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.