June 1
Yesterday I had debated whether to get an ice delivery or wait until Monday. It was a good thing I got it because yesterday we sold six bags and today we sold six more. That's in addition to what we use in the bar.
We had a quiet Sunday morning, and in the afternoon I watched the NASCAR race. We had a good crowd come in for happy hour, which stretched out until about 22:00. It's funny how we go through cycles where there is nobody coming to the bar on a regular basis, and then a group will be in the area for a while that comes every night. Even though it keeps us up later, it's nice to have a group of regulars who all enjoy each other's company.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 2
It was a pretty quiet day today. The one highlight was I got to pet Mom a little. She was sleeping with Tammy on the landing just outside the side door of the bar. I walked up to the bottom of the ramp without her noticing me until I was at the ramp and could block her getaway. Even though the door to the bar was open, she knows she can't go inside. She tried to sneak by me, but I gently blocked her way, so she just laid down and rolled on her side. I gently pet her head and rubbed her ears a little. Barb saw what I was doing and came out to pet her too. As soon as we stopped and stepped back from her, she scooted off to hide. It was pointed out to me that some of the things I've written about Mom sound pretty funny if you didn't realize that Mom was a dog. Hopefully regular readers know this.
Once again, we had a nice happy hour crowd. They didn't stay quite as late as yesterday, so we got home for a nice dinner.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 3
I went to do the shopping for burger night today and was pleasantly surprised to find our meat order there and not frozen. (That makes Barb really happy!) The young man who brought it out was quite proud of himself for getting it right this week. He also confirmed that we would want the same thing next week. We'll see if it can actually work two weeks in a row.
We had a nice gathering for happy hour again. We are going to miss this crowd when they move on to Trinidad in a few days.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 4
This morning, Dori came in and gave me a haircut. It was getting pretty shaggy compared to how I kept it short for the past year. She buzzed me back to almost nothing, which will keep me for a few months.
Tonight was burger night, and once again we had just enough. We sold out at forty-eight, but everybody got theirs. After most folks were done eating, we put on the movie for the night. Shall We Dance, is a chick-flick with Richard Gere and Jennifer Lopez. About half the crowd stayed for the whole movie and enjoyed it. A few folks left right after dinner, because they plan to leave for Trinidad at 02:00 and need a nap first.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 5
Our good friends Pat & Dori on Sol Y Mar, and Richard & Harriet on Perseverance dropped their mooring balls and headed for Trinidad about 00:30 this morning. They will both be hauling out in Trinidad and going back to the States for the summer. We'll look forward to catching up with them again next winter when we have resumed cruising and they head north again.
I don't recall if I've already mentioned this, but I bought a Linksys Skype phone when I was back in Texas last March. The one I bought broke about two weeks after my return to Grenada. A friend carried it back to Texas and exchanged it for me and got one for himself as well. A few weeks after his return, my replacement phone and his new one both did the same thing that my original had done. So today, I decided to be a masochist and call Linksys support again. I first went to their website to see if I could get some kind of online help. After filling out a lengthy form describing the problem, the website came back and said there was no online help available for this product. Seems like they could have you specify the product up front and save you the time of filling out the whole form. With no online help, I had no choice but calling Technical Support. They use the term "technical" very loosely, since the people who answer the phone have zero technical skills. They simply know how to follow a script of questions. After going through the whole script with the person, whom I could barely understand due to her accent, I was told the phone was defective. Duh! She gave me a case number and a phone number to call for replacement instructions. I called that number and got another girl with a hard to understand accent. To make matters worse, the microphone she was using had a problem. When she spoke, there was a lot of static and I could only get every third or fourth word. After struggling with that for a few minutes, I finally said that if we were going to continue this conversation, she would need to get a different mic. That's when she hung up. I called back and this time got a young man with no discernable accent at all. Unfortunately he also had no ability to do anything outside his well defined procedures. He started by asking for my US address to ship a new phone to. I explained that would be a problem since I was out of the country for an extended period of time. He didn't get that. I had to explain to him where the Caribbean was and that there wasn't a US mailbox on every corner here. He also said I would have to send the defective phone back. I explained that sending it back would cost more than it was worth. He still didn't get it. He insisted that they could only replace the phone in the US. I asked him what if I had bought the phone here? There is a computer store here that carries them. He said that if I had bought it here, they would arrange with the store to replace it. I asked them why couldn't they make an exception and have the store replace it here even though I bought it in the US. No exceptions. So I asked why not just give me a refund, since I really don't want another one of their crappy phones. Nope, no refunds. I then asked the guy if he understood that he was leaving a customer very dissatisfied and that I would be spreading the story of my dissatisfaction as far as I could. He said yes, he understood. So much for customer service.
Late in the afternoon, I got a call from my son in Phoenix. He wanted to let me know that he and his long-time girlfriend had gotten married the day before. They had originally planned to have a real wedding in October, which we were going to attend, but they changed those plans due to some other family issues and decided to just do a little private ceremony in their backyard. They will be taking a trip to a resort in Mexico for their honeymoon.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 6
This morning the shopping bus ran to the mall. Last week we only had three people. This week we had six. So many people this time of year are getting ready to haul out so they aren't shopping, and the folks who will be staying here all season aren't here yet. A few boats that had been anchored just off the marina left this morning for Trinidad. Several of these boats were people we had never met until recently, but we knew of them because of them checking in on the Coconut Telegraph.
One of our grounds guys has been working for the past two weeks pressure washing the docks. He doesn't do it at blazing speed, but he's been making steady progress. Today he was only about twenty feet shy of finishing at quitting time. It was close enough that Bob couldn't stand to not have it finished over the weekend, so he went out and took over and finished it up. The docks look brand new now.
We had another nice happy hour crowd. A little smaller since so many boats have left in the past few days, but a nice group nonetheless. Chuck & Micky from Coram Deo came back from a meeting they were at with some barbequed pork that they had gotten from a roadside vendor. They were happy to share a few bites with us and it was quite tasty. We didn't close down until after 21:00.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 7
We got a new boat that we did not expect in today. Good Life is a large catamaran with a German couple aboard, along with their two year old daughter, rambunctious dog, and adult guest. They plan to stay in the marina for at least a month. They have come from an extended time in Brazil and are looking for a place to possibly stay long-term.
Being Saturday, we had our regular pot-luck dinner tonight. The crowd wasn't as big as last week, but there were about fifteen folks. The normal deal on pot-luck is to bring a dish to share, and if you want to grill meat for yourself, we provide the grill. This week, our friends Chuck & Micky on Coram Deo had told us not to bring meat because they had tuna they needed to use before they leave the boat for a couple of months. So Chuck grilled tuna steaks for the four of us. Barb contributed a pumpkin soup and a pea salad which were both good. We never try to coordinate what people bring to pot lucks, and the selection seems to always work out fine, no matter how many people come. By the same token, while there may occasionally be a dish not to my tastes, usually, I like everything as I am not a picky eater, especially when somebody else cooked the food. A couple of weeks ago though, we had night where I didn't care for any of the shared dishes. That has never happened before. But this week, things were back to normal, as there wasn't a singe dish I didn't like, and I went back to score seconds on a couple of things.
Karaoke this week was supposed to be a special event. Neil, from PK3, had told me last week that he was going to bring his library of about twenty CD's over so we could have a broader selection of songs. Well, Neil came over in the morning and dropped off the CD's, but he told me he wasn't feeling well, and probably wouldn't make it back for karaoke. So, we did karaoke without Neil, and also without Willie Nelson and Frank Sinatra. We didn't have quite the session that we did the previous week, but it was still one of the better karaoke nights we've had. Mike & Lynn from Seabbatical were enjoying their last night here before hauling out for the season, and they both contributed to the evening's success.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 8
Today is Bob's birthday. I was reminded of it when I first turned on my computer, since Skype reminds you of your contacts birthdays, assuming you set up your profile correctly. When he called in the morning to make sure everything was ok, I answered the phone with "Happy Birthday", which surprised him. All day he kept getting calls from everybody that had him in their Skype contact list. Mid-afternoon, we sort of surprised him with some balloons, cake, and ice cream. Micky from Coram Deo provided the balloons and ice cream, while Barb baked the cake.
One thing that didn't happen was NASCAR. The first half of the NASCAR season is covered by FOX, and the second half is covered by NBC. Much as I hate to say anything good about FOX, their NASCAR coverage is good, and we saw every race. For the rest of the season, the races are on TNT, ESPN, or ABC. We don't get TNT on the satellite, and we get ESPN in Spanish, so we will miss several of the races. I think we will get the ABC ones, which are the end of the season, OK.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 9
We had a boat come in this morning that has been here before. Anjo's Jest was here a couple of weeks ago and left with guests. It's time for the guests to go home, so they came back to the marina to disembark.
I shopped for burger night today. We needed pretty much everything, so even though I can't get the meat until tomorrow, I figured I'd get the rest out of the way. The only hitch in the shopping has been a hitch for several weeks now. I have not been able to get the cheese I prefer for several weeks now. The large package of sliced, but not individually wrapped, cheese has not been available, meaning I have to use individually wrapped stuff, that also has a much different consistency. I can't unwrap a whole bunch of the slices, because after a few minutes out of the cooler, they stick together and get gooey. So, I have to get slices out and unwrap them as I go, slowing me down. There also is the issue of what to do with all those plastic wrappers in a place where there is always wind. I have taken to stuffing them in my pocket as I go so I don't have to pick them up all over the property the next day.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.
June 10
Ashley is here from 10:00 to 19:00 today, so Barb and I decided to take advantage of that and go out to lunch. We decided to combine lunch with picking up the meat for tomorrow. We went to the Crib Sushi for lunch, and found the place empty. The students from the medical school are already gone for the summer, and they are a large part of the clientele here. The owner and the sushi chefs have gotten used to us coming in every couple of weeks, and we always enjoy sitting at the counter watching the chefs prepare the sushi. Since they were slow today, they put on a little more show than usual.
After we ate, we went to Foodland to collect the meat. I went to the back of the store and waited by the door to the employee-only area until a lady asked if I needed help. I told her what I needed and she went in back to find the meat guy. After several minutes, the young man who was so proud of having our meat last week, came out and said the truck from the distribution center hadn't arrived yet. He said it would be there within an hour. Frustrated, we used the delay as an excuse to have a couple of beers. I called Ashley and told her we would be delayed and to call if she needed us. We went across the lagoon to the Grenada Yacht Club and ordered a couple of beers. We sat right on the edge of the patio, overlooking the lagoon and the Port Louis marina development. We hadn't really seen what has changed at Port Louis since Christmas. There has been a lot of dredging and filling in preparation for more mega-yacht dockage. After a couple of beers and an hour, we went back to Foodland. This time I found Ms. Ross, the lady who originally coordinated the meat order for us, just inside the front door. I said hello, and asked if the truck had arrived. She picked up the phone and called the back. She found that the truck had not arrived. I asked if she could call and see if it left the distribution center yet, thinking I could go there if it wasn't already in transit. She called the distribution center and found that the meat guy there said he didn't know about the order. She explained that this was the standing weekly order. The result was a promise that I could pick it up tomorrow morning at 09:00 at the distribution center. She and the store manager were very apologetic. I knew it couldn't work two weeks in a row.
The captain of Good Life, the catamaran that came in a few days ago, approached me today and asked if he could move to another slip. We normally put big cats on the south side of the south dock. This is the most exposed part of the marina, but big cats are inherently more stable than monohulls, so they handle whatever wind chop they get there just fine. The captain's worry is due to the approach of a tropical wave Wednesday. The weather website that he looks at is predicting 35+ mph winds. I have never heard of the weather source he uses, and none of the sources we listen to are predicting anything over 25 mph, and that will only be insolated squalls. To placate him, I agreed that he could move to the slip next to MoonSail for a few days, with the agreement that after he saw that tropical waves are no big deal, he would move back where he was. We'll see how this works out.
GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360 Nautical miles traveled today 0. Total miles 9539.