Dec 21
Today was shopping day. The bus was late to pick up the cruisers, but it finally came. Barb & I followed shortly after that in the car. The day at the marina was pretty quiet. Around 17:00 about a dozen folks showed up for drinks and stayed a couple of hours. They all left about the same time, a little before 19:00, and we closed up.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 22
We have a large motor yacht on the end of one dock that has been left here for the holidays. The owner put a little 10w light bulb on the back porch so we could keep an eye on it to assure that the power was on, thus the fridge and freezer were on. Our security guard woke me this morning to let me know the light was off. I went to investigate. I took my volt meter with me so I could do some problem determination if I needed to. Since I wasn't familiar with where the boat's power panel was, I started at the beginning and checked that there was power coming from the cord into the boat. That was ok, so I then checked the light to make sure the bulb hadn't blown. There was no power at the light. I went inside the boat to find the electrical panel, setting off the burglar alarm when I opened the door. I knew it had an alarm, and I thought I has disarmed it before opening the door, but I hadn't. So the marina got to listen to the alarm for a minute before I finally pushed the buttons right to silence it. I found the electrical panel and found the main circuit breakers blown indicating a ground fault. I tried to reset the breaker, but it wouldn't reset. I turned the fridge off and then the breaker would reset. I turned the fridge back on and the breaker blew. This isn't good. I tried to call the number I had for the owner, but got no answer. So, I loaded all the stuff from their freezer and fridge into several plastic bags and took it all up to our large freezer and cooler where we keep the ice and beer kegs. I finally made contact with the owner, who was very appreciative that we had taken care of the problem. I asked if he wanted us to arrange for a repairman to come look at it, but he decided to wait until he returns as long as we can keep their food in our freezer.
We got three new boats in today. One came in for a couple days to diagnose a battery problem. It's always easier to repair electrical problems when you have the option of being plugged into shore power. The others are leaving the boats for the holidays while they go home.
We had our regular Saturday night pot luck dinner. There was a nice crowd of about twenty, and we had a good meal. The only likely karaoke singers were me and Bob, and the people were all having nice conversations, so we never did the karaoke. Everybody packed up about 21:00 and we closed up.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 23
It was a pretty slow day today. We had a little excitement when a boat went on the reef way down at the south end of the bay. Calivigny Island lies at the mouth of Clarke's Court Bay. The gap between the east side of Calivigny Island and the mainland is totally spanned by a shallow reef. That reef is why Clarke's Court Bay doesn't often get a bad swell in it. To enter Clarke's Court Bay, you must pass on the west side of Calivigny Island, between it and Hog Island. There are reefs on this side too, but there is a deep, wide, clearly marked channel through the reef. This is all quite clear on any chart of the area. Early in the afternoon, we spotted a large trimaran coming in from sea on the wrong side of Calivigny Island. By the time we saw him, he had already passed the entrance to La Phare Bleu marina which is down that way. I watched, and realized that the boat was no longer moving. It was apparently on the reef. After a bit, a power boat from Calivigny came out to assist them. The powerboat got the trimaran off the reef and it turned around and headed back out to sea. A while later, it came into the bay the proper way and anchored just off the marina. It was a large boat, and had lots of graphics on it, which made me guess it was a sponsored racing boat. I looked it up on the internet and found a website that mentioned it. It is a sponsored race boat that just completed a race from France to Brazil a couple of weeks ago. I guess just because you can cross an ocean fast doesn't mean you can find your way into a bay.
Other than the trimaran show, we had a quiet day. There were a few people in the bar late in the afternoon, and we experimented making a new drink. We have several bottle of lemon rum, which rarely sells. The last time the Clarke's Court salesman was here, he got me to buy three bottles of a new Sorrel flavored rum. Sorrel is a sweet, spicy flavored juice that is popular here during the holidays. We started experimenting with a way to sell both the Sorrel rum and the Lemon rum. We made a drink with a short shot of each rum, club soda, and a splash of fresh lime juice. We passed the drink around and everybody liked it. So the Oasis Christmas Punch was born. We'll see if it sells.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 24
Christmas Eve is a big day for shopping here, as it is in the States. The grocery store is open later than usual tonight, but then closed for two days. We gave Ashley the day off, since she only works half a day on Monday anyway, and Monday's are usually slow. She is always off on Tuesday's, and we gave her Wednesday off too, since we plan to close early.
A catamaran came in for a couple of days. They plan to attend our Christmas pot luck, so they wanted to be at the dock. The guy on the boat is a former NYFD member and we chatted for quite a while about NY. Late in the afternoon, Bob took his boat out for a ride with his wife and her cousin. They got back around dusk and went home. We closed the bar about 19:00 and went back to the boat. We had only been aboard for a few minutes when there was a knock on the boat. It was Gary from At Last, who is in the slip next to us. The transformer we had hooked him up with had just fried. They had just finished dinner when their lights flickered and went out. In the dark, they quickly noticed sparks coming out the bottom of the transformer which was out on their rear deck. Gary ran to unplug the transformer which finally blew the circuit breaker on the dock about the same time. I took the bad transformer off the boat and got another one. The new one seemed to be working, so we all resumed our evening activities.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 25
The morning started out quiet. There was no local VHF radio net, but we did do the Coconut Telegraph net on the SSB. It was fun to be able to say Merry Christmas to many friends spread all around the Caribbean. During the morning, Barb spent a lot of time getting the place ready for the potluck this afternoon. She found a set of glasses that are intended to be used for floating candles. She filled them with water and used food coloring to make some red and some green. She found large green tablecloths, and some small white ones. We moved all the tables together so we had two long tables, and put the tablecloths on them. Barb also found some red and some white rope lights that we wove together and hung over one of the windows. We put the heavy vinyl cover over the pool table and used that as the buffet table.
About 13:00 a couple of the ladies showed up to start cooking the ham and turkey. We were using the grill to cook them both. I had never used a grill like an oven, but then again I've never owned a large grill like the one we have here.
Late in the afternoon, I got a call from a large sailboat anchored a little ways of the marina. The boat is a seventy foot Oyster. The couple who are it's hired crew had stopped by for a drink yesterday. We had invited them to the pot luck, but they said the owner and his family were aboard so they would be eating aboard. Well, it tuned out their generator had crapped out, and they wanted to come to the dock for a couple of days. I told them to come on in, and went to take their lines. We put them on the t-head at the end of our dock.
The target time for dinner was 16:00, and people were showing up a little before that. There were over thirty people there. Everybody brought more food than they needed, so there was plenty. We made a double batch of the famous Mooney stuffing, and put some aside to stay at home for us. On Thanksgiving, there was no leftovers, so all I got was the one portion I had with dinner. The meal was great and we all had a good time. Bob & Leslie, and her cousin Annette came for dinner also. Of course everybody would have liked to have been with family somewhere, but it's neat to get together like this with fellow cruisers, who often are about as close to you as family.
The owner of the Oyster and his two adult sons came up to the bar after the meal was over, and along with a few other folks stayed until late. It was almost 23:00 by the time we closed, but we were having a good time and didn't mind staying.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 26
Today is Boxing Day. Boxing day, for you Americans who don't know, is the day after Christmas. It is an English holiday. The original point of the holiday was for the rich to give gifts to their servants or employees. In Grenada, it's also known as Beach Day, since everything is closed and many, many locals will be found at the beach. It was very quiet in the marina. We announced on the morning net that we would be closing at 15:00, so a couple of people came in to do Internet stuff before we closed.
The point of closing early was to go to Bob's house for dinner. Bob's house is in a neighborhood called Old Fort, which overlooks the Carenage. The view from his house is incredible. You can see the Carenage, some of the Lagoon, the anchorage outside the harbor, Grand Anse Beach, and all the way to Point Salines at the far southwest corner of the island. We took several pictures from there, although in the late afternoon light, the pictures don't do the scene justice. We had a clear view of the new Port Louis marina in the Lagoon, where we saw a mega-yacht docked at the brand new dock. This is the first boat they have docked there since building the dock over the past month.
We had drinks and appetizers on the front deck, overlooking the harbor, and enjoyed the cool breeze and the sounds of the city below. Leslie prepared a roast beef dinner that was wonderful. She had brought the roast with her from Canada, as getting one here would have been difficult. Beef isn't a huge seller here, and the cuts are quite different than we are used to. We had the beef, potatoes, veges, Yorkshire pudding (Leslie is British) and bread. It was all quite wonderful and we were stuffed. Not too stuffed to enjoy homemade fruitcake and rum raisin ice cream a little later though.
About 22:00, Bob took us back to the marina. Along the way we stopped at an awesome Christmas light display. The place that is decorated is a business. There is a building that I think is a small hotel, and another building that contains several shops. The buildings and the fence around the whole place were covered with lights. There were also a number of stand alone displays on the grounds, like Santa standing in a small sailboat. There aren't a lot of places with lights on them, but this one could give any display back home a run for it's money.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 27
Today was a pretty busy day. Mark from Kardia, a Catalina 470, had called on the radio yesterday and asked if we knew where he could get an alternator rebuilt. Bob told him we could point him in the right direction today. Mark brought the alternator in, and Bob took him to see if they could find the guy. While they were gone, I took off for CK's to shop. We are almost out of several things, like bottled water, red and white wine, and toilet paper. All important things to have in a bar. While I was out, I went over the hill towards town and saw the Queen Mary II anchored off of town. We had heard she was coming today. It is a massive ship and has a much more elegant look than the current generation of cruise liners. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me.
When I got my shopping done and got back to the marina, I found Bob and Mark from Kardia in the workshop trailer rebuilding the alternator themselves. They had found a place to get replacement bearings, but not the guy to do the work. After considerable time, they had it back together, and when Mark took it back to the boat and installed it, it actually worked! Mark was a very happy camper.
In addition to the Queen Mary II, another famous boat came into town today. The Maltese Falcon is the world's largest privately owned sailboat. It is owned by Tom Perkins who made his money as a venture capitalist in the technology world. What makes Maltese Falcon so unique is not just her size. She is extremely high-tech. The three masts are almost two hundred feet high and are free standing. The sail plan is similar to an old square rigged tall ship, but without all the vast amount of rigging. The sails furl inside the masts and are all set and struck with the push of a button. The three masts all rotate to get the proper angle on the wind as necessary. The boat is two hundred and eighty-eight feet long, and sails in excess of twenty knots. When I was shopping, I didn't go all the way into the Lagoon, so I haven't seen Maltese Falcon yet.
The afternoon was pretty quiet, and we got an early close.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 28
Yesterday's cruise ship in town was the Queen Mary II, and today we heard the Queen Elizabeth II on the radio. We are taking the camera to town today for sure.
We had a busy morning. The regular Friday shopping bus is going to the grocery store at 10:00, and about fifteen people showed up for that. Unfortunately, there was no bus here at 10:00. The guy who usually runs the bus is generally quite reliable, so I called him. Turned out he is sick, but he had sent another guy. The guy finally showed up at 10:30. During the morning, we had a few boats move. One boat who had been anchored came to the dock because they have a repairman coming to work on their refrigeration. The occupants of the boat are the couple who own it and another couple who are guests. About an hour after they were secure, the guest guy came up to the bar in a hurry and asked if we had a portable pump. We probably should, but we don't. I hustled down to the boat to see what was going on and what we could do. By the time I got there, they had two hand pumps in use and were ahead of the incoming flow. The owner had figured out that the water came in because of a siphon. The vacuum break that should keep a siphon from being able to happen apparently was stuck so it didn't do it's job. At least he knew the cause and had the water mostly pumped out.
Another boat that has been here a few days is leaving today. The young couple who brought it in recently bought it from The Moorings charter company. They sailed it here and flew back home to Canada. A hired captain and crew came in yesterday to take the boat north for them. The other boat that left this morning was the large Oyster that has been here a few days. They are going around to St. Georges to the new Port Louis marina. The owner wants to be there for New Years. We helped cast off their lines and bid them goodbye.
About 13:45, we finally got to take off to do our weekly shopping. As we went in to town, we drove past the store and went in towards the Lagoon to see Maltese Falcon. As we drove through Grand Anse, we could see the QE II anchored in the harbor. As was the case with the Queen Mary II, they are too big even for the new cruise ship dock, so they anchor out. There is no good places to pull off the road to take pictures, so we tried to take some while underway. The result was a bunch of blurry pictures of trees and guardrails. The one ok picture we got was just as we crested a hill and there she was looking like she was parked at the end of the road. As we came over the hill to descend to the Lagoon, we saw the top of the three masts of Maltese Falcon over the trees. We got down along the Lagoon and pulled in a parking lot to take some pictures of Maltese Falcon from across the Lagoon. The boat was on the far side of the dock, so you couldn't see it well, so we continued around the Lagoon to the Grenada Yacht Club to get a better view. From the Yacht Club, we were looking right at the bow of the boat. An impressive sight, but still not the angle I wanted. Barb suggested we have lunch at the Yacht Club since we were there, but I suggested we have lunch at the Victory Bar & Grill at Port Louis instead. We will be right alongside the Maltese Falcon there. We drove around to Port Louis and went into the bar/restaurant. From right at our table we got several great shots of Maltese Falcon. We ordered specialty margaritas to start, and then lunch. Barb ordered grilled shrimp, and I got a burger. I recall somebody in the past few weeks saying their burgers were good. I specifically asked the waiter if the burgers were 100% beef or typical Grenadian burgers. He laughed and said they were not Grenadian burgers. He lied. The burger was exactly like the ones we had at places like De Big Fish and Tropicana. It was a mushy meat loaf on a bun. Don't get me wrong, they don't really taste bad, but they fall apart and are not American burgers.
As we were waiting for our food, we thought how funny it would be if Thunder, the Oyster that left Clarke's Court a couple hours ago, came in while we were here. We could go take their dock lines and really mess with them. As we discussed this, Thunder came into view entering the Lagoon. Just as we saw them, our food arrived. Guess which option won. We ate first and went to say hi to Thunder later. While we were out on the dock chatting with the Captain of Thunder, we checked out another boat on the dock that we had noticed from across the Lagoon. The sportfish caught our eye because it had a teal hull. Jimmy Buffett's sportfish has a teal hull. Unfortunately, it wasn't his.
We finally went and did our grocery shopping and headed back to the marina. It was almost 16:00 when we got back, and the rest of the afternoon was quiet.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 29
We had a quiet morning. Bob got a "new" computer that Leslie brought here from Canada. I helped him start setting it up by installing some of his software. During the day, a number of local folks stopped by to wish Bob happy holidays. I was introduced to everybody, and hope I can remember half of them.
We had our usual Saturday pot luck dinner and had a nice sized crowd of about twenty. After dinner, we did karaoke. As usual, Bob and I got things started. Sam, from Encantada also contributed several songs. We went on until after 22:00 with a few other contributors.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 30
The morning was quiet, except for the rain showers that kept coming through every twenty minutes or so. As far as any of us remember, this rainy day was not in the forecast. I was awakened about 05:00 by the first downpour. Since I expected to hear the knock of the security guard at 05:45, I didn't get soundly back to sleep. But sometime in there, I did fall asleep, because I awoke again at 06:15 without the knock. I got up and stuck my head out of the companionway and saw Augustine walking around and smoke from the garbage burn pit. He must have actually been here on time for the first time in two weeks, thus sparing me from the knock.
I went up and opened the bar at 07:00 to let Augustine get the trash and empty bottles. I took my computer up with me and used the quiet time to update the log. The morning was very quiet, with the only activity being a boat leaving. At 14:00 the football games start. About 13:00 folks from the anchorage started showing up to play dominoes, watch football, and use the Internet. Several boats in the anchorage had thought about leaving today, but with the rain they stayed. Late in the afternoon we got a call on the VHF from a boat wanting a slip. We weren't expecting them, but it was no problem and we got them situated. About 17:00, the dominoes were done, the early football game was over, and everybody left. We stayed open until 19:00 and then shut her down.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Dec 31
We decided yesterday that we would stay open for a New Year's Eve celebration. I was thinking like a cruiser and figuring that no cruisers would stay up until midnight, even if it was New Year's Eve. But, Bob informed me that locals will be hoping to find the place open. He said last year they had lots of people show up around 22:00 and stay until about 04:00. So much for an early night. I went shopping an prepared for a party. We got crackers and cheese and meat for snacks, a case of Champagne, and made sure we had enough of everything else for the bar. I also shopped for burger night Wednesday. Since the stores will all be closed tomorrow, I wanted to make sure I had everything purchased today. I got everything except the buns, and those I ordered for pick-up Wednesday.
Back at the bar, Barb arranged the tables and put out extra chairs. By early afternoon, we were as ready as we could be. Too bad you can't take a preventative nap. We had a few cruisers stop by around happy hour time, but it was quiet until after 22:00. Between 22:00 and midnight, a few local couples came by, but not a crowd like we were prepared for. We enjoyed some fireworks form across the bay at midnight, and had a toast. Everybody stayed for another hour, when we watched the ball in NYC drop at 01:00 our time. Having spent most of my life in the Central or Mountain time zones, I was used to seeing the ball drop early, or watching a time-delayed rerun of it. This was the first time I was in a time zone ahead of NY. By 02:00 everybody left and we closed up. Morning will come early. Happy New Year.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.