Now that summer is officially over it appears that we have come to the end of this year's Cape Verde portion of the 2011 hurricane season. So we have begun to relax a bit hurricane fear wise and have begun thinking about the future. Part of that future is involves the hard work of hauling out for bottom maintenance. We have scheduled our haul for this coming October 26th at Spice Island Marine here in Grenada. By that time we haul this time it will have been about 18 months since our last bottom maintenance in Florida. Normally we try to haul annually so 18 months is a bit long for us so we're not sure what surprises we have in store for us when we haul this time. So stay tuned to find out as that will be the topic of a future blog entry.

In our previous entries I mentioned the importance of WiFi for cruisers here in Grenada, actually changing anchorages to get internet access. We have had very good internet access here in Mt. Hartman Bay provided by Cruiser's WiFi. For $40 per month we get unlimited access to a reasonably fast internet connection. In fact it has been fast enough to listen to radio stations from the States over the internet with very few interruptions. It has been quite a treat to listen to everything from Patriots NFL football radio broadcasts to radio talk shows from our favorite stations in West Palm Beach and Boston. One night we even listened to the GOP presidential debate. I say this was a real treat because this capability didn't exist when we were here in Grenada ten years ago.

The other day while I was walking along one of the roads I was treated to another sight that wasn't here ten years ago. Although the high pitched whine of a small motorcycle engine is very familiar to me the sight of a "crotch rocket" racing motorcycle flying by me with a Rasta man riding it is something that I have never seen and I'm sure is only likely to be seen here in the Caribbean.

When we left North Palm Beach and its very common showers of sugar cane ash, I had hoped when we got to the Caribbean the air would not have any pollution like that. Well, wrong oh dog breath, here in the Caribbean we have dust from the Sahara desert. Yes folks, dust from the Sahara gets blown all the way across the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean, In fact you can even find graphics of its distribution on the web, just Google Sahara Dust and you'll be surprised how far this stuff travels. It shows up here as a haze similar to those triple H days in the northern part of the US. It also has shown up on our formerly white dodger as a organgish brown stain which now is contrasted with the dark gray stains from the Palm Beach sugar cane ash - a lovely sight it is.

One thing that hasn't changed here in the last ten years is the vast difference between the cruiser's car (the dinghy) and the average car in the States. What I'm talking about here is the appearance of each and the different treatment that they receive. In the States many people wash and wax their cars regularly to keep them looking great. Cruisers don't tend to make their dinghies stand out because they are at greater risk of being stolen. The best dinghy is one that is perfectly functional but looks like crap. Just as a side note gas for that dinghy here in Grenada is currently $4.92 per US gallon.

While I'm contrasting things here and in the States, let's talk about lawn care. In the States we have lawn mowers and use weed whackers to trim the edges of the lawn. Here in Grenada we have not seen many lawn mowers because most of the lawns are on very steep and uneven hills. So they mow their lawns with gas powered weed whackers. Yes the guys that do this actually mow very large grassy areas swing a weed whacker back and forth. And the lawns look more evenly cut than you might think. I guess practice truly does make perfect.

Although this summer we haven't had any close calls with hurricanes or tropical storms, it has not been without its exciting moments. These exciting moments have come in the form of squalls rolling thru the anchorage. Many of the squalls have occurred at night, generally around 3 am for some reason, and whether at night or day they bring heavy wind and rain. The rain is a blessing to the cruiser because it brings fresh water to those of us that have water catchment systems. However the wind is another story because sometimes it blows hard enough to cause our anchors to break loose from the bottom of the harbor. A squall meeting the latter description came thru here back in September right before dusk. It wreaked havoc over in the Clark's Court Bay and Hog Island area, havoc that continued well after dark. Fortunately Pam and I were onboard when it hit, but since it was a beach volleyball day followed by happy hour prices at Secret Harbor Marina, a lot of cruisers from the Clarke's Court and Hog island area were at Secret Harbor. When the squall hit there were numerous calls from boats over there reporting that boats were dragging anchor. A boat witnessing the dragging called to any boat in Mt. Hartman asking if we saw any dinghies headed back to the Hog Island area. Pam responded to this call saying that we didn't see any dinghies head in that direction. Of course the reason was that the wind was blowing at about thirty knots accompanied by a torrential downpour. Pam tried calling the Secret Harbor Marina (Martin's Marina) to see if she could get word to the cruisers there that their boats might be dragging and to get back to them quickly. Well no one answered her radio call so she tried calling them on our cell phone. Still no answer. Then she did a very smart thing, she called George of Survival Anchorage. George is a local guy that provides we folks here in Mt. Hartman bay with twice a week shopping trips. He also provides many marine services. He's also the guy that gave a ride to the airport when she went back to the States and gave me a ride to the airport to meet her when she came back. He's a very reliable guy and sometimes is at Secret Harbor in the afternoon so that is why Pam called him. Fortunately this was one of the days that George was there so when Pam told him to let the cruisers know about their boats potentially dragging he got their attention. Next thing we know, despite the torrential rain and wind, dinghies came flying out of the marina headed for their boats over in Clarke's Court and Hog Island. End result was that no boats were damaged due to the dragging. One that we know of was boarded and re-anchored by intrepid neighbors who braved the awful weather to save a neighbors boat. Cruisers do generally pull together in a crisis or to help a friend out, it's a great atmosphere and Pam dun' good. I'm so proud of her.

Part of the cruisers working together is helped by a net that is held each morning Monday thru Saturday. The net is held on VHF radio channel 68 at 7:30 am. It's basically a communication like between cruisers and between cruisers and the local community. The net is generally kind of hum drum with the same or similar things being covered each day, but it has had its moments of strangeness this summer provided mostly by one guy from a Scandinavian country. One day he came on during the treasures of the bilge portion of the net. This portion of the net is for cruisers to let others know of something that they have that they would like to get rid of. Generally they are looking to sell something but sometimes they are giving an item away. Well our Scandinavian fried came on one morning want to get rid of his bitchy wife to trade her in for a twenty year old blonde. On another morning he said he had a particular version of an assault rifle with thirty rounds of ammunition for sale. Needless to say the guy is a real piece of work and based on our observations of him onshore he needs the help of AA.

Finally, here in Mt. Hartman Bay we have the Raymond Watch on Wednesdays and Sundays. What is the Raymond Watch??? Raymond is a local guy that has a boat and for three EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollar) about $1.12 US will come by your boat and take away your trash. So on these mornings the cruisers have their eyes peeled looking for Raymond and the first one that sees him announces to the bay on channel 68 that Raymond has arrived in Mt. Hartman or Raymond has left Hog Island headed for Mt. Hartman. Raymond is a good kid and has found a little niche providing a service that no one else provides and he's making money doing. Damn, ain't free enterprise great?