Clarkes Court Bay Marina

June 4, 2006   Sunday       Clarkes Court Bay Marina, Grenada

Wind blowing 15-20 kts today here at the marina.  That surprises us because this marina is at the very end of a long fjord-like bay, a good distance from the sea.   Our boat is moving about so much in the slip when the wind blows that Bill is concerned that our shade awnings are acting like sails.  Judy does not want to take them down until forced to do so.

Everything is closed on Sunday, and tomorrow is a holiday.  So we are pretty much stuck here at the marina until Tuesday.  Yesterday evening we took the dinghy and explored behind Hog Island.  There is a lagoon back there where a lot of cruisers like to anchor.  We didn’t see anyone that we had previously met, so we didn’t hang around long.

Bill has spent the day doing exterior boat chores – cleaning out the bilge and washing the deck and doing routine rust stain removal.  Judy defrosted refrigerator and freezer.  It sure helps that we have 3 units.  That way, we can take everything out of the one being defrosted and still keep the food cold or frozen.  Unfortunately, this is a chore that must be done every 3 weeks or so.  Oh, the fun of living on a boat.  Judy has not defrosted a fridge or freezer in our land-home in more than 30 years.  But they don’t have frost-free refrigerators on boats, so add this to our regular boat chores.

The people in the slip next to us are on a 1982 Amel 46-ft. Maramu, one of the precursors to our model boat.  Ours is 53-ft.  Their boat is pre-electric everything, so all their sails are manual.  But they have done an impressive job re-doing their boat.  It is extremely nice and looks brand new.  They have changed the hull color from creamy white to a pure white with blue trim.  They have also filled in the strips on the deck that originally (like ours) made the brown grained fiberglass appear like a regular teak deck.  They then applied four coats of epoxy and 2 layers of fiberglass and topped it all with white awl grip.  So they no longer have the Amel signature decks.  Their deck looks great and really changed the appearance of the boat.  They are supposed to leave tomorrow.

These people told us today that there is a group of boats from Texas (several from Kemah) anchored in the lagoon nearby.  All the Texans apparently like to get together.  Anyway, one of the Texas boats was boarded a couple of weeks ago in St. Vincent by two guys armed with machetes.  The boat owner confronted the robbers with a flare pistol, then locked himself and his wife below decks to allow the robbers time to leave, which they did.  No harm was done; all they stole was a big spotlight which had been left on deck; but the wife was so shaken that they chartered a private plane to take her and their 2 dogs back to the states.  They have decided to end their cruising now.  A friend is flying down here to help the husband take the boat up to the Chesapeake, and they plan to do just short-cruises around there.   In our opinions, there is a lot more crime back home than there is around here.  It certainly is not a bit safer back in the good old USA than it is in these islands; the crime rate is much higher back at home.

June 6, 2006     Tuesday        Grenada

We called for a taxi and went to the Spice Island Mall this morning.  Found the IGA Supermarket.  Nice to see a real store again.  Still surprising to see the prices on everything.  They use the standard dollar sign, just like USA, except everything is priced in EC currency, which is 2.7 exchange rate to US dollar.  So it is a little disconcerting to pay $16.89 for a 16-ounce jar of Old El Paso Picante Sauce.  But that is really only $6.27.  Get that, ONLY $6.27.  Of course, we would never pay that much at home; but shipping way down here does cost a lot.

We found everything on our shopping list except tomatoes.  We tried 2 stores, and tomatoes just weren’t available today.  So we can do without that.

Today was Bill’s birthday.  Judy made a Betty Crocker Warm Delight Fudge cake for him.  A mix that cooks in the microwave in 1 minute 15 seconds.  Serves two and actually tastes pretty good when you haven’t had any junk food in 5-6 weeks.  Bought two of these little mixes back in St. Thomas and have been saving them until we felt that we just had to have some kind of chocolate something.  

We are somewhat surprised that we haven’t been craving more sweets, but we really don’t seem to miss the junk food.  Bill did eat a whole large bag of M&Ms during the first 2 weeks (didn’t offer Judy any, but still swears he wasn’t sneaking them behind her back).

BTW, our little break maker is marvelous.  It makes a large loaf of very good bread in 1 hour 55 minutes.  Judy made a loaf and brought it as a hostess gift when we were invited for drinks at another boat.  Wrapped it in a dish towel from the 99 Cent store back at home.  The hostess was delighted with both the bread and receiving a kitchen towel.  Hoping that Bill will have time next week to stop by that store and buy a few dozen more of those little towels.  That is an easy “welcome” gift and it looks like we will be needing lots of those.

All the cruisers hand out boat cards when they meet.  These are usually very nice business cards printed with all the boat and boat owner information, plus a nice graphic.  We haven’t had any boat cards printed yet; that is another thing that we hope Bill will get done while he is in Houston next week.   Bill is going to be very busy guy on this trip.

Winds here have been consistent 20 knots since Sunday morning, gusting to 30 knots.  We had to take down the front two of our shade awnings because they were beginning to act like sails in this high wind.   If we were on an anchor, then the boat would swing and stay pointed into the wind.  In that case, these particular awnings can remain up with no problems up to about 45 knots of wind.  But at the dock, we are tied so that the wind is hitting our port forward quarter.  So the front two sections of awning were acting like sails in the high winds.  We removed them, but this boat is still dancing all over the slip.  The people next to us are leaving tomorrow to go around to St. Georges’ Harbor, hoping that there will be less wind on the other side of this mountainous island.  That will leave just us occupying a boat on this dock.  There are two unoccupied boats, and us.  On the next dock there are 3 occupied boats and 5 unoccupied boats.  This is definitely the slow season down here.

The people we met in Carriacou on S/V SeaLoon arrived here two days ago.  They dropped by yesterday for a glass of wine and to visit awhile.  They are anchored behind Hog Island with the rest of the cruisers, which is just around the bend from this marina.  That is where we would also be anchored if Bill wasn’t making the business trip home next week.  Neither of us felt comfortable about leaving the boat on an anchor with just Judy aboard, especially with tropical depressions moving through every other day already.  That is why we are staying at the marina instead.