My Birthday

September 29th - My birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I received many e-mails wishing me a happy birthday. The Perry's invited us over to have dinner and a sleep-over. Millie worked all day decorating for my birthday and they had made a birthday cake. I was very touched by it all. Especially when the cake came out and they clicked on the computer and there were the Spark's kids singing happy birthday with everyone here. Julie had set that up in the morning and recorded it. All in all it was a great day.

The Decorations

The Cake

Amelia and Julie

Dinnertime

Thank You Everyone For A Great Day!!!!

Sewing Machines and Short Cuts

You are probably wondering about the title and how these two things go together. Read on.

Last Thursday we walked to Martin's Marina. We were able to get some pictures of the bay and the infamous dock that we had our adventure on. The previous week I had announced on the Cruisers' Net that I was looking for a used sewing machine. The girl in the office at the marina had told Griff she had one for sale so we walked over to have a look at it. It was an older model Singer that interestingly had come from Canada. Her mother had just got 2 more from Canada and was looking to sell this one. However, we could not agree on a price. I had checked on the web and I can get a brand new similar one from Sears for $120 CDN so I offerred $50US which I thought was fair. She said no. She wanted $150US because it had cost them more than that in duty to bring in the other machines. I didn't feel like bargaining so I just said no thanks.

Now the Short Cuts part. We knew there was a short cut from the marina back to the road leading to Prickly Bay so off we went in the direction we thought it should be. We walked along the path until we came to what looked like a private yard. (We had been told once that all roads in Grenada are connected - none come to a dead end - they may end at a person's yard, but not a dead end.) At the end of our path we met a woman who was walking her dog. She gave us directions for the short cut (we had missed the turn-off) including one that seemed strange - "watch out for the bats when you walk through the house." We headed back and found the stairs leading up and at the top we discovered the house. the view of the bay was fantastic. The house was abandoned, maybe a victim of Hurricane Ivan? The rooms were massive, made of brick. Actually it looked more like the public areas of a resort or hotel rather than a private house. She was right about the bats - they were present in the front foyer which we had to walk through to find the path again. We followed it until we came to a chain link fence. Someone had pulled a corner of the fence back and that was how we got through onto the road again - Lover's Lane.

There you are that's how Sewing Machines and Short Cuts go together.

Thoughts and More Grenada

First thing right off the bat - it is absolutely great having Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia here. We could get spoiled with having people we love so close and it could slow us down BUT we need to get "on the road again" .

We have taken turns visiting back and forth and it is so much fun when the kids come out and swim off the boat. They were out the other day and played with some friends they had made from Zen, a cataraman from Rhode Island. Cheryl and I had met them previously and so when they (Zen) went out to St Davids to get some work done, we told Julile and Graham to keep an eye out for them. The kids are the same age as Millie and Alex but the girl is older and the boy younger.

It is also fun to go out to Westerhall where the Perry's apartment is. It is a really nice 4-plex set way back off the main road up a dirt lane. It is brand new and so seems out of place in the "jungle" but there are lots of new houses and apartments that are similarly placed in other parts of Grenada. When we were out there last time we helped the kids with their home schooling a bit and at other times Millie has taken us for a walk to show us all the different food plants/trees around the place and Alex is still showing me the ins and outs of electronic games.

We also met the Perry's at Grand Anse one day. It is a beautiful beach - the type that the advertising posters show when they are trying to attract tourists.

As much as we enjoy being here with the Perrys, we are also anxious to get underway on the next leg of our journey and begin again to visit places we haven't previously been. This brings up other thoughts of the journey that I will share with you.

When we began our adventure, people asked us about pirates and security and being safe. My answer - still a valid one I think - is that if you take care and use precautions and stay away from certain areas, the chance of being threatened or accosted or whatever can be minimized. Our intent initially when we got this far south and got into the less safe zones such as Trinidad and particularly Venezuela was to take all the precautions and not sail in certain areas and make sure we always sailed with other boats etc etc.

After being in Trinidad and trying to decide where we wanted to spend the rest of the hurricane season, we have had a change - not so much of viewpoints but of priorities. As you had previously heard, Trinidad has a lot of violence. While there we became accustomed to thinking of security first - walk in groups, don't go certain places after dark, take a stick in case of feral dogs. This is not to say that all places in Trinidad were like that but before making any plans, security was certainly one of the first things you took into consideration. We had no intention of waiting out the hurricane season down there as some people do so it became a matter of deciding what we did want to do. Our first opportunity - to travel up the Macareo River - was put to rest when Trinidad stopped selling fuel to yachts - or to any foreign flagged vessel. Since we had picked up some parts for Artemo in Trinidad that we needed to deliver to Grenada we were able to fill in that gap but then what?

As I said above, originally I had opted for the idea that it would be alright to visit Venezuela if we took the proper precautions - lift and lock the dinghy every night, lock our lazarettes (deck lockers), make sure everything on deck was chain locked, sleep with the boat locked down and don't go out at night. We had thought we would leave Grenada, travel to Los Tostigos in convoy with other boats and then to Margarita the same way. We could then decide whether we wanted to go to Laguna Grande and Medrigal Village, then Tortuga and finally leave Venezuela via the outer islands for the Netherland Antilles.

After a good deal of discussion regarding the whole scenario as I have just painted it, Cheryl and I both realized that this is not what we signed up for. Sure we could do all of those things in order to visit Venezuela but it would be kind of like deciding that there was a beautiful museum well worth seeing in the middle of an area populated by thieves and murderers. If we took the proper precautions, went in a group, didn't stray from the path leading directly from point A to point B, didn't go at night and realize that we would always be looking looking over our shoulders and in the end could still get robbed, we would likely find the museum fascinating, BUT..............

Bottom line is we signed up to sail on a magical journey, part of this journey being the freedom to choose options that would provide us the most memorable adventure possible - in a positive way!!! The possibilites for options are endless so from this point on, we have decided to let the Gods of Wind, Storm and the Sea be the providers of all the stressors we will encounter. Our focus will be on seeking the beauty and wonder that lies in wait. Flowery? - you bet - but heartfelt!!

One last thing - I feel sadness when, through the research we do regarding where we are going and what we are doing, a recurring theme is the seeming increase in the need to tend to the safety factors of our voyage. I speak to people who sailed here and many other places 10-20-25 years ago and it was not always like this. My belief in the basic goodness of humanity, however, tempered with the knowledge that we can't live in the past and we can't bury our heads in the sand, tells me that this is still for the most part a pretty precious world we live in and we need to work to keep it that way.

Grenada Again but Nearing Departure

Good morning - a couple of things before we get into the "real" blog.

First - Bush Sitter - 1) no cramps from green bananas - they are not the same as our yellow bananas, but are meant to be used when green and cooked. These were really well cooked, 2) there was a constant re-supply of the clean water used to wash hands for the cooks and 3) grass skirts are South Pacific and need to be seen in person to find out what is under there!!!

Second thing - for those of you who might like to make a comment (if indeed there are any people out there still reading our blog (aside from our faithful and very loved commenters)) but are intimidated by the comment procedures - ""you don't have to sign into gmail to comment. Click either Anonymous and then add your name to the text if you wish to be known or not if you don't OR click name and go ahead. Again, you don't have to sign up for gmail"" (And it is SO nice to get comments - it keeps us grounded in Canada and with love.

Where were we - Sunday after the 'oildown we did some minor work on the boat - replaced some teak strips by our fairleads on the deck and changed a couple of clips and rested. And then it rained for a while.

Monday we had a bit of an adventure. We had not gotten fuel since we left Grenada in July and we had not gotten water since leaving Trinidad on September 4th. Unfortunately the fuel depot that is directly in front of us here in Prickly Bay has got piping problems so although we put it off as long as possible, our water needs dictated that we find an outlet so we headed around the corner to Martin's Marina in Mount Hartmans Bay. Nice trip of about an hour although we didn't put up any sail as it was a short trip and against a 10 kt wind. After finally finding the diesel fuel pumps (separate from the gas pumps) we tied up and filled up. I took the gas jerry cans down to the other end of the dock and filled them after putting the diesel in. In the meantime Cheryl was filling the water.

Leaving Prickly Bay

So where is the adventure you ask. Well it happened as we were leaving. We were docked for fuel at the end of a T-dock and our port side was facing towards the entrance to the bay which of course put whatever swell there was directly into the side of Mystic Journey. The dock man had gone back to the office after we paid so we had to cast off by ourselves and almost immediately after we let the lines go and I started the boat moving, squall winds hit us squarely broadside from the port side. We may have mentioned before that although it might make sense that you would know when you are going to feel the winds from a squall because you are being rained on, in fact sometimes the strongest winds come prior to the actual rain cloud getting there. Picture a hurricane - the winds that blow clockwise around a hurricane are usually strongest or at least just as strong on the outer perimeter (were you ever at the end of the line on the ice while playing Crack the Whip?). Anyway, the winds of a squall act in a similar fashion.

When the winds hit we looked up and saw the rain clouds out past the mouth of the bay but by then we were being driven into the dock on our starboard side. I guess in hindsight I should have immediately stopped the boat, re-tied a couple of lines and waited but at the time my concern was that the fenders (bumpers) on the dock side would not be enough to keep the boat off the dock and we would end up with, at a minimum, our paint job on that side being ruined. I also didn't know how long or how strong the squall might end up getting so I kept the boat moving.

Well, this strategy might have worked alright EXCEPT a rope from the front of the dinghy, which was up on davits at the back of the boat, got loose and blew onto the dock where of course Murphy's Law dictated that it get caught on an immovable object, a dock cleat. Cheryl yelled at me to reverse but I had been paying very close attention to the fenders as the movement of the boat brought them up the side of the boat, closer and closer to a position where they weren't protecting anything, so by the time I heard her and it registered in my somewhat antiquated brain cells so I was able to take action it was too late - the front end of the dinghy had torn loose from the davits.

By this time we were in neutral, the boat was being held in one spot against the dock by the force of the wind and I was able to get to the back. The rear of the dinghy, which was on the off-dock side of the boat, was still being held by the davit so I lowered that into the water, jumped into the dinghy (well, not really jumped - more like lowered myself off the back of the boat!!) and unhooked all lines from it except for our tow line, which is what had gotten caught and which we had used in pre-davit days to pull the dinghy behind the boat. So here we were, dinghy now in tow behind us but with the rain now starting to arrive and pinned to the dock. Did I mention that the wind chop, or waves produced by the squall, had increased quite a bit and were also having an effect on Mystic Journey's position against the dock. It was move the boat or ???

Right about then a French gentleman arrived from a catamaran that was anchored in the bay. He had seen the front of the dinghy drop and knew there were problems so he came over to help. I started to move the boat backwards down the dock at this time because with the wind that strong, once we cleared the dock we expected to be blown sideways and if we had gone off the front of the dock we would have gone into water too shallow for the boat.

The next few minutes were hectic (even more so than before!). As we edged backwards along the dock the fenders kept riding up and the boat kept threatening to "kiss" the dock. We have a strip of wood/stainless steel that protrudes about 3 inches out from the side of the boat about 15" down that sometimes helps but by itself is not enough. Our helper was on the dock alongside trying to fend the boat off and he also would re-insert the fenders between the boat and the dock as they were pushed up by the boat actions. We finally began to clear the dock but of course as soon as that happened the part of the boat that was clear, the stern, was then pushed even more. At that point getting the bow of the boat clear without the stern swinging all the way around and hitting the dock on the other side became the problem. I applied more power to get us past that point more quickly which of course effected the fenders but finally we were clear! At this point the boat was still being swung by the wind so rather than try to overcome that, I did the jujitsu thing and let the wind and boat motion become part of what we needed to do, get completely clear of the dock. (Sorry no pictures of Mt. Hartman Bay and Martin's Marina!! HA HA)

Returning to Prickly Bay

Mission finally accomplished and we turned out to the bay mouth and left Mount Hartman Bay with only a sample of red paint on the side (later removed) and a really good lesson learned as a reminder of how the Gods of wind and wave do what they want. We are the ones who need to make the changes and adapt/assimilate what they teach us. Oh, and the damage done??? Obviously we made a good choice of craftsman when we chose Nick to do our davits as they were intact. The total damage was one rubber dinghy handhold detached from the dinghy (re-glueable), one shackle (replaceable) and one velcro strip which we had more of. And I guess a bit of my pride was bruised but not forevermore.

The Damaged Dinghy

Beach Clean-up and Oil Down

Today we participated in one environmental and one cultural event.

This morning we participated in a beach clean-up on Lance Aux Epines (Lance Opeen) beach which is the beach we can see from our boat. The clean-up was part of the world day event sponsored by the Ocean Conservation Society. A number of countries around the world participate in the event. They collect the garbage found on the beach and tally what sort of garbage was collected. We had a sheet to fill in with the type and amount of garbage found. Natural, biodegradable items,such as cococuts, sea grass, shells etc. were not included. We met with a group of students from the university, 4 plus Dilantha the leader, and proceeded to pick up garbage. We picked up 1 1/2 large garbage bags full. The rest of the group collected 3 bags filled about 1/3. The garbage we picked up ranged from cigarette filters to rusted paint cans. In between were various types of pop and liquor containers, food wrappers, clothes, 1 diaper and 1 used condom. This was on a stretch of beach that had 2 resorts and a dive shop on it. In front of those places the beach was fairly clean of garbage. We found one area that looked as if the locals had used it for a dump and also tried to burn the garbage they brought. We were disappointed that there were not any locals or more cruisers taking part. The results are tabulated in an effort to see what types of garbage are polluting the world's beaches and what can be done about it. For more information on this you can access http://www.oceanconservation.org/

Later in the afternoon we joined a group of cruisers to attend an "oil down". This is the traditional dish of Grenada. Cutty picked us up and we headed to St. David's not far from where Cutty lives and the Perry's are staying. We went to a neighbourhood bar/grocery store/restaurant where we helped the locals prepare the oildown which is like a stew. The required ingredients are breadfruit, callalou, coconut milk and some type of meat. Each cook has a preference for the ingredients added to the basic four. In addition to the basic four the dish we made also included plantain, green bananas, papaya, okra, green onion, parsely, and dumplings. The meat they used tonight was turkey wings and salted pork tails.

The first thing we had to do was grate the coconut and tumeric. This was done on a large grate that two people could work on at one time.

While this was happening others of our group were put to work peeling and cutting breadfruit and green bananas. Next came tying callalou leaves in knots.

The ingredients were layered in a large pot. Again depending on the cook how the ingredients are layered varies. We put a layer of breadfruit, then meat, then more breadfruit and some bananas, plantain and papaya, more meat and these were repeated until the pot was filled. Then the callilou leaves and other ingredients were put on top.

Now it was ready for the coconut milk. This was made by putting a small amount of water in with the grated coconut and then squeezing out the liquid. This was then poured into the pot, the pot was covered with a piece of metal that had a block of wood for a handle and put on an open fire which included the coconut husks. Then it was left to boil down.

While the oildown was cooking Cutty took us for a walk further along the road pointing out the different plants along the way. The most interesting one he showed us was a Brazil nut tree with the pods in place. The pods look like big acorns. Cutty said in December when they are ripe the end/top drops off the pod and the nuts inside fall to the ground.

Back to the oildown. It was time to add the special ingredient - tomato ketchup. Through out the cooking Cutty would have one or another of us taste the broth to see if salt needed to be added. The last thing that went in the pot were dumplings. These were made with flour, a little bit of salt and coconut milk and then shaped into balls, cigar shapes or flat circles.

Finally the oildown was declared ready and we lined up for our supper. Griff was first in line with the comment that he used to be in the army and he learned that you don't wait if you wanted to eat. The meal was delicious. Cooked this way the breadfruit was edible, in fact quite tasty. The meat fell off the bones. The salt pork tail was a little chewy, but had a nice flavour. Of all the
dumplings the ones that had the most flavour were the flat circles. The others were quite heavy.

Two things I found interesting, one of which you may have noticed in the pictures. The oildown is like our barbecue at home. It is a male domain. We were told that Grenadian males pride themselves on being good cooks and the oildown is a dish that only males cook. The second thing of interest was that as soon as our oildown was on the fire cooking the cooks started to prepare the coconut and fruit for a second pot. This one had the same ingredients plus carrots and pumpkin (squash). They were having a 'party' after we were gone. Cutty said this actually happens every Saturday and they would also have a barbecue. While we were there, from about 5 pm onward, men started to arrive and visit with us and each other. This continued on until we left about 7:30. Interestingly no women arrived except for the ones that lived in the neighbouring house and were related to the owner of the bar.

In Grenada

We have decided to stay in Grenada for a bit longer. A number of things have led to that decision. The primary one is that neither of us wanted to go to any part of Venezuela where you have to go to check in with customs and immigration. We can check out of Grenada with Bonaire as our next port of call and still stop at the outer Venezuelan islands without officially checking into Venezuela. Friends were told by Venezuelan immigration that you could do that and stay a couple of days at each island. If we leave Grenada now we would get to Bonaire by the end of September and have to spend time there before I fly home for my mom's 80th birthday in November. Since the Perry's are here and we like Grenada we decided that spending the extra time here made more sense.

We are trading 'sleep-overs' with the Perry's. They have stayed here a couple of nights and we have stayed there a couple of nights. Last Sunday while they were here Griff asked Graham if he would help him change the mast nav lights to LED's. This needed to be done because LED's use much less power than regular bulbs, therefore they save on battery power while we are sailing. Graham hoisted Griff up the mast which I appreciated because it meant I didn't have to do the hoisting. I just manned the safety line. Of course both of the kids wanted to go up in the bosun's chair. Initially Julie said no, but eventually Millie wore her down and both kids got to go up the 'STICK'.

Graham and Alex hoisting Millie

Millie waving from the "stick"

Concerned mom!!!!!

Alex waving from the "stick"

We can't spend too much time with them because that upsets the routines of both households. It takes about 45 minutes by bus to get to their apartment and that makes it difficult too difficult to go to spend a short time with them. We can however meet at a halfway point which would be Grand Anse Beach. Actually we are a bit closer to there, but the kids like to go to that beach.

The buses on Grenada have not changed. The one we were on yesterday (going to the Perry's) was actually a mini-bus and not an adapted van. It must have seated about 30 people. It was full when we left St. George's and the driver stopped a couple of blocks from the bus station to pick up another passenger. One of the ladies in the back yelled at him that he was not supposed to stop in downtown St. Georges other than at the bus station and she would let the police know. He yelled back that yes they had talked about that rule, but they hadn't passed it yet. We continued on our way, not stopping again until after some people had gotten off. We came to the turn off for Phare Blue, another anchorage, and about 10 people got off. There was a church on the corner and a funeral was taking place. A crowd was standing on the church steps most of them dressed in black and white. We could hear singing, but could not tell if it was coming from inside the church or from the crowd on the steps. Cars were parked along the road for about 1 KM. This made driving challenging. The roads barely have room for two lanes of traffic and there are not any parking shoulders. That means when there are cars parked the vehicles travelling on the road have to 'duck' into intersections to let vehicles travelling in the opposite direction pass. We got to the turn off for the beach by the Perry's and got off.

We couldn't find the beach or the Perry's so we called Julie. Miscommunication ++++. She thought she had told us they were going to Grand Anse Beach; we thought she had just said the beach and assumed she meant the beach by the apartment. We headed to the apartment and sat outside waiting for them. Eventually their landlord walked by and let us into the apartment. The Perry's arrived shortly after that. Graham cooked a typical prairie supper - perogies, sausage, mashed potatoes, and beets. Everyone was tired and ready for bed by 8:30PM.

We left the Perry's this morning with Graham on his way to the boatyard and Julie working with the kids on their school work. On the way back to the boat we stopped at Island Water World for some new horseshoe life buoys and some fishing tackle, at the grocery store for fresh veggies and at the ATM for cash. This afternoon we did a couple of small maintenance jobs on the boat and just had a squall go through.

Grenada Continued

Here it is Friday evening and we are entertaining the Perry children aboard Mystic Journey. Our last blog left us in Prickly Bay after a great sail up here. We did the clearance thing and then just hung out for the weekend, swimming, walking and catching up on Grenada happenings. There are some very rich houses up here so we walked in the ritzy neighbourhoods looking at how the other side lives. One in particular caught our eye - not necessarily in a good way. Along with the biley/mustard colour, it has a round part that looks like the standard rook in a chess set, with the same types of top on walls that surrounded other areas of the house. Can you spell ostentatious??

Sunday we walked to the airport to see how long it would take us from Prickly Bay so that we could decide whether to take a bus or walk when we met the Perrys. It took about 50 minutes so we decided that was doable. We also took a walk up to the apartment building that we stayed in while we were here before so that we could say hello to Wendy, our landlady. She was delighted to see us and even offered us a free nights lodgings, an offer we later took her up on. It was nice to be welcomed back so warmly.

Monday we had lots of running around to do - Island Water World on Lagoon Road to get a couple of very short cables made for our dinghy davits - then to Turbulence Sails to take in our rear cabin hatch rain cover so they could make it a bit bigger - Budget to look at various and sundry hardware and Ace Hardware to replace my favourite screwdriver that joined other things that have ended up in "Davy Jones Locker".

Tuesday was the day we put Mystic Journey up to get a few spots on the bottom scraped and sanded and repainted. I think we mentioned that pieces of cardboard had stuck to the bottom after our last antifouling job and although it was expected that the sea water would take it off, it didn't happen. They were really good though and we put the boat up at 2:30 and lauched it again at 8:00 the next morning. They also did some other touchup that we hadn't asked for and it was all free so that worked well. We spent Tuesday night at the apartment that had been offered to us after having our evening meal at the Dodgy Dock at True Blue Resort. We enjoyed a number of good meals there previously with our good friends Aleitha and Randy when they were sailing with us.

Wednesday seemed to take forever to happen since this was the day the Perrys came to Grenada. According to the airline schedule they were due at 5:40 so we got there at 5:20 only to find that the real arrival time was 5:17. However, the plane had been delayed until 6:00 PM and then eventually 6:15, which is when they actually arrived. Cutty, the pre-arranged taxi guy was there with customs papers that Graham had arranged to have waiting. Graham had been told these were needed in order to bring in the boat parts they were bringing but as it turned out, customs at the airport didn't ask for them. Graham said it was because he left the talking up to Julie. It was absolutely great to see them although it was a short visit at the airport since as soon as they came out, their stuff was loaded into the taxi and away they went to Westerhall, their new home for the next (hopefully) less than 2 months.

Thursday morning we took a taxi out to Westerhall to visit Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia. I will leave it to them to describe their place except to say that it is airy, spacious, sunny and we really enjoyed it. We spent the day there during which we visited Artemo and saw her in her bare bones state, had lunch at the marina there and then came back by taxi. We had a slight problem coming back because the apartment is up a laneway very much hidden by vegetation and hard to see. When we left we caught a bus from the lane end but unfortunately no one took note of exactly what it looked like at the lane and so on the way back by bus, none of us knew where to tell the bus driver to stop. Of course we have said before that on Grenada the buses are actually 12 - 15 passenger vans that they load to the hilt with the aid of the "conductor". Anyway, we missed the lane and ended up getting off at the grocery store down the road about 3 kms. That was okay since we needed to buy stuff anyway but when we caught the bus on the way back, we ended up squeezing the 6 of us into a van that already had about 10 people in it. Quite the ride and thank goodness it was short.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention - on Thursday morning Graham and Julile realized that the bag that contained Grahams wallet, the boat papers and the laptop with all of their pictures on was missing. Cheryl had taken a short video at the airport but unfortunately the only thing is showed was Graham coming out the door and putting the bag down so we could all get hugs. Panic time!!

We phoned Cutty, who had arranged for the driver to take the Perrys to Westerhall on Wednesday night, and he said he would check with the other guy to see if the bag had been left in there. Of course he couldn't get in touch with the guy right away so there were a few uneasy hours. Cutty finally phoned later to say that the bag was safe and sound. Wow!!

What you are going to read now is a short note from both Millie and Alex to say hello and to add a few of their thoughts.

We will catch up later

Hey all it's Alex here.

Grampa Griff and Nana Cheryl are the same. We are stayin at Grampa Griffs boat tonight, its great be back on a boat. It's so hot and no fans so were a little sticky at night but its ok.

I will give it over to Amelia so she can write her note.

Miss you all Alex.

Last night we stayed on Grampa Griff and Nana Cheryl's boat. When I got on the boat I felt a bit sea sick because I haven't been on a boat for a month or two. For dinner we had macroni and cheese and we watched Ice Age the movie. We went for a swim and we went to the beach. When we were at the beach we went snorkelling and we saw a guy with Conch shells and he gave one to us. We went to bed. In the morning Cheryl made pancakes for breakfast and we went to Budget marine. When we got back we went swimming and we took two lines from the back of the boat and we swung on them. Then my parents came and had lunch and went to the beach again with us. Me and my Dad went snorkelling and we saw sea urchins and lots of fish. Well, I hope to see some of you soon. Bye Amelia

Grenada Again

Well, here we are again in Grenada and coming back we realize how much we enjoy this island. First though, how we got here. We checked out of CrewsInn Marina about 11:30 as we had hoped to. When we went through immigration we thought we had lucked in because the girl told us and in fact the form told us we were allowed 24 hours to clear Trinidad. Then when we got to customs, we really thought we had hit the jackpot because when I asked the guy helping us if I could mark down 16:00 as leaving time he said "no problem" - but then his boss saw the paperwork and put the big "No No" to that. He told us we had one hour to leave Trinidad, which is what we had expected in the first place.

The reason this is so important is that we wanted to arrive in Grenada in daylight. We usually use an average of 5 kts an hour as a rough guide for our speed, taking into account that the winds may or may not be favourable and things could (and usually do) change as we sail. So, with 80 nm to go, we hoped to leave Trinidad at 16:00 and get into Grenada around mid morning.

Since we had to check out of the marina by 11:00, we had hoped to check out of Customs and Immigration right then, since they are right at the marina, go to Scotland Bay and anchor and rest until 16:00 and then leave. We didn't want to have to come back to Immigration again so when they said we had an hour, we told them we would leave then.

Our last view of Chaguaramas Bay.

Then the murky, lurky Thomas thinking came into play - aha!!

Waters around Trinidad breed barnacles faster than the speed of light and of course barnacles can get on the hull, rudder and propellor and slow the boat down considerably. Since we had antifouling on our hull and rudder, we didn't expect many barnacles there but our propellor is a different matter. It doesn't hold antifouling at all well so we knew the propellor would be covered and that really messes up fuel consumption and multiplies how hard the engine has to work. What we decided to do was stop in Scotland Bay anyway and I would dive on the propellor and clean it. If customs showed up, which they have been known to do and usually in an extremely bad mood, we would tell them we had prop problems that I was in the process of fixing and then we would leave.

So off we go to Scotland Bay, taking the opportunity to linearize our wind indicator (I won't even try to explain that) and when we got to Scotland Bay I went down to clean the prop. Note to Self: never ever attempt to do that again without wearing very heavy gloves - the barnacles are sharp. After I cleaned off as many as I could, we had some lunch and decided to lay down in the cockpit, rest and read for a bit until either 16:00 or customs came around. About 14:30 I happened to glance up and notice that the scenery around the boat had changed considerably.

We had put the anchor down but had not put much rode (chain) out since we wouldn't be staying long. Obviously we hadn't put enough out because we were about 150 meters from where we had been and we were drifting for shore. Since it was later anyway (and just in case anyone was looking) we decided to make it look like this was intentional and we lifted anchor and slowly left
Scotland Bay!!!

The rest of the voyage was tremendous, other than the fact that we started out with the wind from WSW and it had been forecast from ENE. It was still a fairly good wind (10 kts) and we were able to sail almost immediately. We knew that the wind would eventually come around to ENE and were hoping it did so by changing direction behind us rather than in front but of course that didn't happen. By changing behind us I mean that it would move from a beam reach (directly from the side) to a broad reach (side and behind) to directly behind to broad reach on the other side to a beam reach on the other side. Instead it moved from beam forward to head on and then to beam other side. What this meant was we had about an hour of motor sailing but the good part was, the wind changed while it was still light so changing our sail configuration was done in light.

By 19:00 hours we had about 9-10 knots of wind directly on our beam. By then we had all three sails up, main, foresail and staysail and obviously Mystic Journey likes that kind of wind because incredibly, we were sailing nearly as fast as the wind that was driving us. At one point I noted that the true wind was 9.2 kts and we were sailing at 9 kts. As the wind grew stronger, our speed increased and for a while we were sailing at over 10 kts consistently. WOW

Of course there is a down side to this. Our GPS was set to show us our course to steer, time we had sailed, time left to sail and what time we would reach our destination. Because of our consistent quickness, we began to show earlier and earlier arrival time until, if we kept up our speed, we were slated to arrive at 12:30 - 30 minutes after midnight. It is never a good idea to arrive in the dark, even if you have some knowledge of the anchorage so boo hoo boo hoo, we first took down the stay sail. That slowed us a little bit but still not enough so down came the foresail. Better but we were still making about 6-7 kts and were due in at 4:00 AM so we had to really open out the mainsail, which means we eased the main sheet so that the mainsail moved farther forward and the wind was only hitting part of the sail. This slowed us down enough so that we ended up arriving in Grenada about 6:30. The seas during all this were running about5-7 ft directly on our beam which made for quite a bit of rock and roll but it was still a great voyage. Between the great winds, our super-great boat AND our new autopilot, a whole new sailing vista opened for us. You'll notice in the picture that I, Cheryl, took that Griff is adjusting the sails and there is an invisible person, Autopilot, at the helm.

So here we are in Prickly Bay, Grenada, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the Perrys and taking care of some business with the boat. Julie et al arrive Wednesday and that is going to be a real treat. In addition, our boat goes back up on a sling briefly while they re-do the areas on the hull where the cardboard that was under the supports when we had the bottom done before stuck to the hull. Did you get that?? Anyway, it will be free. Plus, we stopped in to see Wendy, our landlady from our previous stay here and she offered us a free night in an apartment so it looks like we will be using that Tuesday night so we won't have to stay on the boat while it is in the sling.

Further, we have made contact with some people who will be heading down to Venezuela. There are 2-3 other boats and although there is a possibility they will leave on Friday (not good for us - we want some visit time with Perrys), the one boat we have talked to says it is not decided yet for sure so we are gonig to a meeting on Wednesday to discuss possibilities. It will be so much more relaxing to travel to Los Tostigos, Venezuela and then on to Margarita in the company of other boats.

Anyway, now you know everything I do - and probably lots more - so until next time, take care of yourselves. You are loved.

People We've Met

I thought maybe you would like to know a little bit about some of the people we have met here in Trinidad.

The first Trini we had anything to do with and have continued to deal with is Jesse James. Jesse runs the Maxitaxi service out of Chaguaramas. He is the main tour arranger for the cruising community. We have gone with him or his drivers to the Aza Wright Nature Centre and Caroni Swamp, the Saturday morning fresh market, the pan factory, Price Smart, hiking and the movies. Jesse will also refer you to dentists, doctors and probably lawyers if you have the need. He seems to work 7 days a week and is available by phone or email after hours.

David, Dennis and Regina of Goodwood Marine were most helpful getting our autopilot installed. We mentioned David before. He is the 70+ year old who owned the company and who we initially were working with. He has lived in Trinidad for 50 years and was a commercial airline pilot before his mandatory retirement at age 60. He had interesting stories, but some days it was very difficult for Griff not to jump in and do things for him. He moved so slowly and at times it was painful watching him climb in and out of the hatch or up and down the companionway stairs. He was very thorough and conscientious about the job he was doing. We have no doubts the autopilot will see us through. Dennis has purchased the business from David and seems to be just as conscientious as David. He has an engineering back ground. Regina was their 'right hand man' in the office. She made sure we had all the paper work necessary to get the autopilot VAT (value added tax - like our GST) free and to register the equipment for warranties.

I must say a bit about Ronnie. We first met Ronnie when we moved into CrewsInn. Almost before we had finished securing our dock lines there he was smiling, handing out his card and saying he was available to do any kind of cleaning on the boat. At that time he mentioned polishing the stainless steel on deck. That was something that definitely needed doing and I wasn't looking forward to doing it again. We told him to come back later and we would talk. He did come back in a couple of days. When he arrived Griff was just starting to strip the hatch cover in preparation for varnishing. He gave us a reasonable quote for that and over the next couple of days what we had him do expanded. Eventually he did the varnishing on the salon table, the nav table, the workbench, and the companionway including the stairs; he polished the stainless and today we agreed to have him refinish the remaining teak in the cockpit and give us a quote to replace the teak along the fairleads on the deck. All of this was stuff we were planning on doing ourselves, but it is easier to have someone else do it and here in Trinidad the cost is reasonable. Ronnie is a very hard worker. He would show up every morning around 10:00 (he has about a 45 minute drive from home), smile on his face and double straw hat on his head. He would work through the day until about 3PM. He was also working in the evenings because he had taken the table tops and stairs home with him so he could spray the varnish on. He is working on our neighbours boat and has kept the same schedule there.

We have also met a number of cruisers here, some we had met coming down the island and some are new aquaintances.

D and Don on Southern Cross - We initially met them way back in February in Nanny Cay, BVI. They took a while getting here as they went to San Juan and Barbados before coming here. We were going to travel up the Macareo River with them until the fuel situation occurred. They chose to jerry can fuel and headed out yesterday with Rose and Tom on Sojourn. We had travelled with Tom and Rose to Tobago.

Roberta and Tito on Alleluia - Tito and Griff worked on their dinghies together while we were in Grenada. Roberta and Tito have been sailing in the Caribbean for 5 years now. They spend the hurricane season, July to October, in Trinidad and the rest of the time they spend between Trinidad and Martinique. They haven't sailed further north than Martinique nor have they gone west or south of Trinidad. They do know their way around Trinidad and are helpful with questions.

Leona and Bill on Voyageur C - They are located across the dock from us and are fellow Canadians from Nova Scotia. They set sail from Nova Scotia in September 2007 and sailed down the Intracoastal Waterway of the Eastern US. This is a course that uses the river systems rather than sailing off shore in the Atlantic. They arrived in Trinidad about a week after we did. While here they are also having work done on the boat and then will be heading west as well.

Steve on Receta - We briefly met Steve before he headed back to pick up his wife Anne in Toronto. For those of you who have read it, Anne is the author of "An Embarrassment of Mangoes" the story of their first year cruising in the Caribbean. I finally read it after meeting Steve and borrowing the book from Leona.

Judy and Bill on Wanderlust - They, along with their three children Alice, Noah and Benjamin, are in the first year of a two year circumnavigation of the Caribbean.

Sarah and Richard on Quintessence - Like us they bought their boat this past year and are just starting out sailing as a couple. The stories of their trip up the Rio Macareo inspired us to change our initial descision not to sail there. Unfortunately the fuel situation caused us to revert to that initial descision and as you know we are not going up the Rio Macareo now.

Lynn and Randall on High Stakes - Canadians from Toronto. They too are getting an autopilot from David. Lynn volunteered to be the representative from CrewsInn on the group submitting cruisers concerns about the fuel situation.

Lynn and Bruce on Alize - Lynn organizes the potluck for CrewsInn and the weekly Mexican Train Dominos competition. We have attended this, but haven't played.

Honore and Bob on Will of the Wisp - This is their second year here and they organize the weekly hikes that we have been going on. They spent 6 months in Bonaire this fall and helped with the volunteer turtle group there.

Before We Leave Trinidad

Well, here we are again. They are still not selling fuel to foreign-flagged vessels (us yachties) so we did not get to go up the river last Friday. We decided to stay at the marina, where not as much garbage reaches us, until Thursday so that the man who was supposed to add two access hatches to our diesel tanks could get the plates he needed for covers brought in (an aside - the tank hatch guy blew it again. The diesel man (Ian) was very perturbed with him and told us that when we come back to Trinidad ((Never)) he would drain and clean our tanks for free. The other guy has a substance abuse problem ---but I'm not taking his inventory Holly!!! Anyway, we had planned to stay until Thursday and leave Thursday afternoon to go back up to Grenada to see Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia and to drop off the gear they flew down to us so that we could bring it up to them. That is still going to happen as tomorrow afternoon we leave for more northern waters (75 nm north).

So, to catch you up with what we have been doing while waiting here and this is in no particular order as I can't remember the dates and I am too lazy to get the calendar.

We went on another hike with the hiker people again. This time we all went out together but split up to go to two separate trails. The one that was supposed to be harder went uphill to a ridge, across the ridge for a while and then back down to end up at the same beach we ended at last time. The other trek was pronounced easy and flat - about a 2 km walk to Edith Falls. Well I can tell you that there were some wires crossed. In fact the first question I asked when we rejoined the other group is how many of them had to use their hands to help themselves up the hill they climbed - because we did!! It was actually an incredible hike. We started off on an old road shaded on both sides by bamboo. In the background we could here a lot of howler monkeys making their roaring sounds. Some sound like dogs but there are some with and incredibly deep roar that does sound like a lion, as we mentioned before.

After a while the road turned into a path strewn with rocks and pebbles that quickly turned into boulders that we had to climb on in order to climb up. the scenery and the birds and butterflies were fantastic while the vegetation turned more jungle-like with each step we took. We finally arrived at the base of Edith Falls but not before losing one couple to the roughness and difficulty of the trek (they were Canadian too - I was so embarassed!!!). The falls didn't have much water falling which, considering the amount of rain we have been getting, was a surprise to us but apparently it only falls heavily immediately after the rainfall. Nevertheless, there was enough water falling for me to stand under the falls for a very refreshing shower.

Edith Falls is about 5oo feet above where we were standing and all over the cliff face are a variety of clinging vines and plants. It was really very beautiful and in addition to my shower I was able to bathe in a pool farther down the stream. We finished the morning by meeting everyone back at the golf course before returning to the boat. And that segues very nicely into our golf game.

Tuesday morning bright and early (well, 7:30 is bright anyway) Jesse James sent one of his guys over to pick us up and take us to the golf course. It is a 9 hole course laid out into a very nice although not very demanding course. Greens are in good shape and although there was no longer grass to serve as rough, if you put it into the bamboo, you didn't get it back. There is also one hole where if you put it too close to the stream, you could end up meeting the caiman who often suns itself there. While we were playing the first hole a single player - a lady - caught up with us and asked if she could play with us. First thing she said was "Hi, I'm Canadian and I have been here 2 years, how about you guys?" Turns out she and her then boyfriend came here when he was asked to manage a major cable installation. After they were going to send her home when her Visa expired, they ended up getting married so she could stay. She was from Toronto and he was from Montreal. Very nice lady and we enjoyed the day a lot.

We also finally took advantage of the movie run into Movietown, towards Port of Spain, a week ago Tuesday. We saw Mama Mia and were really astounded how well Meryl Streep performed as a musician. She and her two cronies really made the movie. One thing that really amazed me was the number of Trinidadians who know all the words (the women next to me sang nearly every song - she had a good voice so it wasn't too bad) As we were leaving and the credits were rolling there was a song playing that, while ABBA's, certainly never made any kind of hit parade but I heard a small but melodic voice singing all the words. I looked down and an East Indian boy about 6 years old was singing away with a beautiful smile on his face and he was not missing a word or a note. Marvellous!!

Just an addition to that - right beside Movietown is a store called Price Smart. It requires a card to shop there like Costco and later that week we had an opportunity to visit the store on someone elses card. Close your eyes, open them, you are in Costco, right down to some of the merchandise having Kirkland labels and even the food outlet just in front of the cash register. At the time we went there we were still possibly going up the river so we stocked up on all kinds of goodies and actually saved a bunch of money. Must be some kind of connection though.

So, that is the catch-up for Trinidad. We check out of the marina tomorrow morning at 11:00 and will also check out of customs and immigration at the same time since it is right here. We intend, however, to stop in Scotland Bay on the way out of Trinidad waters even though we only have an hour to clear Trinidad. We have two reasons for doing this. One is we need to clean the barnacles off our prop. The water here is rich in nutrients due to the Orinoco river running out into it (and probably because of the garbage too!!) so barnacles form quickly, taking away the efficiency of the propellor and causing poor fuel consumption and slower speed while motoring.

The second reason is the major one (but we will use the messed up prop as our excuse in case the customs boat should ask why we haven't left), he second reason being we don't want to start our trip to Grenada too early and arrive there in the middle of the night. If we start sailing about 4 we should get into Grenada first thing Friday morning and be able to see where we are anchoring - which is always a good thing!! An added bonus is we will hear and may get to see howler monkeys. There is a large community of them around Scotland Bay.

Next blog from Grenada - sorry that we have been there before but we promise the next step will be to uncharted waters!!