Swimming in fresh water…how odd!
Our last weblog left us waiting for December 16 for the boat sale to close and the new owners to arrive. That day the owner, his girlfriend and the broker came to the back of the boat and came on board. After a brief period of getting to know each other, we showed them around the boat. It was comparatively easy to show them what they needed to know, as he had been reading a lot of the weblog and our other web presence. We had already made arrangements with an apartment very close to the One Love Restaurant, and even dropped the majority of our belongings ashore. We took a lift from the broker to the dock and we waved goodbye to Cat Tales for the last time. We bought her in 2002, so we had quite a relationship.
The owner, Jon Schumacher, is a Toronto police officer about to retire. He and Marina, his gf, have a lot of irons in the fire this year besides the boat and retirement: obligations in Toronto and a time share in Aruba. Cat Tales may be seeing them on and off this first season. We certainly wish success for this new crew.
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| Marina, Jon and Laurie at One Love Restaurant in True Blue, Grenada. Happy Hour is certainly a thing there, with beer at the same price as a store, but served icy cold with a smile! |
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| Jon and Marina, the owners of s/v Cat Tales |
Dawn and I moved into the apartment and life slowed down. For a while we enjoyed the company of the new owners: walking to Umbrellas, suppers at One Love, hikes to the Mall to show them all the alternative locations for hardware and provisioning. A week later, they flew back to Toronto for Christmas with family and we were on our own.
Every second morning we attempted to arrange a good hike to keep us in shape, and in the afternoon, when the apartment building’s shade gave us a place to sit, we enjoyed the small pool and patio at the back of the building, reading and doing Sudoku puzzles. With the hiking we found a few unique ways to walk to the Spice Island Mall, the Umbrellas Beach Bar, the Calabash Sand Bar, the West Indies Beer Company, and some other attractions. Evenings were split between home-cooked meals and One Love Restaurant trips. In truth, we were getting a little bored. We attempted a bus trip to do some farther hikes, but the rainy season made these iffy, and we quit that. All through the time, we were acutely aware that all of our friends had sailed away and we were on our own. We soon decided we’d rather be home feeding the fire, and began our trip back to Canada on New Year’s Eve.
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| A hike in the hot sun is just what we seem to do! A few contours were involved on this one, like most hikes. |
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| Making our way to the Brewery for lunch and a cold one! |
We have sweet memories of almost a quarter-century of having our lives somewhat defined by Cat Tales. I could reminisce, but it is all here in the weblogs. Thank you all for your attendance, and we hope both our adventures and the technical aspects were useful or at least entertaining.
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| Mister was well looked after and loved by Marilyn while we were gone. |
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| A different kind of exercise, however, still exercise. Maybe he’ll get to try out his new skates soon! |
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| Any closer and I’ll have to engage the fire extinguisher! |
Cheers, Laurie & Dawn
