Feb 21
We went to the grocery store today for a few things, even though it's Thursday. I suspect the store gets a dry container and a refrigerated container each week. The dry container must come first, because today the workers were stocking canned gods and other dry goods on the shelves. However, the refrigerated shelves were pretty bare. Our regular shopping trip is on Friday because the perishable stuff has just been unloaded overnight. Anyway, since it's Thursday, the deli case was bare. There were a couple of pieces of cheese and one block of ham in the whole case. There were still four girls there waiting to slice that one ham though. I guess they don't spread the manpower according to the needs.
Back in Clarke's Court Bay, we had two mega yachts anchored. One of them, Evviva, has a helicopter on deck. Later in the afternoon, we heard a helicopter flying around. We stepped outside to look (helicopters flying around here are extremely rare) and saw a pretty good sized helicopter flying up and down the bay and out over the ocean to our south. The helicopter from the boat was gone, but this one looked too big to be a boat based helicopter. While the helicopter was flying around, the yacht moved a little to a point where we couldn't see it from the bar. Later when I walked down the dock to a point where I could see the yacht, sure enough there was the helicopter. Other than that, it was a very quiet day. Friday's tend to be quiet, partly because a lot of cruisers go to the fish fry in Gouyave on Friday nights.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 22
Today is Ashley's day off, so one of us has to be around the bar all the time. We had the usual shopping bus go to town this morning. They should have better luck than we did yesterday, and judging from the amount of bags they brought back, I guess they did.
We have a boat on the south dock that is stored for several months. A couple of weeks ago, one of it's dock line chafed through and broke. We put another line on it, but noticed the other day that the new line is also chafing. So, I cut a piece of old garden hose and went to put the hose around the line to prevent the chafing. While I was over on the dock, two other boat owners on that dock called me over to say they were going to stay longer than they originally planned. Of course this is ok, since we have lots of space available. Too bad all sales/marketing jobs aren't that easy.
Early in the afternoon, two guys came in by car. They asked if Bob was here, but he wasn't yet. After a second's hesitation, they asked Barb if she was running the bar. She said we were helping out, and about that time, I joined the conversation. It turned out that one of the guys was Chris Doyle, who writes arguably the best cruising guides for the Caribbean. He was here to do an update on what as going on at the marina for the next edition of his guide. We filled him in on what had changed and what hadn't since his last edition.
Late in the afternoon, we got tired of watching the Food Network. There was nobody around except Bob and us, so Bob brought his computer to the bar and put in a DVD. We watched two movies before closing, and it inadvertently turned out to be a Richard Gere marathon. We saw Dance With Me and Chicago. We may start doing a movie night during the week since we have the big TV.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 23
It's another sports weekend. The Six Nations Rugby tournament is on again this weekend, and all three games are today. We had a smaller crowd than last time, but had about a dozen folks here. The third game didn't end until a little after 18:00, when we usually are starting pot-luck, but I had announced on the VHF net that pot-luck would just start a little later than usual. By 18:45, the rugby folks were all gone, and there was only one other couple for pot-luck. So, instead of a rowdy crowd wanting karaoke after dinner, we had a nice quiet dinner with Gordon & Sue from Suhaila. After dinner, Ashley's whole family stopped by for a visit.
The other activities for the day included a new boat, Spyglass coming in, and Bob working on replacing the transmission in his Jeep. The transmission has needed replacing for a long time, and it finally quit entirely a couple of weeks ago. He had a guy come start taking it apart, but the guy left a few days ago and hasn't come back. So today, two other guys who work for Bob's friend Ian repairing his rental cars, came by to finish the job. They worked on getting it the rest of the way apart, and will continue tomorrow.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 24
We had an extremely quiet day today. The boat that came in yesterday left as planned. They only came in for one day so they could equalize their batteries, fill water tanks, etc. We had announced that we would have the NASCAR race on TV this afternoon, but nobody showed up. It was a good thing, because the race was delayed due to rain, and was just finally starting about 19:00 when we were ready to close. We had a request to show the Oscars on the TV, but they weren't starting until 21:30, so that's too late for cruisers. Once we were back on the boat, we turned on the local TV to see what was on. There are two regular channels and one that is all religious programming. As I just flipped by the religious channel it caught my eye. They had the Oscars red carpet arrivals on. The funny thing was that it was the raw satellite feed from LA and the audio was just the ambient background noise from an open mic. We thought it was odd that this was on the religious channel, and after about fifteen minutes it suddenly changed to a religious show in progress. I suspect some technician back at the studio was watching the Oscar stuff without realizing that's what they had going out over the air. Oops.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 25
We had another new boat come in today. Aqua Libre has a British couple with a little girl on board. The little girl appeared to be maybe four or five and had amazing speaking skills for her age. She spoke very clearly and intelligently with a perfect British accent. She was very cute.
Our cat got in trouble today. He occasionally will take a dump somewhere other than his litter box. There is no good excuse for this, since Barb keeps his litter box cleaned regularly. Of course we always find the evidence long after the deed, so it's hard to meaningfully punish him. Well today, Barb returned to the boat and caught him in the act of taking a dump on our bed. She was able to catch him, rub his nose in it, and swat him. It probably won't accomplish anything, but it made us feel better that we were able to connect the deed to the punishment. He's just very lucky that he always has nice firm nuggets that are easy to pick up and don't really make any mess.
I did the shopping for burger night today. We expect a slow night, so we got enough beef and buns for thirty-eight. I had to hit three stores to get everything, but we're set.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 26
Another quiet day at the ranch. We had a large group of kayakers come in this morning. One guy was a paraplegic, but with a little help he got in the kayak and did fine. I'm sure the harder part for him was dealing with the bus. It's been our experience in the islands that things we take for granted in the States for wheelchair access are unheard of.
Even though we still have at least one shower a day, it really is the dry season here now. We rarely have a day without rain, but I guess overall the amount is less because the grass is not growing as fast. The guys are actually caught up on weed eating and we're looking for other things for them to do. It's funny dealing with the work ethic of the local guys. Sometimes they surprise us, as when one of them started using his big machete to scrape barnacles off the dock floats. It's something we wanted done, but had never mentioned to the guys. On the other hand, most of the time if we don't tell them exactly what to do, they will just find a place to lay down and nap.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 27
This morning I was up early, since the early worker didn't show up to relieve the security guard at 06:00. I started doing my normal routine of stocking the cooler, turning off lights, and opening things up. It was very quiet since the guys weren't here running weed eaters or anything yet. I was in the bathroom and I heard a dog whimpering outside. When I was done, I walked around to the side of the building where the window faces. I heard another whimper, but wasn't sure where it came from. I was peering under the building thinking one of the local dogs might be under there and be hurt. I heard the whimper again from behind me and turned to find a little puppy coming out from under a parked car. This little guy was maybe four or five weeks old and apparently had gotten separated from mom. I picked him up and held him close to my face. He was a little scared at first, but after just a few seconds he started licking my nose and wagging his tail. I did notice that he had fleas, so I didn't snuggle him up against me, but he fit in my palm. I didn't see any of the adult strays around, so I wondered what to do with him. The last thing we need is a puppy. I took him down to show Barb, and as I was walking back, I ran into Alan, a marina resident who told me he had seen a mom and three puppies just outside our main gate the day before. I headed up towards the gate, and found mom and another stray rooting through the garbage burn pile. Mom immediately came towards me with her tail wagging, so I put the puppy down. He immediately ran to her and started nursing. While this resolves the immediate problem of what to do with the puppy, I know we will be seeing a few more stray dogs around in the future. After the puppy was reunited, I immediately went and took a shower and shook my clothes well to make sure I didn't bring any fleas back to the boat.
Tonight is burger night. We are expecting a light night, since there are only about eight people on boats in the marina. At 17:00, when happy hour starts, we were the only people in the bar. About 17:30, a few people started coming in. By 18:00, when I start cooking burgers, there were about fifteen people. But, as with last week, cars kept arriving. Word of our burgers has definitely spread beyond the cruising community. By 19:00, we had sold out of burgers. More accurately, we were out of fresh burgers and buns. It worked perfectly though, as nobody was turned away. I went and got two frozen Bubba Burgers for Barb and I to eat without buns.
A couple of days ago I got an e-mail from a guy in Kemah who has been following our log for a while. I'm always tickled when a stranger sends me a note about reading the logs. He mentioned that his sister was in Grenada on a dive trip and she might stop by for burger night. A little before I started cooking, a woman walked up to me and introduced herself as Vanessa from Houston. We had a chance to visit before I had to start cooking. It was very cool to meet somebody via the website.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 28
I had another early morning, as our early guy is apparently sick and didn't come in again. Another example of how workers are different here, there is no such thing as calling in sick - you just don't show up. So I was up at 06:00 again. At 08:00, I was on the boat to do the Coconut Telegraph SSB net. I was sitting in my chair and saw the cat walk along the deck past one of the ports. He is not supposed to leave the cockpit of the boat, and hasn't in ages. I got Barb's attention and she went out and busted him. All we have to do is yell "Hey!", and he dashes back inside. I managed a light swat on the butt as he ran past me.
Speaking of cats, Lou the little marina cat still comes around daily, even though her security guard is gone. We feed her in the bar each evening, she hangs around for a little while, talking the whole time, and then she disappears. We suspect she has kittens somewhere, but we never have seen exactly where she comes from or goes to. Tonight, we were trying to keep an eye on her as she left to she where she goes. As we were watching her, I saw another cat over in the pile of kayaks. I walked over there and found it was the little cat form Zingara, a boat that is here. She has an appointment at the vet Monday to make sure she isn't doing the kitten thing soon. The other large cat from a boat named Saga was also walking the docks and said hi to me.
A large sailboat named Ladyhawke came in to fill water tanks this afternoon. The boat is a crewed charter boat that operates out of here. They had just picked up four guests for a week. Rich, the captain, introduced himself and complimented us on the facility. He has been based over in Prickly Bay, but doesn't like the dock at the marina there. He indicated he may start coming over here regularly to get water and ice, and maybe even stay at the dock the days that guests come and go.
Riley, from Sentosa, retuned to his boat this evening. He works in the oil industry and works five weeks and then is off five weeks. We had just closed the bar as he got here, but I walked over to say welcome back, and made sure he had enough beer for the evening.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
Feb 29
Once again, I got the knock on the boat about 05:50. After saying goodbye to John, I went ahead and got up. Our early worker not only didn't show up, but today his son, who also works here, brought a doctor's note for his dad that said he needed to be off until March 7th. The morning was pretty quiet. Today is Ashley's day off, so Barb and I took turns babysitting the bar. Bob spent most of the day working on his Jeep. The new transmission is in, but it isn't shifting right, so he's trying to sort that out.
Barb and I never did have lunch today, so about 18:00, after watching the Food Channel all afternoon, we were getting pretty hungry. Riley, from Sentosa, was in the bar and he was hungry too. So, I decided to go get some pizzas. We tried to call Prickly Bay marina, who makes good pizzas, but got no answer. So I just jumped in the car and drove over there. I placed an order for three pizzas and got a drink. There were a number of folks there I knew and I chatted while waiting. After about twenty minutes I went back to the restaurant counter to check on the pizzas. They said it would be a few more minutes. Turned out I was just behind an order of eleven pizzas to go, which explained the delay. I finally got ours and hustled back to the marina. Bob was in the bar by then and the four of us scarfed down all three pizzas. We closed up shortly after that.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.