We are amazed and embarrassed that we have not posted here
since Judy wrote our weblog for April 6th.
So sorry.
Judy and Ron left on the morning ferry on Tuesday, the 7th,
and we tidied the boat, got laundry caught up, did some engine checks, cleared
out of Customs and Immigration, and prepared to leave. We got the weather report from Denis at 8:00
in the morning, and headed to Carriacou with Steve and Maria, s/v Aspen, 15
minutes ahead of us. It was a beautiful,
fast, low-stress sail; always over 6 knots and often over 7 knots, with wind on
the beam, two reefs in the main and very little jib. I said that if we didn't own her, we could
have put up even more sail and kept her at 8 knots for the whole trip. As it was, we took a little more time, had a
little less water on deck, and no breakage.
Steve and Maria were quite happy with their performance, even though they
did not maintain their head start.
We even enjoyed some fishing. We caught a 25" barracuda, which we
bled, beheaded, gutted, and chilled while underway. When the second cuda arrived, we decided to
let it go - hoping for a ciro mackerel or even a mahi mahi. When the next one came, and it must have been
a biggie, it bent our hook and took off before I got him half way to the boat,
and before I could identify it. Oh well,
the barracuda was great, when we cooked it up with my signature fried
plantain. Leftovers were made into Cuda
Melt Sandwiches for us and Steve and Maria.
When we arrived in Tyrell Bay, we were able to wave to Denis
and Arlene on Tiger Lilly, and especially to John and Alex on Free Spirit. As we had not seen John and Alex for two
years, and expected to miss them this year, it was extra special. They were slated to jump off from Antigua
towards home in England, but equipment repair problems caused such their season
to be so unenjoyable, they determined to give the Caribbean one more
season. Seeing Denis and Arlene was
great too, as we had not "eyeballed them for the whole season - however,
we had talked to them by radio every morning - He is our weatherman.
We immediately made plans for all to meet at the Lazy Turtle
for pizza, and had a great reunion of 4 couples.
Our week in Carriacou was nice and restful, with some
lunches ashore, and long walks with Steve and Maria, and other boaters. It also included two trips to our favourite
place - Paradise Beach (Curtis' Off de Hook Bar). I had
plans to pump up and soap the dinghy to look for some obvious leaks, one day,
but I found the dinghy tight and obviously not leaking and dismissed the
idea. Suggesting that dinghy leaks might
be influenced by the moon or something isn't very scientific, but what can you
do? We did start our work-lists to try
to get a jump on the work.
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| Pete Evans and Chico out for their daily sail around Tyrell Bay in Carriacou |
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| Laurie (s/v Magpie II) and Maria (s/v Aspen) at Paradise Beach on Carriacou |
We left Tyrell Bay on April 16th, and had another fantastic
sail to St. George's, Grenada. We did
get some water on the deck in some rough water off Kick'em Jenny Rock, but that
was short and not at all scary. We
stopped at Goyave, Grenada, on the north-west side to deliver a failed Hitachi
starter (for a Yanmar engine) to a shop there, and also bought 2 pounds of
sailfish for only EC$14. We had a
difficult time anchoring outside St. George's harbour, with the anchor dragging
through bleached and broken coral and finding little sand. All the while, I enjoyed a very racy-looking daggerboard
catamaran in the middle of the pack, named "Unleaded". On the
4th try, the anchor finally caught on something, and a dive on it determined it
would likely hold.
Yesterday, we got a lot of our fluids and maintenance
supplies in St. George's, had a lovely lunch with Steve and Maria at the Nutmeg
Restaurant, and got ready to enjoy a quiet evening. We gave that last plan up, when a short, sunburned,
grey-bearded Canadian Gentleman named Jock (born Scottish) dinghied up and said
hello. When he said he was from
"Unleaded", I had him aboard, seated, and a rum punch with plenty of
ice in front of him in less than a minute.
We discovered common areas (sailing books and magazines, stories,
catamarans, passages, and a few harbours), as well as trading the usual useful
information before I started pumping the info on "Unleaded" out of
him.
Dawn soon realized I would not let him leave, and fed the
three of us a lovely chicken stir-fry.
Unleaded is a 30'x20' Kurt Hughes design that Jock
manufactured out of epoxy resin, glass, and Klegecell foam boards over 6 years. I was able to tour the boat the next morning,
and took way too many pictures, if anyone has further interest.
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| s/v Unleaded built by Jock from Woodstock, Ontario (6 year effort) |
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| Jock, the 'skinny sailor' as he calls himself! |
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| Another neighbour |
Yesterday, we came around to Prickly Bay, and immediately
organized a meeting with lots of friends at a bar last night. That will continue at another bar tonight,
then a hash (Hash House Harriers running event - a drinking club with a running
problem) tomorrow, and a house party on Sunday.
Hopefully things will calm down next week.
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| Dawn with Denis and Arlene (s/v Tiger Lily II) and Andreas and Cordula (s/v Aphrodite) |
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| You can see that it got dark and Tiger Lily left and Alex (and John) showed up from s/v Free Spirit |
Our haulout date is set for May 4th, right here in Prickly Bay, Grenada. Flights are booked for May 9th. Busy, sweaty times ahead. We hope the snow in Canada continues to shrink.
