Update and Air Conditioning!

Well, here we are, still in Genada, but since late Friday we have been in a non-rolling, water-gushing, toilet-flushing (without pumping) domocile. I must say that there are goods and bads to this.

First the goods: the floor no longer rolls (although I miss the motion believe it or not), the air conditioner works in the bedroom at night (although we found it too cold the first night it was 25C!), the shower has hot water that is not dependent on Cheryl holding the solar shower over my head and we don't have to pump the toilet.

The bads: we can't jump off the side of the apartment when we want to go for a swim (although we are only a 2 minute dinghy ride from the marina to a nice beach and a 10 minute bus ride from a fancy resort beach), we are stuck in one spot for a while, the heat is more intense on land than when we are on the boat and finally, it is brutally hot working on the boat.

All in all it is a nice break from what we have been doing, but if the Perrys were not coming here to drop off Artemo, I think we would be gone sooner rather than later. We are really looking forward to seeing them.

As we had mentioned earlier, we likely won't be blogging as much for the next while because we don't want to bore you to death and have you stop reading the blog before the next exploration phase of our journey. We will, however, still be putting - I guess you can't say pen to paper, more like fingers to keyboard - anyway, we will still be blogging our thoughts, reflections and experiences so hang in there.

I started thinking today on our way into St George's how easy it is to fall into the trap of comparing things around us to "the way things are at home" and how detrimental that can be to an adventure. Let's face it, there are likely more things we can find different than the same about the way things are done here as compared to Canada. If we choose to compare them focusing only on "that's not like at home", then of course our experiences will be mostly unfavourable. Open the options and the mind and the possibilities are limitless and much more enjoyable.

What began this train of thought was listening to the traffic on the way into the capitol of Grenada - St George's. In Canada and I dare say North America, when one hears a car or truck horn, the odds are good you are hearing the result of impatience, anger, frustration or someone just plain p.....ed off. Here, on most of the other islands and even in Thailand, where we first noticed the horns, it means an entirely different thing. Most of these places I mentioned it is either a courtesy or a notice of intent. It can mean "look out pedestrian on the sidewalk, I am coming up behind you on the road - don't be startled", it can mean "a bus is coming in case you want a ride", it can mean "I'm going to pull in front of you or behind you or will be in your vicinity now" and any number of other things. It doesn't mean "what a jerk you are".

Another difference - the condition of the houses and yards. We could look at some of them and say "how messy" or "those poor folks are needy" or some other judgment based on what it means in Canada. On most of the islands, what is important in a house and yard is not keeping the grass cut short or the hedge trimmed etc etc. So what is important - I can't answer that because I don't know but - I do know that in many of them there are happy kids and clean clothes on the clothes line; in those same small villages I see bright-eyed children who are allowed (and it is safe) to play without having to be watched by their parents and we have received many waves and friendly greetings from within those yards from young and old alike. Imagine strangers driving down the street in the city or town where you live and you wave and smile and greet them just because they are there - done that very often???

I seem to be waxing philisophical here so I will close this blog. It is not that there are no more examples of "detrimentalism" (my new word) but as I mentioned earlier, we would like you to continue reading the blog so I won't frighten you away with any more reflections - not to say I won't in the future but you won't know exactly when.

Up on the Hard in Grenada

Well we are up on the hard in Grenada. Yesterdy we motored from True Blue Bay to Prickly Bay and Spice Island Marine Services - approximately 40 minutes. Griff did a fantastic job of backing into the slip, always difficult with a crosswind blowing. Then there was the question of where to place the lift straps so they wouldn't rest on the propeller shaft. At one point I thought Griff was going to go in head first as he leaned over the edge of the boat to see where the strap was sitting. After Mystic Journey was out of the water it was time for a power wash of the bottom and the first chance to see how badly the paint was pealing and what the effect of having the anti-fouling off the bottom would have. After the powerwash almost all the paint was off the port side from waterline to keel. That side of the boat also had a lot of growth on it where the paint had peeled before. Obviously the anti-fouling does work.













After the boat was placed in position and up on supports Griff and I spent some time peeling off paint from the starboard side as well. It peels off just like wallpaper - just get it started with a scraper and then pull.

Last night and the next two nights we spend on the boat (our apartment isn't available until the 16th). It was amazing how it still felt like the boat was rocking. When walking on deck we were still holding on to the shrouds and other supports for support. I think part of that was because we had lifted our stern anchor the night before we left True Blue Bay and had spent a rollier night than we had the past week.

Today we were up bright and early and got started on the boat work, I did some more paint stripping and Griff started removing things on the deck. At 9:15 Frankie arrived with 2 workers, Jerry who will be doing most of the deck work and another fellow who started by washing the topsides (the white part above waterline) and then helped Jerry with the teak removal. While they were doing that Griff and I removed all the hardware on deck, hinges on hatch covers, cleats, guides for ropes etc. This was quite a feat, the temperature was 34C with very little breeze and since some of the things were bolted through the deck Griff spent part of the day flat on his back in the hatches. After 5 hours of work by the four of us the majority of the teak is off. Jerry said tomorrow the rest will be off and the deck ready for sanding and the primer coat. We're not sure how many coats of the Awl-grip paint will be required on the deck.

Before After