Heard it has been COOOOOLD in MN. I do miss the beauty of the snow! Dry season is starting here but I like the rain rinse even if it’s at night. I’ve been getting up and try to collect rain water if we don’t have our tarp/rain catcher up. I use it to wash clothes/boat/bodies/bildge/etc. It takes reminding that its winter and Christmas Season. It is important for us to stay connected with you so please keep us tuned in!
We believe that Vicki is coming March 10-15th (Guadeloupe?) and Paul/Vicki coming Feb 3rd-13th (Martinique?). Tom/Marian may come down just no dates yet. We will be in Antigua for Classic boat race April 17-22nd so will need to be there a couple weeks before. Then turn around and start heading toward Macarao/Orinoco River then Venezuela.
Well life is slowing down. We had a nice time in Grenada. Anchored in capitol of Grenada (St. George) lagoon – small European feel to the city but with all carib/black folks that are very nice versus in Trinidad where they are abit more angry — could be all the govt corruption, costs to live keep going up. It’s the last time we will be able to anchor here as its being taken over by Port Louis Marina. Its a great place have access to St. George. You can walk/bus as everything is up/down hill so have great views. A cruiser Michelle/I were walking yesterday to finally and found some GREAT dense/chewy wheat bread — Called HOMEMADE BREAD (classic name). We came across a separate catholic boys and girls secondary school on top of the hill — so they have great breeze/view. I asked the boys where the main office was as I wanted to see if they would like to have our old/work Dell laptop that we no longer need. They said yes — so I cleared off junk and brought it to them the following day. It was great to watch and take pictures of kids/views. Tom came part way but gave up and went to fill gas/water as we were thinking we would leave today BUT then he dropped the stainless steel lock (replaced by cheaper version at local hardware store for twice as much as US version). We did try to take our fish net and scrape the muddy bottom of the sorta dirty lagoon but no luck. I have enjoyed getting to know some ladies at the market. Big smiles and hugs from all the motherly/round type is fun. Plus they tell us how to make stuff with their spices/food items (dashing, golden apple (so they call it but not an apple), star fruit, cristophene, callalou, tamarind, etc.) We will have to wait till May to get mangos and avocado again. They sell these HUGE land crabs that borrow themselves down these holes in mangroves/etc. They don’t appear to have much meat.
Then he decided that we should stay as we have good internet and we are waiting to try to find a cheaper boat and medical insurance provider. Talk about taking A LOT of time. Attempting to understand medical plans (qualified vs. non qualified) and exclusions is very tiring. We thought we had found one but after faxing our medical records/etc. and getting accepted we realized that the exclusions (whether we knew about them or not) didn’t provide us the catastrophic coverage we were looking for. So off to more search.
We also have been searching for cheaper boat insurance. We have just decided on a company in Holland as they cover Venezuela/Columbia/etc. where most US companies don’t and its about $400 cheaper/year. We had to figure out how to wire money to Holland bank. Then the issue with the Health Savings Acct. depositing money into my closed TCF bank. Now I can’t get it back out BUT thru the help of Teresa to notarize and Dorothea to bring letter to my bank – they were able to withdraw the funds. Yes the life of trying to do this land based stuff while on water in foreign countries is DIFFICULT! At times I forget that I should be grateful for what we are doing.
Decided to wait in Grenada till after the big North/NW Swell (+8′) followed by high pressure creating strong NE/E +20 knots creating confused 8-10′ seas — the direction we need to go. So not as many anchorages to hide up north. We organized a cruisers Thanksgiving Potluck. There were about 40 people at Clarks Court Marina pavilion. We did some snorkeling but high seas last couple weeks kept us from doing more — but I would swim and did some great hiking near Hog Island. Participated in a Hash House Harriers Full Moon hike up Mt. Hartman hills (where the endangered Grenada Dove takes refuge) with about 120 others (alot from the U of Grenada Medical School) — was great fun. At the end of the hike all the new participants had to get initiated as a Hash House Harrier (no longer a virgin they said) — so they had us line up. They came from behind sprayed beer gently on us. I was taking pictures so got out of it.
Anchored in the lagoon off of main town — so there are town noises so no more tree frogs crocking all night. Instead we hear music, cars and occasionally a rooster crowing.
We walked Hog Island that is starting to get resortized. Its very rustic and beautiful scenic views. Development seems to be approaching every island. Unfortunately, they start and don’t always
finish but the destruction of tearing out bush/trees and impacting animals is done regardless.
We had to clean up our rusting propane tanks as the aluminum/fiberglass
tanks don’t fit in compartment so will tackle that in Venezuela. Also had to fix the wind vane steering as it was locking up. This has been very helpful in heavy seas as our wheel pilot isn’t strong enough. Made some modifications to our SSB to improve range/clarity.
I actually finished a book in 3 days (a record)! And started some others. Also started my Spanish lessons but get distracted.
Tobago Cays were great! We have 2 dive tanks on board. So went diving with some other cruiser friends outside the horseshoe reef by putting a dinghy on a mooring. Also day/night snorkeling. Pretty descent. Even saw a turtle sleeping during night snorkel and lots of lobster/shrimp/crab/etc. No octopus yet. The boat men that would come from Union (10nm away via big motor/small boat) would come deliver baguettes/ice/t-shirts/fuel — We got to know Walter (our age) – made him some banana bread.
Hung out in Mayreau – windward side to snorkel but wind picked up strong for few days so not good to night snorkel and since out of park could of possibly found lobsters — maybe on way back down. Hiked the small island to famous Salt Whistle Cay. Helped out at Gov’t primary school by hanging with kids and giving supplies. The windjammer sailboat cruise tourist boats would help out but just went into bankruptcy so they are hurting. So when friends come down I will try to have them bring notebooks/composition notebooks/pens/tennis balls for cricket/etc. Kids and I got scolded by catholic priest as we were looking at catepillares. Met rasta Righteous Robert and we shared teary moments as spoke of his mothers death. Don’t ever wait to say what you need to someone that you love as his tears expressed.
Had decent passage to Bequia on Dec 8th and will stay until x-mas as lots of cruisers hang there. Apparently they have lighting events and fireworks. The strong Christmas Winds/Azores High are starting to arrive with winds from NE which is direction we need to head for abit so will have to pick travel windows. Should start seeing the 240 Europeans that just crossed via the ARC (Atlantic Rally for Cruisers) to St. Lucia. That’s ALOT of new boats!
We both still wake around 6am and usually in bed by 9pm. It gets dark here all year round about 6pm. A Trinidadian (Eric) has a SSB weather net at 6:30am. He sure is funny with his communication style. Tom is net controller on the SSB Coconut Telegraph on Wednesday 8am. This is a means to keep in touch with other cruisers up/down the island chain as the VHF is only line of sight. So Sojourn is getting known in the islands!
Went to St. Vincent on Daniell Storey’s big boat as they needed to purchase a outboard motor for dinghy. They lost there old one while towing the dinghy – they forgot to tilt it up. So we have been shuttling them around in our dinghy. Mostly went as I wanted to go to Kingstown outdoor market. I think cruisers could write a book about various types/condition of toilets and local transportation! I have never seen SO many people CRAMMED into a local bus and with the potholes in the roads it’s a wonder they last. We will stop this time in St. Vincent as it really is a beautiful island even though others talk about its boat crime issues.
Have a great HOLIDAY! May we all find peace in this changing world.
Our Love Always
Rose & Tom