil on the participants known as Jab Jabs. This is done in remembrance of a civil disturbance in Port of Spain, Trinidad, when the people smeared themselves with oil to avoid being recognized.
We had been warned about the J'ouvert parade and told that if we wanted to go, wear something you could throw out afterwards because you would get dirty. The paint used by some participants is water soluble and not a big problem. However, used motor oil is a popular thing for the participants, and that won't wash out. Given the crowd issue again, and the early hour, we both decided to take a rain check on this one. It was covered live on TV, so we got to see what it was all about, and I'm glad we didn't go. Another couple from the marina did go, and they came back with many marks on them, but they said the guys dabbing them with paint always asked first if it was ok. The TV commentators kept saying how it was too bad they started late. I guess the parade started about 07:00 at it was supposed to start at 05:00. The previous event at the stadium, which was supposed to be done at 04:00 had not wrapped up in time. The problem with this was that now J'ouvert was still going at 10:00 or 11:00 and it was getting hot. It's no wonder the island basically shuts down from Friday through Tuesday for Carnival since it's an all night thing several days.
We have been closely paying attention to a developing tropical storm east of us for a couple of days. This afternoon, we met with Bob the marina owner to understand what he expects of us and what we can expect of him in the event that a strong storm were to hit here again. We also wanted to understand how the docks were built and what was different now compared to when Ivan destroyed the marina in 2004. I felt we had a good meeting. I understand better how the docks are anchored (there are no pilings in the marina). We made a preliminary list of things that would need to be done if the storm approaches. Steve & Lili from Liward arrived in Grenada yesterday and rented a car. They joined us for the meeting and decided to come to the marina for the storm.
One of our options if the storm looks like it is coming very close to here is to run south to Trinidad. We are not covered by our insurance for damage from a windstorm here. We are covered if we are in Trinidad. Trinidad is only ninety miles south of us, so running a few days before a storm is an option. But, in the event we do decide to run, we need the boat to be ready to go. One of the downsides to sitting in a marina in tropical waters is that crap grows on the boat. Our bottom paint is shot and we are going to repaint it in a couple of weeks. That would just slow us down. But, our prop is probably growing stuff too, and that will make it impossible to motor. An amazingly little amount of growth on a prop makes it worthless. Because of that, three of us got together and had a local diver come over to clean our props. Adrian, the diver, was at the marina in less than an hour, even though this is a holiday. Chatting with him after he had cleaned all the props, we learned that he is a perfect example of a local guy who works his ass off. He runs a dive shop and does the boat cleanings. He also is a Coast Guardsman. He worked this morning at J'ouvert, operating the Coast Guard boat in the Carenage. The J'ouvert parade goes around the main street in the Carenage. If the police arrest somebody on the far side from the police station, they can't get through the crowds to the police station. So, the Coast Guard ferries the detainees across the water.
Speaking of criminal justice, in our chat with Adrian, we learned a lot about how things work here in Grenada. For one thing, if you get in trouble anytime over Carnival weekend, you go to jail and you have no hope of getting out until Wednesday after Carnival is over. The official reason for this is that it's a holiday and there are no judges available to arraign and arrange bail. The real logic is, you caused trouble, you don't get a chance to cause more until after the party is over. He said there were about twenty arrests of drunks fighting with each other. He laughed at how they are bad asses when they are drunk and fighting, and then they wake up in the cell crying for their mama to get them out. The other thing we learned is that there has been a dramatic increase in gang related violence in the country in the past year or two. The gangs run around, primarily in the capitol city of St. Georges "chopping" on each other. Chopping is exactly that. Most men in the islands carry a machete as it is their primary tool to do any kind of agricultural job, whether they are clearing brush along the highway or harvesting bananas. But, these gang guys are carrying them in the city and using them as weapons. One badass last year got his hand chopped off by a rival. He is now a TV spokesman for stopping the violence. For the most part, the violence is confined to bad guys vs. bad guys. But, when you are swinging a large machete around in a crowd, occasionally an innocent person gets chopped. Because the authorities are tired of this, the police have been given orders to shoot to kill if they encounter any of the known local bad asses with a machete in the city. A week ago Friday, one of the top ten bad asses that the police all know was chasing another guy through the main bus station in St. Georges. Four cops were chasing them, and they ordered him to stop once and when he didn't, bang. Now there is a top nine list. Simple.
Britt & Terri from Sea Otter wanted to have us over for dinner before they leave for points south. They are anchored out however, and we don't have our dinghy in the water. So, we agreed that they would make diner an bring it to MoonSail. They made homemade ravioli and a banana cake for desert, and Barb made a salad. We enjoyed their visit and will miss them when they leave in a day or two.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 14
The storm is still moving due west, headed directly for us. It is forecast to turn north, but it would be foolish to not prepare for the chance that it doesn't turn. It has officially become Tropical Storm Dean today. Liward is going to move from Prickly Bay to the marina today, but has the car to deal with. Steve came over to the marina and got me, took me back to Prickly Bay where I dropped him off, and I drove the car back here. Grenada drives on the left, which I have done before, but they have right-hand drive cars too. I have never driven a right-hand drive car, so it was an experience. I also don't have the $12 Grenada visitors drivers license, but Bert our regular taxi driver has told us that 1/3 of the drivers in Grenada don't have licenses at all anyway. I made it back to the marina without incident, although it was weird judging where the left side of the car was.
We spent a good part of the day doing preliminary storm prep. We filled our water tanks so we are good for at least fifteen days if the water is interrupted. We filled our diesel tank from our jerry jugs, which serves two purposes. If we run to Trinidad, the boat's tank is full and we don't have to worry about motoring all the way there if necessary. If we stay here, and I need to strip everything off the deck and store thing in Bob's empty container, the empty jugs will be easier to carry than full ones. Barb joined Sue from Pirate's Hideout and Amanda from Solstice on a grocery run so we are set for food whether we run or stay. I did not do any of the serious prep yet, like removing sails or the cockpit enclosure. I don't want to do that if we run, and can wait and evaluate if we need to do it if we stay.
Several new boats are coming into the marina to be more secure in case the storm comes. The marina is only about half full, but Bob is only taking a few more boats, so that everybody will have two slips to spider web their boat in if it looks like we will get hit. We helped Bob dock several boats as they came in. Liward came in first and docked in the slip pair next to us. A little while later, Fat Cat, a seventy-six foot catamaran came in and we helped with his lines also. Two boats, Raven and Joat Mon had left to go to Prickly Bay Marina to top up their fuel in case they run and we helped them dock when they returned. I have a future as a dockhand I think.
One of the things Bob is doing to better prepare is setting a few new moorings off the northern side of the north dock. Each mooring is a 3700 pound concrete block with a chain attached. There are several already in place on the south and east sides of the docks that we can attach lines to and better secure the docks from shifting, but there are none on the north side. Pirate's Hideout is on the north side of the north dock, and he would feel more secure if he had a line to hold him off the dock in case of a west wind. The method of placing the new mooring blocks is extremely low-tech, but it works. Bob has a small barge made of a couple of the large plastic float boxes that support the docks. He towed this "barge", which had been onshore before this, over to the north side of the docks. There he used a backhoe to place a cement block on the barge. He then towed the barge to the desired place with his powerboat. When the barge was where he wanted it, he goosed the powerboat and it caused the barge to tip a little and the block slid off into the water. He place three new blocks so boats or the docks themselves can be attached to them.
Today is the final day of Carnival and the main event is the big parade downtown. This parade is where the "bands", similar to Mardi Gras krewes, in elaborate costumes dance down the street. They are judged based on the music, the costumes, and the enthusiasm. Again, it is a large crowd and Barb doesn't want to go, but I do. Liward is planning on going and they have the rental car, so I planned to go with them. The parade is supposed to start at 13:00 but it was almost 15:00 before Steve & Lili were ready to go. By, then I was tired and not ready to embark on an adventure that had no firm plan as to where to park, where to see the parade, and when we'd be back, so I passed. We saw some of the parade on TV, and again the announcers were complaining about a late start. The problem this time was that near the end, the sun was setting and they felt the costumes were best appreciated in full sunlight. I learned later that Steve & Lili got blocked in at the parking lot, so they were delayed almost two hours getting back, so I was glad I didn't go.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 15
I got a call last Friday that my new passport was at the embassy. I couldn't get there Friday, and they were closed for the holiday Monday and Tuesday, so this morning I hitched a ride with Steve from Liward to pick it up. Steve was going to that area anyway to check out the surf (he's an avid surfer) so he dropped me off at the embassy while he checked the surf. It took about ten minutes for the security guard to confirm I was expected, but then only a few minutes inside to pick up the passport. Once I had it, I waited on the street for Steve to come back. When he did, he was all excited because he not only saw the surf break where he expected it but he met another surfer who told him about a different place that was even better.
This morning's forecast confirmed that Tropical Storm Dean is turning north. All the forecasters we listen to are finally in agreement that a track well north of Grenada is most likely. Based on that we breathed a sigh of relief. We did add some extra dock lines, because the wind direction will come around to the south and southwest for a while, which would push us against the dock. But, the wind is not forecast to get over twenty knots here, so we should be fine. At this point I don't think we will strip the decks at all. We spent most of the afternoon playing dominoes with Dave, Sue, Kevin and Amanda. The evening was spent reading and writing the last few day's logs.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 16
We did some final prep for the storm today, even though it looks like we won't feel any effects of it at all. If we were expecting even tropical storm force winds, I would remove our foresail. One of the things we saw in the video of Ivan that appalled me was the number of boats with unfurled sails torn to shreds. The first thing you do prepping a boat for a hurricane is remove the sails and cockpit canvas. But, since we don't expect winds over 25 kts, I'm not going to that trouble. The last time we furled the sail though, it was not tightly furled. So this morning while there was no wind at all, I unfurled it and re-furled it with Barb keeping tension on the line so it as nice and tightly wrapped. I then took our spare halyard and wrapped it from top to bottom around the foresail. We then took the dinghy down off the davits and tied it halfway between the boat and the far side of the slip. Given the lack of extremely high winds, it should be fine in the water, and would be quickly accessible if any boats in the anchorage need help. We took all our flags down and generally made sure nothing that is on deck could blow away.
Late in the morning, I went to the north dock where I saw Bob to see if he needed my extra lines for anything. I was planning on putting my 250' of extra anchor rode back in it's locker if he didn't need it. He said he might, so I left it on deck. Dave form Pirate's Hideout was in the process of attaching a bow bridle to the new mooring Bob set out in front of his boat and needed some help, so I spent some time there handling lines on deck while Dave was in a dinghy connecting them to the mooring ball. Getting that done was much more comical than I can describe here.
After lunch, we (Dave, Sue, and us) reconvened in the bar for dominoes. We figured we needed a break from worrying about the storm, as we have done all we are going to do for prep. There were a number of other people in the bar including a number of folks who are not marina guests. Bob was still busy dealing with a few boats coming in, so I played bartender a little more than usual while he was gone. We usually help ourselves at the bar and keep track of our tabs when Bob is busy, but today I actually served some other people and since he had left the cash drawer open I even took some payments. Maybe I have a future occupational opportunity. The late afternoon turned into a bit of a hurricane party, with somebody bringing some crackers and other snacks.
About 19:00 people started clearing out to make dinner, and Bob mentioned that he still had to secure two other boats. One was a forty foot power boat that belongs to a guy who lives here. Surprisingly, he hadn't done any prep himself. The other boat was Bob's. I offered to help him and we used my two leftover dock lines to pull the powerboat off the dock in case we have substantial winds from the west. We then secured Bob's boat with a long line to a block onshore holding it off the dock.
As of bedtime, we have lightning in the distance, and no wind at all. Hopefully it will stay this way. Click here for forecast of what we went to sleep with.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 17
Well, we pretty much slept through Dean. Not only were we well south of the main wrath of the storm, but we were in a gap in a line of severe squalls that spread south of the eye. We had no rain overnight, and no wind over twenty knots. We know the wind speed maximum because we had a pool going to guess the highest wind. Liward's instruments can record the highest wind speed, so they were the official recorders. The highest gust was 19.8 knots. In the morning, we heard from our friends Tom & Pat on Lone Star who are in St. Lucia. They and their boat were fine, but the power was out and there was some damage around. The eye passed just north of the northern end of St. Lucia. It sounds like Martinique got the worst of it, but since the eye passed between St. Lucia and Martinique, a major bullet was dodged. We heard from a couple of boats who ran south from Grenada, to Trinidad, Margarita Island, or Los Testigos off Venezuela. It sounds like all of them a had worse time than we did. They got the southern end of the squall line, with winds over thirty-five knots and lots of rain. The main place in Trinidad where cruisers go was affected by the large ocean swell that came from the west or southwest. Most of the marinas in Chagaramas Bay don't have finger piers. The boats are side by side, with their sterns to the dock. This is known as Med mooring since it is common in the Mediterranean Sea. The problem is that when a large swell comes in the boats are all bouncing around right next to each other. It's easy to say, with 20/20 hindsight, that we made the right decision to stay put and prepare accordingly, but we know all to well that when dealing with hurricanes, there is a fair amount of luck mixed in with all the science. We ended up having quite a windy and rainy day today, which was an outer band of Dean as it moved west of us.
Back to our regularly scheduled lives, we had dentist appointments this morning for cleanings and checkups. We had called Bert the taxi guy yesterday to arrange a pickup at 10:30. He dropped us of at the dentist and then took Dave & Sue to run some other errands. The dentist's office was typical island style. Two concrete rooms, one for waiting and one for working. The equipment was probably new in 1960, but it still worked. The dentist I went to in Houston didn't have much newer stuff. Dr. Hadeed was probably trained in England and was about forty. I went in to be worked on first, and Dr. Hadeed expressed surprise that we showed up. Knowing that we were cruisers, he thought we would have run south from the storm. I explained that we had the resources onboard to know the storm wasn't going to hit here, and if we had run, we would have called to cancel the appointment. He explained that the only reason he knew the storm was coming was because another cruiser told him. Apparently the government here doesn't mention approaching storms on TV or radio until within about twenty-four hours of a hit. They also probably didn't want to influence Carnival attendance. He also was surprised that we would have had the consideration to cancel our appointments had we run. While inspecting my mouth, he complimented the work of the dentists that have been in my mouth before him. He did a painless cleaning and then it was Barb's turn. When we were done we were hit with the whopping bill of $180EC total. That's $66US for two cleanings that took an hour. Compare that to $465US we spent last year for two cleanings in the States.
Back at the boat, we had a sandwich for lunch, and then the afternoon drowsiness caught up with me. I slept good last night, but I laid down about 14:00 and slept hard for two and a half hours. I got up just in time to go up to bar for happy hour and the announcement of the winner of the wind speed pool. Turns out there was confusion about the rules. My interpretation was guess the speed with out going over it. Just like the Price Is Right. (i.e. If you guess 20 and it's 19 you loose. If it's 20 or 21 you win.) The confusion was some folks interpreted it backwards. The lowest guess in the pool was 21 knots, and the peak was 19.8, so by Price Is Right rules, nobody won. There was a request on the radio this morning for donations to fund an equipment purchase for the medical clinic in Woburn, the town across the bay form us. It was decided to give the $60EC to the clinic. We all left the bar about 19:00. Barb and I helped Bob close up so he could have an early night at home. I know he spent the night here in the office last night in case anything had happened.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 18
I did some work on the boat today. The instrument that tells us the boat's speed through the water has not worked right most of the time we have been cruising. This instrument works with a little paddlewheel that sticks through the bottom of the boat. The passing water spins the wheel and that registers the speed at the helm. It's common for people to have problems with the paddlewheel getting fouled with growth when it is left in the water a long time, but that's not our problem. For a long time, the speed displayed was roughly half of the real speed. Since that was distracting, I took the paddlewheel out entirely. Of course then the display read zero. That is until it started reading things like ninety-five knots and other ridiculously high numbers. I really don't care how fast we are going through the water usually. The GPS tells me SOG (speed over ground) which is what I care about. The speed through the water is useful to know if you are being affected by a strong current, but I usually don't care about that. What is annoying though is that the wind instrument uses the speed from the paddlewheel to calculate the true vs. apparent wind speed. If we are going straight into a ten knot wind, and the boat is moving at five knots, then the apparent wind is fifteen knots. If the wind instrument can't tell the boat is moving, then it thinks the true wind speed is also fifteen. Unfortunately, the wind instrument doesn't use SOG for this calculation. Since I really would like to be able to display the true wind speed, I'm trying to fix the speed instrument. The paddlewheel also senses the water temperature, and that display is obviously wrong too. I replaced the paddlewheel transducer last summer and thought that it resolved the problem, but it didn't. I got detailed directions from Raymarine on how to diagnose whether the problem is the display head or the transducer, so that's what I checked out today. I checked the signal at several places along the wire run and found it all to be good up to the display. I also tested the old transducer which I still had, and it tests bad. Today's test indicates the display is probably bad too. After thinking about it, this may be a result of the lightning strike we were next to back in New Orleans in our first month out. It may have fried the head and the transducer. Fortunately, Budget Marine carries Raymarine products, so I should be able to replace it without having to ship it in form the States.
A much less demanding mental task was pumping the rain water out of the dinghy. When the dinghy hangs on the davits, we leave the plug out so it drains rain water. We had put the dinghy in the water before the storm though, so there would be less windage. Since we had a lot of rain yesterday, there was about four inches of water in the dinghy. It was good that I did this, since a little while later Dave from Pirate's Hideout came over and asked me to help him remove the bridle he had attached to a mooring ball in front of his slip. We hopped in the dinghy and went around to his boat and did that. When I came back to MoonSail, I had Barb get me the big stainless steel scraper we bought a few weeks ago, and I attacked the ugly fringe around the waterline of the boat. I have been trying to ignore it since we will be hauled out for the bottom job next week, but it is just too ugly. There are pieces of algae over a foot long hanging off. It only took about ten minutes using the dinghy to float around the edge and scrape it all off. There is probably lots more below the waterline, but I can't see that until it's hauled.
This evening is the weekly pot luck dinner here at the marina. It sounds like it will be a good one since we have heard on the radio that there are plans for busses to come from St. Georges and Prickly Bay. Sure enough, there were forty people here. We arrived before most folks, and Bob asked me to do him a favor. He wanted to shower and change his clothes, but since people were already arriving, he couldn't leave the bar. So, I tended bar while he got his shower. I have a better appreciation for bartenders now. Even with the limited options of this bar, doing the pouring and keeping track of the tabs kept me busy. Bob came back and I took a break while we all ate. During the rest of the night Barb and I both kept helping Bob out. Barb kept up with clearing glasses and empty bottles off the tables, and washing the glasses, while I helped get drinks.
We had the usual karaoke after dinner, although we had several new faces. Steve from Liward gave me a little competition in the Buffett department. Larita, a twenty-something girl working as crew on a large catamaran here surprised us all with a great voice. She even did a couple of Patsy Cline songs a cappella. And, we had lots of new faces in the audience, so they weren't tired of hearing the same old songs.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 19
I took the extra dock lines off the boat today, freeing up the slip next to me if it's needed. I also reclaimed the two docklines we had used on somebody else's boat. I went over to Pirate's Hideout and helped Dave launch his dinghy. His boat is backed in, so rather than move the big boat out so he could launch the dinghy, we lowered it onto the dock and then dragged it down the dock a little and pushed it off the dock into the water. That all sounds easy except the motor was already mounted on the dinghy, so it was pretty heavy. But we did it with no damage.
In the afternoon we went over to Hog Island to Roger's Barbeque. Barb drank beer, and I got the usually little bottle of rum, bottle of Coke, and cup of ice. It occurred to me that I need to start bringing my own big thermal cup loaded with ice instead of bugging them for it. The only ice they have here a frozen buckets that they break up to keep the beer cold. When you want ice for a drink, they use a beer bottle to whack a chunk of ice to make it small enough for the little plastic cups they use. During the afternoon, I went back to the bar to get some more ice, and I saw the bartender filling a little bottle from a plastic jug that he took from under the counter, instead of from the regular quart bottles. I asked about it and was told it was strong and spiced. There were a lot of things in the jug to add the flavor. I had heard about "under the counter" rum before, but this was the first I had witnessed. I finished my original little bottle and came back to refill it with the special stuff. It was much stronger and had a strong cinnamon flavor. It was similar to the flavor of an Atomic Fireball candy. I was starting to get hungry after a while. Not sure if it as the rum or the second hand smoke from the locals smoking dope behind the building. I got a plate from the barbeque for Barb and I to share. Since we were sharing I paid and extra $5EC for an extra piece of meat. We got one large piece of chicken and two pieces of fish, along with the spaghetti, rice, potato salad, and callaloo. The fish was barracuda. I had never had barracuda before. Up in the Bahamas, people don't eat barracuda because of the risk of ciguatera poisoning. Apparently that is not a problem this far south. It was all pretty good. We returned to the boat just after dark.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Aug 20
Today was a quiet day. It rained off and on most of the day. This rain is associated with a weak tropical wave that is passing through. We continue to monitor the progress of Hurricane Dean even though it is well past us. We were concerned that it could affect Texas, but it looks like that won't happen. In fact, it looks like almost everybody is dodging a huge bullet. Jamaica and The Cayman Islands were spared significant damage when the storm went further south than forecast, and it looks like Cozumel and Cancun will also not get the full force of the storm center either.
We have had a tiny leak in the hatch right over our bed for some time now. After the rain this morning, we went back to check the leak, since I had hoped to have sealed it a few days ago, and found a huge wet spot on the bed. More than we have ever seen before. As we were looking at the hatch, trying to figure out where the water came from, we realized that while the hatch was closed, the latches were not. So, our new leak was self-induced. Fortunately with the air conditioning on, things dry pretty quickly.
After an early dinner we went up to the bar and joined a few folks for a few drinks. While we were there, we had a torrential downpour with high winds. So, we had to stay for another drink or two. While there we were speculating if the hatch over the bed was leaking. When the rain almost stopped, we made a run for it and found the bed only had a couple of drops on it from the original leak. Gonna have to work on that. That's the most important hatch to not leak.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.