2014-01-01 (Wednesday)Grey and rainy, fair amount of strong wind. Stayed fairly grey all day.
Heard on a podcast that starboard and port come from ancient boats having the steering board (rudder) on the starboard side, and thus docking with the dock (port) on the other side. But I know starboard and larboard are old terms, too. Wikipedia's "Port and starboard"
Ashore in midafternoon to take a walk.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-coconutwater for dinner. Didn't like the coconut water very much.
2014-01-02 (Thursday)Grey and rainy, fair amount of strong wind.
One of my two MP3 players has failed. Took it apart: pic. Basically a battery, one chip, and a memory chip.
Just as well I didn't go to New Jersey for Christmas this year. They're expecting overnight low of 0F, daytime high of 15F, and 6 inches of snow tomorrow.
Turns out my package to Spain arrived in Barcelona a couple of days ago. I sent it on 11/26, so a little over a month to get there. I'm waiting for a similar envelope to arrive here, then I'm hoping to cruise north for a couple of months.
Tried fixing the MP3 player. The audio connector has come off; it was held on by 3 surface-mount soldered fingers. After several tries, got it soldered back on. Turned on the player, and nothing. Tried for a while, then realized there are no MP3's on the memory chip. Fired up the laptop, loaded up the MP3 player, and it works ! [But within a week, the battery wasn't holding a charge very well, so it's becoming useless.]
Fuel level 3.5 inches at engine hour 4855; lower than I expected. Went down 2 inches in 16 hours of engine time. But the bottom of the fuel tank is narrow, following the side of the hull, so I guess that's not unreasonable.
Dumped 5 gallons of diesel from jug into fuel tank.
Ashore in midafternoon. Bought 10 USgallons of diesel for EC$151.10 (about US$58). Did a little yoga. Went for a walk, but 1/3 of the way through, my left sandal disintegrated, and I had to limp back slowly.
Dumped 10 gallons of diesel from jugs into fuel tank.
Sausage-onion-corn-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-03 (Friday)Ashore in midafternoon. Bought another 10 USgallons of diesel for EC$151.10 (about US$58). Did a little yoga. Went for a walk.
Dumped 10 gallons of diesel from jugs into fuel tank.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-04 (Saturday)Grey morning, but did a bucket of laundry anyway. Sunny by 10:30, grey coming over again by 11:15.
Lots of rain at 1:45, but I had most of the laundry off the lifelines by then.
Ashore in midafternoon. Bought more diesel, but a different fuel-guy today, and he said "I could fit only 9.5 gallons in". The jugs says 5 gallons each, the previous guy supposedly sold me 10 gallons each time, maybe this guy just wouldn't fill them as full. Did a little yoga. Went for a walk.
Dumped 9.5 gallons of diesel from jugs into fuel tank.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-05 (Sunday)Ashore at 11 to check out the jumble-sale, and go for a walk. Sale very crowded this month.
Ashore at 1 to play dominoes. Nice game with Peter and Ann, John and Georgina, Robert and Carolyn. Six more players playing at another table.
When I said I was waiting for some mail from overseas, Ann immediately said "Oh, last year we waited forever for mail to arrive, and finally someone at the Post Office said they hadn't had a shipment of overseas mail in a month or two. So don't wait; it could be a LONG time before it arrives."
Back on the boat, I'm thinking, maybe I should stop waiting for the mail from Spain, and just leave; it will be here when I get back in a couple of months. I think my visa expires next Sunday, 1/12. So if I get propane and fuel on Monday, shopping and cash and pay up cruising permit on Tuesday, leave on Wednesday and stop halfway up Grenada, get to Carriacou on Thursday, check out and go to Union Island on Friday, that would work (if everything goes right). But then I check my passport, and find out my last extension was written to 1/9; I guess they extend by 90 days, not 3 months ? I don't think this will work. Cruising permit (more expensive than visa) runs to 23rd. So maybe I'll stay here another week or so. That means I have to go to town to extend my visa, which is a pain.
Fuel level 8.0 inches at engine hour 4855.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Frequent heavy rain all night long.
2014-01-06 (Monday)Weather forecast shows seas running 8 feet in last couple of days of this week, instead of the 6 feet shown earlier. So I'm definitely staying put.
Heavy rain from 8:15 to 8:35. I'd just finished emptying the water-buckets; they're full again. Very sunny for 15 minutes, then suddenly very grey again. More rain starting at 9.
Heavy rain again starting at 12:15.
Loafed all day; just couldn't get moving. Finally did accomplish one thing: unfurled and furled the jib and mainsail to make sure they were okay. Jib furler sticks as usual, and rope on main topping lift needs to be replaced.
Heavy rain again 6:15.
Salad and PB-banana sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-07 (Tuesday)Pretty good rain at 8:15 or so.
Headachey; took a Paracetamol.
Ashore for 9:30 shopping van. Off at Wall Street roundabout, walked to Scotiabank, got cash. To IGA mall just ahead of rain. Into Coop bank and donated EC$100 to St Vincent relief fund. Got groceries, watched soccer on TV. Into van, stop at Marketing Board and CK's (took picture of an interesting old tractor: pic ). Back to boat just before noon. Heavy rain starting around 12:10.
Still headachey in the afternoon; took a Tonopan.
Ashore at 3. Disposed of a big bag of garbage for EC$10. Walked to Prickly Bay and paid EC$225 to extend my cruising permit for 3 months, to 1/23.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Still headachey at night; took a Sumatriptan around 4 AM.
2014-01-08 (Wednesday)In mid-morning, starting to get bursts of high wind.
Ashore in midafternoon to do a little yoga and take a walk.
Still headachey; took a Paracetamol.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice for dinner.
Headachey much of the night; took cold medicine in the early AM.
2014-01-09 (Thursday)Still headachey.
On the cruiser's net, a report from a boat that just got back from taking donated supplies up to St Vincent, which got devastated by rains on Christmas Eve. It's worse than I thought: many roads and most bridges washed out, houses and fishing boats and livestock washed into the sea and lost, many homeless.
Around 9:15, took a Tonopan and headed ashore. Have to go to town to get my visa extended. Luckily (and a little by design), mentioned to a couple from "C-Sett" at the dinghy-dock that I was going to do the visa, and it turned out they had a jeep and offered me a ride ! Great, saves me more than a mile of walking at the start ! They took me to the Scotiabank mall, where I wanted to stop anyway. Got cash in the ATM and then caught a bus to the Botanical Gardens.
Into Immigration at 9:40, filled out forms and handed them in, then waited. Not too crowded here, everyone waiting, not much happening. Finally got called in for a brief interview, went downstairs to pay EC$25 for another month, back upstairs and wait, done by 10:30. About 3 minutes of actual work, that took 50 minutes. But it could have been worse.
Walked to Grenada Yacht Club to use the book-exchange, but they've just finished renovating, and the books are in boxes somewhere. To IWW and bought a sheave that might fit my jib-furling line. To Foodland and bought a couple of groceries. Caught a bus back to Sugarmill roundabout and started walking back to the marina. Some local guy I don't know stopped and gave me a ride down the straightaway, saving me 3/4 of a mile of walking. It's my lucky day ! Back to the boat by 11:50.
Put new spring on forward toilet, but as I expected it's too weak and a little too long. Forgot to look for a proper spring in IWW this morning.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-10 (Friday)Pretty big storm/squall from the N starting around 11.
Before noon, looks like someone is working to raise that half-sunk catamaran. There's an inflatable dinghy next to it and I hear an air-compressor running.
Several more squalls came through during the afternoon.
Ashore in late afternoon to do a little yoga and take a walk. Got rained on while going in, and had to wait for rain to stop before going for my walk.
Saw the divers at the dinghy-dock, and they sounded bushed. They spent at least 5 hours working on that sinking boat, but they got it afloat: pics.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-11 (Saturday)Tried to find leaks in dinghy tubes; I seem to have leaks in bow tube and port tube now. Couldn't find any leaks.
Ashore in midafternoon to do a little yoga and take a walk.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-12 (Sunday)Ashore at 11 to do a little yoga and take a walk.
Ashore at 1 to play dominoes. Bar/restaurant crowded, and we had about 16 players and only two dominoes sets. So we played at two big tables. Nice game, with Ann, Georgina, Peter, Mirie, Robin, Brenda, John. I started with several disastrous hands, managed to drop bombs on everyone else later in the game, and ended up coming in 3rd. Nice conversation afterwards. Many people planning to head out this week, when the seas subside a little.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-13 (Monday)I've been expecting the propane to run out any day now, so I can refill it before leaving here. But this morning I unlashed the tank and shook it, and I think there's still a pound or two in there. So I'll wait until it runs out (probably in some inconvenient place).
Couldn't get my Bullet Wi-Fi adapter to work; switched to a different adapter.
In midafternoon, snorkeled under the boat and scraped. Got it fairly clean; ready to go.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-14 (Tuesday)Bullet Wi-Fi still not working.
Pulled in 20 feet of anchor chain, so all the muck on it will die and be easier to clean off.
Ashore at 9:15. Bought another 10 gallons of diesel; better to have extra. Onto the shopping bus. Out at bank, walked to ACE, bought paint thinner. Walked to Scotiabank, used ATM, checked in hardware store. To IGA mall, bought toilet springs at hardware store, bought groceries. Onto bus, stopped at Marketing Board for veggies, and I managed to knock a bottle off a shelf and had to pay for it (EC$21). Stop at CK's, back to boat by 11:45.
Dumped 10 gallons of diesel from jugs into fuel tank.
Cleaned muck off the anchor chain, and it's awkward because a boat came in while I was shopping and anchored a little too close. So if I pull in a lot of chain and happen to drag, could be trouble. But conditions today are fairly calm.
Ashore in midafternoon. Bought 1 gallon of gasoline and 4 gallons of diesel, to carry in jugs on deck. One last check for the mail from Spain; no luck. Did some yoga. Back to the boat, and suddenly my back is aching. Not good; I have to do some anchor-raising tomorrow.
Started getting the boat ready to go, lashing down the dinghy, taking in the water-collecting buckets, straightening up the cockpit, checking battery water and strapping down the batteries.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot-cabbage and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-15 (Wednesday)Up at 7, back sore and feeling a little headachey. Very calm morning. Started getting the boat ready to go, lashing things down, running out the jib sheets, etc. Added a quart of oil to the engine. Did a little Wi-Fi, for latest weather forecast, and to charge mini-GPS.
Engine start at 7:55. Anchor didn't want to come up; got chain vertical and it seemed to weigh twice what it should. Some tangles and twists resolved themselves. Finally hauled it up, and nothing wrong with it. I guess I'd forgotten how heavy it was to pull up a 45-pound anchor with heavy chain from 25+ feet. Anchor up by 8:15.
Sails unfurled by 8:25, out of harbor and past the reefs by 8:35. Shut off the engine and had a fun sail almost straight downwind and down-swell and down-current, doing probably 6 knots through water and 7 knots over land. Steering very tricky, stern slewing around, boat trying to crash-jibe, had to watch it every second.
Down to the SW corner of the island (the airport) at approx 9:30, and around, and everything changed. Now wind almost on the nose, boat holding course very well, but making less than 2 knots and not quite the direction I wanted to go. Slogged through that area, got a little stronger and cleaner wind, sailing maybe 2-3 knots, but still falling off from the course I want.
Kept that up until 10:15, when course getting worse. Started engine, furled jib, motored with mainsail up.
Probably a dozen or so cruising sailboats out here today, half pulling away ahead of me, other half coming up behind, as people head N after a couple of weeks of too-big waves. Probably will be a lot more boats moving tomorrow.
The Mini-GPS I bought is working fine. The Garmin's display is totally unreadable now, but I can read the coordinates from it as they're displayed on my VHF radio's display. But no speed over ground number.
Around 11 or so, saw that engine has dumped maybe half a quart of oil out around the oil filter (I have a catching system set up, with plastic bags and bucket). Haven't been able to get that thing to stop leaking, since I changed to a spin-on filter.
Around 11:30, furled the mainsail and headed for harbor, directly upwind. Hard to find it, a tiny bay, but I have the GPS coordinates. A little worried that I'll be unable to anchor here; I've never been to this harbor, it's tiny, there are two powerlines across it, and it could well be full of fishing skiffs on mooring balls. And if I can't stay here, I'll have to backtrack 2.5 miles to Grand Mal Bay. I'm too tired to press on to Carriacou, and if I did, I'd arrive well after dark.
Got in, and it definitely is tiny, and has the powerlines. But only one fishing skiff (anchored right in the middle of the shallow areas, although under a powerline) and a wrecked boat or two. Found 16-18 foot water sooner than I expected, didn't have to risk crossing under the powerlines, and anchored by 12:20 at Halifax Harbour, Grenada. Turns out this position is 7 NM exactly due N of my previous position in Mt Hartman Bay.
Not a lot of room to swing here, but I'm surrounded by high hills and cliffs, so unlikely to get any strong wind. Pics.
Well, not too bad for the first small trip after the boat sat in one place for 10 months. Nothing broke, and I got to where I intended.
Both of my Wi-Fi adapters find absolutely no Wi-Fi signals here, none at all. Not too surprising, there are only two houses here, and one is accessible only by boat and looks unoccupied.
More boats going by, heading N and S, but a little too far away for good pictures. Pics.
Feeling pretty tired, got a lot of sun and wind today.
Sloop came by and seemed to anchor outside the bay, but an island hides them from my view, and they weren't there when I left tomorrow.
Swapped port and starboard jib sheets; the port one had a bad section in it, and that's the one that's going to do most of the work while going N.
Leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Quiet night; boat rocking slightly, but never any real wind.
2014-01-16 (Thursday)Up at 6:30. Dumped leaked oil back into engine. Cruise ship passing by: pic. Engine start at 7:05. Anchor up by 7:15. Motored out, unfurled sails, started motoring N. Wind almost exactly on the nose, as expected. This trip always is a slog, for me at least.
Listened to a bit of the cruiser's net at 7:30. Was thinking of furling the jib, since it's not really doing much except luffing when I steer too close to the wind. Then at 7:45, it decided to take itself down. Bang ! Looks like the head of the sail has come detached from the furling wire in the luff, and the sail is starting to slide down the wire.
Took 6 or 8 trips to the bow to get the sail down and lashed, with the boat heading off in crazy directions any time I stepped away from the helm for 20 seconds. No boats too close, but those a couple of miles away must be wondering what's going on. But they can see me on the foredeck. Finally finished with it at 8:10.
By 8:50, half a quart of oil has come of the engine. Not good.
By 9:50, about even with the N end of Grenada, at latitude 14.5N. Rough water, swells from a couple of directions, wind right on the nose. This trip always is a pain.
At 10:40, shut off the engine and went below to put the leaked oil back in. Boat surprisingly well-behaved, with just a tightly-sheeted mainsail up. Kept on more or less the right heading, into the swells. I had been afraid it would turn sideways and start falling off swells.
By noon, the motion is bad, I have a headache, speed is low, and I'm wondering why I ever left my comfortable anchorage in Mt Hartman Bay. Every other boat out is here is faster than me. This is the only boat that came fairly close to me: pic.
Motion really bad as I passed Kick 'Em Jenny rock, bashing into 5-foot swells and often making a knot or so. Ugly.
At 1, shut off the engine and went below to put the leaked oil back in. Feeling queasy, sitting sideways down below and working with hot engine and oil. But I came up to a pleasant surprise: the big swells suddenly have gone. Back down to 2-3 feet.
At some point, heard a crash in the cabin down below. Trailer-winch thing I made has fallen onto the sole in the V-berth; no problem. Later I found it mangled a drawer-handle on its way down.
At 1:30, took a Paracetamol. Within an hour or less, my head felt a lot better.
A dozen or fifteen sailboats out here today, and later a tugboat and barge, and a ferry. I keep watching one big red sloop which seems determined to sail (no motor) to Tyrrel Bay. He's sailing at about 6 knots; I'm probably making about 3. He's making huge long tacks, going 3 miles to one side of me, crossing behind me, 2 or 3 miles to other side. But as usual, the wind and swells are coming directly from our destination, and he's taking forever.
At 3, shut off the engine and went below to put the leaked oil back in. I'm getting pretty good at it; only takes a couple of minutes. But the leak definitely is bigger than it was a year ago, and if I let it get out of control, it could ruin my engine.
The last 5 miles or so of every trip are the toughest. I can see my destination, see right into the bay and lots of masts of boats at anchor. But I'm still two hours away. And even though you'd think the big island would shelter me from current and swells, it doesn't, this far out.
By 4, I'm almost there. The wind seems to have eased a little, and that red sloop is well behind me. I don't know if he'll make it in tonight if he keeps purely sailing. The mainsail has been keeping me from pointing straight at my destination; now that the swells are diminishing a little, I furl it and start motoring straight in.
At 4:45, inside the wings of Tyrrel Bay, maybe a mile or so from my anchoring point, but the engine oil needs tending again. Might be able to make it all the way without doing it again, but why chance it ? Shut off the engine and went below to put the leaked oil back in.
Anchored tugboat with interesting name: pic.
Zoomed right up to the beach and found my usual spot; I think I've anchored exactly here a couple of times before. Anchor down by 5:15 at Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. Had about 2/3 of the chain out when a guy (Simon) in a skiff came by and tried to sell me bottles of wine. I think the same thing, same guy, happened the last couple of times I was here.
What a relief to have the engine off and the boat steady ! I'm wrecked; tired, sunburnt, windburnt, a little headachey, sinuses hurt, stressed out from all of the motion and worry about the engine. I clean up a couple of things, sit for a little while, have a snack, go lie down for 15 minutes.
Smallish catamaran came in two boats over, and I heard a guy aboard say to someone in a dinghy, "We got beat up, but we made it !". My feelings too.
As near as I can calculate, I averaged about 2.8 knots on today's trip. Took 10 hours, which is brutal, considering I started from a couple of miles further N than I usually do. The jib and engine problems cost me 45 minutes or so, but basically conditions just were ugly.
Sausage-onion-cheese-corn-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Try to sleep, but I'm feeling lousy, headachey and coughing and feeling feverish and shivering. Around 10, I take cold-medicine, which helps for a while, mainly with the coughing. And I put a blanket on my bed; I've been sleeping under just a sheet, and maybe that's not warm enough. The blanket feels great for 5 minutes, then I overheat and stop using it.
Felt lousy all night, didn't get a lot of sleep.
2014-01-17 (Friday)Still feeling fairly lousy; headache and coughing and tired. Took some more cold pills.
Hard to get a Wi-Fi connection. Especially with my Bullet still not working.
At 11, took a sumatriptan. Started to feel better 15 minutes later.
Added a little water to the batteries. Adjusted the furling line on the mainsail. Replaced the rope section of the main topping lift.
Napped a few times, but can't really sleep.
In late afternoon, investigated the state of the jib. Good news: the head of the sail has an eye and it's well-attached to the fabric, so if I can get the fabric back up the furling wire, I can jury-rig a fix. The sail has slid 6 or 7 feet down the wire. Got the first 3 or 4 feet back without too much problem, but then it got tough: the baggy parts are all the way down near the foot of the sail, so had to lay the whole sail down the side deck, and it takes 5 minutes of tugging and unfurling and working to get another 2 or 3 inches of progress. Got it within 2 feet of where it needed to be: pic. Eventually got all but the last 4 inches or so, and stopped there for today. I'm a bit wiped out.
Leftover cornbread concoction and cranberryjuice for dinner. Not feeling good; took cold medicine at 5:45 and went to bed.
Felt a bit better this night than last night, but still not good. Quite a bit of strong wind tonight; got a fair amount of power out of the wind-generator. Took a sumatriptan at 2:30.
I kept drinking more and more water during the night, and not peeing much. Can I really be very dehydrated ? I can believe I got dehydrated on the passage to here, but I've been drinking a lot of water since then.
2014-01-18 (Saturday)Feeling slightly better at times, but still not good. Took cold medicine at 8 AM. Mostly a sinus headache at this point, I think, but I'm feeling weak and maybe have a migraine too. Still cough occasionally; there's fluid or bronchitis in my lungs.
I'm hoping I'll feel better by Monday. Have to sync with the weather forecast, but right now it looks like I could cross to Clifton on Monday, to Canouan on Tuesday, to Bequia later in the week. There's a music festival in Bequia I'd like to get to; it runs Thursday to Sunday. My cruising permit here runs out on Friday.
Launched dinghy and pumped the tubes; for some reason they lost a LOT of air in the passage up here.
Dinghied ashore to the ferry dock. Took a big bag of garbage to the dumpsters. Bought tangerines and a cucumber. Checked out a couple other fruit/veg stands. Feels good to be walking around, but I'm weak. Back to the dinghy, and of course the outboard won't start, just what I need. After some futzing and a dozen or more pulls, finally got it running. Back to the boat.
Tangerines and celery and half a PBJ sandwich for dinner.
Feeling fevered, so took an Ibuprofen at 5:15. To bed early.
Felt a fair amount better during the night; I think the ibuprofen is working, making me very sweaty as some of the fever goes away. Took another ibuprofen at 5:30.
2014-01-19 (Sunday)Feeling weak and slightly feverish and headachey, and still have a cough at times, but I'm improving.
The Wi-Fi was good yesterday, but today it's fighting me every step of the way. Did get the weather forecast, and it's tolerable for the three hops to get to Bequia. But I'm not sure my health is going to be up to that. Feeling bad and sneezing a lot; took cold medicine at 10:30.
Wi-Fi got better for a while. Sailing-dinghies having a small regatta through the anchorage: pic.
By early afternoon, my health still is up and down, and I've decided to just go to Clifton this week, not try for Bequia. If I felt solidly healthy now, off medicines, and got a good night's sleep tonight, I would have gone for Bequia.
At 2, took a sumatriptan. Didn't really seem to help.
Worked on the engine oil leak. Reclaimed the small amount of leaked oil, took the filter off, and looked into adding another gasket next to the gasket molded into the filter. Doesn't seem to be a lot of room for it: the mount isn't a lot wider than the molded-in gasket, so another gasket outside the original might not seal to the mount. And oil flows through holes just inside the existing gasket; don't want to obstruct them.
Looked for my bag of O-rings and gaskets. I haven't been able to find it for a while, and I can't find it now. Started taking everything out of the spares/materials shelves. Found a nice flashlight with batteries leaking inside it; cleaned that up. Got about halfway through, looked in a slightly different direction, and found the O-rings etc. Someone had taken them out of the bag and put them into a big plastic box. Put everything else back onto the shelves.
As expected, I have lots of rings and gaskets that are close, but none that are perfect. None quite tight enough, inside or outside the existing gasket, except one that is too thick. Finally chose one to go outside the existing gasket, and put the filter back on. It seemed to seat okay; I'm worried that the additional gasket might prevent seating of the original gasket, and oil will shoot out when I run the engine.
Started the engine, and all seems well. But as I look at what I can see of the filter and mount (I have a plastic bag tied around them to catch any leaks or outpourings), I notice a tiny oil seep from a hose-fitting on the mount, above the filter. Could that have been the problem all along ? I wipe it clean, and 10 seconds later there's a little oil again. One more time, same thing. Turn off the engine.
I get out my big crescent wrenches. Leaking joint doesn't seem loose; can't tighten it any further. Take apart the hose-to-mount fitting, a two-piece thing. There's an O-ring in the joint going into the mount, and it looks squashed or damaged. Maybe a new O-ring and some pipe sealant will fix this.
As I pry off the old O-ring, I find that it's fine, no damage. The gunk I saw seems to be the remains of Teflon tape I put in there, and it's in no shape to do any good. As I find and try new O-rings, I realize the old O-ring probably was too thin. I put in a thicker one, decide to do without sealant or Teflon, and put the joints back together. Hope I haven't disturbed the joint at the other end of the hose, which had a tendency to leak at one time.
I start the engine, and all seems fine. No leak from the hose-to-mount joint, or the other end of the hose. Let the engine run for 5 minutes, all still well. Too soon to tell if that was the only leak, but I'm hopeful. I always assumed thousands of engines are using this mount-filter combination, so it shouldn't leak between mount and filter.
I've been eating okay while sick, just not as much as usual or as healthily, usually PB-sandwiches and such, and somehow the thought of cooking a hot meal has been unappealing. I don't have too much of an appetite for it tonight, but I decide to cook anyway. And when it's ready to eat, I don't have any problem eating, and enjoy it. Chili and a dietcola for dinner.
Still uncomfortable and not sleeping well. Forehead still feels hot. At 9, I took an ibuprofen. And that seemed to help quite a bit.
Got some decent sleep after midnight or so.
Woke at 5 AM to find myself drenched; T-shirt and shorts and pillow and sheets wet with my sweat. Usually this means a fever has broken. Changed clothes, took cold medicine (next to last dose I have; need to get some more), and back to bed.
2014-01-20 (Monday)Feeling tolerable, still a bit headachey and a bit weak, and there's still fluid or whatever in my lungs. My forehead still feels a bit warm to me. I'm not going anywhere today.
Did a bucket of laundry (the bed-linens).
Still feeling a bit headachey, and sinus-pain, all day.
At 6, took a paracetamol.
Salad and leftover chili for dinner.
Up at 3 AM to run engine for 20 minutes, to charge batteries and check the oil leak. No leak apparent.
2014-01-21 (Tuesday)Feeling a bit weak in the legs, and my lungs still aren't good. But I slept fairly well last night, and it's time to go today.
Weather forecast looks as mild as I could have wished for, for today and tomorrow. E 10-12 wind, E 4 waves.
Launched dinghy, pumped up tubes, and went over to the new Customs/Immigration office at the boatyard. Got there about 9:15, a couple of people ahead of me. Filled out forms, paid EC$20 departure tax (apparently because I'd flown in and out earlier). Back to the boat by 9:30.
Engine start at 9:40. Anchor was stuck firmly, and somehow the boat kept surging ahead of it and making me wait for the boat to fall back and the chain to slacken. But anchor up by 9:50.
Motored through the anchorage, over to the ferry channel. Rounded up and unfurled the mainsail, then motored out. Feeling pretty good, engine oil looks good.
Uneventful trip around corner, up past Sandy Island and Hillsborough. Wind doing its best to stay right on the nose, and I think it's stronger than 10-12. But I'm staying in the shelter of the island as much as possible, so the chop is light. I read a bit, enjoy the beautiful day, keep checking the engine oil (no leak).
Up to the N tip of Carriacou by about noon, and start crossing open water. Rougher, but not bad at all, and I have a good angle on the waves. Wind is just enough off the bow that I can keep the mainsail full, and even get some drive from it.
No problems, and I pull into the mouth of Clifton harbor, round up, and furl the mainsail. I've seen it a lot more crowded here; plenty of spots to anchor today. As usual here, I pull well forward into water that looks like it is full of coral heads, so everyone else stays away. But actually it's just grassy patches, and the water is 10 feet deep. Anchor down by 12:50 at Clifton, Union Island, St Vincent and Grenadines.
Terrific ! Good trip, my health feels pretty good, and engine leaked no oil, as far as I can tell.
Close up the boat, launch the dinghy, head ashore. I dock at AYC, walk to airport, and do Customs/Immigration (EC$35.45). Back to AYC, and exchange 4 books at Erika's, getting 4 terrific-looking books, including one by one of my favorite authors, Robert B. Parker. [But it turned out to be one of those "By Mr. BigName ... (actually written by mr. nobody)" deals. Still a good read.]
Along the waterfront to the town center. Bought a loaf of bread at the bakery, grapefruit and bananas at the fruit/veg market. Back to the boat by 2:30.
Really no free Wi-Fi here, but got fleeting access to some weird signal, maybe to/from Mayreau, just long enough to upload my log file and do a little email.
Salad and spaghetti and a dietcola for dinner.
Slept pretty well.
2014-01-22 (Wednesday)Surprisingly rolly this morning. Maybe because there's a slight S component in the wind ?
Finally got some life out of the Bullet Wi-Fi adapter. For some reason, it is taking a long time to power up and present the administration page.
The rolling (in concert with my lingering weakness) is making me feel a little queasy and weak, so didn't do much today. But I'm coming up on 48 hours without taking any medicine, which is good.
Cleaned up the oil filter area.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a very light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Wind blowing harder all night; more power than I can use from the wind-generator.
2014-01-23 (Thursday)Wind blowing a steady 18-20 or so. And more N in it.
Around 1, windjammer-type cruise ship came by and anchored outside: pic.
Glannced at weather forecast, and it seems to have changed. Says wind E 10-12 the next two days ? Maybe I should go to Bequia.
John from "Purrfect" swung by to say hi. But he's heading south.
Went ashore in later afternoon. Disposed of two bags of garbage. Did some yoga in arcade at AYC. Went for a walk up to hospital overlooking the anchorage: pic. Bought cheese and chicken.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot-cabbage and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Wind blowing hard, maybe 20-22, all night.
2014-01-24 (Friday)Headachey; took a paracetamol at 5 AM.
Wind down to 15 or so, but I'm reluctant to leave now, given how hard it blew all night. Will have to check the weather forecast. Did so, and it says 14-17 today, 15-18 tomorrow, 5-foot seas. I'm undecided, mostly because I'm a bit headachey.
Engine start at 10:10, anchor up by 10:20. Out and around the point and headed N to the W side of Mayreau. Small cruise-ship anchored there: pic. Passed by a sailboat: pic.
Easy trip up to here, but then at the NW corner of Mayreau it got rougher, and the wind is just about on the nose. A slow, rough, rolly trip up to SW corner of Canouan, and my head is aching and I feel a little queasy at times.
Finally up and heading in. Into harbor and anchor down by 1:25 at Charlestown Bay, Canouan, St Vincent and Grenadines. Quiet and pretty empty here; maybe two cruising boats, and half a dozen empty charter boats.
No oil leaked from the filter or filter-mount, but a bit dripped or sprayed from the other end of the hose, the end into the oil cooler. About a teaspoon or two in 3+ hours.
No free Wi-Fi here.
By evening, probably a dozen more boats have come in. But I'm all the way at the N end, by myself.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a light rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-25 (Saturday)Windy morning, with some dark clouds. Just have to assume the weather forecast hasn't changed.
Wiped up a little oil and put a bag around the oil-cooler fittings I think might be leaking. Engine start at 7:05; anchor up by 7:15. Out and head N.
As I pass the NW corner of Canouan, wind is strong and seas quite rough. Worse than I'd hoped. But there's no help for it, just have to keep going. Stayed rough for the first 1/3 of the crossing, then eased a bit. Huge grey squall descended around 9:15, with plenty of wind and rain and maybe 1/4-mile visibility.
A long slog of a trip, but just enough of an angle on the wind and waves to keep the mainsail full and giving some drive, and take the edge off the rolling.
As I approach Bequia around 11:30, suddenly lots of sailboats, most heading S, some N. I guess they got a late start.
Turned the SW corner of Bequia around 11:45, and smacked into strong current and waves and wind right on the nose. And some other boats restricting what I can do. Made probably half a knot over ground for a while, then got away from the corner and got an angle on the wind and started doing a little better. Tacked up into the harbor, slowly getting out of the current and waves.
Finally got up and in, and anchor down by 12:45 in the NW corner, right in front of Daffodil's, at Bequia, St Vincent and Grenadines. A nasty rocky lee shore directly behind me, but I've put out 110 feet of 3/8 chain in 9 feet of water, so I think I'm pretty secure.
Engine leaked a couple of teaspoons of oil during the trip, but I can't see where it came from. Will investigate after the engine cools down.
A few things got dumped onto the floor during the trip, but nothing major.
Feeling tired but otherwise okay, and relieved to be here.
Grey and rainy a little after 1. More rain at 3.
Surprised to find some free Wi-Fi here; there never has been before. I think the govt has started providing free Wi-Fi.
Sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fairly windy all night, and several rainsqualls.
2014-01-26 (Sunday)Windy morning, then pause around 10, big squall at 11, windy again afterward.
The free Wi-Fi here is frustrating; works fine for email and (mostly) Facebook and FTP, but blocks a lot of sites, and just times out on a lot of sites (including weather sites and the local tourism site). Very strange. And it doesn't seem to work well with my Bullet adapter, but works with the GSky.
Went ashore at 2, a longish dinghy-ride into the teeth of the wind. Thought I knew where the music-festival was, and walked over to Friendship Bay. But the hotel must be further out than I thought; couldn't find it, couldn't hear any music. Great idea: have a music festival on the island, and locate it as far as possible from the main harbor. [Later, someone said I was in the wrong place completely, the hotel is on S side of main harbor. So why couldn't I hear any music from it ?] Nice walk there and back, lots of good exercise. Bought a couple of grapefruit. Lady wanted an exorbitant price for a couple of small tomatoes; skipped that.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Another windy night.
2014-01-27 (Monday)Windy again this morning. Seas 9-10 feet outside, according to the VHF forecast. [But later, Windguru said seas 6-7 feet, wind 21 gusting to 26 knots.]
Maybe the problem with the Bullet is in the POE, the little $5 power-connnector box.
Bought Wi-Fi access through Mega Network at 9 AM (US$40 for 30 days). Works a lot better than the free access, but has hiccups.
Some very strong squalls today, one around 3 PM might have been 30+ knots. I think my anchor is slipping a little; pulled in 6-8 feet of chain at one point.
Ashore in late afternoon. Went to nearest dinghy-dock, walked into town. Exchanged 2-3 books at a marine store. Bought chicken, bananas, tomato, onions. Couldn't find any loaves of bread, and when I got to a bakery, my cough got so bad that I couldn't speak.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot-cabbage and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-28 (Tuesday)I think I've been bumping aground occasionally. So at 7 AM, started engine and re-anchored, putting the anchor down alongside the aqua trimaran permanently anchored ahead of me. Put out 110+ feet of chain.
Noticed that a spoke of the steering wheel has rusted through: pic.
Fuel level 7 inches at engine hour 4871.
Ashore in early afternoon, to concrete fishing dock nearby. Put down my yoga mat in some shade and did some yoga. Walked into town. Disposed of two bags of garbage. Found some books in a marine store and exchanged 3 or 4 books. Bought a loaf of bread in the small supermarket. Sat and loafed for a little while. Back to the dock and back to the boat.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Wind blew hard most of the night.
2014-01-29 (Wednesday)Still very windy. I think my anchor might be dragging slowly; hard to tell.
Lowered the mainsail; it's just been bouncing around up there, and I wanted to check the part of the wire that goes over the top sheave (and often breaks there). Looks okay, and it is better off staying down until I'm ready to leave.
Ashore around 2, to the dock at the main veggie market. Did some yoga. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Walked down to a hotel and used their book-exchange. Bought two grapefruit and some hotdogs. Back to the boat by 3.
Definitely getting too close to the shallows. Started engine, raised anchor, put it down again by starboard bow of that permanent trimaran. Ended up laying about 10 feet too close for comfort to that monohull on my starboard side. But I think we'll be okay, especially if I slide back a little again.
Fairly big squall came through about 5 minutes after I finished anchoring.
People on boat next to me came back at 3:50, and they seemed okay with the situation. They're French, so probably used to close anchoring.
Debated whether to raise anchor and move a little, but decided that as long as the wind keeps blowing strong from E, we're okay.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
No problems during the night.
2014-01-30 (Thursday)Still windy. Anchor holding firm. Can't get Wi-Fi.
At 9:45, that boat next to me raised anchor and left the harbor.
My paid Wi-Fi not working all day; used a free, flaky signal. Irritating.
Ashore in late afternoon. Went for a walk up into the hills above town. Sat in the sports stadium for a while and watched kids practice cricket. Down into town and bought some eggs. Back to boat.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-01-31 (Friday)My paid Wi-Fi still not working.
Some interesting cruise-sailboats come in here (one from a couple of days ago, another this morning): pics.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in midafternoon. Did some yoga, to the amusement of a couple of little kids. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Went to police station to ask if pepper spray is legal in SVG (no); someone asked on Facebook. Walked down the harborfront, stopping at several book-exchanges, but exchanged only one book. Bought tomatoes, grapefruit, soda. Back to boat.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-01 (Saturday)My paid Wi-Fi is working now; maybe I was doing something wrong.
Ashore in late afternoon, to fishing dock. Did yoga, then walked up to Fort Hamilton at NW corner of the harbor, above my boat.
Grapefruit and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola and some bread-and-butter for dinner.
A sailboat came in after dark and anchored next to me.
2014-02-02 (Sunday)Feeling a bit headachey. Weather grey and rainy at 9:30.
Very windy all afternoon; didn't feel like going ashore.
Cut and swaged wire to replace one of the dinghy-hoisting wires.
Grapefruit and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-03 (Monday)Ashore in late afternoon, to main market dock. Did some yoga. Walked around doing shopping: bought grapefruit, cheese, hotdogs, cucumber, bananas, cabbage. No loaves of bread available.
After I got back to the boat, lots of wind and rain for an hour or so.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-04 (Tuesday)Cruise ship anchored in mouth of harbor: pic. Weather windy and rainy from 8:30 to 9:30, then sunny and windy.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga, then walked into town and bought a loaf of bread. Ferry dock area active, as usual: pic. Passengers from cruise ship going in and out by lifeboat: pic. And I've always been interested in this long and steep driveway for a single house way up on the hill: pic.
Salad and hotdog-onion-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-05 (Wednesday)Ashore in midafternoon to market dock. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Went for a walk up into the hills above town and down past the sports stadium.
Gave myself a haircut.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-06 (Thursday)At 8:15, up to find a sailboat has just anchored behind me, and I'm swinging over their anchor, and a guy is diving on the anchor to make sure it's set. Then the guys were off to dive/snorkel at the shoal just outside the harbor. At 10:15, they raised anchor and left.
Suddenly started raining at 1:30, and stayed grey and mostly-rainy all afternoon.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very windy evening; I think we had a few gusts up to 35 knots.
2014-02-07 (Friday)Grey and rainy morning, early. Then sunny and windy.
Was going to take propane tank ashore for refill, but it seems to still have 3/4 pound or so in it.
Ashore before noon to market dock, into stiff wind. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Did shopping: grapefruit, hotdogs, cheese, tomato, cucumber, bananas, onions.
Very windy evening again.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola and some bread-and-butter for dinner.
2014-02-08 (Saturday)Sunny and windy. Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga, then walked up to the fort.
Grapefruit and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-09 (Sunday)Big rainsquall just after noon. Strong wind at 1:15. Grey and windy.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga, then took a short walk to the edge of town. But didn't go far, because there were some kids playing on the dock and I was afraid they might mess with my dinghy. Back to the boat.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-10 (Monday)Ashore before noon to market dock, into stiff wind. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Did shopping: grapefruit, hotdogs, tomatoes, bread.
Hotdog-onion-corn-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-11 (Tuesday)Ashore in early afternoon to main dock. Took a long uphill walk to Mt Pleasant. Nice view down into the main harbor on the way: pic (red arrow points to Magnolia). Views from top were nice but don't photograph well; Mustique and other islands are just hazy green/brown blobs. Back down into town, bought bananas, back to boat. Tired.
Grapefruit (lousy) and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Added water to the batteries; they took a lot.
Anchor light I hang in the cockpit has stopped working. Can't see why; it's a sealed LED unit, the power plug has an LED that is lit, all connections look good.
2014-02-12 (Wednesday)Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock, and did some yoga.
Messed with the LED anchor light, didn't find anything wrong, started yanking at the electrical wires to take the connections apart, and one snapped off. Repaired the connection, plugged it in, works.
Grapefruit and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-13 (Thursday)Ashore in late afternoon to market dock. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Did shopping: hotdogs, cheese, pasta, soda.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-14 (Friday)Ashore in late afternoon, getting rained on a little, to fishing dock, and did some yoga. Walked into town and ran into Daniel and Brenda from "Nanook II"; had nice chat, found they've been anchored realtively close to me for 3 days, we hope to play dominoes on Sunday. Did some shopping: onions, soda, tomatoes, bananas, cucumber.
Chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-15 (Saturday)Opened up the Wi-Fi POE, and the insides are more complicated than I expected: pic. Can't find anything wrong.
Can't get any Wi-Fi, with either adapter and on multiple signals.
Ashore in very late afternoon, to fishing dock, and did some yoga, then walked up to Fort Hamilton. On the way back to the boat, stopped by "Nanook II" and chatted with them, and set a time and place for dominoes tomorrow.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-16 (Sunday)Ashore at noon to "Whaleboner" bar, which turned out to be closed for the day. Played dominoes at an outside table with Daniel and Brenda from "Nanook II", Robin from "Smart Move", and Marie. Had a nice time.
Wi-Fi mostly not working all day.
Salad and hotdog-onion-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-17 (Monday)Interesting boat: pic.
Ashore in late morning to market dock, stopping by "Nanook II" to chat for a minute. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Went for a walk up above town and down past the stadium. Did some shopping.
At 5:30, into the dinghy and across the harbor to "Smart Move". Nice evening with Barry and Robin from "Smart Move", Gary and Marie from "Mai Tai", and Daniel and Brenda from "Nanook II". Had a couple of beers, some fresh homemade chocolate-chip cookies, a little chips and dip. Left a can of nuts that I brought. Very nice conversation, pleasant, plenty of laughs. Back to my boat around 8.
Leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-02-18 (Tuesday)Reportedly there was a big earthquake near Barbados (not far from here) around 3:30 AM this morning.
My paid Wi-Fi worked perfectly for 30 minutes or so, then suddenly it's screwed up again. Frustrating. A DNS problem, I think. 5 minutes later, working again. Worked fine for 30 minutes, then got extremely slow.
Ashore in late afternoon, to fishing dock, and did some yoga, then walked up to Fort Hamilton. On the way back to the boat, stopped by "Nanook II" and chatted with them, and set a time and place for dominoes tomorrow. They told me a boat got robbed here last night: people from a charter catamaran went ashore for dinner and left the boat unlocked, and someone stole some valuable things.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-Coke for dinner.
2014-02-19 (Wednesday)Grey, rainy, very windy morning. Later sunny and very windy.
Ashore at 1 to "Whaleboner" bar to play dominoes (a bit like this). Ten people at two tables: me, Christine from "Duo", Dan and Brenda from "Nanook II", Peter and Ann from "Spice of Life", Robin from "Smart Move", Marie, Bob and Lin. Lots of fun, lots of laughs. I came in second to Dan, by 6 points. Bob said the boat-robbed story is different than was reported over the radio: a couple was sitting aboard their catamaran in the cockpit in the evening, when someone snuck in through a forward hatch and stole stuff without them noticing.
Rain set in minutes after we finished the dominoes. It stopped for a while, and I gave Christine a lift down to the beach near her boat, then went up to the market dock. Did some yoga, chatted with a guy for a while, then bought a few groceries. Had to wait out rain for 15 minutes or so, then back to the boat.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-Coke for dinner.
2014-02-20 (Thursday)Paid Wi-Fi working pretty well today.
Huge squall with strong wind and horizontal rain at 1. Then sunny.
Ashore in early afternoon, to fishing dock, and did some yoga. Chatted with a local guy, who then asked me if I wanted to donate to sponsor a child for something; there seem to be a lot of donation things going here, trying to get money from the visitors. Walked into town. To govt office to renew my visa for one more month: EC$25 (about US$10), and I have to go back to pick up my passport tomorrow morning. Stopped at supermarket and various stands, and bought hotdogs, cheese, bread, grapefruit, cabbage, tomatoes, bananas. On way back, stopped in a store and bought sausage.
Grey and lots of rain at 3:40, but not much wind.
Grapefruit and chili and a rum-and-Coke for dinner.
2014-02-21 (Friday)Ashore in midmorning, to the market dock. To the govt building, had to wait 10 minutes, got my passport back, stamped properly. Wanted to ask a couple of questions, but the officer didn't seem to be the brightest, and there was a line behind me.
Walked out of town and up to the top of the hill looking down on Friendship Bay. Sat and read a few pages of my book, walked back. Good exercise.
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her.
Grapefruit and leftover chili and a rum-and-Coke for dinner.
2014-02-22 (Saturday)Sunny and windy day. Feeling a bit headachey.
Ashore in early afternoon to the fishing dock. Did some yoga, walked into town and back.
Big powerboat came in, anchored, re-anchored, did it again several more times over next couple of hours: pic.
Hotdog-onion-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-Coke for dinner.
2014-02-23 (Sunday)Ashore at 1 to "Whaleboner" bar to play dominoes. Place wasn't open, but when they saw all of us, they opened up, and by the time we finished, the place was hopping. Nine players at two tables: me, Dan and Brenda from "Nanook II", Peter and Ann from "Spice of Life", Robin from "Smart Move", Marie, Bob and Lin. Another group of five or so people we didn't know at another table, playing too. Lots of fun, lots of laughs. I came in third overall. Right at the end, some maybe-a-bit-drunk local guitar-player came in and tried to entertain the whole place with some music and lots of boisterous we're-having-a-great-time shouting; annoying.
Went ashore at the market dock, disposed of 2 bags of garbage, did some yoga.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-02-24 (Monday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in late afternoon to the market dock. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Bought 2 gallons of gasoline for EC$28. Did some yoga. Walked down to the marine store to find out about propane refill. Always liked the picture on this shack: pic. Back to boat about 5 minutes ahead of rain.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner. Nice sausage from that store; yum.
2014-02-25 (Tuesday)Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did yoga, then walked up to Fort Hamilton at NW corner of the harbor, above my boat.
Trying to get up a dominoes game for tomorrow, but "Nanook II" has left, and "Spice of Life" is leaving tomorrow.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-02-26 (Wednesday)Paid Wi-Fi ran out around 10 AM; thought I had until tomorrow morning.
Ashore in midafternoon to the market dock, a wet ride into strong wind with a S component. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Went for a walk up above town and down past the stadium. Bought grapefruit, tomatoes, cheese, onions, soda, bananas.
Sailing cruise-ship came in around 4:30: pic.
Banana and grapefruit and chili and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-02-27 (Thursday)Big fuel-slick around my boat in early afternoon, but as far as I can tell it's not coming from me. I'm at the downwind end of the harbor; could have come from anywhere upwind.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did yoga, then walked up to small grocery store and bought another 3 pounds of that sausage. I really like it, although it's almost a little too spicy, and won't find anything like it again until I get back to Grenada.
Found a leak on the dinghy's bow tube and put a patch on it.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-02-28 (Friday)Ashore in early afternoon, to market dock. Wasn't until I got ashore that I noticed the cruise ship, anchored outside the harbor and around a hill from my boat.
Walked up the hill above town, and then up more and around into the area called "Cinnamon Garden". Lots of exercise. Followed sign that said "Top Level". Nice little neighborhood with a view down into the mouth of the harbor. Did a loop around the neighborhood and out, then more uphill as I went more along the spine of the island. Went up a very steep stretch of road to the harbor side, but houses are blocking any view. Road along the spine turns into a rutted track through woods, so I stopped at that point. Came back down and down, with a view of the windward side of the island, then across above town and down past the stadium. Lots of kids in the stands, but no events happening on the field at the moment. Various pictures taken along the way: pics.
Down into town. Bought bread and toothpaste. Back out to the boat. My legs are tired.
Salad and sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-01 (Saturday)Very strong wind blasting through around 2.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Frequent light rain, all night long.
2014-03-02 (Sunday)Grey and windy and frequent light rain. Finally got some sunshine starting around 11.
Ashore in early evening, to market dock. Did some yoga. Took a short walk through town.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-03 (Monday)Lots of boats leaving this morning; conditions are lighter, seas lower, than they've been in a while.
Online, booked my flights from Philly to Barcelona; I'll be spending about 2 months in Barcelona again this year, in May and June. Got the same ticket price as last year, but now both directions are nonstops.
Hoisted the jib, using the eye on the sail fabric instead of the eye on the wire in the luff. I need to get the fabric to slide up the remaining 6 inches or so on the wire, and haven't been able to do it on deck. So I hosted the sail and left it up there for a while, hoping the pull on the wire at the bottom and the sail fabric at the top would generate some movement. Brought it down, don't think I gained more than an inch. Lashed a rope on to keep eye of fabric up near eye of wire.
Ashore in late afternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga. Took a very short walk.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and buttered bread and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-04 (Tuesday)Ashore around 11, to market dock. Did some yoga. To govt building, and paid EC$35 for another month of cruising permit; should have done that when I extended my visa. Bought a trinket at a stand. Usual grapefruit vendor isn't here today. Into grocery store and bought EC$100 of food. To fruit stand and bought EC$15 of fruit and veg. Back to the boat.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-05 (Wednesday)Headache in the early AM; took an ibuprofen. Took another at 7 AM.
Online, after a fair amount of struggle, booked my flights between Grenada and Philly, in mid-April and early July. A relief to have all the flights booked, Grenada - Philly - Barcelona.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga. Stopped at marine store, asked about propane, used book-exchange. Walked behind town and up to hill behind it, and down past the stadium. Saw this van on a street two back from the waterfront: pic. Back to the dock, stopping at various stands but not buying anything. Back to the boat.
Took an ibuprofen before dinner.
Added water to batteries; they took a lot.
Salad and leftover chili for dinner.
2014-03-06 (Thursday)Still a bit headachey. Took a paracetamol.
Felt tired and achey all day; didn't go ashore. Took another paracetamol in late afternoon.
Sausage-onion-corn-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction for dinner.
2014-03-07 (Friday)Headache gone.
Once again, fully intended to take the propane tank ashore this morning to get it refilled. And once again, untied it and shook it, and seems like there's still a fair amount in there. Lashed it down again.
Ashore at 11, to market dock. Did some yoga. Had a lovely long conversation with an English couple visiting the island; they've stayed a couple of weeks here before, also Barbados, St Lucia, Grenada. Nice conversation about all kinds of things.
Looked for grapefruit but didn't find any. Into grocery store for hotdogs, pasta, eggs, bread. Back to boat.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-08 (Saturday)Grey, slightly rainy morning, then sunny.
Put a new sheave on the jib-furling line, where it comes into the cockpit.
At 12:20, saw something I haven't seen before. Heard some yelling, went on deck to see, and a guy anchored off my starboard aft quarter was yelling to a big charter catamaran that was thinking of anchoring ahead of him. Nothing new about that, and I didn't see why he was concerned; they were well ahead of him. Maybe he was worried they would end up swinging over top of his anchor, and he wants to leave soon ? Anyway, the new thing was that the guy was on the bow with a handheld radio and holding up a wooden placard with a radio channel on it (looked like "8", but maybe it was "68"). Never seen that before. The catamaran immediately veered off and went to the other side of the harbor.
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her, and then the connection dropped suddenly.
Ashore in midafternoon, to market dock. Did some yoga. Walked up the loop above town, then took a side-trip up to "Upper Hope". View down into town/harbor: pic. Houses near top: pic. Jeep at a house: pic. Got a lot of exercise. Down into town, to grocery store, bought chicken. To a stand, bought carrots and grapefruit.
Grapefruit and chicken-onion-rice-carrot-cabbage and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Fairly still night and I felt headachey; didn't sleep well.
2014-03-09 (Sunday)Headachey; took an ibuprofen at 6 AM.
Hoisted the mainsail.
Didn't feel like going ashore today, so didn't. Very grey and some rain several times in the afternoon.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-10 (Monday)Weather forecast seems to be changing frequently; hard to plan. Was supposed to be very light wind today, now says a period of very light wind tomorrow instead. I wanted to hoist the jib and unfurl/furl it a couple of times, maybe raise anchor and move to another spot.
Big sloop "Twilight" anchored in the middle of the harbor: pic. 125 feet long, according to this.
Ashore in midafternoon, to market dock. Did some yoga. Walked up the loop above town and down past the stadium. Hot. Groceries: butter, onions, soda, tomato, bananas, cabbage.
Wi-Fi pretty bad today; frustrating.
Wind lighter in late afternoon. Hoisted the jib. Took a while to get it under control and sorted out.
Salad and spaghetti (but had to use elbow macaroni) and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-11 (Tuesday)Trying to decide whether to go down to Canouan today. Online, finally got a weather forecast, says wind 10-11 today. Decided to go tomorrow.
Added water to the batteries, stowed stuff in the engine compartment, strapped down tops on the battery boxes, started charging the starting battery.
Ashore in midafternoon, to fishing dock. Did some yoga. Walked up to Fort Hamilton. Chatted with a local guy.
Out to the boat. The wind, instead of weakening as forecast, has strengthened a little. And the jib has started to unfurl itself about 3/4 of the way up, making a big pouch and flogging badly in the wind. Onto the boat and struggle to bring it down, since the brakes on the halyard winches stick and have to be banged on (I've tried to fix that a number of times). Got the jib down.
Around 4:30, shut off the wind-generator because system voltage was getting too high, and it shut down very roughly, shuddering. Not good.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still night; I guess the wind-lull came later than I expected.
Wind started up around 3 AM. And the wind-generator is rumbling as if the front bearing is failing yet again. Sigh. This is becoming an annual thing.
2014-03-12 (Wednesday)On deck, stowing things to leave, and I see a big bird perched on the top of the mainmast. So that's why the deck has been getting splattered the last couple of days. Shook the rigging violently to get rid of the bird, which usually works, but this is a pretty big bird, and it just flaps and stays. Finally I give up.
Engine start at 6:30. A bit of a grinding noise as it idles, which is alarming. Can't see anything spurting or rubbing or wrong. Decide to keep going. Put engine in gear, and lots of rumbling from the cutless bearing; it gets gunked up with barnacles and stuff if I stay somewhere for a while.
Anchor up by 6:40, in light air, which is good because I have to go close to that trimaran on my port bow, and then make sure once I'm free I don't drift into the sloop on my starboard side. I let the light wind ease me back as I stow the anchor. Into gear, more rumbling from the stern tube, but the boat moves okay. Thread my way out.
At 6:50, round up and raise sails. Mainsail is easy, just unfurl it. Jib has to be hoisted, starts flogging a bit because it's partly unfurled, then I unfurl the rest of it. Finally get everything set well, start motor-sailing toward the SW corner of the island. Light wind directly from the stern. A couple of tall-ship types boats coming in as I leave. At 7, I look up, and the bird on the mast is gone. I think the commotion of raising the jib got rid of him.
At 7:35, I round the SW corner of Bequia. A little further, GPS beeps some alarm a couple of times; maybe RADAR at the airport is affecting it ?
At 7:45, engine off and start sailing. Making a little less than 3 knots, I think. Very small swells, but plenty of them. Wind maybe ESE 10-12 knots, seas from E maybe 2-3 feet.
While sailing, I can hear some squeaking and grinding in the cutless bearing. Might need to replace it. Last replaced 5/2006.
Around 9:30, the wind sags for a while. Then strengthens again around 10.
Lots of boats spread around the horizon, and a few going my direction. I lay back in the cockpit for 5 minutes to rest, look up, and out of my blind spot (where the jib is), a fairly big catamaran appears, close and going the other direction. A guy aboard points at me and yells something as we pass about 200 feet apart. Probably saying they're on starboard tack, I'm on port tack, so he has right of way. Okay, my bad for not keeping a better eye out. But I'm doing 3 knots, they're doing 10 knots, plenty of open water here. Easy for them to go around me. Maybe my boat, which is steering itself by sail balance, ticked a bit to starboard and irritated them ?
More and more boats out today; sails everywhere.
Seas bigger as I approach Canouan; a bit rolly. Several boats overtaking me from the Mustique direction as we all converge on the NW corner of the island. And a small freighter or ferry coming the opposite way, passing me about 300 feet away.
Stern tube / cutless bearing not sounding so bad now ?
At 11:50, into shelter of the NW corner of Canouan. Nice to get out of the rolling. But soon the wind is fluky, often from dead astern, sometimes gusting. Low grey clouds passing over. At noon, I start the engine.
The wind goes dead, I think of furling sails, the wind starts blasting. It moderates a bit, I furl the mainsail. Get the jib down without too much ugliness, except every time I spend 30 seconds on the foredeck, the boat turns directly toward shore, and I'm not far off the shore. But the jib-furling just isn't working any more; parts of the sail are rotating around the wire, parts aren't, it's a mess.
Past a couple of anchored megayachts; the bigger, blue one is "Seadream Yacht Club".
Into the anchorage, with a sailboat motoring up my stern and threatening to pass me, but then they exercise a little patience and ease off. Up to my usual spot at the N end, anchor down by 12:40 at Charlestown Bay, Canouan, St Vincent and Grenadines.
So, about 21 NM in 6 hours, average 3.5 knots. And pics.
As usual, no free Wi-Fi here, not even SVG govt Wi-Fi.
Lots of grey clouds coming over, frequent very light rainsprinkles. Wish it would rainand get it over with, so I can open up the boat. It's hot from running the engine.
While lashing the mainsail, I notice that bird got a lot of droppings on my solar panels, which may explain why I wasn't getting a lot of power from them as I sailed. I checked them for exactly that yesterday; the bird must have gotten them last night. Up onto the pilothouse roof and clean them off.
At 2:45, wind is howling through from the N, and my anchor is dragging. I'm starting to swing over a mooring ball behind me. Then plenty of rain, horizontal and very small drops.
Rain stopped, wind eased a bit. Started engine at 3:15, raised anchor and moved forward, done by 3:30.
Leftover chicken-rice and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Camera battery seems totally drained, and camera behaving strangely. Got the pictures out of it and started charging the battery.
Feeling tired; went to bed very early.
Lots of gusty wind during the night; I'm in a bit of a wind-funnel here, and the wind outside is supposed to be up to 18-19 knots or so. Wind-generator sounding pretty bad at times.
2014-03-13 (Thursday)In midafternoon, launched the dinghy and pumped up the tubes. Went down the anchorage to the Moorings dock. Nice chat there with Tony from a blue-hulled sloop. Ashore, the place is hot and quiet and almost deserted. Went to the veranda of the dive shop and did some yoga (pic). Camera has lost all its settings; have to figure them out again.
Walked out to the main road and headed SW. Stopped in 3 or 4 shops and markets, bought bread and tomatoes and spaghetti. No bananas of the kind I want. Down to The Mangroves restaurant (saw model boat: pic) and back. Hot. Stopped in the Tamarind hotel and used the book-exchange; traded 2 books. Back to the boat. (Tony had referred to his boat as the blue-hulled racing boat. I see what he meant: about 50-foot sloop with three-spreader mast with a bend to it. Probably a fast boat.)
Still no free Wi-Fi here.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-14 (Friday)Listened to Grenada cruiser's net to get the weather forecast; forgot to do that yesterday.
After lunch, ashore to the Moorings dock. Did some yoga, then set off to walk the loop around the middle of the island. Made a bit of a wrong turn at the start, and went around the opposite direction I intended. Hot, and it starts off with a tough uphill slog. Levels off a bit, somewhat, and I walk along the anchorage. Have to go pretty far before there's any decent view of the anchorage. Pics.
Get to the N end, which is occupied by a guarded and gated resort (pics). Turns out that both of my maps, and a local lady here who I asked, are a bit wrong; the road dead-ends and I don't see a way to "loop" without getting into the resort and maybe climbing a hill-trail out of it. Nice views from a high roundabout at the end of the public road. Hot slog back to town. The goats are smarter than me, they shelter on the shady side of the church in the midday heat: pic.
Tired and headachey. Laid down for a while. Later, took a paracetamol.
In late afternoon, went snorkeling under the boat and scraped hull and prop a bit. Nice to be in the water.
Leftover chili and bread-and-butter for dinner.
Tired; to bed early.
Very loud music from the far, downwind, town end of the harbor all night long. It was fairly low, and only bass, where I was, and didn't bother me. Started as two competing sources, noticed one still going at 1:45 AM, all quiet at 4 AM. You couldn't pay me enough to live ashore down there.
2014-03-15 (Saturday)A little headachey. Added about a pint of oil to the engine. Engine start at 6:55, anchor up, out and rounded up to unfurl the mainsail. Motor-sailed out to SW, with wind almost dead astern, and swell from N rolling me.
Around the SW tip of Canouan, and headed for Mayreau. Wind and swells more on beam at first, then changing back to astern as I neared Mayreau. Around the W side, past the anchorage, across bow of anchored "SeaDream Yacht Club", headed for Union Island. Slower, rougher slog across E end of Union.
Rounded up in the mouth of the harbor, tried to furl the mainsail. The outhaul got caught at the end of the boom, a couple of different ways, and it took me a while to sort it out. Meanwhile, a local guy in a skiff kept circling, wanting to put me on a mooring, and a charter sailboat passed much too close behind my stern as I drifted backward. Finally got it done, headed in, and another local skiff had his motor stall as he was right in front of me. Anchor down by 9:15 at Clifton, Union Island, St Vincent and Grenadines.
A few pictures taken along the way: pics.
No free Wi-Fi here at the moment; bummer.
Headache. Went to bed. Up after noon, took a sumatriptan, had lunch, back to bed.
Head felt better by midafternoon, but I still feel sub-par.
Salad and hotdog-onion-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Quiet night. Wind suddenly increased around 10 PM, and kept going all night.
Strange: wind-generator seems to be running pretty normally again, doesn't sound very rough or shudder horribly when shut down. Maybe there was some crunchy bit in the bearing that has been ground down now ? I think the bearing still isn't quite right; generator makes lower-pitched noise than it should.
2014-03-16 (Sunday)Grey, breezey morning. Rain at 8:15.
Still no free Wi-Fi. Last time I was here, there was occasional free Wi-Fi. Sux.
Very grey and lots of wind at 10:45, and I'm just one boat-length directly ahead of a boat which came in after me and put the anchor down next to me. Not a comfortable situation, but my anchor seems to be holding, as it should in 10-foot water with more than 110 feet of chain out. And the wind probably is only 25 knots.
Stayed grey and windy all day, and got fairly cool.
Salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-17 (Monday)Listened to the beginning of the Grenada cruiser's net. As usual, George grousing about someone doing something he doesn't like (removing beach sand ?). Then the weather forecast: E 15-20 all week, occasionally some 25, seas 4-6 today building to 5-7 feet starting tomorrow. Rougher than I'd like, but I have only a short hop across to Carriacou to do. To get timing of visas and cruising permits right, I'll probably do it on Wednesday. [Later, I realized timing doesn't matter, Grenada gives 3-month visa when you enter. I had been thinking it was only 1 month.]
Still grey and windy and sometimes rainy, and no free Wi-Fi.
Ashore around 10:30, to Yacht Club dock. Disposed of two bags of garbage. Exchanged a book at Erica's. Did some yoga.
Then hiked up to top of Fort Hill, above the airport. A stiff uphill hike, with no flat parts. Got lots of exercise. First third was on a one-lane road paved on just the tire-tracks, and a van kept going up past me and then having to reverse back past me when it came face-to-face with descending traffic. Passed a group of four tourists/cruisers who were coming down from the top.
Terrific views from the top, in all directions. I can see my boat, and the sloop that was too close behind has left while I was ashore. Two cannon up here, and mounts for several more. Two gazebos and several picnic tables. Pics.
Coming down, passed a cruiser/tourist guy going up, with a backpack and water, puffing.
Into town, and did some shopping. Bought cheese, onions, tomatoes, bananas, grapefruit, bread. Back to the dinghy and out to the boat, into stiff wind and chop.
Grapefruit and salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Windy all night.
2014-03-18 (Tuesday)Listened to the beginning of the Grenada cruiser's net. As usual, George grousing about something (Norwegian boat on one of his old moorings without paying him). Then the weather forecast: E 15-20 all week, seas 4-6 today and then building. I think I'll leave today.
Added a little water to the batteries.
Dinghied ashore around 8:30. Disposed of a bag of garbage, did some yoga. Walked to the airport and checked out. Back to the boat.
Engine start at 9:40. Struggled a little with the anchor, because the wind was blowing the bow to one side or the other so quickly. Got it up, went out, rounded up, got mainsail unfurled. Motor-sailed SW toward Carriacou.
At first, seas mostly on the beam, wind a little behind the beam, fairly rolly. But most seas not as big as I expected. As I neared N tip of Carriacou, seas more on the stern. Easy hop across, then further down in the shelter of the island. Engine running slightly hotter than usual, close to 190F. Passed W of Sandy Island, and rounded W end of Carriacou. Managed to catch a wind-shadow of a big hill, and furled the mainsail without any trouble. Up into harbor, nosed very close to the beach, anchor down by 12:10 at Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou.
Took my time getting settled and having lunch, before closing up and launching the dinghy and heading to the officials around 12:40. Waved to Richard on "Odyssey", anchored a bit behind me. To the officials, and the office is closed for lunch. Only had to wait 10 minutes for them to open. Checked in (EC$83.10). Back to boat. And "Odyssey" is gone ! That was quick.
Struggled to get a Wi-Fi connection, but finally switched adapters and got a connection. Had to move laptop up into the cockpit, and even there it was very unreliable.
The wine-selling guy came by, as usual every time I arrive here. A couple of local guys stopped by to invite me to a new floating bar, which looks nearby and with music starting at 7; not what I wanted to hear. Jonathan from "Hedonist" stopped by to say hi; we met a while ago, forgot each other's names, but it was nice to see him again.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Surprisingly uncomfortable night. No wind at all until 1 AM or so, and boat pretty rolly at times. Then the wind was fluky but had a lot of N in it, often holding me mostly parallel to the beach, and very rolly at times.
2014-03-19 (Wednesday)Ashore at 2 to Slipways restaurant to play dominoes. Nice to see some people I've met before. Played with Bob and Debbie, Gordon and Judy. Mike watching, and 5 people playing at an adjoining table. Nice conversation. I was in contention at the halfway point, despite some difficult hands, then had a series of disastrous hands and came in 3rd, I think. Chatted afterward, then did a little yoga on the beach.
Coming back to the boat, saw that the VHF antenna on the mizzenmast has a broken mounting, and is hanging on by the cable. Don't know how long it's been that way.
Chili and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
A bit rolly during the night, but not as bad as last night.
2014-03-20 (Thursday)Skype-called Mom and chatted with her briefly.
In midafternoon, climbed the mizzenmast and fixed the VHF antenna. I had cleverly mounted it to the remains of the base from the old antenna; now the upright part of that base has snapped off. So I wired the antenna onto the remainder of the old base and some rigging, using three pieces of SS seizing-wire.
Feeling achey and headachey from too much computer use; took an ibuprofen.
Salad and leftover chili and a light rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-21 (Friday)Ashore in early afternoon, to the ferry dock. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did some yoga in the shade near the base of the dock, to the amusement of several local guys and a little kid. To the grocery store and bought several items. Back to the boat. Hot.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner. Propane really is running low now; maybe I'll get one more meal out of it.
Suddenly, wind-generator is running roughly again.
2014-03-22 (Saturday)Fuel freighter is here this morning, filling up the island's gas and diesel tanks.
Went ashore before noon to ferry dock. Did some yoga. Was going to take a walk, but it's hot, and the veggie-lady right here has everything I want to buy. Bought fruit and veg and back to the boat.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-23 (Sunday)Ordered a bunch of stuff online, on EBay and Amazon, to be delivered to NJ. Books, socks, MP3 players and earbuds, gifts for my lady in Barcelona, 12v fans.
Never managed to get ashore; lazy.
Salad and hotdog-onion-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Very still night, and a bit rolly.
2014-03-24 (Monday)Planning to do the trip down to Grenada tomorrow.
Went ashore before noon to ferry dock. Did some yoga. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Walked N, up the rise, to the place where you can see Sandy Island and Union Island. Bought grapefruit and a tomato from a veggie-lady.
Back in the dinghy, couldn't get the outboard into gear. It's been a bit balky, and I'd been guessing the problem was in the starter-interlock. But now I took the cowling off, and the problem must be in the lower unit, bad news. Took quite a bit of futzing before I could get it into gear.
Switched jib sheets, to put the good one on the starboard side for tomorrow. Added a little water to the batteries.
In midafternoon, snorkeled under the boat and scraped.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
2014-03-25 (Tuesday)Up before 6. Checked the weather forecast online. Wind maybe a little light today, will be maybe 1 knot stronger tomorrow, but I'm going today.
Engine start at 6:30. Anchor up by 6:40. Motored out through the anchorage, rounded up, unfurled mainsail, and struggled to get the jib up. Finally done by 7, with top 1/10th of jib still wrapped. It'll have to do.
Motored out, dead downwind, grey clouds hovering overhead and almost no wind. Turned the corner of the island, started getting some wind and swells. Started out into open water, and there's plenty of wind.
Rough but reasonably fast passage across the first half of gap between Carriaocu and Grenada. Wind on the beam, most seas also on the beam, so rolly. Kept motor-sailing. Across a couple of tidal rips, which are worrying because they look a lot like surf on a reef, just well out from any land, where there's no reef. Probably an undersea ridge, 40-50 feet deep, and there are strong currents here.
Heard start of Grenada cruiser's net, and a body has been found floating in Prickly Bay this morning. Probably a cruiser off a dinghy; police have just arrived.
Past a couple of local guys on a small converted sloop, fishing. I went close to them because I couldn't figure what the boat was doing, and wondered if it was in distress. Tried to take a picture, but looks like my camera needs a new battery. [Turns out I did get a picture: pic.]
Surprised that almost no one else is out here today. Two cruising sailboats well off to the W, and that's it.
Second half of the gap-passage a little less rolly and rough, but a little less wind, too. Down to Bird Island by 9:30.
Engine off at 9:35, and sailing. Lost only 1/2 or 3/4 knot; probably could have sailed across the gap, too. Still quite rolly, and wind sometimes lighter, sometimes stronger.
Down E side of Grenada, slowly turning more SW, swells still big and on beam and from astern.
11:45, I can see two sailboats well N of me, catching up to me.
Turning more SW and W, boat getting harder to control as wind and swells are more astern. At noon, started engine and started motor-sailing again.
Catamaran motoring up from the W got to the harbor entrance just ahead of me. Fine with me; I need time and room to take down the sails. In and rounded up, furled the mainsail pretty easily, and then the jib furled in smoothly and easily, no problem at all ! I'm amazed.
Motored up to N end of the small harbor, anchor down by 12:50 at St David's Harbour, Grenada.
Some free Wi-Fi here ! But my email doesn't work properly through the connection; strange. Ordered a new camera battery for delivery to NJ.
Since I anchored, wind has circled a bit and then flipped completely, and now a small sloop is directly behind me, and too close for comfort. So at 3:50, started engine, re-anchored.
Took down the jib, since I don't plan to use it tomorrow, and don't want it to unfurl partially by itself.
Salad and hotdog-onion-mushroom-macaroni-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietCoke for dinner.
Quiet night, but rolly at times.
2014-03-26 (Wednesday)Online, confirmed that a cruiser was found dead in the water in Prickly Bay yesterday morning, but I don't know who it was. [Later heard: boat name is "La Benoit", they're from Montreal, and the man who died "was extremely scared of water and couldn't swim".]
Early lunch, then engine start at 11:40. Got the anchor up, while on a muddy lee shore, with wind stronger than I expected. (Forgot to check the weather forecast this morning, not that it mattered, I was going anyway.) Motored up to the windward side of the anchorage and unfurled the mainsail. Motored out, and into the storm !
Not really. Nominally mild conditions (E 15-17 wind, seas E 4 feet), and I'm going W, downwind and down-swell. But it's very rough; there's much more SE in the swells than I expected, and I think they're more like 5 feet. Constantly rolling the boat, and slewing the stern around to keep me beam onto the swells. I can't turn more downwind for quite a while, because ahead some peninsulas jut out to the S, with shoals S of them. If I ease the mainsail out quite a bit, I catch more wind but get less steadying against the rolling.
Another boat heading W, further out than me, and probably sailing. Found out later it is "The Dove". A catamaran heading E, upwind to St David's, both sails up and motoring, and still having a tough time, pitching and rolling.
Rough and rolly, and making progress. Then a huge wave slams into the port side, sends a sheet of water 20 feet high, some of it drenching me through the opening in the port side of the pilothouse, much of it landing on top of the pilothouse roof. I can't recall that ever happening before.
Got past Point Fort Jeudy, and wind and seas eased a bit. Tough time spotting the markers off Clarkes Court Bay, but got them, and soon was able to turn more down-swell and start heading in. A bit of anxiety before I could pick out the markers in front of Hog Island, then saw them, got to them and turned left, and now I'm out of the seas and behind a reef. Into Mt Hartman Bay, rounded up and furled the mainsail (took a while, since part of the furling line has shed its braided outer layer).
Over to the lee side of the anchorage, near the marina, and anchor down by 1:10 at Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada. I haven't anchored over here; I'm trying this now to see if I can get some wind for the wind-generator, and a short paddle to the marina if my outboard proves troublesome.
Bummer; no free Wi-Fi.
Launched the dinghy, pumped up the tubes. Untied the propane tank from the stern of the boat, but it STILL has some liquid in it, so put it back. Started the outboard, and it went into gear easily.
Ashore to the marina and said hi to a couple of people. Went for a nice walk, and saw a couple more people I've met before. Back to the marina, into the office, and the guy recognized me right away and handed me my Christmas package from my lady in Spain. He had to pay EC$5.75 (about US$2.50) to get it, but told me not to bother about the money. A slip inside the package says it was picked up Feb 19, and it was sent Nov 30, so that's about 2.5 months from Spain to here.
Back to the boat. The Christmas package is very nice, candies and a Christmas hat and a belt and a nice card and a Christmas-tree ornament: pic. Looks like Customs (on one end or the other) opened the candy boxes to check them.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover mac-and-cheese concoction and a rum-and-cherryjuice for dinner.
Some bugs swarming inside the pilothouse, attracted by the light, I think. Swatted some of them.
Quiet night, slightly rolly a few times. Just enough rain to wash off the boat a bit.
2014-03-27 (Thursday)Some nice houses directly behind me: pics.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in late afternoon for a walk. Outboard gear-shifting still a bit balky.
Wasn't sure earlier, but now I am: "Merlin" is gone ! Dave the conspiracy-nut was holed up aboard it, anchored in extreme NE corner of the anchorage, for years. [Later heard he left for St Thomas because his passport was expiring. Also his boat-registration expired a while ago, and some people suspect he never paid the official fees here in Grenada.]
Took down the mainsail. As usual, the halyard winch brake was sticky, so I tapped it with the winch handle. Unusually, the brake released completely and zip, the sail came down almost all the way in one rush. Could have been bad if the heavy swivel at the top landed on the solar panels. One loop of the sail went over the side, but didn't reach the water.
Some bugs swarming inside the pilothouse in evening, attracted by the light. Slaughtered them.
Grapefruit and spaghetti and a rum-and-cherryjuice for dinner. Several lovely chocolate truffles from Spain for dessert.
2014-03-28 (Friday)Ashore for shopping bus at 9:30. Nice to meet people I know. Out at the bank, walked to Scotiabank to use ATM (checked for counterfeit EC$100 bills), walked to IGA. Got a ton of groceries (new discount card not arrived after 4 months; old one still works), chatted with Mirelle and others. To Marketing Board, to CK's, back to boat by noon. Had trouble starting the outboard; I think the kill-switch had gotten jostled to on.
Someone told me the body found in Pricky Bay on Monday morning was a cruiser from a Canadian boat. Husband missing since Sunday night, wife was on board wondering where he was. Dinghy was found in gear and run out of gas.
Ashore after 1 to the marina bar to do Wi-Fi. Email still not working right; must be an email or browser issue, not a connection issue.
Online, couldn't find any info about the gear-shift problem I'm having with my Tohatsu 6 outboard. Guess I'll try changing the gear-oil (maybe it's leaked out or something). Looked through the service manual yesterday, and there's a procedure for adjusting the shift lever, but it mentions some part I couldn't identify (drive shaft housing grommet), and I don't think I'm having that problem anyway because I have problems shifting into either forward or reverse, not just one of them.
At 2:30 or so, cruisers starting an acoustic jam session and sing-along; nice.
Started gathering info for my income tax return.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-cherryjuice for dinner. Several lovely chocolate truffles from Spain for dessert.
2014-03-29 (Saturday)Grey, damp, rainy morning. Headachey; took an ibuprofen.
Sunnier by 10 or so. But solar controller not working properly. Bypassed it, still don't think I'm getting the readings I should. Messed with it several more times during the day, but no luck. Fortunately, it's a windy day, so the wind-generator is giving me power.
Ashore in late afternoon, to take a walk.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Several lovely chocolate truffles from Spain for dessert.
Motion-detector is flashing low-battery. Starting to seem like everything on the boat is broken (but the engine, mainsail, hull are okay). And I'm being lazy and not working on any of it.
2014-03-30 (Sunday)Messed with the solar wiring some more. Took out the big fuse, tested it, no problem, put it back in, and suddenly I'm getting solar power ! Maybe a loose connection ? Still bypassing the controller, but now I know at least one of the solar panels is okay.
Looked in the cockpit lockers to find outboard gear oil, and found a mess. Looks like a jug of bilge-cleaner leaked and mostly drained, then dried, forming a hard cakey mass. Dumped the last couple of inches of cleaner into the bilge, scraped off some of the mess, decided the rest of it wasn't hurting anything. Found the gear oil in a deck-box on the stern.
Turned off the solar bypass switch, and the solar controller and charging are working fine now. One problem off the list.
Changed the outboard's gear oil. An awkward operation: leaving the dinghy hoisted on the davits, I lower the swim platform below it, squeeze down the boarding ladder between boat stern and dinghy side, and sit on the platform with tools and paper towels and trash-bucket and supplies next to me. Reach out over the water and work on two short bolts in the side of the outboard's lower unit; don't want to drop them into the water. Get the lower bolt out, hold a jar underneath the outboard skeg to catch the oil. Get the upper bolt out, and oil flows more freely. Really need four hands to do this well. And I never have figured out how to refill the oil properly: you're supposed to pump it in upwards, through the lower hole, then fasten the upper hole when full, then fasten the lower hole. I don't have enough hands or easy enough access to do that, or a good enough seal on the spout into the lower hole, and usually most of the oil just runs right back out while I'm fumbling with the upper bolt. So I just drain the oil, close the lower hole, and fill through the upper hole, giving time for air to bubble out.
Worked well today; no problems. No water in the old oil. Not sure if it was low (there's no good way to tell), but I don't think so. We'll see if the shifting problem is affected.
Stowed the sails down in the main cabin.
Ashore at 12:45 to do Wi-Fi and dominoes. Chatted with John and Janet from "Ventoso".
At 2, only two others for dominoes: Larry and Diane from "The Dove". I had pretty amazing luck (as well as some skill), and Larry got a bit grumpy about it, so the game wasn't as much fun as usual.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-03-31 (Monday)Ashore at 8, and walked over to Prickly Bay Marina for a yoga class at 8:30.
Then at 9:30, started helping with a book-sorting project, the main reason I came over here. Turns out someone in Scotland donated three HUGE pallets of books to the people of Grenada, and they've been stuck in Customs for a while. Customs has been demanding that someone pay tax on it, and no one was willing. So Darren, the manager of the marina, decided to pay it, and now we're going to sort through the books so some can be thrown away, some donated to schools, some sent to the library.
A huge job, bigger than I expected. Probably 15 of us sorting, another 5 packing the outgoing boxes. Pic (and this was us just getting started, the whole thing expanded). The incoming boxes are sprinkled inside and out with cockroach-droppings, and the lower parts of the stacks have some big, live cockroaches hiding in them. Some of the books are damaged or about useless or outmoded subjects, and we throw them away. The rest get sorted into about 20 categories, with a lot of judgement calls going on. I see half a dozen books I'd like to take myself, and some people are taking a few books, but I resist the temptation.
By noon, I've had enough, I'm hot and tired and footsore and hungry and got too much sun. We're probably only halfway done, but I'm out of here. Back to Secret Harbour and back to the boat.
Made a good start on my income taxes. Need a few more numbers.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Last of the chocolate truffles for dessert.
2014-04-01 (Tuesday)Windy day. Ashore at 1 to do Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi very balky at first, had to get the guy to switch me to a different network.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still night. Why is the wind like this ? Windy all day, while I also have solar power. Then at night, when the solar is gone and I'd really like some wind power, no wind. At dawn, the sun and wind will come up at the same time.
2014-04-02 (Wednesday)Ashore in early afternoon, to do yoga and take a walk. Hot. Outboard gear-shift was very balky afterward; got stuck in reverse and took a long time to get it free.
Worked on finding leaks in the dinghy-tubes. Pumped up the bow and port tubes extra-hard and drenched them with soapy water. Didn't see anything at first, then found two leaks. Finished, started hoisting the dinghy, and saw two more leaks bubbling up. Pics. I guess the fabric is getting porous, and patching is no longer going to work, some kind of general sealing will be necessary. I think this dinghy is about 20 years old.
Celery and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still night, with some rolling.
2014-04-03 (Thursday)Ashore after 8, and walked over to Prickly Bay Marina for a yoga class at 8:30. Then at 9:30, helped with the book-sorting project again. Gave a small donation to Darren, to help with the Customs fees. Grabbed 3 nice books for myself during the sorting. Pic (almost finished; pallets at right are most of the result). Apparently some govt ministers and such are coming this afternoon to view the results and say some nice words. Finished it up, and back to the boat by 11:30.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-04 (Friday)Ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. To ACE Hardware and then Budget for dinghy-sealant ingredients, but no luck on the paint. And it would seem to make more sense to use 4000UV (flexible, UV-resistant) instead of 5200, except fine print on the 4000UV says "don't use with polyurethane". Guess I'll have to look online.
Long, slow trip with lots of waiting. Groceries at IGA, stop at Marketing Board, stop at CK's. Back to the boat by 1.
Huge catamaran arrived in late afternoon: pic.
Went ashore for a walk.
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot-cabbage and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-05 (Saturday)Ashore in late morning, for yoga and a walk. Back at the dinghy dock, got the outboard into reverse briefly, then futzed with it for 5 minutes as it wouldn't go into any gear. Eventually got it into reverse, so reversed halfway back to the boat. When I had finished the upwind leg, and could paddle home, tried the gearshift and got it into forward.
Did a small bucket of laundry.
Back ashore at 1:30 to do Wi-Fi. Started filing my income tax returns online. Interesting: tax preparation site was able to import PDF of last year's return (done through a different site) and grab info from it. Site asked if I had health insurance. Put in the data and e-filed my fed and state returns (only cost $13 to the preparation site). Will have to wait a few days to see if the returns are "accepted" by the govts. [Federal return was "accepted" within half an hour.]
Skype-called Mom and chatted with her briefly.
Into the dinghy, got it into reverse, and let it run in that gear for a while. Then got it into forward without too much trouble.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-06 (Sunday)Sunny morning, then grey setting in. Starting at 9:45, wind howling from SE, and there's a rocky lee shore 50-60 feet behind me. Got the engine ready to start, but I'm sure the anchor will hold. Light rain starting at 10:15, then grey and heavier rain starting at 11:15. More at 12:15.
Ashore at 2 to do Wi-Fi and play dominoes. Nice game with Daniel and Brenda. I made a lot of mistakes at the beginning, then got focused and also luck kicked in, and I won going away.
Online, NJ tax return accepted by NJ.
Salad and sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-07 (Monday)Windy morning, then grey later. Was going to work on the outboard, but I developed a headache. Took an ibuprofen and a nap. Felt bad until 2 or so.
Ashore in late afternoon to take a walk.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-08 (Tuesday)Hauled the outboard up onto the stern deck. Had planned to hang it upright from the mizzen-boom so I could work on it, but there's no lift-ring on top of the power-head. Tried rigging a rope-sling, but it's top-heavy, so that resulted in a precarious situation, not hanging straight, dangerous pendulum as the boat rocks. Thought of running a 2x4 somewhere as a clamp-stand, but there's no convenient place on deck at the right height, and I don't seem to have any 2x4s aboard any more (had a lot a few years ago, when I had to take the transmission out).
Did what I could on the outboard: greased the grease-points, and greased and loosened the half-broken tilt-lock thing so it might be usable. But couldn't do anything on the gear-shift problem.
Lots of boats zooming past, making big wakes. But finally they finished, and I wrestled the outboard down into the dinghy and got it back in place. Let the oil settle, checked the oil, started it, all okay.
Then the weather turned grey and big bursts of fine rain started coming through, starting around 3:30.
Went ashore around 4:45 and took a walk, getting rained on much of the time. Back to the marina, and waited 15 minutes for a huge rainstorm to go through. Out to the boat 5 minutes ahead of another big rainstorm.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Plenty of wind all night, keeping the wind-generator going.
2014-04-09 (Wednesday)By 9, wind howling from the ENE. Kept going most of the day.
Re-caulked the base of the mainmast.
Ashore in late afternoon to do some yoga and go for a walk. Chatted with Pete and Dee from "Windlass", and then briefly with Scott from "Scherzo".
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-10 (Thursday)Added water to the batteries, and some cells took a LOT. I guess the wind-generator has been pushing them pretty hard.
Ashore in midafternoon to get some exercise. And was told a big story: yesterday (or maybe Tuesday) the local van-driver had a big fight with a cruiser, tried to strangle him with the chain on a marina garage door, police were called, the driver has been banned from the marina, big legal troubles to ensue. Wow ! The cruiser who told me was delighted; he (like others) has a grudge against that driver.
Did some yoga, went for a walk.
Gave myself a very short haircut.
Salad and hotdog-onion-cheese-cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-11 (Friday)Headache; took a paracetamol.
A cruiser stopped by at 9:10 to ask me to buy some things for him on the shopping bus this morning, and told me the other side of the van-driver-fight story. And it was a pretty good "other side"; sounds like the driver was well provoked. Supposedly the guy I thought was a "cruiser" is more like a local white guy who lives on a boat and allegedly is a bit of a druggie. He was yelling to everyone that the van-driver is a drug smuggler, then used the N-word on him (the driver is black). That's when the fighting started. [Later, someone told me several cruisers who were there supported this version of events, and may have told the marina management so.]
Ashore for the 9:30 shopping van, and the van-driver is there as usual, it's as if nothing happened. So I guess he isn't banned from the marina.
Out at the bank, walked to Scotiabank and used the ATM, to a hardware store, then to IGA for groceries. Watched some nice soccer on the telly while drinking a mango-goldenapple smoothie. Off to Marketing Board and CK's, back to marina. Boat at the seawall having mast taken off, I think, with the prettiest rigger I've ever seen: pics. Back to boat by 11:50.
Gave groceries and change to cruiser.
Ashore at 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Online, ordered baby clothes for Dori's gift to Dori's sister, and a couple of books for myself.
Celery and salad and leftover cornbread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-12 (Saturday)In late afternoon, went ashore for a walk.
Grapefruit and salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-13 (Sunday)A little achey in midday; took an ibuprofen.
Ashore at 1:30 to do Wi-Fi and dominoes. Nice game with Connie and Bruce from "Gitanos", Vee and Sylvio, and Michael.
Celery and tuna-salad sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-04-14 (Monday)Started engine at 8:30. Anchor up, over to other side of harbor, anchor down by 8:50 at Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada. Safer place to leave the boat while I'm gone, in case we get heavy weather. But now I have to watch how the boat swings near the neighbors, and make sure the anchor settles in.
In early afternoon, pulled secondary anchor chain out onto deck, coiled it nicely, put anchor on top. So if a hurricane comes while I'm away, I can call someone and have them put out the anchor for me.
Later, detached rope from primary anchor chain, took it to stern deck, shackled it to the third anchor, so that's ready for someone to deploy if necessary. Then realized I'd forgotten to add a length of chain to it, so did that.
Ashore in midafternoon, for yoga and a walk. Hot.
In bright sunshine, running laptop and inverter and refrigerator, my solar panels aren't keeping up with the load. I think one of my panels has died, so I'd be getting 7A instead of 14A. Will have to deal with it when I get back to the boat in July.
Gave myself more of a haircut. Very short.
Grapefruit and salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
No wind in this part of the harbor, and my batteries got very low during the night. Fortunately my refrigerator is just about empty; I've been eating up everything in preparation for flying out on Wednesday.
Up several times during the night to look for the lunar eclipse and "blood moon". Suddenly at 2:30, there it was, half of the full moon eclipsed. Moon off to the W or WSW of me. A planet showing near the moon, too. At 2:45, about 80% eclipsed, can see the rest of the moon glowing faintly. At 2:50, about 90% eclipsed. By 3:05, 99% eclipsed, just a little sliver of sunlight at the lower edge of the moon. And then thick slow clouds came over and wiped out the view for the entire rest of the night. Typical.
2014-04-15 (Tuesday)Cloudy and still morning, and rolly. Then sunny and less rolly.
Went ashore in time for the shopping bus, but didn't get on it. Gave Dick EC$5 and asked him to buy me a couple of apples to eat on the plane tomorrow. Gave George a note about picking me up tomorrow morning to take me to the airport. Into the marina office to use the book-exchange, and there are two Barcelona/Catalunya guidebooks ! That's where I'll be in about 2 weeks. They're slightly old, 1998 and 2003, but that's okay. Back to the boat.
Started packing. Put more plastic over anchor-windlass hole in foredeck.
Dick still not back from shopping bus by 2:45 ! Expected him back by 12:30 or so. What happened ?
Wetn ashore around 4, and there was Dick at the dinghy-dock. Apparently he came back on th elate bus, his outboard wouldn't start, so he had a long late lunch in the marina restaurant, then his outboard still wouldn't start. As I arrived, someone was coming to tow him out to his boat.
Did yoga and took a walk. Out to Dick's boat and picked up my apples, then to my boat.
Hauled outboard up off the dinghy and into the cockpit. Hoisted and stowed dinghy. Cleared jugs off deck.
Salad and yogurt and cheese sandwiches and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Various packing and stowing things, getting ready to leave tomorrow. Have to remember things to take to Barcelona, decide what to wear on the flights, etc.
2014-04-16 (Wednesday)Finished packing and stowing stuff. Picked up by George before 5:45. Off to airport, paid him EC$60, changed clothes, checked in, through security by 6:45. Power and Wi-Fi in the gate area.
Landed at Miami around 11:35, walked and walked to get to Immigration, then did baggage and Customs. Walked and sky-train and walked to get to connecting gate by 12:45, and my laptop AC adapter is gone ! Must have fallen out of my bag in the plane and got kicked away under a seat somewhere. And I specifically checked to see if anything had fallen out; guess I didn't check hard enough.
No free Wi-Fi here.
As I board the flight to Philadelphia, saw the screen say it's 42F in Philly; I'm going to be cold.
On the flight, realized I should have checked to see if my adapter had been lost at the security checkpoint. But even that would have taken a while to get back to, from the gate.
Uneventful flight to Philadelphia. Got my suitcase, across street to train station, changed from sandals to sneakers-and-socks, waited 20 minutes for a train to 30th St Station. Free Wi-Fi there, as I expected; emailed my brother to tell him what train I'd be on. Then almost missed the train; got confused between trains to Trenton and West Trenton, both leaving at exactly the same time. Had to dash from one platform to the other at the last second, hauling my suitcase down and up stairs. Got to the right train just as the doors were closing, and stuck my carry-on bag in the gap to stop the door from closing and the train leaving. Everything stopped for 10 seconds, I heard someone on the platform behind me say something like "Oh, my", and then the doors opened again and I got on. Then someone got OFF through the door I had just entered; what was that about ?
My brother was at the W Trenton station when I arrived. Got to brother's townhouse around 7:45 PM.
Went online and ordered a new AC adapter for the laptop, to be delivered Friday.
2014-04-17 to 2014-07-04Opened up all the packages that were waiting for me: books, presents to take to Barcelona, clothes, new battery for camera, new MP3 players and earbuds.
Took Mom to lunch, then went to Walmart for more stuff: Easter candy, clothes, shoes, stuff to take to Barcelona.
Laptop AC adapter delivered; back in business.
Nice family gathering for Easter, at my sister's house.
After about 4 days of wearing sneakers, for first time in 9 months, developed a nasty broken blister on one toe. My feet are used to sandals or nothing.
Day after Easter, had bad headache, took acetaminophen for 24 hours or so, finally knocked it out with a sumatriptan. Headachey again the next day, took another sumatriptan. I think the pollen up here is affecting a lot of people, including me.
Had a bit of a scare with my Mom, who ended up in the hospital for several days having tests and getting her high blood-pressure reduced.
Nice Japanese-themed party at a sister's friend's house, to celebrate cherry blossom season.
Interesting: back in Grenada, in Prickly Bay, one of the key cruiser-restaurants is closing, fairly suddenly.
4/30: Off to airport to fly to Barcelona. Trip diary at my Barcelona Trip 2014 page.
6/25: back to NJ.
Received tilt bracket part for my outboard.
Watched lots of World Cup games.
Saw Mom, saw brother's family, dinner with my sister.
Bought tickets to go back to Barcelona in November thru January.
Looking into moving to Barcelona full-time: my Moving to Spain page.
7/3: starting trip back to Grenada.
Big thunderstorm went through around 7:30; we had similar previous evening. My brother drove me to the train station before 10 for a 10:07 train, but the train sat in the distance and didn't approach. My connecting time in Philadelphia is 21 minutes, to get the last train to the airport. We saw some tree-branches down on the way over here. When the train was 15 minutes late, an announcement came over the PA saying that there were "signalling problems". So my brother said "I'll drive you to the airport", and off we went. Very nice of him.
Got to the terminal by 11:10. Sign on the status board says train to airport isn't running; shuttle buses instead, on same schedule. So I probably would have missed the last shuttle bus anyway, in center-city Philadelphia.
No Wi-Fi while waiting. Ticketing opened at 3:45 or so. Announcement that trains still not running, only shuttles. To gate by 4:30, and Wi-Fi there.
Uneventful flight to Miami, into terminal around 8:45. No free Wi-Fi.
World Cup match playing on a couple of big screens in the terminal; watched one for a little while.
Uneventful flight to Grenada. But my taxi-driver isn't there to meet me. Had to wait about an hour and a half. One local guy offered me his cell-phone, but I couldn't get through to the driver. Finally he showed up; he was stuck behind some big accident on the road.
To boat around 10. All looks reasonable. Flashlight I left out works, so I was able to see to do the combination lock. Got inside, and had a few minutes of down "why do I live on a boat ?" feeling.
Just the basics: Checked boat to make sure nothing needed immediate attention. Batteries at 10.8V, which I expected. Made sure I had some water available to drink. Got the toilet working. To bed.
2014-07-05 (Saturday)Up at 6:30. Dinghy tubes all are deflated. Unlocked the dinghy, pumped up the tube I can reach from deck, lowered it into the water, pumped up the other tubes.
Hauled outboard from cabin to stern deck. Replaced broken tilt-lock bracket (pics). Hauled outboard down into dinghy and clamped it onto the transom, with some oily water pouring out of the lower unit exhaust ports; haven't seen that before.
Had a powerbar, got water system working, shaved, and listened to cruiser's net while letting the oil in the outboard settle. Added oil to it, and tried to start it. No go. Checked plug, it's oily, cleaned it, still no go. Getting desperate; I need to get ashore in 15 minutes to catch a shopping bus. Then I noticed that the kill-cord is off. Installed it, pulled twice, outboard started and ran fine.
Added water to the batteries; some cells took a lot.
Ashore at 8:30. Dropped off propane tank to be refilled. Onto shopping van, and only 3 passengers today. Bought a bottle of water at Clarkes Court Bay marina, and I'm amazed to hear that a mega-marina-resort complex is going to be built here. To bakery, and had ham-and-cheese bun for breakfast. Downtown, to ATM, bought fruit and veggies in the open-air market, a few groceries in the supermarket. Back to boat by 11:45.
Bad news: getting almost no charging from the solar panels. Messed with wiring and fuse, couldn't get it working. System at 11.6V. So I can't turn on the refrigerator. Only a couple of groceries need any refrigeration; was wary of this. Getting a little from wind-generator every now and then, but I'm shadowed by a hill. Will have to try the engine later.
Ashore around 12:45, to see World Cup and do Wi-Fi. Propane tank has been refilled; that was quick ! Paid EC$100 for it (20 pounds).
Managed to smash my elbow into the propane tank while starting the outboard; hurt like hell, got a small cut. Back on boat around 4:15. A little headachey. Took an ibuprofen-plus.
At 4:50, got the engine ready, turned the key. The starting battery had just enough juice to start the engine; that's a relief ! Engine ran fine, charging the batteries, also charging some rechargeables for the clocks, and running the refrigerator. Ran engine for 30 minutes.
Salad and hotdogs-friedonions and a warm rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-07-06 (Sunday)Solar panel charging the batteries, system voltage up to 13.4V under no load. That's what I hoped, that charging the batteries with the engine would revive them enough for solar to do something. Still not running any loads; just want to let the batteries and solar work.
Turned on the refrigerator before 11, then went ashore. Stopped in at the jumble sale, chatted with a couple of people. Went for a walk. Back to the boat by noon, electrical working okay, system voltage 13.2 or so.
Stowed the second anchor's chain in the locker. Pulled in 10 feet or so of the primary chain.
Gave myself a haircut and a shave, then went snorkeling under the boat to scrape the prop and hull. Did a good long session, getting the job about 40% done. Then felt a lot of burning on my upper chest, something stinging me. Soon called it a day. Upper chest red and stinging a bit all evening.
Salad and chili and a warm rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-07-07 (Monday)Grey morning, very little solar power.
Started engine at 9:20 and started pulling up the anchor from 30 feet of water. Heavy work. Got the chain vertical and couldn't budge it. Worked the boat back and forth, pulled in some more chain, looks like lots of wraps and kinks in the chain from the boat circling around while I was gone. Pulled and pulled, hot and sweaty, wary of straining my back.
Got the chain vertical and the anchor loose; I can motor around with the anchor dragging on the bottom. But I can't pull it up. Rain.
Finally got a little smart, and motored over to shallower water, 16 feet deep and grassy. Pulled in some more chain, motored out into deeper water, can hear the chain shifting and dropping as kinks work out. Back into shallow water twice more, almost nosing the bow into the mangroves a couple of times. Finally got the anchor up, more suddenly than I expected; maybe I've just forgotten how hard it is to pull up the anchor.
Motored across to W side of the harbor and anchor down by 10:35 at Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada. Water a bit shallower here, now I know the anchor will come up, shorter ride to marina, and should get more wind-power over here. But I'm sweaty and wiped out; not going to go for exercise today, after this workout.
Ashore at 1 to do Wi-Fi. Several big squalls came through in next few hours.
Back aboard after 4:15 or so. Boat swinging a bit close to a dock; wind is more NE than I expected.
Salad and leftover chili and a warm rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-07-08 (Tuesday)Ashore for shopping bus at 9:30. Realized I forgot to eat breakfast this morning. Out at the bank, walked to Marketing Board. To resort where I've exchanged books before, but today a guy at the front desk stopped me and said "for hotel guests only". To IGA and got groceries (new discount card not arrived after 8 months; old one still works). Watched some cricket on TV. Lots of cruisers today; had to wait for second van, at 11:15. To Marketing Board, to CK's, back to boat by noon-05.
In midafternoon, ashore for yoga and a walk. Marina bar/restaurant crowded and getting noisy as a World Cup game is about to start.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Plenty of wind; was able to run refrigerator all night.
2014-07-09 (Wednesday)Ashore at 1:30, and walked over to Prickly Bay for dominoes. Nice game, 15 people across 3 tables, and I came in 2nd overall. Amazed to hear that yesterday's World Cup game ended up 7-1, Germany over Brazil. Watched a few minutes of today's Argentina-Holland game. Chatted with Bernard the taxi driver, who has a 3-week-old baby and also is fasting for Ramadan.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Plenty of rain after midnight.
2014-07-10 (Thursday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Grey and pouring rain starting at 8:50. A little break, then started up again at 9:25. More starting before 9:50, and going for quite a while. More at 11.
Wind started howling at 1; soon had to shut down the wind-generator. Lost a nice water-bucket off the deck.
Still totally grey and windy by 3:40. Hung the laundry in the pilothouse to dry.
Found a nut loose on deck; might be from the antenna mount on top of the mainmast ? [Later found: it's from the jib-furler assembly on the cockpit coaming, easily fixed.]
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
Windy and damp all night. Anchor chain sticking on a rock or concrete or something, making the boat jerk now and then.
2014-07-11 (Friday)Totally grey and windy and trying to rain.
Saw my lost water-bucket on the beach yesterday evening, but it's gone this morning.
Cleaned up the cockpit a bit.
Laundry finished drying in the pilothouse.
Ashore around 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Exchanged books at the bookshelf.
Back to boat after 4. Back ashore later and went for a walk.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-07-12 (Saturday)Around 1:30, put a towel over the forward solar panel, with loads on the system. Voltage headed down, removed towel, voltage headed up. So I think that one's working. Tried the test with the aft panel, and a cloud interfered, tried it again, the refrigerator decided to stop running, tried again, and the aft panel seems to be working too ! Covered the aft panel again, and again a cloud came over. Ran the test a couple more times, cursing clouds, but finally decided both panels are working.
So, why did I think one of the panels had died ? Maybe the state of the batteries (at least one bad cell in every battery) was so bad that it fooled me ? Now that I'm bypassing the solar controller and charging the batteries hard with solar and wind, maybe the batteries are a little better ? At some point, I might try three 6V batteries (witgh bad cells) in series, to make one 12V battery.
Ashore at 3 to do yoga and take a walk. Then watched first half of the World Cup game at 4.
Chili and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-07-13 (Sunday)Threw away sheet and pillowcase and mattress pad and pillow and got out new ones. Really need to buy a new mattress, too.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore at 11:45 for dominoes. Nice game with Harry and Katie from "Purrfect" and Rhian and Rob from "Beyzano". I came in a close second to Harry. Then World Cup finals on TV at 3. Watched 15 minutes of it, but there was too much of a crowd, and I was far away from the TV. Moved back further and did Wi-Fi and kept an eye on the game from a distance.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
No wind during the evening and night; batteries very low, couldn't run refrigerator.
2014-07-14 (Monday)Ashore in late afternoon. Disposed of a big bag of garbage, and went for a walk.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-cola for dinner.
Warm, still, humid, rolly, uncomfortable night.
2014-07-15 (Tuesday)Ashore for 9:30 shopping van. Was going to take a bus from CK's to go downtown, but the shopping van ended up taking me all the way to the main post office, so I walked from there. Found dermatologist's office and made appointment for Friday, and got their correct email address. Bus back to shopping mall.
Had a smoothie, watched some cricket on TV, got lots of groceries. Onto van at noon, long stops at Marketing Board and CK's, back on boat around 1:10.
Ashore around 2:15 to do Wi-Fi. Exchanged some books. Skype-called Dora; I could see and hear her, but she couldn't hear me, and the connection kept dropping and reconnecting.
Chicken-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-07-16 (Wednesday)Tired and headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Ashore in midafternoon. Did yoga and went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-07-17 (Thursday)Got a tiny bit of Wi-Fi from the boat, and received an email from the dermatologist I was going to see tomorrow. She just broke her wrist and will be out of action for a while !
Still getting no email response from either Kyocera (who I don't need any more) or the Spanish consulate in NYC. Irritating.
Ashore in midafternoon. Did yoga and went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chili and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-07-18 (Friday)Very dark grey morning. No wind until about 8:15, then started blowing and raining hard. Kept raining until about noon, with wind on and off. Getting little solar power and only some wind-power. Glad I didn't have to go ashore at 9:30 to take vans downtown to go to doctor's appt.
Started pouring again at 2:45. Rained for 20 minutes or so.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-07-19 (Saturday)Fairly sunny and breezey this morning.
Ashore in late morning. They're setting up for a wedding reception in the mairna bar/restaurant, so had to do my yoga in front of the office. Went for a walk. Was going to come in later to do Wi-Fi, but can't do that.
Went ashore after lunch and did a brief Wi-Fi session, sitting at a table outside the marina office door.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Headache well after midnight; took a sumatriptan.
2014-07-20 (Sunday)Ashore in late morning. Did some yoga, but a muscle between right shoulder and neck is hurting, so quit early. Went for a walk.
Ashore at 1:15 to do Wi-Fi, then dominoes. Played a nice game with Harry, Rhian, Stan, and Devon. Stan wiped us all out; we tagged him with some points in the last two hands, but he won easily. Five more people playing at a second table, but they were playing at about 1/3 our speed, so we didn't exchange people with them halfway as we usually would do.
Skype-called Dora in Spain, and had a full video-and-audio connection for the first time ! Nice. It dropped and reconnected a couple of times, but mostly worked.
Hotdog-mushroom-corn-cheese-batter concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Headachey during the night; took a paracetamol-plus. Probably should stop making that batter-concoction thing for dinner.
2014-07-21 (Monday)Still headachey. Took a sumatriptan.
Galley sink faucet has started leaking a little. Took a look underneath to see how hard it will be to replace it, and the piping is a nightmare, lots of extra loops and connections and unexplained pipes. Which means I'd have to take out the sink to get enough access to figure it all out, and it probably should be simplified.
Called a marine repair place on the VHF, hoping they'd know how to repair my dinghy, but it sounds like they would have to scratch around and order stuff and figure out a fix, just as I would.
Went ashore in late afternoon, for a walk.
Typical: after wind blowing hard all day, when I didn't need the wind-power because I had plenty of solar power, at dusk the rain-clouds came over and then the wind disappeared, and stayed gone all night. No wind-power all night; had to turn off the refrigerator.
Salad and leftover hotdog-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Headachey during the night; took a sumatriptan.
2014-07-22 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. A crush of people; had to wait for one of the buses to go with first load and then come back for rest of us. Long, slow, morning. Stopped at bank, ACE Hardware, then Budget Marine. Bought stuff to fix the dinghy (2-part polyurethane, 5200, hypalon material) and a new dinghy-hoist line. Total of EC$290, about US$110. They didn't have exactly what I wanted: had to settle for polyurethane primer instead of white or grey, 5200 instead of fast-cure 5200.
To IGA, got groceries. Crowded van and slow trip back, through Marketing Board and CK's. Back to the boat by 1, tired and a little headachey.
Still headchey in late afternoon. Took an ibuprofen-plus.
Big salad and small leftover hotdog-bread concoction for dinner.
Headachey again before dawn; took a sumatriptan.
2014-07-23 (Wednesday)Fairly grey morning. Huge storm/squall starting at 8:40.
Trying to decide how to fix the dinghy: should I repair it while it's hanging from the davits, while floating on a painter behind the boat (maybe with outboard removed), or while dragged ashore on a beach ? Need to be able to use the kayak while the dinghy is drying for several days. Need to protect the outboard from thieves. Unfortunately need to do the whole repair in one big shot, because the 5200 has to be used up within 24 hours of being opened. Need to find a couple of dry days to do the repair. Probably don't want to try taking the laptop ashore on the kayak, so need to work around my Wi-Fi sessions.
Sunnier, and went ashore in late morning. Exchanged some books, did some yoga, went for a walk.
Ashore again at 1 to do Wi-Fi. Weather report says only dry day will be tomorrow, then lots of rain. Want several reasonably dry days to do the dinghy painting/patching.
Back on the boat after 5. Tried to put the new dinghy-hoisting line on, and it's too short ! I must have mismeasured; I tried to measure without taking the old line off completely. Took the old one off now, and sure enough, it's 30 feet or so, and the new one I bought is 25 feet. My mistake. Put the old one back on.
Celery and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Not a shred of wind-power all night; nada.
2014-07-24 (Thursday)Sunny morning, as forecast. Waters fairly calm, too. Decided to do the dinghy-repair.
Launched the dinghy, cleared some clutter out of it, started scrubbing the tubes with soapy water and rinsing them with fresh water. When that was mostly done, lifted the outboard off and onto deck. Rinsed the tube again and left the dinghy to dry. Lowered the swim platform and launched the kayak. Cut up pieces of hypalon fabric to use as area patches. Lightly sanded both sides of the patches.
Looked at the davits, and found a major bolt has the head sheared right off. Bad. Pic.
After a while, lightly sanded the dinghy tubes, so the paint will adhere. Mixed up about 2/3 of the two-part polyurethane primer; it's white, as I'd hoped. Let it kick off for a while, then added the 5200. Then decided I had enough room in the jar to do all of the paint in one shot, so added the rest of the paint and catalyst and mixed some more.
Five minutes later, took everything down into the dinghy and got ready to work.
Immediately, it turned into a fiasco. The 5200 is kicking off, turning into lumps in the paint jar and on the brush. It's like trying to paint with large-curd cottage cheese. Tried to put on one of the patches, and it's lumpy and peeling and a disaster. Ended up skipping the rest of the patches, just painting everywhere the fabric was showing through, and everywhere I knew there was a leak. Slathered the stuff on, lumps rolling down the tubes and falling off the brush. A mess. But the fabric IS getting covered.
Kept going until I'd covered everything I wanted to, often more than once. Still 1/3 or more of the paint left. Dinghy looks pretty ugly, but that's nothing new, and if the leaks stop, I'll be happy. Before and after: pics. Done and cleaning up by 10:30, hot and sweaty and tired. Not sure what I did wrong: wrong paint, wrong procedure, wrong 5200 ? A cruiser here says he did this to his dinghy and it worked well.
Headachey yet AGAIN by 11:30; took a paracetamol.
In late afternoon, kayaked ashore. Got a pretty wet butt doing it, and a little trouble getting in and out of the kayak without tipping it. Been a while since I used it. Ashore, went for a walk.
Celery and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
No wind at all during the night. Then, at 1:05, the wind-generator started turning a little. I thought "nice, getting a little power".
Five minutes later, the squall from hell hit. Must be the leading edge of a tropical wave; we've been getting about two waves per week coming through in the last few weeks. Anyway, quickly the wind was shrieking from the SE, blowing 50 knots or so, whipping up 1-foot waves in the harbor. I'm hard on a lee shore.
I went up into the cockpit, still half-asleep, no night vision, and tried to make sense of things. Lots of noise in the rigging, and I figured out it was a towel I'd left on the lifeline; brought that in before it could fly away. Also, a loose lid on a deck-box has flipped up and might fly away; not going to try to deal with that yet. Went back down below and got the engine ready, then back up and started it. Hard to hear the engine over the noise of the wind and waves.
Turned on the VHF radio, and it seems quiet. Eventually heard that a boat has blown aground in Prickly Bay and is calling for help. My anchor seems to be holding fine, and the engine is running well. I don't see or hear of any problems in this harbor. I have decent night-vision now. Nothing to do but keep running the engine, in case something fails in the ground-tackle.
When the rain eases after 15 minutes or so, I go on deck, lash down the deck-box lid, take inventory. Looks like I haven't lost anything overboard, and dinghy and kayak are okay.
Several huge lightning-flashes, but no thunder.
Wind easing by 1:35, turned engine off at 1:40.
2014-07-25 (Friday)Grey, humid, still morning. Heard on the net that the boat aground in Prickly Bay has been retrieved with little or no damage.
Breezy by 8:30 or so; still grey and humid.
Worked to get the broken bolt out of the base of the davits. Not easy; everything is galled in place. Finally got the nut spinning on the shaft, then used a hammer to pound the shaft down. But some of the flare left when the head snapped off is keeping it from going all the way down.
Eventually trimmed off the flare with the Dremel, and did lots of hammering using smaller bolts as punches, to get the bolt-shaft out.
Sunny and breezey by 10:30 or so. Did a bucket of laundry.
Found a bronze bolt aboard that fits the davit base. Filed the hole to make it a little bigger, put the bolt on.
Thought of going ashore in late afternoon, but it's too rough to make a kayak trip appealing.
Paint job on inflatable dinghy seems to be quite dry, and the tubes seem to be holding air. Will have to do a lot of sanding to smooth out all of the horrible lumps in the paint. Bailed a lot of rainwater out of the dinghy.
Big squall came through starting at 5:10. Another smaller squall an hour later.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fairly windy all night; lots of wind-power. Pretty rolly and uncomfortable much of the night.
2014-07-26 (Saturday)Breezey, partly-sunny morning. Squall at 7:30 or so.
Hoisted kayak onto deck and stowed it. Bailed out the inflatable dinghy.
Lifted motor down into dinghy. Sanded the paint on the tubes a bit.
Ashore after 11, to do yoga and a walk.
Several squalls starting around 12:45.
Ashore at 1:30 to do Wi-Fi. Skype-called Mom.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
No wind-power during the night.
Headachey at 1 AM; took a sumatriptan.
2014-07-27 (Sunday)Ashore around 11 to go for a walk.
Ashore again after 1 to do Wi-Fi and play dominoes. Had 9 players at one table for dominoes. I had a horrible game, but eventually clawed out of last to come in third-last.
Headachey when I got back to the boat; took a paracetamol. Later, took a sumatriptan too.
Salad and sausage-onion-noodle-mushroom-cheese and a dietcola for dinner.
No wind-power during the night.
2014-07-28 (Monday)Added oil to the outboard.
Ashore in midafternoon. Exchanged books, did yoga, went for a walk.
Salad and leftover sausage-noodle and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still, uncomfortable night. Didn't sleep well. And had to take a sumatriptan.
2014-07-29 (Tuesday)Ashore for 9:30 shopping van. To ATM, to supermarket, to Marketing Board and CK's, home a little before noon. Hot morning.
Ashore again before 1, to do Wi-Fi. Disposed of a bag of garbage (EC$10). Skype-called Dora in Spain.
There's a Tropical Depression far east of us, with very little chance of coming here, and some chance of disintegrating. Something to keep an eye on, anyway.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night with no wind-power.
2014-07-30 (Wednesday)Did a bucket of laundry. Then it rained, then the weather went totally still and grey. But some sunshine by 10:45 or so, as I was putting laundry on the lifelines to dry. Then a little breeze.
But, by noon, it was very grey and still and humid again. And stayed that way for the rest of the day.
Ashore in late afternoon to do yoga and take a walk. Hot and humid.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night.
2014-07-31 (Thursday)Sunny day, not much wind.
Around 10:30, went ashore. (Can't find my hat; lost it overboard somehow ?) Bought EC$20 of gasoline for the outboard. Walked to Budget Marine in Prickly Bay, a long, hot walk over a couple of hills. Nice air-conditioning there. Bought another can of paint for the dinghy, and 10 mm line for the dinghy-davits (total EC$161). Got undercharged at the cashier; wasn't quite sure what happened until I got home and read the receipt. Tired and hot.
Wind declining even more all afternoon, and very little in the evening.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm and very still all night long.
2014-08-01 (Friday)Tropical Storm Bertha formed overnight. Info from cruiser's net was incomplete, but sound like the storm is weak and going well N of here. Not sure where it will hit the Windwards, but then it will go to W end of Puerto Rico.
Turned into a grey, still, humid day.
Ashore around 1:15 to do Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain.
Some tendon or muscle in my neck or head is aching; feels like I tweaked it somehow.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm and still evening. Wind finally started up around 2 AM, as forecast. Nice to get some wind-power again, and make sleeping a little more comfortable.
But later, felt headachey, took a sumatriptan.
2014-08-02 (Saturday)TS Bertha is up at 16N, no threat to us, wind in 45- to 55-knot range. I think it's crossing Dominica and will go up the Mona Passage.
Ashore in midafternoon to do yoga and take a walk.
On the way back to the boat, the outboard started giving a low-oil indicator; not good. And I topped up the oil just a few days ago. Back at the boat, let the outboard sit for a while, then checked the oil. It's always been hard to tell from the dipstick, but it seems to have oil. Added some, and very quickly oil was running into the bottom of the casing and dripping into the water. Either it's overfilled, or a gasket is leaking ? Water is too rough to deal with it more now; will check again tomorrow.
Neck/head still aching a bit; took an ibuprofen-plus.
Added water to the batteries; they took a lot.
Spaghetti and a rum-and-cola for dinner.
2014-08-03 (Sunday)Ashore at 11 to poke my nose in at the jumble-sale, and go for a walk. Dropped off an old spare cutless bearing that doesn't fit my boat. Outboard oil seemed okay.
Ashore at 1:15, to do Wi-Fi and then dominoes. A couple of cruisers practicing saxophone and guitar, and they were good, very nice. Nice game with Karen and Mike, Mary, and another Mike. I won, and went out in 6 of the 13 hands.
Someone found my hat that I lost a few days ago, and I got it back ! Apparently I'd left it on the bench overlooking the dinghy-dock.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, fairly still night.
2014-08-04 (Monday)Ashore before noon to do yoga and a walk.
Ashore again at 1:15 to do Wi-Fi. Bar is closed for holiday, which is fine with me. Big rainstorm at 3:30. Skype-called Dora in Spain, but the connection kept dropping, even with no video sent from my side.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-05 (Tuesday)On the cruiser's net, someone said there was a swimmer around the boats in our harbor at 2:30 AM last night, probably a thief.
Ashore for the 9:30 shopping van. Bought paintbrushes and a cold-bag at ACE Hardware. Not much good produce in the stores.
Loafed all afternoon.
Celery and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, still night.
2014-08-06 (Wednesday)Ashore in mid-morning to do yoga and take a walk. On the way back out, outboard giving low-oil indicator again.
Hard to read outboard's dipstick, but it seems to have enough oil. Added more anyway.
Ashore again at 12:30 to do Wi-Fi, and outboard gave low-oil indicator and quit halfway. Some smoke. Some oil coming out of the air-intake. Took out the spark plug, and it was totally oiled and gunked-up. Cleaned it and the outboard started and ran to the dock. I guess maybe the oil is overfilled.
Celery and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all of the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
Warm and still night.
2014-08-07 (Thursday)Rain at 8, then sunny. Decided to paint the dinghy. Launched it, hoisted the motor onto deck, sanded the tubes. A brief rainsprinkle from one cloud. Did some computing for a while.
Loafed too long. By 11:45, looked a bit grey to the E of us, but decided to go ahead. Mixed the 2-part paint, which has to sit for 20-30 minutes (at 20C). Fifteen minutes later, it's darker grey to the E. Down into the dinghy and started painting. Hot and sunny and the paint is drying about 5 minutes after I put it on. Got sweaty and careless halfway through, and dropped the jar of paint, spilling an ounce or two. Dinghy rocking in the swells.
About 3/4 done, some rain sprinkled on me. No problem, the paint is setting as fast as I put it on. Covered the final parts, a bit of paint left, but now very dark rainclouds are setting in. Quit about 12:35, got everything up and into the boat, and serious rain started about 5 minutes later. Really pouring, heaviest rain we've had in a month or more. I'm not too worried about the paint; I think it will be fine.
With a couple of tiny pauses, the rain kept going for an hour. Finally started slowing around 1:40. Dinghy has a couple of inches of water in it. But the paint looks fine.
Rain didn't fully stop until after 2. But the weather stayed grey and still and humid the rest of the day. No wind at night, either.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Long, warm, still night, with no battery power to run the refrigerator.
2014-08-08 (Friday)Sunny morning. Nice to get some solar power.
A bit before noon, checked out the dinghy. Paint seems to be dry, so got in and bailed a ton of water out. Tied the dinghy in tight and carried the motor down into it. Screwed up the whole operation, which always is awkward and dangerous, carrying a 57-pound motor that is big and unwieldy down a ladder and into a moving dinghy. Managed to turn the motor just about upside-down, which you're not supposed to do, and oil and some wayer came pouring out, all over one of my nicely-painted tubes and the transom and aft part of the floor of the dinghy. Argh ! Had trouble getting the motor onto the transom, too, because since the last time I did this, I greased the motor, and now the mount rotates very freely relative to the rest of the motor. Finally got it in place.
Spent a lot of time cleaning up the spilled oil. Wiped it up with paper towels, then sprayed liquid dishwashing detergent.
After lunch, checked oil and spark plug on the outboard, cleaned up more oil, and started the motor. Seems okay.
In midafternoon, went ashore for yoga and a walk. Outboard motor ran okay.
Celery and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fairly windy and rainy night; nice. Heard fireworks from St Georges a bit after midnight; it's Carnival.
2014-08-09 (Saturday)Gave myself a haircut.
Dinghy looks okay, despite the oil spill etc.
Ashore around 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Skype-called Mom.
On the way back to the boat, the outboard quit near the dock. Tied up again, took the plug out, no problem there. Started motor, but it quit again before I could untie. Got it started and got moving, now with the cowling off the motor, and suddenly I see raw gasoline spurting out of a hole near the top of the carburetor ! This is horrible ! No help for it, just kept going. Out to near the boat, shut off the motor, paddled the last 50 feet. Argh ! Will investigate it tomorrow.
Salad and sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. All of my eggs turned out to be spoiled (because I don't have power to run the refrigerator at night, unless there's a lot of wind); had to throw them away.
Warm, fairly still night.
2014-08-10 (Sunday)Looked in the service manual for the outboard; page about carburetor doesn't give much detail, doesn't say what that port near the top is for.
Launched the dinghy and started working to get the carburetor off the motor. I've never had it off before, so had to figure it out. Got one linkage cable off, got the main mounting bolts off, but can't work the fuel hose off; it's just well stuck onto a long hose-barb fitting. Eventually gave up for now, put everything back on. Started the motor, and it ran fine ! No gasoline spurting out. Ran it for a couple of minutes and shut it off.
Ashore around 1:15 to do Wi-Fi and dominoes. Outboard ran fine on the way in. Nice dominoes game with Flemming, Diana, Stan and Lann. Rain around 3.
Finished doing Wi-Fi after 5, with very threatening dark rainclouds rolling over and more approaching, and rain sprinkling. Into the dinghy and the outboard ran fine; out to the boat and got everything stowed well before the serious rain started.
Salad and leftover sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Rained most of the night, with a few pretty big lightning strikes, but none too close.
2014-08-11 (Monday)Very grey, fairly still morning.
Ashore at 10. Did yoga (not much fun, because lots of mosquitoes), and a walk.
Ashore around 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Bar/restaurant is closed today for Carnival.
Tomato and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-12 (Tuesday)Bummer: usual Tuesday shopping bus will be postponed until tomorrow, because of Carnival. And I'm out of bread, produce, cheese, butter, etc.
Ashore at 1 to do Wi-Fi. Internet access was mediocre, and power went out for a half-hour at one point.
Back to the boat, then ashore again later to go for a walk. On the way back to the boat, outboard's low-oil light was on.
Leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Forgot to get up in the middle of the night to look for Perseids meteorites.
2014-08-13 (Wednesday)Added oil to the outboard and it ran fine.
Ashore for the 9:30 shopping van. Walked to ATM and got cash, to IGA and bought groceries. Not much produce available. To Marketing Board and CK's. Stopped at Prickly Bay to drop off a couple of people, and the van driver looked sick for a few minutes; he's had problem before. After a few minutes and some water, he said he was okay, and we got home okay.
Windy in the anchorage at midday. Soon it was rolly; wind from NE, swell coming in from SE. And it stayed rolly all day and all night.
Chicken-rice-mushroom-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Forgot about the Perseids meteors until 4 AM or so, then stuck my nose out to see that we were clouded over pretty solidly.
Headachey; took a paracetamol.
2014-08-14 (Thursday)On the cruiser's net, two catamarans in St George's anchorage reported getting robbed last night, losing lots of valuable electronics. Apparently a couple of thieves were rowing around the anchorage, other boats heard voices and saw them, a radio call reported them on the cruiser's hailing channel, but nothing was done. One boat was robbed while people were aboard.
Went ashore around 11:30. Disposed of a big bag of garbage (EC$10). Did some yoga and went for a walk.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked the whole package of sausage so it doesn't spoil; I think the refrigerator has failed again, and I can't run it at night anyway.
2014-08-15 (Friday)Confirmed that the refrigerator isn't working; giving symptoms of no-refrigerant again.
Ashore at 1:30 to do Wi-Fi.
Back to boat after 5, dropped off computer and tried to go right back ashore, and the outboard wouldn't start ! Checked the plug, pulled and pulled, got one cough once, no go. Gave up.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Big thunderstorms from 10 to midnight or so; big lightning-strikes but none closer than half a mile. Lots of rain. Before and after the storms, almost no wind at all.
2014-08-16 (Saturday)Windy from SE this morning.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Slid the refrigerator out. Don't see anywhere that the coolant leaked out; the batch I put in 9 months ago had red dye in it, to aid in leak-detection. Added refrigerant to the refrigerator, using 12-oz can of refrigerant someone gave me for free, and hose I had made after last time (it worked). Turned refrigerator on, and it seems to be cooling now.
Ashore after 3 to do a little yoga and go for a walk. Outboard ran okay on the way in, but on the way back to the boat, it was slowly choking and getting closer to quitting. Carburetor problem, I guess.
Refrigerator ran well all day.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-17 (Sunday)Ashore after 11. Trouble starting the outboard, but it started on the second round of tries, and ran okay to the dock. Went for a walk. Came back, outboard started, but started choking halfway out to the boat, and I barely made it.
Ashore again around 1:20 to do Wi-Fi and dominoes. Outboard started okay but started choking halfway to shore. Pumping the squeeze-bulb in the fuel line seemed to help a bit, for a few seconds. Made it ashore without having to paddle.
Nice dominoes game with Stan and Lan, Mary, David, Flemming.
Online, someone suggested the vent on my outboard fuel tank might be clogged. I know the vent screw is open; maybe something is wrong further down. So when leaving, I unscrewed the whole cap a bit. Outboard ran okay to get me out to the boat. We'll see if that continues.
Salad and sausage-corn-macaroni-cheese concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-18 (Monday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in midafternoon for a little yoga and a walk. Outboard ran, but choking a little, and I'm noticing that the fuel-line squeeze-bulb is contracting a little. So maybe I need a new bulb, or there's a clog between gas and bulb.
A little leftover sausage-macaroni concoction and tuna-salad sandwich and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-19 (Tuesday)Ashore for the 9:30 shopping van. Unremarkable trip.
Ashore again by 1 to do Wi-Fi. But after I got all set up and bought a drink, I found out the internet all over the island (someone said) is having major problems today. Managed to get some simple web-pages and downloads done, but nothing complicated works.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still evening, boats turning various directions.
2014-08-20 (Wednesday)Headachey. Still, warm, humid morning.
Ashore in midafternoon to do some yoga and take a walk.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still evening and night.
2014-08-21 (Thursday)Ashore in late morning to do some yoga and go for a walk. On the way back out, outboard choked and quit 100 feet short of the boat; paddled the rest of the way. I've been running it with the fuel tank cap loose, and pumping the bulb a bit, but those haven't fixed the problem.
Ashore around 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Outboard choked and sputtered most of the way in, but pumping the squeeze-bulb a bit seemed to help a little.
Going back to boat after 5, outboard wasn't running smoothly, but got me there without quitting.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Warm, buggy, very still evening.
Around 2 AM, a decent wind turned on, enough to turn the wind-generator. Around 3:30, it got strong enough to give some real power, but soon eased again. Still nice to have a breeze and some power.
2014-08-22 (Friday)Fairly strong wind and some rain from the S, and even the SSW, for a while.
In mid-morning, launched the dinghy and started working on the outboard motor. Took off the fuel filter. No way to open it, and I can see a little gunk in it, but I can blow through it easily, so I think it's okay. Put it back on. Took off the fuel pump, couldn't get it fully apart. Hard to see every part of the main diaphragm, but it seems okay (maybe a little stretched; probably should get a new one). Put pump back together and back onto the motor. Got the hoses off the carburetor and took it off the motor.
Took the carburetor apart a bit. Pics of fuel pump and carb. Float looks okay; someone has suggested it might be cracked and full of gasoline. Needle-valve moves up and down easily; didn't take it out because that looks like a pretty tricky operation. Took the main jet screw out, and it looks okay, but couldn't get the main nozzle out. Stuck a wire up it, and it seems clear. Messed around with a few other things, couldn't find any problems, put it all back together and back on the motor. Started the motor and let it run for only 20 seconds, and it ran fine, so I didn't break anything.
Went ashore in late afternoon. Outboard ran okay, still not good. Went for a walk, and chatted with a local lady who was walking along the same roads. Outboard sputtering badly as I headed back out to the boat, into a stiff headwind, but it lasted long enough to get me there.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
The nice wind went away around midnight. Back to not-quite-enough-to-spin-the-wind-generator wind for the foreseeable future.
2014-08-23 (Saturday)Found I have an outboard carburetor rebuild kit (little more than float, needle valve, and pivot between them), but not a fuel-pump rebuild kit.
Ashore in late afternoon to go for a walk. Outboard worked well enough to get me ashore and back to the boat, barely. Fortunately I'm anchored fairly close to the dinghy-dock, less than 100 yards away.
Salad and white-spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-24 (Sunday)Ashore at 12:15 (barely made it) to do Wi-Fi and then dominoes. Nice game with Stan and Lan, Mary, Flemming, Denis, Jeff.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Rolly all night; uncomfortable.
2014-08-25 (Monday)Tropical wave came through starting around 9:45. Lots of wind, grey, some rain. Kept going for an hour or so. More and grey in the early afternoon.
Added water to the batteries; they needed a lot.
Investigated the fuel line and fuel tank for the outboard. Took the motor-end connector off, pumped the squeeze-bulb, and not much fuel came out. And it came out when I released the bulb, not when I squeezed it; strange. So I replaced the bulb with a new spare I had aboard, and now squeezing the bulb gives a thick stream of fuel.
In late afternoon, went ashore. Motor ran fine 3/4 of the way, so I was thinking "great, problem fixed !". Then the motor quit, and fuel was dripping into the water, I guess from the carburetor. Paddled the last 50 feet to the dock.
Mailed a letter at the office, exchanged books at the bookshelf, went for a walk (getting rained on a little). Heard someone in the restaurant saying that today's weather was forecast to be clear, the tropical wave isn't arriving until Wednesday or so.
Back to the dinghy, and the rain has stopped but the wind is strong. Could try waiting for a better window to head out to the boat, but the wind is from SE and S, and there's nasty dark weather down in that direction. So I decided to go. Wind from SE as I headed SE, motor ran, got halfway and turned the corner around a dock, motor quit. Now paddling due S, wind has shifted to due S, paddling into 9-inch chop that has the dinghy pitching up and down. Getting wet. Paddled hard, made slow progress. I was going to make it, but someone zoomed over in a dinghy and towed me the last 100 feet; very much appreciated.
Should have waited; 20 minutes later the wind had eased, and the bad weather to the S of us mushed out and everything just got grey again.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-26 (Tuesday)Took the steering wheel off and put it in the dinghy, and headed ashore for the 9:30 shopping bus. Motor quit halfway, someone towed me the last 75 feet.
Long morning on the shopping bus and walking. To bank, to ACE (bought a can of carb-and-choke cleaner, about US$7), to boatyard to drop off steering wheel to be welded (one spoke broken, another looking like it will go soon), into Budget Marine. They don't stock the fuel pump part I want, and it would cost US$59 plus about US$25 shipping, which is about triple the price in USA. Bought a new squeeze-bulb, about US$20. Dropped off the bus near another place, but they turn out to do only Mercury parts, don't have a cross-reference to Tohatsu parts. Walked to IGA, got groceries, to Marketing Board for veggies. Tired.
Back to boat by 12:45. Outboard quit 20 feet from the boat and I paddled in easily.
Ashore at 1:30 to do Wi-Fi. Small shot of carb-cleaner into the outboard's air intake makes the motor quit; had to use very tiny shots. Motor finally quit and I had to paddle the last 75 feet.
Huge rainstorm at 3. More rain later.
Back to the boat after 5. Motor choking halfway, but just barely made it to the boat.
Putting away the rest of the groceries from this morning, realized I'm missing one bag, containing spaghetti and mosquito-coils. I suspected my count was off this morning, but the van was empty.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-27 (Wednesday)On the cruiser's net, before I could ask, someone announced that they'd picked up my shopping bag by accident yesterday, and would leave it at the marina today.
Also on the net, I offered to give away a clarinet for free. And soon a cruiser who's a clarinet instructor asked for it, delighted to have a second instrument. So I'll leave it in the marina office late today for "Secret Smile". I bought the thing ages ago to fool around with, found I had no patience for it and probably no talent either, and gave it up.
In mid-morning, wind died, and weather became still and grey and humid and sprinking rain occasionally. Ick.
After lunch, launched dinghy and took the carb off the motor, and disassembled the carburetor thoroughly (got the needle valve out, etc). Blasted cleaner through all the passages and valves; no gunk or black bits came out. Got cleaner in my face a couple of times, as it bounced straight back out, or went in one place and jetted out another. Fortunately, I was wearing glasses. Put the carb back together and back on the motor.
Local guys went to a dock nearby, and came away towing a couple of sections: pic.
In midafternoon, went ashore. Outboard quit 75 feet from the dock; paddled in. I don't think the carb-cleaning did anything at all.
Left clarinet in the office, to be picked up. Found my bag of groceries in the bar. Did a tiny bit of yoga. Went for a walk.
Back into the dinghy, and the motor won't start. Paddled out to the boat, took 5-10 minutes in extremely calm conditions.
Went snorkeling under the boat to scrape hull and prop. All the light stuff I scraped off just hovered in the water; no current to take it away. Parts of the hull I scraped a month ago aren't bad, but the parts I didn't scrape have heavy growth on the them.
Salad and sausage-onion-mushroom-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
2014-08-28 (Thursday)Launched the dinghy, took the fuel pump off the outboard, and completely disassembled the pump. It has a couple more parts than I thought. Pics. Nothing actually broken, but lots of cracked and stretched rubber/vinyl in there; needs a complete rebuild. Blasted everything with carb-cleaner. Turned a couple of parts around in hopes of getting a little more life out of them. Put it back on the motor.
Wind piping up from the E around 11; nice (for paddling) calm conditions gone.
Got a little bit of painfully slow and unreliable Wi-Fi from the boat, but I need to do a lot of stuff online. So:
Ashore at 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Outboard started choking 2/3 of the way in, but made it to the dock. But that's the easier direction; I'm going to need a tow to get back to the boat, unless the wind eases.
Skype-called Dora in Spain. Looked up outboard parts and emailed a bunch of places on Grenada. Big rainstorm at 3:30. Ordered a complete new fuel pump at Budget Marine Grenada (US$92 plus US$25 shipping, will take a week or so to get here from St Martin). Not a bad price; best price I could find online was US$73 new on eBay. And in person at the same store, they quoted me US$59 for just one (key) part inside that pump.
Went for a walk, but rain was threatening, and I'd left my computer open, so I cut the walk short.
Down to the dinghy dock, and my timing is good: two dinghies about to leave. So I asked Katie from "Purrfect" for a tow to my boat. But my motor started, and got me 60% of the way out before it quit. Then Katie caught up and towed me the rest of the way.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Around 9 or so, huge fireworks display over in the direction of Calvigny Resort; I couldn't quite see it behind the hills. Next morning, people on the net were saying it was awesome, and they had no idea it was going to happen or what it was for.
2014-08-29 (Friday)The refrigerator isn't working very well again, just two weeks after I added coolant. Bummer. And the dinghy is leaking slightly again, a month after I painted it. Less of a bummer.
The list of broken things is getting longer: jib and jib-furler, batteries, outboard, refrigerator, depth-sounder, primary GPS, no anchor windlass. I'll be off to Spain again in November for several months, so don't want to be buying new batteries now. And then I'll move the boat up to Puerto Rico / USVI area, where buying major stuff should be easier. So I'm putting some things off a bit. I can put up with limping jib and batteries and no refrigeration if I have to.
Re: the depth-sounder: the LCD on the gauge has faded out to unreadability. I think I can get a new gauge that is compatible with the existing sensor, which is bonded through the hull. I'd like to get a gauge with LED numerals, more visible in daylight. But everyone seems to use LCD numerals these days.
Added some refrigerant to the refrigerator, and it started working better.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-30 (Saturday)Grey, fairly dark, rainy, sometimes windy morning.
Ashore at 12:45 to do Wi-Fi. Had to wait for a rainstorm and strong wind to pass, then had to paddle the last 1/3 of the way in. Had to run an extension cord and move a table to get a spot in the restaurant.
Email response from another company here in Grenada: they can order a new outboard fuel pump for US$325 (I hope that includes shipping) ! No, thanks.
Went for a walk to get exercise.
Managed to nurse the outboard long enough to get all the way back out to the boat.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-08-31 (Sunday)A bit rolly all night and into this morning.
Added some more refrigerant to the refrigerator, and it started cooling more.
Ashore at 1 (outboard got me all the way) to do Wi-Fi and then dominoes. Skype-called Dora. Nice dominoes game, eleven people at two tables.
Went for a walk.
Outboard just barely got me all the way out to the boat.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-01 (Monday)Lots of rain around 4.
Ashore in early evening to take a walk. Outboard got me 80% of the way ashore, then I paddled. Got me only 40% of the way back to the boat, and I started paddling in very calm conditions, but someone gave me a tow immediately.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
In the early AM, plenty of wind started up. Nice.
2014-09-02 (Tuesday)Still very windy from ENE by 7:30; going ashore for the shopping bus is going to be tricky.
Got a little Wi-Fi. Email from welding shop says more extensive repairs than expected to steering wheel; bill is EC$350 (US$135) instead of the EC$200 I expected. I don't have that much cash on hand, so can't pick it up today.
Headed ashore for the 9:30 shopping bus. If I can get halfway and turn the corner around a dock before the motor quits, I'm good. But of course the motor quits only about 1/3 of the way. I start paddling, but someone comes over and tows me to the dinghy dock.
Had to wait for second bus. To ATM, where I want EC$700 but it will give only 600, and all in 20's. Got groceries. To Marketing Board (no tomatoes, celery, bananas, avocados anywhere today), CK's, back to marina a little before noon.
Wind still blowing pretty hard. This time, the motor quits only 50 feet out from the dinghy dock. I could wait and ask for a tow, but the two people behind me are being slow about getting off the dock. I paddle all the way to the boat, good exercise, takes about 5 minutes and gets me quite sweaty.
During the afternoon, got a fair amount of Wi-Fi access from the boat.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-03 (Wednesday)Big rainstorm at 12:30.
Ashore at 1 to do Wi-Fi. Outboard got me 60% of the way there, easy downwind paddle after that. Skyped with Dora. Went for a walk.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-04 (Thursday)Got a fair amount of Wi-Fi from the boat in the afternoon.
A little too windy to go ashore; didn't bother.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all of the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
2014-09-05 (Friday)Ashore at 12:45; motor got me 90% of the way there. Did Wi-Fi, yoga, a walk. Heard that a woman who played dominoes with us last Sunday, I think, has Chikungunya virus (from mosquitoes).
Nursed the motor, by periodically disconnecting the fuel line, and sometimes squeezing the bulb a little, and it tried to quit a couple of times, but got me all the way back to the boat.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-06 (Saturday)A bit windy in the afternoon, and trying to shift to S, so I didn't go ashore. Got some Wi-Fi from the boat.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Rolly, uncomfortable night; didn't sleep well.
2014-09-07 (Sunday)Went ashore at 1; outboard got me 3/4 of the way there before quitting. Skype-called Dora, but it was very noisy in the restaurant. Then they set up a speaker and started blasting NFL football at high volume.
Nice dominoes game with Miss Kitty, Denis, Beauticia, Flemming, Cheryl. I won by 7 points.
Nursed the outboard well enough to get me 90% of the way out to the boat.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-08 (Monday)Turned into a pretty windy day; not paddling ashore today.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-09 (Tuesday)Windy morning; getting ashore is going to be an adventure.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Made it all the way shore by motor for the 9:30 shopping bus. Going to be a long morning; I have to make all the stops.
To ACE Hardware. To boatyard welding shop, picked up steering wheel, paid EC$350. They couldn't cure all of the cracks on the hub; the metal is so old that new cracks appeared when they fixed old cracks. Pic. Should be good for another 5 years or so, I hope.
To Budget Marine, and my fuel pump hasn't arrived. Guy said something about things ordered after mine have arrived, which isn't encouraging. Long wait as someone had battery cables made.
To IGA for groceries. Chatted with a cruiser who's having his engine replaced, and when I asked why (bad compression ? bad main bearings ?), he didn't have a good reason, other than it's old and it has some cooling problems (then he said "probably needs a new heat-exchanger").
Onto noon bus, to Marketing Board, then CK's. Each stop went like molasses, always someone slow, people standing around chatting instead of getting back onto the bus. I'm out of energy, hungry, exasperated.
To the marina, eventually got the dinghy loaded, got the motor started. But as I pulled away, found someone had tied their dinghy painter through my painter, so I had to go back. By time I had that untangled, everyone else had zoomed off. Tough time getting the motor started again, and of course it quit about 30 feet away from the dock. Fortunately, someone coming in offered me a tow. I think he was planning to tow me back to the dinghy dock, but I got him to tow me out to my boat (only a hundred yards or so away). Onto the boat by 1.
Really should go ashore and get some exercise this afternoon, but I'll probably have to paddle both ways, and wind still is fairly strong. Heck with it.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-10 (Wednesday)Added a little oil to the outboard. Ashore after 12:30. Couldn't get a peep out of the outboard, even after cleaning off the oily spark plug. Had to paddle all the way in, with stiff wind on the beam, slewing the dinghy sideways. Made it in; got an upper-body workout doing that.
Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did Wi-Fi. Did some yoga. Skype-called my Mom, then Dora in Spain. Went for a walk. Check I mailed to USA on 8/25 is in process of depositing into my bank today; two weeks seems to be the standard transit time for normal mail from Grenada to USA.
When leaving, Mark was leaving from the dinghy dock, too, so he towed me out to my boat. Wind was a bit lower, I could have paddled, but I was glad to get the tow.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Fireworks going off at Grand Anse beach, I think; could see some of the glow and hear some of the explosions. Don't know what the occasion is.
2014-09-11 (Thursday)Headache. Took a paracetamol.
Huge storm starting around 6:30, tons of rain and up to 40 knots of wind, and it lasted quite a while. Why are these things never in the weather forecast ? (Someone said later: it was a tropical wave, which IS in the forecast, I just didn't pay attention.) Some pictures showing how grey it got at the height of the storm, then after it had started to ease a little: pics.
More rain over the next couple of hours, and it stayed solidly grey; no solar power until 11 or so. I stayed in bed; still have headache.
Sunny for an hour, then grey and raining again at 12:30. A little more sun, then more rain later.
Took a sumatriptan, and that took care of my headache.
Installed the steering wheel onto the helm.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-12 (Friday)I have a bit of an upset stomach today.
Put a shiny new spark plug in the outboard. Started it and headed ashore at 1. Outboard ran fine halfway, then choked and sputtered and I barely nursed it to the dinghy dock.
Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain. Did some yoga. Got email that my fuel pump has arrived in the store, but it's too late to pick it up today. Went for a walk.
Outboard got me out to the boat without any problem.
Salad and leftover sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Very still evening, punctuated by a couple of bursts of rain.
2014-09-13 (Saturday)Ashore around 10; outboard tried to quit 3/4 of the way there, but made it all the way. Walked to Budget Marine and picked up the fuel pump. Back to marina by 11:30 or so. Outboard tried to quit halfway back to the boat, but I nursed it to get all the way home.
In late afternoon, took the old fuel pump off the outboard. Looks completely identical to the new one. Put the new one on, started the outboard, and oily gasoline is pouring out from under the fuel pump, probably where it meets the engine block. Took the pump off, compared the two pumps again, put it back on, same thing. Took the new pump off again, compared again, put the old pump on the outboard, it started and ran with no leaks. Gave up for today.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-14 (Sunday)Took the new fuel pump apart, to make sure all the parts are in there and it's assembled correctly; no problems. Took the old pump off the outboard and compared old to new, and didn't see any difference. About to put the new one on again, when I noticed a big O-ring on the old pump that wasn't there on the new pump; it seals the joint to the engine block. Moved that O-ring across, put new pump on, and motor runs without anything pouring out.
Ashore at 1. Outboard worked okay all the way, no nursing needed. Did some Wi-Fi, Skype-called Dora. No one showed up for dominoes ! Went for a walk.
Outboard worked fine to get me back to the boat.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-15 (Monday)Ashore in late afternoon to do some yoga and go for a walk. Outboard ran fine there and back, but low-oil light was on the whole way back. Added oil later.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwich and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-16 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Walked to ACE, no spark plug for my outboard. To ATM, got cash. To auto-parts store near IGA, they didn't have right spark plug either. Got groceries. 11 AM van straight back to marina.
Ashore at 12:45. Did Wi-Fi. Online, there's a message that a huge manta ray was seen in the anchorage here yesterday. I heard something big in the water behind my boat last night around 8 or 9, maybe that was it.
Skype-called Dora, but even the audio-only connection kept dropping, so I gave up. Exchanged 4-5 books at the shelf in the office. Went for a walk.
Very bad news on the way back to the boat: outboard's low-oil light is on again, all the way back. Will have to check the level tomorrow; if it's losing oil that quickly, must be a blown gasket, I think. The motor runs fine (after replacing the pump), so I doubt compression could be so bad as to lose that much oil. But I did see a lot of blue smoke when I started it at the dinghy-dock. Still, I've run it a grand total of 3 short trips, maybe 5 minutes total, since adding oil yesterday. Unless the light also indicates overfilled oil ? I don't think so. [Outboard's manual says that warning light is off if "oil pressure is present".]
Chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-17 (Wednesday)Checked the outboard motor. Spark plug has plenty of carbon on it, some oil on the seat where it meets the block, but looks okay. Plenty of oil in the sump. Maybe the pressure-sensor has failed, or the oil pump has failed ? Will have to read the manuals some more.
Unfortunately, getting to the oil pump in the outboard means some major disassembly of the powerhead.
Went ashore in midafternoon. As I headed in, was thinking "why does the oil light come on only during the return trip ?". So, of course, the light came on halfway through the (very short) trip in. Did some yoga, went for a walk. Then back at the dinghy dock, the outboard wouldn't start, not a peep. Started to paddle out to the boat, but immediately two separate people offered to tow me. So a nice lady towed me out to the boat.
Too discouraged to work on the outboard today; I'll do it tomorrow.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-18 (Thursday)Reading online, outboard's oil-light problem most likely to be bad pressure-sender, or sludge clogging up the oil circuit. (I'm guessing sludge: the oil looks very dark, and I think I've never done an oil change on this motor, just added more. I have changed the gear oil several times.) But that doesn't explain the non-starting problem.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Manuals for the outboard give fairly inaccurate pictures of where the oil drain bolt is located/mounted. But I found it. And of course it's rusty, frozen, and the hex-head strips when I put a socket on it. I'll have to haul the motor up onto deck and work on it.
Ashore at 1. Outboard ran fine, no oil warning light. I pulled the fuel line off a couple of times, and tried to run the carb dry at the end. We'll see if that helps anything.
Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora. Went for a walk. On the way back, outboard started fine and I did the same fuel-line-on-off thing. 2/3 of the way to the boat, left the fuel line off, and the motor kept running and running. I think the carburetor is getting full of fuel. I've taken it apart twice and found nothing wrong; will have to do it again.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-19 (Friday)Totally socked in with low dark grey clouds and almost no wind. Heavy rain from 6:45 to 7:15, with some huge lightning strikes, most of them out on the peninsula S of me, but one ashore within 100 yards of me. Still no wind.
At 7:40, rain started up again, now with strong wind from the S. Nice: now I can start charging batteries and running refrigerator and laptop. But within 15 minutes, the nice wind was gone, leaving just grey and rain for at least three more hours. Got some more wind around 10:45, but still grey and rainy.
The day remained grey and on the edge of rainy, and useless. Little solar power, no wind, so could run the refrigerator only about 10% of the time, couldn't run the laptop. Didn't want to open up the outboard and get it rained on.
Salad and half-sandwich for dinner.
2014-09-20 (Saturday)Sunny morning with slight breeze; nice after yesterday's gloom.
Launched the dinghy, lifted the outboard off the transom and laid in inside the dinghy, and worked on getting the oil-drain bolt loose. The head is rusty and sockets and adjustable wrench slip on it. Got out a file and then the Dremel, and carved away the rust and made the sides of the bolt-head sharper, and finally got it loose. Was afraid it was going to snap off in the hole.
Put the motor back onto the transom, let it sit a bit, then drained the oil. Wow, when the bolt came out, the oil came out in a jet ! And it doesn't look good; I think there's a fair amount of gasoline and a little water in the oil.
Put the drain bolt back in, and filled with fresh oil (for diesel engine, but it also has an SM rating, so should be okay for gasoline engines). Overfilled the motor fairly severely, but the level went down a bit when I pulled the starter cord gently a couple of times. Let it sit a little while, then started the motor and it ran fine.
Went ashore at 12:30; ran outboard with the fuel line off most of the time. Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora, but the connection kept dropping. Went for a walk.
Outboard got me out to the boat, with the fuel line off most of the time. The motor runs for a LONG time with the line off; I guess the carburetor is getting FULL of fuel.
Salad and spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-21 (Sunday)Sunny morning until 10 or so, then it turned grey.
Around 11, launched the dinghy. Was getting ready to go ashore around 1115, when dark clouds closed in and a wall of rain came in from the S. Hard rain for 45 minutes or so.
Weather stayed grey and drenched.
At 2:40, a couple of HUGE lightning strikes half a mile S of me. Soon followed by a couple of hours of light rain. Getting no solar power today.
Salad and leftover spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-22 (Monday)A boat here in Mt Hartman Bay had their dinghy stolen last night; they forgot to lock the chain on it. Bright-yellow inflatable with 15 HP Yamaha on it.
Sunny morning at 8, but nasty dark clouds passing by just to the N of us. By 9:15, grey and rainy and wind blowing weather up from SSE. Sunny again later.
Starting battery for engine isn't charging properly; not sure what's wrong.
Ashore at 12:45. Did Wi-Fi. Did some yoga. Went for a walk.
Read online that the dinghy stolen last night has been recovered from mangroves S of Whisper Cove marina, minus the outboard motor.
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-23 (Tuesday)Grey, rainy morning. A bit headachey; took a paracetamol-plus. Over the last 4 or 5 days, I've taken a couple of sumatriptan, too.
On the cruiser's net, heard that a swimmer boarded a boat's swim platform in Saga Cove, across from Calvigny Resort, last night at midnight. Someone aboard happened to come into the cockpit and scared the guy away, then the alarm was raised and authorities came and two guys in a fishing boat were arrested.
Heavy rain starting around 8:30, lighter later. By 9:15, I was ready to go ashore for the shopping bus, but waiting for the rain to ease. But instead of easing, it was steady. Headed ashore at 9:2t5, and immediately the rain increased.
Onto the van, rain stopped, to bank, rained started again, to shopping mall. Got groceries and onto the van early at 10:45 or so. To Marketing Board, then CK's, then to marina. As we arrived, the rain started pouring down, and we sat on the bus for 10 minutes to wait it out. The rain eased a bit, we unloaded, and most of us hauled our stuff up into the restaurant to wait more. Ten minutes later, I was able to bail out the dinghy, and soon head out to the boat. Home a little before noon.
Still dark and grey and raining and little wind at 12:30. Everything drenched, wet clothes hung everywhere, not getting much solar power, lousy day.
The grey slowly got lighter, until we had some actual sunshine around 4 PM.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-24 (Wednesday)Engine-starting battery seems to be charging okay today; not sure what the problem was a couple of days ago. The combiner was cycling on and off.
Ashore at 11:45 to do Wi-Fi and see if I can get a game of dominoes. Had a nice game with Cheryl and Denis. Went for a walk.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all of the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
2014-09-25 (Thursday)Ashore in midafternoon. Exchanged lots of books. Forgot to take my yoga mat, but did some yoga anyway. Went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-26 (Friday)Sunny, breezey day.
Ashore at 1:30. Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain. Went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
All night, just enough wind to keep the wind-generator turning and the refrigerator running most of the time.
2014-09-27 (Saturday)Still have nice, steady wind coming up from SE.
Ashore in midafternoon to do some yoga, chat with some guys, go for a walk.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-09-28 (Sunday)Sunny and windy again today.
Ashore at 12:30. Did some Wi-Fi, Skyped with Dora. No one showed up for dominoes at 2, but then Denis came in late and we played a 2-person game, which turned out to be fun. And I found that for a long time his family had a house in a small Spanish town I'd just been looking up online, because I'll be visiting near there in a couple of months.
Went for a walk.
Celery and a salad for dinner.
Warm and little breeze and rolly all night; didn't sleep well.
2014-09-29 (Monday)Ashore in midafternoon to take a walk.
Salad and tuna-salad sandwiches and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Again, warm and little breeze and rolly all night; didn't sleep well.
2014-09-30 (Tuesday)Shopping bus at 9:30. To ATM, to supermarket, stopped at a couple of veggie places, back to marina. Outboard gave me some trouble on the way out to the boat; quit a couple of times, wouldn't run unless the choke was out or halfway out.
Ashore at 1:30, and outboard ran okay (with usual fuel-hose off half the time). Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Another warm, humid, fairly still night.
2014-10-01 (Wednesday)Added some refrigerant to the refrigerator; I think it hasn't been cooling well.
Alternating sun and light rain all morning, then some sharp rain at 12:20, followed by some grey.
Ashore in midafternoon. Disposed of a big bag of garbage. Did some yoga. Went for a walk; chatted with an interesting local guy for half of my walk. He was in Coast Guard here, did a waterfall-pool drowning recovery, tried to learn Spanish (which I'm trying to do right now).
Checked out the new engine Gary is having installed in his boat.
There has been a rash of dinghy-thefts (to get outboard motors) here lately. And now I'm told that several motors have been stolen from locals, too, so it's not just from cruisers.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-02 (Thursday)At 5:30 AM, wind went from zero to 15 to 40+ knots over the space of five minutes, and a powerful storm blew in from the SE. Blew 40+ knots for 15 minutes or so. [Later, read online that some people here measured wind speed at 50 knots.] Wind-generator howling, system voltage up to 18.5 V or so as there is little load (batteries are toast, refrigerator refuses to run at such voltages). Managed to shut off the wind-generator after a while, although it shut down very unevenly (due to the thermal protection it has). Ran the engine for 20 minutes or so, and it ran fine. Lots of friction in the throttle; it's been sitting idle too long. Wind kept going at 20 knots or more until 7 or so.
Grey all morning. Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Ashore in later afternoon to do some yoga and go for a walk. Chatted with Dick for a while.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread omelet and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Strong squall at 9:30. Very strong storm starting at 9:45. Strong squall again at 10.
Very strong storm at 2:10 AM.
2014-10-03 (Friday)Did a bucket of laundry. By the time I started putting it on the lifelines, around 11:30, a big storm was howling up from the SE.
Stayed grey and rainy all afternoon, and very rolly.
Very strong storm from 5 to 5:45 or so, then another from 6:35 to 7:30 or so.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-04 (Saturday)Right on schedule, a squall at 5:30. But it was brief.
At 8:15, an enormous, powerful storm moved in. High wind, sheets of rain. Peak of it was over by 8:35, but wasn't until 10 that the rain and wind were fully gone.
Grey all day.
Ashore in midafternoon to do some yoga and go for a walk. Got fairly wet on my walk; rained hard for a few minutes as I sheltered under some trees.
Celery and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-05 (Sunday)Sunny and fairly breezey morning; nice.
Went ashore before 11, to drop off a couple of things at the boat jumble-sale and then go for a walk. Put "free" labels on a set of shelves and a box of all my music CDs, and dumped them in the sale. Place was jammed and noisy and no table space left.
Ashore again at 1:30. Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain. No one for dominoes. Looks like someone snagged the music CDs I left at the sale, but the shelves still are here. Bought EC$20 of gasoline. Skype-called my Mom.
Back on the boat, checked my passport; need to renew my visa on the 12th I think. But the stamp in the passport says the 2nd, not the 12th: I missed the deadline ! (Also shows they gave me a WORK visa last time I flew in; strange.)
Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-06 (Monday)Ashore at 8:45 or so. Walked over to Customs at Prickly Bay. Had to wait a bit, then paid EC$450 for 6 months update to my cruising permit. Long, hot walk out to CK's, and onto a bus. To the govt complex at Botanical Gardens, handed in paperwork, and waited an hour and 20 minutes. Into the office for a brief interview (no grief about the missed deadline), downstairs to pay EC$50 for 2 months extension, upstairs and out.
Over to Grenada Yacht Club. Found that their book-exchange still is in storage somewhere, as it has been since their remodeling a year ago. Long chat with a British guy who lived in Mallorca for 20 years (I'm planning to move to Spain).
Caught a bus back to Sugarmill roundabout. No tomatoes in the veggie-stands. Auto store tried to sell me a spark plug that had almost no numbers in common with the number I gave them, and they mumbled every time I asked if this REALLY was compatible with the number I gave. No sale. Started walking home, and almost immediately was picked up by George and taken right to the marina; lovely. Back onto the boat by 12:50, tired and dehydrated and hot.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Managed to step on something sharp and pierce the ball of my foot, and it bled like crazy before I could get it elevated and compressed.
Warm, still night; didn't sleep very well.
2014-10-07 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for shopping van. Three-and-a-smidge van's worth of people to fit into two vans; it took a while to shuttle everyone out to the bank. To IGA. Groceries, a little chatting (met and heard of more people who've had severe bouts of chikingunya or dengue fever here), the usual stops, back aboard by 11:50.
Ashore again at 12:45 to do Wi-Fi.
Salad and chicken-onion-couscous-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Another warm, very still night, but I slept okay.
2014-10-08 (Wednesday)Gave myself a haircut.
At 1:30, ashore and walked over to Prickly Bay. Played dominoes; two tables with eight people. I did well at the start, then the dominoes turned against me and I came in next-to-last, I think. Nice chatting with people, fun.
Celery and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
2014-10-09 (Thursday)Ashore in midafternoon. Did some yoga, went for a walk, chatted with Gary and Dick.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-mushroom-bread omelet and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-10 (Friday)Ashore after 1. Did Wi-Fi. Skype-called Dora in Spain. Ordered a bunch of stuff on Amazon and EBay, to be delivered to NJ, and much of it I will then take to Barcelona. Went for a walk.
Celery and leftover chicken-couscous and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-11 (Saturday)Light wind, hot day.
Online, ordered a Spanish-English phrasebook-and-dictionary.
Ashore in midafternoon. On the way in, the outboard wouldn't run at all unless I kept the choke about 3/4 of the way out. Did some yoga, then went for a walk. On the way back to the boat, the outboard ran fine (although I did the usual fuel-hose-on-off thing).
Salad and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-12 (Sunday)Ashore at 1:30 and walked over to Prickly Bay to play dominoes. About 18 people at 4 tables. I had a fairly horrible game, but still it was fun. Some nice conversation. Hot day, and this marina bar is hotter than Secret Harbor's.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-13 (Monday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in late afternoon to do some yoga and go for a walk. Hot. Chatted with Gary; his new engine is running now.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Breeze suddenly started up at midnight-thirty; nice. It's been fairly still for the last week or so.
2014-10-14 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Unremarkable trip, pretty hot. Walked to Scotiabank and used the ATM, got groceries, bought a pillow, back to boat just before noon.
Ashore at 12:30. Did Wi-Fi. Went for a walk. Hot afternoon, and I'm feeling a little headachey. Breeze has mostly faded away.
Took a sumatriptan.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-15 (Wednesday)Added a little more refrigerant to the refrigerator.
Ashore at 1:30. Disposed of a bag of garbage. With Flemming, walked over to Prickly Bay marina to play dominoes; nine people at two tables. I did well in the first half of the game, then did incredibly well (luck, and some skill) in the second half, and won the game easily. Chatted again with Flemming on the walk back to Secret Harbour.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all of the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
Rained a couple of times after 2:30 or so.
2014-10-16 (Thursday)Re-caulked a couple of chainplates where rainwater leaked in.
Ashore at 1:15 to Skype to Dora. Computer decided to do long Windows-updates as I was trying to leave and as it was booting again ashore; annoying. But then Dora didn't answer right away anyway. Got through and chatted with Dora. Then played dominoes with Flemming, Cheryl, Helen, Margy, Susan, Holger. Not quite as much luck as yesterday, but I won again.
Started to go for a walk, then realized I don't have time, I'm doing something tonight. Back to the boat, salad for dinner, then soon ashore again.
Walked over to Prickly Bay marina, to go to a conversational Spanish gathering. Wasn't sure what to expect. About thirteen cruisers, several of whom I knew, and a "leader" who was from Venezuela, I think. Half of the group was at the same beginner level as I am, and most of the rest not a lot more advanced than that. A bit hot and buggy here, at first.
Got past the initial awkwardness, played a silly game that took up a lot of time and didn't really teach us much, had a little more conversation. Then chatted in English for a while after the group broke up. Interesting, a little useful, not too bad. (One benefit: while gathering stuff to take to the conversation, I found a Spanish phrasebook/dictionary on the boat that I didn't remember I had. Another benefit: someone convinced me to do my Spanish visa application more simply than I had planned.)
Walked back in the dark (with flashlight), and back out to the boat.
2014-10-17 (Friday)Headachey; took a paracetamol.
Still headachey in the afternoon; took a sumatriptan. Feeling hot and tired and headachey; decided not to go ashore for exercise.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-mushroom-bread omelet and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-18 (Saturday)Ashore at 12:30. Did some Wi-Fi. Couldn't Skype with Dora; her laptop won't turn on. Went for a walk. Watched some of the semi-finals of the volleyball tournament they're having here at the marina. Chatted with a British guy who has lived aboard for 40+ years.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Headachey; took a sumatriptan.
2014-10-19 (Sunday)Ashore at 1:30, and walked over to Prickly Bay for dominoes at 2. Hot walk. Got there and found everyone playing already, 3/4 of the way through the game. They changed the time to noon, and I didn't hear about the change. Someone else didn't hear, too; they showed up just before me. Oh, well, just got my exercise then. Walked back home and back out to the boat. Hot.
Carrot and chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-20 (Monday)Some nice breeze in the morning; it's been too still and hot for a couple of weeks now.
Ashore in midafternoon. Used the book-exchange, did some yoga, went for a walk.
Salad and leftover sausage-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-21 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for shopping van. Uneventful trip. Gave Richard a dinghy-ride out to his boat. Back aboard by 11:45.
Ashore again at 12:30 to do Wi-Fi. Chatted with Dick. Skype-called Dora in Spain, but the audio connection was horrible.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-22 (Wednesday)Ashore at 1:30. With Flemming, walked over to Prickly Bay to play dominoes. A pleasant game, but I had a couple of disastrous hands in the second half and came in last out of nine people.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner. Cooked all the sausage so it doesn't spoil when the refrigerator is off overnight.
Heavy rain from 3:15 to 4, then frequent rain afterward.
2014-10-23 (Thursday)Totally grey, rainy morning.
Big storm from E and NE starting around 8:45. Bummer: lost my nice micro-fiber towel off the lifelines. Storm finally tailed off by 10.
At 11:15, wind started howling from the SE. Still very grey, rainy, blowing hard at 4:45. Didn't ease until 6 PM or so. Had been planning to do dominoes and then conversational Spanish today, but didn't go ashore.
Salad and sausage-onion-cheese-bread omelet and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-24 (Friday)Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Grey, still clouds hovering overhead. Sunshine starting around 11.
Ashore at 12:30. Skype-called Dora in Spain, but the connection was bad. And very noisy in the restaurant today: a band practicing, usual music playing, and a leaf-blower outside. Did some yoga and went for a walk. Later, a birthday party, and a couple of clinically hyperactive kids.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
Headache in the middle of the night; took a Paracetamol+, but it didn't help much.
2014-10-25 (Saturday)Headache; took a sumatriptan.
Did a bucket of laundry.
Ashore in late afternoon. Did some yoga, went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-26 (Sunday)Ashore at 1:30. Walked over to Prickly Bay to play dominoes. A tough, competitive game, with me in contention all the way. Ended up coming in 3rd or 4th out of 18 people, I think. Walked back with Flemming. Big Halloween party for kids going on at Secret Harbour marina, with trampoline and bouncy-house and various other attractions and decorations.
Headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Salad and leftover sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
2014-10-27 (Monday)By mid-morning, no breeze, low dark clouds hovering overhead. Heavy brief rain at 11. Some sun after noon.
Ashore in late afternoon for some yoga and a walk. Hot, still, humid.
Salad and cornedbeef-onion-spaghetti and a rum-and-dietcola for dinner.
A little breeze started up around 8 PM or so; a relief.
2014-10-28 (Tuesday)Sunny and nice wind this morning; comfortable.
On the cruising net, starting to hear boats departing, moving N or W, as hurricane season is ending.
Ashore at 9:30 for the shopping van. Packed and hot. Uneventful shopping trip. Back to boat by 11:45.
Ashore after 12:30. Did Wi-Fi. Went for a walk.
Salad and chicken-onion-rice-carrot and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-10-29 (Wednesday)Ashore at 1:30 and walked over to Prickly Bay to play dominoes. A nice game, seven people at one table.
Back to the boat by 4:30. Around 5, dinghy-loads of kids in costumes appeared in the harbor. Around 5:15, they got to my boat, and I gave out packages of cookies to about 25 kids on 9 dinghies, I think. Fun.
Salad and sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Hot, still night.
2014-10-30 (Thursday)Headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Ashore in late afternoon for some yoga and a walk.
Salad and leftover chicken-rice and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-10-31 (Friday)Ashore at 2, to catch 2:15 bus to a barbeque at the Coast Guard base in Prickly Bay. Of course the bus was 20+ minutes late. And turns out a single bus is being used to shuttle all of us in from all of the marinas.
Got to the barbeque, and it's hot and very little shade. Had a Sprite, had nice conversations with several cruisers. All of the Coasties are busy selling drinks or getting food ready; little chance to talk to them. Finally the food was available, but the line for it was extremely slow. Sat and waited for half an hour, realized I wasn't going to get food for another 45 minutes or more, and then the bus would take an hour to shuttle us all home. Gave up and walked home; no barbeque for me.
Chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
Headache in the evening; at midnight, took a Tonopan.
2014-11-01 (Saturday)Did a bucket of laundry.
Offered my set of Patrick O'Brian books for sale on the cruiser's net; need to empty out the boat a bit. No takers yet.
Ashore after 1. Disposed of a bag of garbage. Did Wi-Fi. No Skype with Dora. Went for a walk.
Went snorkeling under the boat to scrape hull and prop. Tons of growth, but I'm flying out soon, so just did around the edges, then did the prop.
Salad and leftover sausage-onion-bread concoction and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-11-02 (Sunday)Around noon, Ken from "Silverheels 3" stopped by and we had a nice chat. Haven't seen him in quite a while.
At 1:30, went ashore and walked over to Prickly Bay marina. Played dominoes with about 20 people at 4 tables, and I didn't do very well. But some fun conversation; a good time.
Back on the boat, pulled in about 6 feet of anchor chain to start the gunk on it drying and dying off. I plan to move the boat tomorrow.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-11-03 (Monday)Pulled and cleaned some anchor chain, section at a time. Lots of grass and barnacles on the first 20+ feet of it.
Started engine at 10:45; throttle very stiff. Not too much trouble getting the anchor up. Motored across the harbor, found more room than it looked like from further away, and anchor down by 11:05 at Mount Hartman Bay, Grenada.
Less breeze over here, as I expected. And the boat spinning at times.
Ashore in late afternoon and went for a walk.
Salad and leftover chili and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-11-04 (Tuesday)Ashore at 9:30 for shopping van. To veggie stand, ATM, then IGA mall. Only need a few things; leaving Thursday. Back to boat by 11:15 or so.
Ashore at 12:15. Did Wi-Fi. Backed up my computer to external disk. Exchanged a lot of books. Skyped with Dora.
Salad and cornedbeef-onion-spaghetti and a rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner.
2014-11-05 (Wednesday)Put new plastic on anchor chain hawsehole on foredeck.
Gave myself more of a haircut. Short.
Was thinking of raising anchor and moving slightly further from shore. Then saw the boat nearest me, and guys changing it from anchored to on a newly installed mooring. That reduces my options a little. Decided to stay put, and just make sure I won't touch aground if strong wind blows me hard toward shore. Started engine and back down hard in that direction, and anchor is holding solidly and I have about 20 feet to spare. So decided to stay put.
Ashore before 1:30, walked over to Prickly Bay marina. Hot.
Played dominoes with Holger, Edie, Margie. Came in last.
Watched a few minutes of Barcelona football on the TV. I'll be in Barcelona a week from now.
Back to boat. Hoisted outboard up out of dinghy and into main cabin, getting grease all over a nice pair of undershorts.
Started packing and locking things up, getting ready to leave.
Salad and leftover cornedbeef-onion-spaghetti and a light rum-and-cranberryjuice for dinner. A bit headachey; took a sumatriptan.
Frequent light rain during the night; warm and humid and had to keep closing the ports (mostly).
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