July 1
We learned on the morning VHF net that there is a barbeque every Sunday at Roger's Beach Bay on Hog Island. Hog Island is just south of us at the entrance to Clarke's Court Bay. We had debated about whether to go or not, since we have not launched the dinghy and don't really want to since we are leaving for a week tomorrow. When Jim & Amanda from Adventure Bound offered to give us a ride though, the decision was made. Actually I rode with them and Barb rode with Paul & Jeanette from Sol Magique, so that we split the load. Roger's Beach Bar is little more than a shack on the beach. The Sunday barbeque deal is a plate with either chicken, fish, or pork, and four or five different side to fill the plate. We both had chicken. The one interesting side was callaloo. We have had callaloo soup, but the other way to prepare it is similar to the boiled spinach that we all hated as kids. It had a hint of a creaminess to it and was quite tasty. For drinks, you had a choice of soft drinks, beer, or rum. If you wanted rum and Coke, they filled a pint bottle from a larger bottle, and gave you that with a bottle of Coke and a cup of ice. Sort of like the servicio deal we got in the Dominican Republic, except the hand pouring the little bottle gave it a different feel. We ate plenty and visited on the beach with many other cruisers.
One of the cruisers we met on the beach was Ann Vanderhoff and her husband Steve. Ann is the author of Embarrassment of Mangoes, which we recently read. The book is about their first cruise south from Canada a few years ago. Our friends Jack & Carol on Reach, whom we met in the Bahamas last year and again on their home cruising grounds in Connecticut last summer, gave Barb the book for her birthday last year and said we had to read it. We didn't get around to reading it until we were in the Bahamas this year, but we loved it. We understand Ann is writing another book, and we look forward to reading it someday.
After the barbeque, Barb packed us up and got us ready to fly tomorrow. We will be picked up at the marina by a taxi at 05:45, so we didn't stay up too late.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 2 - 7
I'm going to pack a week into one log entry, since we basically just relaxed. It may be hard to conceive for those of you stuck to jobs and routine life, but there are stresses and routines to our lifestyle. Having the boat secure in a marina, and not worrying about daily boat stuff was a nice break. We couldn't sink, everything wasn't constantly moving, there was unlimited hot water, (heck, there was unlimited water), there was satellite TV, there was a rental car, there was a pool and beach, and there were three restaurants and two stores within 1/8 of a mile walk.
Our trip to St. Marten went just as according to plan. Of course every time I make these plans I later wonder why I thought leaving on the first flight in the morning was a good idea. We flew on LIAT, which is the only game to fly when flying within the Caribbean. They fly from Trinidad to Puerto Rico, using De Havilland Dash 8 planes, which are fifty passenger twin prop deals. Of course, being in the islands, the term "island hopper" was probably coined here. We flew from Grenada to St. Vincent, stayed on the same plane and flew to Antigua. There we switched planes and flew to St. Maarten. Not too bad, and right on schedule. We were in St. Maarten before 11:00 with my brother Bob and his son-in-law Adam picking us up. As we drove out of the airport I pointed out to them where we had been anchored a few weeks ago.
Our days in St. Maarten were spent primarily relaxing. We spent a lot of time in the infinity pool at the Oyster Bay Beach Resort, which faces southeast towards St. Barths. We spent time on the beach between the resort and Mr. Busby's Beach Bar where we enjoyed a few drinks a few weeks ago. We spent every happy hour at the bar near the pool. But of course there were a few highlights.
One day we went to Pinel Island. Pinel Island is just off Orient Beach. The only things on the island are several restaurants, who also rent beach chairs and umbrellas. We took the water taxi over and claimed our chairs. After a couple of hours of dipping in the water and lounging in the shade, we went lunch at Karibuni. After lunch, we spent another hour on the beach. Don't worry Grandma, we didn't go in the water for an hour.
We went to Phillipsburg one day, specifically to look for an earring for me. Since Phillipsburg caters to cruise ships, and there are dozens of jewelry stores, I figured this would be a no-brainer. Well, it seems that no jewelry dealers in Phillipsburg ever considered that a male might want to buy just one earring, not a pair. Also, they had no idea what a shackle was. A shackle is a boat part that is a very common earring for males. After stopping at half the stores on the main street, I gave up. I know at least two sources where I can mail order an earring, so I guess I'll have to pursue that route. We had a nice lunch at a restaurant called The Kangaroo Court, which was across the street from the real court house.
Since we stayed here a year ago, they have opened a large Westin resort just down the beach. We had to go check it out and found their small casino. I managed to leave about $100 there, while Adam's mother was able to net $70 playing penny slots. The timeshares here sell for about five times what they do at Oyster Bay. Same view, same beach.
One evening, we had dinner at the resort restaurant. This particular night, included a cabaret show. The term "cabaret show" is a polite way of saying a drag queen show. Of the six performers in the show, three were reputed to be females, two were definitely guys dressed as females, and the best looking one was allegedly a guy although he could certainly fool most of us. The show is all done in good fun and most of it is tame enough for families. The kids wouldn't get it.
On our final night, it was Karaoke night at Beau Beau's, the restaurant just outside our room. We were prepared to go to bed early, but we heard the music outside. Since we had two free drink coupons, my brother and I decided to go and use them. Once there after we confirmed it really was Karaoke, Bob went back to room to get the girls. They knew I couldn't resist at least a small performance. Once the girls returned, I signed up to sing A Pirate Looks At 40. After hearing a few of the "performers" I wasn't too worried about being embarrassed. I asked Barb if she would be honest and tell me if I was really as bad as some of these people. My turn came and other than missing the cue for the first line, I did fine. During the instrumental bridge, there was a policeman standing right by the stage, and I asked him if he was there to arrest me for bad signing. He got a good laugh out of that as the picture will attest.
Saturday came way too soon, and we were headed back to the boat. Unlike our trip north, I had scheduled the return for late in the evening so we still had full day with the family. Our flight left St Maarten at 17:40. We checked one bag that had our liquids and some boat parts my brother had brought me that might be suspicious. We flew thirty-five minutes to Antigua, where we had twenty-five minutes to make our connection. This shouldn't be a problem since you walk in a door for "in-transit" passengers, get your next boarding pass stamped and go through security to the departure area. We had ten minutes to spare before they called our flight to board. The next flight went to Barbados and St. Vincent. We switch planes again in Barbados. Barbados is an hour and twenty minutes flight time. We left about fifteen minutes late, and I was worried about our connection, since we only had twenty minutes between flights in Barbados. There were several people on our flight also going to Grenada, so I hoped that if need be they would hold the Grenada flight and wait for us. When we taxied to the gate at Barbados, there was one other plane in the whole airport. As we walked towards the terminal we spotted a girl holding a sign that said "In Transit". We went to her and she asked where we were going. When we said Grenada, she tore our boarding passes and pointed to the other plane. We never went inside at all. There were about a dozen people on the plane already. The other people that we knew were continuing to Grenada boarded, but we continued to wait. The flight attendant asked the pilots how long were going to wait. Then more people got on, making a total of thirty-six. I overheard the flight attendant say something to another passenger about St. Vincent, but thought maybe I misunderstood. Once we were taxiing, the flight attendant made an announcement about the flight time to St. Vincent being thirty-five minutes. But she also clearly said "continuing to Grenada", so we knew we were on the right plane and just thought we misunderstood about the stop. Once airborne, Barb got out our itinerary, and it clearly said Barbados to Grenada was non-stop. Halfway through the flight the co-pilot came on the intercom with his standard announcement to welcome us aboard. He apologized for the unscheduled stop in St. Vincent and explained that it was because there were so many people going to St. Vincent for Carnival that the other plane was overbooked by fifty percent. So they put the overflow on our plane and we stopped there. It is more or less on the way, so other than the time to land and take off, it didn't matter much. The St. Vincent folks got off, they closed the door, and we were off. We ended up in Grenada exactly an hour later than we expected. We got to the baggage carousel and found our bag was not there. Two other people who had also started in St. Maarten also did not have their bags. We reported to the baggage guy who filled out a form for us and gave us a local number to call in the morning.
We headed out through Customs to get a cab. There were several drivers sitting just inside the terminal and the first one who asked if we needed a cab got our business. Harold led us to a brand-new mini-van with plastic covers still on the seats. Harold explained that we were the first people to ride in the new van. He bought it Tuesday, but refused to take it home from the dealer until today. He told the dealer that if he took it home, he would be tempted to go make money with it. He wanted the first people to be blessed people he would take to church Sunday morning. So, he picked it up Saturday, and temptations being what they are, he found himself at the airport looking for a fare. But since we were the first people who came to him, "we must be blessed people". I'm not sure about that part, but it sure was a nice van. Nearing the marina, on the narrow concrete road that dead-ends there, we first had to stop for several goats in the road. They seemed perturbed that a car wanted to pass this late at night. Around the next curve, we had to stop while two dogs sleeping in the middle of the road slowly got up and got out of our way. Life in the country.
We got to the marina about 23:00 and found quite a few folks singing Karaoke in the bar. While it was tempting, we skipped the bar and went to the boat to say hi to the cat. He was glad to see us and told us about all we had missed.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539. (Airplane miles don't count)
July 8
About 09:00 I was on the phone to the airport. I don't know where our bag left our company, but I'm guessing Antigua. The first flight of the day from Antigua has arrived by now, so maybe the bag is on it. The person who answered the phone didn't see any unclaimed bags around and said to call back after 13:00. So, about 14:00, I called again. Again I was told there was noting there. Being frustrated, I called the main number for baggage services for LIAT, instead of the local desk. I hoped they could at least look in their computer and see if they had located the bag. Computer? What the hell was I thinking? I should have known from observing the flight attendants filling out paperwork and the way envelopes marked "urgent" moved from one person and plane to another to get to their destination, that there was no robust computer system behind this airline. The person who answered in Antigua was not very helpful either. Rather than being able to look anything up on a computer, she said she would go look around the floor and see if the bag was there, and that I should call back in thirty minutes. I didn't have much hope of this being helpful. I tried calling back several times after thirty minutes had passed and just kept getting voice mail. I finally gave up for the day.
Barb did another load of laundry today. There is only enough space to hang one load at a time, so one load a day is getting done. We hadn't done laundry in almost two months, so it will be a while. While we were gone, several more boats arrived in the marina. Not all of them are staying for the whole season, but some are. A couple are boats we know from past travels, and some are new to us. With these additions, the marina is about half full.
When we checked in on the Coconut Telegraph net this morning, we heard that Sol Y Mar was underway from Carriacou to Grenada. We made contact with them and let them know to expect big winds and seas when they turned the corner at the southern end of Grenada. Later in the afternoon, we made contact again on the VHF and found they were just entering Clarke's Court Bay. Although it has been blowing hard all day, the seas were not too bad when they came around the southern side of the island. We alerted Bob, the marina owner, that they were approaching and he said they could have the slip right next to us. We awaited their arrival along with a few other folks, and took their lines as they came in the slip. Dori's back has gotten worse since we last saw them, so we had the extra hands on the dock to minimize how much scurrying around she had to do to get them secure. After they were tied up, we spent a couple of hours with them catching up.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 9
I started the day with another call to the airport. The woman who answered said yes, our bag was there. Since we don't have wheels, I asked if they could deliver it to the marina. This seemed to be out of the ordinary, but they agreed to send it. There was no time-frame attached to this though, so who knows when it will get here. Barb alerted Bob, the marina owner, that it was coming since we plan to be gone for a while.
This morning we shared a cab into town with Pat & Dori so that Dori could see a doctor. Some other boaters had given her the name of a doctor who practiced as an orthopedic surgeon in Ireland for thirty years and has now retired here and has a part-time general practice. We took a taxi to his office in Grand Anse. The office was in a small shopping center, so while Pat & Dori saw the doctor, Barb & I wandered around the shopping center. The doctor's orders were to go to the hospital and get two x-rays and then come back. We took another taxi to the St. Augustine Medical Center, which is a small private hospital. There is also a public hospital in St. George's. At the hospital, they spent a few minutes at the front desk, and then Dori was taken in for the x-rays. Thirty minutes later, we were on the road back to the doctor's office with x-rays in hand. Try getting that service at your local hospital in the US. We had the taxi drop us off in downtown St. Georges while Pat & Dori went back to the doctor. They will meet us when they are done.
The cab dropped us right by a small mall which is attached to the cruise ship terminal. We were hungry, so we went in the mall and ordered a pizza. It was just after noon, so the place was pretty crowded. We got our pizza and enjoyed it there while watching the people come and go in the mall. When we finished, we walked the length of the mall (maybe twenty-five shops). They had your standard souvenir shops, primarily directed at cruise ship passengers. Since Grenada is called "The Spice Island", there were more shops selling various spices, and of course local flavored rums. After a sweep of the mall we were back on the street. We walked a block to the open air market and started looking around there. After a few minutes, Pat & Dori found us there. The doctor had looked at the x-rays, done an adjustment on Dori's back and given her two prescriptions. Total cost for two office visits, an adjustment, two x-rays at the hospital, and two prescriptions, $100 US. Factor in the walk-in and get served immediately, and this looks like a good place to get any routine things taken care of.
We walked around the market a bit more and then Pat & Dori got sandwiches at the Subway in the mall. Dori was feeling much better after the adjustment, but still not 100%, so we caught a cab back to the marina. There were very dark clouds moving in as we went south to the marina, and we got there just as the wind picked up and the sky opened. We dashed from the cab to the marina bar to wait out the storm. Bob was there and I asked if our bag had arrived. I was concerned that if it had, he might have set it on the boat where it would now be getting wet. He said he had not gotten the bag yet, so we weren't worried. The storm carried on for half an hour or more, with wind probably in the thirty knot range and heavy rain. We had a beer, and Pat and I played a game of pool. When the rain stopped, we headed to the boats. There in our cockpit was our luggage. Since the rain had been driven so hard by the wind, the bag was soaked. Fortunately, nothing in it should be damaged, as the electronic parts I brought back from St. Maarten were in our carry-on.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 10
I have a plan to take a taxi to Spice Island Marine Services this morning. This is the boat yard where we plan to get our much needed bottom job done. I want to set a date and talk to them about exactly what I want to do, since it's a little more than your average bottom job. Pat decided to join me since the Budget Marine store is right at the yard and he needs a couple of things. We called Dave the taxi driver, and while waiting ran into Harry & Melinda from Sea Schell who were going to dingy around to the yard. Since it's a long dinghy ride, we offered to share our cab with them.
We got to the yard only to find that the yard manager, who is the guy I need to talk to, was in a meeting until 13:00. The office girl gave me his direct phone number and told me to call him after 13:00. We went to Budget Marine where we all bought several things. We ran into Britt & Terri from Sea Otter there. They are anchored outside St. Georges. While waiting for a taxi to come back and pick us up, we chatted with them. The taxi showed up after a bit and we asked him to take us back to the marina via a grocery store. So, we stopped at the large IGA grocery on the way just to pick up a few things each.
Back at the boat, Barb had done her daily load of laundry and had it hanging on the lifelines. With my parts from Budget Marine, I tackled two little projects from my list. One was to add a new 30 amp circuit breaker on the main shore power line before it goes into the inverter. I still can't believe the inverter was installed without this. The other things I was happy to score at Budget were replacement snouts for two of my diesel jerry jugs. I have five jerry jugs, and two of them are newer than the others. By the time I bought the newer two, the US had implemented a new standard designed to protect us poor people who can't be responsible for our own actions. If you buy a gas or diesel jug today it has a childproof and spill-proof snout. These last about a year in the sun before they don't seal out rain water, and I challenge anybody to pour one of these jugs into a boat without spilling fuel everywhere. I quit even trying to use them and have been swapping a snout from one of the old jugs when I have to pour them. The only problem with that is that new jugs don't have vents, so when you pour the air has to go back up the snout, making the pouring a bit slower than it could be. The replacement snouts are specifically designed to replace the spill-proof ones with the old style and they have a vent built in so they will pour faster.
At happy hour time, we joined several folks at the bar. Jeanette from Sol Magique was the volunteer bar tender. While enjoying a few drinks, Jeanette tried to brush us up on some simple French. She has volunteered to actually organize some lessons, but getting a bunch of cruisers to agree to a time and place for anything is like herding cats, so we'll see if we can really organize something where it is worth her while to do it.
At the market yesterday, Pat bought some callaloo and spoke at length with the old lady selling it about how to make callaloo soup. He has prepared a pot and invited us over to test it. It was delicious. It was a thick hearty soup, so it was all we needed for dinner.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.