October 2012

October

Mon 1^st

Piereve runs the yoga practice first thing in secret harbour. He and his wife Miray have retired and live on Umido. He has studied kendo, judo, karate, tai chi and yoga. The French don't do cricket at school but martial arts are an option.

Tue 2^nd

I won $100 by drinking Carib but had to take the bottle top to the brewery to collect the award. Tough job.

Wed 3^rd

Best book swap at IWW then guitar practice.

Thur 4^th

Yoga first thing then boat fixing. Our decompression lever has corroded and will not stop the port engine. Not as bad as it sounds, its just inconvenient to have to dive into the hot engine bay and reach down a metre to move the decompresser when we stop.

Fri 5^th

The boules tournament is cancelled so we take the dinghy ashore to give it a scrub underneath. A new top tip, turn it over and let it dry, cover with bleach and let it dry, done. It seems to work so far. Not sure what the fish think. Piereve and Miray teach us Tai Chi on the beach for about an hour first Tai Chi in years and Trudy's first try ever. All good stuff.

Sat 6^th

We go to our second ever Hash House Harriers Hash. We remember why we didn't enjoy it last time. It only lasted a bit more than an hour and a half but we slither about in mud, in and out of streams up and down 45 degree and steeper inclines getting scratched and bruised, just avoiding broken limbs. We discover red ants about 1.5 cms long and get bitten by some so small you can hardly see them. This is followed by an “oil down” (local dish) and a few beers. There is a great following out here among many locals and cruisers and up to 250 hashers do this every week sometimes up to 500. Actually it doesn't sound that bad; perhaps we will go again next year!

Sun 7^th

Peter Bonta from yacht “Too Much Fun” arrived at the jam session and standards rose again.

Mon 8^th

Yoga with Piereeve.

Tue 9^th

Meray and Piereve show us more Tai Chi moves on the beach.

Wed 10^th

We weather watch Invest 98L that is destined to become storm Raphael.

Thur 11^th

Yoga again. More storm watching. Every 2 to three hours we pick up another weather forecast. It seems to be heading straight for us but at last minute heads north towards St Lucia.

Fri 12^th

Start the day with Tai Chi, and. Collect some parts from Island water world and budget marine; Sherri calls to say she will drop some more stuff off at the local bar. We go to cricket, Trudy plays for the first time in her life, we are on opposite sides, it is the same for all couples....she scores as many runs as me....duck....Its the closest match yet. With an equal number of West Indians on each side! Complete with barracking.

Sat 13^th

Storm Raphael passes north but leaves us with a large swell. Too roly and windy to get off the boat. Fitted new fridge pump, a smaller one using less than half the amps of the old one.

Sun 14^th

Jam session again. Rajun Cajun Tony turns up and starts telling everyone off! We have a miserable time and moan into our beer. Many decide they are not coming back.

Mon 15^th

Liming

Tue 16^th

Tai Chi, shopping and a move into the next bay, Clarkes Court, Flat calm; lovely. We discover the windex is not working.

Wed 17^th

We find out our water maker has not been ordered and we need to order and collect it in Trinidad. Good job we were going there.

Thur 18^th

Pick up all remaining parts for out SSB radio kit. All we need to do now is install it; and pass the exam in the UK!

Fri 19^th

Trudy uses our old fridge pump to replace the deck cleaning pump. We get great water pressure for deck cleaning.

Sat 20^th

HHH 750^th Grenada hash in La Sargese, a beautiful beach resort and beers after a two hour walk in the hills. Back to Oasis bar to listen to live sax and trumpet from Gforce.

Sun 21^st

Trudy jerry rigs a stop cable, a bit Heath Robinson but it works.

Mon 22^nd

Our windex is still stuck so there are now two reasons to go up the mast, fix the windex and change the anchor light bulb for an LED that uses a 10^th of the power. Trudy hauls me up on two halyards and I discover the led will not work as the polarity is wrong and the fitting is an off set bayonet. I decide not to bodge it but reverse the polarity below deck instead.

Tue 23^rd

Of to IWW chandlers. The barometer that we bought to use forecasting storms has remained on 1011 millibars for over a month. We are convinced it does not work so exchange it for a more expensive version. As we travel by bus over the hills it changes continuously without tapping, perhaps we now have a good one.

Wed 24^th

All morning spent tracking down a 30' cable to activate the port decompresser and stop the engine. It is now on order and should be with us in 5 days....

Afternoon is spent removing every seat from the saloon and emptying all the under seat lockers in order to track down the junction box for the mast head lights. Polarity changed for the anchor light, Job finally completed, all lockers re filled, so just need to go up the mast again. We need to wait for the winds and waves to subside.

Thur 25^th

Grenada public holiday. Bruce from Serenity comes on board to swap some guitar riffs. Cooking class teaches us how to male plantain in a ginger and orange sauce; they also provide some mahi mahi in passion fruit sauce, calalou au gratin followed by soursop ice cream. All for £3. brilliant. Omega and Ester, the two girls that run the class will be videoed for a British television company on Saturday so you may get to see them on the box. Apparently they are having to use cocoa and nutmeg, two ingredients that come from Grenada. Back to the boat for a sundowner with Serenity and Secret Smile.

Fri 26^th

Grenada day off after public holiday! Tai chi first thing then shopping bus. No cricket this Friday as we are having a Halloween cricket party instead.

Sat 27^th

Trudy goes shopping for Halloween costumes, I practice with guitar. Stan and Cora play keyboard and sax at the local marina bar. The are with two guitarists and one is heading north, Do I want to play with them at Roger's beach bar on Tuesday? YES PLEASE!

Sun 28^th

Trudy spends hours filling in online visa application, Jam session at whisper cove.

Mon 29^th

No stop cable.

Tue 30^th

First thing tai chi, then customs to renew our visas. We are told we need to go to Immigration in town, rumour has it that this will take all day. Bus in, a mile walk, arrive in immigration, queue, register, wait, sent to treasury, queue, back to immigration queue to hand in receipt, wait, 1/2 mile walk as bus reverses to pick us up, back to marina to collect boxes of wine. My turn to spend hours on US visa application. We get to Roger's beach bar at about five and after problems with generators extension cables and adapters I end up playing on battery power. It goes well and I am invited back to play next Saturday. A dream come true.

Wed 31^st

Trudy climbs he mast to change our anchor light from a 3watt halogen to a 0.3 watt led. Then off to Miss Molly to see Phill and Monica. We need all to upload portrait pictures to the US web site to obtain US visas. We will apply for them in Trinidad. Then off to fancy dress cricket. Double runs if you wear a hat! Then a 20^th wedding anniversary party at de big fish with Barracuda and Ilfie doing an acoustic set, back to the Oasis bar for Kung Fu, an amazing 60 plus drummer, making quite a busy day! No stop cable no sewing machine.