July 11
It's Friday, so the shopping bus will run today. It rained hard about 09:00, so I was concerned that the weather might keep people away from shopping. I didn't need to worry, because by 09:45, it looked like we had enough people in the bar to fill the bus. The bus holds twenty-eight people, and people started to load up to make sure they got a seat. We ended up having thirty-two people, so the driver said he'd be back as fast as he could to get the overflow. He came back in about twenty minutes and got the last four folks. The driver was all concerned about getting everybody back with their groceries. He said he would call for a second bus, when I suggested to him that he just announce that he would make an early run back to the marina, and then a second at the normal time. He smiled and said that was a great idea. Sometimes you just need a second pair of eyes to look at a problem.
The welder that we have been waiting on to fix the dock came this morning, even though there is a strong possibility of rain. He said he wanted to measure everything and cut the pieces he needs back in the shop, and when the rain quits, he'll be back to weld. That's a start, but who knows when it will quit raining?
Late in the afternoon, I heard a commotion in the mangroves between the bar and the office. Tammy was barking wildly at something. When I went to investigate, I found that Tammy had Lou, the cat, cornered on the ground. The cat couldn't get up in the mangroves, but she was swatting and spitting at the dog. As soon as I went out and yelled at Tammy to stop, the cat got her opportunity to get up in the branches where she was safe. This cat vs. dog game has been escalating lately, with the cat sitting just inside the bar door, teasing the dogs, who are not allowed inside the bar. I guess today the dogs won the battle.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 12
Today was a quiet Saturday morning, so I decided to watch the video we showed Wednesday night. When we showed Around The Horn on burger night, I was unable to really pay attention to it. So, I thought it would be good to watch again by myself. I had just started the DVD when Terri from Sea Otter showed up to get ready for her watercolor class at 09:30. A few minutes later, another lady showed up, and they were talking, so again, I couldn't really pay attention to the movie, so I turned it off. Maybe tomorrow.
The watercolor class brought out a large crowd. Terri has been holding these classes at the marina for a couple of weeks now, and they are very popular. As was the case last year when she did this, I am amazed at the work that her students produce, even if it's their first time.
Mid-day, Tammy was laying outside the bar door scratching at her ear. She whined a little as she did this, which got our attention. Barb and I went over to her and started trying to look inside her ears. We found one was a little raw as if she may have just scratched off a tick. When we tried to look at her, she rolled over on her back and one of us held here snout while the other looked in her ears. While she was upside down, I noticed something inside the roof of her mouth. We looked closer and found a piece of a plastic fork handle wedged sideways between her teeth at the roof of her mouth. I was afraid this may require a vet visit, but thought I'd try to get it out myself first. I held Tammy down on her back, and opened her mouth. I was afraid that if the plastic had been there long, it may have grown into the gums, and would cause pain to pull out. I touched the piece and found it loose, so I just got two fingers in there and knocked it out of place. The next trick was to roll her over and make sure she didn't swallow the piece. Her natural reaction when the piece came loose was to swallow, but I got my finger in her mouth and flipped the plastic piece out. I guess that's what you get when you forage in the garbage pile.
Tonight is pot luck night, and we had a good crowd. There were about twenty-five people here . This is our first "big" night (Wednesdays or Saturdays) without Ashley. Usually on pot luck night, Barb takes care of grilling our food, and I relax before dinner and possibly karaoke. Tonight, I tended bar before and through dinner. It was very busy for about an hour before dinner. Once the crowd was eating, Barb fixed me a plate of food and we ate at the end of the bar. Gary from At Last had asked if he could do a short set of music with his guitar and singing, after dinner and before karaoke. I got Gary setup and he did a great job of entertaining us for about thirty minutes. Once he was done, Barb took over the bar, and I got the karaoke started. Karaoke turned out to be mostly me and the kids from Salt and Light and High Five, with a couple more songs thrown in by Gary.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 13
Again this morning was quiet, as most Sunday's are. I thought it would be another good chance to watch the Around The Horn video. I went to the DVD player to load it, and found it missing. At first I thought I must have just misplaced it, although I was pretty sure exactly where I left it. I hunted all over the bar and found no trace of the DVD. I even double checked that I hadn't taken it back to our boat. The DVD belongs to Southern Cross, not the marina, so I felt extra bad for loosing it.
Terri did another watercolor class today. Again, she had a good crowd, some people who have been coming to all of them, and some newcomers. Somehow she makes the class work for everybody regardless of their level.
This afternoon, a group of people are taking a bus from here to the Aquarium restaurant. We did this a couple of times last year when we were just cruisers. It's a lot of fun, but with Ashley and Bob gone, there is no way we could go today. It turned out just as well, because it was overcast all day, and late in the afternoon we had quite a rain storm come through. The bus who took the folks to the Aquarium is run by the same guy that our old friend Keith worked for. Keith has been in Trinidad having a brain tumor removed. We knew he was back on island, but we had not heard how he was doing. The driver today made a point of coming in to let us know that Keith was doing well. He said he thought Keith might ride down here with him next Friday on the shopping bus.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 14
We had a friend tell us that he knew of a vet who worked at the Grenada SPCA, and he thought they would do spaying even if the dog was pregnant. The University clinic won't do it if the dog is pregnant. I'm not certain, but Mom went through a heat cycle just before she decided to become friendly, so we assume she is pregnant. I called GSPCA this morning and found that yes, they will spay a pregnant dog, but they have no vet until the end of August. So, I guess we will have to deal with puppies if indeed she is pregnant.
We had another rainy day, all day today. There is a new tropical wave coming off Africa today that has the forecasters all excited. They think it may develop into a tropical storm and threaten us. We'll be keeping a close eye on it.
I made an announcement on the morning VHF radio net this morning about the missing DVD. I am hoping that perhaps somebody who was using their computer on the table where it was laying might have accidentally picked it up with their stuff when they left. So I asked anybody who had been here Saturday to check their bags.
I went shopping for burger night today. The first order of business was to find out if I could get ground beef or not. Our regular supplier told me a week ago that they should have meat this week. I went to the Foodland store first to see if there was any beef in the case. There was not. So, I called the lady at the distribution center and asked her if they had any. She said she did, but they didn't know what the price was going to be yet. I told her I didn't care about the price and asked if I could get fifteen pounds for tomorrow, and she said yes, call her in the morning. We'll see. I called the bakery and placed the bun order, and then went to IGA and did the rest of the shopping. While at IGA, I scouted out their meat for a backup plan. They had the frozen New Zealand beef that we have used the past two weeks, and as a last resort, they have plenty of Bubba Burgers.
While out, I also made a stop at the bank to get dollars. I forgot that banks here close at 14:00, and I was just under the wire getting in the front door. The guard was waiting to lock the door in about two minutes. The line was quite long, so I figured I would be a while. Exactly at 14:00, the guard locked the door. The funny thing was that for the next ten minutes he kept unlocking it and letting people in. He didn't seem to let everybody in though. Some people would just walk up and he would open it, no questions asked. Sometimes he would crack the door open and talk to the people and then let them in. And a few times, he spoke to the people and they left. I guess you had to know the guard if you got there late.
Back at the bar, it was quiet. Barb and I were there by ourselves when a guy walked in. Since he was driving a car, I assumed he lived on the island. He gave a pleasant hello and ordered a beer. I served him and we made some small talk. I thought he looked familiar, but I thought maybe he had just been in before for one of the sporting events or something. When he finished his beer, he said he would be back soon, after checking the boat. Then he drove over to the south dock. It wasn't until then I realized he was the owner of a boat here. He left the boat here six months ago, and was only here a few days before he had flown out. That's why he looked familiar. I walked down to the boat and apologized for not remembering who he was. I filled him in on what we had done to take care of the boat while he was gone.
We had an early night by recent standards. We closed the bar at 20:00 and went to the boat for dinner.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 15
The bad news of the day is that it's still raining off and on. The good news is that the potential tropical storm seems to be moving too fast to develop into anything. It's center of circulation is already north of our latitude, so even if it does develop, we shouldn't have to worry about it.
My first order of business today is to call and check on the meat. I called the lady at the distribution center and she told me that my fifteen pounds had been sent to the store yesterday afternoon. Off to the store I went. I went to the door in back that leads to the cooler, and waited for somebody to come out. When a guy came out and asked if I needed help, I told him I should have fifteen pounds of ground beef in back. He went back to look, and came out several minutes later saying it wasn't there. He said the only ground beef they got yesterday was in the freezer case. There was enough there, but I don't want it frozen. I told him I spoke to the lady just half an hour ago and she said it was sent. Another guy came to see if he could help, and agreed to go make a phone call. After several minutes, the guy came out with a box of packages of meat. It was not one big bag like it should have been , but rather about eighteen packages of the normally packaged, slightly-less-than-a-pound packages. And, since it had been delivered yesterday, they had put in the freezer overnight. At least I had meat. While I was waiting, I had taken notice of the price on the packages in the freezer case. It was $10.25 EC/lb. The old price was $9.00. As I was checking out, I noticed that the computer still had 9.00 as the price. Normally, I would point an error like this out even though it was in my favor. But these people have caused me so much grief with their ineptitude over the past nine months, that I decided to keep my mouth shut.
While I was out shopping, two people from the Ministry of the Environment came by to check for mosquito breeding places. The only thing they could find to complain about on the marina property was one boat that is on land that has a cover over it. The cover sags in the middle and holds water. I wonder what they think about the piles of tires just down the road that were recently dumped there. There were probably dumped there because people use them to burn brush piles. Once a few tires get burning, the wet brush will burn too. How's that for protecting the environment?
We had two new boats come in today. Salt & Light and High Five have both been in the area for a while. They are coming in to the marina because High Five needs to prepare to be hauled next week, and Salt & Light is helping them. Each boat has three kids aboard, and they are all pretty well behaved and fun to watch. Five of the kids are blond, and two of them are twins, so it will take me a while to remember which kids go with which boat.
Our real big news of the day is that Bob is coming back today. His flight gets in at 14:00. He didn't specifically ask me to pick him up, but I'm assuming he wants me to. About 13:45, when I was just about to leave for the airport, the power went off to the marina. The cleaning lady was here at the time, and her sister lives just down the road, so I asked her to call her sister and see if her power was off too. It was, so I knew it wasn't a marina problem. I wasn't going to worry about turning on the generator, since it was still daylight. With that solved, I headed to the car but was waved over to the dock by a boater. She pointed out a dead dog floating in the water. I haven't had to deal with this before, and our grounds guy had just left for the day. I quickly made sure it wasn't one of our dogs, and decided to deal with it when I got back. I got to the airport and looked for a place to park. Bob's plane was a 767, and it was already on the ground. The airport terminal is fairly small, and there are only a few places in front to pick up passengers. I found a spot along the road just past the pick-up area and parked. There was no signage or stripes to make it clear one way or the other if parking was allowed here. You wait for people outside under a large canopy, and I could see the car from where I was standing. There was an airport tow truck parked a few spaces behind where I had parked, and when I saw it start to move, I walked out to see what is was doing. The other few cars parked near me were moving, and there was an official looking guy saying we couldn't park there. By now it was raining pretty hard again. I did a lap between traffic circles and as I came back by the loading area, a spot opened up. I started to back in and the official guy stopped me. He asked if my party was there waiting yet. I asked how I would know if I couldn't park and look. He made me move on. I made another lap and then did as several other cars did and stopped on the shoulder across the street. We weren't blocking anything, and traffic moved past us just fine. The tow truck started to drive around and threaten to tow some cars. As if the traffic wasn't jammed up enough, the tow truck blocked the whole road while he backed up to a car in the loading area. The driver came back and they didn't tow him, but they stopped everything for several minutes while they postured. The tow truck made a lap and then came up alongside where I was standing. The car in front of me had left, but there were several behind me. The driver beeped his horn, so I rolled down my window. He jabbered something at me as if I were a local. He didn't seem to want a response, as he rolled his window back up. I rolled my window up and didn't move. The tow truck moved forward and then started backing up in front of me. Ok, I guess I'll move. I made another lap and then went up the hill past the airport where lots of other people were parked on the shoulder. I called Bob's cell phone and got him. It turned out he still didn't have his luggage. When the rain had started, they stopped unloading the luggage so it wouldn't get wet. Or maybe it was so the workers wouldn't get wet. At any rate, it was almost an hour later when Bob called me to say he was at the curb. I pulled back down in front of the terminal and started to back in a space. The security guy started waving me off, but I just ignored him and backed in. He said something to me which I ignored and just got out, opened the back door and started helping Bob load his stuff. Once the guy saw I really had a person to pick up, he went away. Bob had met a friend on the plane, and we were going to give him a ride too. We got back to the marina about 16:00. The power was back on, and the floating dog had drifted out of the marina to the south. Bob and his friend had a drink, and then Bob took the friend home.
We had a late game of dominoes break out and we didn't finish until some time after 19:00. We closed up and headed home.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 16
Nobody has responded to my announcement about the DVD disappearing. Fortunately, another boater had borrowed it the day before it went missing, and made a copy of it. So, I donated the blank DVD, and a copy of the copy was made. This way, at least Southern Cross who graciously shared the DVD with us in the first place, will have a copy.
Today is burger night, so I went to the bakery to pick up the buns. Before I left, I got a request from a boater to pick up a loaf of bread for them. Theirs had suddenly bloomed overnight. I had to wait a few minutes at the bakery, but that meant I had nice warm fresh buns when I left.
We have a staffing problem for tonight. Ashley is gone for a month, and the girl that Bob may be able to get part time to help on Saturday and Wednesday has not been contacted yet. Several of our friends offered to help, so we took them up on it. I did the burgers, Beth from Gypsy Wind tended bar (she had some experience with that), and D from Southern Cross and Leona from Voyageur C helped with fries and buns. This let Barb bounce back and forth between the bar and the fries to help and answer any questions. It all went well, and we were grateful for the help. We had some rain during the day, and more is forecast, but it held off during the evening. We had a slightly smaller crowd than the last few weeks, but still had over forty. After everybody ate, we showed a movie that was a documentary about Montserrat. It had footage from both before and after the volcano blew, and it was quite interesting.
The potential tropical storm everybody has been worrying about continues to not develop. It is racing northwest and basically fizzling out. I get a kick out of how excited some people get by the potential of a tropical storm. They don't seem to differentiate between a tropical storm and a Cat 5 hurricane. I guess having come from the Gulf Coast, I have a little different perspective on it.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 17
We continued to get rain today. I guess they call it the rainy season for a good reason.
The storage we have on the property consists of two eighteen wheeler trailers that Bob bought in Canada and shipped down here full of stuff back when he first built the marina, and a container that came over a year ago when the south dock was shipped here. The container was supposed to go back, but they never came for it, so it became storage space also. Well, after more than a year, the shipping company suddenly decided it's time to take the container away, so the guys worked all day on emptying it out. Compared to the other two, it hardly had anything in it, but it still took a while to make space in the other two trailers and move the stuff. One of the things in the container was the riding lawnmower. Normally only Bob uses the riding lawnmower. I gave Augustine the key for it so he could move it, but he came back and said it wouldn't start. I told him to leave it until Bob got here. A little later I went by the container and thought I'd try to start it. To start it requires you to be in the seat, and mashing the brake pedal. I did both, and it just made an odd noise and didn't start. When Bob got here, he got on and started it up. We decided that the seat wasn't simply a switch to detect a person was there, but rather a highly sophisticated butt detector to make sure the right person was there.
We had a full bar area all day, with watercolor stuff, dominoes, and kids playing pool and watching TV. Around noon, I went out to get something for us to eat for lunch. Barb was tired of Subway sandwiches, so I was going to get KFC. As I walk to the door, I saw a handwritten sign that said they had no chicken. KFC with no chicken? There was a truck in the parking lot just beginning to unload frozen chicken into the refrigerated container that they use for storage. Having been in the trucking business, it was funny to see the load of frozen chicken being delivered on an open flatbed. With no KFC available, I went up the hill to Subway. They were out of half their cold cuts. That meant they could not make BMT sandwiches, which is the best kind they make here. OK, time for plan C. Back down the hill, I went to Southside and got two boneless chicken rotis. I know Barb isn't real fond of rotis, but we're running out of options.
When I returned from getting food, I noticed a problem just outside the marina gate. Somebody had put three fifty-five gallon drums of used oil on the property next to us. One of them was leaking badly. The oil was running down the dirt driveway into the gutter and down the street to the culvert that goes under the street and into the bay. The hole in the drum was about an inch from the bottom, so it was going to all leak out if something was not done. I thought about tipping the drum over on it's side so the hole would be up, but it was too heavy for me to move. I told Bob about it, and he made a call to the Ministry of Environment, and the land owner. The land owner claimed to not know anything about it, but said he would check. Nobody ever came out to look at it.
In the evening, the families from Salt & Light and High Five came back from exploring somewhere by land. They all came in for drinks while the kids played pool and watched the TV. Denny, Gary and I were discussing rum and then Denny went to his boat and brought back a bottle of Mount Gay Rum Brandy which he shared with us. It was quite nice.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 18
Finally, we had a day without any significant rain. It sprinkled a few times, but no downpours. We have been waiting for almost two weeks for a non-rainy day so the welder could repair the dock that cracked. He came about noon and worked for several hours repairing the cracked mount and improving the whole structure so it shouldn't crack again.
The shopping bus came this morning as usual, and was packed again. I think we had the same as last week - thirty-two people. Since it's a twenty-eight seat bus, he made two trips again. When the bus came back for the second load, Keith was aboard. He seems to be doing great. He showed us the scar on his head, and we gave him the money we have been collecting while he was gone.
Last time I used the backhoe, I noticed one of the hydraulic lines was leaking quite badly. Luckily, it turned out Bob had a spare for that line, so today I installed it. Other than being pretty messy, I got it replaced with no trouble.
I took a trip to town to get wine for the bar, and lunch for Barb and I. I needed both red and white wine, and a couple of other things. I went to CK's first, and they had none of the things I needed. I was 0 for 5. I went over to KFC to see if they had chicken today. It was just after noon, and the line was huge. So, I thought I'd go to Tempe to the Huggins distribution center to get wine. When I got there, I found they close from noon to 13:00 for lunch. So I had to sit for fifteen minutes until 13:00. As soon as the clock struck one, I was in placing my order. I was on my way back to KFC in ten minutes, thinking that after 13:00 the line would be shorter. Wrong. I waited more than ten minutes to be served. There were two girls working the counter, and they go at one speed, molasses slow, no matter how many people are waiting. To make matters worse, they still didn't have all the stuff they usually do. So, a customer would place an order, the clerk would say they didn't have that, and then they would stare at each other like that was going to change the situation. I finally got some chicken and hauled ass back to the marina. The only reason I was in a hurry about all this was because Barb is leaving the marina at 14:00 with a bunch of folks taking a bus to a t-shirt factory. I wanted to get back in time for her to be able to eat. As it worked out, I was back by 13:40, so she had time to eat.
After the bus from the t-shirt factory got back, several people came in for drinks. Heather from Asseance went to the boat and came back with some snacks, and we had a nice group. About the time most of the folks left to go make dinners, Gary & Jeannie from At Last came in. While we were chatting with them, the families from Salt & Light and High Five came back from a trip up north to the Rivers Distillery. They had food for their whole clan and came into the bar to eat and get drinks. They also had ice cream, which we stored in the freezer until after they finished eating. When the ice cream came out, there was plenty for everybody, including Barb & I. Yum. To make things even better, Denny tried to make us some Ti Punches from the rum they bought at the distillery. We decided that Rivers isn't even good for Ti Punch, which should use a strong white rum.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 19
###
The rain came back today, and was quite heavy for a while. It gave me an opportunity to catch up on my writings. Terri from Sea Otter held another one of her watercolor classes, which drew a bunch of people. The kids from Salt & Light and High Five sat at the bar and watched three movies in a row. I don't remember which channel the TV was on, but being Saturday, the movies were all kid friendly.
My only venture outside the marina today was a quick trip to the grocery store. I took Beth, from Gypsy Wind along, since she needed to pick up a cake she ordered. This evening at pot luck, we are celebrating two birthdays. One is Ron, from Gypsy Wind, and the other is Aubrey from Velada. Pot luck was well attended. In addition to the purchased cake, Britt from Sea Otter made a Death By Chocolate cake. It was chocolate cake, with chocolate icing, and a chocolate mousse filling. Yum. After dinner, folks were all engaged in conversation, and I didn't see any likely karaoke performers other than myself, so I never got the machine out.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
July 20
Sunday mornings are usually very quiet, but we now have at least one Formula One auto racing fan in the marina. Many of the Formula One races are held in Europe, so the live telecast is early in the morning in the US. The Grand Prix of Germany was on, so Ernie and I watched it. I never was a big Formula One fan, but the current hot driver is Louis Hamilton, who has a Grenada connection, so that adds interest. His grandfather lived here. So, although he was born and raised in England, many Grenadians follow his career.
After the Formula One race, we watched the American Lemans series from Mid-Ohio Racetrack. I haven't watched this kind of racing in many, many years. It was fun to watch though. The fun thing about this racing is that there are four different classes of cars on the track at the same time. So, dealing with the traffic is an added challenge to the drivers. After that race was over, we switched to the Indy Cars racing at Mid-Ohio. It turns out the Lemans race was really run yesterday. We never realized we weren't watching it live.
A little after noon the music from across the bay started. It is not uncommon to have loud music booming from over there on Sundays. I don't know why Sunday is the big party day here instead of Saturday. You would think they would be going to work Monday, but that doesn't seem to matter. To make today a little different, it is Fisherman's Birthday. Fisherman's Birthday originates from The Roman Catholic Church in Grenada, who observed June 29th as the birthday of St. Peter, patron saint of Fishermen. So, for whatever reason, they are celebrating a week early. The celebration includes not only the music, but races between local sailing work boats. These boats never really work under sail. I don't know if they are just traditional work boats that are now just brought out to race on special occasions, or if they really use them daily but with motors. The fun thing about watching these boats sail is that they have way too much sail with way to little keel. That means they need a batch of guys onboard to sit on the windward side to keep the boat from flipping over. Sometimes this doesn't work as planned and everybody goes in the water. The other fun thing about the race is that it includes a stop at a bar. One of the three races they held went from Woburn, directly across the bay from us, through the cut between Hog Island and the main island, where they beach the boats at Roger's Beach Bar. One crewmember jumps off the boat as it beaches, and runs to the bar. There he has to down a beer and run back to the boat where they take back off to continue around the island and back to Woburn. The other two races they held were all within the bay, using anchored cruising boats as the marks. I think that the drinking aspect of these races was that at the finish, the crewmember ran up to a bar at the finish line to down his drink. There were only five boats racing, but they took it seriously. In the first race, one boat wasn't going to make the cut without tacking, so when he tacked, he just went back to the start and gave up. Keep in mind that's where the beer was, so who really won? In the second race, one boat came back with a shredded sail, but he still was fourth out of five using just his remaining sail. In the third race, five boats left the start, and only four came back. A little while later, we saw one of the local go-fast boats, going very slowly across the bay. Then we noticed a guy in the water a little behind him, moving at the same speed. It appears they were towing the submerged fifth boat back to Woburn and the guy was riding on it.
Late in the afternoon, the families from Salt & Light and High Five came in the bar. They are both leaving the marina tomorrow, and High Five is being hauled out tomorrow so they can go home to Vancouver to work for six months. These two families have been travelling together for quite a while, so it's their last night together on the water for a while. About 19:00, a local guy came in and asked how late we were open. I told him we were open until everybody left, so he got on his phone. Five more of his friends showed up a little later to have a few drinks and play pool. By about 22:00, the families headed home. The locals had stopped drinking and were just sitting talking, so we declared it closing time. They moved outside with their conversation, we did our closing routine, and went to the boat.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.