June 1, 2001 -- Our Day in Bequia Since the Doyle Guidebook was so positive about Admiralty Bay, Bequia, we decided to take a look around the town. We were hoping to find a few things. Yup, it was another day of checking out the chandleries! We started out doing lunch at a small bar and restaurant. We ran into Ian and Sue from Kokopelli, and then Bob and Mona from Mutual Fun also appeared. We chatted over lunch, and then headed on our way. We wandered around and checked out the 4 'chandleries' in Admiralty Bay. They all had essentially the same equipment and supplies. Unfortunately, they did not have anything we were looking for! We then headed to an internet cafe to upload logs and to check a few things on the net. Finding that Bequia did not meet the build up it received, we checked out, planning to head for Carriacou tomorrow. We have come to the conclusion that the Doyle Guidebooks are virtually worthless. Yes, you too can run a five star establishment, as rated by Chris Doyle, simply by forking over enough money for ad space. We have been disappointed in most places that have been reviewed in any of Doyles guidebooks that we have visited; in fact, the best use we have for the Doyle guidebooks is to know where to AVOID based on how highly he recommends them (which is also usually a direct correlation as to how big their ads are). Basically, if you are reading this and planning to go cruising, there are two books we would recommend, A Gentleman's Guide to Passages South by Bruce Van Sant and A Cruising Guide to the Caribbean by Stone and Hayes.
June 2, 2001 -- Carriacou? Nah, St. Georges Bound We got up this morning and got underway. We were playing it cautiously and decided to head for Carriacou. That lasted all of 20 minutes because it was so beautiful out; we quickly changed our destination to St. Georges, Grenada. The wind was 15 knots right on the beam and the seas were right around 3 feet. We motorsailed to just past Carriacou where we did the 'happy happy joy joy' dance. We are officially 'below the insurance box' for hurricane season! We wanted to make sure that we would make landfall during daylight. However, as soon as we knew we would be fine, we cut the engines off and sailed at 6 knots almost all the way to St. Georges! This brings us to 14 times under sail alone. We dropped anchor outside St. Georges harbor and spent the evening celebrating with good liquor and Cuban cigars. 'Twas a glorious evening!
June 3, 2001 -- Around to Prickley Bay We flipped on the weather this morning to Eric saying that there was no wind anywhere in the Caribbean today. Even Grenada which always has wind was reporting calm conditions. We decided to take advantage of that and head around to Prickley Bay on the south coast of Grenada. It was a grueling long distance of 8 miles or so. Seriously though, it was a mostly pleasant move, though after we rounded the South West corner, of course, we had the wind on the nose! We dropped anchor, splashed the dinghy and I headed in to clear in to customs and immigration. Unfortunately, because it was Sunday I had to head into St. Georges to check in. As I was about to go in a cab, when Steve and Nancy from Tahoe pulled up in their rental car. Steve drove me to St Georges to clear in. The amusing part was that only immigration was open! I would still need to clear customs tomorrow. On our way back to the marina, Steve and I stopped by the grocery store. Then I headed back to the boat. That evening, we went into the marina for happy hour, actually a happy hour and a half at the marina bar. We spent the evening catching up with Steve and Nancy since we haven't seen them since Martinique.
June 4-10, 2001 -- Michael's Body Wants a Break Michael woke up this morning not feeling well. By 11:00 AM, he had a fever of 101. He wound up being sick for a week. During the week that he was sick, I did a few things, mostly running around. I went into town twice looking for various supplies that we are out of, and working with a carpenter who is doing some work for us. I also made several phone calls to order things in since Grenada is a duty free port, in theory. St. Georges is an interesting place. Like many of the other islands, the town is built into the side of a hill (actually several hills). The roads are steep and narrow. It is a fun, if tiring place to wander around. On June 8, Michael was starting to feel better. His temperature was normal, and several friends had arrived so he got off the boat for the first time and went to cocktails. Unfortunately, we stayed a little to long, and spent the next two days quietly.
Today, Mike was feeling well enough to go into town to look around. There is a bus that offers a round trip running at 9:00 AM into St. George's and then returning at 1:00 PM from the Nutmeg Restaurant. The bus was extremely crowded so we decided to take a taxi into town with a few other folks; it cost a little more than the bus, but we rode in comfort. We started the morning by checking out the open air market. The market had your standard fresh fruits and vegetables as well as spices. We then wandered around checking out several of the office supply and computer stores since we need a new printer. Our old one died while we were in St. Lucia! Next we stopped by the Nutmeg Restaurant for breakfast. Then we walked around the rest of the Caranage and continued on to Island Water World by the Grenada Yacht Club. We stopped in there to check for some spares and stuff we need for the various projects we want to complete on the boat. Finally, we walked up to the Food Fair grocery store. We picked up some fresh stuff including milk. It is one of the nice things about being here, fresh milk! Now if we can just find sour cream. We returned to the boat with our stuff and spent the rest of the day lounging. June 12 we spent the day recovering from going to town. Mike wasn't quite as recovered as he thought he was. However, that didn't stop us from going to happy hour. A number of the boats that we have met in the various places we stopped arrived today and we had a reunion of sorts. It was great to see the familiar faces and compare notes on our various trips and impressions of places we have been. On June 13, we started on the boat chores. Today's task was caulking the front of the fly bridge equipment panel, specifically under the radars. It doesn't sound like much, but it took most of the morning! Actually, the task didn't take that long; however, cleaning up afterwards did. Mike managed to get life caulk in his beard, on his chest, legs, hands and pretty much everywhere else! On June 14, we rebedded our aft hatch. We did it right this time. We pulled the hatch up, and cleaned it up. Then, we patched the old holes with Marine Tex. After that set up, we caulked the bottom of the hatch, placed it and screwed it down. We will see if this solves the problem. On June 15, I walked into the Grand Anse with Nancy on Tahoe and Jan on Sojourner. We spent the day wandering around the two mini-malls there. In the Food Fair I did manage to find bagels, fresh not frozen! We haven't had them since the Bahamas. We finished the day by going to the Real Value grocery store, where again, I picked up milk and other perishables. We took a cab back to the marina for a variety of reasons, the least of which was the fact that it was raining small furry quadrupeds. We beat the rain back to the marina, and I managed to get back to the boat before it started raining. While I was gone, Mike continued working on the boat and did some laundry. When I got back he proudly told me to check out the light switches in the forward section of the boat. We have working light switches again! It was so nice to be able to find those in St. Lucia. The switches on the boat are European, and they have been slowly dying for the last year and a half with no replacements in sight. US switches wouldn't fit without doing major renovations on the teak. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, me from my walk and Mike from his hard work. That evening, we headed into the marina for the last steel band performance before the restaurant and bar shut down for two weeks of renovations. It was a busy night! The band was excellent, and at one point, I joined a conga line through the restaurant and bar! We finally dragged ourselves back to the boat late that night. On June 16, I was to sore to move much. Between walking all over yesterday and dancing the night away, I was not moving. We spent a quiet day on the boat. On June 17, We spent another lazy day. On June 18, we headed back into town to look around a bit more and, of course, to stop by the marine store and the grocery store. On June 19, we continued working on the boat. We started by changing Tink's oil, then moved on to changing one of his motor mounts that had deteriorated, since it was located under the oil fill. This took the greater part of the day due to the how the motor mount was designed. On June 20, we sanded down where the Marine Tex had dripped on the hatch trim. Next we applied a coat of varnish to the trim. Having concluded our work for the day, Sue from Lady Simcoe and I walked over to the Moorings to have lunch and play dominoes. It was a fun afternoon. I arrived back at the marina in time to pick up one of the packages we were expecting. We now have new weather fax print heads (the print heads only last for 50 rolls of paper before they have to be changed) and the NMEA multiplexer! On June 21, we moved the boat from where it was anchored 200 yards closer to shore. This took us out of the bulk of the surge that hits Prickly Bay. Unfortunately, it wasn't quite enough because the surge was still too bad for us to raise the dinghy for the work we need to do it. It was also to rolly for us to put the new weather fax head on. Masade arrived! After lunch, we headed over to say hey. They introduced us to their guests, Sheena and Bruce. We chatted for a little while, then made plans to do cocktails aboard Nightwinds. Sue from Lady Simco, and Mike and Barb from Mariah also joined us. It was a fun, albeit early evening since Masade had been traveling since 6:00 AM. On June 22, it was flat calm so we hoisted the dinghy on deck so it could dry for the day. We need to repair a spot on the engine mount block. We picked up the boat and then spent a quiet morning. We were invited to Mexican night at the True Blue Bay Resort. Bob on Bahati picked us up in his dinghy and we headed to dinner with Lady Simco, Sojourn, Tahoe, and Bahati. The evening was enjoyable, and except for the drink prices it was fun. We started talking about how much fun Dominoes was so Sue and I planned to do a combination dominoes and cocktail hour at the marina. On June 23, we patched the engine mount block on the dinghy and then later, dropped it back in the water. We did it just in time because the swell was back a little bit later in the afternoon. We had a late lunch/early dinner then headed in to play dominoes. Sue from Lady Simco, Sue from Kokopelli, John from Sojourn and Mike and I played dominoes until the cocktail party kicked off. 20 people showed up for an evening of socializing and drinking. We ran into Moonrise, who we haven't seen since Beaufort two years ago! It was a great evening.
We got up this morning, and after listening to Eric for weather, writing logs and having breakfast, we set to work. We were going to replace a dead DC engine room blower. We had purchased a new blower in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia but needed to change the flange mount on it. We figured we would simply use the old housing on the new fan. While Mike worked on taking apart the old fan and the new fan, I reviewed our electrical panel needs and wrote up the list of items we need to order from Budget Marine. I completed my task just as Mike discovered that the manufacturers of the fan changed the size of the squirrel cage and we couldn't use the old housing! So much for that project. Just before noon, we got off the boat and headed over to the Moorings resort to have lunch and play dominoes all afternoon. We finally met Folie a Deux and Sanderling. Mariah, Kokopellie, Mutual Fun and Blue Horizon also showed up. It was a fun afternoon. We had two tables of 8 people playing! After we got back to the boat, we had dinner and spent a quiet evening aboard the boat.
After listening to the weather this morning, we headed into St. Georges. We needed to do some grocery shopping and place an order with Island Water World. After finishing up at Island Water World, we caught a public 'bus' to the Grand Anse mall. Public transportation is interesting here. A public bus looks very much like a taxi (both of which are minivans), except that they are red. However, one thing to note is that while public buses are always red, taxis can also be red! So, before you get in, you have to make sure what price you will be charged for being transported. Oh, and the other interesting thing is that the taxi and bus drivers all name their vehicles. It can be amusing to see vehicles named Naked and Da Beast driving down the road. Anyway, we wanted to stop there since last week I found bagels at the Food Fair there. We found bagels again, and burrito shells as well! From the Grand Anse Mall, we walked up to the Spice Island Mall. We had heard that you can find sour cream at the grocery store there. We haven't been able to find sour cream since Puerto Rico. We must have been living right. It looked like the supply boat had just come in! We found everything we wanted, including the sour cream! Unfortunately, our luck didn't hold all the way to getting back to the boat. As we checked out, we discovered that it was raining! We called a taxi to pick us up and rode back to the marina. Just as we pulled into the driveway, the heavens opened up! By the time we got the dinghy back to the boat we were completely soaked! After stowing all of the groceries and getting dried off, we set to work. Mike changed out the light switch in the galley while I installed 3 indicator lights on our DC electrical panel. We had just finished our boat work for the day when Ken on Stormy Petrel called to inquire about a computer problem that a friend of his was having. Right after we got off the radio with Ken, Mike on Mariah called to inquire if he could stop by. We said sure, and he headed over. Reg stopped by, and we showed him our USB hub as well as our null modem cable. We explained the issue we thought he was having and suggested that he borrow our null modem cable to verify it. As Reg was leaving, Mike arrived. He came by to show us the information he had on squall proof wind scoops. While we were talking, Karen from Bahati came by. We had called them right after we got back from the grocery store to let her know that we had picked up some sour cream for her. Right after everyone left, around 3:30 PM, we started cooking dinner since we were headed to Mariah at 5:00 PM for cocktails. Cocktails was very fun. Mike and Barbara have a beautiful boat and are very diverse. We spent 4 hours chatting with them about everything under the sun. Unfortunately, we got so wrapped up in our conversation that we lost track of time and missed the International Space Station fly over! We returned to the boat around 9:00 PM where we had one last drink before going to bed.
After breakfast this morning, we headed over to Heart of Oak to help set up the USB hub that acquired from us. They have a CSY 44 that they have been refitting while cruising. It was fairly easy, but time consuming. Next we headed to the internet cafe and uploaded logs. We returned to the boat to fix lunch since we were headed in to Spice Island Marina for Dominoes and cocktails. We finished lunch in time to shower, pack our cooler and head in. On the way to the marina we stopped by Blind Date to say hi since they arrived today. We headed in to the marina a few minutes early so that Michael could get Cokes from the mini-mart while I went to the marina office to place an order with Budget Marine. We had a great turn out for Dominoes! We wound up having two tables of 6 people playing! At 5:00 we broke up the games in favor of cocktails. Cocktails turnout was also great. Probably 25 people showed up with various snacky stuff and, of course, drinks. It was a fun evening.
We woke up this morning to overcast gray skies and moderate to heavy rain. We flipped on the radio to listen to the Maritime Mobile Emergency and Weather Net (7162 at 6:30 AM and 3815 at 6:30 PM local time) to find out that the tropical wave that was supposed to hit tomorrow was here! I suggested turning on the generator and going back to bed; it was just that kind of day. The VHF radio was buzzing with conversations about being boat bound. It seemed that everyone had the same idea of watching movies and collecting rain water. We heard a lot of the Canadian cruisers calling each other. After the fourth time this happened, we decided to listen in. After all, they could have been planning an invasion! It turns out that they were planning for a Canada Day celebration. We spent a lazy day until the afternoon, when Mike was bitten by the ambition bug and we installed the NMEA multiplexer. We now have all of our NMEA data going into the Capn and passed on to our radars as well.
This morning, we headed out to Grenada Marine in St. David. We traveled with Sue and Leon from Masade and John on Sojourn. We traveled by taxi to the remote south east corner of Grenada! Mind you, it was only about 10 miles from Prickly Bay. We arrived at Grenada Marine just as they were about to block up a catamaran, so we hopped out of the taxi and checked out the straps on the travel lift. We felt comfortable enough with the it to talk to the office. First, we talked with them about the haul out we wanted done, mostly a haul out, and bottom paint, and then about getting pricing on putting hydraulic furling on the boat. The office person escorted us to the rigger on staff. We chatted with her about what we want, and about our concerns. She will contact us with pricing for the gear. On our way to the rigger, we found Joss, a production line Cheoy Lee sailboat that Bob and Mona on Mutual Fun have been telling us about. We headed back there and met Cliff and Mary Ellen. They will be on the hard for another 2 weeks or so before returning to Prickly Bay for a few weeks. When everyone was done talking to the yard, we piled back into the taxi to head back to Prickly Bay. It dawned on us half way there that it was almost lunch time, so we diverted to the Spice Island Mall for a pizza lunch. John opted to go back to Prickly Bay since he was lugging a 20 pound radio. Sue, Leon, Mike and I had pizza for lunch, and then wandered down to the super market. After we got back to the marina, we met Jim Cottle from Cottle Boat Works who is doing hatch and port light screens for us. He needed to ensure the appropriate fit for the work he is doing for us. So far, the screen frames look good. Mike stayed on the boat while I dropped Jim off at the Marina. I also went into the marina office to pay the deposit on the stuff we have ordered from Budget Marine. After I completed that, I stopped by Tahoe to chat with Steve and Nancy. I headed back to the boat and Mike caught my lines. We spent the rest of the day vegging (we are really getting that down pat). On June 29, we had a full day. Everything started with the cruisers net where we offered our drop over hatch screens for sale. Next, as I was about to leave to drop off the glasses Lady Simcoe loaned us at the last cocktail party, when Jolly Moon called and asked us to drop off a test screen to them. So, once I had everything, I headed off, and Mike stayed on the boat since we were still charging the batteries and we didn't want to shut off the generator. I dropped off the glasses, and the hatch screen, then headed back to the boat. Right after we finished tying the dinghy up, Jolly Moon called and asked for two more screens since they fit! We told Molly that we would drop off the additional screens around 10:45 AM AST since we were headed in to catch the bus to the Fisherman's Birthday celebration in Guavica. At 10:10 AM AST we heard a loud thump. We thought something had fallen over since the boat was rocking pretty bad, which it does when tropical waves go through. Then within a minute or so, the CO detectors started going nuts; they do that when the voltage drops below the level they need to run. We went up to the electrical panel, and sure enough the generator was only producing 70 volts! We quickly cut the power from the generator and shut it off. I crawled into the engine room and opened the capacitor bank and found the top blown off one of the capacitors! Once the mystery of the thump and power loss was resolved, we jumped in the shower so we could head into to the marina. We picked up Sue and Leon from Masade and Peter and Diane on Pearl, and headed in to the marina. We dropped off the hatch screens to Jolly Moon and then piled into the buses to head to Guavica. We rode with Marcia from Serendipity, Peter and Diane from Pearl, Ashley, Carol, Scott and Lacy from Blind Date, Sue and Leon from Masade, and Billy Kay and John from Imagine. Unfortunately, we arrived in Guavica early, so everything wasn't quite set up! We watched some of the sailboat races, then headed back to the street to find something to eat. We wandered through the seafood display but didn't find anything. We found out later that at the far end of the tent, there were samples of West Indies food being set up. If we had been 15 minutes later, our culinary experience might have been very different! After lunch, we wandered the street checking out the shops and stuff before heading back to watch the end of the first sailboat race. Along the way we decided that it was going to be time to head back to the marina fairly soon. Sue and I went looking for a phone, and ultimately found one at the Texaco station (almost a half mile away!). We called the coordinator of the taxis we hired for the day and he said he would try to contact our driver. Long story short, he couldn't find our driver so we swapped busses and the new bus would pick us up at 4:00 PM AST. We wandered back to where everyone had moved to, under the shade of a palm tree next to the house of a man named 'hot shot', that was his nickname anyway. He was very friendly and spent some time cutting coconuts open for us. He was very friendly and very talented with a machete. When it was time, we bid a fond farewell to the folks we met and walked to the fire station where we were supposed to meet the taxi. Sue and Leon opted to go back on the later bus since this one was smaller than the one we came on. All in all, it was an interesting experience, but not one we will repeat. It's kind of like the Junkanoo parade in the Bahamas. I'm glad I went, I enjoyed myself, but I probably wouldn't want to do it again. We returned to the boat, after dropping Marcia and Pearl off. The first thing we did was to replace the dead capacitor. It was fairly easy. Once that was done, the generator was operational again. We spent a quiet evening on the boat.
We started the day, as usual, listening to the weather and having breakfast. After that, we started working on boat projects. Mike pulled our sun screens off the windows and started soaking them. I focused on cleaning up the boat. After Mike finished his project, we focused on the voltage problem on Tink. We figured that his main breaker had gone bad since it was starting to act up a little bit. Mike swapped his breaker; however, that did not fix the problem. We checked his voltage and saw that the problem was at Tink himself! Mike opened Tink up and discovered a problem at the 50 amp breaker. We swapped the breaker out, fired Tink up and he is working as expected again! We had an early dinner since we had invited Peter and Diane from Pearl and Sue and Leon from Masade over for cocktails. It was a fun evening!