Awwwk! (from King's Well Restaurant in Statia)

July 11

Cleared out of Grenada for tomorrow's departure. Nothing holding me here but the anchor which is often used for such purpose. One more happy hour at Prickly Bay Marina for the sole purpose of unburdening wallet of EC$, then a long night of uninterrupted bliss (to prevent confusion for some, the reference is to sleep) before overnight sail, Sunday, to Chaguaramas, Trinidad for first night in a marina, Coral Cove, since Provo in early March.

An article in December's Cruising World by Fatty Goodlander extolled the greater enjoyment of boat work in exotic locations. I love Fatty's writing, but in this case, he's nuts. Getting filthy and sweaty and busting knuckles on a rocking, swaying yacht in a foreign country is surely less fun than in the comfort of your slip at home, but recounting the hyperbolic, harrowing details and showing off consequent boat bites (wounds) to fellow cruisers at happy hour in strange and wonderful places just can't be beat.

*Warning! Another soapbox moment (Getting grumpy in my dotage?)* This will step on a few toes, but the obsession with "going green" in sailing mags is getting tiresome. Sure, everyone should leave a clean wake. Dispose of garbage properly, don't spill fuel, use a composting toilet (... er, well... it's actually a reasonable notion), but 'green' is a good idea, not a religion. The average city probably creates more pollution in an hour than all the cruisers on earth do in a decade. Except for a relatively few concentrated areas, Boot Harbor comes to mind and it's being cleaned up, the effect of private boats is negligible and unmeasurable. Let's order priorities, folks.

(Crediting Lats and Atts) FedEx and UPS to merge. New company to be FedUp. Too down? How about a merger of Polygram Records, Warner Bros. and Zesta Crackers to form Poly, Warner, Cracker? Awwwk!

Jack