by Judy Handley | Mar 10, 2011 | Caribbean - Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 137, Year 6 Rearranging and Cleaning Continue
Date: Thursday, March 10, 2011
Weather: Cloudy with Periods of Sunshine; Wind N-NE 10-15 knots
Air Temperature: Same, Same Everyday, 74 – 82 degrees F
Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
You know Mark and I are tired when we decline an offer of a ride to shore for Happy Hour. Howard and Judy called this evening to see if we would like to go ashore with them, but we were both too exhausted to even think about getting off the boat. This spring cleaning thing is just no fun. We can’t understand how there can be so much to do in such a small area. I started the process while on passage, but that was just too hard with all the rolling we were doing. At least now we are somewhat stable here at anchor, but that doesn’t negate the drudgery. While on passage we found that the drawers on the starboard side of the aft cabin (Mark’s clothing storage) were damp and I have had to wash all of his t-shirts and shorts and take out the drawers and wash and sun dry them. That in itself has been a huge chore when you add in the sheets from passage. But we are making progress even though we still have a couple of days of this to go. We’d love to take a break tomorrow and head into St. George’s, BUT the riggers come at 9:30 tomorrow morning and Johnny promised to have the mainsail ready sometime tomorrow. If the mainsail is going to be delivered, we will wait until Saturday morning to go to town, but if not, we might take off as soon as the riggers leave tomorrow morning for our first trip to the big city.
Today Jim Cottle of Cottle Marine Carpentry came to give us an estimate on replacing our teak deck. Mark went there yesterday to find out about getting a small piece of teak to replace our missing Dorade vent top and thought it would be interesting to find out how much a new deck would cost. We thought if it was cheap enough, we might return here in a couple of years and have the work done. Well, it would cost over $20,000 US so we probably won’t be doing that. We’ll just have to repair what we have and make do or remove the teak ourselves and lay a fiberglass deck.
Today our shower head seemed to develop a dripping leak and our Calfrano fan that is DC powered and can be moved from place to place seems to have “partially” died. It works on low but not on high, so that is something else for Mark to check out. That fan is indispensible in really hot weather, but actually it is not all that hot here right now, so we can probably survive without it.
We talked to Mark’s sister Mary Ellen last night and she and Lee will not be coming to Grenada on the 19th with Mark’s brother Steve. They are still going to try and meet us somewhere along the line for a few days, but their priority right now is to be close to Michelle during her recovery. They will not know until next Monday whether or not she will need chemotherapy and if so, when that will begin. So Lee and Mary Ellen are just not comfortable leaving right now and we can’t blame them. But Steve is still coming and we will just have to hope that Lee and Mary Ellen will be able to come for a few days at some point during the month. Michelle was home from the hospital but still pretty groggy last night so we didn’t get to talk to her, but she seems to be doing great.
by Judy Handley | Mar 9, 2011 | Caribbean - Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 136, Year 6 Passage Boat to Cruising Boat
Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011
Weather: Cloudy with Periods of Sunshine; Wind E 10-20 knots
Air Temperature: 74 degrees F overnight; 82 degrees F daytime
Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
Windbird has been in Passage mode since we left Sakatia in Madagascar in September. We were stocked up on food for the passage to South Africa and all the things we use while cruising were tucked away. When we arrived in South Africa, we stayed in passage mode, constantly provisioning for our Atlantic crossing. Well, now we are here in the Caribbean and we realize just how much we over-provisioned. We still have almost a hundred cans of tuna, twenty cans of salmon, twenty cans of green beans, and on and on. And today was the day to figure out how to shuffle all of this to make the boat livable as we travel north through the Caribbean. We have been using the v-berth as a garage for months, so we started there. We cleared everything off and took the things we had conveniently stuffed into the spot where the spinnaker usually resides underneath the v-berth out to make room for the huge sail. It has been on deck since South Africa since we thought we would be using it in the light air near the equator. So it is now once again neatly tucked in its “hole” under the v-berth. Spinnakers are not something you need in the windy Caribbean. And from there the shuffle began. Cans of food were transferred from one locker to another and plastic boxes of memorabilia were stuffed into food lockers where space was made by at least some of the food that we did eat. The cabinets and food lockers are now rearranged and the changes are noted in our records so we know what is where. There’s actually room in the v-berth for Mark’s brother Steve who will arrive in a week and a half.
We haven’t yet heard from Mark’s sister Mary Ellen about Michelle’s surgery, but we have read Michelle’s husband’s entry on Caring Bridges. She got the best possible news in that there was no cancer found in the lymph nodes so everything looks hopeful. We certainly were elated to get that news. Michelle should be home by now so we might try a call tonight.
This morning Mark went into Turbulence to get the estimate for the rigging–$800 US. That is about the same we had to pay in New Zealand for the replacement of the four lower stays. Someone will call tomorrow morning with a time when they will come to start the work. Mark then walked to Cottle Boat Works which is a full joinery and carpentry shop. He was looking for a small piece of teak to replace the missing top on our Dorade vent. While there he arranged for someone to come to Windbird tomorrow to assess our teak deck. It looks very much like it needs replacing, but we certainly can’t afford that right now. So in the meantime, it will be good to get an estimate on what a future replacement might cost and an expert opinion what we can do to maintain the integrity of the deck for now. Someone from Cottle will arrive at 10 am and sometime tomorrow Turbulence will come to work on rigging. And either tomorrow or Friday our repaired main sail should be ready. So all day tomorrow we will be on Windbird working and waiting for repairs and estimates. And hopefully on Friday we will be able to go to St. George’s to see what is happening in the big city.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2011 | Caribbean - Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 135, Year 6 Making More Progress
Date: Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; Wind NE 10 knots
Air Temperature: 74 degrees F overnight; 82 degrees F daytime
Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
The focal point of today was getting the riggers on the boat and getting an estimate on what needs to be done. Two men from Turbulence came out and did the assessment. A young guy went up the mast and inspected all the rigging and came back down saying that all is fine except for the aft and forward lowers. Both aft stays are terribly frayed, but he said all four need replacing. Tomorrow morning we will get the estimate and go from there. But since there is no other show in town, we will have to go with whatever the estimate says.
The rest of the day was all about cleaning-cleaning the waterline, doing laundry, and starting to reshuffle storage of items below-and about catching up on land-based email. Cleaning the waterline is grueling work as you can’t use anything but a soft cloth diaper to scrub. If we could use a scrubby pad it would be so much easier, but that would ruin the AlwGrip paint finish, so we just have to rub and rub and rub which is really hard on the arms. I worked on the whole port side of the boat and did the back and front of the starboard side. Then Mark took over and finished the middle. But everything needs to be done again and again. It is an ongoing process, but it sure looks better than it did.
While I did the bulk of the cleaning, Mark was working on downloading our land-based email and we haven’t been able to access for the past month. It was delightful to hear that Jay and Jodi Stroud from Australia had a baby girl named Willow Summer Stroud. Jay and Jodi are a young couple that we met during Sail Indonesia. It was Jay who said to us on Christmas Eve 2009 in Nai Harn Bay, Thailand, that he was glad to see us “growing old disgracefully.” Those of us from Scot Free II, Shirena, Sea Bunny, Truest Passion, Street Legal, and Windbird were all decked out in Thai headdress and sunglasses with flashing lights. We probably did look “disgraceful” but we were having a great time. We send hearty congratulations to Jodi, Jay, and baby Willow. We also heard from our “resident” orthopedic surgeon and friend back in Concord, NH, Paul Urbanek. Paul read our logs when I had my broken leg back in 2006 and sent very helpful and critical information to me via email. He and his family just spent the last week chartering in Vieques and Culebra in Puerto Rico and we can’t wait to exchange emails about their experience there. It will be most helpful in our upcoming visit in April. There were emails from friends and family we haven’t heard from in ages. We got emails from my cousin Sidney who I haven’t been in contact with for ages, Laurie Haney and Lucille Watt from my days in the Concord School system, good friends Jim and Teresa Spiegel, Bob and Beth Lux from the Concord Yacht Club who circumnavigated in the 1980’s, and on and on. And we got video of our grandbaby Ziggy jumping on a trampoline-far from the baby we left behind in the fall of 2009. It was great fun to read through these emails and see the photos and videos. It made us very anxious to get home and reconnect personally.
We ended the day with a trip to Prickly Bay Marina where we found a shady spot and set up a chair where I could cut Mark’s hair. We then moved to the tiki bar for Happy Hour and Howard and Judy from Laelia joined us. They had taken a walk to find a couple of restaurants recommended in the cruising guides. They were successful in their search and were able to make recommendations for future lunch or dinner possibilities. We enjoyed our Happy Hour time and then returned to Windbird.
We are awaiting word from Mark’s sister on how Michelle’s surgery went today. We did hear from Mark’s brother Steve and he had very good news. There was no cancer found in the lymph nodes surrounding the breast area. But Steve also said that he think Mary Ellen and Lee will not be coming to Grenada but might be joining us for a week in St. Martin. Steve will still come to Grenada and sail to St. Martin with us and we will just have to pack a whole lot of fun into the one week when Mary Ellen, Lee, and sister Jeanie will join us.
by Judy Handley | Mar 8, 2011 | Caribbean - Grenada, Sailing Logs Year 6 |
Day 134, Year 6 Making Progress
Date: Monday, March 7, 2011
Weather: Beautiful, Sunny Day; Wind NE 10-14 knots
Air Temperature: 74 degrees F overnight; 82 degrees F daytime
Location: Prickly Bay, Grenada
The main sail is in for repair at Johnny Sails & Canvas, the rigger from Turbulence Ltd. at Spice Island Marine is coming tomorrow at 1:30 pm to check the rigging, we went to the Spice Island Mall and got a SIM card for our phone so we can make local calls, and we bought a voucher from the De Big Fish for wifi on the boat. The wifi cost was $25 US per week or $40 US for a month, so we purchased the month since that was cheaper for the two weeks we will be here than the per week rate. The REALLY good news of the day is that once Johnny got to take a look at our tattered and torn mainsail, he gave us a rough estimate of $400 EC for the repairs. That is about $160 US and if that is all it ends up to be, we will be ecstatic.
Our day started at 7:30 am listening to the local cruisers net. We then headed to Spice Island Marine in the dinghy and checked out the Budget Marine chandlery. This was like a visit to a candy shop for Mark. Then we walked through a nearby industrial area to Johnny Sails & Canvas, but Johnny wasn’t in. So we decided to keep on walking and return later in the morning to try and catch him. We walked out to the main road and on the way found an area with fresh fruit and veggie stalls. We’ll most certainly return there to restock on fresh stuff. When we reached the main road we were at the traffic circle with a road leading to St. George’s, the island’s capital. We hopped into a public bus, which is a mini-van, and had it drop us off at Spice Island Mall about 4 km before St. George’s. We went there to buy the SIM card for our phone and while there, checked out the supermarket. It is supposed to be the island’s largest, but it was tiny in comparison to supermarkets in South Africa and back in Thailand. Once we did that we walked back to Johnny’s as we saw the distance was not that far when we took the bus. Back at the traffic circle, we stopped in a small supermarket there. It looks like a great place to buy beer and wine and other groceries, just no fresh produce. We also found a small bakery on our way to Johnny’s and this time we found Johnny in his office. He told us to take the sail down and then give him a call when we were ready to bring it to shore. He then drove us back to Spice Island Marine. We stopped in Turbulence to arrange for the rigger to come out to Windbird tomorrow and to buy a toggle for our inner forestay. Then it was back to Windbird to have lunch and take down the mainsail. Taking it down was not such a chore, but trying to get it rolled up in a windy anchorage was no fun. We couldn’t get it neatly rolled and into a sail bag, so we just tied rope around it, threw it in the dinghy, and gave Johnny a call. He said he would meet us at Prickly Bay Marina, and when we got there we had time to lay the sail out on the big, wide dock and inspect the damage. It was actually not quite as bad as we thought. The sail was ripped away from edging on the luff for about ten feet and then a seam going toward the other side of the sail was ripped out until it reached the wear protection strip we had put on in South Africa. That stopped the seam from ripping any further, but unfortunately caused a rip from there down toward the bottom of the sail for about another fifteen feet. It was not a pretty sight, but we had thought there were two vertical rips, so having only one was good news. While waiting for Johnny a couple of tourists wandered by and started talking. One of the men was from Newport and the other from Martha’s Vineyard. What a small world! Johnny arrived and gave us his estimate and then it was back to Windbird to give a go at cleaning the waterline. That was as hard as expected and not much progress was made today. We’ll continue that job tomorrow.
Tonight we went to Laelia for dinner. Howard cooked a roast in a tomato sauce with cabbage, potatoes, and carrots. It was delicious. We topped off dinner with some of Mark’s chocolate chip cookies and a taste of Howard’s boiled breadfruit, cut in thin slices, and covered in rum-chocolate sauce. It was certainly the best breadfruit we have ever eaten. We make plans for sharing recipes tomorrows and we left with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trilogy of books. Tomorrow when we trade recipes for our key lime pie and chocolate chip cookies for Laelia’s apple-cranberry-raison chutney, we’ll also take over a huge bag of books that we need to get rid of. We learned that Laelia is named after a variety of orchid that Judy and Howard used to grow, and we thoroughly enjoyed a saying on one of Laelia’s main saloon pillows saying, “Stressed spelled backwards is dessert.” It was a good day and we look forward to another good one tomorrow.
Our hearts are with Mark’s sister Mary Ellen tonight and with her daughter Michelle. Michelle was diagnosed with breast cancer a week ago and will undergo surgery for a double mastectomy tomorrow. When Michelle was a little girl, we always called her Missy, and although as an adult she prefers to be called Michelle, we still think of her as Missy. So Missy, we are thinking of you and hoping for the best possible results.
