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

Waiting for test results and mail

Sid's foot was getting better until he stubbed his toe again not just that he also stepped on a bee with that food ouch. We always used to make fun of him being Polish but we figured out that this is not really the problem, the real problem is his name. As all names have a meaning Sid's meaning is: Troubled and Bruised. So I guess we can't blame it on being Polish anymore we can blame it on his parents for naming him Sid LOL. In the mean time we've been moving back and fourth from Grand Anse to Clark's Court to True Blue for another Vet appointment back to Clark's and so fourth. The anchorages are so close together it really isn't much of an effort to move and gives us an excuse to make water. Tika did her two weeks of antibiotics and during that time she worsened. She was not herself at all, listless, drinking water excessively, didn't eat much, couldn't get comfortable in any position, spacey and we knew she was in pain. The new blood work showed that her Kidney reading had bettered from 59 down to 38 but she'll have a kidney problem from now on. She also lost 400 grams in just two weeks which is a lot for a little kitty like her. We're just waiting on her urine test before we make a decision. The doctor of course is optimistic that with a special diet and medication she could live a bit longer with this kidney condition. The problem is she does not like the new food which is low on protein and salt as she is a very picky eater. Also giving her meds is a torture for all three of us and not to mention last this special food and meds we can only get at special places we know they don't have in many country down here.
Anyway, we've been meeting new cruisers, making new friends so to speak and Manuela goes for daily walks with the girls. The Clark's Court area is really a nice area for it and very scenic although some of the trails are very tough. Saturday nights we join everybody for the potluck at the Clark's Court Marina where Cynthia and Manuela became Karaoke buddies, as soon as they start singing the place empties out but they have a wonderful time anyway until at least midnight.
So we're waiting on the test and also for our mail then we'll see what comes next. Weather has been just wonderful no tropical waves, no or not much rain, best of all no hurricanes and weather is still promising which for this time of the year is very unusual so we keep our fingers crossed that it stays that way.

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.

Back in Grenada

08/24
(LATITUDE: 12-38.11N LONGITUDE: 061-21.67W)
It rained enough over the few days for us to catch enough water to do some laundry. We filled the ice chest with water added detergent plus laundry closed the lid pulled anchor and headed back towards Tobago Cay while the motion of the ocean moved our cloths just like in a washing machine, well Sid had to help a bit later. This time we anchored by the entrance since the reef side is on the bumpy side this was so much calmer and offers an even more spectacular view over the reefs to Mayreau Island. The colors of the water and the green of the islands make this place a real jewel. We were the only ones anchored and saw that in the reef anchorage only 14 boats were at anchor after all this is the end of this years yachting season. We enjoyed being by ourselves and towards the evening a few dinghies gathered on the beach next to us and the kids started having a race in their kayaks and headed straight for Paradise, Sid grabbed the checkered flag we have and waved it to the winning kayak. They had so much fun they invited us to join them on the beach for some rum punch which we did. One couple was from Switzerland, one family from England, one from Russia and one from Colombia. We had so much fun they all invited us to join them in Chatham Bay the next day.
When we woke up the next day the most beautiful view awaited us, I wished I could describe it, the water was as clear as the air and you could see miles and miles even Carriacou wasn't just a blur but crystal clear and we could see Paul and Karin's house, the colors so vivid we could no take our eyes of it. Around noon we lifted anchor and sailed with spinnaker up out of this Paradise and had an incredible spinnaker run to Chatham Bay on the west side of Union island.
(LATITUDE: 12-36.22N LONGITUDE: 061-26.93W)
This is again an entirely different looking anchorage, surrounded with steep lush hills in-between showing some rugged cliffs while a steep too with sandy beach rested on the foot. The bay is very protected from wind and wave unless it should come out of the west which is rare but the wind tends to shriek down the hills and hit the boats and any angle. The water was clear and turtles popped up all around us. I went for a snorkel but did not find any of them.
We met up with the beach party crew and had a great evening with fun and games.
At the beach party in Tobago Sid had pulled a muscle or tendon on his left ankle that gave him a lot of grief for two days he couldn't step on hid foot and it was swollen pretty bad so he was out of commission. Not just that poor Tika hasn't been herself lately and is getting worse. She's 14 years old and started to loose her pee, first we thought that she was not happy and showing it to us in leaving us presents either on the bed or on top of the dodger. Over the weeks it's gotten worse and since a few days it's really bad and Sid noticed that even when she lays somewhere there is a wet spot around her, which means she's not aware of it, not good for her and for us as I have no laundry machine on the boat. We decided best to head back to Grenada where there is a good veterinarian hospital. I tell you either we are the Grizwald's or the cruising is tough.
We sailed around the corner to Clifton checked out with the authority then sailed back to Hillsborough where we caught a nice big fish. Checked back into Carriacou and headed over to Paul and Karin's house to tell them about our plans. We spend a nice dinner with them at the house and pulled anchor at 4 am in the morning and headed back to Grenada.

Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau Island

08/21
Bad weather was predicted as another tropical waves was closing in, this one was predicted with gusts up to 45 knots so it was best to leave the reef and find a more protected anchorage as this anchorage was pretty rough at almost all times when wind and current played games with each other. We sailed 3 miles back and settled in Salt Whistle Bay the northern part of Mayreau Island
which is a small bay able to hold about 30 boats and is surrounded by a beautiful sandy beach.
You can find it on Google Earth with:
LATITUDE: 12-38.87N LONGITUDE: 061-23.49W).
The northern part of the beach is like a window where you can look through to the other side where crashing waves foamed over the reef. The beach was overgrown with palm trees, hidden between them was a resort which you could not see from the anchorage and beyond the beach a high hill overgrown with lush vegetation. We eventually ventured ashore to find that the resort was abandoned, not sure if just for the season or for good. The anchorage was a bit rolly so the flopper stopper came in handy again and we sat nice and calm while all the other sailboats rocked from ear to ear. After the sun had set and the darkness crept over us the first squalls showed up and pelted us with heavy rain then the wind really let loose and for a good 20 minutes howled at a steady 30 knots with gusts up to 35 knots, pretty intense. It rained for a long time and it took a couple hours for the wind to calm down again to no gusts. In the mean time we collected a lot of water which filled up our sun shower bag. We sat in this most beautiful anchorage for 3 days watching one boat after another leave and new ones show up again while Sid sill recuperated. Were definitely in the land of French charter boats as wherever you looked naked people walked around on their boats and any boat anchoring tries to get as close to the next boat even if they drop the anchor almost on top of the other boats, amazing. We had fun watching though, the anchoring that is!!!

Tobago Cays

08/19/09
To approach the Tobago Cays from the south is a bit tricky as there is a reef on either side between the Cays and Mayreau Island and since we didn't know the area we did it the save way and sailed around Mayreau and entered the Tobago Cays from the north, which is recommended. In either case it's a short trip of 8 miles. As we left Clifton and headed into the channel towards Mayreau the water turned beautiful cobalt blue and even though it was anywhere from 30 to 50 feet deep we could see the bottom and everything on it, unbelievable. The backside of Mayreau revealed two beautiful anchorages although they looked a bit on the rolly side and coming around the northern end a beautiful bay opens up which is called Salt Whistle Bay, very inviting. From here it was only 3 more miles to the Cays which again we had to pay attention to hidden reefs on either side. When we arrived we were speechless because of the beautiful scenery that was around us. Every thing had colors the water all the blue shades you can imagine and the islands the freshest greens, it really takes your breath away. If you've seen the Bahamas this is just like it except the islands are taller and very lush I don't think you can walk between the bushes and trees. We chose to take the channel between two of the four islands to get to the anchorage which all is surrounded by a large horse shoe shaped reef. The view from here was just as spectacular. The channel between the first two islands showed all the blue colors depending on the depth and was so clear you could see the bottom then as we came out of the cut and turner right around the corner a huge area opened up with a large anchor area to choose from. Even thought there were over 50 boats in this place mostly huge catamarans it still left plenty of spaces to anchor. We found a suitable spot and dropped the anchor in 10 feet of water which was so clear you wanted to jump in it immediately. The anchor was barely set as the first reef inhabitant a huge seas turtle popped up next to us to greet us with a loud air blow. As fast as she appeared she descended into the water again, wow. It took me about 30 seconds to get my snorkel gear and climbed down the ladder. After my fins were on I fitted my mask and as I looked under the boat I couldn't believe my eyes, right below me was a nurse shark my size: "fast Sid give me my camera!" The shark hung around for a while and didn't mind me taking photos of him then I swam about 20 feet away from the boat when I had the next encounter a beautiful turtle. I don't know how long I was snorkeling around but I know I took at least 100 photos of many turtles. Unfortunately Sid came up with a cold and skipped in the fun I had. After drying off I finally sat down and looked around our new surrounding it was absolutely beautiful with light blue water all the way to the reef, behind it crashing waves then nothing but white capped ocean, blue sky with some white puffy clouds, to the other side the beautiful small islands of the cays and behind Union island, to the south we could even see PSV and Carriacou.
That same night Sid hooked up the under water light again and barely in the water lots of little fish showed up and circled the bright light. Not even 10 minutes later a big needle fish came by then a huge shadow showed up and revealed a stingray, how exciting is that. 5 minutes later something else closed in then we saw the white spots as a beautiful spotted eagle ray swim buy double wow. We couldn't keep our eyes of the water. The following day we snorkeled the outer reef but the current was so strong that we gave up after a short time. It was beautiful though and some areas looked like fish tanks. Sid still didn't feel too good so I ventured by myself to the turtle area where dinghies and boats are forbidden. As soon as I entered this area I saw one turtle after another all grazing on the ocean bottom on seaweed. Now and then they swim up to the surface to catch some breath then submerge to the bottom again. It must have been hours I followed and watched them, it was just amazing. The turtles have the most unique patterns and colors on their shell making it look like it was painted on. They didn't seem to mind me following them up and down from surface to bottom taking photos in the contrary they were just as interested in watching me as I watched them, one came up to the surface facing me and just inches away looking with its gentle eyes right into mine, unforgettable.
We had another visitor on board a female black bird whose daily routine is to board anchored boats to especially investigate the galleys. She was not shy and sat down right next to me while I fed her some dried cat food pieces. The second day she saw me on deck and flew right next to me but left when she realized I did not have food with me. The third time she visited us she ventured into the galley and got surprised by kitty Tika who at the time slept on the sofa. You should have seen Tika's groggy and puzzled look on her face when she chased the bird into the cockpit. I think she wasn't sure if it was real or a dream.

Union Island, St. Vincent Grenadines

08/18/09 If there is such a thing as a "Perfect Day" I can say we just had one. Waking up to the smell of fresh brewed coffee Sid prepares for me every morning is always a perfect way to start another day in and on Paradise. After enjoying this morning's coffee with the lovely view over Tyrell Bay with crystal clear water below our keel Sid cranked the motor up, pulled anchor and we motored around the corner to my favorite spot Sandy Isle. Yes, we motored as we turned the water maker on. We anchored in 11 feet of even clearer water than in Tyrell a short distance away from the white sandy beach, it felt like being on top of a swimming pool. We enjoyed this idyllic retreat to the fullest and around three in the afternoon we plunged into the refreshing water and snorkeled ashore, there we walked along the white sanded beach to the west end, which really just takes a few minutes as the island is only about a quarter of a mile long and ventured back into the water to discover the reef on this side. Unfortunately the last few hurricanes have devastated the coral reefs in this area and left a lot of broken and crumbled coral heads. Despite the devastation we still saw some interesting fish of all colors. One in particular interested my eye this one seemed to glow in the most beautiful cobalt blue color and was about 2 inches and right beside them are little tiny yellow fish cleaning the cobalt fish, a perfect miniature fish display. Snorkeling back towards the boat the scenery changed from rugged broken off coral to sand patches in between then just sandy bottom with some occasional broken off coral pieces and then we saw a school of calamari. Did I just write Calamari, I meant squid the perfect size to look really yummy in my frying pan no wonder calamari came to mind. Right below the calamari a stingray was resting on the sandy bottom with a weary eye on us. Back at the boat we sat down to a cocktail reliving the beautiful snorkel then watching the sun disappear beyond the horizon. For dinner I prepared us some broiled duck legs a la Provencal with some garlic fettuccini and a spinach salad with pine nuts and a hot bacon dressing. While I did dishes Sid hung the underwater fishing light which surrounded Paradise with a turquoise blue hue, looked like the ambiance lights in a swimming pool. Above us was the clearest sky and occasional scooting stars interrupted us watching the many small fish and plankton assembling around the light. What we really hoped for was for the squid to show up the idea of calamari was still making my mouth water, but they didn't. Sid tried to cast the fishing rod a couple of times only to tangle up the reel and then snagging a little jack. We laid on deck for a while marveling up into the sky which at this time of the year reveals the milky way, Scorpio and the tea kettle until our eyelids fell shut. Now wouldn't you say this was a perfect day? The following day we snorkeled again in the crystal clear water, this time we headed to the south reef and on the way there I noticed a fairly good sized spotted sea snake turning over coral pieces scurrying up food. We snorkeled this reef already last time when we saw a good size slipper lobster walking around and were amazed on how many more fish we saw on this day. The visibility was a lot better as well. Coming around the corner of the island bigger fish appeared some that would have looked pretty darn good in my frying pan as well and on our way back to the boat yet another sea snake the opposite color from the previous one slithered across the bottom below us, amazing. Sandy Isle definitely is my favorite anchorage so far in the Caribbean.
In the mean time tropical storm Ana has formed and dissipated to a tropical wave again and tropical storm Bill has turned into a full blown hurricane. Neither one are a threat for us in the contrary they sucked all the moisture out of this area leaving us with clear sky and moderate winds. Perfect condition to head up to the Tobago Cays which are best visited in calm and sunny conditions to really enjoy the spectacular view.
Many boaters are heading south out of the hurricane belt. Luckily this year is another El Niño year has kept the weather at bay. The Pacific side is already on their 7th or 8th storm while the Atlantic has just started. If we're lucky we'll be able to play around until the end of this month before heading south and out of the hurricane belt. Bill is a monster of a cloud and the good thing is that hurricanes never travel south as soon as they hit hurricane force winds they travel northwest to north; looks like he'll miss the Eastern Caribbean completely but is headed straight for Bermuda.

We only had 7 miles to sail to Union Island in the St. Vincent Grenadines but of course the wind blowing anywhere from 15 to 18 knots was right on the nose so we motored the entire way as we also had the water maker on. The swells became rather big, we think it was caused by Hurricane Bill and so the trip was lumpy bumpy. There are a few reefs you have to keep an eye on so staying on course of course is what you want to do venturing the first time into any area.
As soon as we approached the anchorage at Clifton a speed boat approached and tried to tell us we needed to pick up a mooring and motioned to follow him. We were not going to take a mooring and noticed that none of the other boats were on mooring so we anchored. He kept coming after us and barely let us anchor when he approached the boat and tried to sell us anything from propane, laundry service, fuel at 15 EC a gallon ($5.55 yikes it's only 3.70 in Petite Martinique). Later on in the afternoon he approached Sid in the cockpit again and wanted to know if he wanted to buy some ganja?! LOL he definitely asked the wrong guy. Checking in was a piece of cake then we walked around the town which definitely has a more European flair and every other store is a souvenir store with outrageously high prices I guess welcome to the Caribbean, even the two beers we had were 6 bucks and the bottle was a mini bottle. I haven't been able to find any lettuce of any kind in over a week, heard not even Grenada has any on the shelf, here I found some one head of lettuce just enough to make a salad for two people for 6 bucks ouch. I think we'll be living of our canned goods for a while. Clifton is a very charming town and we will spend some more time here but for now the weather is being played right by Bill so we'll head out tomorrow to visit the Tobago Cays.

Heat Exchanger Replaced

After the health day to recoup we took the dinghy around the south side of Carriacou (3 miles) to the most beautiful little island with a sand beach surrounding all but the south side of it. The island is surrounded by reefs and the beach is steep to and the wind was blowing quite a bit and sand blasted our legs. Of course I forgot my camera to capture this idyllic scenery. We explored the island and found a little pond that was filled up with conch shells, some were very new and we picked 4 of them, which later after cleaning them up turned out to be really pretty shells we'll fix so they can be used as a horn. A little over an hour later Beex showed up with a boatload full of kids and the liming started again.
This was the last vacation day for Mark and family and our last lime with them. The following day Paul sailed them to Grenada and we were left alone to now really recuperate. On Monday we ordered the new heat exchanger and told the guy to make sure to send it the fasted way with UPS. Email came with which we hoped the tracking number but instead the guy wanted to know what the zip code here was. There is none so the part didn't get shipped until Tuesday leaving us little hope to receiving it before the weekend. On Wednesday we got a tracking number and when I tracked it UPS said that it'll be delivered here on the 13th that was on the 5th. We were bummed as we knew that now we had to wait until Carnival was over. On the 7th I tracked it again and to our surprise it said that it had arrived in Carriacou on the 6th. WHAT???!!!! Of course by now Friday afternoon at 4 PM it was now too late to go to customs to pick it up and we gave it a shot on Saturday to find out that customs was closed for the weekend, well we did see our package on the floor behind the counter the friendly person worked who now also told us that Monday and Tuesday was a holiday for us to come back on Wednesday. So on the 12th we finally received the package and the following day after hard labor Sid replaced the heat exchange. Getting the part was kind of weird. Customs just handed us the box with two forms we had to fill out and told us to go to the next door building to pay and let us walk out of there with our goods. I tell you we could have just walked back to the boat and they would have never known, but as honest as we are we went to the next door office which was a little bigger then a shoe box and the two of us had just about enough room to watch the girl behind her desk frantically trying to find the code for the heat exchange. 2 hours later she found it under shafts and propeller, weird. And we had to try hard not to laugh out loud whenever she was calling a supervisor that she could not find the part code, you have to know the dialect they have here is even worse than in Trinidad and to us it seemed like the don't even don't understand each other, just too funny. After paying a small fee we were underway, which brings me to the Taxi ride home. If you think you can come into town and be back on your boat within an hour which could be possible, put it out of your mind, because the taxi most likely will stop at every store and shop for their own needs. I think it took us 2 hours to get back to Tyrell Bay which should be a 15 minute ride, but I tell you it was entertaining, wouldn't have wanted to miss it.
The weather has been pretty good with although occasional squalls making us do the rain shuffle over and over again and a few low weather systems have built which now are an eventual threat to become the first hurricane of this season. Oh, I guess the time of hurricanes is over they call them now tropical cyclones. We're still in Tyrell Bay but will start moving around, probably today we'll head back to Sandy Isle and wait for Paul and Karen to come back and spend some one on one time with them without any other guests then we'll try to get to Mareau and Tobago Cays before the weather gets to threatening for us. So far we love the Grenadines with its crystal clear waters in all the blue colors you can imagine.
Unfortunately it's rather on the pricy side here, a bottle of coke costs 3$, a medium size chicken 15 bucks, ouch. Tomatoes 5 bucks a pound, beer 2 bucks a bottle but get this I buy conch for 2 bucks a piece, so what do you think we're eating. We even put a few in the freezer. One of the locals here told me a yummy recipe for a conch or rather Lambi Bloody Mary. Put two conch in the pressure cooker fill with one inch of water and cook for 20 minutes. Melt some butter with garlic, slice the lambi/conch into thin slices dip in butter and enjoy, very rich and tasty, but for the BM use the cooled down juice with tomato sauce and make your BM, I tell you better then using Clamata juice. So life's good and we're getting really good at the rain shuffle.
Almost forgot on the 12th we celebrated the 32nd birthday of Paradise she's an old girl now but looks better the older she gets.

Paradise Beach, Carriacou

Since my last posting we’ve been so buys with doing the rain shuffle, moving the boat around, watching the regatta plus the following potlucks, liming with Paul and Karin and ordering a heat exchanger for our motor. Yes, the heat exchanger is leaking, it’s not all too bad yet so we can run the engine and keep our batteries topped off to keep the fridge and freezer going. Part is underway but we hope it’ll get here before this weekend as next week Carnival starts in Grenada and during that time nothing is open and no body works and our part has to go through Grenada, we’re holding our breath. Actually I almost want to say it’s not going to happen, so let’s wait and see. In the mean time we had many rain showers until the day the regatta started since then it’s been just beautiful. Yesterday was the end of the 4 day regatta activities and go figure we are doing the rain shuffle again. We took part at a few of the festivities and watched a few races but most of the time we’ve been liming with Paul and Karin. We sailed the boat around and took their mooring in front of their beautiful home. You have to see this place to believe, http://www.lastortugasvilla.com/index.htm

the villa is built halve way up the steep hill and is overlooking the northern part of Carriacou with Hillsborough a few islands, one of them which is not even a mile across from the mooring called Sandy Isle, what a jewel then the view passes beyond Sandy Isle to Union island and all the rest of the Grenadine Islands. The color of the water varies on depth and shows all the blue and turquoise shades you can just imagine. It was a happy reunion meeting them in their house plus a surprise, Mark and his family whom we met on the Trinidad Hashes is vacationing with Paul and Karin. Can’t get away from the Hashers! Since then we’ve been pretty much liming with them. Where we were moored was a bit bumpy so the following day we moved over to Sandy Isle which is a sliver of a sandy spit at parts over grown with some almond trees and ice plants the sand is white and very fine and the scenery just breath taking. We anchored in 8 feet of the clearest water, so clear even at night you can see the bottom. We had a couple of good limes on the beach with Paul and company plus his parents and other friends who sailed their boats up from Trinidad as well. Sunday we all were invited at some other friend’s house Toni, Laura plus on the other side of the island and so the boats moved back to Tyrrel Bay and we all organized a taxi van to get us to the party. What awaited us there was the most beautiful view over flat calm turquoise and blue water protected by a big reef which surrounds the north and east side of Carriacou. Carriacou by the way means reef. Beyond the reef about 3 miles away the two islands of Petite Martinique (PM) and Petite San Vincent (PSV), just breathtaking. Not just that along the beach the BBQ was hot and ready for the most delicious baby back ribs followed by seared fresh tuna. A local group with native drums showed up and entertained us, we all had a blast. Unfortunately time went by way too fast and the taxi was already back to drive us back to Tyrrel. Early the next morning Paul picked us up, drove to their house, climbed down to the beach and sailed his boat across to the same reef where we picked up Laura from there we sailed across to PM and PSV. The two islands are joined by a big reef with deep enough water for boats to anchor. We anchored off the beach at PSV which is a privately owned island with only one resort which is frequented by the rich and famous. After along day with loads of swimming, liming, drinking champagne we sailed back to the drop Laura off then the boats decided to spend the night there. Laura drove Sid und me back to Tyrell since we had to run the engine to recharge the batteries. We had way too much fun in the last few days so we will not join them today for another fun lime somewhere in these beautiful waters. We need a general health day to recoup!

Tyrell Bay in Carriacou, Grenadines

July 21st, the longest day of the year which means the days will be getting shorter now. Amazing to think of where most of you are the sun does not set until after 8 here it sets at 6.30 so our days in the tropics are a bit shorter than yours.

One tropical wave after another has passed us and every day we had to do the rain shuffle, one of us running down below closing the hatches while the other ran around in the cockpit closing up the cockpit and moving everything out of way to stay dry. Actually just before one of those shuffles we noticed a trail of ants and with reading glasses on we followed the trail. Fortunately there were only about 20 ants and we found where the rest was hiding or rather living, hopefully no more ants. So if you ever wonder what we do out here, now you know we follow ant trails and do the rain shuffle. In the mean time we had left Prickly Bay and sailed back to the Lagoon. Not even there for one minute we both jumped ship, Sid went to get Diesel and I for provisions.

1 ½ hours later we were on our way out the Lagoon and planned on anchoring the very next bay north of St. George's but as we saw a huge ship holding natural gas we decided that this anchorage was not such a good idea, don't like to sit next to a time bomb. 3 miles past the gas bomb we found the most incredible little bay. We were sure that it would be full as there is only enough room for 2 boats 3 max, but nobody was there. We looked at each other wondering what could be wrong with this anchorage. Three days later we figured out the possibilities:

1. There is NO Wifi here so no cruisers will stay not being able to use Skype.
2. Too remote from shopping, restaurants, boat stores and buddy boats.
3. It's a bit rolly.
4.
Neither one of these points mattered to us not even the rolly part as our flopper stoppers again came in handy.

What a most delightful anchorage, a rounded bay surrounded with rocky shore line in the middle it opens to a steep to beach with a few palm trees and lots of lush trees. Above the rocky shore are steep hills lush overgrown with all kind of different trees. Behind the beach the scene was just incredibly beautiful, lush rolling hills with beautiful colored homes and yet behind them tall rain forest mountains. It looked so very tropical especially with coco palms scattered between the lush foliage. The sunsets were incredible on one side the sun lighting up the beach, rolling hills and mountains with the last rays and to the opposite the sun slowly disappearing on the horizon. While sitting on deck watching the night take over the gentle breeze engulfed Paradise with the scent of wild blooming Jasmine. Life can't get any better than this. The water was pretty clear as well and the snorkeling was pretty OK. We loved this little Paradise we found to ourselves. We did do the rain shuffle a lot here and we figured out that the mountain makes its own clouds but it never really rained hard and if just for a few minutes. The clouds just seem to fizzle out as they came closer to the water.

After three beautiful days and lots of reading we pulled anchor and headed north towards the Grenadines an island group just 14 miles north of the north end of Grenada. We were about 6 miles from the end of the island when the wind picked up and now blew over 20 knots and of course right on the nose, stopping us with every second wave crashing into our bow we decided it was not time yet to head north and turned around and set anchor again in our little Paradise Dragon Bay.

The following day early before the wind got out of bed we snuck out of the bay and headed north for another try. Just as we arrived at the end of the island the wind started to blow at about 10 to 15 knots, not bad, just what we needed. Between Grenada and Carriacou one of the Grenadine Islands there are a few islands with no anchoring possibilities and 2 miles west from them is an underwater volcano "Kick em Jenny", still active and you HAVE to pass this one with at least 2 miles on either side. We headed towards the island with the no anchorages when the current changed. Now this is another thing to watch out for, when the tide heads east there is a current up to 1 knot but if the current is going westbound it can be as much as 2.5 knots and sure enough we did get the 2.5 knots which would have brought us right over Kick em Jenny. We changed course of course and went around the volcano to the west. From here on the ride got wilder and wilder as the current was running into the wind making it Mr. Toads Wild Ride. Luckily it was only 14 miles to go and about 9 miles out of Carriacou the lee effect of the island took over and smoothed out the water. I'm sure Tika was tickled pink over that, poor kitty. We did the 31 miles in 6 1/2 hours and set anchor in the midst of at least 100 boats in Tyrell Bay in Carriacou. It took us a while to find a spot to drop the anchor as there was a very few big enough wholes between all the boats. We anchored right next to a fender which told us that someone was using this spot. The water was crystal clear with the color of light to dark blue or turquoise depending on the depth, beautiful but a bit crowded. On our way here we noticed an oily substance on the cabin sole next to the engine box, which turned out to be anti-freeze from the engine and the tack meter went out a couple of times, so Sid has some work ahead of him. Just after we had anchored the halyard of the main came loose and the wind blew it dangerously close to Maxine our wind generator. With the boat hook and a couple of tries Sid outsmarted the wind and halyard and fixed the problem, what a guy.

Since we left the Lagoon I had no way of doing email as for some reason we can not send email out via our ham radio so first thing after settling in I opened the computer and tried to catch up with our Blog when Sid yelled down below: "You have no idea who just pulled up the fender next to us, it's a BAR!!!" No way! Sure enough as I popped my head out the hatch I see this modified powerboat next to us and written on it was: Lady D Bar open 10 am till late plus phone number and what a better name than "Hallelujah" could they have named the boat! Around 4.30 pm we jumped in the water to cool off and noticed our neighbor pulling along side the bar in their dinghy getting on board and sitting down at the table. After asking if the bar was open we swam over there and joined them for a few drinks. Out of all the places to anchor we found the prime spot right next to the floating bar. I think tomorrow we'll just let the chain out and raft with them LOL. The drinks lasted until sunset then we swam back to the boat where I prepared a good dinner and before snoozing off Sid said: "I bet you it's gonna rain tonight?!" "Nope" was my reply, "I bet you it's not if I loose I cook breakfast, if you loose you will!" Deal. After enjoying my special Sunday coffee Sid prepared I was served a most wonderful bacon, eggs and potato breakfast and to my surprise the bet involved the dishes too. I'm a lucky girl. I think I need to bet him more often LOL. After dishes Sid thinks he fixed the engine problems plus a few other things, let's hope so.

Mangoes in Paradise

The squalls still kept coming and it rained on and off until the next morning. Fairly early before the clouds started to build up again Sid drove me in the dinghy to the Carenage from where I walked along the narrow steep alley over to the center of St. George to the lovely market. I guess the best time to go to the market is on weekends as not all too many stands are open during the week and what each sold was pretty much the same, beautiful ripe tomatoes, onions, garlic, one kind of lettuce, cucumbers, potatoes, dasheen, bundles of scallions mixed with parsley, oregano and thyme, coconuts and yes mangoes, three different kinds. The little mangoes although almost the tastiest are too fibrous and are a nuisance between the teeth, the Julie's are every bodies favorite as they are rich in flavor but smooth in texture and double the size of the stringy mango. My favorite is I think they call it the Emperor Mango, this is double the size of the Julie a monster the size of a coconut and sooooo flavorful and soft, yum. I scored buying two for just a little over one dollar. It was nice to wander through the market again and smell all the wonderful West Indies spices the same wonderful smell I remembered from three years ago. Later in the afternoon relaxing in the boat we realized that the rain had left, no clouds or just a very view were hanging around and wind was practically non existent so we decided to pull anchor and move around to Prickly Bay. It's only about an hour drive and a fairly calm trip as we are in the lee of the island until coming around the point heading east to Prickly were a current runs. It wasn't too bad and in no time we were in our old spot and dropped the anchor. It's so much nicer to sit in this anchorage then in the Lagoon which is surrounded by a noisy road and mosquitoes rule from sunset to dawn. The night was fairly calm with an occasional squall dumping some rain on us. The next day early I dug my sewing machine out which I thought I wouldn't see for a while after the big projects in Trinidad, wroooong. Both zippers on the dodger window lost some teeth and so we were not able to close it all the way and with all the rain coming they needed to be replaced ASAP. It's a 10 minute job as Sid would say ending in a 4 hour frustration. Since the middle part is attached to the whole dodger it's a bit tough to get that part under the sewing machine in a small cockpit. After a lot of S*&^$# and F*^$#) we got it done just on time before a major downpour, although we did get one which only lasted a few minutes. I also added a flap on the bottom of our cockpit rain curtains and the heavy downpour gave us an instant chance to test it. Yeah our cockpit is now leak proof.
Sewing machine put away (for a long time now) we sat in the cockpit and relaxed. Actually we relaxed pretty much the whole entire time we stayed in Prickly Bay except Sid went to watch the Aussie/Kiwi Rugby game while I cleaned house (to do a good job I need him out of the house LOL) and we drove the dinghy around to all the other anchorages finding that we liked Prickly Bay the best.

Beautiful Grenada

What is it with us are we a magnet?!!!! No matter where we anchor we find some idiot anchoring right on top of us. This time we had two, one on starboard side the other on the bow. We could have exchange cheap yellow mustard. This one was a catamaran which moves quite a bit faster then us in any wind puff, at times he passed our bow with barley 10 feet to spare. We couldn't even pull anchor if we needed too as he sat right over it.
While Sid fixed the salt water pump I ventured ashore to get some money and check all the stores I knew to see if they were still there. In deed they were and in better shape then what I remembered. The store variety is so much better here than in Trinidad. Even the marine stores have lots more to offer Grenada is in every part much better and nicer than Trinidad except for the locals they are friendly in both places.
Later in the afternoon Diane picked me up and with the local Taxi we drove to Prickly Bay, she needed some boat parts and I went for company. It's fun but also scary driving the Maxi Taxis here the drivers speed around in these mini vans like they are on a race track and I tell you the roads here are also quite narrow with many, many turns. And of course the music is blaring so that you can't talk to your next seat neighbor. The music is definitely better in Trinidad. Diane and I looked at each other in horror when we listened to one of the songs, in the same tone the singer was saying over and over again "throw up - throw up - throw up..." through out the whole song. I think there were only about 20 other words in it. The song sounded as disgusting as the words were and they call this music here. Far gone are the good Grenada Calypso times at least Trinidad's calypso although also altered over the years is still fairy enjoyable to listen.
In the mean time we re-anchored, just around the corner from the St. George lagoon, which by the way is an extinct volcano crater. Paradise is in front of a beautiful beach with view over to the St. George Carenage a little bay with the most charming colorful houses built up the steep hills. The scenery is quite stunning and makes you tolerate the light roll in the anchorage.
Change of mind about the rolling, after half a day sitting cooped up in the cockpit while one squall after another blew over us we pulled anchor at first sight of blue sky and headed back into the lagoon where it was much calmer. After setting anchor Sid went over to Jabulani and helped Diane fix her stove.

Yeah, we're in Grenada

On July 11th we finally left Trinidad. We snuck out of the harbor at 5 PM and made it through the Boca before sunset. The current was still on its way out and pushed us with over 7 knots through the cut between the islands. Coming out into the Boca it was a confusion of currents and waves. Unfortunately it stayed confused and lumpy bumpy for many hours and neither one of us was hungry for dinner. I was tired so I took the first snooze but it staid lumpy enough to make it hard for me to sleep. Sid steered until midnight then it was my turn. By then the seas got a lot calmer and Sid got his beauty sleep until 4 am. As it was my turn again the seas churned up again but I managed to get some sleep. We had an average of 4 to 6 foot seas and winds anywhere from 10 to 22 knots. The 22 knots we received whenever a squall passed over us. Most squalls we were able to dodge. We also had up to 2.5 knots of current with us and at one point Sid had to slow the boat down as we jumped waves making it too uncomfortable. Amazing that one knot difference can make it moving more calmly through the water, I finally got some zzzzz's. The closer we got to Grenada the rougher the seas became and we were tossed from side to side as the swells hit us on the beam. In all it took us exactly 16 hours from when we left the slip to when we dropped the hook in Prickly bay and sailed a total of 82 miles.
It was almost unbelievable that we were sitting in an anchorage it almost felt like we just came out of prison. We caught up on some sleep then for the rest of the day we did absolutely nothing. We sure enjoyed the spectacular view of Prickly Bay, not much has changed since we were here last time except it looked even better then I remember it. The shoreline is covered with lush greenery almost looking like a botanical garden with the most beautiful homes placed in between. In the background you see the many lush mountain peaks. We were actually surprised that not too many boats are anchored here. We are so happy to be at anchor again and so is the cat, she napped next to me in the cockpit all morning long, that is very unusual, then she just talked up a storm letting us know how happy she was. Poor thing had a horrible time as she got seasick and couldn't make it to the bathroom and peed on the towel on the bed. Just good we had a plastic cover over the bed so no damage done.
Since the authorities are closed on weekends we sailed around the corner to St. George the following morning and anchored in the Lagoon. I wished Trinidad was as easy to check in or out as Grenada. Normally you can check in at Prickly Bay as well but due to the Swine Flue you have to do so in St. George. The Officer sent us first to a health inspector where we had to fill out a form stating that we don't have fever, cough, sneezing, diarrhea and other symptoms, then we got a clear health card and the officer checked us in. Imagine this right after getting checked in I got a free hair cut right there in the parking lot. No, hair cuts usually don't come with the checking in procedure. Diane's daughter on Jabulani's is here visiting and gave me the hair cut. Diane invited us for dinner tonight so we are busy already.

Back on my feet again

OK, OK, no more excuses not to catch up on the Blogg anymore as my cast is finally off and I’m good enough again to do computer duties. It was a little tough to sit in front of the computer with the cast on, after every 30 or so minutes of being on my feet or having the foot down I had to elevate it which by then showed blue sausages instead of toes. By the way I was lucky not to get a hasher nickname but some do call me Indiana Jane, yeah I wished I would have found a treasure instead of a cast!

So let me catch up:

After 2 ½ weeks of living with Shawn and Debbie and Sid driving every evening to see me, the boat was finally ready to splash. (Sid was so cute whenever he had to bring me some new cloths he made sure that all matched including underwear, I almost felt like a fashion model.) Easter week was approaching and with that Shawn and Debbie were getting ready to leave for the Grenadines, the trip we had planned to join them on, so it was time to move out of their home. Paradise was still in the yard and they were backed up with splashing boats and Paradise was delayed by two days. Wally and Brian came to the rescue again and insisted that we stay in one of their rooms at Crews Inn Hotel. It’s really a blessing to have met all these wonderful people. When Paradise finally pulled into the slip I could hardly wait to get home, especially to see my kitty Tika. You have no idea how wonderful it felt to be home, I think Sid got tired of me saying it over and over in the coming weeks and still now.

The Crews Inn management was awesome in accommodating us at the floating dock for 60 footers charging us only for 40 feet. I would have never been able to get on or off the boat on the fixed docks. First thing I did after crawling into the cockpit was set up my sewing machine to make a cover for the cast out of an old T-shirt to protect the boat and wood from getting banged up. The second day I finished the bean bags I started for Debbie, third day slip covers for the cockpit then I said enough, I’m ready to sew more when the cast comes off. It was easy getting on and off the boat, it was a bit trickier to go down below but using my left knee I managed pretty well. Inside the boat another story, I did need the help of one crutch to get around. It’s not the ideal place for a broken foot, but it sure felt great to be home. The good thing about the cast was it was waterproof and therefore I was relaxing in the pool twice a day, really the only place to relax that leg, the cast also never itched.

My noodeling buddies still noodled daily in the pool and at the potluck showered me with presents and a fun poem Christine on Quadril came up with (http://boatbummswaterareobics.blogspot.com/ at very end of so scroll down).

Unfortunately everybody was getting ready to leave their boats

on the hard and to go home for the summer. Within just a couple of weeks all the people we knew had left.

We still joined the Hashers every

second Saturday and I realized how much nicer it is to just sit there, enjoying the scenery while everybody handed me beers and made sure I was comfy, instead of running through the jungle like an idiot getting sweaty, wet, muddy and stinky LOL.

Every two weeks Sid had to drive me to the doctor where x-rays were taken and after 5 ½ weeks it was a bit disappointing to find out that he wanted the cast on for 2 extra weeks.

May 19^th, after 8 ½ weeks the cast finally came off and Sid had threatened to rent a weed whacker for the long hair on my leg. I was sure to find a skinny hairy albino monkey leg when the cast came off, instead I started to worry that I would be send me to Chacachacare the once used island for the leper colony as that’s just what my leg looked like. With a good soak in ice water the leper skin came off, thank goodness. In the evening we invited a few friends over for a “cast-off” lime, they all thought that we were casting off, guess we fooled them. It showed again how small Trinidad is, we invited three different parties and guess what, they all knew each other!

While I was at Shawn and Debbie’s, Paradise got another face lift, this time we exchanged the rub rail. Get this Fortress who did our teak floor last year wanted US$ 1640 to do the job, as I told Nevi that he was way overpriced,and that this is almost the price he charged for the teak floor, he lowered the price to 1240 (the 400 bucks was a frivolous charge only applied if the yard sends us to him and since we went to him directly shows how greedy this business is, obviously we were over charged last year as well. Then one cruiser suggested to hire Busy Bee, he came by to assess the work, called us the next day for a price of 1300 bucks, we declined. Three days later Busy Bee called us up asking for money. For what? He had bought the wood and we hadn’t even hired him! He was very upset when we told him that we were not going to pay him. Two hours later a carpenter from Fortress called telling us that we needed to pay Busy Bee or he will never get a contract at Power Boats again we explained that we did not hire him. We finally talked to Randolph on Same Crew (used to work for Fortress and left with half the Crew and started his own business, therefore the name Same Crew) he replaced the rail for 500 and got it done within the promised time and did a really nice job. Sid also had him make some steps/seats for the bow, looks great. Further lessons learned, you really have to be on your toes to hire people here. To which come to my mind Sid cleaned our AC and by accident punctured a tube. All that needed to be done was fix the hole and install a valve to refill the AC with Freon. The AC dealer close by said they could do it at a cost of US$ 250. The AC new was $79.99, Sid brought that to his attention but no he stuck to his price. I then went online and started to call AC repair places, one called me back within 20 minutes, two hours later he was here and fixed the AC in the back of his truck for TT 250 which is roughly 40 bucks. His fix still leaked a bit but came back the very next day and fixed it at no cost. Amazing, shows you again what a rip most off the Chaguaramas dealers are. Oh, I also called around for a new window unit AC, the smallest one I could find was 25,000 btu.

While my foot was prisoner to the cast Sid had lots of varnishing to do to the new rub rail plus the rest of the boat. He applied a total of 14 coats and due to the long drying time took him 4 weeks. Glad to finish it and thanks to the floating dock it was much easier on his back. You should see the incredible job he did Paradise sparkles again. The only thing left to varnish now is the cockpit. Of course he found all kinds of other odds and ends to work on in between varnish coats. The most annoying job was scrubbing the water line at least once a week. This is by far the filthiest marina/harbor we’ve ever been to. There is not one day without a huge oil or diesel spill, which conveniently gets caught in our slip which then with the help of wakes from the many fishing boats, sticks like glue to the side of the hull leaving a 10 inch black water line around the boat, yuck and very frustrating. Imagine the fishermen are complaining about cruisers making a mess in the water while all the stuff floating in it including the daily diesel spill are from them. You should see what Sid pulls out of the water on a daily basis. The score after a very high tide was him pulling out 2 jerry jugs, 2 wooden boat hatches, one oil drum, plastic bags, trash which all came from a boat the fishermen had let sunk. The big reward for him was he pulled out a sail bag with a perfect spinnaker in it. We could not find the owner.

Not just the dirty water around here but a stray cat came aboard during several nights and marked our boat as his territory. It took us a little over 4 weeks to get the stench completely off and still now and then a whiff gets up our nose. As for that male cat we captured him and had him neutered right in front of us! There is a wonderful veterinarian here Dr. Wade he does house or boat calls and he came to our aid and fixed the cat right here and we were allowed to watch.

We met Dr. Wade during the summit as another stray cat although very friendly named Tom, Russel, Noodles, Mooch, Tiger or whatever it is and believe me he will come to you if you mention just any of those few names, he truly is a mooch though. He’s new name now is ‘Ohmygoshmyballsaregone”.

He was insured with a pretty good slice on his back and Major Cyndi who is an animal lover called for Dr. Wade to stitch him up, that got me introduced to her as she needed a litter box for the cat which I gave her, and later through here we met Dr. Wade. I brought up the fact that the cat was not fixed and so Dr. Wade fixed him after stitching him up in Cyndi’s hotel room. So our stray cat was number 2 and more to come as there are a few more stray cats that are ganging up on Noodlestomrussellmooch so we will trap them as well to get fixed. Sid set the trap a couple of nights without any success but one morning oh glory the trap had snapped shut. Sid was so excited but as he approached the cage he could not see a trapped cat. Upon closer inspection he found a monster toad inside the trap. Don’t think Dr. Wade will make a house call to fix him LOL. But watch out strays we’re going to getcha. In the mean time the little black cat lost his jewels as well and a few days later we caught a small female. We drove her to Dr. Wade’s clinic and I watched the whole procedure when he fixed her. We have one more to go!

Cyndi and I hit it off so I invited her for cocktails on Paradise, she smiled at me and asked if she could bring her boss. “But of course” so on Sunday night, the last day of the summit she brought her boss over, that’s when we found out she was a Major and introduced us to her boss Lieutenant General Norman Seip a 3 star General in charge of the Caribbean and here at the summit under direct orders from the President of the United States to take charge in case of an emergency.

Wow what an honor to have the two on board, especially with his busy schedule to find time for us. They had one hour to relax. After the hour was over he asked Cindy to inform the next appointment, an important dinner they had to attend that they were delayed by 30 minutes, he wanted to relax some more. We had a wonderful time and before he left he handed each one of us his personal military coin and thanked us for the wonderful time. He said this was the highlight of his Trinidad time as he was cooped up in the command room for 58 hours straight for the whole summit. It truly was an honor for us to have them both in and on Paradise.

One month later on my birthday Cyndi called to let us know that the General was coming back to Trinidad for a short visit and he would like to invite his new friends to join him for dinner, so the following Monday we had Norm, Cindy, Dr. Wade and Jesse on board for another cocktail and then the General treated us to a very delicious meal at the Lighthouse Restaurant of the hotel. We finished the night off with some aged rum in and on Paradise again. It was really a very nice evening. Norm is a rum connoisseur like us and brought us aged Brugal Rum from the Dominican Republic. He is going to retire in October and Cindy is going to Congress. She’s got an incredible carrier in front of her, go girl.

Weather has been wonderful in Trinidad at times a bit too hot, but at least no rain to interfere with Sid’s varnish. Since the accident we kept the rental car, it’s a heck of a lot easier to get around and of course we don’t miss our matinee afternoons at the movies. (A great excuse to get out of the heat into the freezing theater).

Twice a week I have to go to therapy and I’ve been pushing it to get better so after just two weeks I ditched one crutch and three days later the other as well. Just in case I have a cane that I carry around. When I ditched the crutches Sid even let me drive by myself. What a great feeling I feel like a whole person again and after therapy I hit three stores, yes I can go shopping again, Sid hide the wallet LOL.

Sid is still finding more things to fix or change and we have one more major project to do, sewing projects. You should see my sewing room, it really has the best view!!!

Then of course when ever we have a chance we get together with Shawn and Debbie for a lime.

We’re also planning to drive some around the island to catch up on things we missed last years like the Eastern shore of Trinidad, Pitch Lake, Caroni Swamp, Angostura Rum Distillery and of course we like to go turtle watching once more, that is truly an incredible experience.

Hopefully this time we also will see the hatchlings race to the water.

Hurricane season started June 1^st and sure enough that day the first tropical wave welcomed in the 2009 hurricane season. With another one having past already and new ones headed for us. We hope the weather will be on our side when we head up to the Grenadines in about one month or as soon as my foot is fully recovered. From there we’ll head back to Venezuela to catch up with all our friends and for a final good-by or what we say “see ya later” then finally west wards towards the canal. So once we’re underway again I will update the Blogg on a daily basis again or with every move to a new location.