America in the "Global Century"...

The last few days I have read two incredible books that both really got me thinking about all sorts of subjects: politics, race, religion, economies, etc. First I read Pico Ayer's amazing travel memoir, Video Night in Kathmandu. I couldn't put the book down. From the first chapter when he talks about the fusing of cultures and the phenom of the 80's when everything American was all the rage in Asia I was hooked. Great read, especially for anyone who likes to travel, and when I say travel I don't mean get on a flight, land, take a shuttle to some all-inclusive resort behind guarded gates so that you can sit around drinking cocktails by a pool when you are 100 yards from an ocean. Or never leave the resort other than to go on some excursion where you are herded around like cattle from bus to attraction to bus back to the cozy resort. That isn't traveling. I digress. So his book rocked and then I started The Autobiography of Malcolm X as told to Alex Haley. Wow. Another one I couldn't put down. The book has been around for more than 40 years so I know this isn't news to anyone but man I truly wish I would have read it sooner.

So after I read a book I really enjoy, I typically end up online looking up information about the author, gotta love the wikipedia and old google. Obviously there is ton of info about Malcolm X. I watched several of his speeches on youtube and read several transcripts of various speeches and lectures he gave. There is good stuff in regards to Iyer as well. One of the things that I found that stuck out was a small article he did about meeting Obama (while Iyer was hanging out with Paul Theroux, another bad ass travel writer) in Hawaii 2 years ago. Here is a great passage from the article that really hit home for me:

"Everywhere I've been this year - from Jerusalem to Japan to Colombia to Italy and back again - I've heard people essentially say that America is an overweight, white plutocrat who is not only out of touch with the world but also shows no signs of wanting to grow closer to it. This is as unfair as any image - contradicted at every moment by the kindness and curiosity of many Americans - but it remains a potent one in a world where people communicate more with images than ideas and assumptions travel faster than truths. The best way to begin to correct it is to show the world a leader who can't really say how much he's African or Asian or American or just a product of their mixing in Hawaii. The point is not just that Obama will bring globalism to America; in his name, his face and his issues, he'll bring America back to the globe."

If you want to read the whole article check here http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20081108/us_time/mychanceencounterwithobamainhawaii

I think both books spurned me into scouring the internet for several hours reading news reports. Aside from internet, I am completely disconnected from news outside of this island. Granted there are papers here and tv, but I don't have a tv and most of the stories in the papers only deal with local news and the occasional big stories from home. A few hours was all I could take though. Even though I came across the occasional gem such as Iyer's article, most of the headlines were bad news I just don't want to know about and since I don't give a fuck about what Britney Spears and the rest of the mutants are doing, I was forced to keep searching for INTERESTING news from home. The one that finally did it for me was when I read that last Friday a Walmart employee was trampled to death as he was trying to unlock the doors to the store.

This is the kind of shit that leaves me scathingly angry and is pretty much why I hate X-mas but that is a different subject. I don't really want to go on a rant here but basically I think that after reading two books like this and feeling optimistic about America growing into the "Global Century" to see a story about this rampant and ridiculous frenzy of consumers who are so intent on beating others to the racks to buy a bunch of shit they really don't need and they end up leaving some poor dude (who was working for a temp agency no less) dead as they run right over the top of him to save a few dollars. How do you explain this type of insanity to people? How can I justify actions like this by people of my home country to the people in the countries I visit, people who aren't ridden with lust and insatiable greed, people who only buy what they NEED and can AFFORD? Still to this day I end up buying more than I need when I go grocery shopping. 30 years living in a country full of excess is not easily shaken off. For the time being I will remain hopeful that during his presidency Obama may help to diffuse some of the old ways and maybe people can start realizing that there is a world outside of our own little bubbles and that there are a hell of a lot better things to do with your time and money than camping in a Walmart parking lot and being part of a mob that is responsible for destroying someone's life. Fuck me, this is why I usually ignore the news, where's the rum?

Thankful for my hammock...

The pic above I took of the sunset tonight. It was truly one of the best I have seen down here. It went from a true vanilla sky into a fiery red, just freaking awe inspiring. The pic does it no justice.

Happy Thanksgiving. As you can see from the pic taken just before sunset tonight, I had a rough day. Not much to tell you about from the last week. I've gotten the majority of the work done that was on my list, save for a few things that I'm waiting on parts for. According to my pals at the boat shop the parts I need are being shipped in the next container due the first week of next month, I'm not holding my breath. The anchorage here is starting to fill up with boats. The cruisers who went home for the summer are starting to arrive and each day the boat yard drops several boats back in the water. The cruising season has started. Most of these people haul their boats sometime between May and June and go back to their respective countries to work or visit family and basically just wait out the hurricane season. It has provided a little entertainment as I have been watching several boats come directly from the launch out here looking to anchor up and some of the couples get at each other. They yell at each other for all kinds of reasons, mostly because certain things aren't working on the boat and they didn't bother to fix them in the yard, they just flew in and splash, back in the drink they go. Then they get out here and the windlass won't work, they can't get the anchor to set, engine trouble, or my favorite, I recently watched from the comfort of my hammock as a couple from the UK blasted into each other because the little headset/microphone setup they use to communicate while anchoring apparently wasn't working but neither of them could hear the other one shouting because they didn't bother taking the headsets off. Funny shit when it isn't happening to me.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. The cruisers put on a nice pot luck over at the Tiki Bar today to celebrate Caribbean style. It was a nice setup though I didn't stay long. I have been content lounging around the boat, swinging in the hammock reading all day. The weather has been perfect with just enough cloud cover to keep it from being brutally hot and a fresh breeze blowing all day. The last few days (prior to today) on anchor I haven't left the boat, haven't even got into the dinghy, it's just been so peaceful. Although Fabian is back from St Vincent and the Grenadines and it's never quiet for long with him around.

He had six people on his boat doing a two week dive charter and they left almost two weeks ago to head up to St Vincent and start sailing back, stopping at several islands to dive and explore so I haven't seen him until today. I guess my jail time has made me somewhat of a legend in our little circle so he stopped by to give me shit and earfuck me as usual about being a dumb ass American. But it turns out during his charter he had some bad luck as well. I guess while they were visiting the island of Bequia (Beck-way, don't ask me but it's how they say it around here) two of his guests, a man and woman went into town to get dinner. On their way back they were assaulted by some local punks. The man's wallet was taken and the poor woman got smacked in the head with a rock. From what Fabian told me, the Coast Guard there in Bequia would not take her to the hospital in St Vincent until 6 AM (I guess it was around 1 when this happened) so they were forced to take his boat back to St Vincent (an hour and a half trip). From there the woman was transferred by plane to the hospital here in Grenada and he said that she is still there under observation. Fabio also said that there have been a few attacks recently reported there in Bequia. Don't know what is going on there but when Brian and I visited, it seemed like a pretty chill place. Anyway, sounds like she will be alright but it sucks hearing about that kind of thing happening.

Again, Happy Turkey Day and to my family and friends, hope you had a good one today, miss all of you.

"Never put off until tomorrow what you can do the day after tomorrow."

Mark Twain

If...

IF you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise:

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with worn-out tools:

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: 'Hold on!'

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with Kings - nor lose the common touch,
if neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you,
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run,
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man, my son!

-Rudyard Kipling

Still one of my favorite poems. You can also check at youtube for some video of Dennis Hopper reading this poem. There is also another reading by Robert Morley that is good.

Yes, I really read this much

The weather here has been shitty pretty much all week. Lots of wind and rain, with the swells constantly changing direction in the anchorage, have been moving the boat around quite a bit. Aside from my "hard time" (see previous post) I have been taking it pretty easy and getting a lot of reading done this week. I have done a few little basic projects on the boat but nothing out of the ordinary. I am currently taking a break from reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and it got me to thinking about how many books I have read since living on boats. There were so many books that I always intended on reading but never got around to. Now that I have the chance I have read many of them and continue to do so. So I figured I would start posting now and then a list of books I am reading/or have read. I want to do this partly as a record for myself to remember and also because I have received a few e-mails asking me what I do read. Anyway, I'll start small and list what I have read in the last couple of weeks.

smile when you're lying (confessions of a rogue travel writer) by Chuck Thompson

-this was a great book, especially if you have travelled a bit and can relate to some of his misadventures, and written honestly by omitting the bullshit you read in travel brochures and telling you what life on the road is really like, good stuff.

The Valkyries by Paulo Coelho

-I can't help it. Coelho is bad ass and I dig his writing. I have read some other opinions about how contrived and regurgitated his quotes are but I relate a lot on a personal level to his characters. This book tries to answer the question, why do we destroy the things we love the most? (taken from the back cover but it is the most accurate description). I couldn't help it, read it in one night. If you have a tendency to sabotage yourself (as I often do) you will like this one.

Adventures of a Continental Drifter by Elliot Hester

-cool travel stories from an ex-flight attendant that sold everything and went on an "around the world excursion into weirdness, danger, lust, and the perils of street food". Good fast read.

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk

-sick, twisted, I loved it. One of my favorite books is Fight Club (still the name of my little fishing boat back home) by the same author. It was hard for me to put this book down. I just dig the way this guy writes, in your face, real, harsh, he even makes me cringe sometimes and that ain't easy.

Why We Hate Us by Dick Meyer

-good commentary on the "American discontent in the New Millenium" the author attacks rude people on cell phones, kids being taught to market themselves on myspace/facebook, cheating in sports/business, reality TV and many other topics that many of us bitch about but seem to keep rolling right along taking all this shit every day.

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

-probably don't have to say anything here, I've never read it so I finally did. I found a bookstore here in Grenada that had this one as well as the three books in the Lord of the Rings trilogy so I bought all four of them.

Currently reading The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring by J.R.R. Tolken

-same thing as above, unfortunately I had never read any of these but like everyone else I have seen the movies. I am really enjoying this one (The Hobbit kicked ass as well).

I think that's about it from the last two weeks or so. This weather sucks so bad I think I will be running some errands in the morning, checking out of the country and sailing North to either Union Island or possibly St Lucia, haven't really made up my mind I just want to get the hell away from the rain.

I can now say I have been in jail...

Now I can add going to jail in another country to my lengthy resume of insane situations that I have been a part of. Here's what happened. Sunday afternoons, a lot of people gather at a small beach bar on Hog Island called simply Roger Bar. At Roger, beers are 5 EC and for 20 EC you get a big plate of food. So this last Sunday I had told some new friends of mine that we should go hang for the afternoon in Roger. As is customary there on Sundays, the afternoon quickly turns to evening and the beers keep flowing. When we finally decided to pack up and go, I was heading back to Prickly Bay to the West and they were headed East to where their boat was moored. I sped around in my dinghy to another spot to say hi to some friends there and ended up drinking some wine with them until about 11. I said goodbye there and hopped back in the dinghy, at this point, I'm feeling pretty good and hadn't reached that retard drunk stage, so I decided just to head back to the boat and get some sleep. I was cruising through a cut in some reefs headed out to go around the point to Prickly when the motor of the dinghy died. This outboard motor has been a champ and run strong the whole time. I checked the fuel, good to go, fuel line was attached, nothing on the prop, pulled and pulled but it would not start. Now the weather here for the past week has been pretty shitty and we have had lots of wind and rain. Basically, I was screwed if I couldn't get the motor started because there was no way I could paddle around the point and all the way to the boat in the sea conditions. So after 20 minutes or so I was starting to drift onto the reef near a small beach. I pulled the motor up so it wouldn't hit and rowed the dinghy to the sand. After pulling the dinghy up the sand a bit I tried to monkey with the motor a bit more but in the dark and having no tools I didn't think I would make much progress. So I decided to tie the rope to a tree and just crash out on the beach.



It started getting cold and with the drizzle I was getting soaked so I walked up a hill a bit until I found a small villa. I found a nice little corner under an eave to keep me out of the rain and I crashed there for a bit. I was woken up at 1 in the morning to a flashlight and several voices. I stood up thinking I might be in for a fight when I heard them say "Police!" After shaking the cobwebs from my head I asked what the problem was and apparently, the bitch who runs the property wasn't happy about some random dude sleeping on the beach so she called the popos. I apologized, tried to explain about the boat being broken down and blah blah blah. They asked if I had any weapons or drugs and of course I said no. They asked me to empty my pockets which was no problem. I reached into my right pocket and pulled out the EC money I was carrying. Out of my left pocket I pulled out a small piece of foil. I was confused for a moment because I didn't remember having this in my pocket but it only took one of the cops a second to snatch it out of my hand and open it. When he asked me what it was I had to look to remember. So here is the fun part. It was weed. A friend of mine had been given this small amount of marijuana from another person while we were out drinking that afternoon. As she had no pockets and we were all drinking, she asked if I could hang on to it until we got back to their boat. I said sure and pretty much forgot about it. So now I'm standing on the beach trying to explain this to cops at 1 in the morning. Not only that, but I'm not carrying any ID on me. Time to go to the station house. I get escorted to an SUV and sit in the far back. They wouldn't even let me grab my sandals out of the dinghy. We get to the police station sometime after 2 AM and the interrogation starts. Do I sell drugs, where do I buy my drugs, blah blah. Let me say for the record that I have never smoked weed in my life. Not because I have some moral stance against it, I am too scared that like most things I do, if I start smoking I would take it to excess. Just simple self awareness keeps me too scared to smoke. At 2 AM when you are buzzing from a day of drinking, standing in a police station trying to explain this to cops just doesn't really sound convincing. I swear though, it is the truth. So after being questioned for an hour, I'm told I have to spend the night there because they need to confirm my story the next morning. The only place I can lie down to sleep is in a holding cell so they take me down to a cell, barefoot and all and show me my accomodations. I did my best to get some rest on a narrow wooden bench in a cell that reeked of urine and was infested with mosquitoes. At 7 AM, one of my cellmates woke me up because our ration of food was being given. A cold sandwich and a small cup of tea. No thanks, I gave it to another guy in the cell. At 9 AM, the "Detective" assigned to my "case" arrived to escort me to the Coast Guard so he could confirm my story of living on the boat and that I had nothing on board to hide short of my speargun. For his "protection" he needed to cuff me (this is the first time I was in cuffs) for the ride to the Coast Guard. He spent an hour bullshitting with some of them while I sat barefoot and cuffed in the SUV in the parking lot. He finally came to get me, took the cuffs off and we were off in the Coast Guard boat with 4 members, 3 of which were holding automatic machine guns as if I were a threat. This whole situation was so fucking surreal that I couldn't help but keep laughing at them. We got on the boat and he "confirmed" that I was in fact telling the truth, no drugs or weapons on the boat and he saw a photo hanging in my cabin of me with my old truck crew from Station 3. He asked if I was a firefighter and I said yeah. This seemed to make him relax a lot and I was glad for that. I asked if I could rinse off and change and he was generous enough to give me 90 seconds to do so. I got some shoes, a red bull, a breakfast bar and some water and after that we were dropped at a dock near the beach I slept on and were picked up by the SUV to go "investigate" the area I tied the dinghy at. After searching around for a bit and listening to the lady that ran the place act like I ruined her life, the cop was finally satisfied that I had been telling the truth the whole time, I drank, the boat broke down, I was gonna wait until morning to figure out where I was and get a bus in to figure out what to do, blah blah. From this point, apparently I was now a friend and the cop asked me if he could come out sometime and hang out on the boat with his family. I couldn't believe it. I asked if he could leave me there so I could work on the dinghy and he said they would wait because I needed to go back to the station to be cleared of any charges and given my property back (the money in my pocket). I messed with the dinghy for a bit and figured out the problem. Somehow the vent on top of the fuel can worked it's way shut, just enough to choke out the motor and cause it not to start. Being fairly deep in the beer and wine I guess it never occured to me to check that. I laughed hysterically because I could've avoided the whole mess if I had simply unscrewed the vent a bit. I told the cop and he laughed to. I was really tired and hungry at this point and just wanted to take a long swim followed by a shower to rid myself of my jail cell funk but instead of going straight away to the station to clear me out, I got to go along with the cops as they ran their own personal errands. We stopped by the grocery store to buy milk, sugar and bread followed by a stop in at the laundry. Then we stopped by another crime scene where someone had broken into some building. After we finally reached the station, I spent another hour waiting for the jackass guy at the desk to write a few lines in a book and ask me four times my name and age. I got my money and after the guys finished their lunches (that they bought at the grocery store), they were gracious enough to give me a ride back to my dinghy. After dropping me off, we said our goodbyes, one gave me his card and told me to call him if I ever have any problems down here. I thanked him and headed to the beach.



The property owners had managed to drag the dinghy quite a ways up the beach so I spent about 20 minutes wrestling the damn thing down to the waters edge. I finally got it in the water and spent another 15 or so minutes rowing out to deeper water so I could drop the outboard and motor along. I fired up the motor and headed over to my friends boat to tell them the story and explain why I hadn't showed up in the morning as we had previously planned. I had offered to drive them around the island if they wanted to rent a car for the day and they said yes. We planned to leave yesterday morning but due to my incarceration, that just didn't work out. We all got a good laugh after I told them the story and showed why I am Captain Chaos. I sped back to the boat and after a good swim, a long shower and some chow, I fell into a deep sleep for the rest of the afternoon. This morning I got up and went to rent the car. After I rented it I realized I needed to update my temporary driving license from here so I had to return to the police station. When I walked in, the guys just started laughing and after messing with me for about 45 minutes I got my license updated. So the irony here is that I can probably say that I am the only person in the Caribbean who doesn't smoke weed but I have been detained (since the detective informed me that I was never under arrest) for possession. Only me man, only me.



On another note, I spent all of last week in the lagoon tied up at Port Louis Marina. I was getting the bottom scrubbed, the boat washed and polished, the interior cleaned up, batteries charged, oil changed, generator serviced, etc. It worked out good and it was nice to have unlimited water and power for a few days. The part that really hurt was getting fuel. I wanted to sail to Trinidad to get fuel because last time I was there it was less than a dollar a gallon. My buddy told me that he just came from there and there had been some problem so they are now charging foreign flagged vessels the same rate that you pay in your native country. So F that. So I was forced to buy fuel here at 16.45 EC a gallon. After filling up both tanks, the dinghy and the reserve gas cans I got to pay 700 U.S. dollars. Yippee. Needless to say I wasn't in the same chipper mood I was in back in June when I sailed to Venezuela with Jaymie and bought the same amount of fuel for less than 7 U.S. dollars. So I'll close for now by saying to my good buddy Dan Lopez that I have joined your club of having spent half a day in a jail cell in a foreign country, although your Mexico jail story is probably still funnier than mine.

Finally, a good headsail...

When I sailed to Union Island before my visit home, I blew out the headsail (jib/genoa) in a squall that caught me on the windward side of Grenada, the photos above show where it started shredding. Since this sail was already on it's last leg, I had already had a foot and a half cut off the leech (backside of the sail) and had some reinforcement sewn on (which worked great obviously), I had been looking into buying a new one online out of Hong Kong. Anyway, that trip was to pick up a dinghy in Union. If you hadn't followed before I was having all kind of trouble with dinghies and finally found a decent one through a friend in Union. So now I have two extra dinghies on board. Pretty ridiculous. So that leads me to now where I have been able to buy a headsail from Fabian that is in really good shape and should last a while and by selling the two dinghies I'm actually coming out ahead, I can't believe it. So I spent the afternoon through sunset pulling down the old sail and rigging the new one. I guess I should be happy there is no wind again today, the anchorage is flat calm (which is unusual in Prickly) and I didn't have to wrestle with a huge sail flailing around. One less headache taken care of.

New meaning to water bed...

Here is a free tip:

If you go to town to get some groceries, shut the hatches and windows. Especially the one above your mattress. Even if it's a perfect sunny day and not a cloud in the sky and you will be gone less than an hour so there is no chance that a freak tropical downpour will swoop through the anchorage and dump a shitload of rain in 15 minutes. Cause that never happens down here. I'm glad this boat has 4 cabins.

Another reason I love my friends...

Baby Alex has her first Halloween. She is gonna be one of the coolest people on the planet from growing up with two of my best friends Ron and Laurel. Though I do feel sorry for whoever has her on her first day of kindergarten.

Air Jamaica sucks, boat maintenance, fuel run, Obama and Prop 8

So I have been back in Grenada for a while after my extended visit home. It was no easy feat getting back thanks to the wonderful staff of Air Jamaica. I had connecting flights in Las Vegas and then a long 8 hour layover in JFK. My flight was scheduled to leave JFK at 6:30 AM and around 6:10 AM I was called back to the check in desk. They wanted to see my Grenadian citizenship papers. My what? Apparently, if you buy a one way ticket through Air Jamaica, you better be a citizen of the country you are flying to. Makes no sense to me based on the fact that it isn't the job of an airline to enforce immigration laws of a given country, that's why when you enter somewhere you will go through customs and immigration. I explained about living on a boat, produced my papers showing the boat registration and the current immigration forms proving I had checked the boat in legally to Grenada. Of course, I had to talk to a supervisor who took her sweet time coming out and after calmly explaining everything to her still felt it necessary to call Grenada immigration. Of course no one is in that early. After acting like she was doing me the biggest favor in the world she said that she will "allow me access to Grenada". One thing I do miss about the U.S. is the ability of people to (forgive the cliche) think outside the box. I swear in these other countries the people tend to operate like robots. If there isn't something written down to guide them, they simply cannot come up with a gameplan of their own. It's amazing to me the lack of efficiency that goes on daily. It's just part of traveling and you have to deal with it and normally I take it in stride but after flying and/or sleeping on cold airport floors for over 24 hours it just about sent me over the edge that morning. The best part is when you go through customs here and you tell them that you live on a boat, they ask if you have any spare parts with you. You say no, they stare at you for a moment, then wave you through. Guess they aren't as worried about national security as the guard dogs from Air Jamaica.

Anyway, after landing here I got a taxi bus to where I figured my buddy Fabian would be anchored up. I called him a couple of times before he answered and as usual he had been out drinking until 7 in the morning so I don't think he was real happy to hear from me at noon. He got up and came to the dock to give me a lift over to where the boat was anchored in Hog Island. I was dreading all the work that I figured I would inevitably have but to my surprise and relief it wasn't that bad. I got situated and spent a few days relaxing and getting adjusted to the time change and the weather. I recently moved the boat over to the bay I'm normally in and of course it's time to get to work on the boat. I've got oil changes and services to do on everything, a leaking window to fix, paint the dinghy, alternator change on the port engine, blah blah blah. I already had to replace the control box for the windlass again (3rd time) as I think when they rebuilt the motor for it that it has a higher output than it previously did so it burned up the 1200 watt box. Fun stuff huh? The weather is hot and humid right now. We haven't had any wind all week so I have been drifting along all over the place and sweating to death. It's too hot to do any work during the day so I have been typically doing stuff at night. This weekend I'm going to tie up to the small marina here in Prickly Bay and take on water and fuel. It kills me to buy fuel here at 15 EC a gallon but I heard that Trinidad recently stopped selling fuel, not sure why but I don't want to risk sailing 15 hours down there just to be turned around. Last time I was there it was less than a dollar a gallon. Venezuela is still possible, I haven't decided yet. I can sail to Margarita Island in about 20 hours but the sail back is brutal coming into the current, swells, and directly to windward. I would probably have to sail northeast to St Vincent and then tack back to Grenada and I assume that will take the better part of 2-3 days. But at 6 cents a gallon down there it beats the hell out of the prices here. Not sure yet what I will do.

Obama being elected is big news down here. All of my island friends want to talk about it and it is on the cover of all the papers. The whole island is buzzing after his victory. I was glad to see him win. I can't believe Prop 8 actually passed in California. Just when I was feeling patriotic about the election (Obama even won in Colorado, wow) my fellow Californians pass that bullshit. What the fuck is wrong with people man? Go to Burning Man and get a different view about gay people. They are people. I don't even want to get started on a rant about this but if you voted for this prop please move out of California because you are a douche bag.

Fantasy

Ok, so many of you have e-mailed me asking what the fuck I'm doing. Here is the deal. I'm dealing with a bunch of fucked up crazy psycho American freak shows. That is how it is. They might deny it but it's the truth. I should be back on the boat within the next week or so and I should update the blog on how much I hate scrubbing the bottom and performing all the routine maintenance. Many crazy fucking things have happened on this visit home and if you care enough to read about them you will buy my book when it gets published. Love you all and will try and keep you updated as I am about to visit the forbidden land and the stories upon my return should be famous. Don't give up on me, I'll start writing again soon.

Where were you?

I remember waking up that morning at the firehouse.  I was in my sixth month as a probationary firefighter working with a powerhouse crew out of Station 1.  I had put the coffee on, got the paper, wiped the rigs down and put the flag up.  I remember walking through the living room and a couple of the guys were watching news, glued to the tv.  Being a rookie, I wasn't allowed to watch tv so I didn't even glance at what they were so transfixed by.  As I put the paper on the kitchen table, one of the guys told me to look.  I saw that a plane had crashed into a building, the WTC in NY.  Wow, we all started talking about how logistically tough it would be to fight that fire, all the resources needed, evac, etc.  I imagine at that moment all over the nation this same conversation was transpiring in firehouses.  The tone hit, we rushed to the apparatus floor, donned our turnouts and raced off to the freeway.  Arriving on the scene of an overturned semi truck that was pulling a set of double trailers.  The trailers were carrying wine and the driver took the on ramp too fast causing his rig to tip over.  We extricated the driver who walked away with minor injuries and then I set about plugging the leaking trailers. Total on scene time was probably around an hour or so and we returned to quarters anxious to see the progress the FDNY was making.  At this point it was just a fire.  Just another high rise fire.  Back in the engine house, the guys all went inside to check the news while I put away the equipment, cleaned up my gear, etc.  It was shift change at this point and 12 firefighters were crowded around in the living room watching the events unfold.  I came in and one of our Battalion Chiefs told me to sit down and watch as history was being made.  I saw the second tower burning.  My Captain said to me that it was an attack and that hundreds of FDNY personnel were in there.  Then the first tower came down.  As I'm sure it was all over the nation, it was dead silent in that room.  No one moved.  We barely looked around, not wanting to see others reactions.  When the second tower fell I remember feeling an overwhelming sense of helplessness.  I wanted to go to the airport and get on a plane and get over there because I was a rookie fireman and that's what you do, help people.  I asked my Captain how many guys were in the building and he said he figured about 400 FDNY guys had just lost their lives.  Up to that point, NY had lost 715 firefighters in the line of duty in their whole history.  343 in one incident.  We couldn't grasp the concept.  Our whole department was less than 300 personnel.  

I went home, calling my girlfriend who left school to come sit on my couch with me.  I called my best friend from rookie school Dan and woke him up.  He drove to my apartment and we watched all morning.  We called our Captains and asked if they could get our six month probationary tests postponed so we could fly to NY to help, in any way.  So much changed in the fire departments that day.  Days like today make me proud to have served as a firefighter.  I wonder how many people can tell you exactly how their day went down on that morning.  To all my brothers and sisters that I served with during my short career, you are my heroes, be safe and to all those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this day seven years ago, I won't forget even if some do.   

Back in consumer hell

I'm on a layover in Dallas at the moment and the reverse culture shock is setting back in. I was ready to toss this annoying Italian family out of the plane that had utterly no respect for the other people around them as their two teenage daughters slapped each other and the little mutant of a boy they had ran up and down the aisle screaming his little dreadlocked head off. So far here in the airport I have walked past three Starbucks in one gate area, there is an ad on the wall that informs me I can go to a McDonalds at gates c6, c22, a13, a25, and b29, there is a vending machine near me that sells iPods, and everyone has cell phones plastered to their ears. Doesn't take long to know you are back in America, man it's good to be home...I think.

Flying home

Well I'm flying home tomorrow night and the last few days have been a little hectic, at least hectic by Caribbean standards. I ended up staying in Union Island a little longer than I planned and ended up leaving Clifton at midnight on Monday night. I arrived in Grenada at 7 AM the following morning. The sail down here was one of those perfect nights at sea. It was truly unreal how clear the sky was. The stars were out in force and the sea was flat calm. I had good wind and averaged over 7 knots of speed the whole time. No amount of writing or trying to explain this to someone could ever convey what it's like when the conditions are that good. I had a good time in Union, Saturday night I went out with my friends and ended up going to a couple of the local parties. We started at a place called Eagles Nest and ended at Stress Out, which is a local spot that is located on the second story of a private house. This place goes 24/7 with a full bar and live DJ. Union isn't a very big island and I am starting to get recognized everywhere I go so I ran into a bunch of the people I have met along the way. On Sunday I had lunch up at Seckie's house. He has a place right up on one of the hills and you have a commanding view of the Grenadine islands. Vanessa made up some local food for me and we chilled out on the balcony drinking some rum. I stopped by Happy Island at sunset to have a drink with Janti and ended up going out with him that night for dinner at a French place in Clifton. We closed out the night at Stress Out again and met some kids that were visiting from Miami. I ended up taking all of them over to the Tobago Cays the following day, Janti came along and brought a jug of his famous Rum Punch. We had a good time lounging around on the boat and swimming around with the turtles and rays. I went back to Clifton, dropped everyone off and took off that night at midnight. Last night we had a little party on Fabian's boat as it was one of our local buddies last day in Grenada. He flies to Martinique tomorrow morning to start University there. Today I am moving the boat over near Hog Island. It's a good hurricane hole and one of my buddies has his boat there so he can watch Rum Boogie while I'm in the States. It's way too hot right now to do much but I need to move the boat soon, it's tough to enter that area when the light is bad, the keel hungry reefs surround the place. I'm looking forward to seeing everyone soon. I also can't wait to take the longest and hottest shower in the history of the world.

MORE CHAIN!!!!

I just love charter boats. It always astounds me how some of these people even qualify to rent these boats. I'll get back to that in a minute. I'm in Clifton in Union Island at the moment. I had to run up here quickly because my friend Seckie managed to find me a really smoking deal on a good dinghy. The poor little red one is getting tired and I had to patch it up 3 times in the last month. I traded my bike recently for a little 7 foot inflatable dinghy as a temporary fix and I have been on the hunt for a good one with a fiberglass bottom. So Seckie found one in Union for me and I sent him money Western Union to lock it up for me. I left Grenada yesterday afternoon around 3 PM and anticipated arriving in Union around midnight. Well as usual the god of wind decided to F me up and the wind backed up to the North and was blowing hard all night, right where I needed to go. I was managing to make decent progress against the wind when I heard the first rip. The leading edge of my headsail blew some of the new reinforcement off. Then before I could get it furled up and put away there was a second rip just below the first. I just had the sail modified and evidently the stitching wasn't up to code. One more thing to take care of, yippee. So I was forced to revert to motor sailing. I was making decent progress this way until my starboard engine decided that he was too tired and was gonna call it a night early. It was a little bumpy last night and I got drilled with quite a few squalls so I didn't bother trying to fix the engine underway. I don't like taking too many chances when I'm sailing solo and climbing in and out of the engine room from the rear of the boat qualifies as hairy when the seas are up. So just the port engine, the mainsail and me stuck it out. The good news was that I was brutally low on diesel on the port side and spent a good 4 hours wondering if I was going to run out of fuel and be forced to sail the remainder of the way. In the end I chose to put into Tyrell Bay in Carriacou. I decided to wait the night out, let the seas lay down and in the morning set about fixing the motor and getting some fuel. I managed to get on the hook around 3 in the morning and got about 5 hours sleep. I dinghied into town and caught a taxi to the local Shell station and filled my 6 jerry jugs full of diesel. Diesel is going for 14 EC per gallon right now, a little over 5 U.S. a gallon, can't wait to fill up in Trinidad or Venezuela. Got back on the boat and got the motor going. Turned out the fuel was so low on that side that it was sucking up all the nasty sludge that has accumulated in the tank and completely clogged some of the fuel lines as well as the primary filter.




I made it to Clifton around 2 this afternoon and intended on getting my new dinghy and setting sail to get back South. Seckie and Vanessa towed the dinghy out to Rum Boogie for me so now I look ridiculous. One dude on a boat, three dinghies. I gotta sell the other two now. I digress. I meant to leave right away but the weather had other plans for me. Whenever I anchor up, I have gotten used to putting WAY more chain out than I need. Typically down here you want more than 5 to 1, sometimes up to 10 to 1. Meaning, if it's 20 feet deep, minimum is 100' of chain, I prefer all 200'. So I have gotten my balls busted here and there about too much chain and blah blah. Well today I got to sit back and enjoy some chips and salsa while a heavy squall ripped through the anchorage and caused a bunch of boats to drag their anchors and end up on reefs and sandbars. Don't get me wrong, I felt bad for the people but there was nothing I could do. Seckie had just brought me the new dinghy and I hadn't even put it together. The winds were probably gusting over 40 but sustained around 30 knots for a good hour and a half. It was wild cause the wind kept shifting and it seemed that the storm was doing circles around us. I pulled up the image on the radar and the storm cell was 12 miles wide. Even the big ferry ship that runs between St Vincent and here ended up getting blown up onto a sandbar. Rum Boogie didn't budge. What up. I'm glad the fireman part of me always says "dude, just put out a lot of chain, you never know when that big blow is gonna kick up". Clifton is full of reefs and even the 44' sportfisher that was anchored behind me ended up bouncing on one of them. So my original statement about charter guests pertains to this. I dive my anchor, almost always. The only exception is when the water is nasty and murky in the industrial ports. I have rarely, if ever, seen any charter guest dive the anchor. When I swim by their boats I usually find an anchor lying sideways, maybe halfway dug in and maybe 50 feet of chain total let out. I always shake my head and just make sure I am not near these boneheads. Most of the time it works but when that big squall comes through you better hope you didn't anchor behind one of them. I'm not trying to sound like an elitist or anything, I'm sure someday I will be faced with some screwed up situation like that and by no means do I think I know everything. I just wonder if it has to do with ego or just plain laziness. Anyway, looks like I'm bunked up here for tonight. Weather sucks right now and I'm not going out in these squalls with a torn headsail. I'm gonna head in later to join Seckie and Vanessa for some local BBQ and then stop by a local reggae party. See ya for now and remember as the lunatic boat vendor known here in Union Island as The Germon screams at you when you are trying to anchor...MORE CHAIN!!!! MORE CHAIN!!!! MORE CHAIN!!!!

Pic 1. is of a charter catamaran getting the anchor reset after being towed off the reef.

Pic 2 is sunset in Prickly Bay, Grenada.

Pic 3 is colors in the sky at sunset.

Pic 4 is of Barracuda, the ferry from St Vincent to Union. It's the big black boat trying to reverse off the sandbar

VRNB's

Ok, I am pretty much fed up with the VHF Radio Nazi Broads in these anchorages. Pretty much all boats are equipped with a VHF radio and most have a few handhelds as well. In the world of the cruisers it's an easy and quick way to get in touch and have a BRIEF exchange. It's not a telephone. Every morning at 7:30 on Channel 68 there is a "cruiser net" which is very cool and it moderated by a guy who runs one of the local boat chandleries. He gives the weather forecast, any new pertinent info, etc. Then he opens it for any questions, inquiries, discussions, maybe you are selling something or looking to buy something, whatever. It's intended to get you in touch with someone else who can help you and then set a time to meet ashore or at one anothers boat. Now I hate to make a broad generalization (well I guess this is more a generalization about broads) but SHUT THE F UP ON THE RADIO ALREADY!!!!! Damn man, I mean everyday all day long I have to listen to these shrill voices come cackling over the speaker like freaking witches around the cauldron. They hail each other for the dumbest f ing reasons and then 20 minutes later, call the same person back. All day I hear these stupid boat names calling even stupider boat names, "Galloping Lady, Galloping Lady, Galloping Lady this is Windsong do you copy, over." They wait ten seconds and if they don't get a response they start yelping again. The thing that bugs me the most about the VRNB's is that when I actually need to use the VHF for something quick, they are tying up the available channels OR even better they have the audacity to lecture others about "proper radio etiquette" by cutting in on transmissions and insisting you switch channels or something. Man I'm telling you, there are a couple of boats on my list and if this one chick doesn't shut up I fear I'm gonna dinghy over to this guys boat and tell him to put a muzzle on the old lady. I guess this is what happens when pussy boys take girls that run the roost to sea and deprive them of a phone to call their sister ten times a day to talk shit on some other chick at work she hates. Whatever. PS...there are some bad ass sailor women that I have met and are not included in my hate list. I'm headed to Trinidad soon for some work to be done on the boat and last time I was there, they were actually worse than here because THEY run the cruiser net. Oh and you may be thinking, why don't you just turn it off, yeah well I usually do right after the net because if I leave it on my skin starts to crawl by 9 AM. I think Fabian and them gave up weeks ago trying to reach me on VHF cause they know I don't keep it on. The thing that sparked this rant this morning is that there is some wet flapping douche bag couple anchored up really close to me and this morning I think they installed concert quality speakers on the mast and had the VHF on full blast so I was cheerfully woken up at 7 AM to a symphony of jackjawing from their little cult as they made plans for the veggie market and doing some arts and crafts demo later.

Anyway, do me a favor if you are ever on a boat, don't get on the radio unless you have to, don't lecture other people on etiquette when your a tool and please don't use military jargon over the air, we aren't sailing off to war or planning another beach assault on Grenada, use simple language and just ask me what time we are meeting for drinks...then shut up and read a book.

Take My Money, Leave The IPOD

You may be wondering about the new music on the blog. If you scroll all the way to the bottom of the page you will find a playlist of songs that I added today. This list will no doubt grow as I remember more songs that I want. The reason for the sudden addition of this playlist is no laughing matter. I broke my fucking IPOD and I'm seriously considering entering myself into a mental health institute as a high risk for suicide. Seriously. Nothing worse could have happened. I was trying to plug the FM tuner into this 3 way splitter I found and while I was trying to get it connected the IPOD flew off the tuner and of course fell from the chart table area all the way to the floor in the rear cabin on the starboard side, about a 7 foot fall. Needless to say it jarred the hard drive loose and the fucker wouldn't play anything. This SUCKS. I have somewhere close to 9000 songs on that thing. So...today as a way to cope with my grief I started messing around and loading this playlist thing and the result is what you hear on the page now. Luckily my friend Sawyer was here and I sent the wounded soldier back with him. With any luck he can have it fixed and sent back to me soon. The IPOD has become my heroin and I simply cannot live without it. On the bright side it's unbelievably beautiful tonight. The moon was full last night and is still lighting up the bay brilliantly tonight. The only thing that would make this better is if I could scroll through and find some of my favorite music to listen to.

Rainforest and Annadale Falls pics...

Goodbye Tom

Not really sure what to write tonight. I'm back in Grenada, sailed back this afternoon from Union Island. I got some shocking news tonight from a local friend. One of the guys I have been hanging out with recently died in a freediving accident a few days ago in Antigua. I still haven't got all the details but from what we have heard it sounds like a classic case of shallow water blackout. His name was Tom and he was a cool English guy that was down here doing marine biology research on lobsters. He was an experienced diver and the guys spent most days in the water SCUBA and/or freediving. Recently while we were all having some rum on Rum Boogie, Tom and I spent several hours talking about freediving and how to push the depth of the dives. I just had beers with him on Grand Anse beach during the Wet and Wild Kickoff Party on Monday of last week and again we talked diving. I didn't get to spend a ton of time around him but what I did know of him I can tell you that he is the type of guy who will be missed by many. We talked a lot about getting together in the future for some hardcore freediving and spearfishing and it sucks that it won't happen. I don't even know what else to write at the moment, I don't think it has really sunk in yet. Fair winds and a following sea to you Tom.

Dinghy Days...

At the moment I'm anchored up in Clifton, on Union Island. My buddy has been here since last week and we have been really enjoying island hopping around here in the Grenadines. We've had great weather, loads of turtles to swim with and we have had a couple of real nice beach bbq's with my friends Seckie and Vanessa. Last night we stayed in Chatham Bay and they brought out a bunch of local dishes, roasted breadfruit, creole chicken, fresh banana bread (banana bread is allowed on the boat), it was great. We stayed up late drinking rum and telling them some of our crazy stories from the fire deparment. We laughed all night and they stayed on the boat with us. This afternoon we came back to Clifton to clear out of customs. I'm planning on setting sail tonight around 2 AM to head to Grenada. There is a tropical depression about 800 miles East of the Windward Islands and I want to get south before it arrives. It's definitely interesting living your life being governed by weather. Carnival is in full swing in Grenada so we want to get back for that as well.

The other day when we arrived in Clifton, I met up with one of the local boat vendors who had a dinghy for sale. Without going into all the specifics, the current dinghy is not the greatest and I have been keeping my eye out for a better one. So the vendor takes me into Clifton on his water taxi and we walk up the hill towards the little airport. When we get to the spot, he shows me the dinghy and it's not what I want. It is too small, soft bottom, blah blah. I tell him no thanks but he won't quit. So we start bartering for a good half hour. As we do, we walk over to some little outdoor shed that is called the Anchor Bar. Basically it's a bunch of rasta dudes drinking what is literally called Strong Rum. NASA could probably use it for shuttle fuel. Since this guy wouldn't take no for an answer, I ended up working out a trade with him. I bought a bike a few months ago but it has proved to be more of a pain in my ass than it's worth. So I traded straight across for it and now I have a little 7 foot inflatable dinghy to run around in. It's actually cool cause it will work out for now and when I find a good solid hard bottom dinghy, I can deflate this one and keep it in reserve. So after we strike our bargain, we had to drink a shot of the Strong Rum as his way of closing the deal. We toss the boat on a cart and wheel it down the hill to the dock so we can drag it out to Rum Boogie with is water taxi. About this time, one of the local guys yells something I can't make out to the guy I made the trade with, by the way he calls himself Boutique but spells it Booteek. So Booteek looks at me and asks if I have a red dinghy. I say yes. He says his brother just saved it from landing on one of the many reefs surrounding Clifton. Ok. So we get back and Sawyer starts to tell me what happened. Right before I left I told him he needed to tie the dinghy up better or it would probably break loose. He said no worries and I was off. So while he was in the bathroom and his girl was sleeping, the little red dinghy made a break for it and drifted off. The local boat vendors wait at the mouth of the harbor like a bunch of freaking barracuda waiting to pounce on every boat making entry into Clifton and one of them, Skipper, shot over and tied up the dinghy and drug it back to Rum Boogie. He wanted to charge Sawyer 200 EC dollars and Sawyer told him just to wait for me. When I got back, sure enough Skipper comes over demanding 200 EC. Yeah, F you. I thanked him for saving the boat and we went round and round for a bit. I gave him 40 EC for his trouble and 1 gallon of gas but I made him take 4 bags of trash as well. Kind of a bizarre scene but this is the kind of shit that seems to happen daily. Sawyer and I got a good laugh out of the whole thing but I was wiped out from all the negotiating that day. The Tobago Cays were a welcome respite that evening. I will write more and post pictures probably sometime this weekend.

Carriacou Race Pics

Old School Sailing

Things have been cruising right along in my world. I spent most of last week doing routine maintenance and cleaning the boat. Usually after I’m done I go grab a few beers with Fabian and the rest of the English/Frenchie crew, some of which are doing marine biology. They are done with their research and sailing back to the BVI’s on Thursday so our group is gonna shrink back down to Fabio, the Frenchies, and myself. Last Friday was the beginning of the regatta in Carriacou, the sister island of Grenada. So Jackie, one of the girls in the group, and myself sailed up to check out the race. We got in late Friday night and anchored up. After meeting up with another of our buddies in town, we were invited to join a couple of boats and help crew. Originally I had told another guy I would help on his race boat but I didn’t find him so I ended up joining another boat and I’m glad I did. I ended up sailing on a 120 year old gaff rigged schooner. It was amazing. This boat has been meticulously stripped down and rebuilt in the original way. There are no winches onboard, all the ropes are 3 strand and you use block and tackles for tensioning. All the fittings are brass including the furler. Just check out the pics to see how beautiful she is. It was the first time I have sailed on a monohull in a while so it was fun to get out and feel the boat heeling well over. I had a blast all day. In typical sailor fashion the beers started flowing right after the race and the party carried on well into the early hours of Sunday morning. Sunday was a race for the local sloops from Carriacou and Bequia. Jackie and I had to get back to Grenada so we weren’t able to race on Monday which was a bummer. We got back in to Mt. Hartman in Grenada around noon on Monday and I tied up to the marina so I could give Boogie a good bath, refill water, do all that fun boat stuff. Grenada is getting into full swing in preparation for Carnival which starts on Monday morning at 4 AM. In the days leading up to it there are events going on all over the island. Monday on Grand Anse beach there was a big wet and wild party and the beach was jam packed with people. I think Carnival is gonna be a wild one. I keep hearing how nuts it is so I can’t wait.

My good friend Sawyer and his girlfriend arrived on Tuesday morning and will be staying with me for 10 days. They got a proper intro to Caribbean life after we spent the day cruising around running errands. I think I FINALLY have the windlass fixed (fingers crossed). We’ll see. After we were done with our chores we took 3 dinghies and a bunch of us went over to Hog Island to have some sundowner beers at Roger Bar. That place is just a tiny shack on the beach with a few tables and Roger the bartender/owner. It’s the only thing currently on the tiny island and it’s one of our favorite spots complete with all the lunatic pirates that have been living on their boats for longer than I have been alive. You just drive the dinghy right up on the beach and walk barefoot into the bar, shirts are optional. It’s awesome. After that we headed up to one of the Frenchie’s villa. He has a bad ass little villa with a big balcony that we have been spending a lot of nights recently, drinking beer, rum or wine and just carrying on laughing and busting chops until all hours of the night. We got to bed around 1 AM and I got up at 7 this morning to get us underway. We are currently sailing to Union Island to spend the night in Clifton and see Janti at Happy Island and then tomorrow, off to the Tobago Cays where we will hook up with my pal Seckie. As usual things are good and I’m making good progress on the boat. With Sawyer in town and us sailing through the Cays and then back to Grenada for Carnival, I probably won’t get much done in the way of blogging but if I get a chance I will try and get a post together, maybe at least some Carnival pics. I’m sure glad Jaymie is gone, she would just hate the energy on the island right now.

Can We Just All Adopt One Currency Already, F@#K!

T/T (Trinidadian/Tobago dollars) = 6.00
EC (Eastern Caribbean) = 2.67
U.S. Dollars = 1.00

Consult the above table if you get confused during my rant.

I've just about had it with all the money exchanging I have to do. I swear I can't believe what a big friggin deal it is to have your money changed. Here's my latest problem. After my run down to Trinidad I returned here to Grenada with a wallet full of T/T dollars. I pulled a bunch of cash out down there because work is cheaper if you pay in cash. Well when it was all said and done I ended up with about 1000 T/T dollars left over. I was assured that I would be able to exchange them for EC when I came back here. Well friends, not the case. I basically have no usable money right now because I'm still waiting for my new debit card to arrive here so I can use ATM's. You may remember from a previous post that my old card was shut down because someone tried to buy a Russian wife online with my number. It wasn't me. Really. I digress. So until that piece of plastic finds me, I'm as my English buddy would say, "buggered". I took a maxi taxi to the bank today to try and exchange the cash and was told that T/T dollars have no value. What???? So we cruised to another bank, then another, all with the same results. Apparently somewhere in the past there was some pissing contest that Grenada is still pouting about and has decided that they aren't going to play with Trinidad anymore. EC dollars still work fine down in Trindad. I just don't get this kind of shit. The other part that pisses me off is how bound I am by the stupid little piece of plastic, the debit card. Imagine yourself without your debit card for a moment. What would you do? I left the land of Starbucks so that I wouldn't have to be chained to "things" anymore but it appears I haven't fully escaped the clutches. After we made our rounds, I had no money to pay the driver so I had to promise to return soon with cash. I had to dinghy around the point to Fabian's boat and borrow 200 EC from him just so I can survive until the card lands here. Oh well, I have everything I need on board but the sucky part is that tomorrow I go to Carriacou, Grenada's sister island 23 nautical miles to the North, for the big sailing regatta. I am supposed to crew on a 33' catamaran racer on Saturday and then attend the dinner after. I just hope that as the booze keeps flowing I might be able to pass off some T/T money off as EC cause I imagine I will drink 200 EC after the first race with all these hardcore pirates. Whatever, we'll see. In the meantime let's just do away with paper money altogether since everybody uses their stupid cards for everything now anyway.

Travel Tip: When you bring U.S. dollars, don't bring any denomination over twenties. When they find out you are American, they assume we are all rich, when merchants see a fifty or hundred dollar bill the prices skyrocket. Also, change your money at banks, you get a better rate. If you use U.S. in stores they usually use a smaller conversion than what you could change them for i.e. EC dollars from a bank are 2.67 to 1 but if you use U.S. dollars at a store they usually convert it at about 2.50 to 1, I suppose for easier math and to put a fist up the ass of the rich Americans.

Inspiration

"Lives of great men all remind us we can make our lives sublime; and, departing, leave behind us, footprints on the sands of time."-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A good friend of mine shared that quote with me recently and it made me think of this picture. Don't know if I'm living the life of a great man but I'm sure living the only way I know how.

Help Restore a Working Girl's Dignity

The picture on the left was sunset tonight, seriously, how bad ass are those colors? Well it seems that my war on the flies is still in full swing and it was so damn hot I hardly got motivated enough to do anything but dick around on the internet and repeatedly jump in the water to cool off. Today was definitely one that reminds you that you are in the tropics and between 10 AM and 4 PM attempting to do work in hot cabins or engine rooms is futile. I've made good progress on my projects and have decided that from now on I will be doing the majority of my work in the evening. This was partially decided when I made the mistake of taking a maxi bus (basically like a mini van crammed with people that you pay less than a dollar U.S. for). I had to go check some prices and it was a 15 minute ride in a van with 13 other people and no A.C. Coupled with the fact that the guy next to me had obviously been protesting showers for at least a couple of years, it made for a fun trip. Since I'm listening to James Brown right now I can't get worked up enough to write a proper rant on the subject of public transport in these countries so I will switch gears to something on a lighter note.

The picture on the right is of my personal stripper. For years she has loyally served my friends and I. She has never failed me, never lied to me, never cheated on me, never told me that I couldn't have another beer, and she has never talked back, ever. Quite possibly, she could be the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. She hails from Las Vegas and as you can tell by her worn out bikini, she has done her share of work over the years. She was famous at my house (which was a full on party pad) with any and all who needed assistance with opening their favorite beverage. Once we even lost her and everyone was understandably distraught. We organized a search party and she was nowhere to be found. I thought perhaps the years of neglect and abuse caught up finally so sadly, I figured I had to let her go. It was some months later that while on my way to climb into the hot tub that I found her. I went to set my towel on the A/C unit which was located outside the door from my master bedroom leading into the back yard and it appeared that in some drunken stupor some idiot (most likely me) used her to open a beer and callously left her on said unit all alone in the cold in her fading bikini. It seemed she forgave me and has been still been faithfully serving me through the whole Caribbean. But something awful came to light while Jaymie was down here. Naturally we had to put the girl to work and after filling Jaymie in on her history she asked me her name. To my shock and everlasting shame it hit me like a freight train, we have never named her. I know I'm evil and a douche bag but it's time to rectify this horrible oversight. So friends, at long last it's time to give my loyal companion a name, I think she has earned it. So I will be taking suggestions for a week or so and next week I will choose the best five names (suggested by you) and I will create a poll and we will finally correct the injustice. You can either comment to this post with your choice(s) or you can e-mail me directly at oceanhuntersb@gmail.com After all these years, beers, travel, visits from cops, insane chicks, my circus freak pack of friends and unruly roommates, I think she deserves it. I gotta go, James just asked Bobby if he can take it to the bridge and I need to turn the volume up.

A few Trinidad pics

Happy Baby Day

I know it's been a while since I post so here you go. I typed this on Saturday on the sail back from Trinidad. I have been anchored in Mt. Hartman since that night and now I'm back in my "home base" Prickly Bay. Enjoy.

Hey friends, Chaos here. So since my last post I have been busting ass incessantly. Things have been going well and as usual my days are full of learning new things about the boat, trying to track down parts and meeting crazy characters along the way. Earlier this week my new buddy Fabian and I sailed down to Trinidad to get some parts and have some repairs done. I needed to get the refrigeration and oven worked on as well as try and find some spare parts and after finding a good weather window we set sail on Monday night leaving his boat Vaza Vezo, in the care of some other English "birds" (chicks) we met who are down in Grenada doing research on lobsters. We had a terrific sail with almost no swell at all. Good wind and a light current made it a nice 14 hour sail for us to make our landfall in Chaguramas at 11 AM on Tuesday morning. This port is wild. Chaguramas is a major yachting port, think of it like the end of the line for the cruisers who run down the Eastern Carribean chain. There are countless boatyards and services available and almost any part or type of work you need you can find. Many of the seasonal cruisers end their season here, haul out, leave the boat on the hard in a yard until the end of the year when they fly back, launch the boat and sail North to start all over again. The anchorage sucks. It is mostly moorings that you have to take and there seems to be no wind and no real pattern as to how the boat swings. So I spent much of the first few days constantly coming out to the boat to make sure it wasn’t banging up against another. It is also pretty much an industrial port so you couldn’t pay me to jump in that water which blows because of the humidity.

After clearing into customs and immigration, Fabian and I were off to start our part hunting. We spent most of the first day tracking down parts in several places, getting prices, and arranging appointments for the repairs I needed. First on my list was to get the damn windlass fixed. Without boring you to death, basically the windlass is the machine on the front of the boat that hoist the anchor and chain up. When it fails you get to do it by hand. Since the chain I had on the boat was a complete rust ball, everytime I hoist the chain by hand, the foredeck turns into a greasy, rusty mess and I spend an hour trying to clean up. So after sorting out for the motor to be repaired I was off to buy new chain. I got the new chain on Friday morning, took out the rusty shit and loaded 200 feet of shiny new chain. It’s funny what gets me excited these days. So the windlass and the chain is finally F ing fixed. I was so happy I just sat on the front and stared at it for awhile like a kid on x-mas that can’t believe how cool his new toy is. Next up was the fridge/freezer. On this boat, I have a small fridge on board and a large double freezer unit. The small fridge hasn’t worked since I’ve been on the boat and it has been bugging me so I finally got that fixed. The other one works well but I have to run the motor or the generator in order to run the compressor and cool it down. Since I don’t keep a ton of stuff cold for me, the small one works better and I can save diesel fuel and wear and tear on the engines. After those two, I have been wanting to convert all the lights on the boat to LED and I was able to find about half of them in Trinidad. I will probably have to order the rest online but it is a good start. The benefit here is that they use a tiny fraction of the power that the normal lights consume. Again, this translates to less need for charging the batteries with the generator. I know you all must be just enthralled reading all this but hey, I’m excited about getting it done so deal with it. Pretty much the whole time down there we took care of stuff like this.

Trinidad itself is a beautiful island. Lush and green, filled with natural parks and rain forests. The whole time there as we walked around the bay we were dodging huge iguanas and the occasional caiman crocodile out sunning themselves. You awaken in some of the bays to the screams of the Howler Monkeys in the trees and in Chaguramas bay the entire coastline seems to never cease the work on the boats both small and large. Fabian was there last year and had made some friends so we were able to borrow a car and run some errands in town. The city of Port of Spain is a pretty rough place right now. The paper this morning reported that the current murder stats were at 300 for the year. Apparently there is some heavy gang/drug related activity here. Chaguramas is safe though and we had absolutely no problems during our stay. Fabian was there for 2 months last year and said it was great. It is very humid and you sweat all day and most of the night. Rain storms come blasting through often and if you are lucky enough to be halfway up the highway on foot or in the dinghy in the bay you can be sure of a good shower.

Last Wed was Fabian’s birthday and after doing our chores all day, we went over to a nearby bar to get some dinner and play pool. Originally we were going to go into POS with Danny, one of the local fiberglass guys who is a super cool rastafari who was a great hook up the whole time we were there and saved us both several hundred dollars. He wanted to take us into downtown to meet some of the local Trinidadian chicks but Fabian and I worked too late and missed Danny at the bar. So we ordered up some beers and they were grilling swordfish and doing local kebabs. We ate a ridiculous amount of great food and kept plowing through the local beer, Stag. Around midnight and our 6th or so game of pool, Fabian made buddies with a group of Venezuelan fishermen who were getting smashed in the bar. I told them in Spanish that it was his birthday and they started singing like proper drunken Venezuelan pirates. First they tried in English and instead of happy birthday they were singing happy baby day. It was awesome. Pretty soon we were the focal point of the entire place and a bottle of Jack Daniels found it’s way to the table and you can imagine what happened from there. Now Fabian speaks French, some Thai, and some dialects from Madagascar but my Spanish is better than his so we spent a few hours doing our best to shoot the shit with these boys. They were way cool and we had a blast. We definitely went out in a bizarre rockstar fashion that night and right before we left it occurred to us that our bill might be out of control. When she brought it over we couldn’t believe it. It was 186 dollars. Trinidadian/Tobago dollars to be exact, known locally as T/T dollars. The exchange rate for T/T to U.S. is 6 to 1. So our bill was 31 dollars U.S. For 6 hours of drinking, playing pool, eating a great meal and doing endless shots with our new fishing buddies. Trinidad is cool. Of course, the next day we were both hurting a bit but we gutted it out and started early in the morning and continued to accomplish a lot. We made lots of good friends in the short time we were there and managed to be very productive and have a great time. We set sail today at 10 AM after I went into town one more time to pick up two small solar panels. I managed to find a couple of panels that were reasonably priced and will hopefully boost my charging cycles on the boat.

I’m typing this as we are sailing to Grenada. We are 24 nautical miles from Prickly Bay right now with about 15 knots of wind from the East and we are running about 4 knots just cruising along. It’s beautiful right now and the sun has just slipped under the horizon. Our night watches will start soon and we should make the bay no later than midnight. I couldn’t be better right now and Fabian and I have been working out some details in regards to chartering the boats. His boat has two dive compressors, 16 dive tanks and will be soon outfitted with kite boards for kite surfing. We are thinking about partnering up and when we return he will be certifying me in diving and we will continue to help each other make the boats even better than they already are. So start saving up for your next vacation. Whether you want to come down and learn to dive, hike into rainforests to find monkeys, see prehistoric turtles lay eggs on a moonlit beach or just sit on the boat in a beautiful anchorage listening to Otis Redding and sip rum all day, we will get you there. Check out http://www.fabsafaris.co.uk/ that is his website and I will soon have a similar one for Rum Boogie. Cruise through his site and it will give you an idea of what I want to accomplish with this boat. Hope you are all well and congratulations to Ron and Laurel Peterson on their healthy new baby girl Alexandria.