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.

110307 Day 134 Grenada–Torn Mainsail & Dinner on Laelia