Day 138, Year 6 Disappearing Time
Date: Friday, March 11, 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
We’re really not sure where the time is going, but it is surely passing by quickly. I have SO many emails that I have needed to return for days now, and somehow the time never comes when I can get to that. So if you are wondering why I haven’t returned your email it is because I can’t seem to get there from here. Today was all about getting the new rigging up, getting the repaired mainsail, doing a little cleaning, and talking to Justin, Jo, and Ziggy on Skype. And then we ended the day at Prickly Bay Marina listening to a steel drum band in company with Judy and Howard of Laelia.
Every morning we listen to the local cruiser’s net at 7:30 pm to find out what is happening in this area. Today we learned about the tsunami in Japan. We haven’t heard an update but will get that when we log on to send this log. Next we checked our incoming email and learned from my sister that our daughter was featured in an interview on PBS’s News Hour about the health affects of wind turbines on those who live close to their installations. Evidently this is a hot, hot issue as her website has been swamped. We did talk to her briefly last night but the connection was really bad. All we understood from her was that this had been a VERY busy work week due to a hot button story and that she has been a single mom all week as her husband Jed has been in DC at a conference. It was exciting this morning to see the interview (www.climatide.org). No sooner had we watched that than the rigger’s arrived. They took down one aft lower from one side of the boat and one forward lower from the other side and then left with a promise of returning in an hour and half. At this point we gave up the thought of going to St. George’s today. That will just have to wait until all of this work gets done. I washed the cockpit side curtains in anticipation of storing some of them and just being able to see more clearly out of the remaining curtains. Before I could finish that job, the riggers returned. We now have all new aft and forward lowers to the tune of approximately $800 US.
In the early afternoon, we packed up my computer with camera and headset for using with Skype and went to De Big Fish to see if the connection is better from there for Skype calls. It is definitely better than from here, but still not perfect. Regardless, we had a great call with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy. Ziggy did his best to put on a spectacular show for us. When he first saw us on video, he almost instantly asked for an orange. We aren’t certain, but it sure seemed like he was remembering a previous call with us when he tried to feed us an orange through the computer screen. We happened to have some tangerines nearby, and as soon as he offered the orange, we pick up a tangerine and started eating it, thanking him for the delivery. Since we had no oranges in the restaurant today, we could not reciprocate, so he moved on to offer us a banana. He played the harmonica for us as well as a tambourine. He seems to be quite the party guy and loves to yell, “Par-TEE.” We think most assuredly that Justin and Jo are going to have their hands full over the next few years.
No sooner was our call over with Justin, Jo, and Ziggy than it was time to head to Prickly Bay Marina to meet Johnny Sails for the delivery of our repaired mainsail. The sail looked great and we are very pleased with the repairs. We stuck around for Happy Hour with Judy and Howard of Laelia and then ended up staying even later to listen to a local steel drum band and to have a pizza dinner before returning to Windbird in the dark. The steel drum band was fabulous and played everything from the John Lennon’s Imagine to the Hallelujah Chorus.
Tomorrow morning we go in early to have a Skype video call with Heather, Jed, Sam, and Jonah, but not before taking down the headsail and staysail to take them in to have new Sunbrella sun protections strips put on by Johnny Sails. One of these days we’ll make it to St. George’s, just not this weekend.
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| 110311 Day 138 Grenada–New Rigging and Evening at Prickly Bay Marina |
