Union Island - Can You Hear Me Now?

No good deed goes unpunished. Kevin caught an ear infection from snorkeling last week. We think it started while we were at the sculpture garden, but Kevin jumping in the water to look at the charter boat's anchor probably didn't help any. So for the past few days he's been in pain and unable to hear out of his left ear. The Tobago Cays doesn't have any town or even any buildings, so for the first few days we just tried giving him some expired and not-quite-expired antibiotics from our medical stash. Not surprisingly, that didn't help much. After four days with little change we decided to head back over to Union Island where we knew there was a pharmacy and hoped there was a doctor.

We managed to find "our" anchor spot (we've been here three times now and this is the only spot in good sand, with decent wifi access and no moorings around to swing into) and drop the hook. Lucky. Not so lucky was the monohull on a mooring two boats away. A charter catamaran had anchored so that there was maybe two boatwidths between the two boats and the cat kept swinging wildly (the sillies didn't have the bridle on) and coming within 2-3 feet of bumping into the monohull. We watched this in amazement for about 15 minutes (there were people on both boats, both aware of the problem) but rather than wait to see how things turned out we decided to seek medical attention for my ailing husband.

For any boating folk reading this, Erika's Marine Services is one of the friendliest and most helpful local businesses we've come across in the Caribbean. Their main mission is to help cruisers, whether it's with internet access, shipping or receiving mail, laundry, or a free book exchange. In our case they were able to give us the mobile number of the local doctor so that we could make a phone call. Sure enough the doctor was in and could see Kevin right away. The clinic is on a hill overlooking the bay and probably has the best views in town (see the photo we posted). We were greeted by a friendly lady and saw the doctor within five minutes. He was a pretty young-looking guy, but knowledgeable, and he took the time to explain what he saw (yep, the ear was infected, no surprise there). He gave Kevin a prescription for some unexpired medication and some antibiotic eardrops. He explained that there was only one pharmacy in town and gave us typical Caribbean directions: "Down de road. Ask anybody, dey show you where it is".

So we walked back into town, inquired at one of the mini-groceries, and were escorted to the pharmacy by a nice-mannered kid. Despite the shelves lined with Nerve Tonic and Heart Elixir (kidding about the Heart Elixir, not kidding about the Nerve Tonic) we found the pharmacy to be first-rate and the lady pharmacist explained the medications to Kevin in hushed tones while I studied the shelves of island souvenirs. So now hopefully Kevin is on the road to recovery! Over lunch in town we decided we'll probably spend New Year's here; the weather forecast doesn't look great for getting to Mustique like we'd hoped, and we've already been invited to a tempting buffet bash at one of the local restaurants. By the time we got back to our boat, the monohull and the poorly anchored charter catamaran were gone, hopefully both were unscathed.

Where we are:
Location=Union Island, SVG
Lat=12 35.777
Lon=61 24.799

Tobago Cays - A Caribbean Christmas

Merry Christmas, everyone! It's been a quiet couple of days on the boat. In the anchorage there have been a few other boats with Christmas lights on at night, so it's been nice to sit outside in the evenings with the full moon and the twinkly lights on. The weather's been great -- hardly any rain and not too hot during the day (low 80's). The so-called "Christmas Winds" have kicked up so there's a good breeze all day long, and we are getting plenty of power from the wind generator, which has been spinning like crazy for three days.

Santa Claus brought Kevin some flashy fishing lures and Stephen Colbert's book "I Am America (And So Can You!)". I received some cooking DVD's (Iron Chef America, Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations") and a Sansa ipod-type thing. It is the size of an eraser (the square pink ones that gradeschool kids use) and holds 2GB of music, about 300 songs. In the course of contemplating what to put on it, I've been thinking about what music I'd bring if I were on a deserted island. After all if you ignore all the other sailboats, and the boatboys, and the day-charter tourists, we are kind of all alone on a deserted island (three or four islands, in fact). So if I could only pick, say, ten songs to put on my mp3 player, what would they be? Definitely the Beatles' "We Can Work It Out". Also "Train in Vain" by the Clash, "Dancing in the Moonlight" by King Harvest and "Come Dancing" by the Kinks for sure. Possibly Big Audio Dynamite's "Rush". But from there everything falls into a gray area -- there are too many good songs out there! Would I rather have Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" or "Driver 8" by R.E.M.? Decisions, decisions. This may call for some audience (email) participation: if you were stuck on a desert island and could only pick ten songs to listen to, which ten would you pick?

While we were opening presents, we had "A Christmas Story" on in the background. "You'll shoot your eye out, kid." I was tempted to put the DVD on in repeat mode, a la TBS, but you can only watch Randy eat like a piggy so many times before you get a little grossed out. Speaking of eating, we had a semi-traditional Christmas dinner: stuffing, mashed potatoes, and roast beast. Actually just kidding about that last part. The IGA was fresh out of roast beast when we shopped last week. So we barbecued up some hickory-sauced baby back ribs instead. Mmmmm...Christmas!

Tobago Cays -- It Pays to Be Nice

Motoring into the anchorage at the Tobago Cays, we could see that the spot we'd taken when we were here six months ago was unoccupied. We were surprised that the anchorage was a lot less crowded than we expected, maybe 20-30 boats here -- about 60% charter boats and the rest cruisers, although most of the cruisers we know are in Bequia, or Clarke's Court (Merry Christmas Chris & Barb!), or in Antigua (Merry Christmas Linda, Steve, Paul & Ginette!). So we dropped our hook next to the same derelict trimaran (that has been there so long it shows up on Google Earth) and let out the chain. We were in maybe 10 feet of water, far enough in front of all the other boats that there was nothing within a 300-foot radius of us. Nice. As we prepared to back down, we saw a man on the bow of the Moorings charter catamaran behind us, scowling. (We assumed he was scowling; he was too far away to tell for sure but his body language spoke volumes.) We have occasionally needed to use the old "stink eye" when someone anchors too close, so we recognized it right away, regardless of the distance. We were totally puzzled as to why he'd be upset; although we were anchoring in front of them we really were a pretty good distance away. But soon he was joined by a woman and they both began to make angry gestures and shout about their anchor. We couldn't hear them since we were upwind of them, so we waved our VHF around and asked them to call us on the radio, which they did. The man was very upset and informed us that we had anchored "right on top of his anchor". Kevin eyeballed the distance between our boats again and calmly noted, "hmmm, we are about 300 feet in front of you; I'd be surprised if your boat has that much rode" (charter boats usually have minimal equipment, including minimal anchor rode). But the guy persisted, saying that it looked more like only 150 feet max and that he'd let out a lot of rode because last time they were here the wind really kicked up. So Kevin generously offered, "Tell you what: I'll jump in with the snorkel and take a look, and if we're on top of it, we'll move." (If you can tell, we've been infected with the Christmas spirit. Actually we are hoping to be on Santa's "nice" list this year.) So we finished backing down, put the bridle on, and Kevin jumped in the water and started swimming towards the other boat.

It was a long way away. By the time Kevin finally got over there, I'd stopped paying attention. Besides I couldn't hear anything anyway. But Kevin found their anchor about 60 feet in front of them (meaning 250 feet behind us). He hovered over it and signaled to the guy that that was the location of the anchor. Poor guy was incredibly embarrassed and apologized profusely. Kevin very kindly reassured him that sometimes it's hard to gauge distance when there's nothing between you but water. (Are you getting all this, Santa?) Turns out Ron and his wife are from Connecticut and here on charter for Christmas. They chatted for a while and then Kevin swam back and said how sorry the guy was. It was an honest mistake if you are not used to anchoring (and being anchored in front of) every day. Anyway the couple felt so bad that later in the afternoon they dinghied by with Christmas presents: some snacks and bottles of juice from their provisions. Pretty nice! (Thanks, karmic Santa!)

So despite it being 82 degrees and sunny, we are trying to make the most of Christmas. Last night we watched the "Rudolph" tv special (My favorite line: "Eat, Papa, eat!") and played Christmas music while I baked some oatmeal cranberry chocolate chip cookies. "Eat, Kevin, eat!"

Where we are:
Location=Tobago Cays, SVG
Lat=12 37.771
Lon=61 21.362

Petit St. Vincent - SVG

On Friday we motorsailed up the coast of Grenada to check out the new rigging before leaving the country (it was a successful test, meaning that the mast is still standing so the new rigging must be doing it's job, right?) We anchored in Grand Mal Bay which is just south of the Moliniere Bay underwater sculpture park. We took the dinghy to the park and there was already a dive boat there. We saw two moorings, a big white one and a small red one. We headed for the smaller one and as we got close we realized it was moving and was attached to a group of divers below. Oops. With a sheepish look at the guy captaining the dive boat, we tied onto the white mooring. Anyway, the sculpture park: a few years ago an artist came to Grenada and made a bunch of sculptures to be installed underwater. Over time the sculptures change as different varieties of coral and other sea organisms grow on them. They were pretty interesting, the most impressive was a huge circle of people standing and holding hands. We also saw an enormous stingray "guarding" one of the sculptures and eyeing us warily. Anyway, it was nice to do one last bit of sightseeing before we left the country.

Saturday was a long day. We were up at six and made it to Union Island (part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines) just after lunch. While I stayed with the boat in the crowded anchorage, Kevin went ashore to pick up our mail and clear us into the country. There was a wifi hotspot so I also uploaded a few photos and a video of our snorkel adventures from Friday. Then we upped anchor and motorsailed over to Petite Martinique to top up on fuel and load up on duty-free liquor (Kevin even picked up a bottle of champagne for New Year's). Finally, we motored over to Petit St. Vincent and anchored off the resort beach (the whole island is owned by the resort). Kevin fixed pina coladas and we watched the sun go down. As we fell into the bunk, exhausted, we could hear the strains of steel pan music coming from the outdoor restaurant at the beach. Not a bad way to end the day.

Where we are:
Location=Petit St. Vincent, SVG
Lat=12 32.076
Lon=61 23.125

Grenada - Moliniere Bay

On the way out of Grenada, we stopped at the underwater sculpture garden at Moliniere Bay. It was very cool and worth a stop. There are bettery photos at the artist's website: http://www.underwatersculpture.com

Grenada Farewell

If all goes well today will be our last full day in Grenada. The quick haulout for the survey went well yesterday -- we were in the slings at 9am, Bob the surveyor was able to do his thing, Kevin scraped the unwanted barnacles off the hull, paid the bill for hauling (yay -- cheaper than expected!), and we were back in the water and anchored again by 10:30 am. A half-hour later the owner of the rigging shop came by to quality-check the work Wayne had done. He made a few small adjustments and said to come by the shop for the bill after lunch. Which we did, and were again given a bill that was cheaper than quoted -- score! Although maybe it was compensation to Kevin, who spent two days working almost as hard as Wayne, hoisting him up and down the mast. (Usually the rigging guys work in teams of two but since we wanted the job done as fast as possible, Kevin had to pitch in!)

Today the plan is to clear out of customs and immigration. Then tomorrow we will leave early and head up to Union Island to clear into St. Vincent and the Grenadines in time for the holidays. We're looking forward to being on the move again.

Prickly Bay, Grenada - We're outta here

[Kevin's Post]Before we leave Grenada we thought we'd squeeze in one more haulout (that's #6 for those of you keeping track). And let's replace all the rigging too. Actually neither of these were by choice. Our insurance company informed us when we renewed that we needed to have an out of water survey before 2/28/08 (the 3rd anniversary of our last survey). I knew they required a survey less than 3 years old to renew, but I figured since ours was less than 3 years old at renewal time we were good until the next renewal. I was wrong. oops. Sure would have been nice to take care of this a couple months ago while we were out of the water for 3 weeks. I had a surveyor come out last week and begin the survey, tomorrow we haul (at the other Grenada boatyard - take that Grenada Marine!) so he can inspect the bottom. He said our rigging was too old (the wires that hold up the mast) and that he couldn't sign off on it. So he suggested I have an independent rigging inspection. I had some rigging guys come out and the rigging guys agreed with the surveyor that it should all be replaced. Oh good, everyone agrees I should spend more money. Replacing the rigging on a boat is one of the most expensive things you can do short of replacing an engine, but fortunately it is a heck of a lot cheaper to do down here than in the US. So when I got the estimate, my only question was "How fast can you do it". We moved the boat from the marina to Prickly Bay this morning so we could anchor right off the rigging shop and Wayne the rigger has already been up the mast 5 times today (more times than I have in the past 3 years). Replacing the rigging while in the water is an exciting process. Basically they remove one shroud at a time supporting the mast with halyards. Then the riggers dinghy the wire back to the shop to reproduce it. They bring the new one to the boat and install it. They've already replaced the headstay and shrouds (3 of the 5 wires), tomorrow they will replace the diamond (the other 2) and then it's done and we can get outta here. The cost of 5 wires: $2850.

Where we are:
Location=Prickly Bay, Grenada
Lat=12 00.035
Lon=61 45.837

Grenada -- Drive on the LEFT!

In preparation for leaving Grenada (yeah, I know it seems like we never will but Kevin tells me we are leaving and he's the captain, so...) we rented a car so that we could stock up here at the great IGA supermarket. We wanted to pick up things that we aren't likely to find in any of the mom & pop shops on some of the smaller islands -- things like Frank's Red Hot (mmm...chicken wings), and fancy stuff like hearts of palm, capers, and dried shiitake mushrooms (I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but what the heck -- put them in the cart anyway!) After taking the bus everywhere, driving a car here was a bit of a shock. As we left the marina and started to turn onto the main road, Kevin hit what he thought was the turn signal. The windshield wipers went berserk (turn signal is on the RIGHT side of the steering wheel in Grenada!) and we sat there on the wrong side of the road with a jeep bearing down on us while I gestured frantically to the left shouting "That side, THAT side!". No harm done, Kevin got the wily wipers under control and fortunately that was our only mishap while driving despite the multitude of obstacles that Grenadian roadways present. It could be a video game -- "Mario Kart" meets "Frogger". Two things to keep in mind while playing the game: 1. Always drive on the left, and 2. Be prepared to slam on the brakes at any moment. You drive along narrow, curvy roads avoiding small elderly women, wandering goats, men with machetes, and every once in a while the car in front of you will hit the brakes and slam it into reverse to pick up a passenger, say hi to a friend, or just to mess with the carload of tourists behind them. (This happened no less than four times today). It's a fun game, really.

We rented the car for two days and got all the errands out of the way yesterday so today we had planned to explore the Grand Etang National Forest and do a little hiking. Unfortunately about 1000 other people (it was a cruise ship day) also had the same plan so we arrived at Grand Etang and were surrounded by aging British tourists standing around sipping $10 cups of juice and being hustled by 30 spice merchants all trying to sell them the same necklace made of nutmeg. We explained to the lady at the admission gate that we'd been living in the country for five months and happened to pick the wrong day to come enjoy the scenery. She just laughed. But we hopped back in the car and headed up the road a ways to Seven Sisters Falls where we had a much more secluded (and strenuous) hike down into a gorge with two good-sized falls (the other five were a longer and even more strenuous hike away, so we just saw the first two). We had the waterfalls all to ourselves. Well, pretty much to ourselves. A local kid and professional "jumper" (see our Annadale Falls post) was there to give us some information about the falls (but primarily to jump from the heights for a small "donation", which we gladly gave). Cliffon the Cliffjumper seemed to scale the sheer face of the rock before jumping the 35 foot first fall, and then he took a running jump off the second fall (take a look at the videos, but don't try this at home. If you have a waterfall at home, that is.). Kevin swam in the pool (too cold for me) and the hike back was grueling -- it's always easier to hike down to the waterfalls than to hike back up to the car. Anyway, it was nice to get out and see something of Grenada other than the marina bar and the grocery store. Although after our hike we did stop at the grocery store for a few last-minute items. Oh, and we did hang out at the marina bar for karaoke night.

Grenada - Back on Board

I've been back in Grenada for two days now. Meanwhile my baggage has been on a bender in San Juan Puerto Rico -- doing tequila shots, dancing to salsa, and downing way too many margaritas. For me the trip back to the boat was uneventful but long. I was originally scheduled to fly through O'Hare on Tuesday morning but Ice Storm 2007 put the kibosh on that, so I was rerouted through Dallas where I spent the night. In San Juan the next day I arrived at the gate only to hear that the flight was "overweight" and they were asking passengers to voluntarily give up their seats for a $350 credit and a seat on the next Grenada flight. There's only one flight to Grenada each day so they didn't get too many takers and the next step was to bump people. I was fortunate to already have a seat assignment, because out of 60 or so people booked on the flight, only the 43 with seat assignments were allowed to board. After the plane landed, I filled out a missing baggage form and headed to the marina, where Chris, Barb & Kevin were hanging out waiting for me and watching "Deal or No Deal" on satellite. It's now 9am on Friday morning and my baggage just arrived in a taxi, looking bedraggled and hung over but none the worse for the wear. I'm gonna let it sleep it off before unpacking.

Grenada - It's beginning to look a lot like . . .

[Kevin's Post] This will be our first Christmas on the boat, so I wanted to do it right. I bought a bunch of lights while I was in Phoenix and carted them all the way to Grenada. These are LED lights and draw almost no power, its great. We have 3 strings of lights up and all of them combined are 12 watts. That's less power than our anchor light consumes. So we'll be able to run them at anchor which will be fun.

Kazakhstan

[Kevin's Post]I was enjoying my last night in a real bed back in phoenix when I got woken by a call from the Citibank credit card fraud department. It's not unusual for me to have charges from several countries at the same time on my credit card so I get these calls all the time. The recording asks you to verify your last 5 charges, and they have always been my own. But this time one of the charges was for $950 at a bakery? I think I would have remembered that one. So I punch the button that takes me through to customer service. The nice lady with customer service asks me if I have been traveling. I tell her that I have. Then she says that there were two charges of about $950 each from a bakery in Kazakhstan. I tell her I buy my bread locally. She suggests that the charges might be fraudulent. I tell her that I think she's probably right. So she cancels my card and now the people of Kazakhstan need to find a new way to fund their sandwich supplies.

I'm back in Grenada now after 24 hours of travel and 4 plane rides. My flight from Dallas to Puerto Rico was diverted to Atlanta due to a medical emergency, but miraculously I still made my connection in San Juan with about 10 minutes to spare. Even more amazing, is that my bags made it too. I still don't know how they managed that. It took about an hour for me go through customs in Grenada and they actually looked through my bags this time. They charged me 5% of the value of the items as best they could figure out ("No, sorry I don't have a receipt for that either. I think it was about $10."). This was the "duty free" rate since I had boat paperwork to show I was bound for a yacht in transit. Back at the marina I was pleasantly surprised to find that the bar was still open and decked out with Christmas lights. I enjoyed a frosty Carib with Chris & Barb (Moonsail) before lugging my bags back to the boat and collapsing in bed.

Grenada - Back Again

Well we had a nice final week in Tobago. From Plymouth we went to Castara Bay where we were able to hike with Linda & Steve (Seaman's Elixir) to a beautiful waterfall and freshwater pool. We then spent some time in Englishman's Bay snorkeling one of the nicest reefs we've ever seen. We were glad we snorkeled it because the next day we got a bunch of rain that murkied up the water. Our final stop in Tobago was Charlotteville which is a small fishing village that is out of the way for most tourists. We were hoping to fill up with cheap diesel while we were there (cost was about US$0.95/gallon), but unfortunately the local gas station was out of diesel and gasoline and didn't get a new shipment while we were in town. We now know we should've filled up our jerry jugs when we were over in Store Bay with easy access to fuel. We have really enjoyed Tobago and we hope to come back next year. Our only complaint had to do with the procedure for clearing out of immigration. There is only one office, so we had to take a taxi from Charlotteville to Scarborough and it took an hour and a half each way, plus an hour wait. We were sad that we had to spend our last afternoon in paradise trying to get our paperwork arranged instead of taking a hike or going snorkeling. But other than that, Tobago was an amazing island and we were glad to have the chance to see it.

We arrived back in Grenada yesterday after an interesting crossing. They are putting a new oil rig in the ocean north of Tobago and of course it's new home just happened to be right on our course line and we just happened to be there as they were installing it. We could see it miles away on the horizon (it was a huge structure like you'd see in the Gulf of Mexico). It was being towed by a tug --quite a sight, this tiny boat pulling this massive thing along at about 1 knot. So we had to go around and give him a two-mile berth. Then an enormous motor tanker comes whizzing by (well, "whizzing" in boat terms -- going 14 knots) and wants to pass by both us and the tanker, so it was a little nerve-wracking being within 1 nautical mile of this huge ship. Normally we prefer to keep our distance from those guys. But both the tanker and the tug/rig knew we were there and we were in VHF contact with them, so we weren't too worried about getting run over! Shortly after that we joined up with a rain cloud going exactly our speed and direction, so we were soaked by the time we made it to the marina at Clarkes Court Bay. It was definitely Miller Time, which translates to "Carib Time" in Grenada. We headed up to the bar and met back up with some old friends, Barb & Chris (Moonsail) who are going to be managing the marina for a month while Bob takes a vacation. We plan to leave the boat (and our cat, Boris) here under their expert care when we come home for a visit next week. Looking forward to seeing everyone back home!

Where we are:
Location=Clarkes Court Bay Marina, Grenada
Lat=12 00.628
Lon=61 44.349

Plymouth, Tobago -- Plymouth Rocks!

Well we've had a busy week. We haven't posted in a while, so fasten your seat belts this is going to be a long (possibly boring) post. On Saturday, we hit the PennySaver grocery store and loaded up on all the bargains we could find. Our cart was full of granola bars, cereal, snack food, and fruit juices (which constitute the "healthy" part of our rum drinks -- bottoms up!). Our cart spilled over and we got a few stares from the locals but we were pleased when the bill came to a little under $200 US. The dollar may be swiftly plummeting against the Pound and the Euro, but at least we are still making out like bandits in TT dollars. We freely admit to being cheapskates. We then had a nice night out with Barb and Chuck (Tusen Takk II) and Anne and John (Living the Dream). Unlike burgers, you can pretty much get a decent pizza anywhere in the Caribbean. Mmmm, pizza.

On Sunday, we bought a second SCUBA tank (hooray, now we can BOTH breathe underwater!) and explored the beautiful Pigeon Point beach. This is a fabulous soft sand beach protected on all sides by a coral reef. The beach wasn't super crowded and the few tourists we saw were mostly European or from Trinidad. Tobago is one of those islands that epitomizes what most people want in a Caribbean vacation -- beaches, a rainforest, great diving, nice restaurants and friendly people. What is surprising is that this destination is pretty much flying under the radar for most American tourists, while Europeans and Trinis know this is the place for a great getaway. Okay, the Tobago tourism commercial is over, back to the post...

On Monday (yesterday) we took the boat up to the northerly coast to Mt. Irvine Bay. We had just finished anchoring when three dive boats came and dropped off their divers about 100 feet off our port side. Score! We were within swimming distance of the Dutchman Reef, which is a very popular dive site. One of the skiffs tied up to a mooring nearby and when the divers were in the water, the boat driver gave us a huge smile and a wave and yelled "Hey -- I'm comin' over!" and dove into the water and swam right up to our back steps. He came aboard and introduced himself as Dion. He was timing the divers and I think he just wanted to hang out with someone while he waited for them to surface so we chatted a bit. He's been diving for 14 years and had a lot to tell us about the various dive sites around the island. After his time was up he told us to give him a call if we wanted to go out diving, and then he was back in the water swimming back to his boat so he could go pick up his clients. After the dive boats left we snorkeled a bit but visibility wasn't great so instead of diving we spent the rest of the afternoon watching surfers catch some of the waves crashing towards shore. There's a northerly swell right now which makes all our anchorages a little rolly, but it's great for the surfers since they get nice rollers coming in some of the beaches.

Today (Tuesday) we motored over to Plymouth, where our friends Linda and Steve (Seaman's Elixir) and Tusen Takk were already anchored. The six of us took a walk to the Adventure Farm park. It's not really much of an adventure nor much of a farm, but the guide books say it is a great place to go birdwatching. Now, none of us are very serious bird watchers; I can't tell a red crested mot-mot from a great horned booby, but even I could tell that the only birds around were some small hummingbirds and some bananaquits. There were a few other serious birders already there with their cameras out. We could tell they were "serious" because their telephoto lenses were the size of large cannons. I am not making this up. Ironically they all had these tripods set up so that they could shoot close-up photos of the birds "in the wild" (feeding from bright red hummingbird feeders). Ha! After our bird "adventure" we walked up the road to the Waterwheel Restaurant which is a converted sugar/rum mill. The restaurant wasn't really open for lunch but we decided to have a drink anyway. As the lady was guiding us to our table, Kevin motioned frantically for me to come over to a small room. I peeked in the window and saw dozens of -- get this -- large bats hanging from the ceiling fan. Cree. Pee. We sat at our table and watched as the occasional bat flitted through the open-air restaurant to find a new perch near the kitchen. Eeek. Maybe it's better that the restaurant wasn't serving food when we got there, so we just had one round of drinks before hightailing it out of there. Alcohol kills germs like rabies, right?

Where we are:
Location=Plymouth, Tobago
Lat=11 13.037
Lon=60 46.824

Tobago - Rainforest Walk

[Kevin's Post]We have been in Tobago for about a week now and have been constantly amazed at how cheap everything is here. The cost of most grocery items is about half what it is in Grenada. Diesel is less than $1 US per gallon. Eating out at restaurants is pretty cheap too and there are tons of choices, especially in the resort area where we are right now. We are definitely going to stock up before we leave, good thing we raised the waterline!

Yesterday Susan and Hale on Cayuga had arranged a rainforest tour with a retired ranger and invited us along. Steve and Linda from 'Seaman's Elixir' and John and Ann from 'Living the Dream' also joined us. We piled into a rented minivan and drove across the island toward our arranged meeting spot. The retired ranger, Renson Jack, told us that if we get lost on our drive to just stop and ask for him. I'm not sure if that shows how small the island is, or how well known he is, but in any case that's what we did and we found him. He had planned to take us on a walk through the Louis D'or river valley, but with the recent rains the river was flowing a bit too high and he advised against it. Instead we spent a few hours walking around the rainforest surrounding his 'project', an eco-resort in the making which he has spent the past 25 years building. It was a beautiful area with lots of potential, but you had to really use your imagination as he pointed out the locations of the different amenities of his 'resort'. However, Renson was very knowledgeable about the local flora and fauna, and had no end of stories about his life on Tobago. In the afternoon we drove with Renson farther into the rainforest and walked part of the Gilpin Trace which is part of a trail that used to be the only route North to South across the island. Renson told us that when he was younger, he would walk the entire trail every other Tuesday with the local priest to give mass on the North coast. The rainforest in Tobago is supposedly the oldest nature preserve in the new world, established in the 1780's. Walking through the rainforest was like being in another world with all the ferns and vines and bamboo everywhere. We saw several colorful birds from a distance and even saw an army of leaf cutter ants making short work of a palm tree. The trail was extremely muddy and we were all a mess by the time we got back to the car. We stopped for beers at a bar not far from the Gilpin Trace and ate the lunches we had all packed for the trip. It was getting late in the afternoon, and Renson drove with us back to the Store Bay area pointing out several scenic vistas along the way turning our rainforest tour into an island tour. Back at Store Bay we all collapsed at Bago's for more beers while we watched the sun go down.

Store Bay, Tobago

The trip from Grenada to Tobago reminded me of a carnival ride. Not the smooth gliding rides you'd find at Disneyland, but the stomach-flopping, herky-jerky, leave-your-head-spinning rides you'd see at the state fair. Don't get me wrong, I love riding those kinds of rides -- the Tilt-a-Whirl is a personal favorite. But not for twelve hours straight. The waves weren't very big, it's just that every once in a while the boat would suddenly drop straight down into the trough and then a few seconds later the next wave would smack the side of the boat, rattling our skulls a little. It's unusual for me, but I felt very seasick. Pretty much the whole time. Neither one of us was too keen on spending a lot of time inside the boat, so nobody made lunch and all we ate during the trip was a couple crackers for me and three slices of bread for Kevin. Mmm.

We had left Grenada around four in the morning and we arrived in Store Bay around 4pm. It took a little while to get the boat settled, but the nice thing about seasickness is that it stops right away once you are flat and level again. It was almost 5:30 when we finally beached the dinghy and hailed a taxi to take us to Scarborough to clear in. We knew it was after-hours and there'd be overtime charges but we weren't prepared for the rigamarole once we got there. The customs agent told us to walk over to the ferry dock to check in with immigration. There was no one at immigration, so we walked up to the Information booth to find out if we could get someone to check us in. The booth was enclosed in darkly tinted glass, but we could just barely see a woman hiding behind a large purse who did not respond to anyone knocking on the glass. She was practically ducking under the counter and must have thought we couldn't see her. Helpful, huh? A little old lady walked up and asked us what we needed and offered to help us track down an immigration officers. The three of us approached some security guards and she asked them a few rapid-fire questions and then started berating them for being incompetent. As we walked away, she advised us to not even bother clearing through immigration since all the officials in this country "don't know their asses from their elbows". You had to be there: imagine this tiny spitfire of a woman, maybe about five-foot even, furious and cursing like a sailor. It was hilarious, but unfortunately not very helpful. We went back to customs to explain that there was no one at immigration and after another half-hour of negotiations he said we'd have to come back in the morning to clear immigration.

At this point it was getting dark outside and we just wanted to get back to the boat and get something to eat (after the bread and crackers we were absolutely ravenous). The taxis in this country are incredibly cheap and we soon discovered why. Our driver Emmanuel picked us up and asked if it was okay for him to "make one quick stop" along the way. He first picked up some gyros to go that he was bringing home to some friends. He handed me the bag of food to hold and the delicious aroma wafted throughout the car, torturing us. Then he stopped at a bar and ducked inside hoping to find some other friends of his to say hi. Meanwhile we are waiting in the car wondering if he'd notice if we each ate a gyro. Ten minutes later, he comes back and tells us he wants to take the scenic route instead of the highway so that we can "experience the ocean breeze". Ironically we'd been experiencing just that all day, but it was kind of useless to explain it to him. The road went along the coast and periodically he would slow down, pointing to the vast blackness (remember it was night time) and saying, "Just there -- that's the sea. Right there next to the road. Can you see it?" To be courteous we kept agreeing, "Yes it's beautiful." Our grumbling stomachs were also saying things, but not so politely. We finally arrived back at Store Bay and Kevin and I couldn't even wait to get back to the boat. We stopped at the first barbecue stand we saw and pretty much inhaled our dinner. The barbecue was tasty but to be honest we would've eaten just about anything at that point.

Where we are:
Location=Store Bay, Tobago
Lat=11 09.500
Lon=60 50.372

Tobago - Store Bay

We arrived safely in Tobago - more later.

Grenada - Everything must go

Kevin cleaned out our lockers this week and we found a whole bunch of junk that we haven't used in two and a half years. So we got on the cruisers net and announced a "yard sale". One man's trash is another man's treasure, right? In fact, most of the stuff we were just freecycling -- anyone who wanted could just come and take it. The only thing that we wanted to sell were the folding bikes. Remember how excited we were last summer when we bought those great folding bikes? Well, we haven't used them since Puerto Rico and we aren't likely to use them anytime soon, for several reasons. First: Caribbean islands are hilly! And I am no Lance Armstrong. Secondly, on a lot of the islands the roads are narrow and busses and cars come screaming around corners so you do kind of take your lives into your own hands. So needless to say the bikes weren't getting used at all, and Kevin has been on a quest to get rid of anything that could be weighing the boat down. So we announced that we would let them go for a really reasonable price (like $25 each but you can't announce the price on the net) and no one seemed interested. We even told people who came to sift through our other junk that we'd take the best offer for the bikes and still got no takers. Guess most other cruisers down here have already figured out the part about the hills and scary roads. Chalk that up to another lesson learned for us.

Hurricane season is coming to an end and we are ready to get moving again. So tonight we are going to motorsail the 75 miles southeast to Tobago (which is part of the two-island nation of Trinidad & Tobago). We kind of planned this trip spur of the moment. Kevin has been watching the weather and conditions are pretty ideal for leaving today or tomorrow, but if we wait any longer the weather looks like it will deteriorate and we might not be able to go. So we spent a few hours today getting the boat ready to leave, including clearing out of Grenada. We were lucky customs was open because today is a holiday. The Grenadians call it Thanksgiving, but it is also the anniversary of the 1983 US invasion. So happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Grenada - Cheeseburgers in Paradise

Kevin's fix held, so the saildrive seacock no longer leaks. On Tuesday we motored back over to Clarke's Court Bay Marina and got our old slip back. I had called ahead and Bob even had our transformer ready so the air conditioning is on and we are staying cool. For the past few weeks a rock band has been playing at the Marina every Wednesday night, and it really packs the house. Unfortunately the lead singer is a cruiser (Steve from Liward) and is heading off to Barbados, which means no more band. So this week Bob had a local steel pan player come play on Wednesday instead. And as an added draw, Bob wanted to serve up some burgers (the bar doesn't usually serve food). As we've mentioned before, it is tough to get a good "American-style" burger here in the islands. Most of the local hamburgers are really ground beef mixed with lots of breadcrumbs and egg and taste a bit like meatloaf.

If you are in the mood for a meatloaf sandwich they are pretty good, it's just that they don't taste like a "burger". So Dave and Sue from "Pirate's Hideout" helped Bob out with the shopping and prepwork, and Dave grilled up some fabulous all-beef cheeseburgers for the crowd. It didn't take long for the burgers to run out, and lots of people would've gone back for seconds I'm sure. The steelpan music really added to the ambience. We posted some videos if you want to check it out. Smokey can really play and sings well, too. He played two sets and everyone really had a great time so we hope Bob makes this a regular Wednesday night thing.

Where we are:
Location=Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada
Lat=12 00.628
Lon=61 44.349

Grenada - "Go For Launch"

After waiting for the rain to abate, which it finally did on Friday, the boatyard crew was able to finish the waxing on the boat by midday Saturday. The guys that work the travelift don't launch boats on Saturdays, so we were stuck for the rest of the weekend. We took the opportunity to do a few loads of laundry and do a couple of other small projects on Sunday. Finally Monday morning rolled around and they had us in the water before lunchtime. Hooray! Or so I thought...

"Houston, we have a problem..." We had planned to spend one night in the harbor just to make sure that the saildrives didn't leak. (A saildrive is what links the propeller to the engine.) The mechanics had installed new seals to prevent seawater from leaking in, but just to be sure we didn't want to stray too far from the boatyard. So we anchored in the harbor and had lunch. Kevin then looked at both engine compartments, and sure enough the starboard side had a slow leak. After ten minutes of inspecting, Kevin found that the saildrive wasn't leaking but the seacock was. The mechanics had removed the seacock to take out the saildrives so something went wrong when they reinstalled it (the seacock wasn't leaking before we hauled out). So Kevin got on the phone to Craig, the mechanical manager, and let him know what was going on. Unfortunately Craig didn't have anyone available to fix it until tomorrow and he couldn't guarantee that we wouldn't get charged for a second haulout. What???!!! Kevin mentioned that he had a spare seacock and all that they needed to do was lift the boat out of the water and change it while we were in the slings and then just drop us back in. Kevin wanted it to be no charge since it was part of the job to put the boat back together with no holes in it. Craig countered with "Well you must have known the seacock was bad if you are carrying a spare." What an idiot. We carry ALL KINDS of spares for the engines! Because you never know where you will be when something breaks. (In fact we WISH we'd carried spare sail drive seals since the ones Craig ordered took FOREVER to clear through customs.) Obviously customer service is not Craig's strong suit. Kevin was hopping mad, and is determined to fix this problem himself. For now, we are taking on water (albeit very slowly).

[Kevin's Post]I was actually kind of relieved when I saw that it was the seacock leaking and not the seal itself. The seacock was leaking from the valve, not the threads, so they must have damaged it somehow during the process of removing and reinstalling the saildrives. After talking to Craig, it was clear that they weren't going to take responsibility for it. So rather than pay for another haulout and the labor to fix it, I decided I would fix it myself. I've changed 2 seacocks in the past (this was one of them actually) while in the water. Both those times the water was too murky/dirty to dive and plug the thru-hull from the outside, so water poured through the thru-hull until I could get the new one on. This time I dove and wrapped saran wrap around the saildrive to plug the intakes while I removed and replaced the seacock. It only took me about 20 minutes to get the new seacock on and so far it appears to not be leaking. The engine room is drying out and I'll have to check it again in the morning to make sure the repair is good. We won't be hauling at Grenada Marine again, and I wouldn't recommend them to anyone.

Grenada - Haulout week 3

[Kevin's Post]On Monday this officially became our longest haulout ever. But the end is in sight. The saildrives have been reinstalled and have been painted with the correct antifouling for the first time. The boot stripe is done. The bottom paint is done with a new higher waterline. They are currently trying to compound and wax the boat in between rain showers and are about 75% done. Hopefully we will get back in the water before the weekend.

Grenada -- Lazy Sunday

So it's Sunday afternoon and we are still in the boatyard. I wish I could say that the end is in sight (we were supposed to be finished with everything two days ago), but unfortunately our saildrive parts are STILL tied up in customs and the bootstripe is still not 100% completed due to all kinds of issues. Our painter, Steve, had started on it earlier in the week but the water hose incident (from Kevin's post) caused a big delay. Then, when he fixed that part and finally got around to painting the rest of the starboard hull on Friday, something went wrong with the paint machine spray nozzle and he had to re-do that part. Each time he has to re-do something, it takes a day for the paint to dry, be sanded down, and re-sprayed so it can get very frustrating. On Saturday, Steve sanded and re-sprayed the starboard hull and a few hours after he left it rained pretty hard making all kinds of water drip marks in the paint. Sunday is their one day off for most of the yard workers, so it definitely isn't going to get fixed today. And although Steve is a good guy and a good worker, he's the one who parties too hard and usually doesn't come in Mondays. *Sigh*.

Meanwhile, Kevin has come down with some tropical disease (kidding, it's just a sore throat/cold) and has been pretty miserable the past few days. He is up all night coughing and sneezing and I think between the stress of the haulout and the cold he is just getting worn down. Poor guy. Of course as of this morning I have it too. It's pretty much a given that if one of us gets sick, the other catches it also. So we both get to share in the misery. Yay.

Of course all of this would be a cakewalk if we were still in the hotel (ah, the beautiful, beautiful hotel, with it's A/C, satellite TV, and enormously decadent shower!). But I made the reservation according to the haulout schedule (it was a mistake to be so optimistic!) so we checked out Friday morning and have been living on the dry boat since then. It's kind of like camping -- we can't use the boat toilets or showers (everything would go out the thru hull and onto the ground below -- ick!) so we use the showers and restrooms at the boatyard. Which is fine during the day but kind of sucks at night having to climb up and down a ladder and find our way around the yard using a flashlight to avoid the mud puddles and the toads. That's right -- big old toads come out at night after it rains. Also it's pretty much too hot in the boat kitchen to cook anything with the oven or stove, so hooray for sandwiches -- we'll be eating a lot of those! We still have the air conditioner we rented to keep the boat cool for the cat, and thank goodness for it. It doesn't cool the whole boat, but it does keep one cabin cool so that is where we are right now. We've got the computer, wifi antenna, and several books down here and basically haven't moved much all day.

Grenada - Haulout week 2

[Kevin's Post]Today is launch day. But we're not launching. In ten working days, the yard has not completed a single task on the work list. Since my last post, the only thing that they have done is paint half the boot stripe. On Wednesday, they were ready to paint when the guy in the boat behind us announced that he needed to put his boat in the water. That meant that they had to stop working on our boat, pick it up, and move it out of the way so they could get to his boat. After that was done, they realized they didn't have the color of paint I wanted. Thursday morning it rained and all the masking got wet and pulled off the boat. After it dried out and they remasked, they finally started painting the boot stripe. About 5 minutes into painting somebody walked past the boat and stepped on the spray nozzle of a water hose spraying water all over the wet paint on the starboard hull ruining it. So the painter could only paint the port hull, and had to wait overnight for the starboard hull to dry enough to be sanded and repainted. This morning of course it rained again, so they had to pull all the masking off and remask. That's where it stands now. It looks like it is going to rain some more, so they are waiting for the skies to clear some. The yard still hasn't received the saildrive parts they need to reinstall our saildrives, despite ordering them 2 months ago (they say). I've inquired about them 3 times and every time they assure me the parts will be here "today". We checked out of the hotel this morning and are now living on the boat in the boatyard until the job is finished. The sad thing is, even with all these problems, this has still been one of our better haulouts.

Grenada - Haulout week 1

[Kevin's Post]We've been hauled out of the water for a little over a week and the progress on the boat has been excruciatingly slow. Last week all that they did was scrape and wet sand the bottom and mask the new boot stripe. The boat is supposed to go back in the water on Friday (4 days from now) and most of the work is yet to be done. I've started to be a squeaky wheel which seems to be helping speed things along. This morning I tracked down the head mechanic and told him that I had removed the propellers from the saildrives and drained the oil so they were ready to be pulled. Boom! Within 20 minutes there were 2 guys at the boat, and within 2 hours they had unmounted the engines, pulled the engines forward, and removed the saildrives from the boat. This is not an easy task, and we were amazed at how quickly and expertly they got it done. The saildrives are already in the paint shed and have been stripped in preparation for repainting. All the workers seem to really know what they are doing, which is a distinction from some of our other haulouts. The challenge is just getting the yard to assign workers to our job. Today they were supposed to prime the boot stripe, but apparently the guy who was supposed to do it parties too hard on the weekend to work on Mondays. That's life in the Caribbean.

Grenada - On The Hard

So the boat was hauled out on Monday and is now "on the hard" which is a sailor's term for being out of the water. Oddly, "on the soft" has no corresponding meaning in sailor parlance. We had made arrangements to board the cat during the haulout but after discovering that the kennels were outdoors we found a place that rented small portable air conditioners and it would cost the same as boarding him. So Boris stays on the boat, but the noise from the air conditioner freaks him out a little so he spends his time sitting near the doorway to the cabin with the A/C but doesn't like to actually set foot in the room. Strange cat. Meanwhile, we are literally in the lap of luxury down the road at the Bel Air Plantation resort. The resort consists of eleven or so vacation cottages and villas. So it's like having a small one-bedroom condo complete with kitchenette. And of course, satellite TV. The interesting thing about that is the Direct TV service is for Latin America, so many of the programs are in English with permanent Spanish subtitles and most of the commercials are in Spanish. When we were in Puerto Rico I tried to teach Kevin some helpful Spanish phrases but he opted instead to master how to say "My wife speaks Spanish" so that he could avoid having to talk to people. So maybe now he'll at least have an incentive to learn the days of the week and how to tell time. Who says you can't learn anything watching TV?

As for the work progress: yesterday Kevin scraped the barnacle remains off the waterline and I removed the vinyl bootstripe. Removing the vinyl was kind of fun, sort of like when kids try to peel the foil off the wax of a gum wrapper all in one piece? Only I was never very good at that game so yesterday afternoon and this morning we both had to work really hard to scrub off all the leftover glue using adhesive remover and acetone. The good news is this morning we had a crew of guys show up and start prepping the bottom of the boat for painting. I'm not sure if they're the guys who'll be doing the rest of the work, but they've done a really good job so far. As they worked they chatted away like ladies in a sewing circle, and of course they speak English but they talk so fast that with their accents we can only understand a few words here and there. (Unless they are talking to us, in which case they speak slowly with less slang so we understand). So we are pleased with the progress so far and hope it continues to go smoothly.

Well it is the end of the workday now, so we are headed back over to the resort where the bar has a fabulous happy hour. Beers are EC$3.00/US$1.11 until 7pm and they make the best burgers we've had in months.

Where we are:
Location=Grenada Marine Boatyard
Lat=12 01.367
Lon=61 40.697

Grenada - St. David's

[Kevin's Post]We left the marina yesterday and motored 6 miles east to St. David's where we are supposed to be hauling the boat out on Monday. As we pulled away from the dock, I noticed the boat was not handling very well. It was difficult to turn and sluggish. We could only manage about 3.5 knots for the 6 mile trip which is about half our normal speed. The photo to the left explains it all. Our propellers were practically a solid mass of barnacles. The amazing thing is that our propellers were completely clean 19 days ago when we scrubbed the bottom at Calivigny Island. We've never had more than a couple dozen barnacles on our props, and have in the past gone months without having to clean them. Today as I was standing on the transom putting on my mask and fins I saw the outline of a big fish hanging out under the boat. I stuck my head in the water to see that it was a 4 foot barracuda. I decided to just jump in anyway figuring it would take off. Apparently I only scare away fish when I am trying to catch them cause he didn't go anywhere. I scraped the props for a half hour and he just stayed there watching me.

Where we are:
Location=St. David's, Grenada
Lat=12 01.194
Lon=61 40.774

Grenada - Shiver Me Timbers

Today is Talk Like a Pirate Day. So everyone grab an eye patch, make a hook with your right index finger and say it with me: "Aarrrgh!".

Grenada - Cool Cat with a Hat

We love being at the marina here, but one of the drawbacks is that the water is too dirty and silty (lots of mangroves) to go swimming. So Roxanne on the sailboat "Raven" organized a Sunday afternoon trip to the beach. Of course practically everyone in the marina was excited and wanted to go, so she chartered a big bus and 30 of us piled in and headed over to the west side of the island. There's a restaurant called the Aquarium with a soft sand beach, so everyone proceeded to rent a beach chair and soak up the rays with a blender drink from the bar. Of course what beach is complete without beach vendors hawking necklaces, handmade baskets, ankle bracelets, and spices? I'm sure the vendors get pretty tired of hearing "no thanks, not today". So when the basket weaving guy approached us and we asked him if he could make a hat instead of a basket, his eyes lit up like we had made his day. A sale! Kevin has been wanting a straw hat for a while and this seemed the perfect opportunity. We negotiated a price and watched Terry set to work. He brought over a single palm frond and measured it around Kevin's head to get the perfect fit. Then we watched in awe as he cranked out that hat in about 15 minutes. Amazing. So now Kevin has a great hat that will last 30 years (Terry's guarantee). Even if it only lasts half that long it was cool to watch it being made.

After everyone had their beach time, we all sat down for the Barbecue dinner. The meal was okay, nothing spectacular, but the band was really incredible. We haven't heard too much live local music. We've heard LOTS of karaoke, and there is a good rock band that plays once a week, but this band at the Aquarium was rocking some fantastic soca, singing covers of all the songs we hear on the local radio. They were just really good and really into it; people were dancing and we all had a really great time. So it was a perfect end to a perfect afternoon.

Grenada - Flaming Swords!

On the morning VHF net there was an announcement for a dinner at a local restaurant where the meal would be served on a flaming sword. How could we pass that up? So we made a reservation and Thursday night we headed over to Le Phare Bleu for a fabulous meal. The restaurant and marina is just one bay over to the east so it wasn't far. The owners of the marina have added a very distinctive feature to set the marina apart: a beautifully restored lightship which houses the marina facilities as well as an upscale restaurant. For those of you unfamiliar with lightships, they served as a guide for vessels wherever the currents or shifting shoals prevented building a lighthouse. The ship at Le Phare Bleu, Vastra Banken, was built in 1900 and was active as a lightship until 1970. It's 28 meters long and something like 250 tons. Since 1970 it has been used as a cafe, a houseboat (big house!), and finally it was loaded onto a container ship and brought here to Grenada to serve as the centerpiece of the Le Phare Bleu Marina.

When we arrived we were offered champagne glasses and invited to take a look around. We headed to the upper deck to enjoy the twilight and the cool ocean breeze. After the sun set our hostess Veronika invited us down to the dining room, where we were seated and served delicious bread and appetizers. Finally the moment arrived for the flaming swords (we have video - it's no Errol Flynn swordfight but it's still pretty cool). The swords were presented by Chef Alexander Sattler (Veronika's husband) and the food was excellent (seared tuna, beef fillet medallions, chicken and shrimp). They kept making more and bringing the swords around for seconds and thirds. We were almost too stuffed for dessert, but we managed to save room for the fruit sorbets and espresso chocolate mousse. Yum. Afterwards, Chef Alex drove us back over to Clarkes Court and it was interesting to hear the challenges he faces running an upscale restaurant here in Grenada. We had a great time, plus how often do you go to a four-star restaurant and get chauffeured home by the executive chef? Only in Grenada.

Grenada - Third World Dentistry and Other Adventures

Several other cruisers here have had dental work done. Everything from crowns to root canals, and they all rave about the same thing: "It's sooo cheap!" they exclaim, "A cleaning is EC$90 (US$33) and a full root canal is only like US$300!". The low prices coupled with the fact that we are both overdue for cleanings was enough for me to finally break down and give this dentist a call. Our appointments were for 8 and 9 am this morning, so in typical type A fashion, I call and ask the cab to pick us up at 7:15 so we'll get there plenty early to fill out any paperwork. Unfortunately the cab couldn't come til 7:45 so we just barely made it on time for the 8 o'clock. I was worried about paperwork? Ha! We had arrived before the doctor so we sat down with the receptionist who hadn't even booked us under the right last name (Nice to meet you, Mr. & Mrs. Palt) and there was not a sign-in sheet, form, or even a pen in sight. Dr. H arrived shortly and two minutes after that I was in the dental chair. Why is it that dentists all over the world get so chatty when you have no possible way to respond, other than "unnngh" and "gaaah"? While I was tongue-tied, I learned all about Dr. H -- he is from Syria, came here for vacation a few years back and decided to stay and open up a practice. He was very nice and very gentle, and also very, very quick. No exam (I guess you have to specially request that when you schedule) and the entire cleaning was done in 20 minutes at the most. I got up from the chair and he took a few minutes to clean the instruments and then it was Kevin's turn. Twenty minutes later he was done and we paid the doctor directly, instead of paying the receptionist (which was weird -- we are so used to the whole copay process in the US). All in all I think you get what you pay for. It wasn't the most thorough of cleanings, although I bet it's a real steal if you need serious dental work done. But Kevin did mention as we walked down the street, "Hm. That was the first time I've ever had my teeth cleaned with a dental drill." What???!!! I had thought he was using a waterpick, but Kevin paid closer attention and he was actually using a sort of drill. Jeez, I hope he didn't scrape ALL the enamel off our teeth. For those of you dentist-phobes, there's a reason the dental hygienist spends and hour scraping the plaque off with those twisty torture implements -- it's the best way to remove the tartar without taking the most important part of the tooth! So next time you go for a cleaning, ponder that and let them know you appreciate their efforts. As for us, that will probably be the last time we skimp on routine dental care.

This afternoon we were sitting inside and out the rear window I see a mast coming impossibly close to us at the dock. I flew outside to see what the heck was going on and apparently a small local catamaran had hired a crane and was getting hauled out right here at the dock next to us. I should mention that this marina is not a boatyard -- it doesn't have a special haulout slip or even any boatwork facilities. I guess the owner of the boat lives nearby and just wanted to haul it somewhere where he could keep an eye on things. It seemed kind of like a fly-by-night operation. They pulled the boat up as close to the rocks onshore as possible, and were side-to the wind. Three big guys were holding the lines to keep her in place while they set up the crane. Then the crane guys pulled out these scraggly looking slings to lift the boat -- they were all frayed and completely worn out. There's no way we would trust our boat in something like that. So we nervously watched the whole process (from another boat safely across the dock). The wind was not cooperating so we were worried the boat would swing around wildly once they got it up in the air. We took lots of pictures (for evidence, in case they dropped the thing on our boat!) but the crane operator really knew what he was about and had that thing lifted and safely out of the water without hitting anything or dropping it. So that was the excitement for today. Hopefully we are long gone when they decide to put the thing back in the water.

Grenada - Kevin Sings

Stop worrying, everyone. We did not fall off the face of the earth or fall victim to a freak accident. Anyone who skims the blogs from last summer will realize that when we are sitting at a marina doing nothing, the well runs dry and I run out of ideas for blog posts. We keep doing the same things that I blogged about previously (karaoke on Saturdays, Hash every once in a while, watch the grass grow, watch the cows and sheep and other livestock mow the grass, etc). We are not bored per se (Kevin has been waxing the boat a few feet at a time -- a daunting and energy-sapping task -- it is really shiny and pretty now); it's just that I haven't written much because I felt it might be bor-ing to those of you who have to read it. But our inbox is getting full of requests for a post, so here it is. I can't guarantee a scintillating read, though.

Saturday was another Hash day; this one started and ended at Cabier Ocean Lodge on the east side of the island. It was farther away than we expected, and we had to take a taxi (expensive!), but it was the most scenic hike we've done by far. We walked along a beach for part of it, and then the trail wound its way up to a cliff which had pretty spectacular views of two bays. Gingerly stepping around large piles of cow dung (lots of cows -- Moo!), we followed the rest of the group and ended the evening drinking beers on the beach and munching on some tasty fish nuggets. We were back at the marina in time for the karaoke, and Kevin managed to stick it out until 9pm. He usually takes off around 8 or so. One moment he's there the next minute "Poof. Just like that -- he's gone" (picture Kevin Spacey describing the disappearing act of Kaiser Soze in The Usual Suspects). Although I can't understand why he wouldn't want to stay to the end, the very end, of the singing. Keep this on the down low but he did actually pick up the mike and sing, just once, a few weeks ago. Somewhere in there is his inner Justin Timberlake just waiting to bring the sexy back and bust out in song. I have no doubt that Kevin will deny, deny, deny that this ever happened but lest you doubt me one of our friends recorded it for all posterity in a photo.

Grenada - Tropical Storm Felix part II

[Kevin's Post]Felix announced his arrival around 4AM with howling wind and torrential rain. We both got up since it was impossible to sleep. We sat around listening to conditions deteriorate outside and downloading weather updates. The 5AM advisory from the National Hurricane Center stated that it had strengthened to a tropical storm as predicted and the center had passed and was located about 30 miles NW of us. Shortly after 5am the power went out and the marina was pitch black. Since we couldn't see anything from inside the boat, we put on our foul weather gear and went out to the cockpit to check on things. The wind speed indicator was showing a sustained 45 knots (52mph) with higher gusts. There was a steady chatter on the VHF of anchored boats dragging in the various harbors around southern Grenada. We could see that the two boats on the opposite side of the dock (the windward side) were having trouble with the wind and waves pushing them back into the dock. Amanda turned on the deck lights to light up the docks so they could see and I put on a pfd and went over to help. Both of the boats' transoms were slamming into the dock under the force of the wind and the waves. That can be pretty serious, a lot of boats sank because of this during Ivan. I helped one of the boats adjust their docklines to hold them off the dock and the other boat managed to get situated on their own. The rain hitting me at 50 mph was actually kind of painful and I had to lean into the wind to maintain my balance. I think everyone was a little surprised by this storm since we only had about 16 hours warning versus 4 days like we had with Dean. One of our neighbors clocked the max wind at 53 knots (61 mph). These were the strongest winds we have seen since we have been on the boat. At least the boat got a good rinse.

The small white circle in the middle of the red is Grenada.

Grenada - Tropical Storm Felix

[Kevin's Post]Well, it looks like we are in the crosshairs again. NOAA just decided an hour ago that the low approaching Grenada has closed circulation and is officially tropical depression #6. It is expected to become a tropical storm tonight, and a hurricane in 3-4 days. It is only 180 miles east of us right now so should pass right over us as it becomes a tropical storm sometime tonight. This is actually good news, as it will not have gained much strength by the time it passes. This time our preparations consisted of throwing on a couple of extra docklines and crossing our fingers.

Grenada - Transformer #4

[Kevin's Post]It's been a while since we've talked about our electricity woes, so here's a quick recap: The power supply at the marina is 220 volts (actually closer to 200, but I'll get to that) and 50 Hz, our boat is American and needs 120 volts 60 Hz. So, after our first week having no power, the marina cannibalized a 3 kw transformer (Transformer #1) from the laundry room and gave it to us. This transformer was too small and couldn't provide enough current to start our air conditioning compressor. So we gave it back. Then they gave us a 15 kw transformer (Transformer #2) and life was good. For a few days, anyway. Then they took it away from us and gave it to a bigger boat (which by the way is now unoccupied). Then they gave us another 3 kw transformer (Transformer #3) which can provide enough current to start our air conditioners. Unfortunately transformer #3 only produces 92-96 volts under load, which is bad for the compressors (at 50 hz, the nominal voltage is 100). After learning that these transformers only cost about $150 in the states we decided to just buy our own (transformer #4). We had it shipped from the states to Grenada which cost $250. By the time it arrived it had so many broken parts inside that it sounded like a 30 pound maraca. Needless to say, it didn't work and we filed a claim with FedEx.

The reason we ordered this particular transformer is because it has an automatic voltage regulation circuit in it and can take any voltage input from 160 volts - 250 volts and produce the correct output. You can even adjust the output +/- 10 volts. So, if it worked it would have compensated for low input voltage automatically. But it didn't work. After starting the claims process with FedEx, it was clear that they weren't interested in owning a broken transformer, so I decided I had nothing to lose by trying to fix it. Hey, I've been using electricity all my life, right? How hard could it be? So I took the whole thing apart, sketched out a wiring diagram, fixed the broken pieces, bypassed a broken switch, and managed to put the whole thing back together. I hardly had any parts leftover. I cautiously plugged it in, half expecting it to explode or at least burst into flames. Anyway, it didn't and now I believe it is working like it is supposed to. It has two output sockets, one for 110 and one for 220. On the 110 socket I am getting 110 volts between hot and neutral which is good. However I am also getting 110 volts between neutral and ground which the boat's electrical panel interprets as reversed polarity and so it won't let me flip on the breaker. So the 110 socket is useless. The 220 socket works great though, even with a 200 volt input I can adjust the output to be anywhere from 210 - 230. So I am running the regulated 220 output from transformer #4 into transformer #3 to step it down to get a steady 100 volts, exactly what the air conditioning specs call for at 50hz.

After all this, today the marina owner told us that starting tomorrow he is converting the marina power to 3-phase in order to solve the low voltage problem, thus making our new transformer nothing more than a $400 sacrifice to the transformer gods.

Grenada - It Ain't Over Til It's Over

So after seeing the extremely calm conditions Thursday night/Friday morning, we decided yesterday to take down our huge spider web of docklines. We went back to our normal configuration so that we could actually get off the boat (with the spider web we were suspended at least 3 or 4 feet off of all the piers so we were stuck unless we used the dinghy). Anyway we may have jumped the gun because in the evening on Friday we started seeing some steady 20 knot south winds gusting to 25 and it got a little rolly at the docks. Also it rained cats and dogs for a while. Sure enough, looking at the satellite imagery we were still feeling the last effects of Dean (not that Dean has dissipated at all, in fact it is strengthening as it moves westward toward the mainland). It wasn't uncomfortable at the dock, but we would've liked to see how the spider web of lines worked in wind and waves as opposed to flat calm. So we will be a little more patient and conservative next time (knock wood that there won't be a next time, of course).

Grenada - Hurricane Dean

[Kevin's Post]Well, we survived our first hurricane. After 2 days of preparations, Dean passed 140 miles north of us as a category 2 hurricane, and it was a big nothing for us here in Grenada. We had no wind, no rain, and no waves. We had worse weather at our wedding (which was outdoors). We had light and variable winds all night long, and this morning we have west winds 10-15 knots with partly cloudy skies. We used 19 lines to secure our boat to the dock, so we definitely erred on the side of caution. On the one hand we are glad we didn't experience any severe weather, but on the other hand we feel slightly cheated after all our efforts. Nonetheless, it was a good exercise for us to prepare the boat. Hopefully we won't get too many more close calls this season.

Grenada -- Waiting For Dean

So far this week has been filled with vacillation and indecision. We've been keeping an eye on Tropical Storm (soon-to-be-hurricane) Dean, which earlier this week was out in the Atlantic on a westerly path headed straight for us. At the time, weather forecast models were all over the place, no one knew where it was going to hit, and our "weather guy" Chris Parker kept repeating the word "Venezuela" like a mantra when boats asked him where they would be safe. Knowing that we would have great weather through Thursday, we listened to Tuesday's afternoon and evening forecasts with bated breath. In the afternoon we were nearly sure we would just run to Puerto La Cruz in Venezuela, which is about 210 miles southwest of here and well out of any potential storm path. But we are really reluctant to go to Venezuela. Not that we have anything against Venezuela (can't say they feel the same way about us) but we just really like it here in Grenada and don't want to have to bash through the tradewinds for 210 miles on the way back here. So even though we weren't sure what we were going to do we started preparing for departure: we had the props scrubbed free of oysters and sea critters, and Kevin checked the engines. All was going along smoothly until -- crack! -- the dipstick for the saildrive oil broke off while Kevin was twisting it back on. You have to feel for the guy. After it broke, he paced around the boat muttering "I just want to be able to touch ONE THING on this boat and not have it break...". Poor kid.

Still undecided, but prepared to run at noon on Wednesday if there was no change, we both got a good night's sleep on Tuesday and woke up to a somewhat happier scenario. Finally the forecast models have reached a consensus, that Hurricane Dean is moving more to the northwest and will strike somewhere near St. Lucia or Martinique (150 miles north of us) sometime on Friday. So given the distance and the wind forecast for Grenada we think we'll stay put. We've already started preparing the boat for the possible worst case scenario -- stowing stuff down below, lashing stuff down if it can't be removed, and cocooning the boat in a spiderweb-like cradle of dock lines. (Kevin has worked out a diagram where we use 17 dock lines and 15 dock cleats. We'll take a photo when we're done.) We are prepared for worse conditions than they are predicting for this area, so the upside is that even if nothing much happens we will have got some practice prepping for severe weather. Plus Kevin was able to fix the broken dipstick with super glue! So things are looking up.

Grenada -- Panorama

So this week is Carnival week in Grenada. All kinds of events have been going on, starting with Children's Carnival, the Soca Monarch competition, and ending with two days of parades and events (Mon 13 & Tues 14). Earlier in the week I headed into town on a quest to find tickets to the big steel pan competition, the aptly titled Panorama. I stopped at a tourism booth and they weren't able to give me much information, the girl knew it was on Saturday at the National Stadium but had no idea what time it started or where exactly to buy tickets. I went to two tourist stores and finally found the tickets being sold in a shoe boutique of all places. I now had a ticket which claimed that the show started at 7pm, and a paper schedule that said it started at 8pm. Hmmm. I asked around -- other cruisers, locals on the bus, the people I work with at the GSPCA -- and no one could tell me for sure what time to be there. So when Saturday rolled around, I called the cab to pick us up around 6pm just in case the thing started "on time". (Grenadians reading this should be laughing uproariously at that.) So sure enough we arrive at the stadium at 6:37 and even as we are coming through the gate, I ask the security lady what time it'll start and the answer was a shrug and a nonchalant "Not too sure...". So as it ends up we are pretty much the only people there, other than the bands. We are even there earlier than the vendors who have yet to set up their beer booths (GASP!). Okay, I exaggerate, there were other people there. Of course they were other white tourists, sitting patiently in their seats in an empty stadium, waiting for the show to start.

But the nice thing about being there so early was that we got to walk around and get up close to the bands as they practiced. I should explain that this is not simply a steel band competition, it is a steel orchestra competition. There were 8 bands ranging in size from 30 to 75 kids, with sometimes 150 instruments. Back in July these kids (grade school age to high school age) competed with other orchestras to win a spot at Panorama, so they are the best the island has to offer, and they are truly amazing. They play an original piece, and if you look closely at the videos (which we'll post) you'll see no sheet music whatsoever, and no conductor in front of the band. The competition finally started (at 9:30pm -- needless to say, the local Grenadians somehow knew not to bother showing up before nine!). Kevin and I got right up close to the stage so we could get the full sound experience (there was no amplification so back at the stadium seats you couldn't really hear very well) and I've never seen anything like it. It was intense -- there was so much energy and the kids were all jumping around to the rhythm as they played each piece, really something to see. Hopefully the video will do it justice. Unfortunately we couldn't stay to hear all 8 bands, by midnight they were only through band number five, but it was still a great experience.

Grenada - That Sinking Feeling

[Kevin's Post] Ever since we moved aboard the boat (with everything we own) the boat rides a little bit lower in the water than it ought to. The bottom paint was painted based on a fairly lightly loaded boat and now that the boat is heavier, the bottom paint doesn't even extend above the waterline at the bows. This is bad because stuff grows really fast on the bare fiberglass if it is underwater. I've watched the bows get lower and lower and at this point I would estimate the bows are about 5 inches lower than when we bought the boat while the stern is about 1 inch lower. A while back somebody mentioned to me that I should check for water trapped under the floors of the forward lockers. The front 8' of each hull is a huge locker with a fiberglass floor about a foot above the waterline. Under the floor is a big dead space and one of few places on our boat that you can't stick your head in and look around. I asked them how it would be possible to check for water and they said to use the inspection port. Hmmmm. Our boat doesn't have an inspection port. Apparently newer Mantas have an inspection port because the older boats (like ours) had a tendency to accumulate water under the floor. So I contacted Manta and they said that on our boat that whole dead space was filled with foam for floatation, and that yes it is possible for water to get in there. I figured that with the foam there was no way for enough water to get in there to effect the waterline and decided not to worry about it. That was about 9 months ago.

Now we are trying to plan our next haulout and one of the things we are considering doing is raising the painted waterline. Before we resort to that, I thought it would be prudent to finally check for water under the forward locker floors. So yesterday I got out a hole saw and cut a 2" hole in the floor of the locker exposing the foam. Sure enough the foam was damp. Eureka! I scraped out as much of the foam as I could with a screw driver and the foam was getting wetter the deeper I went. I had about 3 feet of foam below me and a screwdriver wasn't going to get the job done. So I attached the hole saw bit to the end of a pole and started working my way down through the foam (do you see where this is going yet?). Now I wasn't using a drill or anything (I'm not completely crazy) I was just twisting the pole with the hole saw bit and pulling up a little chunk of foam at a time. After about 2 hours of this I knew I was getting close to the bottom when all of a sudden, whoosh! The hole floods with water. Uh-Oh. (Not my exact words). I went inside and told Amanda that I had just cut a hole through the bottom of the boat. She thought I was joking, but then she freaked out when she realized I was serious. Let me just stop for a minute and explain that the forward locker has a watertight bulkhead between it and the rest of the boat, so I could cut holes in the bottom of the bow all day long, there would be no danger of sinking. I put on my mask and snorkel and jumped in the murky water to inspect the damage. I searched the whole bow for a hole but couldn't find one given the limited visibility. Back out of the water, we grabbed a hand pump and start pumping the water out to see how fast water was coming in. After pumping 20-30 gallons out, the water level in the hole was dropping. We watched the hole expectantly waiting for the water level to come back up. It didn't. I looked over the side at the waterline, "Uh, I think the bow is higher". Living on the boat for 2 years I have learned a few things about seamanship: 1) The water is supposed to be on the outside of the boat, and 2) sinking boats go down not up. Amanda took over pumping and pumped until it was dry. We excitedly jumped to the dock so we could see the bows from a better vantage. Sure enough, the port bow was at least 3 inches higher with all the water pumped out. Apparently for 2 years we have been carrying around several hundred pounds of water in our port bow. I am sure there is an equivalent amount in the starboard bow, so my next project is going to be performing the same surgery there. Verrry carefully.

Grenada -- Fish Friday

Last night about 15 of us took a 1.5 hour bus ride up to Gouyave (rhymes with "suave") for the Friday Night Fish Fry. Gouyave is on the northwest coast and is known as "the Fishing Capital of Grenada". By the time we arrived around 7:30 pm, the party was already in full swing. It was like a huge street fair, with lots of booths set up offering different fish or shrimp snacks at great prices. The most expensive items were the shrimp stir fry and yellowfin tuna kebobs at 10 EC apiece ($3.70) and the cheapest was the fried fish burgers for 2 EC (about 75 cents), so we were able to fill up without spending too much. There were throngs of people wandering up and down the streets and we ran into another big group of cruisers as well as a group of some of the veterinarians who work at the Animal Shelter. The town of Gouyave puts on this party every Friday, rain or shine. We had brought our umbrella (hoping if we came prepared, it would stay dry!) but of course it started pouring halfway through the evening. That didn't stop the party though, all the people just crammed into the booths with the cooks until the rain let up. We were a little disappointed that there wasn't any live music, but the music they were playing (giant stacks of speakers are a must at any Grenadian get-together) was pretty fun and the local kids tried in vain to teach some of us to dance. It was a friendly and welcoming scene and we enjoyed people watching as well as sampling the food (and drinks!).

Grenada -- Drop Shipment

Poor Boris. Yesterday afternoon I noticed him obsessively cleaning the area around his tail. On closer inspection I could see some blood and signs of infection, classic signs of an abscess. Lucky for us we had our Grenada cell phone and we were able to call around to get an appointment to see a veterinarian. The GSPCA didn't have one on duty yesterday but there is a teaching hospital at St. George's University and they had an appointment open so we brought him in. Sure enough, he did have an abscess and the doctor on duty was able to clean it and give us the proper medications, all the while explaining every step to the veterinary student who was also in the room with us. We also bought him an Elizabethan Collar which will prevent him from licking the wound until it heals properly so now he is stumbling around the boat like a cat with a lampshade on his head. I feel sad for him but sometimes can't help laughing when he walks straight into the wall. Like I said, poor Boris.

So we are still having power woes; the voltage is too low for Kevin's liking so a week ago he ordered a high-tech transformer from the US to help regulate the power to the correct voltage. He's been eagerly awaiting its arrival and spent all afternoon today getting the paperwork in order: he had to pick up forms at Fedex, then make two trips to the customs agent before finally going back to Fedex to pick up the box. Only to discover a huge tear down the side of the box -- not a good sign on a shipment containing a piece of highly sensitive and expensive electrical equipment. After noting the damage, and making the Fedex guy document it with photos, he took the box back to the boat and plugged it in. Nothing. Not a whirr, not a click, not a hum. After taking the housing off, he noted that the thing was broken in half-a-dozen different ways, it basically looked like the thing had been dropped (or thrown). So we are foiled once again in our attempt to get the power working correctly. We're still using the air conditioning even with the low voltage, but we'd prefer to run it with the correct voltage specified in the owner's manual. He's not ready to give up yet; maybe he can tinker with the thing to get it working MacGyver fashion.