LIFE: Part 2

Current Location: St. George's, Grenada
Current Position: 12°2.5'N, 61°45.34'W
Distance sailed since last post: 3 nautical miles

So we took off this morning from the boat all ready to take the bus and explore some more of this beautiful island. This time we wanted to hike up to these really nice Water Falls. Pack sack..lots of water, a little cash and 2 Jabsco parts to return or exchange at the hardware Store.

Well, Noel decided not to take his wallet, unusual but he didnt want to carry it around all day and I didnt want take my purse either.

I should have known better, its always a disaster when a woman leaves home without her purse. LOL.

We got to the store and we couldn’t return or exchange our parts, no wallet….no plastic. (Noel had used the Visa for the purchase).

We had just realized as well that we had totally overstayed our visit here in Grenada according to our immigration records our cruising permit had expired 2 months ago, although our immigration was valid until January. So lets go to the immigration office and be really nice!  Ohh it went smooth but no wallet no purse, and they wanted us to pay over 100$US for 2 months cruising permit.

Noel stayed in their office doing the paper work and I came home to get the wallet, I couldnt find it!!!

The first time ever he decided to kinda hide it, but forgot to tell me where to find it….haha, he didnt know I had some money hiding too, unfortunately I had to use it. When I got back to the dock he was waiting with a big smile on his face. Keep smiling honey, No Money! You owe me.

Of course after all that, our morning had gone by and we changed plans  to go to the Water Falls next day instead! We decided to go home and have lunch.

The winds had picked up and we had some big waves, plus a big boat had just gone by. I had just sat down in the dinghy and for some crazy reason sat on top of the locker on the bow . It threw me up and down so hard I almost broke my tail bone. I moved pretty quickly to the inflatable side.

We got home had lunch and Gone Fishing……….

Ahhhh, we need to learn how to fish. Last week we met some American liveabords. Their teenage son has taken up the sport and he’s really good at it, so we took him out fishing for the afternoon thinking he could teach us some new tricks, BUT not without another adventure….first of all we didn’t catch any fish and we had to cut our trip short….We were running out of gas in our dinghy. I guess our little motor had to work pretty hard over those big waves!

Another trip to town, this time to get gasoline. By this time we were just laughing, nothing had gone right all day…..what now? We made it to the gas station and back to the boat. Noel was jumping from the dinghy to the boat, I was pulling and ready to tie up the line and joking with him that I wouldnt let him go, he was laughing at it all and sure enough….he fell in the water Man Over Board but this time with his wallet full of money having a swim. What a day…

We were laughing, just wanted to sit down have a very good cold drink and read a good book. But here I am, decided to write down this crazy day, at least make my kids laugh,  while sitting in the cockpit having a Gin and Tonic and watching the sunset…ahhh and waiting for the money and credit cards to dry out, they’re spread all over the kitchen table.

Noel and I came to the conclusion, that you can only do 1 task per day. I am used to:  “don’t leave for tomorrow what you can do today”, but this is the Caribbean: “tomorrow is another day”!!

Yess!!! Tomorrow is another day in paradise. We are planing to do the Water Falls and some snorkling. There is underwater sculpture park , you can snorkle or dive to see about 60 sculptures in the sandy bottom. Sounds like fun.

We had some fun visiting some sites around the island last week, including a cocoa processing plant where they pick the cocoa beans ferment them, dry them and then they are peeled and sent to the factory to make they very famous 60 and 70% Grenada Organic chocolate.

They also export the cocoa beans as well to many chocolate factories. The nutmeg factory was similar. Grenada is very famous for their spices, especially nutmeg. It was sad to find out that after Hurricane Ivan about 6 years ago that 98% of their nutmeg plantation was destroyed. It will take about 15 years to recover.

We saw nutmeg trees, cocoa bean trees, avocado, yams, different kinds of banana trees, papaya, guava and more I can’t remember now…lol

This beautiful trip took us to some nice water falls. It felt good and refreshing to jump into fresh water, and to add to the excitement it started to pour just when we got in the water.  Gotta love Caribbean showers!!!

We ended our tour at River Antoine Rum Factory, the oldest operating Rum distillery  in the Caribbean. They make a 69% and a 75% alcohol . Wow it was so strong, it reminded me of my Dads moonshine back home!!!

As we are settling in to our new lifestyle we continue to meet people from everywhere. Mostly Canadians, Americans, some from Australia, Germany and lots from France as well. And to my surprise, lots of families too with kids of all ages, little ones to teenagers, and they are all having a great adventure. On Halloween night we even saw some kids going out on their dinghy passing by our boat to go trick or treating….cute!!!

Besides missing my grandson like crazy………I’m enjoying lifepart2

Tomas, now a full Category 2 Hurricane, battered St. Lucia and St. Vincent all through yesterday, leaving many homes without roofs. This will take them a long time to recover.

Trinidad, Tobago received lashings of rain.

Meanwhile, here on Life Part 2 in Port Egmont, we had a flat calm with grey skies all yesterday and all last night.

Still, being a bit cooler without the sun meant I was able to complete the huge wiring project that was on my list. Installed the wind generator wiring, plus added a new 110v outlet to the cockpit, so that I don’t need a long extension cord for my laptop when out there. Also fixed the lights over the targa arch in preparation for putting in a new light there, just for a bit more light at nights when we eat there.

Ceu meanwhile did a whole bunch more cleaning. You wouldn’t believe how clean this boat is getting – practically like new! All the rust and mildew stains gone, windows de-streaked and so on.

And, of course, she cooked the 3lb lobster that another fisherman sold us on Friday, just before we departed from Prickly Bay.

Today we have some fresh winds coming from the south. This will make all the south-facing bays pretty rough today. We are also expecting some rain. In fact we just had about half an hour of rain, though nothing too heavy. But we are supposed to get some more rain from the tail of Tomas through the day.

We had thought of moving over to St. David’s harbor again to get better wifi, but with the southerly winds I think we will just stay here for today.

So, another grey and maybe wet day, so time to get some computing done and some fresh bread baked.

Oh, for these exciting storms!

Current Location: Port Egmont, Grenada
Current Position: 12°0.79'N, 61°43.46'W
Distance sailed since last post: 3 nautical miles

So, after sitting out the hurricane season in Canada, here we are in a sheltered little lagoon in Grenada waiting for Tropical Storm Tomas to arrive. Here’s what happened:

Yesterday, in Prickly Bay, I was working on the electrics and Ceu was doing a wonderful job of removing rust stains from the hull. We were getting ready to go into the dock first thing the next morning to have Tech Nick install the wind generator. Ceu comments that we must be missing out on a party somewhere, as at least 5 boats have upped and left the bay.

And then we discovered there was a ‘disturbance’ on the way, and headed for us.

An examination of the National Hurricane Center’s forecasts and advisories, and various other sources (see our Weather page) indicated that this tropical wave had a near 100% chance of developing into a tropical storm and, at the time, appeared to be heading straight towards us.

Now Grenada doesn’t get hurricanes. It had one in 1959 (first one on record) and Ivan in 2004, and that’s it. Which, of course, is why we were here over the summer. Not only that, but the hurricane season, which starts in June and ends at the end of November, tends to have Atlantic hurricanes during the first part, and then Caribbean (ie west of us) hurricanes after that. So, this late in the season it should all be over for the islands.

But, as you know, it ain’t over till the fat lady sings…

The problem with this little corner of the Caribbean is that things sometimes brew up without much warning just north of South America, and then head westward. Normally they don’t do much. In fact, we have had several such waves pass through this season, some of which later turned into storms or hurricanes mid Caribbean, but did nothing more than dump a lot of rain on Grenada.

But Tomas, ah, Tomas seems to be a bit more vigorous. Already in his short life he has become a Tropical Storm with winds gusting as high as 84mph. He has plowed through Barbados causing some damage there, and is pressing on westward. But I get ahead of myself.

So, here we are, boat in pieces with tools and cleaning fluids everywhere but, since Nick won’t be able to work at all if it pours with rain, at 3pm we make the decision to move. But first I have to spend half an hour in Budget Marine getting a piece of chain cut for our new 4^th anchor, a Fortress 37. Eventually they figure it out. Actually, they don’t. But I spot a length of offcut that is just right, so I take that instead.

Dash back to the boat, haul up the anchor, and let’s get going.

This time we didn’t sail! Don’t need another 5 hour sail to travel 3 miles east and arrive in the dark.

[hana-code-insert name='portegemont' /]By 4:30pm we had nudged our way into Port Egmont and found all our neighbours from Prickly Bay who had left that morning! We found a spot between them and laid out 3 anchors in different directions. We are anchored right at the northern tip, just before the bridge. As you can see, Port Egmont isn’t actually a port, it is actually a nicely enclosed lagoon tucked away at the end of a long inlet, so is very well protected from storms. Pretty little bay, with expensive houses all around. But because it is so enclosed, I don’t think swimming is recommended here. Oh well. But, as you can see, thanks to my fancy new phone, I can still upload a blog post!

Then we tidied up the decks, hoisted the dinghy onto its davits, and waited for the storm.

Now, you have to realize that it was a lovely cloudless night. Stars were out, and the was a flat calm with a nice glossy smooth sea. You would never know there was a storm on the way.

At 8pm the new forecast was talking about 3-5 inches of rain and probably upgrading it to a hurricane in the next 48 hours. We figured we had some nice peace of mind sitting in this protected cove – probably the best hurricane hole in Grenada, as it is completely enclosed by mangroves and high hills, and so protected from both waves and wind.

We went to bed and slept well.

This morning it is still calm, but the tiny wind has shifted to the north, in agreement with a coming cyclone.

Couldn’t get good reception on the radio, as we are so protected, but we do have my fancy new phone! So, off to the NHC and StormPulse again to see the latest.

And the good news is that the storm is further north. Having passed through Barbados it is now headed for between St. Vincent and St, Lucia, and so should pass quite a way north of us. That has two beneficial effects.

1. It means we are in the southern semicircle, also known as the navigable semicircle, as it gets less winds than the northern sectors and,
2. At this distance probably the most we will get will be gale force winds, which is not too much concern. As for the rain, well it will be interesting to see what we get. Should know in a few hours!

Then, after all is said and done, I guess we will go back to Prickly Bay and get that generator installed 🙂

Another adventure in paradise.

Wow….it has been a long time! So much has happened since I  introduced myself here and into this sailing Life.

Any ways,  South America was amazing. Hard to say which part of it was my favourite but Iguazu Falls in Brasil  and the whole 45Km of Inca Trail and Machu Picchu are sure on the top.

After coming back from South America, we sailed for 3 weeks and went to Canada to visit the family.

I have sure enjoyed the sailing experience so far and it feels good to be back again.

Things I miss the most:

• my 10 month old grandson and 2 beautiful daughters
• all the rest of my wonderful family
• and Bread!

Yes! We are spoiled in Canada, we sure don’t have many choices in some of these islands, so that’s why I prefer to bake it.  I  found some pretty good flour whole grain etc., even herb and garlic!

What I miss the least:   Traffic and TV

We arrived  back in Grenada, last week in the evening of the 15th. It was already dark getting on the Boat with all the luggage, we got to the dock and I pulled in the spring line to get the boat closer so we could jump in, my watch snapped and fell into the deep waters.  Next morning Noel went diving down, picked it up, we thought it would be totally finished, being there all night. To our surprise the watch was still working and it’s perfectly fine. Thanks for the Quartz LeAnne,  great gift!

Next day was a Saturday, lets go grocery shopping as on Sundays everything closes.  As Noel said, the Dinghy breaks down shortly after we left our Boat. Nothing big, from all the rain it got water in the fuel.  Dinghy didn’t get fixed till Monday.

Since I still need to get my  groceries, water, and ice so I picked up the Kayak and off I go along the beach,. Asked around, found out there’s 1 store open close by. Great! Left my kayak at the beach.

You all know what it’s like when you go to the grocery store?!!!!  You go in for 5 items,you end up with 20. Plus a big bag of Ice, the only size they had and now I have to carry it all to the kayak. After attempting to carry the Ice on my hip and hands full, it kept slipping away, so just like when I was growing up in Portugal, I put the bag on my head and it worked very well, but I was hopping to get to the kayak quick before I got brain freeze…lol

Surprise, surprise, yes my kayak was still there. A few young boys surrounded me asking me to take them for a ride.  They were so cute, but I had to tell them sorry but my kayak is already overloaded and I didn’t want to sink.  From under the big tree, the older boys that were watching me arrive with the bag on top of my head and smiling, iI heard them saying they would love to come and save me. One of them got up and started making conversation with me, but he had such heavy accentI only understood half he was saying.

He asked me which one was my boat,  I pointed out that way.  He thought I was pointing to the big Cruise Ship that was near by our Boat and asked me why I was lying, I said I wasn’t lying. He told me he was a very respectful guy and I said “Yes.  I love your Island and people are so friendly here, but I got to run now before my butter and my ice melts.”

I sure had a good laugh.

What a work out to get home with my groceries. Had to paddle hard, the wind and current all pushing me back in the opposite direction.  Lots of fun though, got to the boat and made us a good Pina Colada. Never a dull moment!!!

Since we got back we have not done much visiting of this Island, but later this week we are planning to take a tour around and some hikes to some beautiful water Falls.

We have been busy running around getting getting different for the Boat, including some storage containers to help us get organized, and of course more tools and tool box, spare parts for the engines and we also got a wind generator.

Today Noel has been busy wiring all the electrics for the wind generator and adding another socket in the cockpit.

This is a different life style, but  like at home I keep myself busy, besides picking up a book and learn  sailing and navigation, today I was organizing cupboards and lining them. Love all my tupperware that I brought from home. Cousin Lidia calls me tupperware queen. lol  Ahhhh and still cleaning some mildew spots, the ceiling and walls. I even have a sewing machine on board, besides having to adjust our queen sheets to be more fitted around the bed, I’m also working on some curtains for the bedroom.

With so many tools around and wires today Noel has the place looks more like a workshop than a home,  so I decided to sit on the front of the trampoline with the  computer and let you know a bit of we’re up to.

Stay tuned……

Ceu

Current Location: St. David's, Grenada
Current Position: 12°1.25'N, 61°40.75'W
Distance sailed since last post: 5 nautical miles

10 am we weighed anchor to sail a few miles east to St. David’s harbour. Just to visit a different place.

We knew it would be a beat (upwind) the whole way, as well as straight into the west flowing Equatorial Current. But we never expected it to take 5 hours to complete the journey! Each time we tacked we seemed to be retracing the exact path we had just sailed.

Still, it was a lovely sail in a nice 20 knot breeze.

St. Davids is very small – just 8 other boats moored here – but a good WiFi connection through Grenada Marine.

We will chill out here for a few days before going back to Prickly Bay to get our new Wind Generator installed.

Current Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
Current Position: 11°59.93'N, 61°45.67'W
Distance sailed since last post: 3 nautical miles

YouTube Link: Baking Bread On Board

YouTube Link: Giant Lobster

What’s life really like on board? Well, pretty much like at home, I guess…

Today Ceu baked some multi-grain bread, and bought a giant 5lb lobster from a passing fisherman.

The only problem was that it was way too big for our pot. So we had to do it in two parts – first the head, then the tail. But it tasted Oh! So GOOD with garlic butter and fresh bread.

After that we had a couple from Victoria, BC visit, along with their 4 year old daughter, come over for drinks. They were about to depart for St. Georges and then ports north, while we were headed off to St. David’s harbour.

And so to bed. Another day in paradise.

It’s a beautiful morning.

The sun is shining, the sky is blue, and it is a flat calm in the bay outside of St. George’s, capital of Grenada. In the distance I can hear a cock crowing and a dog barking plus, of course, a few cars driving (oh, well, can’t have everything). I have put down the sun mesh to cut down the brightness of the low early morning sun which is streaming right over the starboard side, straight into the cockpit where I am sitting.

Our journey back to Grenada from Canada was pretty uneventful. Once again we managed to get our slightly overweight suitcases and box onto all the planes. The only problem came when we arrived at immigration in Grenada.

Don’t know what was happening there. There were only about 30 people on the plane, yet they wanted to search at least 50% of the bags coming through. That in itself wouldn’t be so bad, except there was only one woman doing the checking, and she was operating at the usual Caribbean 50% speed. She seemed to have difficulty with the concept  that we might be arriving by plane, joining our boat (which we had previously left here), and then leaving Grenada not to return.

Despite that fact that there was another fellow on the plane doing exactly the same thing, so I am sure this is not a rare occurrence!

Still, after an hour we made it through, and our ride back to the marina was there waiting for us.

Good ol’ Life Part 2 was pretty much as we had left her. Marie and Gilles had looked after her well. The only problems we found were the dreaded mold again – spots on the walls and spots on some clothes. Where does this stuff come from? I guess with the humidity, and because the boat was sealed up without ventilation for two months.

We arrived on Friday, and on Saturday we left the marina and made our way in very light winds around to St. George’s. Eventually we decided to fire up the engines to help us make more than 2 knots downwind.

Once back in the bay, it was time for a swim!!! Ah, now this is what it is all about.

After the swim we leapt into the dinghy and zoomed off to town to get some groceries.

At least that was the plan, until 300 meters away the outboard suddenly stopped. Wouldn’t start again.

A friendly neighbor towed us back to the boat, and this time Ceu got out the kayak and paddled to the nearest shore, where she was able to pick up some food and drink, while I made a vain attempt to fix the outboard. Clearly some dirt in the carburetor but my best attempts to clean  it were of no avail – probably because I don’t have a clue of what I am doing.

Still, that evening we had some lovely pork chops cooked in wine, along with that all important rum punch!

Yesterday was spent tracking down the reason the bilge pump wasn’t working. The problem was that the pump had three wires, not the expected two. So I had to download the manual from the internet. But before I could do that, I had to get the internet working again. And before I could do that, I had to clean the corrosion of the Ethernet cable. Then I could get online, find out what the third wire was (the pump has both manual and automatic operation), discover the pump was working, look up where the fuse was, find the fuse, replace the fuse and, Lo! It works!

Now on to doing a fuel filter change. Yuk! What a lot of gunk – no wonder the engines weren’t getting full power. I think we need to get the fuel tanks cleaned so we can start from scratch with some clean fuel.

So, today the shops are open. Into town we will go with our shopping list of big (new Fortress anchor and wind generator) and small (new fuses) items. Plus, of course, tracking down an outboard engine mechanic.

Sounds like a bit of work, yes, but hey, you should see the scenery all around us.

Heading back to the boat on Thursday! Arrive Grenada Friday evening.

Had a good two months in Canada. Caught up on a lot of business stuff. Having bought a new business the day before we left Canada back in May was interesting. Fortunately my partner Darren was able to put in a bunch of work to knock it into shape, and then I have been working pretty solidly on it for the past two months, but now it seems to be stable.

So, I am back to the boat, and Darren departs on his motor home travels in January.

It really is so cool this virtual lifestyle! Work when and where you want to. Can’t beat it.

Anyway, once again we are having the packing woes. Somehow we again have a mountain of STUFF that we want to take back to the boat. So Ceu puts it in the suitcase, and then I take it out again.  I think that now we have whittled it down to a manageable amount, so we should be good to go.

I mean, do we really need to take all those sheets and bedspreads??? Yeah, I know they look really nice, but they also WEIGH a lot. Of course, my tools – well that is a whole different story. Definitely indispensable.

Actually, half of the suitcase is taken up with a roll of charts weighing 29 lbs just in themselves. Even with 3 GPS’s on board it makes sense to have paper charts too. After all, a lightning strike could fry them all, and then what do we do? So we have charts to cover the entire Caribbean- the ABS’s, Columbia, Panama, Central America round to Cuba and then the Bahamas.

Which is our intended itinerary for the next 8 months or so.

The, apart from that we just have a bunch of miscellaneous things that we couldn’t find locally.

And my new HTC Desire smart phone! Which does way more than my old one did (not hard, since the old one didn’t even have a camera in it).

Hopefully this will give me more connectivity in the islands, especially email and skype.

Well, got to go help cook the turkey for thanksgiving!

“But I’m sad to say,

I’m on my way.

Won’t be back,

for many a day”

Yep, sadly we left Life Part 2 in Whisper Cove, Grenada. I am now in LA for a brainstorming session with Bob Proctor, and Ceu is back in Kelowna with her ‘Lovey’ (Tiago, her grandson).

I will be back there too in a week, and we will probably stay in Canada for a couple of months while we ride out the hurricane season which is still predicted to be a very active one.

While here I plan to figure out some LED bulbs to cut down our energy consumption.

Anyway, not much else to report for now.

Current Location: St. George's, Grenada
Current Position: 12°2.52'N, 61°45.34'W
Distance sailed since last post: 159 nautical miles

YouTube Link: Arriving in Grenada!

Well, we finally made it! We had a peaceful 24 hour sail from Martinique to Grenada, past St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Steady trade winds to start with, which then dwindled to motor sailing past St. Vincent.

Grenada is lovely. And so nice to finally have a day with nothing to do, nothing that urgently needed fixing, and no place we had to sail to!

We strolled ashore and met some other sailors. Amazingly we met one couple, Hendrick and Mariola who were not just from Kelowna, but were actually friends with Ceu’s sister!!! We had heard about them prior to setting out, but what a coincidence to meet them in the marina in St. George’s, Grenada.

And since it was Hendrick’s birthday, we were invited to his birthday party that evening.

We also met with Colin, our erstwhile instructor from our trip to Antigua in April ’09. I was just reading his email that said he was anchored in St. George’s bay, so I stepped out the back to have a look – and there he was waving at us! Good to catch up with him.

Well, I need to go to LA for a brainstorming session with Bob Proctor (of The Secret fame) on Friday, so we have found ourselves a nice little marina in which we can leave our boat safely. However, it does have to be ‘hurricanized’, which means removing all sails, biminis etc. This is quite a big job, so since we have to do all that, we figured we might as well go back to Canada for a couple of months and return once the hurricane season is finished (beginning of October, basically).

In the meantime, now that we are ‘of leisure’, and have a good internet connection, I can do some work on a new sales page for internetmarketing.com. In between swimming, of course!