Antibiotics for Tika

09/09/09
What a kewl date. It's been a while since we've been back in Grenada. For some reason we cannot get hooked up on email via our amateur radio and therefore we could not update regularly so we're a bit behind. Not sure what the problem is but it seems other cruisers are having the same problem. We had a great and smooth sail back to Grenada and hunkered down in True Blue Bay the southern end of Grenada. True Blue is a fairly small bay and due to lots of moorings from Horizon Yacht Charters there was no room for us to anchor. Although just before you enter the bay is a little bite that leaves enough room for 2 to 3 boats and so we anchored there. This turned out to be the perfect spot as we were protected from the south easterly swell and all by ourselves.
A fisherman placed a fairly good size net behind our boat and left it there. The next morning when he came to check on it he brought a beautiful spotted eagle ray to the surface and had to cut it out of the net it was so entangled. I called to him to let this beautiful animal go, but of course he just laughed and ignored me. To our surprise he didn't pull in the net but left it there and took off again. The following afternoon we noticed that something else was caught in the net so I went snorkeling and to my horror I saw another spotted eagle ray entangled in his net. I pulled the poor animal up and tried to free it, it was so entangled and impossible to get him free. Poor thing had already numerous scars from the net and was bleeding. I also noticed a huge spike just before his long tail started and thought to myself that there was nothing for me to do after all I didn't want to get stung by it. I did pet it tough and was amazed on how soft the skin was.
The very first day in this anchorage I took Tika to the vet, they tried to get blood and urine sample from her but failed so I had to return on Monday. Following Sunday we received the result, Tika has a very bad urinary track infection and shows signs of kidney failure and needed to be on antibiotics ASAP. While we waited for the result we headed to Clark's Court Bay and caught up with Diane on Jabulani. While there Jane on Cheetah II organized an Oil-Down trip. Oil-Down is a national dish the guys usually cook. It's a one pot meal with ingredients from chicken to picks tails, salt fish, bread fruit, green papaya, yam, pumpkin, green bananas, Callaloo leaves, turmeric they call saffron and coconut milk which was made out of grated fresh coconuts. We all participated in getting this wonderful dish together. Layer and layer of all the goodies went into the pot which then was cooked over an open fire. The whole village showed up for the oil down and all they ate was all the many deserts all the cruisers brought. I think the place was called Saint Davids and was up the mountains overlooking the east coast of Grenada. It was amazing what all crew there, cinnamon trees (they used the wood for the fire), star fruit or five finger fruit they call, mango, papaya, coconut, allspice, bananas, sour sop or guanábana, okra, carrots, all kind of herbs and many more things I don't remember.
Some of the girls went for walks in the morning and so I joined them it was a tough walk getting us over many steep hills, I was sore for a couple of days. The scenery though is very beautiful and I will go for other walks with the girls again. Clark's Court Bay is unfortunately a bit out in nowhere and going shopping is a bit tougher.
As soon as we received the news about Tika's condition we went pack to Prickly Bay where I then picked up her Antibiotics she needs to be on for the next two week. Then she has to do another blood test to see if the kidney is better as well, poor thing. While at Prickly we also did laundry worth two months, get this in Carriacou you can only get laundry washed by a service at 35 EC a load, which is 13 US$, ouch.
On the 8th we celebrated our 19th Anniversary with a rack of lamb and champagne dinner in and on Paradise. Wow 19 years already and it feels like it was just yesterday. Unfortunately big waves started rolling into the anchorage and made it almost unbearable, well for the other boats, we used both flopper stopper and had a relative quite night compared to everybody else. Needles to say we pulled anchor the following day and since we wanted to catch up with Marlene and Bruno on Diesel Duck we sailed up to Grand Anse Beach and anchored behind them. They just arrived a few weeks back from circumnavigating South America, around Cape Horn wow.
Sid's foot is getting better although his toe is still giving him a lot of grief, but at least he can leave the boat again and go boat part shopping.