Monthly Archives: June 2014

Mr., Mr., and Mrs. Clean

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It’s amazing how many projects pop up when you are decommissioning your boat and preparing her for hurricane season. The boys are super busy on the exterior, removing all canvas, washing down all lines, snorkel gear, fishing gear, and what not, flushing the engines, prepping the dingy (not me), repairing leaks in windows, etc…while I’ve tackled the inside. I know the interior of our boat intimately and have found that my cranky body doesn’t like to be on her hands and knees or tippy toes and finger tips nor does it like contorting into tight places to get those lost strands of hair–but she does it, begrudgingly in between the long walks to the office. You see they stored us all the way at the end of the yard, which is great as it is far, far away from the water and possible damage, but makes for a long walk to the bar, marina office, laundry, bathrooms, Island Water World and all of the work shops. Good thing is that I managed over 10k steps!

After a long body aching day for all of us, we grabbed a drink at the bar/restaraunt which is always challenging for me as I don’t drink beer. So for those of you who have been with me when I order -you will laugh! I now order a shot of vodka with a glass of water and I make my own drinks (with my yummy water mix). I still get funny looks-no surprise, but it is easier.

La Sagesse (www.lasagesse.com) sent over our favorite bartender, John to pick us up. We all grabbed quick showers and headed to dinner. They served us Mahi Mahi creole style and shrimp and pasta along with an incredible flaming banana! The great thing about this place is that it is on the beach, not near, but on and lined with palm trees. All you hear are the frogs, birds and the ocean. It is gorgeous and everyone is so nice. Nancy and Jerry are managing La Sagesse now and then Mike returns in the winter. A great night rest in Ted’s room and back to finish boat projects tomorrow. Here is a great picture of the beach from La Sagesse

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Down hill slide

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Vacations suck. Only because they have to end and it’s back to the grind. On a boat returning to shore the real treat is yet to come.

Good slow sail today. Good wind angle, good wave angle… But for 5 hrs not a word was spoken between the crew. We aren’t mad at each other, we aren’t all hung over from kicking the locals but in straight dominoes. It’s just that we are winding down.

We had 6 foot seas and a beam reach today, normally we would have been pushing it, for,more speed but it didn’t matter we only had 35 miles to go and 2 days to put things away, such that it’s still a clean boat when we return.

On past, non boating vacations, the penultimate night is the party night for the dreaded plane ride from hell home. Sure, we will drink lots to drown the sorrows of the ending vacation, but it will be more for hydration between tasks.

Weekend sailing cleaning the boat is fun. Leaving a boat for months is a chore. We will knock it out tho.

We coasted in grabbed a ball, flukey winds but we grabbed it first try and secured the boat. I jump off to go clear in. No dice the don’t work weekends or at least thats what the bartender said as I ordered a cold beer. I asked if it was okay if we came ashore for dinner since my crew was done with my cooking. Another Grenada Marine worker said sure, this is Grenada Marine. So back to the boat not technically in the country yet.

It hot in this bay, winds are not consistent with the tides. We will do circles while attached to the mooring ball.

Slowly putz on the boat and undo the main sail between cold beverages. Ya gotta reward yourself for small accomplishments. There are 14 places the main sail attaches to the mast. Good thing we bought 2 cases of nourishment yesterday.

5pm its dinner time we had had a snack on board but needed to relax on shore. So we split a dinner order 3 ways and made friends with our favorite bartender from last season. Whom unfortunately has tomorrow off. We will make do.

Back to the boat for some long showers, to await clearing in to the country and getting the boat hauled out. Should be interesting. 🙂

Slow Road Back

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We all woke in a slight haze from our night out at Pleasures. We slowly got motivated as we only had a short 15 NM jaunt to Clifton to clear out of the country later today. We gathered up an old TX flag, some fresh water and Matt’s old LED lighting system that runs on 12volt. We planned on gifting these to Pleasure on our way out. Here is Mark and Pleasure from the night before

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After an uneventful trip to Clifton, we anchored and were immediately hit by a boat boy, Charlie Brown asking to take our trash or bring us water. We declined. Took the dingy into town to check out and get beer and chips Togo with the guac we wanted to make with our giant avocado. Immediately, we were approached by someone to help us carry our trash, we declined. Headed to bar to check wifi while Matt cleared us out of the country. Then down the road into town where we were accosted by Jeff who wanted to carry our stuff that we hadn’t bought yet. At this point we were irritated so Wayne took care of it and we continued on. To our surprise we ran into King who was the bartender from Chatham Bay resort. We chatted it up with him, got our stuff and headed out. Here is our boat in front of Happy Island. The bar on this little island which can only be accessed by dingy has never been open when we come to the island.

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We left Clifton and headed to Pt Martinique and anchored for the night. Matt made some super yummy pasta and we enjoyed a good game of dominoes and then watched the fish swim in our green light. Great night.