Wednesday, July 15, 2020

St. George’s, Grenada

Port Louis Marina

12.02.608 N

61.44.986 W

Coronacoaster:  Noun:  the ups and downs of a pandemic.  One day you’re loving your bubble, doing workouts, baking banana nut bread and going for long walks and the next, you’re crying, drinking gin for breakfast and missing people you don’t even like.

Still here.  Nothing really new to tell you about.  Dale went through another one of those, ‘I can’t believe this is what it takes’ days.  We had checked prior to leaving the quarantine anchorage about the proper procedure to have mail sent to us at the marina before sending a request for our medications to be forwarded to us.  The marina informed us that FedEx was the way to go as it was just across the road.  We followed the procedure as described and then waited to be notified that our mail was here.   Supposedly the marina would send us a notice as soon as they knew.  After 2 weeks of waiting, we decided to ask the marina folks what was going on.  They suggested we obtain the tracking number and see if it had made it to the island.  We did.  It had.  Three days after we had made the request. 

Apparently, everything runs as described if its flat mail but if it’s a box, then there seems to be a missing step.  Mail arrives at FedEx and is checked in.  If its flat mail, the marina is contacted, they pick up the mail and then we are informed that our mail has arrived.  However, if it’s a box, its forwarded to Customs; once Customs inspects the box, an invoice for taxes AND the box is sent back to FedEx.  Unfortunately, FedEx has no way of handling a second check in to their facilities for the same box.  So the box and invoice gets shelved.  That forced Dale to go on a walk about around St. George starting first to the FedEx station right next to the marina to learn about this new procedure, then to the Customs house in downtown St. George (about a mile away).  Then he’s directed to another facility on the other side of the block that takes credit cards as the Customs house didn’t.  Once that is done, he obtains a receipt showing payment, it’s taken back to the Customs house where the receipt is stamped showing that the duty has been paid and that the package can be released.  Then he takes the stamped receipt in his hot little hand and walks all the way back to the original FedEx station to exchange the stamped receipt for the box.  Whew!  As the temps here are in the high eighty’s/low ninety’s every day, he was drenched with sweat by the time he returned.  But he did have the package. 

On a brighter side, a couple of really neat things the marina restaurant does is a “Texas BBQ” on Fridays (you have to have the beef brisket) and a packed “to go” dinner on Sundays.  You pick a protein and 4 sides for the Sunday dinner and make reservations for the BBQ.  We split both dinners (which were excellent) with Gerry and Nicky.  As a funny side bar, Nicky and I almost duplicated our desserts for the Sunday dinner.  She made a pineapple crumb dessert and I made a pineapple cheesecake.  You know we ate both. 

The guys have kept busy with boat projects.  Dale’s first project was replacing the anchor salt water wash down pump which went surprisingly easy so we can now wash the mud off the anchor when we pull it up.  This was not to be a trend however.  He next ordered and replaced the pump on our guest side shower sump.  Of course, as a newer model it was a different size, requiring him to MacGuyver the float switch and the new pump back into the sump pump housing.  (He had moved the original one from the guest side over to the master side when our side died.)  However, before he could do that, as he opened the bilge access to get to the shower sump, he noted water in the bilge which the bilge pump should have pumped out. His investigation of this new and unexpected problem lead to a blown fuse to the bilge pump. He replaced the fuse and went to check on the pump’s operation. You would have been proud of me!  I didn’t say a word although Dale used several “sailor speak” words when smoke, aka “the magic” escaped from the top of the bilge float switch. We have lots of fire extinguishers on board; no need to get excited.  Dale rapidly removed the fuse and set out to replace the float switch.  Fortunately, we had one on board that was slated to go into the port bilge when we get hauled.  You guessed it, it now resides in the starboard bilge and we will need to obtain another one at some point.

Dale’s also hired a local man to spruce up the gelcoat on the Palace.  He had been working on another Manta located at the end of the dock and Dale thought he was doing a pretty decent job.  This meant that Dale and I had to disconnect the louvers over the front windows and mark all of the stress cracks we’ve found with blue tape before we could let him loose.  I mention this as I find it fascinating that a worker of this type doesn’t have any of his own equipment.  He started out asking for money for the materials needed, understandable, then to borrow a hammer and chisel.  After the first few minutes of trying to do math lessons with the constant tap, tap, tapping, I suggested that Dale dig out his Dremel tools for him to use.  I think its going to take a few days as he leaves after each step is completed and there are 4 steps to the repair. 

On the auto pilot front, we’ve received word that the part is in and can be picked up tomorrow.  Once its in hand, we can schedule Sheldon to return and hopefully, finish fixing Lt. Schmuckatelli, our auto pilot so that we can once again travel without the need for constant hand steering.   I’m all for that. 

Gerry, on the other hand has been up to his elbows in their aft loo.  If you remember, I told you how Dale had torn our loo apart many times trying to track down a small leak.  Apparently, Gerry thought that sounded like great fun and has been doing the same thing over on his boat. 

Savannah continues to improve with her swimming and, I’m happy to say, piano.  She’s not having as much luck trying to convince us that her teacher tells her that you can subtract 4 from 3.  We’re not sure if she’s trying to tell us about fractions or what because she knows how to subtract two and three digit numbers that require “borrowing” from the next number.  So we’re waiting for something else to clue us in on what she’s trying to describe. 

In another area, we (as in Dale and I) learned that we can’t dismiss Savannah’s farfetched ideas as being, well, farfetched.  I’m not sure how this came up, seven year old minds are fascinating, but she told us that gorillas burp when they’re happy.  Really?  Dale looked it up!  They do, in fact, burp when they’re happy.  I had to look up the butt breathing turtles and found that that was true too.  Yep! Its called “bum breathing.”  Just goes to show that you’re never to old to learn something new too!

Finally:  Day 15 – Anybody else feel like they’ve cooked dinner about 395 times this month?