Happy Birthday Jim!

There are few things in life that Jim dislikes more than birthdays. Although better than the alternative, he dislikes getting older. So we spent the day doing several of the things he does like. We sat on a beach and drank rum punch.

Grand Anse Beach is beautiful and, with no cruise ships in port, quiet and peaceful.

The only interruption was Jim telling me how he supposed he'd have to start wearing black socks with his sandals (picture withheld by request) and why is this one eyebrow hair 3 inches long? As you can imagine, I'm the one who needed a lot of rum! Actually we spent a great day at the beach and then went out for a jerk chicken and callaloo pizza at De Big Fish Restaurant.

Last weekend we attended the Hindu Festival of Lights. The Festival of Lights is a celebration of the light over dark, of good over evil.

The festival turned out to be a program of dancing, music and food in an auditorium. My understanding is that in other parts of the world it is a huge celebration that takes you through neighborhoods where the homes are decorated with lights and people pass out small gifts and food. We enjoyed watching the dancers, seeing everyone dressed in their beautiful traditional clothing and sampling the vegetarian cuisine.

Back on the boat the next day and we are making pizza. We put Bailey out in the cockpit in the shade because it was so hot inside the boat. She spent the whole time staring in through the screen. "Daytime is naptime. Let me in!"

ashoreschool.com

We recently received an email from a couple who have set up a website called www.ashoreschool.com. They had seen my article in Blue Water Sailing and were interested in having us contribute to a section on their website called "A Teachable Moment". Their email read, "I'm sure your experiences would inspire hope for those who have heard you need a 40 foot boat to sail from Lake Michigan to the Caribbean." Ashoreschool.com provides free web based lessons and tools to new sailors and those hoping to become sailors. I hope you'll check out the website and our article on sail reefing. Fair winds!

Island Life

We often get questions about how we spend our time, especially during hurricane season when we stay in one place for months. Any location that has a large number of cruisers like Grenada has no shortage of activities.

A trip in to St. George's for boat parts is always better if you stop for lunch. We find it lessens the pain of all the spending we do at marine stores, hardware stores, etc. The restaurant on this trip was the Horni Baboon at the Lazy Lagoon.

A week ago we joined other cruisers at an auction that was held to benefit the Mount Airy Young Readers Program. Here's Chris, the skipper of Verna Breeze acting as auctioneer. The proceeds of the auction will buy books and supplies for the tutoring program that many of the cruisers volunteer their time for. They tutor the kids once a week in English, reading and math.

Hanging out with friends while we wait for the auction to begin.

Ray (S/V Highthawk) and Jim hamming it up for the camera.

There were even a few pirates there to rob us of our loose change. The auction, which was totally organized by cruisers raised over $2500 U.S. dollars!

There are lots of weekly events to take advantage of if one feels so inclined.

Sunday - dominoes at Clark's Court Bay Marina and barbecue at Roger's Beach Bar.

Wednesday - Burger Night at Clark's Court.

Saturday - Potluck at Clark's Court

Happy Hours at all the bars often with live music. We went to De Big Fish for pizza and to listen to the blues on Saturday.

Add to that the occasional swap meet, special tours and events and there's lots to keep you busy.

The best event of the past week was the celebration of our 30th Wedding Anniversary on October 13th. We started the day with chocolate croissants and mimosas. That evening we had a wonderful dinner at the Dodgy Dock Restaurant at the True Blue Bay Resort. I planned to take pictures as we were all dressed up for a change but arrived at the restaurant with a dead camera battery. Nuts! You'll just have to use your imagination. Trust me, we were gorgeous!

Island Tour

Last week we took an island tour with our friends Pat & Geoff (S/V Beach House), their son Bil and Ray & Genna (S/V Nighthawk). Even though we spent 6 months in Grenada last year, there was still lots for us to see.

View of St. George's and the Carenage.

Our first stop was Conford Falls, a waterfall easily accessible down a flight of stairs from the road.

Next stop was a spice factory where we learned about the local spices and their uses.

Left to right: ripe nutmeg splitting out of the fruit, a cocoa pod, dried cocoa beans and dried mace which is the orange part covering the nutmeg.

Guarding the spices.

Cocoa beans drying in the sun.

The ancient scale used to weigh the spices.

Drying spices. The process hasn't changed in centuries.

Women carry these baskets full of nutmeg on their heads. I managed to stand perfectly still with an empty one.

Fishing boats on the beach at Gouyave.

An ancient indian carving on a rock near Gouyave.

Lunch was at a beautiful little resort called Petite Anse. The view was spectacular!

After lunch we stopped at Leaper's Hill. I'll let you read the story....

This is where they leaped to their deaths.

Finally, what we've been waiting for. Rum!

Rivers Rum Distillery has been in operation since 1785. They still use the original water wheel to generate the power to crush the sugar cane.

This is the crushing mechanism that the water wheel drives.

The crushed cane after the juice is extracted. Nothing goes to waste here. This will help fuel the fire in the furnace.

This is where the juice is boiled before fermenting.

Fermentation happens here.

Feeding the furnace.

The only modern day equipment in this distillery. Save the rum!

The Still.

Outside on the sugar cane we witnessed this duel going on. We didn't stay around to see the outcome.

This machine is used to measure the percentage of alcohol in the finished product.

Our guide Patsy said we should start our tasting with the good stuff, 75% alcohol and 150 proof!

Here's the before.....

..... and the after! Enough said!

The drive home was through the beautiful Grand Etang rainforest with a stop at Grand Etang Lake. The air was cool and refreshing at this spot in the mountains.

It was a wonderful day spent in great company. This island never disappoints!

Life in Grenada

Our friend Renee told us to get off our lazy butts and update our blog. She's right, we have been lazy. Too lazy to haul our computer ashore to get internet access. We've been anchored in Saga Cove on the east-side of Hog Island, Clark's Court Bay and we can't pick up a signal from there. That's right Renee and Mike, we know you can't believe it but we've actually been moving around a bit this year! We spent 2 weeks in Mount Hartman and 2 weeks in Clark's Court Bay. We moved the boat back to Prickly Bay yesterday for our last few weeks in Grenada. The first thing I did was boot up the computer and check email. We were starting to feel really out of touch so if anything interesting has happened in the world in the last few weeks you'll have to let us know. We wouldn't know!

We have taken some great trips around the island, seeing places we didn't see last year. This is Bathway Beach at the northeast tip of the island.

This was once a beautiful beachfront home. Our guess is damage from hurricane Ivan.

Nature has a way of creating the most beautiful designs. Check out these patterns in the sand.

What a beautiful spot to spend the afternoon.

Here's a quick Bailey update for you. Her new favorite place to take a nap is in the locker in the head.

She'll go in and sit on the toilet until we open the door for her.

A package of toilet paper makes a great mattress.

She's always liked closets for naps. Nice and dark and no one to bother her. Now could you all leave!

Another excursion. This time it was just the ladies. A bus-full of us headed up to the Belmont Plantation for lunch and a tour of their gardens. The plantation also grows and processes cocoa that is used to make the fantastic Grenada chocolate.

The museum at the Belmont Plantation, up close.......

....and a view from down the road.

We drank mimosa on the bus, had a wonderful lunch and tour and just enjoyed being out with the ladies.
We'll get some more pictures posted soon. I promise Renee!

Blogs of Interest

Sailing blogs can be somewhat addictive. I know I have some favorites that I always go to. We want to mention a few that we think you will enjoy. Each of these boats and their crew are on different journeys so you'll get a taste of lots of great adventures.

This picture was taken back in July when Merengue, Fine Line and Beach House were all anchored in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. Steve and Ann (left) on "Fine Line", a St Francis Catamaran are on their way to the ABC islands (Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao) via the off-shore islands of Venezuela. You can follow their trip at www.finelinesailing.blogspot.com. Geoff and Pat (right) on "Beach House", an Endeavor 42 are sailing the eastern Caribbean. Check out their blog at www.lifeonbeachhouse.blogspot.com.

The last blog is from a couple we met briefly in Montserrat, Trish and Robert on "Bristol Rose", a 43 ft ketch. We toured Montserrat together and it was fun to watch Jim and Trish, the 2 avid photographers as they sought out the best shots and talked photography. Trish and Robert are from Australia but have been living in the United States. They are retired now and are returning to Australia on Bristol Rose. You won't want to miss seeing this trip. Check out their blog at www.bristolrose.blogspot.com.

But don't stop visiting us! We'd miss you!

A Woman Scorned

Martin's Marina in Mount Hartman Bay has been Merengue's home for the past 7 weeks.

We left her in this protected marina when we traveled to the states. It's a quiet marina, only 3 other cruising boats docked here when we arrived.

Here's the view of the marina from the hill.

Merengue at the dock with all her canvas stripped off in case a storm came through while we were gone. Luckily, that never happened.

Back in Grenada and we're trying to get the boat back in order. We thought we'd take the opportunity to do a few projects while we're at the dock.

We decided to paint the bottom of our dinghy. You can buy a flexible, anti-fouling paint for dinghies and seeing how we always seem to have a tropical reef growing on the bottom of ours, we thought we'd give it a try. We've been carrying the paint around for the better part of the year because we never wanted to be stuck on the boat for several days while the paint dried. This was the perfect time and place for this project.

Look at these pictures of the stern of the dinghy before we painted it. The white square is the spot where cardboard was taped to the dinghy during shipping. It's been off for almost a year. It doesn't appear that there is any residue but still nothing sticks. Why can't they make bottom paint out of that stuff!


Docking in a marina means we have electricity to run power tools. I ran a sander over the rungs on our boarding ladder and then gave them several coats of Cetol. It's much easier to do this project on land then hanging over the back of the boat. It looks really pretty when it's done!

When we returned to Merengue, we thought we'd spend a few days getting the sails and canvas back on and take care of a few projects. It seems as though Merengue had a different idea. They say a boat is like a woman. She needs love, care, a gentle hand. She can be a demanding mistress. She doesn't like to be ignored! Apparently Merengue felt ignored. Things that worked fine when we left, suddenly didn't work.

Our solar panels were not charging our batteries. When Jim investigated he found this burned out solar controller. No problem. We can plug into shore power while he's doing the repair. This didn't work either. Apparently Merengue's battery charger is designed for 60 cycles only and the power at the marina is 50 cycles. Now we can't charge our batteries! Next came two trips to the marine store to buy a new controller. It took two trips because the first controller we purchased didn't work! Next, the refridgerator didn't seem to be cooling properly so Jim added some freon. Then we got up one morning to find the water intake for the toilet was clogged with weeds. Jim thought that as long as he had the hose off he would replace the pump that we knew was on it's last leg. He starts to put the new pump on and it doesn't fit. I guess they decided to design the new ones with a turn in the system so now our hose doesn't fit. He has to put the old one back on until he can make a trip to the hardware store to buy an elbow. Hours of work and nothing to show for it! Work always seems more pleasant with music playing but when we went to turn on the radio, it didn't work. It turns out the fuse holder had cracked. What else was going to go wrong! All these things were in working order when we left the boat. You know what they say about a woman scorned. We didn't turn our back on you Merengue! We love you! We would have called if we could! Enough is enough! Please forgive us!