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.

Lord of the Flies, part 1...

This is my official notice that I am declaring war on the flies. I don't know what the hell happened but in all my time in anchorages I have only seen the occasional fly buzzing around in the cabin. Now all of the sudden I'm being assaulted by what seems to be a full blown invasion. All during daylight hours for the past few days they seem to swarm in the cabin all through the salon and the galley and just disappear at sunset. So yesterday I went to the hardware store and bought a bunch of fly paper traps and spent an hour creating my fortress against my winged assailants.

As of this writing the tally is 24 to 1. There are 24 flies stuck in the various papers I hung but they did get one good shot on me. One of the papers is hanging over the galley sink and I keep the window above it open for a breeze through the boat. Well just prior to sunset last night it started to rain so I rushed into the galley to shut the window and I was forced to reach around (not that kind Ron) the fly paper to close and lock the window. At that moment I believe they saw the chance to attack and I maintain that a fly did a kamikaze run at the paper causing it to sway just enough to hit my forearm (it couldn't have been wind or the boat rocking). Now...this in and of itself isn't that big a deal but for anyone who knows me and knows anything about how F ing sticky fly paper is, you can probably do the math and realize that my hairy ass arm and that goop on the paper are a recipe for disaster. I have freaking terrorist hairy arms and that stupid shit stuck to me tighter than some of the random girls I have dated. It sucked ripping it off. Just imagine putting a giant band aid on your head and ripping it off, yeah, real fun. So it's on. They took the war to another level so I am currently in the planning phase to begin chemical warfare. I'll keep you updated.

Pics from Cays/Union Island

Part Animal, Part Machine...

Yes fans, I'm still alive. Thanks for all the e-mails and wondering where I have been. I know it's been awhile since I posted and much has happened. It's been a non-stop flurry of great sailing, great friends, and of course, plenty of great rum. So grab your favorite poison and sit back, this will be a long-winded (it might take you a couple of sittings to get through all this) recap of the past two weeks.

As you might remember from my last post, Jaymie and I had gone to get fuel in Venezuela and bashed back to Grenada, arriving on the 29th from Los Testigos. The trip from Los Testigos was 88 miles as the crow flies but when we dropped anchor in Prickly Bay, the GPS log showed that we had covered more than 140 nautical miles. 20+ knots of wind on the nose coupled with a current that registered over 4 knots at times caused us to lose over 50 miles during the voyage. We made it fine, and as I wrote before we went about doing errands for a few days in preparation for the arrival of another crew member. Jaymie's boyfriend was to join us for the final leg of her month long trip on the Boogie. His name is Billy and she and I thought he was going to arrive on the 30th of June but it turns out neither Jaymie, nor myself, know what day it is now that we have become honorary Grenadians. She thought he landed on Monday but it turned out he didn't arrive until that Tuesday, the 1st. We got a good laugh out of it as we could have stayed another day taking in the overwhelming peacefulness of Los Testigos. Oh well, we had an extra day for chores. Billy was set to arrive at 5 PM, with Jaymie anxiously awaiting she got a text from him that he would be delayed several hours in Jamaica, where his connecting flight was. Not a bad place to be stuck. Anyway, we picked him up after 10 that night and he managed to do just fine during his delay when he discovered that he could buy Vodka duty free in the airport there, obviously this was my kind of guy and we were going to get along. After the first day of getting settled in, we took an island cruise (by car) so Billy could see the interior of the island as well as some of the villages along the way. We stopped in Gouyave which is the local fishing village about midway up the west side of the island. We wanted some fish and after stopping at the market we ended up with 6 lbs of fresh tuna and paid 16 dollars U.S. for it. The plan at that point was to get everything we needed and set sail the following day for Union Island followed up with the Tobago Cays. We made a great dinner and I had invited another guy from a boat nearby to join us. Let me digress here to introduce Fabian, our new English buddy. Fabian is doing basically the same thing I plan to with Boogie. He runs charters from here in Grenada and he is about a year and a half ahead of me in the whole process of getting the boat dialed in. I won't go into all the details but his boat is very nice. Ironically it is the EXACT same as Boogie. Same year, model, equipment, everything. So he is a great resource to me as I run into various problems and I expect that I will be writing about him again in the future. I had met him originally back in May but never got to really hang out. I borrowed a piece of plumbing from him recently to fix a small leak on a Sunday when absolutely nothing is open and I told him to come by and have dinner and drinks on the boat with Jaymie, Billy and I. He is 28 but has lived an incredible life so far. He has sailed a lot in the Indian Ocean, is a dive instructor and even lived in Madagascar for quite a while. During his stay there he was close with a tribe called the Vazo and they taught him how to carve little pirogue sailboats from boabab trees. He's a fascinating guy and just has a great energy about him. When he came over he brought a bottle of dark rum with him and we all sat down to a great dinner and a bunch of great stories from his travels. Billy was still a little jet lagged at this point so he and Jaymie crashed while Fabian and I kept comparing stories about the Caribbean. As the line on the rum bottle kept getting lower the topic shifted to the respective boats we are on (he doesn't own his either) and I suppose you can imagine a couple of drunken sailors (especially an American and a no good Brit) carrying on late into the night about sails and electronics and engine model numbers, blah blah blah. By the time I sent him on his way the rum was gone and some whiskey had even come out. It was a blast though and since that night we were able to spend some more time with him and he is a terrific guy. So when I woke up sometime after ten in the morning, we started getting this old girl ready to sail up to the Cays and we had the hook up and were off by a little after 1 that afternoon bound for Chatham Bay in Union Island, waving goodbye to a hung over Fabian as we sailed by his boat Vazo Vezo.

We made our landfall about 10:30 that night and were swinging comfortably in the perfectly calm bay by 11 that night. I dove the anchor as usual and we were hooked well. I took a shower and came out to have a quick night cap before drifting off to sleep. Billy was sitting in the salon (basically the kitchen table, looks like a booth in a restaraunt). We got some jack and coke going and started talking music. Billy Blackburn. Billy is a musician who recently released his first CD with almost every song on it written by him. He gave me a copy of his CD while I was in Fresno and I knew from the first song, as well as reading in the liner notes that he loves playing Hank Jr's "Whiskey Bent and Hell Bound" when he gets drunk, that he and I would get along famous. I can't yet play that song when I'm drunk but I can play it on the Ipod like none other. Jaymie and I have had a very positive, fun vibe on the boat the whole time she was here and from the moment he arrived it just increased immensely. I had been looking forward to picking his brain for pointers on guitar playing as I have a guitar on the boat but had up to that point not even started to attempt to play it. I got mine out to get his opinion on it and he lit up the second the instrument was in his hands. In moments he was jamming on it and I was blown away. Over the next few hours I was treated to acoustic versions of songs from Seger, Cash, Hank Jr, Pearl Jam, etc. It was unreal. Passion is contagious and I thrive on being around people who challenge me and make me better. This guy is motivating. When I say that we were sitting there while he played, you may be picturing some dude just sitting there strumming along singing half assed versions and fucking up here and there, uh, no. This dude rages. Veins start blasting out of his neck and shoulders. His foot rhythmically slams the floor. And his voice, nothing I could write would do it justice. I couldn't help it, I was instantly a Billy Blackburn groupie, I had no choice. I'm sure the fact that he and I put away Jack all night helped but for the whole time he was on the boat it was like that. He would jam, I would gawk. Check him out at www.billyblackburn.com and I also have this link on my blog.

The next day we needed to check into customs over at Clifton which was about a 2.5 mile ride by dinghy. One of the local boat vendors came alongside and offered to do a beach bbq for us and we accepted. He also gave Billy and I a ride into town in order to check in. After some harassment at customs, we found a local bar called Pelican Bar that has a great view overlooking Clifton Harbor. This place was great. We had to walk down a long path and up a hill to the bar. When we entered there was no one there but we found a phone with a sign saying dial 1. We did, a woman answered, I told her we wanted some beers and five minutes later our pal Keron stepped in. It was hysterical. This was the beginning of another drunken 4th of July. We threw back a few there and headed back into town to get some groceries and other little things. By the time the boat vendor, our new pal Seckie, loaded us up in his boat for the ride back to Chatham ol Billy boy and I were well on our way to being in the bag. We got back and by dinner time on the beach I was in full 4th of July drunk Shane party mode and spent the rest of the night on the beach busting chops and carrying on in some retarded Caribbean accent while Billy jammed for the locals. At the end of dinner a freaking possum had climbed down into the bar area and got on the table attacking the left overs. Seckie and his girlfriend are from Union Island and have since also become good friends of ours. They got us back to Boogie and the next day, Vanessa, Seckie's girl, came back out to braid Jaymie's hair. We spent all day hanging around the back of the boat drinking beer while she did the braids. Typical 5th of July, keep on partying. The funniest part about that day was Vanessa calling Jaymie by the wrong name. At no point in all our interaction with Vanessa did she get her name right. She remembered Billy and I but Jaymie is now known as Lisa. None of us know where it started but it was a source of much laughter for the remainder of the trip.

Sunday, the 6th, I was partied out and getting anxious to get over to the Tobago Cays. We set up to pull the anchor and of course the wind was shrieking over the hill against us and the current was kicking as well. The windlass (for hoisting the chain and anchor) had been acting up and decided to give us all kinds of problems that afternoon and while manuevering I managed to get the painter line holding the dinghy on to the boat wrapped around the port side prop shaft. Dive gear went on and I spent the next 20 minutes getting my ass kicked by the current, fighting to loosen the line up and mother F ing myself the whole time. I finally got the stupid thing but was thoroughly disgusted with myself for getting in a hurry and being a bonehead. We got over to the Tobago Cays about 2 hours later and dropped the hook in 10 feet of pristine sand. The Cays were still as amazing as the first time I went there and both Jaymie and Billy were blown away. There were a couple dozen boats there (usually well over 100 during busy season) and we found out from Seckie that St. Vincent was having Carnival at that time. We debated checking that out but we were in too good a spot there and spent the next few days snorkeling with turtles and rays, lounging in the sun and just enjoying existing in this beautiful place. We lucked out and had perfect weather for the whole week and there were loads of turtles, many of which were grazing the small grass areas just off the port side of the boat. All day you could just glance over and see the green heads pop out of the water to get a breath for the next dive down. During our stay there we discovered these little black birds that are ballsy little pricks. We were able to feed them out of our hands and laughed as they nervously bounced around trying to decide whether or not to trust us. One morning I kept hearing what sounded like someone messing with a plastic bag and assumed it was one of the crew getting some chow. When I woke up I found a hole in the bread bag and little chunks missing. Those little punks had flown into the galley and even got through some foil to get a couple bites of a chicken breast. When we left to go diving that afternoon it was the first time I have ever had to worry about locking the cabin doors for "bird security". We cruised back over to the little island I wrote about before that they filmed the rum burning on in Pirates and Billy and I broke open some coconuts with some rocks to drink the water and walked around the island eating fresh coconut. Life is good in the Cays. Of course all good things gotta end right?

So regrettably on Thursday the 10th we pulled the hook and headed 5 miles south to Clifton to anchor overnight and check out of customs. We got there in the afternoon and set the hook just off Happy Island, despite the lunatic boat vendor known as "The Germon" who is a complete pest and screams "MORE CHAIN" 9 million times while you are trying to get anchored up properly. We got into town, checked out of customs, got some provisions and headed back out to the Boogie. The plan was to take in a sunset drink at Happy Island which is the bar that a local Union Islander built from conch shells and has a terrific location out on the reef, accessible only by dinghy. Enter Janti, the owner and designer of Happy Island. This dude is cool. He knows how to entertain and has a great set up. I will post pics and I'm sure I will be writing about this place again. We sat down and had our first round. As we talked and got acquainted it was clear that Janti is on another level. He carries himself well and some of the statements he makes are pretty heavy. It was another great vibe with good friends and conversation as we watched a terrific sun setting behind Union Island. Billy had his guitar with him and on Janti's request (he turned down the reggae) he started playing. As I mentioned before, Billy has a very powerful voice and sings from the deepest part of his soul so it was no surprise when we saw a dinghy light headed into Happy Island (at this point it was just the 4 of us). We heard a voice ask who was singing and pretty soon plans were made for all of us to have dinner together. As it turned out, a cruiser from Texas and his chick from St. Thomas could hear Billy tearing it up from all the way out in the anchorage and he wanted to be able to play some music later on. We all ended up going in to dinner at a nice local place and our table was a great mix with Jaymie, Billy, Seckie, Vanessa, Janti, myself and then towards the end we were joined by Bob and Mary, the cruisers that heard Billy. Bob had brought his instrument with him and busted it out, he played a few songs and kind of called Billy out to play on it. Oh maybe I should tell you that it was a freaking ukelele. Yeah. One of those. Billy had never played one so it took him a few short minutes to get a feel for it but in no time he was belting out "Sweet Home Alabama" on a four string ukelele. The best part about it was that by the middle of the song he had Seckie and Vanessa singing along (which is a huge accomplishment because the ONLY music that exists there is reggae and soca) as well as the waitress and bartender clapping along from a distance. It was a surreal setting. Watching local islanders mumble mouth along to that song is right on par with the time in Acapulco Jeffro and I were eating green enchiladas at 5 in the morning with two cool chicks, one from Idaho the other from Vegas who happened to be a gorgeous opera singing go-go dancer who blasted out some opera with mariachis as her band, also at our table were two gay (literally homosexuals) guys that were backpacking down through Mexico. How I get myself into these bizarre mixes I will never understand but I'm sorry, I digress... The plan was to go back to Happy Island and finish the night with Billy and Bob the ukelele playing cruiser having a jam session but the rain changed that. That was ok with me because I had only had a couple of beers because my plan was to leave at 5 in the morning for Grenada. When my alarm went off at 5 I went outside to find the harbor in chaos. 30 knots or better of wind and rain coming down so hard it was being blown in sideways. There was no way we were leaving so I checked the weather forecast and found that Hurricane Bertha was 660 miles southeast of Bermuda but along her trek she had kicked up some swells that came down the northeast and that can get it nice and rolly here. By early afternoon the wind had laid down enough for us to make a run for the lee of the islands and cruise back to Grenada. So when we were a few miles from our anchorage at Ross Point off St. Georges, we were talking about our plan for the next few days. After I laid out what I thought was a good idea (keep in mind at this point I thought it was Friday) Billy straightened me out. It was freaking Thursday. I was convinced it was Friday! I have officially lost my concept of dates and times. It's awesome. We all got a good laugh and Jaymie was ecstatic because she "gained" a day on her trip. So two days ago, on the REAL Friday, we went downtown to see my marketplace girlfriend Teresa and walk around the fort. It's always fun down there and this time Teresa paraded me through the outdoor marketplace yelling at all the other ladies selling spices and produce about how she got her a man and for those women to stay away from me. The whole time she is doing this she has a handful of my ass and we were pretty sure she was smashed on rum. It rocked. We moved Boogie back over to Prickly Bay to tie up in the marina that afternoon. I needed to refill the water tanks and poor Boogie needed a good bath so it was nice to tie up for the night and have access to water. It was also perfect because the pizzeria/outdoor Tiki hut bar had live music so we hooked up with the Englishman Fabian and had some dinner and drinks. They closed before midnight but Billy, Fabian and I sat up listening to Billy jam on the guitar and watching Fabian get hopelessly smashed on rum. Yesterday we all chipped in and rented a car to go up to the north side of the island and check out the big leatherback turtles I wrote about before. It worked out good even though it's late in the season and we were able to see one last night. We didn't leave Levera Beach until midnight and I drove us back. Today was basically cleaning the inside of the boat and me using the car to go get groceries for myself for the next few weeks. Unfortunately, my crew were leaving on a jet plane today. I have to say that it was fantastic having Jaymie on board for a month and I couldn't have asked for someone better. Billy just made it even better and we had a great dynamic the whole time. You never know what will happen on a boat after a few days being cooped up with people but we honestly never had a problem and were able to work well as a team. I laughed constantly and told tons of stories about my crew back home, my family, my old job, etc. and I can't wait until I can make another trip back to Cali so we can all hang out and I can check out their lives in Sacramento. They also wanted me to convey a big thank you to Brian for allowing them to experience something like this.

So there you go...my long ass breakdown of what was two unbelievably cool weeks on the boat. I wish I could convey the good energy and vibes that were felt the whole time as well as introduce everyone to the cast of characters that has made up this past month. I want to say thanks so much to both Jaymie and Billy for a wonderful time, I'll see you in Panama. Come on, Bocas del Toro, arrrrrrgggggghhhh!!

Last thing, my Aunt Nani passed away on the 5th. It was tough because I didn't find out until the 9th. I wrote about her before and as I said, she was a bad ass lady with many people who will miss her terribly, myself included. I'm so glad I was able to get back and see her and that she supported my decision to go for my dream and I know she will be in the wind with me wherever I sail. There is a memorial website that my cousin Greg put together at http://sandinewcomb.legacy.com/lmw/homepage.aspx All this does for me is reinforce the knowledge I have that life is truly too short and every second you burn right now you will never get back. Two months ago my Aunt was excited about her trip to Florida and now she is gone. Just like that. So quit making excuses. Quit worrying about stupid shit like your credit score or a sale at the mall. Get out and live your dreams. It's not better to wait, it's ignorant and complacency destroys passion. Get fired up about something. Buy that Harley, get a tattoo, jump out of a plane, swim with sharks, check out Burning Man, fly to the Caribbean go skinny dipping and drink rum on some deserted island but just stop living in fear. Don't wait for tomorrow. Get out of that box and smash that fucker to pieces with a sledgehammer. Now I'm going for swim in a gnarly thunder and lightning storm here in the anchorage, have a rum and coke, read the rest of my book and let Boogie rock me to sleep. No matter where it is that you are dreaming of going, JUST GO...talk to you soon.