The Neat Thief

       Mayreau’s Saline Bay has been a favorite anchorage of ours in the Grenadine Islands.  It is wide, free of reefs and pesky submerged boulders, and has a nice sandy bottom that offers good holding.  The beach is long and clean and the Mayreau’s locals are some of the most pleasant we’ve met.  The only boat vendors are fisherman who’ve sold us lobsters or fish at a fair price.

       Sadly, we said “Good-bye” to lovely Saline Bay this morning and may never return again because yesterday evening we were robbed.  We had gone ashore after dark around 6:15pm and walked up the steep hill toward the first restaurant we found for dinner. Little did we know that while we were admiring the view of lights in the bay below and savoring a fine meal of fresh red snapper, a stealthy swimmer was making his way out to Exit Strategy. 
       When we returned to our boat around 8:00pm nothing looked amiss.  Dan unlocked the companionway door and we went below.  One of his cotton shirts was on the floor in the salon and I wondered why it was there as he stepped over it.  Then we went into our cabin and Dan noticed that the floor was wet.  His first thought was that something went very wrong with the water maker that is housed under our bunk. He began to move his pillow aside to access the water maker and the pillow was damp, too.  We both looked around our cabin.  It appeared to be pretty much the way we had left it except for a few minor details.  Our cruising document binder that holds our passports and check book was askew on the shelf and upon inspection we could tell it had been rifled through, but nothing was missing. The lockers were closed, but when Dan opened the one where his wallet is kept, its contents were disheveled and the wallet was empty of cash. Everything was still in my purse including all credit and debit cards, but the EC notes were gone.

        Back in the salon, Dan picked up his damp shirt from the floor. We couldn’t figure out how the intruder got in because we always close and lock everything before we leave.  But the floor was still a little wet and it was then that we realized that the thief must have gotten in by climbing down through the hatch above the settee. Apparently, we had not locked that hatch.
       It was puzzling, though, why the thief took care in using Dan’s shirt to mop up the sea water from the floor. And why was everything left relatively neatly in its place?  We have heard of other robberies in which everything was ransacked and tossed about.  Guess we just got lucky.
   
      We are grateful that our loss was minimal (less than 100 EC), as our two tablets, two laptops, and all electronics were out in full view and untouched.  We are also relieved that we were not on the boat at the time because a confrontation would have been traumatic.  In retrospect, although we routinely both check if everything is secured before we go ashore, we will certainly double check that everything is LOCKED from now on.

Captain Dan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

      It began well before daylight.  In fact, it began hours before Captain Dan awoke. I know.  I was there nestled within the bed sheets when I heard him yelling in his sleep, as usual with his mouth shut.  As First & Last Mate I am fully able to decipher his words of rage even with his mouth closed having heard the like countless times before.  Captain Dan was annoyed by a catamaran that had, in his estimation, anchored too close to Exit Strategy.
     At sunrise he left the bunk and poked his head up into the cockpit.  The familiar rant sounded again.  I got up as he was putting on the coffee and asked what the problem was.
     “Some cat dropped anchor next to us in the middle of the night!” 
     “Yes, you had a dream about that last night.  I heard you yelling about it in your sleep.”  I said.
     “No, there really IS a cat next to us and he’s too dam close!  His anchor chain woke me up.”
     I peered through a porthole. Sure enough, it was just as the Captain had said. Why do I ever doubt him? Hm-m-m, time to change the subject. “It’s time to listen to Chris’s weather report.”  I turned on the SSB, but all that was audible was the perfect pitch of crackle…buzzzzz…and some faint, distant Oriental sounding chatter.
     “That’s going to be of no use today,” snapped Captain Dan as he depressed the power button.
     Next subject- “Well, we’ve got errands to do today to get ready to start heading north tomorrow. I want to get a few groceries at the IGA.  Do you have anything we need to get?”
     He had just looked out the porthole again and sighed heavily. “I need to get the diesel jerry cans filled.”
     Now both of us were in the cockpit with our coffee.  We noticed that the dinghy needed to be baled out again after last night’s rain. The Captain put down his coffee and climbed into the dinghy.  The gunnel on which he sat felt mushy.  I watched him press on it harder and saw bubbles escape toward the stern.
     “WHAT the F---?”  Upon closer inspection, his fingers located a small hole near the seam at the back. “How did THIS happen?!”
     “There was an awful lot of junk floating by last evening after that downpour.  Maybe something punctured it.” I offered.
     “Get me the air pump from the locker,” he ordered. I found the pump and handed it to him.  He attached the hose into the gunnel and began pumping vigorously.
     SHF-F-F-F…
     “NOW WHAT!” He bellowed as the hose connection hissed and split open at the pump. “Get me some tape!”
     Aye, aye Captain!
     The repair was made and the dinghy held the air long enough for us to reach the fuel dock in the harbor.  We had to pump the dinghy up again before we could safely make our way back to the boat. After unloading the fuel cans, we prepared to hoist the dinghy out of the water for the fix.
     “YE-OWW!  SON OF A – !” He winced in pain.
     “What happened?”
     “I stubbed my dam toe again.”  Oh, no- I thought. He’s been stubbing that same toe at least once a week for five years!
     Now back below, “This is ridiculous!” the Captain fumed as he tore apart several lockers to find the dinghy repair kit. The directions indicated that the patch would need to cure for 24 hours before using the dinghy. “I can’t fix this until we’re done running around today!”
     We hurriedly readied to go for groceries and launched the dinghy again, traveling with the air pump. On the way to the bus stop, a bus driver hailed us and we clarified that we were going to the Wall Street roundabout.  There was only one other couple on the bus who had gotten off the cruise ship.  I commented to the driver that he was not on his usual route today as his posted number was 7 and we were on Route 1.  It was then he said, “I guess you didn’t understand what I said when I stopped for you. I asked if you wanted a TAXI to the beach.”
     “No, we’re going to the IGA.” When we reached our destination, Captain Dan handed the driver the usual bus fare of 5EC.
     The driver respectfully pleaded, “Man, I said this no bus today. Taxi fare is 10EC more.”
     Captain Dan pointed to the number 7 Route label and responded, “No you’re not.” But he reluctantly gave the driver his due after a word from me.
     As we approached the IGA Grocer, Dan headed to the ATM while I continued on to get groceries.  I had already completed most of the shopping and began to wonder why Dan hadn’t met up with me yet. I bumped into him when I turned down the last aisle.
     “You won’t believe this!” He cried. “At the ATM the receipt came out first and then the 500EC, but I was looking at the receipt and the cash went back into the machine!!”
     At that point, I confess I did something totally unbecoming of any First & Last Mate worth her salt, but I just couldn’t help it.  I started laughing uncontrollably, just as I’m doing now recalling it.
     “So,” he continued, “I had to go into the bank and stand in a line behind twenty people to see if I could get it back!”
     Somehow I composed myself and asked, “What did they say?”
     “They can’t refund it until they audit the machine and that may take up to a week.  So we need to stop at another ATM by the roundabout before we get on the bus. There’s one there that doesn’t charge a $5 US fee.” However, when we got there we discovered that the no fee ATM was not open, so we had to use another that did charge $5 US.
     Thankfully, the rest of the day was uneventful and we were revitalized when our friends on sv Suzanne ferried us in their dinghy to a relaxing, delightful dinner at The Nutmeg Restaurant, a place I’ve always wanted to go.

Beverly and Lew of sv Suzanne

Grenada’s Mt. Airy Young Readers Program

     Thus far, we have spent three thankfully uneventful hurricane seasons in Grenada.  I like it here because there is a plethora of enticing activities from which cruisers can chose to entertain themselves.  It isn’t called “Camp Grenada” for nothing.  So we tune into the morning net daily and make plans for the day.


     My very favorite weekly activity is volunteering at the Mt. Airy Reading Program. This program is the brain child of Grenadians Mr. and Mrs. Pascal and has been in operation for over nine years. This recollection of the story may be in error, but I believe it was ‘born’ after a local youth caused damage to the Pascal home and was to be jailed because he could not pay for the repair.  The Pascals recognized that the youth lacked basic skills to get a job to pay his debt and offered to help improve his skills in lieu of incarceration.

Ready to READ!

     The Mt. Airy Young Readers Program occurs on Saturdays during the school year at the Pascal residence where their large garage has been converted into a nicely equipped library/classroom.  A taxi bus is arranged to collect volunteers from the various anchorages around 9AM which takes them on a twenty minute drive up and over the winding mountain passes for the nominal RT fee of 10 EC.

Game time

    Volunteers are met with a warm greeting from Mr. & Mrs. Pascal and guided to a table of eager children (one to five in number) with their preselected books. The sessions begin and end with all joining hands for a short prayer. Then a few delightful songs are sung before everyone breaks into reading groups.  Reading is followed by board or card game time which the children naturally LOVE!  Then Mrs. Pascal gathers everyone in circle fashion again and some multiplication tables are recited in unison. Next, is a bit of oral spelling and, finally, a group story that usually teaches a life lesson. Before dismissal, everyone is treated to a cold drink and hearty snack.

    NO TEACHING EXPERIENCE IS NECESSARY!  YOU, as a volunteer, will not be teaching them to read, but YOU will be helping them cultivate a love for reading with deeper understanding. All of the children with whom I worked knew how to read, although some lacked confidence.  I focused on helping them understand vocabulary or idioms within the text, predicting what might happen next, or summarizing what was read.
    CRUISERS: PLEASE VOLUNTEER! You need not commit to more than one session, but be prepared…after you go, you may not want to stop.


The students in my last group took all these photos.

YOGA on a BOAT

      When we were newlyweds I gave Danny a card whose cover read-

            I  want to make love to you in the worst way…

     The inside read-

                                 in a boat standing up!

    
     So you ask, “What does ‘YOGA on a BOAT’ have to do with lovemaking?” Well, quite a bit, actually.  I won’t get into the specific details- suffice to say that our love relationship is ever evolving- and that IT and YOGA on a boat require extreme strength and BALANCE.







     Boats sail best when they are balanced, however, when Exit Strategy is at anchor things get shifted around some and it becomes slightly unbalanced. To complicate matters, we haul the dinghy out of the water daily to the starboard side when not in use which adds to the imbalance. So for the most part, at anchor our boat is NOT balanced. If you put a tube of chapstick down on an uncluttered shelf or table, it will roll to and fro, until it drives me crazy enough to get up and shove it somewhere secure. The Captain is oblivious to these little noises, of course.

    



     I have not formally studied yoga, but I have come to realize that it is all about balance. Physically balancing your weight supported by your body,  balancing your breathing as you inhale and exhale deeply, and balancing your activity with inactivity to keep personal stressors at bay.  





  




 Did you know that balance is one of the essential markers of longevity? Think about it- how many times have you heard about an elderly person losing their balance, falling down, and never recovering from their injuries.  Research suggests that if you are able to sit down on the floor from a standing position without putting your hands or knees on the floor and then rise up to stand again without using your hands or shifting onto your knees, you are in great shape.  Yoga practice can do that for an individual. I can comfortably lower myself to the floor, but am unable to rise up again…yet.  This remains a goal.  ( http://www.prevention.com/fitness/fitness-tips/stand-sit-test-predicts-longevity  )









     On some islands, there are free yoga classes available on shore two to three times a week and I often enjoy participating in them. At other times, cruiser friends have organized informal yoga sessions ashore at sunset. In my opinion, the ideal place to practice yoga on our boat is on the foredeck where there is plenty of space and just a slight incline.  However, I rarely exercise there because privacy is often at a premium in anchorages.  So I have found the next best place to do yoga is in our cabin.  There I have plenty of room to position my yoga mat along the midline of the boat, so I am able to balance… and stretch… and breathe… and hold. (Good skills to have at any age, if you catch my drift.)

Would You Be Surprised ?

Bahamas Courtesy Flag (Google Image)

Would you be surprised if you learned that we have never been to the Bahamas?

It’s true.  Captain Dan and I- #AllAmerican/Caribbean/MexicanBeachBums- have never, EVER vacationed there pretty much by choice.  During our working-life vacations it seemed like everyone (and their mother) was going there and we chose to not follow the crowd. Then when we began cruising five years ago, the Bahamas were high on my list, so our daughter gifted us with a Waterway Guide for the Bahamas 2010 and a Bahamian courtesy flag. However, the island group was still not on the Captain’s radar for the same reason he’s held for over three decades AND the fact that draft of our vessel is 6’10” deep, making a sailing trip to the Bahamas a challenge. (Reportedly, most sailors eventually go aground in the shallow Bahamian waters repeatedly, or they lie.)

A year ago, I began intensely studying and highlighting our outdated guide, sometimes having to peel the bottom third of the pages apart due to unexplained water damage.  I systematically noted the Bahamian passages and anchorages where I felt we could safely maneuver Exit Strategy without hitting a reef or going aground. The description of most anchorages report the depth at mean low tide and indeed there were some areas in the southern Bahamas that would suit ES.

While visiting in the Midwest this summer, I began telling friends and family that we might cruise the Bahamas this year. I bought the last copy available of the Waterway Guide for the Bahamas 2015 and dutifully completed my study.  When Captain Dan arrived, I began lobbying for our float plan to include the Bahamas.  By the time I returned to ES in mid-September, the Captain finally seemed resigned to cruise the Southern Bahamas in 2016.


Hurricane Joaquin early October 2015 (Google Image)

And then came JOAQUIN, cutting a path right through many of the Southern Bahamas that we aimed to cruise.  After reading the news of the extensive damage, I felt dejected and scrapped our plan to cruise there for the coming season. It was time to consider other route options.  It took me two weeks to sketch out other possibilities and I finally completed four alternate plans just this morning.

Captain Dan took a few moments to review the choices and selected the plan that took us to the BAHAMAS (!!!!), saying it was the only one that made sense for this year. His comment totally reassured me, so I instantly ‘flip-flopped’ and agreed, feeling relieved that it was settled at last.  But then Dan started saying how it’ll be cold up there during March-June because he knows I prefer warmer water.  My emotions almost caused me to ‘flip-flop’ again, but Google revealed that the air temp should be between 80-90 degrees while the water will be between 77-81 degrees. So I imagine I can suffer through those temps to find out, after all, if it really IS better in the Bahamas.


(Google Image)

EXCLUSIVE SNEAK PREVIEW of our 2016 Float Plan:
2015 November: Island hop Northward along Eastern Caribbean Chain
2015 December:  St. Croix, USVI
2016 January: Southern and Western Coast of Puerto Rico
2016 February: Samana, Dominican Republic
2016 Late February- June: Southern Bahamas
2016 July-November: Bonaire
 

A New Set of WHEELS for sv Exit Strategy

My Sailrite sewing machine has been working overtime lately and the result has been a new set of wheel COVERS for Exit Strategy, our floating home. We have only lived on the boat for nearly five years, but it saw three seasons in charter service before that.  So, the wheel covers had been looking pretty shabby for a while.  The captain priced some replacement cover kits and the least expensive set ran $150 USD.  Bavaria 46 Cruisers like ours have two wheels, so the cost would be $300 plus tax, plus possible duty, plus fees for an agent to accept it in Grenada… plus, plus, PLUS!  

 

The Captain suggested we buy the leather back in the states during our visit and attempt to do it ourselves.  After all, how hard could it be? The Captain has a good sense of design when it comes to constructing things and his First Mate knows how to follow his directions well. So I put my faith in him.

                                                                                                                                                                            We traveled about a half hour north of our daughter’s house to a small shop where we had purchased leather a few years ago. I was so relieved to have decided to accompany my Captain to get the leather because the shop was going out of business and had only a few pieces of leather large enough for our needs.  The Captain was eyeing two pelts: a blood red one and a mustard yellow one.  I rummaged to the bottom of the short stack and found a beautiful buff-colored piece priced $68.  SOLD!

 

Our daughter is a quilter and, using her cutting board and circular knife, we were able to measure and carefully cut the pelt into strips to the Captain’s exact specifications. He packed the cut leather in his bag to take back to Exit Strategy when he returned to Grenada.

                                                                                                               

 A few weeks later, I joined him in Grenada and sewed the strips together end to end.  Next, I ran top stitching along the length of both sides. Then the last ends were seamed and, finally, the covers were stretched around each wheel. It took a few hours to hand stitch them onto the wheels, but we would have had to do that even if we bought the ready made kits.  I was amazed that they fit perfectly, but then again, that is how my Captain operates. 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we finished the wheel covers, I’ve been working on a dozen other sewing projects and am down to having only six more to finish.  Wish me luck!

 

Sojourn to Ile de Ronde, Grenada

What can I say?  I had just returned to our boat in Grenada from my annual two month visit to see family and friends in the Midwest and the Captain and I were desperate for a get away.
 

You must be thinking. OH.  COME.  ON.
 

Yes, it is true that we spend a lot of time in a tropical paradise.  Yes, we live a life in which a portion of most days is spent doing absolutely nothing short of relaxing with a good book or walking the beach.  But you must understand, dear reader, that lengthy stays in some anchorages around large populations can bring out the beast in even the most mild mannered chap.

Dan refers to this grey rock near Ile de Ronde as "MICHIGAN".

So, off we sailed a short distance north of Grenada’s mainland to Ile de Ronde (snagging two barracudas along the way which we readily released). A few miles out from Man ‘O War Bay, we counted five masts and were a little disappointed.  Word must have gotten out that this little island was worth a stop for some peace and quiet. Ile de Ronde is inhabited by about twenty fishermen.  Man ‘O War Bay is the kind of place where one can fish off your boat and lure small grouper types into your fry pan. By the time we arrived one vessel had departed, so we became the fifth.  We spent four days there and watched boats come and go daily, but five was always the limit.

Beach near fishermen's settlement

  

One morning we decided to dinghy around the northern point to check out a seemingly deserted beach we had noticed on a previous trip. The dark variations of water color just off the beach indicated that the bay was filled with coral.  We passed carefully over the top and found a safe passage to the sandy shore.  And that was where we met Patrick.

Patrick said that the French placed cannons along the ridge of Man 'O War Bay to scare off pirates. 

 

Patrick had walked across the island from the fishermen’s settlement to climb to the highest point to see if the fish were “running” yet.  He explained that four days after the full moon is when the big fish come in from the deep waters of the Atlantic. When one of their men spot the smaller fish running into the cut they sound a horn for everyone to man their fishing boats because larger fish are chasing the smaller ones in. He shared a couple of jelly coconuts with us and said he was out of groceries. We took him back to our boat by dinghy and prepared a bag of basic foods from our excess stores. To show his appreciation, Patrick invited us to the settlement which was located around the southern point of our anchorage and relayed the history of the island beginning with possession by the French along the way. We hiked to his house to unpack the groceries, then continued up toward the ridge where he gifted us with a homegrown watermelon and mangos from one of their gardens. 

Patrick's place

His garden mainly has pigeon peas, corn, and herbs (seasoning type). 

 

Our trip to Ile de Ronde was lovely and our chance meeting with Patrick made it a very memorable sojourn.
 

PS to CRUISERS: We also learned that one of the younger fishermen in his twenties on Ile de Ronde is an avid reader, so we passed on a collections of novels for him to explore and encourage you to do the same.