Happy New Year's From Dominica

Porthsmouth, Dominica. If you look carefully, you'll see Cat Tales in there somewhere!


A typical dinghy dock. This one is at Big Pappa's Beach Bar and Restaurant where we gathered for a hike.


Denis, Arlene, Alex and John heading home after a hike and happy hour at Big Pappa's Beach Bar.


Laurie picked up a couple of items the other day. The 6 little cans of v8 juice were 28.00 EC, while the rum was only 14.00 EC. Divide by 2.65 for the US dollar.


We see the most fabulous sunsets down here. The wind blows from the east which puts us on the lee side of all the islands facing the west at night! Happy New Year everyone!

Merry Christmas from Martinique

Christmas eve, we decided to host 3 couples for pot luck snacks and drinks.
We met John and Alex from the boat; 'Free Spirit' for the first time at this very moment you see on the photo below! When they arrived at Cat Tales, complete with these unique Santa hats, I liked them instantly. They're involved in the morning ham radio net that Denis from 'Tiger Lily II operates. We all tune in daily at 7:45 and Denis, a retired meteorologist, talks to a select few and discusses the weather as he sees it. When sailing, it's ALL about the weather and making safe passages from one place to another.





Here is Kristen and Terry from 'Silk Pajamas'. It's not easy to get Terry's picture, but I managed to get a great one on Christmas eve!



I had to say something pretty cute to get Denis and Arlene from 'Tiger Lily II' to smile like this...it's a little phrase I picked up from Terry to help get people to laugh while taking their pictures!



The usual division of male and female happens once again, and the gals are all together for the evening on one side of the cockpit and the boys in the other half! Boats are small, and female bonding is important!!



Here it is, Christmas morning and what do we see???


Well, gosh and by golly, it's actually Denis and Arlene, our Canadian friends from the boat 'Tiger Lily II' delivering their traditional sticky buns. We are honored to have received sticky buns 2 years in a row and are happy that we've become part of this fun tradition!



Christmas dinner today was at noon at a local beach bar. It exceeded our expectations and provided us with a nice breezy spot with comfortable chairs for the 10 of us to indulge on snacks and buffet 'drinks' for starters. Then we moved to the big table where we could make trips to the salad and dinner buffet. We were then served after dinner drinks along with dessert and espresso coffees. We couldn't have imagined anything better! Merry Christmas!!


We've waited for the winds to die down for 9 days now and it's finally time. We will pick up anchor and head out of this bay tomorrow along with everyone else! We expect it to be like a highway out there with boats moving north and south! We'll be heading north, but we're a bit undecided just where we'll go. The destination at this point is Dominica,which could take 3 or 4 days. After that, we're expecting the winds to go crazy again, so we could get storm stayed there while we hike the island...who knows??

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Love Dawn

Storm-stayed in Martinique

Merry Christmas from Laurie and Dawn to all of you!


Laurie and I were planning to head further north, heading towards the USVI's, but the wind has been blowing like crazy and you'd have to be crazy to go out in that. It's been over 30 knots with high seas. Instead, we have found ourselves hiking around a bit. Yesterday we walked an hour from St. Anne to Anse de Saline on the southernmost part of Martinique with Terry and Kristin from s/v Silk Pajamas and enjoyed a swim and a nice meal once we got there. Laurie of course could stay there all day because of all the beautiful bodies lying on the beaches. The French aren't much into doing laundry and wear as little as possible! Today, we did a bit of a hike up the prayer stations of the cross and caught a great view of the bay below us. Of course, that earned us another lunch out and a nice cold beer! Storm stayed...the hell here never ends!

Since we're here in Martinique waiting for the windy weather to die down, we've decide to join a group and go to a restaurant for Christmas dinner. this is how the restaurant looked today when we dropped in to check it out.


Christmas dinner menu:


Just how does a boater get ready for Christmas!

Martinique

hi everyone,

We arrived in Martinique yesterday after a lovely sail from St. Lucia. After clearing customs this morning, we made a trip to Leader Price and stocked the boat with boxes of red wine (9 Euros a 3 litre box)

We are expecting high winds for the next few days, so we may be here for a bit and then will continue northward on our trek to the USVI's.

We have no Internet from the boat this time, so we're here in a Cafe having lunch typing fast before my laptop battery dies.

Lunch has arrived...

St. Lucia

We arrived in St. Lucia yesterday at around 4:30 which is a 12 hour sail. The weather was glorious and it was sad to stop! That's a first that I've said that!!

We will get together with a few old friends here for the next couple of days and then will proceed northward towards the USVI's while visiting islands along the way.

Laurie is now making banana and mango pancakes with what was left after a visit to our outside fruit hammock from our fruit bat friends overnight!

Dawn

Bequia, fish photos and heading out tomorrow...

Although we're now in Bequia, Laurie wanted to share this photo with you.

This picture shows Laurie on a road in northern Grenada that has been slowly torn to pieces by volcanic upheaval just over the last 15 years or so. On each side of this road are what's known as JCB houses. These are very attractive concrete and stucco homes constructed by "Just Come Backs", or local people who have returned from the US or Canada with a little more money than they left with. The JCB homes on this road, however are abandoned with broken stilts and other structural damage. There was also a lake beside the road, but as the ground lifted, it drained down the hill.

We also have to worry about volcanic activity as we left Grenada. We sailed over an underwater volcano, called "Kick em Jenny", which pours out lava at such a rate that it will be an island within the decade. They're not selling options on this land yet though!

Ok, now for the photos to support our past fish stories. Somehow, we didn't get a picture of the 32 inch barracuda, you'll just have to believe us!

Who knows how long we drug this poor thing along! It would seem that something ate him though, and hopefully enjoyed it as much as we would have!



This is a nice sandwich sized fish. We really should have thrown him back, but it was our first catch coming out of Grenada last week and it was quite delicious!


We served this blue runner jack to our friends on Nahanni River. Absolutely wonderful fish!


As we pulled into Bequia, we spotted our friends, Doug and Wendy on "Nahanni River" the catamaran in the foreground. Check out the full moon on the rise on the hillside.


We're in the bay in Bequia at the moment and just a few minutes ago a huge squall came by dumping lots of rain. My laundry was hung on every wire all over the boat, I went running to get it all in (it was actually dry) when a pair of my underwear went flying into the water. Laurie was ready to jump in, but discovered that he had credit cards and money in his pocket. He threw it loosely onto the seat in the cockpit, but the wind was blowing it all over the place. He moved my laundry bag over it to hold it down, but of course while he was swimming to get my knickers, I moved the bag. The windows weren't all shut and it's a bit damp inside. Now, the laundry is in, my panties are rinsed, Laurie is rinsed, his money and cards are safe and the moping is done. The hell here never ends!

We're off to Mac's pizzeria tonight for dinner with a few others here in the bay. We just noticed Garry and Linda from "July Indian" anchoring nearby, so we'll have to get over there and get them invited! We leave for St. Lucia in the morning, early...4:00 to be exact!

arrived in Bequia

The wind was a bit from the north yesterday but we were able to sail 6 of the 8 hours on our way from Grenada to Bequia. We came into the bay and headed for our favourite spot over by Princess Margaret beach and discovered that Doug and Wendy were anchored there waiting for us! If you recall, their boat is called Nahanni River. We'll get together today for lunch and then they will come aboard tonight for fresh fish caught on the way yesterday!

Yes, we were able to land 2 fish; one was a 32 inch long barracuda and the other was a blue runner barjack. We lost a couple from my line because the rings that hold the triple hooks on was too weak. I guess Marden's isn't the perfect place to pick out the best lure. They certainly bit at it though, it was just not strong enough.

All for now...it's time for morning coffee and listen to Laurie talk to all his buddies on the Ham Radio morning nets!

Heading for Bequia

We sailed (actually motored most of the way) from St. Georges, Grenada to Hillsbourough yesterday, taking us about 8 hours. Laurie has gone in to town this morning to check out of customs and immigration and we'll set sail for Bequia, a tiny but precious island in the St. Vincent Grenadines. We'll spend a few days there and will continue our trek north.

Laurie made a pot of delicious callilou soup last night for dinner. Of course it's all done up with coconut milk as the base, so of course it's delicious!

Yesterday on our way, we caught a fish. We didn't notice it on the line until Laurie brought it in and we only had the head left! It might have been a baracuda, but it's hard to tell when there is so little of it left for identification purposes!

Our water maker gauge was picked up by a fellow cruiser in Trinidad yesterday. They (Wandering Star) are sailing up from Trini as we speck and we have agreed to meet in Bequia. We've been able to use the watermaker in the meantime and it's working well except we can't keep an eye on the pressure gauge to make sure we don't exceed the pressure limit!

All for now, we'll write again when we get to Bequia.

Dawn

Historical tour of Grenada

Here is Laurie reefing for the second time while heading for Grenada to Trinidad last Friday.


It is Wednesday, and we're still in Prickly Bay, Grenada. The flat water has allowed us to track down and fix leaks, as well as do other general boat maintenance. A biggie was the complete cleaning of the two Racor 500 fuel filter housings. They were rather dirty so it was time. It took almost all day, with me feeling rather beat at the end. I work in the engine rooms at about 40 degrees, in a puddle of sweat, trying to keep the sweat from dripping into the fuel and filter systems.
We have had time for socializing as well, with new friends from s/v "Just Imagine..." and "Quicksilver". With these friends, we have enjoyed callaloo pizza at De Big Fish, and have had a full day historical tour of Grenada. While at de Big Fish, we enjoyed an awesome band, Quiet Fire. The two lead guitarists effortlessly caressed their guitars playing Santana, Van Morrison and other favourites! Sitting in the balmy Caribbean breeze, we thought we were in heaven!

Through the historical tour, I have finally straightened out the rebellions and 1983 US invasion of Grenada. In 1979, with the help of Fidel Castro, Maurice Bishop and the public overthrew a Prime Minister who rigged elections and made his critics disappear. He and his supporters worked hard with Cuban and Kremlin assistance for 4 years, improving health care, getting a new hospital, roads, and an airport, and making plans for the betterment of the common man. However, by 1983, hard-line local communists got the word from Castro and the Kremlin that Bishop's transition to full communism was moving too slow. They killed him and others by firing squad in the fort at St Georges, after chasing the public away with guns.
Members of the Grenadian public, and the Caribbean community petitioned the democracies of the Atlantic basin for help, and Regan offered to show up, clear out the communists, and simply leave, if others would assist in moving Grenada to a democratic state. And, amazingly to many of us who would be critical of past US interventions, the US did just that - they arrived, shot a few Cubans, destroyed anything of military value, locked some people up, tidied up the mess a bit, and left. There are still "thank yous" in the graffiti around the island. Bishop, who probably would not have moved to a full democracy either, is still a hero in the Grenadian past.

Here is a picture of a view we had from the van yesterday while on the historical tour. Breathtaking!


The nutmeg crop is coming back after hurrican Ivan in 2004. Here it is drying before they sort it and send it to companies like McCormicks for processing.


We have a friend bringing a part up from Trinidad for our watermaker, but are still making plans to move up island before or during the weekend. Today, we are moving the boat to St. George's Harbour in search of a case of rum. We hope to get 12 litres of Cruzan, made in St. Thomas, USVI, our present favourite. We will also load up with groceries, never an easy chore lugging and transferring from dock to dinghy, from dinghy to Cat Tales. But it's what we do while living on a boat!

Laurie checking out the chart we had laminated and brought with us (in 2 pieces) through 5 flights towards Cat Tales!

arrived in Grenada, safe and sound

Hi everyone,

The alarm clock rang at 1:45 am today, but I was laying there awake for the last hour anyway! There were 4 boats in all, all heading for Grenada. The first 3 hours of darkness presented us with numerous freighters and small fast moving mid-size boats. We were constantly on our guard watching the radar and measuring angles looking for potential collision courses.

The second section of the trip was very enjoyable with naps for both of us and daylight with beautiful conditions complete with dolphins. (Laurie missed that section, since he was napping!)

The third section of the trip was like a big storm with sharp rollers and winds up to 28 knots. We were continuously inundated with salt water in the cockpit and even discovered that the one window at the waterline that hadn't leaked before was found to have leaked and caused some sleeves to need fresh water rinsing. The great part of too much wind was that it wasn't on the nose, instead was on the beam. Cat Tales behaved beautifully and delivered us here in only 11 hours, arriving at 3:00 pm...a record for us. Last year we had so much headwind, we had to change our course and land in St. George's at 9:30 pm, so all in all it was a great day.

I have cleaned some of the salt off the boat which will give us a place to sit in the cockpit and Laurie has already gone in to customs and immigration and cleared us in.

Cheers,

Dawn

Leaving Trinidad

Hi folks:

It is Thursday afternoon, and we have just returned to Chaguaramas from Monos Island to check out of the country. We intend to overnight in Scotland Bay, by the Monos Passage, and up-anchor at about 3 am. We hope we can finish the passage in Grenada's Prickly Bay before dark on Friday night.

Possibly, when we are in Grenada and rested, we can tell a little about our time here and our passage. The skinny so far has been work and sweat, work and sweat.

Splashing Today at 1:00 pm

So sorry for not posting anything over the last week, but we've been very very busy getting Cat Tales all set for launch, which will take place today at 1:00. Besides the routine issues like cleaning, waxing, untarping, getting the dinghy off the deck, filling propane tank, filling diesel tanks, repairing a leaky hatch at the waterline, defogging the engines, we also had to replace all the 6 batteries, which of course took some investigation. The company assured us that they'd be all recently charged but of course they arrived yesterday less than at peak charge. Laurie had to walk back to the company to borrow a charger and has been monitoring them over night last night and is now returning the charger to the company...of course in the rain!

We're not sure how long it will be until we head to Grenada from Trinidad, but we can be pretty sure that we'll have no Internet for the next day or two.

A very sad thing happened in the boatyard on Sunday afternoon. A boat named Bolero had its mizzen mast fall down onto a power line. The woman onboard the boat touched something that would conduct the current and had tremendous burns to her arm. The man ran to her assistance and when he tried to get up the ladder died of electric shock! Sad indeed.

All for now. No pictures to share this time. Maybe when we start having fun, we'll produce!
Dawn

Rocky Mountain High

We landed in Trinidad without issue at around midnight on Tuesday. Blugh, our friend and off hours taxi driver was waiting for us. We arrived at our boat ahttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifnd found the usual grime and filth, but nothing was out of the ordinary, except for our missing life raft which was reported stolen late in the summer. We know where it is and will be retrieving it before we leave. Here is a terribly brief update of our fantastic trip to Colorado on the way to the boat:

We now have a new appreciation for John Denver's song. On our way south to the meet up with Cat Tales, we scheduled a stop in Denver, Colorado to meet up with sailing friends, Steve and Maria from the vessel "Aspen". We arrived on Friday night and had 3 full days of sight seeing, and exploring the area. I hope you can get a feeling of what we experienced through the few pictures. Many many thanks go out from us to Steve and Maria who entertained us royally. Besides seeing the sights, we had great conversations as Steve and Maria filled us in on their adventures over the past 2 years going around the world. Their boat is presently in Turkey and they plan to reunite with her in February when the weather warms up over there. You can read their blog by clicking on "Aspen" or click on the side bar of this blog. Our own time chatting with them about their adventures were as enjoyable as anything.

We spent a couple of days getting out in the wide open exploring the mountains around Denver. We checked regularly the height above sea level as we meandered up and down mountains and through passes, and traveled regularly from 6000 feet to 12000 feet, ears popping and dry nose complaining, and sometimes aware of not getting enough oxygen. We crossed the "Great Divide" a few times; this is the point where the rain and water drains either toward the east or to the west. Highlights included driving across mountain passes above 12000 feet to see a few of the fifty two 14000 foot peaks in the state, driving through old western and mining towns and trendy skiing resorts, amazing canyons, interesting restaurants, and fantastic geology.











Heading up the long, long stairway at the Red Rock Canyon open-air Theatre.


Here is just one year of entertainment at the open-air Red Rock Theatre!












At the top of the stairway at the open-air theatre, we paused to catch our breath and take a group shot.


Picking up the mail at Steve and Maria's in rural Colorado in "Pine" about an hour and a half outside of Denver.


We saw lots of wildlife, but this big guy was sitting in the yard waiting for us when we returned home from a road trip!


Marie and Steve are renovating their house which they live in when not on board their boat "Aspen". Exciting times watching the progress!




A Forest Gump restaurant at Breckenridge Mountain where we wandered around and shopped ("BubbaGump Cafe").


We took in a 3D movie and have the glasses to prove it! The boys loved "Immortals"; however, the gals decided we would have appreciated the "Happy Feet 2" movie down the hall!



We have been tossed deeply into the social life here in Trinidad! The weekly potluck was last night and the US thanksgiving is tonight here at Peake's boatyard under the mango trees. It's a bit of a challenge to find and cook a dish to share when our cupboards are bare at the moment, but that's a small problem in the scheme of things!

Summer in New Brunswick

A view from our deck at Grand Lake, New Brunswick, fall of 2011.



As our season in New Brunswick comes to a close, and we start preparing to return to Cat Tales on November 22nd, it may be appropriate to write a few lines on how we fared during our northern stay, and provide some pictures as well. The weather in New Brunswick this spring and summer was particularly wet, with areas that used to grow grass often growing moss instead. The water levels at Grand Lake, where we spend our summers, actually broke records, with the result that there was precious little beach to be had. The rainy weather allowed for a June canoe trip down the Bartholomew River for Laurie and his brother Ken; however, the extra water in the river was offset by outrageous attacks by mosquitoes, black flies, moose flies, etc.

Laurie and brother Ken




A big project for Laurie (speaking) was to build a 4-season room on the side of our cottage. With the design help of my brother Mike, I settled on a thickened-edge slab for a foundation, and decided to see how much of the project I could do myself. I got the lumber for formwork from a demolitions landfill owned and managed by our neighbour, Dave Wasson, and did the picking and nail-pulling myself. There was significant work in preparing the ground and forming and compacting the soil under and around the slab to allow proper support and insulation against frost. I hired two labourers who helped me place the concrete, and with a little help from both those two and two of my neighbours, we survived the failure of the form, and got it acceptably braced. However, a laminated beam that was ordered for the roof never showed up, and the rest of the project was cancelled for the year.

Laurie paying off "Inspector Ron!"




It did allow me to spend a lot of time on the landscaping, and I can report that the yard never looked better. We’ll build a little frost protection for the slab before we leave it for the winter, and will start on the structure in earnest next May.

Laurie working on putting the yard back together.


All rocks were hand picked and brought back by trailer, trunk or rowboat!


Dawn’s father, who had been suffering with vascular dementia (making him much like an Alzheimer’s patient) died, ending two years of frustration for him. Dawn’s sisters joined us, her mother Jean, and the local relatives for the funeral and wake; and all had a nice visit.

Dawn and her sisters




Our crowd of “cove-dwellers” are still getting together regularly for a barbecue every Friday night. This was supplemented with many dinners shared during the week, and lots of visits from friends and family in town and out-of-town.


A special weekend in August, was the annual Pig Roast hosted by Hugh Whalen and Liz Abraham, was one of the blurriest yet; primarily as a result of attendance by Scott Kennah and Laurie’s brother Paul, unsupervised and uncontrolled.







Sailing our 21’ Hobie took a bit of a back seat to the construction of the sun-room foundation and the rainy weather; but we did get a couple of really nice sails in. The most enjoyable was after one of the rudder cams broke, and I took the opportunity to reconstruct both rudder assemblies - even redrilling the rudders. The boat, with almost no weather helm is now a dream to sail - and we're looking forward to sailing it next year.

All in all, the summer in New Brunswick has kept us quite busy. The fall brought unseasonably warmer and sunny weather, but of course could not revive beach activity.

The cottage, Hobie, and the construction project are all put to bed, and we're ready to start flapping our wings. We have flights for November 18th to Denver, where we’ll spend 3 days with Steve and Maria of s/v Aspen before continuing on to Trinidad. We’ll write more either from Denver or Chaguaramas.