Plans are written in sand at low tide

The weather was really benign and will last until the end of October and so we decided to take the opportunity and head back to Grendada, shop for two days and then head for the Testigo Islands in Venezuela before the Xmas winds start up again. We had a great sail back to Clifton on Union Island, spent on night there, checked out the following morning pulled the spinnaker up and sailed back to Hillsborough, Carriacou to check into Grenada again then sailed over to Paradise Beach and dropped the anchor below Nan and Mike Hatch's house. They were surprised to see us again and on the following day we were invited for a swim in their beautiful infinity pool and lunch overlooking all the Grenadine Islands in the north. We had a great time and it was really good to see them again. Unfortunately we're on a run and left early the next morning and again sailed the whole way to Dragon Bay. For once in our cruising time we feel like we actually do own a sailboat LOL. Dragon Bay is by far the most tropical anchorage in Grenada and still my favorite. Unfortunately the swells do roll in and on the second day a wind chop made it so uncomfortable not even the flopper stoppers could help, so we pulled anchor and motored to the next bay south to a calmer environment. But first we snorkeled the point between the two anchorages which is Grenada's best snorkel and diving spot. Really?!!! There is really not much there so they had to do something about it and placed statues under water. Some were female statues lying in a circle in the sand in about 14 feet of water. For the divers they have an actually tour that takes you through some canyons where now and then a statue is positioned. One is a statue on a bicycle, the other one sitting at a desk with a type writer and a face with a hat. Kind a weird but then I guess if the snorkel area is not good, just add a bit of excitement to it. We spent two nights in Grand Mal were it was calm compared to Grand Anse where all the anchored boats rolled from side to side. Eventually we moved over there as well to do some provisioning and then leave. Shows again that plans are written in sand at low tide. An old friend we had met in Trinidad last year but missed this year as he had to take care of his mom in the States, called us on the radio. Also Diane on Jabulani was still here, we thought she was in the States by now and Cynthia on Minx is still waiting for her teeth to arrive so we decided it was way worth it to postpone our departure to spend some more time with Minx, have Bernie over for dinner (by the way he is the guy who is one of the ham radio stations who sends our emails out to you, thanks Bernie) and help Diane to get her boat into the marina before she heads off to the States. Probably a good thing too that we are not leaving yet as the weather is not the best, there is nothing but rain between here and Margarita so we're not missing anything by leaving yet.

Tobago Cays

The turtles turned out to be on the shy side we saw them surface around the boat, but as soon as we were in the water there was no evidence that they are around. We did some great snorkeling by Frigate Island and on the outer reef with Mike on Minx and one evening after 8 we snorkeled Frigate Island for lobster. Night time brings them out of their hiding as they feed at night and are easily spotted by the light of the dive light as it illuminates their eyes sparkling almost like little diamonds. We saw many of these delicious creatures but unfortunately they all were very small, the tail would have only been the size of a big shrimp and that's way too small. We did encounter a huge moray eel which was on the prowl as well.
The following day October 13th we had a nice Birthday celebration aboard Paradise with guests Cynthia and Mike. Dinner was wonderful and started with appetizer of lobster bits, baked over with Béchamel sauce and Parmesan (yes we did get two lobster which was just enough meat for an appetizer) presented on flat scallop shells, followed by wonderful pizza ala Minx, Spaghetti Carbonara Paradise style and for desert a Rhubarb crisp ala Manuela. We were so full every body vowed not eating for at least two days, well that vow was all forgotten the next day.
Cynthia and I ventured ashore to explore Ashton which is a very small town on Union island I don't think any tourists ever come here other than cruisers. Every third house was a grocery store of some sort which sold only the essentials. I had to laugh at the one store with the biggest sign "Variety and Grocery Store", so we went inside to find only old clothes and behind the counter a shelf was just below the ceiling which had 6 cans of sardines and two cans of tuna for sail = THE GROCERIES of course they were heavily dusted and too high up for reach. What we also noticed and I've been noticing in all the Grenadines and even Trinidad, pretty much every store has a if not two big posters of Obama on the walls. The locals were just super friendly and we had chats here and there and before we realized it, it was pasted lunch time, time to go back and feed our hungry men.
Cynthia had a dental appointment in Grenada and so they finally left Paradise alone in this beautiful and quite anchorage, the only visitors where the turtles. Unbelievably on October 16th we had our first thunderstorm of this hurricane season which missed us by one mile. This really has been a good year with mild tropical waves and this one was by far the wildest. We did get a lot of rain and each squall had high winds of 35 knots and in just one squall we collected enough water to fill our sun shower and even add about 15 gallons into our tank not to mention that mother nature cleaned Paradise of all the salt and dust, she sparkled.
The entire time since we left Grenada we've been trying to send our updates to our Blog with position reports but propagation was so bad we never got connected. We heard that the sun has lots of sun spots which interfere with radio waves, so our updates are not as frequent as we'd like, sorry.
It was time to head on as we are getting to the end of our stay in the Grenadines but not before we visit the beautiful Tobago Cays once more. Besides Sid's toe finally felt good enough to get going again. Sid jumped into the dinghy, hooked the engine up on the hoist, I hoisted the engine up onto the bracket, then Sid hooked up the dinghy on the davits and whoops he slipped on the dinghy floor and his big toe slammed into the transom of the dinghy. It hurt so bad I even had tears in my eyes. So his toe is back to being battled and bruised again. But we did move the next day and motor sailed the 9 miles to the Tobago Cays. Just after we had rounded the corner of the northwest side of Union the water turned into a washing machine and we had an almost 2 knot current with us pushing us into the oncoming swells, a mess and we were sure that we would have a wild ride all the way. But then we remember that last time on arrival we had the same effect and realized that it is a local condition with the currents wrapping around the north side of Union and sure enough the further we sailed away from the corner the calmer it got. Luck was on our side as we got lifted by the wind and never had to alter course until we arrived at the north end of Mayreau the wind did that for us. From here it was a short 2 miles hop to the entrance of the Tobago Cays were we anchored in our old spot and as the day went along charter boats joined us but left before sunset leaving us alone in this colorful and scenic place. We watched a movie after dinner and after that noticed some big fish swimming around the boat so Sid hung the light into the water. We never got to see the big fish but a shadow we thought was a turtle came closer and as it was just few feet away from Paradise we realized that our visitor was a baby manta, wow, how kewl is that. So we'll be here for a few days enjoying this beautiful part of the world taking in all the beauty nature has to offer. Including having some lobster delivered by one of the locals who recognized us from our last visit. Well, the lobsters were delivered and the size I had ordered but the arranged prize for 50 EC for two doubled on delivery, no thanks, I don't like to be scammed, so much for trying to support the locals.
While Sid was soaking his smashed toe in hot salt water I jumped into the salt water and snorkeled the reef behind us which was full of fish, I've never seen so many in one spot, I was literately surrounded by hundreds of fish from all shapes and colors, just amazing. Then of course I had to swim with the turtles again, but this time without my camera. I found groups of up to 6 turtles in one spot all munching away on the sea grass a sight I will never forget. Next to all the fish and turtles I spotted a good size sole and cuttlefish, how lucky could I get.
Remember the little bird that came visit us here last time flying down below surprising Tika? I wondered if she would come and visit us again and had some bread crumbs ready just in case. She never came until the last morning I had just opened my eyes wondering about that little bird and there she was sitting on the life line in the cockpit watching us sleep. I got up and moved the bread crumb dish to the captain's seat, while she watched flew to it and munched away for at least 10 minutes, she even cleaned up after the crumbs that fell on the floor. When she was all done she looked at us before flying off with a loud chirp, I guess she said "thank you".

Frigate Island on Union Island, St. Vincent Grenadines

We spent the night in Tyrrel Bay then headed around to my favorite spot Sandy Isle. 7 boats were at anchor and from what we noticed on the flags all were French plus one German boat. Our first anchor attempt got us a bit too close to the German boat so we pulled anchor set it again but this time a French lady came screaming out on deck that we could not park there, so we pulled again and went behind them where we heard her baby cry, great. After we had settled in we called Minx on the radio as we knew they were at Union Island, but hadn't been able to hear us the previous day. This time they responded to our call. Mike brought up the fact that northerly swells would start coming in and remembering that Chris had mentioned the same a few days prior we pulled anchor as fast as we could, drove over to Hillsborough, launched the dinghy, Sid dropped me off ashore, I rushed to Immigration then Customs to check out, rushed by the bank to get some money out of the ATM from there down to the beach to buy some fresh conch (6 for 30 EC = 11 bucks), whistled out to Paradise where Sid was waiting to pick me up again and exactly 20 minutes later I was back onboard Paradise. This was by far the fasted check out any where. We pulled anchor and headed the 7 miles across to Union Island. There is always a current running so we hugged the Carriacou coast to the end then set course for Cliffton and made it there with no problems. We tried to sail but only managed to do so for about 10 minutes, the current set us off course so the engine helped to keep us on course. Since it was a weekend the custom and immigration offices in town were closed so we had to walk to the airport which on our last visit we were told is a long walk. We had to laugh as after 5 minutes walking we arrived at the airport. Checking in was as easy as in Hillsborough and 10 minutes later we were on our way back to the boat. Again we pulled anchor and headed to the south side of Union Island and set anchor by Frigate Island next to Minx. It was a happy reunion with a wonderful BBQ rib dinner aboard Minx, ending up drinking a half bottle of her home made Grand Marnier, wow that was yummy. The following morning I went ashore with Mike and Cynthia to walk their dog Ashley. Frigate Island is attached to Union Island through a long and narrow sand spit surrounded by a reef. Many years ago a French company started to build a marina here but ended up bankrupt and leaving the unfinished marina as it is. In the years to come weather destroyed the unfinished marina and all is left is rusted out seawalls between the two lagoons and reef. It makes for a nice walk along the water, good for shelling. I forgot if I ever mentioned that I started collecting beach glass to make pendants with them, Cynthia got me started with something else, beads, natural beads we find along beaches, she then polishes and makes the most wonderful natural bead necklaces. During that walk we noticed this kewl little pool in the mangroves with a reef that we could swim though to the windward lagoon and later in the afternoon we took our dinghies around and snorkeled in that same pool. It came out that it looked more attractive than it really was, but Ashley had a great time swimming amongst us. Ashley really is a cool dog, you should see her when they noodle behind their boat every afternoon. Ashley sits on her own mattress watching us while noodeling around her.
Minx joined us for dinner and she presented me with one of her beautiful necklaces, thank you Cindy. Dinner was wonderful as I cooked the conch into fritters, yummy and desert was putting the fishing light out and we all enjoyed watching all the fish that were attracted to the light. This anchorage is full of turtles as well, we saw many of them pop their heads out of the water, maybe we'll be lucky enough to be able to see them on our next snorkel.

A new chapter in our cruising life has begun

Next to taking care of Tika we moved back and fourth from anchorage to anchorage according to her vet appointments. Doing so we met many new cruisers, got together for dinners, met them for happy hours at restaurants, took part at the weekly Clark's Court Marina potluck, especially the Karaoke which was always loads of fun Cynthia and I kept the place up until at least midnight singing our hearts out and eventually got other cruisers involved in it. I'm sure the boaters in the marina had to put ear plugs in to be able to sleep. We also caught up with Audrey Page Allayne and Dennis we had met in Venezuela last year. What a nice and fun couple, we had them over for dinner on Paradise along with Mike and Cindy on Minx and had a wonderful evening with loads of cop stories Dennis and Sid told us. We hope to catch up with them in many more anchorages to come as they headed west towards Panama.

Jane on Cheetah 2 organized a ladies day, we went to a very beautiful resort on the beach and I don't think I've ever laughed so hard in my life, it was a fun day. There were other things to do like boat stuff, provisioning, rain shuffle, soaking Sid's foot as he stubbed his toe again.

It's been already over one week since we had to say good-bye to Tika. It's just a pet a lot of people would say but the void in our hearts is so great, it hurts so much to not have Tika with us anymore, even Paradise is not the same. So a new chapter in our cruising life is starting. I for once felt like running away, just running away. As the hurting slowly goes away Paradise was ready to set sail and go back where we had left of, the Grenadines. On October 10th we pulled anchor sailed back to Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou. The seas were calm even when we sailed across the part where strong currents rule the waters between the islands and where the underwater volcano Kick'm Jenny lies, thee wind came out of the SE with about 12 knots and we had a wonderful motor sail towards Carriacou until about 8 miles from the island when a squall, I have to add a huge squall dumped a lot of water on us, soaked us to the bones and took the SE wind away and turned the until now calm water to a lumpy chop. I think the changing current helped as well, but the wind now was coming right on the nose and we had to tack back and fourth to make it to Carriacou, not without another squall drenching us.
We are safely anchored in our old spot and are spinning our minds where to go next. So hopefully this time the propagation on the ham radio is better so that I can keep you posted on our where about.

In loving Memory

With sadness we had to say good-bye to our little girl Tika. She gave us unconditional love and left big paw prints on our hearts:

There's something missing in my home,

I feel it day and night,

I know it will take time and strength

before things feel quite right.

But just for now, I need to mourn,

My heart -- it needs to mend.

Though some may say, "It's just a pet,"

I know I've lost a friend.

You've brought such laughter to my home,

and richness to my days.

A constant friend through joy or loss

with gentle, loving ways.

Companion, friend, and confidante,

A friend I won't forget.

You'll live forever in my heart,

My sweet, forever pet.

*Susanne Taylo