De Coo Man...

So after more than two months of cruising we have made it to Grenada, which I can assure you was no easy feat given our time schedule. As usual for the past week or so, internet connections have been sporadic and when I have had them, most of the time they don't last long enough for me to get anything done. Now we are anchored in the Lagoon in St George the capital city here in Grenada and the local boat shop has a Wifi that covers the anchorage so I'm hoping it will hold up.

The past week was fairly memorable, covering several miles and islands over the course of a few days was pretty tough overall. As I wrote in my last written post, Dominica was an amazing island. We sailed there from Guadeloupe after our unexpected week and a half layover there waiting on parts. I have to say, in the end I was fairly disappointed in the mechanics there. Originally when we got them to come out they seemed very competent and confident they could get us going in a few days. Well we ended up waiting for quite a while and the part never showed up, apparently there was some mix up with the shipping company. Miraclously, the mechanics found the exact part we needed on a brand new transmission that had been in the shop since our arrival and got us back up and running that same day (last Tuesday) and we left the marina around 7 that evening bound for Portsmouth in Dominica, 40 miles away. Of course that wasn't before those fuckers stuck Brian with an absolutely ri-goddamn-diculous bill. I won't say how much but let me assure you it was WAY overpriced. Fuck Guadeloupe and all those French jerks with their idiotic Euro prices. We made Dominica late that night and got anchored up in Portsmouth. The following morning we cruised in and checked in with customs. Dominica has the youngest elected governor of all the islands and in an effort to attract more yachties to visit they have streamlined the entry/exit process and combined it all into one form and one visit. This is extremely helpful and a huge difference from some of the more cumbersome entry procedures. We walked through the "downtown" area if you can call it that. You can't help but become saturated with the relaxed attitude that is produced in these islands and it was very apparent there. During the morning, various vendors come out to your boat in dinghies, wooden boats, kayaks, pretty much anything these dudes can get to float they will paddle up to you and try and sell you something. Some offer fruit, some jewelry, but in Dominica most of them want to take you on a river tour of the Indian River. We have several cruising guides onboard that recommend what to do in various islands and anchorages and the river tour was suggested as was which guides to use so we set up an afternoon cruise in the river with Lawrence of Arabia (all guides have a nickname, some pretty creative but I liked Spaghetti the best because it was in reference to his huge mane of dreads, and he rows a pink wooden boat so you know he has to rock, I digress). Our guide picked us up and we were off. The tour was great and very informative. I guess for a long time the vendors were pretty unruly and wild and chased off a lot of yachties until someone got them organized and educated them on how to run the tours so now it has become very professional. You are not allowed to run outboards on this river and these guides row these boats by themselves, sometimes with up to 8 people on board. You go in close to a mile and tie the boat up to the dock provided at the Jungle Bar. Our guides name was Reginald (Bogey, short for Humphrey Bogart, I have no idea why) and he insisted that the Dynamite punch was the only way to go at the bar so I complied and bought him and myself one each. After finishing it I had to agree. After that we headed back down a small side section of river where part of the river scene from the Pirates movie was made, the one where they go see the witch. Bogey said that Johnny Depp was cool to hang with and told his bodyguards that he didn't need them because no one on the island cared who he was anyone. After getting to know Bogey it's worth mentioning that he was born in Dominica and left to study abroad. He lived in Europe for four years and traveled extensively around the world. He speaks 6 languages and is very intelligent. In the end, he said it came down to being happy. He said no where in the world makes him happier than Dominica. He has hiked every inch of the island, dove lobster and conch, fished tuna and marlin, and my favorite reason he quoted was when he talked about the imposition of laws and rules in different countries.

ME: So why did you end up coming back here besides the obvious reasons of the beauty and family?

BOGEY: Man, ya know I can make mo money in other countries but here if I get drunk and sleep on the beach, nobody cares, I mean in your country they gonna tell me I can't walk down the street with a beer in my hand? Nah man, in Dominica you sail fast and live slow.

So that's all it took to sell me on the place. Honestly though, there is brilliance in that statement if you look deeper into it and truly understand how that sums it up. He also asked if we would come to a small place so he could make dinner for us so we did. It was pretty funny but he busted his ass and we had a good time. We gave him forty bucks and he provided chicken, salad, rice, bread, and all the rum cokes we wanted. It was a perfect way to end a very good day. I slept like a rock that night as I had sailed the boat from Guadeloupe the night before and didn't get to sleep until about 4 AM. Time was not on our side and we had to get moving to the next place the following morning so I helped Brian get the anchor up in the morning and once we got clear of the harbor, I hoisted the sails and got the boat set on course and crashed back out. When I woke a few hours later and did some chartplotting I figured we had around 80 miles of sailing to get to the bay in St Lucia we were going to anchor in. Sailing along the coast of Martinique during the evening, I was checking the rigging and noticed that the jibsail (headsail) was starting to tear up towards the top and the webbing straps the attach it to furler in front had come off. I rolled the sail in about a third of the way so it wouldn't rip off and added one more thing to the list of repairs I have to do. We had good wind, calm seas and a full moon so I sailed the boat hard through the night and after talking it over decided we would make our next landfall in St Vincent. I was a little disappointed about having to blow past St Lucia but given the wind and weather we had we needed to exploit that and continue south, especially given that there are so many little repairs that need to be done. I have a couple of friends who have been there and they liked it so I was looking forward to seeing it but I'll have to hit it another time.

Early the following morning (last Friday), we slipped into the tranquil little anchorage of Wallilabou Bay (wally-la-boo) in St Vincent. This is the beach and area nearby that several scenes from the Pirates movies both 1 and 2 were shot (see St Vincent pics). Upon our arrival we were greeted by Frankie, the boatman who rows out to meet you at the mouth of the bay and guide you into your mooring. Because the winds blow kind of crazy in this spot, after you drop anchor or moor up, it's necessary to tie a rope to the back of the boat and the boatmen will row it either to moorings that are in near the shore or they will take them up the beach and tie the ropes to palm trees. It was very interesting to learn by watching this guy help us get settled. The charge is 10 EC (Eastern Caribbean currency). 1 U.S. dollar=2.67 E.C. dollars so when they charge you 10 it's basically 3 bucks. Things are cheap in this area of the Caribbean and it's kind of a fun game when you pay 50 EC for something (around 20 bucks U.S.) and you get to haggle with the merchants. We were so close to the dock that we just rowed the dinghy over to go in and have lunch. I had read about a waterfall that was supposed to be a mile above town and planned on hiking that after lunch. Brian and I brought a bunch of cookies to the kids that were fishing on the pier and I made a new pal, Johnny. He asked if I wanted to go see the waterfall and I said yes. He said, I take you now. I told him after I ate I would go. I gotta give it to this kid, he waited an hour for me while his friends ditched him. When we finished, I walked outside and he was sitting patiently. He asked if I was ready and we were off. He is 13 and it was obvious he had done this before with cruisers that come through there. He knew all kinds of info about the movies and showed me all the sets and where they used to play cricket and football (soccer) with the actors near the beach. We hiked up the hill and he knew all the plants and trees and fruit and what you could eat and not eat and even showed me some leaves that you make soup with. The waterfall itself wasn't very spectacular although it was a nice hike and it was a photogenic little place. On our way back down the hill he asked me if I liked to dive and of course I said yes. He asked tank or no tank, I said no tank. He asked if I had an extra mask that he could have. According to Johnny, he asked every cruiser that came through but no one ever had any. Well on Rum Boogie, which used to be a charter boat, there are several sets of old fins, masks and snorkels. This kid was way too cool and very polite so I had to hook him up. I told him I wanted to get lobster and he said he could show me where so we rowed the dinghy out to the boat and I busted out the snorkel gear. I gave him a coke and I swear that kid never stopped smiling. I showed him how to get his gear all set up and we hopped in the water. I started out hunting near the boat and working in towards the beach and kicking out towards the open water. This bay has a nice reef inshore but it drops off very quickly and the water starts getting deep. As we kicked around I could tell he had never been in the water that way as he was up my ass the whole time and his eyes were huge inside his mask. He pointed out a conch shell to me down about 40 feet in the water and said he wished it wasn't so deep because he really wanted it. I smiled and told him to hang on. I popped down, grabbed the shell and from then on, he held that shell like I had just handed him some treasure. When we got out to the deeper water, I went down to about 90 feet to look under some rocks for lobsters but I still wasn't finding the slightest trace of them. I saw octopus, big eels, puffers, all the pretty reef fish and even found a bunch of really tiny shrimp but no freaking lobsters. When I came back up he motioned to go back and I realized that we were out pretty far from the harbor and the poor guy was scared to death that we were gonna be a sharks dinner. When we got back on the boat, I asked him if he was scared and he said he was just cold. We dried off, bagged up his new gear and I gave him a candy bar and rowed him back to the dock. He said thank you a million times and headed back to his village. I rowed back out and did some little chores around the boat for a bit when I heard some shouting. I looked over at the pier and there was Johnny with two of his friends. He was frantically waving for me to come over so I rowed over. He needed me to verify his story to his friends, they were calling bullshit on his story that he had just gone diving way outside the harbor and that some guy could dive "all de way de bottom". I vouched for him with his pals and they immediately started assuring me that THEY knew where there is a huge lobster hole and we can take the dinghy over and go dive for them. I laughed and told them they should have waited with Johnny for my little waterfall guided tour. Johnny said he told his dad and brothers about "de coo man who dive like de fish" and that he wished I wasn't leaving. It was all a good experience and I hope that that gear works out for him. He told me that when I come back he will know the cool man right away and that I have to come to his village. Needless to say, it was a little bit of a drag to have to leave the next morning but we had to head south.

Bequia was the next stop and it was not quite 20 mile away to Admiralty Bay and the town of Port Elizabeth. It was Saturday so upon our arrival in the afternoon, pretty much everything was closed but we did manage to take on a small amount of diesel as we were very low. It was only a mere 18.50 EC (6.73 U.S.) per gallon, so as you can guess, we didn't get much fuel. We had a really good dinner and I decided that we should leave that night so I could just sail through the night and get us to Grenada, 60 miles away by the next morning. We had a full moon, clear skies, calm seas and I didn't want to miss the weather window. I got us underway around midnight and it was a great sail, even with the jib ripped, she was hitting speeds over 9 knots at times. That kind of sailing is exhilarating, especially at night with a full moon. There is just something about having that big ocean all to yourself with the moon smiling down on you, lighting up everything around you. You can feel the life teeming around the boat and with no motors running the only sounds are the water rushing by the hulls, the occasional creak from the rigging as the sails harness the wind to move you and the breaching of the seemingly neverending amount of flying fish as they jump out of the water and fly, sometimes it seems like the length of a football field before they land again. We slipped into the lagoon Sunday morning and got settled. Most of the day we lounged around, me mainly cause I was dragging ass from sailing though the nights 3 days in a row.

So far, Grenada seems like a cool little place and it looks like I'm going to be spending about a month here. Tomorrow we are going to set a date for me to haul the boat out here at a local yard and do the bottom painting and all the work that needs to be done. So that pretty much catches everything up til now. Tomorrow we are going to do our island tour in the rental car after we set our dates for the haul out. Keep your fingers crossed for me as I'm hoping to survive this one last car ride with Brian. Of course, the steering wheel is on the right side and you have to drive on the left of the road so the intensity is doubled as you spend most of your time staring straight ahead at the curbs he continuously likes to run into. Hope everyone is doing well.