Semi-Blah Blog

The reason I called this the “Semi-Blah” blog is not because we are feeling the blahs but rather that the content may cover stuff that we covered before and it has no exciting high waves, big winds type of sailing in it. One of our readers told us that her prodigy wished we would write more about the “exciting” parts of sailing rather than expressing how we are feeling about what we are doing. I guess when I was in “other days, other ways” I might have felt the same but times change so what you get is what you get.

By the way, Cheryl and I were wondering whether we needed to put pictures in the blog any more – we question if they are looked at. The reason for this is that a few blogs ago Cheryl put a picture in of her and I that we thought might spark the odd comment, particularly anyone who has known me for a goodly length of time (hint hint - my kids, my siblings) I got an urge to make a change and at the same time was wondering what I looked like under my facial hair. Keep in mind that I have now had my beard constantly since1992 (I had it periodically for lots of years/times before that) and I realized that I have had a mustache since 1972 (37 years, wow I don’t even feel that old). Anyway, off it came and eureka!!! There was a face under there which Cheryl insisted in putting on the blog. I guess either it didn’t look any different or no one saw it or MAYBE nobody cared (just kidding). Incidentally I have my “pirate” face back now so rest easy if we will be meeting while we are back in Canada this summer.

I think our last blog left us in Prickly Bay after sailing down the windward side of Grenada. We decided since we were owed a few days on a mooring ball from last year we would use the ball for a few days. They charge (very little) money for the balls in Prickly Bay but we noticed this year that hardly anyone was using them. By coincidence we picked up the same ball that we have picked up every time we have moored in the Bay – I think it is 4 times now. Maybe we should put our name on it!

After settling in things just naturally fell into place. We feel quite at home in Grenada so there is not the worry about what can we get done where and how do we get there and what can we do while we are here etc etc. We had stopped in Prickly Bay first because we wanted to set things up for when we put the boat up and come back to Canada. We now have most of the work organized – quotes received, haul-out set, parts ordered. Only one job left to organize and the fellow for that is off island for a couple of weeks. That in place we then had to find a place to stay. The boat is being hauled out on August 7th, however, we don’t leave until August 13th. We could stay on the boat in the boatyard, but that would not be a pleasant experience even for a short time. We tried the place we stayed at last year, but August 10th is the beginning of the fall university session and Wendy did not have any room available. We contacted another place we found on the internet. It was an interesting experience. The owners were away in Calgary for medical needs, their son-in-law was looking after the place while they were away. He is from Calgary and works in the oil/gas industry. Small world isn’t it? We decided not to stay there although the price was right it was about a 20 minute walk from the boatyard. We finally found a place across the street from the boatyard and booked for the five days in August. We should also be able to stay there when we come back in October.

After getting all that organizing done we decided to move out of Prickly Bay. We moved to the west side of Grenada and anchored between St. Georges, the capital, and Grand Anse Beach. It is a quiet anchorage and actually quite central to everything we need. A short dingy ride and 5-10 minute walk gets us to 2 -3 different grocery stores. We are also within walking distance of the bus to downtown or the boatyard. We could actually walk from here instead of taking a bus. It would be about a 30 minute walk to either place from here. I commented to Griff yesterday that the distance between places seems to be getting shorter the more often we walk it.

Last night we had Tito and Roberta from Alleluia over for supper. We had met them last year when Griff and Tito worked on the dinghies together in the boatyard and then again in Trinidad in August. They have been sailing in the islands since 2002 spending their time between Trinidad for the hurricane season and then as far north as Martinique during the cruising season. However this is going to be their last year this far south. The next cruising season (starts November 1st) they are going to head up island and end up in Puerto Rico which is where they are from originally. Because they have spent so much time here they have lots of information to share on where and how to get things done.

One other way to get that sort of information is on the Grenada Cruisers Net. This is a net similar to the Coconut Net we are controllers for. What it does though is keep cruisers aware of what is happening on the island. One aspect of the net is called ‘Treasures of the Bilge’. That is for cruisers to offer anything they may have that they want to buy, sell or trade. We mentioned we had a working SSB radio (our old one) and a fellow came back and offered to build a new, wooden cockpit table. We had priced having one made and the quote was $1600US. That we couldn’t afford. When Ted suggested the barter we jumped at it. He said he should have it finished within a week. That will be nice. The table will be bigger than the one we have now and of course wood instead of painted.

We will stay at this anchorage until the table is ready then it’s off again. We may go north to a bay that has good snorkeling or to one of the other bays on the south end of the island that we haven’t visited yet. Where ever the spirit leads us.