Rick is still working on the arm muscles by continuing to wax the boat. I am not doing much of anything lately other than regular galley jobs. Rick suggested a swim at the pool in the afternoon and while we were there many of the other cruisers joined us. Not often the cruisers outnumber the hotel guests in the pool but we did today.
This morning I began a brass cleaning project that will last quite a while. We have 9 brass lamps and a few have become quite tarnished, green in fact. I took the very worst one all apart and started cleaning off any lacquer finish that was left on it and then polishing the brass. It took all morning to really polish it. Tomorrow depending upon how windy it is I will attempt to spray paint a couple of coats of lacquer. So far it looks almost like new so I will have to do the same to the remaining 8 lamps.
It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas here. I played Christmas Carols and addressed all my Christmas cards today. Rick continued to polish the boat. At Happy Hour we watched the weather forecast for the northern United States. There is normally no weather in the gray area north of the USA according to CNN but we are still able to figure out when Toronto is going to get dumped on with the white stuff.
Ladies day out. We haven’t done a ladies day out in a long time. The guys all whine because they don’t get to come. Our official plan for the day was to visit Nick’s Pasta Factory, a Garment Factory, snorkel, swim and have lunch at the Aquarium Restaurant. We did all of that and also stopped at the post office, 2 grocery stores, a marine store and a bakery.
I bought 10 pounds of Pasta for $19 EC that’s less than $1 Canadian per pound. I also bought 3 dresses at the garment factory. I won’t tell you how cheap they were but they were cheap.
We had a great day and when we returned the guys were still playing dominos. We all changed into our new dresses for Happy Hour. The fact that many of us looked like twins in matching dresses provided lots of laughs.
Rick had a doctor’s appointment today at the St. Augustine Medical Centre. We took a couple of local buses to get to the Medical Centre. His appointment was at 10AM and when one of the buses stopped to get gas I was a little concerned that we might be a little late. In the end, we walked through the door of the clinic as the clock struck 10.
This was the first time we had been in any type of medical facility outside of Canada. It was a nice looking building, very modern. After talking with the receptionist for a while we learned that she was from Hamilton Ontario and had only been here since July.
Dr. Amechi was the Family doctor Rick was to see. Rick had a mole that I thought should be removed. We assumed that Dr. Amechi would refer us to a dermatologist. He would have, but the dermatologist was not in today so he took care of the mole himself. We were in and out of the Centre in one hour and the mole was gone and Rick had 7 stitches. We will get the lab report from Barbados in 7 days and the stitches removed in 10 days. Amazing service and the price was quite reasonable.
It was a busy radio day. I’m organizing a trip to the Grande Etang Lake this Sunday and a weather seminar for Wednesday. As soon as the Grenada Cruisers Net, where I announced both events was over, the calls to Wind-Borne III started. In the end, Rick took over preparing breakfast while I just sat at the radio taking names of those who want to attend. I went for a dinghy ride over to visit Michael and Rona Bean first thing after breakfast and when I was leaving their boat Arleen from Tiger Lily II, called me over to visit with her for a while. This all took place after breakfast but before a shower. When I returned to the boat Rick was running the engine and cleaning strainers. I had originally planned to sew but by the time I had the boat to myself it was too late to start. Instead I refinished another lamp today. Both Rick and I worked on it and since it takes so long for each lamp I have decided that refinishing is a better description than cleaning.
After Happy Hour and dinner (I made some Bahamian Baked Macaroni and cheese to use up some of the 10 pounds of pasta that I bought), we went over to Prickly Bay to listen to the Friday night Pan Band. We were going to walk there with Barrit and Renee from Serendipity a sailing vessel and meet Serendipity the trawler there. Howard, Marsha and their daughter Julie (from the trawler), were going for dinner. (We now have three boats named Serendipity in our harbour.) We stopped to pick up Elmer, Audrey and Joyce who were also going to walk with us but it had rained a couple of minutes earlier so they decided to drive. I am so glad. The normal road we take to Prickly was closed due to construction and it was a long walk around it especially in the dark. Joyce had to make two trips to drive everyone but it sure was appreciated.
I am having difficulty even writing today’s events. My whole body
aches. We went on a Waterfall Sampler tour today with Marsha and Julie
from Serendipity the Trawler, Karen from Serendipity the sailboat and Doug and
Linda from Ariel. We left at 9AM and headed to the Annadale falls.
It was a pleasant start to the day as it was a very easy walk to the falls.
Our drive from there to the entrance of the Seven Sisters was beautiful.
The branches on the nutmeg trees are just
drooping to meet the ground with the weight of all the ripe nutmegs. The
Cocoa, Starfruit, Grapefruits, Calabash, Lemon, Christophenes, Bread Fruit,
Tamarinds and Sorrel could all be seen in abundance with the normal Banana,
Plantain, Golden Apple and Lime Trees. It’s a wonder any of the locals
ever need to visit a grocery store at this time of year because there is food of
every type no matter what direction you look. In addition, the poinsettia
that grows here has just changed from green to red so where it wasn’t noticeable
before it now just brightens up everything and really helps to get you into the
Christmas mood. In some places we saw poinsettia growing amongst a plant
called “Snow on the Mountain” which has small white blossoms. They
are
lovely together. Back to my story…Seven Sisters is a series of cascading
waterfalls. They are far more remote than the other falls. It was a
strenuous hike through the rain forest both to and from the falls. The
rain forest is very cool and it was a good thing because there was no way we
could have done the hike in the normal Caribbean heat. We went all the way
to Honeymoon falls, which is the furthest of the Seven Sisters, and then worked
our way back to the others stopping for a swim to ease the aching bones.
We all used walking sticks and were actually looking for handholds and whatever
you call the places to put your feet. We used roots to pull ourselves up
in some areas and in others we climbed rock to rock. I lost count of how
many times we crossed the stream. It was really mountain climbing more
than hiking. We were lucky because although it was damp, there are times
when it is so wet you are literally sliding down in mud. We were warned to
wear cloths that could be thrown away afterward because we would not be able to
get rid of the mud satins. We finally worked our way back up to the top,
there was a lady selling grapefruit and golden apples (not apples, as we know
them back home). We bought some of both. She peeled the Grapefruit
with a machete for us and we ate it as it was. Even though we had been
drinking a lot of water on our trek we were parched and both of these fruits
were very refreshing.
We drove to a Gouyave, a small fishing town and stopped at a tiny restaurant
named “Kelly’s” which was a good place to eat since it was my daughter Kelly’s
birthday. After a bite to eat, we drove to the Concord falls. It was
all that everyone could do to just get out of the van. We could see the
falls from the road. In fact, Rick and I had been to these falls before so
we all chose not to climb down for another swim. At this point it was nice
just to stand and look at them. We didn’t stay long because it was getting
late in the day. We returned to Mount Hartman at about 7PM.
This was the day of the “Christmas in the Rain Forest Celebration”.
When we arrived at the Grand Etang Lake in the Rain forest, a black Santa riding
a horse, ringing a school bell and wishing everyone a merry Christmas, greeted
us. There were many
barbecues already going with the aroma of chicken and pork. There were a
few fruit stands with apple, oranges and grapes to snack on and of course many
beverage tents. We walked down the hills to the lake and there were tents
set up beside the lake as well. The reason for all the tents is that it
rains off and on every day in the rain forest.
There were more barbecues
down by the lake as well so we picked up some chicken and got a seat under the
big tent to watch some of the entertainment. There were school choirs,
professional singers, Youth Quake (a group that is internationally known) and
non-professional singers to entertain us with Christmas Songs. Mrs. Santa
was wandering around handing out little gifts to the children. We all
really enjoyed it. Click
here to listen to a steel band.
On our way back up the hill we stopped and bought some black cake.
Black cake is a fruit and rum cake that I believe is steamed. It is the
Grenadian Christmas cake. The piece we had was so good that I asked the
lady for her phone number so I could get some more before Christmas. At
the top of the hill the Pan Band was playing and everyone was just moving to the
beat. A group of the school children who had been singing so they were
dressed in their school uniforms, all got together to teach Rick how to move.
I took a little video clip and
showed them and then they wanted me to record it again and again. Each
time they would have to review the video a few times. It was a lot
of fun.
We stayed until after dark when they turned on all of the lights and “lit up the
rain forest. We had asked our driver to return for us at 6:30 and had
agreed to meet him down the road a ways. Even though the road we were on
is the main road that goes across the center of the island, it was closed for
the celebrations. The police were not letting any vehicles pass a certain
point. It’s that point we walked to and waited. The driver was about
½ hour late when he came walking over the hill in the dark (It gets very dark in
the rain forest). He said that he had been stuck in a traffic jam for
almost three hours trying to get back here. The police told him it was ok
to go and get the van and bring it back to pick us up. This was good
timing and bad timing, while he was gone we had a real downpour with really
nowhere to go. After it stopped raining we got to see the fire works.
They were spectacular but only lasted about five minutes. The program for
the celebrations had indicated that the events ended at 6PM. It was after
we were there that we learned there would be fireworks. Not only that, it
was 7:30 by the time we actually got into our van and we were really stuck in
the first traffic jam I have ever seen in Grenada. Cars were all trying to
get into the area while we were trying to leave. The road is a very narrow
two-lane road with walls of rock and ferns on each side. Cars were parked
everywhere for miles. So a road that normally has room for a vehicle to
travel in either direction wasn’t even wide enough for a one way street but cars
were still traveling both ways. There were more people walking up the
hills then there were people in vehicles.
II think that in true Grenadian style, when the events end the party begins. It was a great day but late when we got back.
After the last couple of days we needed a day of rest. Rick refinished another lamp. I read and even had a siesta in the afternoon. When we went up to the Rum Squall Bar we were surprised by the number of cruisers that had already returned to spend the holidays here in Mount Hartman Bay. Dakari, L'ame Libre, and Dancing Fool are all back.
My plan for the day was to bake Christmas cookies. That plan lasted only long
enough for the butter to soften which down here isn’t very long. I took
the laundry up to have it done by Henry’s Safari. They do a nice job but I
can’t wait for Claire our laundry lady to return. Michelle from Dancing
Fool came by the boat to ask if I would help her with a computer problem she was
having. As I was getting off the boat to go and help her, Lori from Pride
stopped and asked if I would like to go with her to the Dorothy Hopkins Home for
the Disabled and the Queen Elizabeth Home for Children Orphanage in the
afternoon. Of course, so that was the end of my baking plans for the day.
Click here to listen to a sing song at the home for the disabled.
The computer problem was resolved and Lori from Pride, Karen and Samantha from S/V Serendipity and myself went visiting in the afternoon. I think we had as much fun at each of the homes as the people and children that we went to entertain. Lori played her guitar and we all danced sang songs like “If you’re happy and you know it” and “The Hokey Pokey” etc.
We returned in time for Happy Hour where I learned that Audrey and Joyce had been unable to fit the whiteboard that I needed for tomorrow into their jeep. Rick and I got one of the taxi drivers to take us in his van to the Grande Anse Mall were we were able to get the White Board with no problem. It was dark by the time we returned to the boat and Rick had started cleaning the water tank earlier and wanted to finish. He scrubbed the interior nice and clean and let all of the water out. We were able to give it one rinse before the water was turned off for the evening. Luckily we happened to have a couple of bottles of spring water that we were able to use to brush our teeth leaving just enough for a pot of coffee in the morning.
It was a busy morning before I even finished my coffee. It was my day to do the Cruisers Net on the radio and I had many announcements to make as well. As soon as that was finished we had breakfast. I then ran and picked up my clean laundry. Rick ran over to Audrey and Joyce’s house where we had left the white board overnight. He returned and gave the water tank another rinsing before filling it. He did dishes while I had a shower and we made it up to the Rum Squall Bar by 9:45 AM. I had arranged with Denis from Tiger Lilly II to have a weather seminar. Denis, before he retired was head of Meteorology for Canada. He’s been sailing in the Caribbean for many years so he has since become very knowledgeable and experienced with tropical weather as well. There was a good turnout for the seminar. I counted almost forty people. Denis explained things very well and there were a lot of additional questions after his presentation but we’re all going to try our hand at forecasting for the next while. He also confirmed for us that the strong Northeast winds we’ve been having this last while are definitely the Christmas winds we’ve heard about.
Denis and Arleen came back to the boat for a little snack and to pick up their clean laundry they had left with us before the seminar. Late in the afternoon we walked over to Prickly Bay with Graham and Ann from Rasi, Karen and Dan from Dakare and John from VitaminSea (pronounced Vittamin as he’s a Brit). Bonnie and her husband Jeff from Quick Step, which is anchored in Prickly Bay, were professional Ball Room and Latin dancers. They offered to teach us some basics before we go for a real lesson in town this Thursday night. It was a lot of fun and most of us found a few muscles by the end of the evening that we had forgotten we even had.
When we arrived back at Secret Harbour we found Howard, Marsha and their daughter Julie still at the Rum Squall Bar. This was Julie’s last night she flies home early in the morning. It’s been fun having her and she has promised to return next Christmas.
This was a shopping day. We took the bus into town and hit 3 out of 4 grocery stores. Tomatoes had returned. For some reason we were unable to buy tomatoes the last couple of weeks and I’m sure they are local tomatoes. When we returned to the boat and finished putting the groceries away we both had a small siesta.
In the evening we went to the Boys Presentation College on the other side of St. George’s for our first real Latin dancing lesson. They teach only Latin, no Ballroom. Eat your heart out Kelly, our lesson (the whole evening), cost us $2 EC per person. That’s about $1 Canadian. We joined the very beginners group. The lesson was from 6:30 to 7:30 PM then there was dancing afterwards until 9:30 PM to give us an opportunity to practice what we had learned. This night we were working on Salsa. I think we will be working on it for many more nights.
I had Christmas Carols playing and there was very little humidity in the air
so it was a perfect day to clean. In the evening Marsha, Karen and Sam
from the two Serendipity’s came with Rick and I to the Posada. (If I’ve
mentioned the Posada before I think I may have spelled it wrong). It was a
spectacular evening. All of the little children dressed in their Angel and
Shepherd costumes sang their little
hearts out as they climbed the hills. Mary and Joseph were supposed to
lead the way and sometimes they did but most times the little angels were ahead
of them racing to the next house. They would sing a Christmas Carol at
each house even though the people would tell them that there was no room at the
inn for them. I think their favourite song was “Go tell it on the
Mountain”. They put a little Caribbean beat to it and clapped as they sang
while we followed behind gasping for air on climb up the hills. The Posada
ended when we returned the Church in the Grand Anse Centre. There the same
children played their parts extremely well in the Christmas Pageant. The
costumes were the best I have ever seen. Audrey has been planning and
sewing them since last September. The angel’s wings and halos were perfect
and the props were very professional. I was pleased to see the sheep that
Lori and I worked on well tended by the shepherds. It was a wonderful
evening that ended right on time, which one never expects in he islands.
We had a half-hour before our taxi was to return so we all got a pizza from the
“take away” downstairs in the Centre.
Click
here to listen to the angels sing.
Today I cleaned the boat some more, baked a Birthday Cake and prepared for a party on board Wind-Borne. It was our good friend Harry’s birthday back home but it was also Graham’s birthday from Rasi. The cake was a riot. It was heeling with a little bit of a boat tilt to it. It was a chocolate cake with chocolate icing. I made some white icing as well so that I could write Happy Birthday on it. I made the white icing a little thick so that the words wouldn’t melt all over the cake and I used my cookie press to do the writing. The icing that was too thick, the cookie press and the boat rolling quite a bit made it a bit difficult to get it right. The “Happy” in very messy lettering was slanting up and the “Birthday” in messier lettering was slanting down. There was no room left for the letter “Y” on top so it ended up on the side of the cake. As this was evolving, I was laughing so hard all by myself in the galley that Rick came in to see what was so funny. The evening was a great success. We had Bob and Lori from Pride, Ann and Brian from Nativa and the Birthday Boy, Graham and Ann from Rasi. I lit the candles on the cake and as I took it through the companionway into the cockpit the wind blew every last candle out. We sang Happy Birthday and told Graham to pretend.
The last to leave the party were Graham and Ann at 11:30PM, which as you know is way past our normal bedtime.
It was another beautiful day. I received a call on the VHF from Evelyn’s Beach and Siesta Dos as they were coming into the harbour. It was great to have them back. We got together at the potluck Happy Hour in the evening. It was one of the best potlucks we’ve had. Lori and Roger from Layla brought their guitars and sang all evening for us. There was a great turnout with some amazing appetizers.
A large (184 feet) private ship arrived and docked stern to in the marina. That provided our morning excitement. In the afternoon Rick continued with the never-ending wax job while I finally baked some Christmas shortbread cookies. The cookies turned out ok but not quite as good as those made by other members of my family. We skipped Happy Hour for an early dinner before our dance lesson. We have almost private lessons now. There are three couples and tonight we had two instructors who came teach us at the marina. Normally there will be one instructor but both came tonight because this was the first lesson.
Today our friends Audrey, Elmer (the missionaries), Joyce and Jim (the pastor) flew home. Audrey and Elmer will not be back so we presented them with a certificate making them Honorary Yachties before they left. I finally took a day and caught up on some computer work. I’m not finished but I did make a dent in it. In the evening Dan and Karen from Dakare came over for Happy Hour which lasted until about 10:30PM. It was a fun evening. We were hoping that Brenda and Bob from Siesta Dos would come by for their clean laundry that we were holding for them and make it a larger party but they totally forgot about it.
Rick and I went into town today to pick up some money, thread and groceries. I have to make a new dress for New Years Eve. Marta brought me fabric from Trinidad that I’ll use but I needed some matching thread. After shopping we stopped at the Nutmeg Restaurant and shared a Chicken Roti and Lime Squash. I remember when we first arrived in Grenada I didn’t like the local Rotis because of the curry, now they are one of my favourite meals.
In the late afternoon we had another dance lesson. We started earlier this time, which worked better for everyone. Carol and Bill from LeMan were able to walk over from Prickly and back in the daylight and we finished in time to catch the tail end of Happy Hour.
We went to town again today but we split up. Rick went on to St. Augustine Medical Clinic in St. Paul's. He had to have his stitches removed. I spent the day at the Grande Anse Shopping Centre and the Spiceland Mall picking up a few more groceries for over Christmas period. It appears as though my cookies were a hit so I’ll have to make more. I’ll also need a lot more appetizers over the holidays.
I continued trying to catch up with my computer work today. It was also a laundry day which included hand laundry. “Across the dock” Scott flew home for the holidays. We miss him but enjoy the fact that the rain has stopped. We accused Scott of causing it to rain every time he hung laundry on his lines. Truthfully, the dry season has arrived, sleeping is much more comfortable with the evening temperatures dropping down to below 80 degrees.
I cooked some fresh sorrel today. The sorrel in Grenada is a different plant from the sorrel found in North America. The sorrel here is a small plant, which grows to about 6 feet. The part of the sorrel that is cooked is the sepal. When the petals drop off (just before Christmas), it leaves a bright red sepal. The sepals then swell and these enlarged sepals are used as a fruit. The fruit is brought to a boil in a large pot of water and afterward with a little sugar and some spices added to it make a wonderful bright red festive Christmas drink. It can also be used to make jams and jellies but I’m enjoying it as a drink right now. Grenadians drink the sorrel at Christmas in the same way Canadians drink eggnog.
Brenda and Bob from Siesta Dos and Joe and Evelyn from Evelyn’s Beach joined us for Happy Hour aboard Wind-Borne III. Everyone had some sorrel with and without rum. Lately I have been serving a cheese fondue with apples for dipping as one of the appetizers. I brought the Swiss cheese fondue packages from home and it has been such a great hit that I will have to see I can find the same thing here. It was another fun evening.
I wrapped a few Christmas Gifts in the morning. Did a little boat work and then finally started making my dress for the New Years Eve party. We went up to Happy Hour but returned early to watch a movie. Evelyn’s Beach loaned us a big bag of videos so we got to watch a movie that we’ve never seen before.
It’s a good thing I finished cutting my fabric yesterday. The Christmas Winds are back with a vengeance and we’re rocking and rolling today. I had planned to sew my dress together in the morning but that was before I realized that I had to give my sewing machine a complete overhaul. Probably all the sewing of Sunbrella fabric, which is a little heavy for my machine, caused things (like the tension) to be a little off. Anyway, I completely disassembled everything that had a screw and cleaned and oiled the poor little machine. It then worked better than ever. I put my dress together and even finished the underpinning of the neck and armholes. Recognizing that we don’t have a full-length mirror onboard or any mirror that shows more that a face I couldn’t judge the fit other than by comfort. It felt great. I called Rick in to surprise him with my handiwork and he commented that the armholes were too large. Oh. No!! I had to take everything apart and alter the top of the dress. I finished just in time to make dinner. Meanwhile, Rick was working on the wind-generator all day. We have an Air Marine and it’s now only a couple of years old but some of the white paint appeared to be flaking off. Air Marine offered to repaint it for free but it would cost us more to ship it to them than to purchase the paint and do it our selves. When we took it down off the pole and had a close look, all of the paint was lifting off. So Rick spent the day with paint remover cleaning every last bit before refinishing it.
Rick walked over to the Budget Marine store while I finished the hand sewing on my dress. Later I cooked a pile of chicken wings for the Christmas Eve Pot Luck Happy Hour.
This was also a dance lesson day which really gives me some great exercise. The hotel has given us one of their villas to use for our dance lessons (no charge). I just pick up the key and drop it off again after the lesson. That doesn’t sound like a big deal but the hotel office is at the top of a huge hill. So before the lesson I climb up the hill then come down again and then dance for 2 hours. The climb back up the hill to return the key is at a very slow pace and I use what I call the granny trail, which has a more gradual slope to it. I sleep very well on Mondays and Wednesdays.
Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve I would like share with you the following note. Many of our friends and family wonder why we do what we are doing. Ken Douglas, author of the following article in "The Caribbean Compass" newspaper, hit a lot of nails on the head for us.
"Christmas is close and for many of us who live on boats in the Caribbean it's a time of reflection. From our cockpits we see other souls who have made the same choices we have, those who have sailed away from governments, borders and boundaries. Many who have literally said, take this job and shove it. Some of us are on pensions. Others have found a niche, maybe working as an electrician on St. Martin or as a rigger in Trinidad. Some of us are writers, others artists, still others artisans. We are the sea-going gypsies, the over-the-hill hippies of the new millennium. We are young at heart and wise beyond our years, whether we be thirty or seventy.
We meet at marinas, beaches and bars with a smile and a handshake. We share a beer and tell a tale or two, swap a lie or two, and sometimes reflect on a truth or two.
Our community is multinational, multi-talented, multi just about whatever you can think of. We are as different as oil and water, fire and ice, Tarzan and Jane, yet we are as close knit a community as any small town in Texas. When one of us passes away, we all weep. When one of us loses his boat, we all hurt. When one of us gives birth aboard, we all share the joy.
The pace of life is slow enough for us to listen to each other's conversations on the VHF radio. The week is never so full with boat work that we can't find the time to go to the falls in Dominica, a turtle watch in Trinidad, or Heaven help us Orient Beach (nude beach) in St. Martin. We dive, we fish, we drink and some of us dance.
We celebrate all the holidays, oftentimes with a drink or two, sometimes with a drink too many. And you can bet your bilge pumps that no matter where we are in this island chain we call home, we will be gathering together to celebrate Christmas, the loneliest day of the year.
We'll put on our brave faces, because after all, we are brave. We'll drink rum-spiked eggnog, maybe swap gifts among ourselves, maybe go to church, maybe pray on the boat or not. However, no matter how we spend the celebration of the birth of Christ, in His house, on the sea, in a park, restaurant or bar, with cruising friends, local friends, our mates or alone, no matter how we spend the day, we will go to bed that night with a sigh in our hearts.
That sigh is the price we pay for the cool blue sea that greets us in the morning, for that first glimpse of Venus on a tropical night, for that sight of the full moon rising so near the equator, for the occasional green flash, for just being here. For even though we will celebrate Christmas with a smile a block wide, there will be an ache in our hearts because there is a celebration we are going to miss, a tree trimming we won't see, a Christmas dinner we won't share, carols we won't hear, joy we won't feel. We're going to miss this celebration because we won't be going home for Christmas. Some of us not this year. Some of us not for many years. Some of us never again.
It's a terrible bargain. The price is high. Is the product worth it? It must be, we're here.
“Merry Christmas"
We took a last minute trip into town to purchase a few perishables for over
the holidays. I had a few small gifts to give some of the locals we have
gotten to know.
When we returned to the boat I gave Rick his Christmas haircut on the dock in 30-knot winds. The cut looked good but you’d think that I had the hair cut with all of the little hair trimmings that blew all over me.
In the evening we had a Potluck Happy Hour. It was the best yet. About
50 people participated. Everyone brought some great appetizers. Lori
and Roger played their guitars, Ian from Manx Cat played both a flute and
recorder. Dan tried playing his recorder but the guitarists kept changing
keys on him. Everyone joined in and we started out singing Christmas
Carols but eventually digressed to sing along songs.
The Brits love sing
along songs and know actions to almost every one, including Sweet Chariot.
We had a gift exchange that was a lot of fun. The limit was $5 EC ($2.50
Canadian) or something from your boat. Everyone drew a number to pick a
gift. If you didn’t like your gift you could trade with someone else who
had opened their gift before you. There were a couple of real favourites
that were traded many times over.
We awoke, turned the radio on and whom did we hear but Anne Murray singing
‘Away in the Manger’. The station played her whole CD so Anne sang just
like at home while we opened
Christmas gifts. As soon as I finished doing
the Grenada Cruiser’s Net (even on Christmas Day), we went up to the phone booth
to call home. I got a busy signal for Canada Direct for quite a while but
eventually got through. I used Kelly’s “Call me Card” but got no answer.
We decided to spend the money and use our own calling card but the phone no
longer had any dial tone. We tried again later and after many attempts
finally reached my sister. We returned to the boat and realized that
someone had put a large Christmas tree candle not only on the dock in front of
our boat but in front of Pride and Rasi as well. We don’t have any idea
who was playing Santa on the dock overnight but it was very nice.
Rick made us Christmas breakfast of
poached eggs with bacon, toast and orange
juice. After breakfast we didn’t have much time to tidy, shower and dress.
Lori and Bob from Pride had invited si and us to their boat for Bloody Marys
at 10:30AM.
We had a nice get together with them before heading up to the hotel for Christmas lunch at noon. The luncheon the hotel put on for us was wonderful. We started with pumpkin soup and then had turkey (with stuffing and cranberries), ham, roast beef and fish. They served us all of the traditional vegetables as well as the Grenadian favourites of mixed vegetables with Christophenes, green banana salad, fried plantains etc. There were a lot of deserts but the Grenadian Black Cake was everyone’s favourite.
After lunch a good number of us went for a swim in the pool. A new
couple that had just arrived from Trinidad joined us, Kathy and Brian onboard
Tundra are Canadians from Sarnia. Some of the others however, felt they
had eaten too much and would not float so they headed down to the Rum Squall Bar
for a Christmas day game of dominos.
Boxing Day is a holiday in Grenada and everything is closed. In the
morning I cut out another dress using the last of my fabric from Trinidad.
In the afternoon I fried some plantain and made chips while Rick broke up a
couple of coconuts for me to bake. These were the appetizers that we took
to our dinghy drift. A dinghy drift like this would never be allowed in
Canada and probably not in the U.S. either
but it was a riot. It’s also
called a Dink and Drink. We all took our
own drinks and some appetizers to share. Ours was the first dinghy so we
tied to an unused mooring and the others came to join us tying their dinghy to
ours and so on. In the end we had about a dozen dinghies tied together and
we sat and ate, drank and gabbed. This started about 4pm. It must
have been about 5pm when everyone decided it was time to drift. We let go
of the mooring line and all dinghies floated across the bay. There was the
odd boat that we wanted to drift towards so someone would start a motor once in
awhile just to head us in the right direction. There was quite a bit of
laughter and yelling going on and as we approached Teleost a large 145 foot
private yacht, they blew their horn a couple of times for us. We all
yelled ”got any ice?” and the next thing we knew, one of the crew delivered a
case of 24 cans of Coke to our raft. I say delivered but we had to gently
get the dozen boats up along side
Teleost for this to happen, so again we used a
couple of the outboards with absolutely everyone playing captain and calling out
the orders “full astern”, starboard, idle quickly”. The crew and captain
onboard Teleost were killing themselves laughing. We drifted for about
another ½ hour and then the dinghies from Hog Island broke free to return to
their boats before dark. Pride, Serendipity, Siesta Dos, and ourselves
went aboard Dakare to continue the party.
This was a much quieter day than the last few. I burned a CD of Christmas pictures for everyone to copy. I continued with my sewing and Rick worked on the bowsprit that has had a bit of rot in the wood. He has been using “Git Rot” and slowly cleaning it up. Dancing at 5PM meant that we skipped Happy Hour. Neither of us felt like going to the barbecue tonight so we returned to the boat for a much needed read and rest before Bob and Marta return tomorrow.
It was a great day to get back into projects. Rick worked outside on the boat while I took over the inside with my sewing. I finished my second dress in the morning and then made another jerry can cover (the 4th and last), and started on a radar screen cover. Marta and Bob arrived back late in the evening so we didn’t get to see them.
It was only 8AM and we had barely finished breakfast but the trade winds hadn’t picked up yet and Rick wanted to go up the mast and it’s much easier without the wind. Up he went and returned the tri-light and anchor-light to the masthead with a slight modification. We now have an electric eye that turns our anchor light on automatically at sundown. After the mast climb, which is always exciting and provides great entertainment for the other boaters, I finished making the cover for our radar screen and started on a dinghy cover. I say started but there was more planning than action. I have been procRastanating on this job for months. It’s a difficult project but I did cut the first front panel. This will be a slow and painful project.
At Happy Hour we finally got together again with Bob and Marta but had to abandon them and Night Owl who just returned to go and rescue a boat. Dorado, a boat we don’t know was on the reef. It was low tide and they would probably drift off in a few hours but by then it would be very dark. So there were four dinghies that raced out to help them get off before dark. A local with a large engine and the tender from Teleost (the large ship) came to help as well. We pushed on the stern while the Teleost crew pulled their mast over. They had to pull them so far over before they started to float that it was getting a little scary on the underside. We definitely had the keel and almost the prop right in front of us before we backed off as they floated away.
All dinghies raced back through the bay to get back to the Rum Squall Bar before the end of Happy Hour.
The dinghy cover is going a little easier than I expected but it will still take a while. Rick pulled the dinghy up onto the dock for me to work with, which means as everyone walks by they have to stop and provide a little advice. That’s one of the reasons it’s going to take awhile to finish, I spend as much time gabbing as I do sewing. Dance lessons were a little difficult today as I stubbed my little toe yesterday and it’s very painful to walk on let alone dance on. The big stumbling block however is that I have this fear it may get stepped on during our practice session.
It was a beautiful but very windy day. It was a little difficult trying to fit the dinghy cover while the wind was blowing the dinghy right off the dock. I made some good progress with the cover in the morning and then stopped in the early afternoon because of the problems getting on and off the boat in high tide again. It was a good afternoon to rest since there was no telling how late we might be out in the evening. We had a few plans in the works but in the end we joined the group who chose to get together at the Rum Squall Bar. The bar closed at 7PM so we all brought some wine and snacks. The group consisted of one American boat, Pride, three British boats, Rasi, Nativa and Woodfield II and of course the one Canadian, Wind-Borne III. Since the Brits had the majority we decided to celebrate New Years at 12AM GMT (Greenwich Mean Time). This meant that by 8PM our time we had already sung Auld Lang Syne. It was a fun evening, one of the most enjoyable New Years Eves that we could remember. I didn’t mention it in my journal on Boxing Day but since it keeps coming back to haunt me I think I will now. When we were having our dinghy drift we stopped the drift to visit a few boats, a couple of them were Canadians. As we approached their boats I stood up in the dinghy, put both hands up in the air and sang Oh Canada. The people onboard immediately stood at attention, saluted and sang along with me. The Brits loved it and now continually sing Oh Canada. They only know the first two words, they get the tune wrong but they always put their arms well up above their head while singing. They must have sung it at least four times on New Years Eve and as soon as we all started to say goodnight they started again. The good news is they don’t confuse us for an Americans the bad news is I think this may follow me all around the Caribbean.
It was a little after 10PM when we headed back to our boats. We all went to bed and set our alarms for 11:50PM. Everyone sat in the cockpit to watch the fireworks display right over our heads and then we all sounded our horns when it was over.
