Prickly Bay, Grenada

Sorry for the delay.

Dawn and I had a quiet time on Friday. After clearing in through Customs and Immigration in Prickly Bay - the kindest, nicest C&I people and processes we've been subjected to in our travels - we had our "anchor beer". Yes, a little early in the day for us, but we deserved it. The crossing was over 16 hours of square waves, and after a while, you just get brutally tired of hanging on. My neck may be a week before it feels better - yeah, this is Laurie, the one with the big head (filled with inertia?)

Trying to sleep in a boat in the afternoon down here is also a difficult chore, but I did it. I was a snoring ball of sweat. Dawn tried, but couldn't do it. We did both catch up overnight, and Saturday found us feeling fine.

We've made contact with three boats from the past: Mike Campbell from Loreley, who was so helpful in Trinidad in 2005, when Dawn broke her ribs, called us when he heard us on the radio, still an hour out. We'll enjoy spending time with him, but he is in another bay right now. Susea and Jean from Moody Blues came over after we had napped, and Susea talked Dawn into being a volunteer reading tutor on Saturday, for the local youngsters. They took off at 9:00, and they met up with Linda from July Indian, a friend we had made in Bequia last year.

Dawn had a fulfilling time during the tutoring session, apparently impressing the formal teacher in the way she affected a struggling grade 5 boy named Westley. In the meantime, I had finally found my Leatherman, and had spent the morning and early afternoon on numerous chores. We had a mid-day lunch, a lovely swim, and enjoyed happy-hour drinks with Linda and her husband Gary, and Susea and Jean at a bar called "De Big Fish".

Today, it is 9:30; and we're planning to join Susea and Jean on a hike over to Mount Hartman Bay and back before trying to recommission the watermaker, with it's new reverse osmosis filter. Except for the watermaker, all systems appear to be working fabulously.

Email is working fine, so feel free to send us your news.

We're in the water

Wednesday 5:00 pm

This was a hectic morning. We did a load of laundry and then I headed up to the office to pay up and get my pass for the crew to put Cat Tales back in the water for 1:00 pm. After all the paperwork was completed, one of the gals asked if we'd mind going in at 10:00 instead of 1:00. I politely said that it wouldn't be a problem and left the building. I then broke out into a run to the boat and told Laurie that we had to step it up and get things organized for our new splash time. I had to hang wet laundry all over the boat, take the covers from the windows and wash them, take the little tent affair off and coil the hose and electrical cords. Laurie decided that he NEEDED something at the store and left me alone with the list! He arrived back and started assembling the piece of material he bought to make a splash plate under the step...something we've been meaning to do for a few years, but I just didn't expect him to get the job done only minutes before they boys arrived.

Everything went fine and we're now out in this dirty harbour sweating in the dropping sun. Laurie and I are going to go back to Peake's tonight for a shower, then we'll walk to the next marina and have dinner. Once the sun goes down, the temperature outside is beautiful. No sweaters necessary whatsoever! Tomorrow, we'll visit customs and they can decide when we leave and how much trouble they want to put us through. There's so much paperwork done here, it's crazy. I'm not getting Internet out here in the bay and may have to send this tomorrow.

35 degrees inside the boat
air conditioner packed away
Chagauramas
Trinidad

The Do-List Dwindles

Our do-list was a mile long when we arrived here only 6 days ago and now we're down to only 2 items left. It felt great to clean up the dinghy and get it up on the davits complete with outboard motor that Laurie serviced and tested yesterday. This morning, I cranked Laurie up the mast for an inspection of the mast head light and the antennas. While he was there, check out the photos he got of this place (Peake's at Chagaramas). He even took one of himself, which I think he learned from our neice Kendra! Laurie knows to be extra polite to me when I get him up the mast, or he'll be stuck up there until I decide to let him down.


You can see the large tent affair I made a few years back. It was always too windy to use it successfully in windy anchorages, but it is doing the trick here. It's much easier to keep the boat cool with the extra shade and the boat stays drier in the torrenial rains they seem to happen several times a day.


This is the same boat lift that will put Cat Tales back in the water on Wednesday.





We went to dinner with the German couple rom the boat Aphrodite on two separate nights. Hopefully we'll see them somewhere up the island chain. Their boat has been put back into the water today, so they've left the boatyard! The other day, Cordula offered me a drive to the huge grocery store in her rental car. I gladly accepted and filled a cart with anything I might need over the next few months. The prices here aren't perfect, but they're the lowest we can expect from here on up the islands. My bill was in Trinidad and Tobago dollars and came to over $1800.00. We divide by 5 to get a close figure in Canadian dollars. Laurie and I will catch the bus tomorrow and finish off our grocery list. Sadly, it will be by bus and back packs and rolling carts in the excessive heat!

Apparently the Queen is coming here to visit us at the end of the week. We have no idea how much this will change routine and interfere with business around here. They have hired extra coast guards to harrass us and the helicopters have been flying over head today.

Another work day in the heat

I wrote this excerpt last evening (Friday), however, was unable to make a connection to the Internet, so here it is:

Today in the heat, we managed to get quite a few items crossed off our list. Echo Tech, where we purchased our water maker back in 2004, was able to refit our tube with a new membrane at a cost of 560.00 US dollars. Wasn't that nice of them to deliver it to us when they finished doing the job? Every day there are locals looking for work from the cruisers. We were approached by Gary (aka Mr. Clean) who told us that it would take him 2 days and 2 men to wash and wax the sides of the boat. Since I recently had carpal tunnel surgery and didn't want to risk that kind of abuse, we decide to pay him the 325.00 US and get the job done. They started by around 8:00 this morning and had the boat completed by 4:00 - in my time keeping abilities that is just one day. I don't know why he thought it would take 2 days, but he certainly convinced us that it was going to be a long hard chore to get this boat ship shape. Well, it's done and I didn't do it, so I'm happy! While they were working on the outside, I waxed and polished only half of the cockpit before I quit for the day. Sweat was pouring off my cheeks, nose and chin. I couldn't get enough water into me. Most of the locals wear long pants and black shirts...what's up with that? Are they part camel??

Laurie did a cool job on our new seat out in the cockpit. He bought a pedestal with a swivel top meant for a seat. He then went to a wood working shop and they put together a cute little 12 by 15 inch table top made out of two layers of teak. When we have company, we'll lift the captain's chair off the existing pedestal and put it in the new lower spot. On the old pedestal, we'll pop on the little table to use for drinks and snacks. While sailing, we'll switch them back again and we'll then have the captain's chair where it belongs and I'll be able to use the little table to stand on in order to see, which replaces the old rubermaid stool I used to stand on.






Yesterday, Laurie advertised on the morning net that he had some charts on the north Atlantic for barter or trade…it’s not legal to sell without the duty and tax thing. So, when Andreas from ‘Aphrodite’ dropped by, we traded our charts for dollars. Tonight, we’re going to dinner with them at a local restaurant. They have rented a car – what a treat this will be! They are from Germany, but excellent English. We have yet to meet his wife, Cordula.

safe arrival Trinidad

So.we're walking out of the Peake's Marina compound, where poor Cat Tales is on the "hard", we're carrying a 4' long, 3-1/2" diameter black cylinder, which happens to be the membrane for our watermaker, due for rebuild, when we turn to the security guards at the gate and explain that our "potato gun" has to go in for service. We get a laugh from them. Dawn and I are a little further along the road, when she starts to debate: "Down here, they don't use potatoes as much as they use the daschene root. Would that make it a daschene gun? That sounds a little more significant." On the return trip through the security gate, we get a much bigger laugh!

Our flights down were without incident. Amazingly, we traveled from Fredericton, just before noon, and landed in Trinidad, just before 11pm, same time zone, but ~ 3000 miles (a lot quicker than last year). After clearing customs, which was a little bit of adventure but ended in us getting away easily, our friend Blue, a worker at the boat yard, drove us the 40 minutes to Peake's compound and Cat Tales. Although the cockpit was as filthy as in 2005, there was no break-in and everything was just as we left it. We have toiled all day, much of it in the energy-draining heat and sun, and are now enjoying a drink at 7 pm in air conditioned comfort in our little salon. Lots of work to be done yet, but we have 6 more days to do it, before being splashed next Wednesday.

We have the old, trashed tarpaulins removed from the boat, gave her topsides a quick scrub and rinse, put away 80% of the stuff we brought, and are amid dozens of other little chores. We might even get a day of eco-touring, which would suit us fine.