Category Archives: Caribbean

Islands of the Caribbean including both windward and leeward islands

Open waters

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Today we had one of our longer sail days for this trip (50 miles) we encountered lots of squalls, some lightening, thunder, and 25-30k wind. Luckily the swells never really exceeded 3-4′ and Wayne took the helm for most of the day from Grenada to Hillsborough. Wayne in foul weather gear, me in my favorite Layla’s jacket and swim wear and Matt in swim trunks scrubbing down the deck. All I can say is thank goodness for the gingerbread cookies I made just before we left (I have frozen dough too so we can make more before the family arrives). We sailed with a smaller charter boat most of the way which kept us entertained, they caught a nice big wad of seaweed but we did not do much better as our pretty fish got off the hook once it hit the sugar scoop.

Matt and I went ashore to clear customs/immigration and the island was alive with holiday music and people in the streets making jolly. It cost us $1 to clear customs and it was relatively painless with few people in line – yeah! We visited our favorite place, Patsy’s deli which has the best meats and cheeses! She is an adorable English woman! I sailed over the short stretch from Hillsborough to Petite St. Vincent in big gusts, no sails, and COLD. What, why am I cold in the Caribbean? At least I don’t have to hide from the sun as the sun is hiding from us.

We are going to have to do a liquor run tomorrow before the islands shut down for the holiday. I did a quick inventory and we had 5 bottles of vodka, 2 bottles of malibu rum, 1 bottle of regular rum and lots of mixers. Although I love when the boys take care of me, 5 bottles of vodka might be a bit much for me over 3 weeks! Unfortunately, our freezer decided to die and we had to move all the food to the fridge and it means no jello!

Before we left Grenada Marine, we bargained with a few locals, Sammy and Beverly, who were selling fruits. We bought two bags of oranges (5 pcs in each bag) and a bag of five fingers (5 pcs) and then they gave me a free bag of baby tomatoes, a bag of fresh cinnamon, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers! Nothing like fresh, local flowers to make a woman feel loved and beautiful! All under $10 US

Sending much love to you land lobbers and wishing you a night where you sleep dreamily!

On the lime

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Beautiful morning. Slept like a baby on a superior waterbed (need to be from Houston in the 80s for that reference ).

As we had no place to go, but lots to clean up / put away on the boat. Wayne and I slapped the Jib up, and enlisted Christine to do the heavy lifting – cranking the halyard raising the foresail.

We realized we had forgot to turn in the hotel key, not the credit card type, the real key. So we knew we had to go to shore. Scoring keys and items in the islands is 100% times more difficult than running down to your local home-depot and we would really like to be allowed back to the la sagesse nature park next year.

Christine cleaned la sagesseand stored the interior, Wayne and I looked busy outside till about 11:30 when it was time to go ashore to see about lunch and a drop off the garbage and hotel key. We got to the beach bar and were informed that the cook had just gone on break for lunch, and will be back around 12:30. Well its Island time and everyone has to eat. So we did what most folks do at the bar till we could get some lunch.

All was good, we had a snack, and finalized some silly insurance paperwork. Christine was proactive in doing the survey and sending off the paper work along with the rigging survey which was not due until April and they demanded that we do both “A” and “B” suggestions prior to moving the boat – teach us to be proactive (normally they’d require just “A” items, but they requested. We headed round the island with the Grenada sculpture gardens as the destination. All was going well when Wayne and Christine smelled something funny. The starboard engine was running hot, and wasn’t spewing water overboard as it should. A quick diagnosis and a 30 min repair job and the impeller was replaced and all is good. Wayne did the repair, Christine drove, I had a beer and handed Wayne the tools and set the jib. Yes we actually used the sails to sail around the bottom of Grenada today.

Chicken and Pasta for dinner, with a italian salad for desert. I guess it depends on when you have the salad, it could be appetizer or desert, we didn’t want to wash more dishes so it was desert.

All is good, heading north tomorrow, thinkiǪ*we 1”Als in the anoO3Lbf
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