True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Mike & Sara joined us on our daily walk to Budget Marine; today was definitely exercise rather than a needed trip. We stopped to say hi to Nicholas in the store, now out of habit rather than anything else.

There was supposed to be a truck bringing fresh fruits and veggies to the marina at 11:00 but by 12:00 when he hadn’t arrived, we figured it was 11:00 GMT (Grenada Maybe Time) so, we turned around and hiked back.

Again we stopped by Indigo Moon to give Buddy a hard time. He had a gallon of paint that he was going to thin down to paint the entire bottom of this boat.

Later, when we were all sitting around the pool, we saw him come trudging back to his room. It looked like he had been through a war. He had cuts and scrapes from a zinc that had jumped out and attacked him and more paint on him than on the boat.

We heard from Moon Goddess. They finally arrived in Grenada. They anticipate meeting up with us tomorrow.

Photo: Cocoa Nut.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Dale is practically dancing a jig; the inverter left Puerto Rico for Grenada this morning. Once it gets out of the customs office, it should be here first thing on Monday morning.

We did our customary walk to Budget Marine, more out of exercise than anything, and told Nicholas the good news. Of course, he’s been following it just as anxiously as Dale has.

We walked by Indigo Moon in the yard and gave Buddy a hard time about all of the holes he’s punching in the keel of his catamaran. His boat was set up in a fashion where bilge water could spill into a void below it. So he drilled holes in the lowest section draining the water out and is filling the void with epoxy. Hopefully alleviating the problem of blisters which alerted him to the situation in the first place.

Mike & Sara had people on their boat completely disassembling their water maker motor; although they did find a frayed wire, they still came up with the same diagnosis; it needs a new motor.

By the end of the day, we were all sitting around the pool relaxing until we remembered that Friday was Mexican night at the resort restaurant. So we all jumped up, ran to change our clothes and met back up at the restaurant for Mexican food with a island twist. It’s not bad when it’s the only Mexican food in town.

Photo: Buddy & Meslissa off Indigo Moon.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Dale was delighted with the tracking number he was provided. He was able to see that the inverter left California this morning. Later in the afternoon, he saw where it had reached Memphis. By evening, it appeared to be in Puerto Rico. He seems to be comforted with what appears to be positive progress. I’m worried that if an inverter doesn’t appear as promised, he’ll snap and I’ll need a couple of men in white coats with a big net to control the situation.

Mike on Wayfinder seems to be on an even narrower ledge. The consensus is that he needs a new motor for his water maker. So now he’s waiting for parts. Of course, he’s been told that it’ll be here next week. Since he’s watched us for the past 3 weeks, you can hear the defeat in his voice. We have our fingers crossed for him.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Buddy & Melissa are back in town. They had taken a quick trip home while their boat was on the hard.

Dale & I made our daily trek over to the Budget Marine. The manager wasn’t in when we got there, so we killed some time having lunch at De Big Fish, a little bar & grill next door where we met Brian & Lisa off Wasabe. They’ve been sailing for 6 years; starting off from southern California and crossing through the Panama Canal. Of course, we had to swap our California stories; Dale was born and raised there and that’s where we met.

We convinced them that it was a lot less rolly in True Blue than it was over in Prickly so they joined out little group later in the afternoon.

We said our farewells to Mike & Sara on Wayfinder and they pulled out shortly after I washed my knickers and hung them out to dry. When they went by, Dale & I stood and saluted telling them that we were giving them the 21 panty salute.

A couple of hours later, they radioed that they were returning. They had spent a considerable amount of money having their water maker repaired at the local marina. They got out a ways, turned it on, and by golly, it had the same problem. They are not happy. We welcomed them back with open arms and rum punches. They certainly needed to relax.

On a happier note, we got word today that our insurance doesn’t require us to be in Trinidad for hurricane season; Grenada is still OK. It’s good to know we have an option. A lot of people don’t and with the rumors of increased violence coming out of Venezuela, it’s forcing more and more people into Trinidad. In my humble opinion, setting the entire marine insurance business at risk for catastrophic damages should a hurricane ever strike Trinidad.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Dale walked over to Budget Marine first thing this morning to confirm that the inverter had been ordered from this end. Now it is a question of waiting until tomorrow to confirm that it has been shipped. He swears that if he doesn’t get a tracking order immediately, we’re getting our money back and ordering the part through another company. I’m staying out of his way.

Sara & Mike radioed over inviting us to join them for lunch at Bananas. We ran into Wayne and Carol while there. A bunch of boats are catching the window on Wednesday night to Trinidad or Venezuela. Mike & Sara will be one of them. We’ll miss them but hopefully will catch up with them again someday on down the line.

Photo: Mike & Sara on Wayfinder

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

You are not going to believe this! It happened again! Our inverter still has not been sent.

As you may recall, when we last left our most unhappy camper, he was told that since St. Martin did not have the inverters they said they had, one had to be ordered from the manufacturer. As the Grenada store is a branch of the St. Martin store, St. Martin still had to do the ordering. We started becoming concerned when we couldn’t get a tracking number for the part shipped and sure enough, there was no tracking number because no part had been shipped. The cost of the part had not met the minimum required to ship to this area. The Grenada store manager was just as frustrated as Dale was, saying that if St. Martin had simply told him this when they first encountered the problem, he would have ordered two.

This means another week here. The manufacturer ships on Wednesday, it takes 2 days to get here, another day to clear customs, which, of course, brings us to the weekend and everything stops until Monday. Only this time, we’re shut out of a very nice weather window we’ve been watching for the past couple of days in which to transit to Trinidad.

Dale’s fried! Instead of having 4-5 days of time toodling around Trinidad until our reservation date on the 1st, we are now are up against a 4-5 day crunch of hoping a weather window opens for us to make the 20 hour passage. It can happen but we might have to do it alone. We’ve been more inclined to travel in groups the closer we get to Venezuela, just to be on the safe side. Who knows, Rainbow Rider may catch up to us yet.

We finished the day by playing 15 rounds of Mexican Dominos with Carol & Wayne on Take Time. (They have a really big set of Dominos). It was fun and a great way to get Dale’s mind off the inverter. We finished about midnight.

Photo: Carol on Take Time; Wayne's underneath cleaning the bottom.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Happy Father’s Day to all of you Dads!

As mentioned before, nothing happens on Sunday, so all was quiet today, particularly with the on and off showers. Dale has been making steady progress through his Patrick O’Brian series of books, taking the opportunity to lay in the hammock and soak in all of the brownie points due a Dad on Father’s Day.

Jim & Freddie off Chez Freddie dropped by for a quick visit before heading into town to look for a restaurant to celebrate Father’s Day.

I tried my hand at making a pizza for dinner again. I broke out the bread maker to make the dough this time. Still not quite there. Too much bread in the crust. I told Dale that at the rate I’m going, I should have this down by the time we get back.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Today Dale & I rented a car to run our errands and invited Mike & Sara to join us as they had turned in their car last week. We checked at Budget Marine, still no inverter. We dropped by the pharmacy and tried to pick up some medicine but they were out of what we needed until Monday afternoon. We were able to do some grocery shopping and pick up fresh veggies. We stopped at a restaurant too far for us to walk to from the marina and enjoyed a tasty meal surrounded by beautiful flower gardens.

When we returned, I spent some time repackaging and vacuum sealing everything before heading over to Take Time. Wayne & Carol had invited us to return to their boat for the nickel tour. They have a 48’ Kadey-Krogen Whaleback trawler. Very nice. Wayne and Dale talked forever about their various improvements to our respective boats. Wayne is just as handy as Dale is and apparently grateful to have someone who speaks the same electrical language as he does. Carol and I talked recipes. The four of us joined Mike & Sara and Freddie & Jim at the pool later in the afternoon.

Wayne and I and a couple from Ireland took advantage of the slide at the pool. It’s the size where you can’t tell if it’s for children or for everyone. Since there were only adults at the pool we figured what the heck! We had a blast.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

I can’t say as we did a whole lot today. We dinghied over to Prickly Bay only to find out that our part was still not in. Not only was it still not in but they didn’t have a tracking number in which to tell us where it was in the process of being sent (not that we could have counted on it anyway).

We did have dinner with Sara & Mike (Wayfinder), Freddie & Jim (Chez Freddie), and Wayne & Carol on Take Time. Carol really outdid herself in preparing smoked pulled pork with homemade buns. All the rest of us brought cole slaw, baked beans, long grain rice, 3 bean salad and green salad. A regular down home barbeque.

We finished up the evening by playing Mexican Dominos. Of course, it was another version. Each time we play with new people, we use different rules. Then again, that’s half the fun!

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Today was a beautiful day. It was also a holiday and everything was closed. So we read our respective books. I tried my hand at making calzones again (my last attempt with pizza dough was better).

Then we ended the day by visiting with Sara & Mike on Wayfinder. That is, after Dale fiddled with the dinghy engine again (guess there’s water in the gas tank that we’ll have to address.)

Sara and I both contributed two appetizers each to our visit and called it dinner. We decided that great minds think alike. She brought barbequed meatballs and brie with crackers and I brought barbequed smokies and Flutes au Fromage; a French bread/cheese stick I picked up in one of the French islands. The guys didn’t seem to mind the similar dishes and everything was gone by sundown.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Although we still had the occasional rain cloud pass through today, we were able to retrieve the laundry we left over in Prickly Bay on Monday. That is, after Dale did a minor adjustment to the dinghy engine. It seems we picked up a bit of water in the engine. Once he cleaned the spark plugs and changed the reservoir of fuel, it fired right up. Thank heavens it conked out on us 20 feet from the Palace instead of out in the ocean as we were rounding the tip of one harbor into the next. That would have meant a lot of rowing; most likely for both of us. Plus some anxious moments.

As we approached the laundry hut, the wash woman had my bag ready as I walked up. She said that she remembered me because of the large amount that I had left. (Oops) She did a great job. Nothing lost; everything neatly cleaned and folded. Best yet.

When we got back, we touched base with Sara on Wayfinder (Mike had gone to the dentist). She loaned us 5 gallons of gasoline until we can rent the car on Friday. Otherwise Dale was going to have a long walk to the gas station in town.

Sara was telling us that they made reservations at Isla de Margarita since the mainland of Venezuela is rumored to be getting more and more violent. She told us that Margarita is supposed to be safer. “Just go into the marina; don’t anchor“ she told us. That doesn’t give me warm fuzzies either, no matter how inexpensive it is. It seems to me, the islands beyond Trinidad are becoming more difficult to justify going to. Dale says we need to weigh everything before making up our minds. We’ll see.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

It rained today; all day.

We didn’t go anywhere or do anything. I couldn’t even hang up the hammock.

All of the boats are doing fluky things in the water. We either had 30kt gusts of wind preceding the squalls or dead calm once they passed.

Dale jury rigged the power board so that he can divert power to what needs to be run by flipping a switch, instead of manually rewiring it each time he starts the genset. Pretty nifty. He just doesn’t like the idea of jury rigging it for any length of time.

We’d like to watch a movie tonight but the TV is acting up. When there’s a lot of moisture in the air, it refuses to play DVD’s and local television just doesn't cut it.

The marina restaurant has a pretty good band playing tonight so we’re sitting in the cockpit listening to the songs over the water. It’s become a game of name that tune.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

It was with high hopes that Dale left the boat this morning bound for the marine chandlery. Unfortunately, as is the norm more often than not, miscommunication ruled the day.

Apparently one of the two inverters located in St. Martin and ordered last Wednesday for us, didn’t exist. So the information that it had been ordered, that it had been shipped, and that it was sitting in customs waiting to clear was in error. Today a very apologetic manager told us he had been informed that St. Martin didn’t have any inverters at all and the package sitting in customs was not ours. So it was back to the drawing board.

This time the chandlery ordered the inverter from the dealer. The only problem is that it will be another week of cooling our jets waiting for the shipment as weather windows to Trinidad open and close.

Dale reminded me that we’ve been pretty lucky as compared with others who have had to repeatedly wait for parts to be shipped. I really don’t mind as I like it here. In fact, if the grocery shopping was more convenient, I’d stay here for quite a while without complaint. As it is, we have to rent a car every time we need to go to the grocery store (unless we want to lug the groceries back on the bus.)

Later, we dinghied our laundry around to the next bay to have done. The one here in the resort doesn’t work. Once there, we took the opportunity to confirm with the chandlery that the inverter had been ordered and then dropped by the local watering hole for a hamburger. Considering we haven’t had a cheeseburger in paradise in a while, it tasted pretty good in spite of the fact that it was more of a meatloaf burger. You just can’t get too picky in these parts.

When dark clouds appeared on the horizon, we made a made a mad dash back to the boat and almost made it.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Nothing happens on Sunday, so we climbed the steps to the pool again and actually swam in it. It was a pretty neat little pool. It has two dolphins depicted on the bottom made out of little 1” tiles. It creates a 3-D effect, particularly with the water over it. Really cool!! Sara and I just floated around while the guys read their respective books.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

It started off rainy this morning but by afternoon it had cleared out. Since the inverter is held up in customs, we decided to check out the pool at the resort. Mike & Sara are at the marina, so they invited us to check it out.

Unfortunately, our timing was off. The staff had just cleaned it and had added chlorine. We had to wait at least an hour before going in. So, we rinsed ourselves in the pool shower, laid underneath the cabanas until we dried and then did it all over again. It was actually rather refreshing.

Photo: True Blue Bay Resort, Grenada

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Dale worked on the inverter for the better part of the day again. He started by taking the electrical diagram over to the local guru who gave him a few more ideas of what to check but then said that if those things didn’t work, we needed a new inverter. Those things didn’t work either, so he had to order a new one.

Dale found some luck when he went to the local Budget Marine and was able to locate two inverters at the St. Martin location. One was ordered and hopefully, it should be here by Friday. Once again, my budget is shot for the month.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Today was our big tour day. Dale & I and Mike & Sara were met at the resort entrance by Kennedy Jawahir, a 3rd generation East Indian, who knows this island and (what appeared to be) most of its inhabitants, very well. His tour brochure proclaimed his “knowledge of the island’s social, political and geographical span” but neglected to mention that this was in addition to his vast knowledge of the island’s flora & fauna (and their Latin names). He also writes a column for the newspaper encouraging the locals to embrace their island’s assets.

We began our tour through St. George’s to the north of us and on the west side of the island. Kennedy pointed out a huge stadium being built in downtown St. George’s that the Chinese donated to the island. The Chinese even brought in all their own labor to build it! The only payment the Grenadians owed was not to fly the Taiwanese flay anywhere on their island. The Taiwanese donated something (I missed that part) and only wanted a vote on whaling rights in the United Nations (I think they actually made their donation before the Chinese made theirs). Kuwait built a sea wall along the south side of the island after the Americans assisted them in the Gulf War. (We noted further in the tour that the Kuwaiti’s need to build another sea wall along the north side too.) For a sleepy little island in the south Caribbean, Grenada garners a great deal of international courting.

We continued our tour to the north along the western shore stopping for views of various harbors or fruit trees along the way. Kennedy would point out cocoa trees, breadfruit trees, nutmeg trees, cinnamon trees, painted eucalyptus, and various crater lakes and waterfalls.

Then we stopped at the Dougaldston Spice Estate where the fruits and spices were displayed, discussed, smelled and of course, sold in neat little bundles.

Our next stop was the Gouyave Nutmeg Station where thousands of pounds of nutmeg nuts are brought in and the mace is separated from the nut. Then the nut is stored for aging, rinsed and sorted for oil content, then bagged moved to a different level and resorted for size, all of this is done by hand. This particular station is the last of what used to be 6 fully working sorting stations. The hurricane 2 years ago decimated 90% of the nutmeg trees and it takes 6-8 years to re-grow the trees to fruit bearing size. At that time you figure out which tree is male and which is female, the male doesn’t produce fruit.

After the nutmeg station, it was time for lunch. We stopped at a small café where several of the local dishes were prepared for us. We had fried fish, curried meat, peas and rice, plantains, salad and other vegetables I didn’t recognize. It was all wonderful.

After our nourishment, it was off to River Antoine Distillery. Now don’t misunderstand me, rum is my favorite toddy, but this rum reminded me of moonshine. Not that I would know too much about moonshine, or any of my relatives in Arkansas would know anything about moonshine, but the one and only time I ever tasted it, it left an indelible mark (or should I say evaporation) on my tongue that I will never forget. Walking into this distillery made my eyes water and brought back memories of the time everclear did pass my lips.

The cane press is still run by a waterwheel, the juices are still boiled by using wood stoves, the fermentation is still done in the open, transferred from vat to vat by hand scoop, and when it is declared rum, it is drained off into a bucket that is used to fill the bottles by hand. No aging in oak barrels for this operation; rum, straight out of the still. They had two strengths; straight (75%) (you cannot take this on a plane out of the county) and diluted with water (65%) (you can take this on a plane). Both could be sold to boaters. The one diluted with water? You guessed it, they filled it about a 1/3 of the way with straight rum and then poured water into it from another bucket. No fancy measurements, no bottled water, no fancy conveyor belts, this is rum done the old fashioned way. Don’t worry about germs, they wouldn’t have a chance in this brew; flies couldn’t even get close to the door. Dale and Mike took sips of the samples provided and decided that it was too volatile for boats as well.

Our next stop was at the solar powered chocolate factory. Finally, someone harnessed the island’s greatest resource for something other than selling umbrella drinks on the beach!

Now the history of this little enterprise had a rather inauspicious beginning. Apparently, ‘these two dudes’ (we all have heard stories about the “two dudes”) one a white dude from a well to do family was here attending the medical school; the other was a black dude whose brother was attending the same school. The black dude’s brother invites the white dude home where the two of them meet and decide to hike up into the mountains to celebrate life with a toke. Somehow, the chocolate enterprise rose from the smoke like a phoenix and took flight. The white dude’s parent’s offered the initial capital, the black dude’s family offered the property, medical school went out the window and now they have a thriving ecologically friendly business making award winning chocolate. All the power is solar, including the air conditioning, mixing machines, refrigerators, presses, lights, you name it.

We were thoroughly impressed with the set up. With the cost of the earth’s resources constantly on the rise, Dale and I have often talked about alternative energy sources and how to get the most out of our water supply. It’s the initial set up costs that are so prohibitive. Here was proof positive, it can be done with all of the creature comforts we have come to depend upon. (Yes, Virginia, you can be conservative and think ecologically!)

Our last stop was though the rain forest where we saw that the top trees forming the canopy still have not bounced back from the hurricane, though they are making a valiant effort.
Kennedy stopped to pick up a few bananas giving us a quick lesson on the many varieties available and giving us each one of the sweetest variety. We thought he was being very thoughtful but then learned that he was just starting to feed the animals along the way. A bit further, we pulled off the road near some trees overlooking the valley where he started whistling. Pretty soon we had 5 or 6 Mona monkeys scrambling for the proffered bananas. That was the highlight of a great trip.

We returned exhausted. In fact, so exhausted, we called Buddy & Melissa and asked them to join us at Bananas (a nearby restaurant) for dinner.

So if you’re ever in Grenada and want a tour of the island, call Kennedy tours! It was well worth the money.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Dale noticed last evening that the generator isn’t charging the batteries the way it’s supposed to and spent the better part of today going through each connection with his multi-meter trying to find the problem. Apparently, it’s inverting properly it just isn’t charging the batteries.

Of course, my conscious kicked in screaming guilty at the top of its lungs since I was the last one to turn on the genset. (I get most of my exercise jumping to conclusions.) I was well into my testimony that I had waited for both meters to spring into life before I flipped the inverter switch, when he told me it didn’t have anything to do with flipping the switch. Then I meekly told him that since it was dark, I may have accidentally hit the reset switch before I hit the inverter switch. Nope! He didn’t think that had anything to do with it either but he would add that to his list of things to check. So I stayed out of his way and played on the computer . . . in the cockpit, . . . far away, . . . ready to dive overboard, . . . just in case.

We had been able to purchase a headset to plug into the laptop and phone home through something called Skype; the majority of cruisers down here use this to keep in touch. If you make a lot of long distance telephone calls, you might want to check into it. Essentially it’s voice over internet protocol for 1-2 cents/minute. The draw back is that you have to be able to connect into the internet to place or receive your calls. If you’ve been following this site for any length of time, you know that that has been the bane of this cruise.

In any event, I had fun for the day. Dale on the other hand, found no joy. He’ll be making a trip to the nearest electronics guru to discuss the situation.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

There was a little drizzle off and on today forcing us to stay on the boat and essentially do nothing. We’d take turns reading, laying in the hammock, or reading and laying in the hammock, then finally playing cribbage. We miss our cribbage evenings with Fred & Geri, where the guys would challenge the girls. (By the way, Geri, I won 2 out of 3 games).

Photo: Supposedly of True Blue Bay Resort with storm clouds rolling in. Unfortunately, it's more of my camera getting wet.

True Blue Bay, Grenada
11.59.955N
61.46.170W

Since Mike & Sara have been here for a couple of weeks “on the hard“, they had rented a car and invited us to tag along on their drive into St. George’s before they turned it back in. We passed by a couple of chandleries, which were already closed (most stores roll up the sidewalks about noon on Saturdays) but were able to pick up a few things at a couple of grocery stores who ventured to stay open until 5:00pm.

We got lucky by being in the store when they started stocking their fresh produce. Both Sara and I were desperate for lettuce and tomatoes. It was very much like prior commissary days when you had to shop when the barge came in or wait for another week.

On our way back to the marina, we visited the medical school (photo) that U.S. forces liberated when Cuba took a more avid interest in this island. It actually overlooks the harbor that we are in. I guess most students are home on summer break as it was pretty quiet. It was quite interesting to see the site of such international intrigue.