Dec 1
In my last log update I forgot a very important thing that happened yesterday. We have been waiting a week for a technician from Enza Marine to come diagnose our large air conditioner problem. I have been afraid that the compressor was shot. Peter, from Enza, showed up right on time at 09:00 Friday morning. In about five minutes, he had removed a cover where the wires go into the compressor and found a fried wire. He said that when the cooling water filter clogged, the compressor would have worked much harder than usual before the overload switch tripped. This would account for frying the wire. He had to go back to his shop to get some high-temp connectors to repair it, but an hour later the a/c was running and the compressor is fine. That was a big relief.
Today was a very quiet day. We had one large motor yacht that has been here since April leave this morning, and we weren't expecting anybody in. Late in the afternoon, a large sportfish boat slowly approached the marina. I was on MoonSail filling our water tanks. Bob was in the bar. We both were watching, and listening to the radio to see if this boat was going to call and request dockage. They slowly turned around and started to head back out of the bay. Bob and I had both looked through binoculars and saw the boat's name was Fun Ticket from Richardson, TX. Bob hailed them on the radio and asked if they were seeking dockage. When the owner came back and asked about the rates, Bob said to come on in for a free night. Recognizing a good deal, they turned around and came to the dock that had been vacated this morning by the other large motor yacht. We met the owners and found that they were on a two day trip here from Trinidad. They have been in Trinidad for six months and had to leave for a day or two and then check back in to comply with Trinidad's immigration laws. We enjoyed meeting them and hope that this little token of good will might pan out into either a long term stay for them in the future, or some referrals.
Tonight is the regular pot-luck dinner night. There is also a free dinner across the bay which will likely draw some of the cruisers that hang out at Hog Island. Bubba, who cooks the food for Roger's Sunday Barbeque on Hog Island every week, is turning 60. He is throwing a party with free food. We know of at least one cruiser couple who never heard of Bubba, nor Roger's BBQ, but will be there for the free food. So with that competition and the fact that lots of boats have headed north, we expected a small turnout for the pot-luck. We had only three couples, plus Bob & Ashley, but we had a great time chatting. In many ways, I enjoyed it more than our larger turnouts, since we got to visit more. We learned the next day that Bubba's party had a small turnout also. Lot's of people have headed north.
Just after we finished eating, several locals showed up, as well as three couples who had done the hash on the northern end of the island. We got everybody drinks, and then fired up the karaoke machine. We had a good time singing, although it was primarily myself and Bob. We finally quit singing and just talked, but didn't close the pace until 00:45.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 2
It was an early start to the day, since the guy who relieves the night security guard didn't show up for work. The security guard came and knocked on the boat about 06:10. I thanked him and told him to go home. I got up and went up to the bar. Augustine never did show up, so I cleaned up the bar, which means emptying the garbage, taking the empty bottles and kegs to where we store them, and getting full bottles of stuff from the storage trailer to refill the cooler.
It was a quiet but long day, since I had so little sleep. In the afternoon, a guy came in by dinghy to check the place out. He has a 58 foot motor yacht that he needs to leave for the holidays. He didn't make a firm reservation, but I think he will be back.
We were watching US football all afternoon. That was interrupted by a large catamaran pulling up to the south dock. They had not called on the radio, but they sure looked like they planed to dock. I headed over to the south dock just in time to take their lines. The boat was from Horizon Yacht Charters, which is based in True Blue Bay, just west of us, but the people on the boat were the real owners. Bareboat charters are kind of like vacation condo time share things. You get to use your boat sometimes, while it is rented to others most of the time. The owner and his family are German. We got them checked in a settled, and I went back to the bar. The evening ended relatively early.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 3
We had another fairly quiet day today. I went to do the shopping for burger night Wednesday. While I was gone, our friends Pete & Maribel on Paper Moon came in to dock. Barb took care of docking them with a little help from Charlie, a local guy who looks after a boat in the marina.
Late in the afternoon, a large tall-ship anchored in the bay just south of the marina. Pelican of London is a sail training ship. I had to launch our dinghy to go out and check on a boat we have on a mooring, so while out I dinghied by to get the name of the ship. It is 114 feet at the water line, and 146 overall. While I was in town shopping, I saw another tall ship at the cruise ship dock. Royal Clipper is one of three boats run by Star Clippers.
We had a few people show up for drinks in the evening, and we kept the bar open until about 21:00, because we knew we had people coming in. Paper Moon had guests coming, and Kevin, from Solstice was on the same flight. Barb has been looking after Kevin & Amanda's cat while they were gone. Once they had all arrived, we shut the place down.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 4
Today was another quiet day. Sean, the local guy who does varnish had brought Micki, from Corem Deo, a large pumpkin. Pumpkin here is not the jack-o-lantern pumpkin we know in the States, but similar. Micki split the pumpkin with us and Encantada. Barb made pumpkin soup with it and brought the soup and a hot sandwich up to the bar for lunch. Today is Ashley's day off, so we cover the bar all day ourselves. The day was extremely quiet, with not a single customer until about 17:00. About that time, two couples from the marina and two couples from the anchorage all came in for drinks. We had a nice time visiting with them until about 20:00. One of the anchored boats is Watermark I, a Catalina 380. They spotted our boat as they came in and want to see the inside. The Catalina 380 is the same hull as our Catalina/Morgan 38, but the inside is totally different since we have a center cockpit and they have an aft cockpit.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 5
Today we decided that the cat can be ungrounded. It was on the 26th when he got off the boat. Admittedly, we left him out in the cockpit after dark, when cats become a different nocturnal animal, but he still should have known better than to leave the boat and then start crying on the dock. He was allowed back in the cockpit today, with a stern lecture about future adventures.
The day was pretty uneventful, with the usual preparations for burger night. The VHF chatter trying to promote Whisper Cove Marina vs. Clarke's Court Bay has escalated a bit. We have promoted 100% beef burgers since we started burger night, because the typical Grenadian burger has a lot of egg and bread crumb filler in it making it more like a bad meat loaf. It was experiences at several local restaurants (not including Whisper Cove) that prompted the whole thing. Since we have been doing our burger night, Whisper Cove has started doing burgers any time, any day. That's great, except that many people have told us that their burgers are like other Grenadian burgers. This despite the fact that they also advertise on the VHF that they are 100% beef. Various reports on the VHF have claimed they have the BEST burger in Grenada, and recently the best burger in THE WHOLE CARIBBEAN. We thought about advertising we had the second best, or that we had 105% beef, but decided to just let the burgers speak for themselves. Since we keep being successful and having people compliment them over and over, I guess it's working. Tonight was the first night we haven't sold out. We sold over twenty, and we were prepared for forty. Since a whole flotilla of boats have left headed north, I wasn't surprised. I was happy to have as many as we did, especially since tonight's sales were half cruisers and half locals. Since the locals and the med students are discovering us, it says something about the place.
Speaking of the locals, they made quite a night of it. A group of eight stayed until 23:30, enjoying themselves in conversation while I closed up after Barb went to the boat and Bob had gone home.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 6
The usual morning activities took place today, with the exception of one. I was in the bar mid-morning, talking to a couple of folks using the Internet, when Barb started yelling to me from down on the dock. I stepped up to a window to hear her, and she was saying that a dog had a dead animal and was taking it under the bar. I went out and yelled at the dog, who dropped the animal within my reach just under the building. I ran the dog off, and got a shovel to get the animal out from under the building. Our first thought upon looking at the dead animal was that it was Lou, the marina cat who follows the security guard around all night. It was the size of a small cat, but the head was torn up enough that I wasn't sure. The fur looked browner than Lou's black and white, but the feet were white like Lou's, so I wasn't sure if the brown was just because of the dirt. Barb got a plastic bag to put it in, and I carried up to our burn pile. Augustine, one of our workers, took it from me, and looked in the bag. He said it was probably a baby sheep that was only a day old or so. The dog probably didn't kill it, but rather found it. I liked that idea better than it being the cat.
Our dear friends Pat & Dori on Sol Y Mar arrived in the marina this morning. We traveled with them all the way from Georgetown, Bahamas to here last spring. They went on to Trinidad for hurricane season, so we haven't seen them in five months. We got caught up a bit, and then gave them a ride over to Prickly Bay to check in with Customs. After they checked in, we swung by the KFC at Spiceland Mall and got a bucket of chicken to bring back to the marina. We shared the chicken with them and then they went to get some much needed sleep since they had both been up all night crossing from Trinidad to here.
We had off and on rain all afternoon. Late in the afternoon a few folks got together in the bar. It was an early evening however, and we were back on the boat before 20:00.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 7
This morning I derailed the employees who usually mow the hillside, and asked them to trim the palm trees around the bar first. Augustine took the tractor with the front end loader, with his son Dexter in the bucket with a machete, and the trees got trimmed. This would never fly in the US. The end result was great, and the old fronds are no longer hanging near the ground.
I went to pick up Ashley at the end of road this morning, and found a crew clearing a lot down the road with a large digging machine. I didn't think much about it until we got back to the marina and found we had no water. I drove back down the road and met a truck from the utility company. I told them we had no water at the marina, and they said they would fix it. A couple hours later we still had no water. Bob called the water company, and they said they had fixed it already. Bob went down the road and found the water gushing from a broken pipe. He called back and told them and the crew came out immediately. This was after quitting time on a Friday mind you. Turned out they had fixed it earlier. The guy clearing the lot had broken the pipe when he drove over it to start clearing. That was what they fixed earlier. When the clearing was done, the guy drove over the pipe again and broke it once more. Once they fixed it, they came down to our meter and opened the pipe to flush the line out. This was good as it meant we didn't have to run water for a couple of days before the dirt all flushed through. The crew each got a free beer.
We plan to install a couple more moorings just off the marina. Today I got two mooring balls that Bob had and blew them up. We also found the hardware to attach them to the chains on the big concrete blocks. The blocks and chains are already out in the bay, but they just have little marker floats on them, not real mooring balls. The actual attachment of the new balls will have to wait though, since we have too much else to do today.
Pat & Dori joined us for a trip to the grocery store. We went to Spiceland Mall and had lunch at the Chinese place first. After lunch, we hit the grocery store. Four of us in the little car is kind of tight.
During the afternoon, a local couple came in to deliver the free cruising magazines that we give away. These folks and a couple of other fellows used to come by at least once a week to play pool and have a few beers, but we haven't seen them in several weeks. We commented that we hadn't seen them in a while and learned that one of the other guys, Lincoln, had passed away suddenly two weeks ago. They apologized for not making sure Bob had heard of it. We were all shocked since Lincoln had not been ill. He apparently got sick over a weekend, went to the hospital on Monday, and died on Thursday. I don't think they ever really knew what the cause was. I'm not sure of his age, but I would guess him to have been in his fifties.
Late in the afternoon, Henri's Safari, who gets propane tanks filled, came by to pick one up. They took my tank a couple days ago, so I expected they would drop it off when they picked this one up. When the driver didn't have it, I asked about it. He got an uh-oh look on his face and thought about it. He said he would be back in a few minutes and left. About twenty minutes later, he was back with my tank. He had dropped it over at Prickly Bay Marina by mistake.
Bob went out in the afternoon and picked up meat and buns for tomorrow. We are hosting a bicycle race up on the hill tomorrow, and are going to have burgers available. When Bob got back, he also had purchased two new microphones for the karaoke machine. We have only had one since we have been here, so doing duets was always a problem, and the cord on the mic was breaking again, so the new ones were welcome.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 8
A boat named Never Never Land came in today. The owner had stopped by in his dinghy last week to check the place out, and liked what he saw. The boat is a 58' Hatteras motor yacht, very similar to the one that left here a week ago. We put him on the same dock the other one had been on, so the place looks just like it always did now. When I checked Never Never Land in and tried to process his credit card, I found that we had no telephone service. The line was dead. This also means no Internet service, since we have a DSL line. Bob called a friend down the road on his cell phone, and found that their land-line was out too, so we know it's not a problem at the marina. Bob called Cable & Wireless, and they said they were aware of a problem. It turned out to be our old friend on the digging machine from yesterday. Hetook out a pole as he was leaving the area this morning. Somebody needs to take the keys away from this guy. The phone service finally came back on a little after 16:00.
We are hosting a bike race on the property today. Several people came out in the morning and set up a couple of tents and banners, and placed flags up on the hill to mark the course. While there wasn't a huge turnout, maybe forty people including riders and spectators, several of the people had come up from Trinidad for the weekend, just for the event. We had been asked to have burgers available all afternoon, which we did, but the majority were sold after 16:00 once the event had finished. A funny bike related thing happened. Kevin on Solstice has been trying to sell two fold-up bikes that he had for several months now. We suggested that he put them where they would be visible to the bike people with a sign on them and maybe somebody would buy them. He did that, but as soon as he put the sign on them, Augustine, one of our employees said he would buy them. He recently lost his car and has been having to walk to work, so the bikes will give him a better option than walking.
At 18:00, we were just wrapping up the burger sales from the bike race and people were showing up for the regular Saturday night pot-luck dinner. Some weeks nobody grills during the potluck, but tonight everybody did. We had a good crowd, over twenty, for the pot-luck. Once everybody was done eating, we fired up the karaoke machine. Pat, from Sol Y Mar is known for his Willie Nelson singing, and we had even announced on the morning VHF net that Willie would be making his return to Clarke's Court Bay. We had a lot of fun and even got a few other people up to sing. We shut things down a little after 22:00. Overall it had been a great day, both in terms of fun and bar sales.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 9
We had another new boat come in this morning. Happy Hippie had stopped by the marina via car a couple days ago and chatted with me about what we had here. They have decided to come in for a few days. True Blue Bay Resort is having a Christmas crafts fair today, so I took Barb & Dori over there and dropped them off. They are going to browse the fair and have lunch there. Back at the ranch, Pat set up his computer in the bar so we could watch the Dallas Cowboys football game. The Cowboys were not going to be the regional game we would have gotten, so Pat purchased the weekend package from NFL.com. We were able to hook the TV up to the computer and the sound to the stereo, so we can see Dallas. Pat made a couple of announcements of the VHF yesterday and today that we would be the only bar in the area with the Cowboys on, and we got several people in for the afternoon to watch. Since Ron, who just came in on Never Never Land yesterday, is from Rhode Island, we followed the Cowboys with the New England game. Since both Dallas and New England won their games, although the Dallas one was a nail biter, all the customers went away happy.
We were pleased when during half time of the Dallas game, a couple who was watching the game dinghied over to the other marina across the bay that sells burgers all the time. They got two to go and brought them back. Of course I was curious how they liked them. They didn't. They didn't know we do burgers on Wednesdays, but now they do and they will be over next Wednesday to compare.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 10
We had a pretty quiet day today. I handled a number of little requests from several guests today, and got many thanks. What we hope sets this marina apart from others is our personal service. To the best of our ability, we'll help you get what ever you need, whether that's a taxi to the airport, or the loan of a tool. Around happy hour, quite a few folks came in. There are more boats anchored in our bay now than there has been all summer, and a number of them came in for drinks. Several even brought some snacks to share. We had a pleasant couple of hours and then everybody left around 20:00, letting us close up and be back on the boat at a reasonable hour.
In checking the websites of other boats we know looking for updates, we found that the jerk who caused all the trouble here a couple months ago has finally updated his site for the first time since he left here. It's pretty amazing the stuff he wrote about Bob, although he didn't name him. He apparently also stiffed the local sail making shop and of course had bad things to say about them too. If you want a good laugh, read his October/November update and the comments that have been posted to it by readers since.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.