Nov 11

Today was a fairly quiet day.  A catamaran named One Life left the marina.  They bought the boat in St. Lucia from The Moorings charter fleet a day before Hurricane Dean came through there.  The boat was damaged some where the transom whacked the dock.  They brought the boat here the next week and stored it here until a week ago when they came from Canada with their four children to head off cruising.  Bob had arranged to get the damage fixed while they were gone.  They have been here a little over a week, and our soda sales have gone up noticeably with the kids around.

We spent the afternoon watching American football.  Several folks came to the bar to play dominoes while we had back-to-back games on the TV.  We had the choice of the game covered by FOX, which is in Spanish, or the games covered by CBS, which were in English.  Since there weren't a lot of team loyalties involved, we opted for the English games.

Late in the afternoon, I helped Bob re-launch his powerboat.  He had put it on a trailer that is really to small for it, and hauled it out of the water a week ago to clean the bottom and fix some things.  Today we reattached the trailer to the bucket of the tractor and slowly backed her in the water.  It really was a little more complicated than it sounds, since we had already broken one trailer hitch ball taking her out, but the end result was good.  When the boat was back in the water, Bob took it out for a ride with a couple of his friends.

Ashley, our bartender doesn't drive.  It is actually fairly common for women in Grenada to not drive.  Sometimes she gets a ride to work, sometimes Bob picks her up, and Bob almost always takes her home.  Today, Bob was gone on his boat ride when it was time for Ashley to go home.  So for the first time, I took her.  She doesn't live far away, but it was just after dark, and the signal lights and tail lights on the car are screwy, so I was a little nervous, but made it ok.

Back at the bar, Bob got back from his boat ride, and then a couple of local folks came in the bar.  One couple was Rock & Joan.  I have mentioned Joan before, as she runs the Little Dipper restaurant across the bay.  Rock is her husband and runs a taxi.  The other couple was Claris and Arthur.  When Bob introduced us to Claris, he said "we should meet the Minister".  Turns out she is the Minister of Education & Legal Affairs the Honorable Claris Charles, Minister of Education and Labor.  Since they were the only people in the bar, Bob suggested we could go on home and he would lock up.  Sounded good to me.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 12

Since signaling your intentions is quite important here as you weave your way into oncoming traffic around parked cars, and brake lights are always a good thing, I went to work diagnosing why neither worked on the car we can use.  I got the brake lights working, and proved the signal light problem is not bulbs.  Bob has a guy coming over to give the car a once over, and I left the signal lights for him.  I suspect the problem may be the flasher unit under the dash, but I can't twist my stiff old fat ass under a steering wheel and dashboard like I could thirty-five years ago.

A bunch of our friends, most of whom are anchored out, arranged a special island tour today.  Cutty, the driver who took us on our tour, picked the eight people up here at 09:00.  They didn't return until after 18:00 and everyone was tired from their hiking and touring, but they had a great time.  Jane, from Cheetah II went on the tour, but her husband Dick stayed behind working on the boat.  When the tour returned, Jane had a cake and a half gallon of ice cream to celebrate Dick's 65th birthday tomorrow.  She asked me if we could stash it in our freezer until tomorrow.

A boat named Shangri-la came into the marina today.  Gilfey and Lola are expecting visitors and thought being based at the marina would be easier than ferrying three guests around in their dinghy.  Shangri-la has not been at a dock in over two years.  We got them settled at the end of our dock.

There was nobody at the bar, so we shut it down a little before 19:00.  It was nice to be home early.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 13

Today is bartender Ashley's day off, so Barb and I will cover it all day.  The morning is usually quiet, so Barb took inventory of what we have left from last week's burger night and made a shopping list for tomorrow.  I took the car to town and got everything on the list except tomatoes.  This required three stops.  I found the meat, buns, ketchup and plates at one store.  I got a case of Diet Coke and a case of regular Coke in cans at the CK's, the case-lot store, and a big bag of fries at the wholesale frozen foods store.  While at the wholesale frozen foods place, I also scored a five pound turkey breast for our Thanksgiving dinner.  Until now, we had only seen a couple of large whole turkeys at the IGA, which are way too big to cook in our small oven.  We were concerned whether we would have turkey for dinner or not.  Remember, Thanksgiving as we Americans know it, is strictly an American holiday.  It's just another Thursday here, and they don't stock up on turkeys or Pepperidge Farms stuffing.  (We brought Pepperidge Farms stuffing with us.)

A little after noon, the friends of Cheetah II showed up at the bar.  Dick didn't know it, but he was about to have a surprise 65th birthday party.  Jane and I got the cake and ice cream from the freezer and when everybody arrived, we sang Happy Birthday and served up the cake and ice cream.

We have a trailerable Chris Craft power boat that is going to base itself here, and wants to be out of the water on a trailer when not in use.  It got here by water, and it's trailer was dropped here a couple of weeks ago.  Today they showed up and wanted to be pulled out.  They hooked their Toyota mid-sized four-wheel-drive pickup to the trailer and tried to back it in the water at our ramp.  The owner, has never done this before, so he was having a little trouble backing the trailer up.  I joked with Bob that for a beer, I'd do it for him.  Bob stopped the guy and said something to him.  Next thing you know, I was behind the wheel.  I pulled up from where the owner had gotten, and backed in as far as we dared.  Since I would get my feet wet if I got out, I stayed high and dry in the truck while Bob, the owner, and a friend of the owner got the boat loaded on the trailer.  This wasn't as easy as it should have been, but it got done.  Then I tried to pull it out of the water.  Our ramp is not paved, so even with the truck in 4WD, once the tires spun a little, the tread was full of mud and it was like having slicks on.  I got it about ten feet out before a wheel started to spin and bury.  I backed up and tried a couple of runs at it, but it wasn't going to come out.  Had it been my truck, I might have been a little more aggressive, but in the end, we needed help.  Bob got the tractor and hooked a chain from the bucket to the tow hook on the front of the truck.  As he pulled with the tractor and I pulled with the truck, we got it out.  Once the trailer was fully on the dry driveway, I got out.  After some conversation, I realized that the owner was going to pull up and back the boat and trailer in where the trailer had been stored.  He got in the truck with a look that didn't exude confidence.  I asked him if he would like me to do it, and he said yes.  I pulled up into the parking lot and backed the boat up to exactly where the trailer had been parked before we started.  Even Bob was impressed that I put the trailer wheels back in the same spots of grass where they had been.  After all was said and done, the owner's wife came in and bought Bob and I beers for helping.

Riley & Lucy on Sentosa went out for a day-sail, and when they came back I went to take their dock lines.  Riley said he would be up to the bar in a little while.  Gilfey & Lola from Shangri-la went to the airport to pick up their guests, and when they left we promised we would stay open until they returned.  If it hadn't been for these promises, we probably would have closed the bar early as there was nobody there.  We even got Bob to go home early.  In the end is was great that we stayed open.  Riley came up for a couple beers.  Gilfey & Lola and their guests, which is his mom, brother and sister all from Iceland, got back, and brought enough Kentucky Fried Chicken to share with us, and the couple from Ellinor, a Swedish boat we've been storing, came back to the marina after six weeks in Sweden.  We stayed open until about 20:00 and then headed home.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 14

We had asked Bob a couple of days ago how the windows in the bar got washed.  He said to ask Dexter, one of the workers to do it.  Barb asked him yesterday to do it, so he was ready this morning with the pressure washer.  He basically pressure washed the entire outside of the building, including the windows and the wooden panels.  He first used a long handled brush with soapy water from a pail and then used the pressure washer to rinse.  When he was done with the outside, he asked me if I wanted the inside done too.  I said sure, so he moved everything away from the windows and walls and repeated the procedure inside.  Keep in mind the floor is wooden and there are cracks which let the water drain out, but it still seemed funny to be using a pressure washer inside.

Three boats left this morning.  I checked two of them out, including processing their credit cards.  I had a list of things we needed to learn before we can be on our own, and using the credit card machine was one of them.  Then it occurred to me that every high school kid in America who ever worked in a store or a Mac Donald's knows how to use one, so how hard can it be?

We are almost out of Coke bottles.  You can get Coke here in half-liter glass bottles, or twelve ounce cans.  The bottles are bottled locally, and the cans come for Trinidad.  The bottles are significantly cheaper.  We really only have cans for one customer who insists we make her rum and cokes with canned Coke.  Since the Coke truck hasn't come in a couple of weeks, I stopped by CK's, the case-lot grocery to get a case.  They didn't have any either, and told me that the factory didn't have any.  Another Norman Paperman moment.  While on my trip to CK's, I picked up Ashley to bring her to work.

Barb spent a good part of the afternoon preparing stuff for burger night.  We have some burgers left over from last week which were frozen, but have been thawing.  Barb made another 20 patties from the meat I bought Monday.  We had a fair turnout for burger night.  We sold thirty burgers.  The pan player had a problem with his amp and had to run home to get another, so he was late starting.  Once again, everybody enjoyed the burgers and the music.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 15

This morning, the Grenada Breweries truck came.  There is a discount for ordering ten cases or more, so I got seven cases of Carib and a couple of other things to make a total of ten.  A little later the ice truck came.  I got fifteen bags from him and filled the freezer.  The work guys freeze large plastic juice bottles with water overnight, and then take them out and about all day.  I felt bad about it, but I had to remove most of the bottles to make room for ice.  A little later, a different Carib truck came.  This guy had kegs.  The kegs are smaller than US styles.  They look a lot like soda fountain kegs in the States.  We keep three in the cooler and another six in a cooler in the storage trailer.  I got six kegs to fill up the remote cooler.  The Coke truck never came. 

It was a very, very slow day, since it was raining all day.  Locals weren't out, and cruisers weren't out.  The rain continued all day until about 17:00.  Late in the afternoon, Kevin & Amanda on Solstice returned from Tobago.  They spent hurricane season here, and were the reason we chose this marina, but they have been gone to Tobago for about three weeks.  They are flying home to Phoenix in a week, and were trying to figure out where they could leave their boat and have somebody care for their cat.  Since we have made the decision to stay here, they can leave the boat here and we will watch the cat for them.  There may be a hidden extra charge for that.  (If you've been reading closely, you'll understand that reference.)

We had not had a single customer in the bar until 16:00, about when the rain quit.  When the rain quit, people wanted to get off their boats, and we had customers until 21:00.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 16

What a difference a day makes.  Today dawned sunny and dry.  Everybody was out and about.  We had three new boats come in .  One we expected, and two just called as they approached.  All three are only staying a few days, but every bit helps since the hurricane season crowd has left.

My right foot started hurting overnight.  I have been bothered off and on over the last four or five years with occasionally hurting feet.  I went to my doctor in Houston before we left, expecting a diagnosis of Gout.  He said he didn't think it was Gout, but didn't offer another solution.  From my Internet research, it's not the classic Gout presentation, but I didn't find a better explanation either.

The Coke truck has still not showed up after three weeks.  We went to the local wholesale store and found they had none either.  Turns out the bottling company is out of Coke.  If you don't know, Coca-Cola the corporation makes the Coke syrup and then sells it to local bottling companies who mix it with water and bottle or can it.  My guess is that the tank of syrup from the States is late, thus no bottled Coke.  We can get it in cans, but that comes from Trinidad and is almost twice as expensive.  A Norman Paperman moment.  A bar with no Coke.  But lots of rum.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 17

I didn't sleep well last night due to my foot hurting.  At 07:00, I couldn't bear to put my weight on the foot, so Barb got up and went to unlock things and get the worker guys started.  Barb stayed at the bar all morning until Ashley came in.  The only boat movement was one catamaran that is staying here long term came back from a few days away.  Barb helped them dock.

It rained all day, from about 08:00 until 17:00.  There was one particular squall that came through with winds up to forty-five knots.  That's almost as much wind as we had during Tropical Storm Felix, but it only lasted a few minutes.  Finally about 16:00, I hobbled up to the bar.  Our regular pot-luck dinner is tonight.  I sat at the bar with my foot up on one of the other stools to help with the swelling and get sympathy from the other people there.  Barb went and made jambalaya for the pot luck.  We had a very small crowd for the pot luck, partly because another group of boats recently left the area and also because of the rain all day.  Nobody came in from the anchorage, so it was just a dozen or so of us from the marina.  Since the group was small, we skipped the karaoke.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 18

My foot is feeling quite a bit better today, but Barb opened things up again for me.  Unlike yesterday, today dawned clear and sunny.  This resulted in a run on the laundry machine.  Part of Barb's strategy of getting up early to open things was that she got to do the first load of laundry.  We had a little boat movement today.  One boat left and provided some excitement as they left.  I cast off their dock lines as they backed out of their slip.  Everything looked good until he tried to shift into forward and pull out of the fairway.  The boat wouldn't shift into forward, and his momentum and the wind were pushing him down the fairway towards the shore.  I quickly jumped in my dinghy to try and get around to his side of the dock before he hit anything.  I had just lowered my dinghy into the water earlier this morning and thought it was not tied to anything and was sitting behind my boat. I jumped in, started it, put it in gear and took off.  Until the line that Barb had secured to the dock got tight.  Flustered, I untied the line and took off again.  In the fifteen seconds this all took, the captain of the boat had gotten it into gear and was now motoring away without any contact.  Disaster avoided.  Since I was in the dinghy, I went out to a boat we have stored on a mooring to check if everything was ok.  It was, although I'll probably have to replace one of his mooring lines due to chafe.  One of the boats on the dock has family visiting from Iceland, including Mom who is in her seventies.  Last night Mom had her first dinghy ride across the bay and didn't particularly like it.  They were planning to go to Roger's Beach Bar for the Sunday barbeque, so they took their big boat around to Hog Island and anchored for one night instead of subjecting Mom to the dinghy again.  So we got them off the dock and will bring them back tomorrow.

For the first time in a long time the company that stores a bunch of kayaks here had a tour.  About a dozen people took off in six or seven kayaks.  We had a slow but steady stream of customers in the bar all day.  We had American football on from 14:00 until after 20:00.  We are Atlantic Standard Time, so the football doesn't start until 14:00.  We also were flipping between the football and the final race of the NASCAR season.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 19

I had to get up extra early this morning.  Bob is having two of the three grounds guys that work here go to his house today.  The first of those guys usually relieves the night security guard at 05:45.  Last night I asked the security guard to stay until about 06:30 and he was cool with that.  I was up at 06:15 and went out and told him he could go.  From about 10:00 on I was busy.  We had one boat leave, two boats come in, and one leave and come back.  So I was busy taking lines, checking people in and hooking up power.  One of the boats was Steve & Ann on Receta.  Ann wrote the book Embarrassment of Mangoes which most cruisers have.  My foot is not 100% today, but it is about 90% better.

Mid-day I went to pick Ashley up and stopped at CK's for a couple of things.  I found that they had Coke in stock again.  Since the Coke truck still has not come, I bought one case.  I felt like I had a major score.  We have had to use cans instead of the bottles for a couple of days, and they are much more expensive. 

We found out late in the afternoon that we will be hosting a hash this Saturday evening.  A hash is an event for drinkers with a running problem.  Somebody will lay out a trail through the woods with shredded paper.  There will be between 100 and 150 people who will do the run and then expect lots of beer at the end.  We are also going to do burgers and chips.  So we have lots of work to do in preparation.  I went to the store, several actually and bought the food we need for our regular burger night Wednesday.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.

Nov 20

Today is Ashley's day off, so Barb and I will man the bar all day.  My foot is almost better so I opened.  We had our first customers about 10:00 and had a steady stream of people all day.  By 18:00, there was nobody here and I was considering closing.  I figured I'd wait until 19:00.  Well , before 19:00 came around we had customers, and we didn't close until 23:00.

GPS N 12-00.639 W 061-44.360  Nautical miles traveled today 0.  Total miles 9539.