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.