Adventures with David & Gail

Vessel Name: Wildest Dream
Vessel Make/Model: Caliber 47 LRC
Hailing Port: Dallas, Texas
Crew: David & Gail Dodgen
Home Page: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/wildestdream47
15 June 2013 | Dinner Key Marina, Miami, FL
20 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas Nat'l Park, Florida
18 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas, Florida
14 May 2013 | Puerto Isla Mujeres, Q. Roo, Mexico
10 May 2013 | Lighthouse Reef, Belize
05 May 2013 | Guatemala
01 May 2013 | Ram Marina, Rio Dulce, Guatemala
26 April 2013 | Livingston, Guatemala
23 April 2013 | French Harbor, Roatan, Honduras
20 April 2013 | Le Bight, Guanaja, Honduras
18 April 2013 | Vivorillo Cays, Honduras
10 April 2013 | Providencia, Colombia
01 April 2013 | Providencia, Colombia
23 March 2013 | San Andres
22 March 2013 | Off Nene's Marina, San Andres, Colombia
12 March 2013 | Red Frog Marina. Bastimentos
10 March 2013 | Boquete, Chiriqui, Panama
10 March 2013 | Cruiser Casa, Panama City
10 February 2013 | Panama City, Panama
02 February 2013 | Red Frog Marina, Bocas del Toro, Panama
Recent Blog Posts
15 June 2013 | Dinner Key Marina, Miami, FL

My how time flies!

My how time flies! – Well, I must confess to being a little overwhelmed and getting mixed up into the real world pace again faster than expected. Here it is mid-June, we have been back in Miami for almost 3 weeks, back in our house for almost a week, and I have not updated the blog. My sincere apologies! [...]

20 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas Nat'l Park, Florida

Back in the US, kinda!

Back in the US, kinda! - We are on US soil! There is no immigration or customs office out here so there is no way to clear into the US. So we are kinda' illegal aliens! But we are flying our Q flag and no one seems to care. Or maybe they don't know what it means. Anyway, we are getting closer to [...]

18 May 2013 | Dry Tortugas, Florida

Isla and beyond!

Isla and beyond! - We stopped in Isla Mujeres to officially clear into Mexico, wait out some weather and do some provisioning. Actually US immigration really doesn't care about where we started from to reenter the US, and they don't ask for a Zarpe so we could have gone on to Florida without stopping [...]

14 May 2013 | Puerto Isla Mujeres, Q. Roo, Mexico

The last flag!

The last flag! - Having skirted along the outer cays and atolls of Belize, we headed north to Mexico. I went to the flag bag that we have been using for the whole trip to store our courtesy flags for each country and it only had one flag left. It was the Mexico flag. All the others had been used and [...]

10 May 2013 | Lighthouse Reef, Belize

Belize it or not!

Belize it or not! - Sorry. I could not resist! We planned an 18 month trip and we are now into the 18th month so it is time to head home. We have about 800 miles to go with Belize and Mexico yet on the itinerary. We could go nonstop or we could take our time. Or we could stop a few places as we [...]

05 May 2013 | Guatemala

Guate!

Guate! - The ride into Guatemala City, or Guate for short as the locals call it, takes you along the Rio Montagua river valley as it winds is way up to the mountains. The Rio Dulce is at sea level and Guate is at about 6000 ft. so the climb is steep at times. Plus it's mostly a rural two land road [...]

Grenada Part I

01 August 2012 | Port Louis Marina, St. George, Grenada
David
Grenada Part I! - Ah! Grenada! Paradise! South of the hurricane zone at 12oN! We have finally made the furthest point that we are going on our trip. Now it's back home by the long way.

We did the quick sail from Petit St. Vincent to Carriacou and anchored in Hillsborough to clear immigration for all of Grenada, which also includes a few other islands and an active volcano! Hillsborough turned out to be difficult to get our anchor set and we found out from another boat it is historically hard to anchor there and they would not leave their boat unattended even if anchored. It made us feel better about our anchoring skills and we decided that we didn't want to spend the night there.

Just outside the harbor is a very popular little island called Sandy Island, because it's sandy! In fact the guide book said it might not even be there anymore because of erosion. But to our surprise and delight it was not only there but thriving as there had been obvious efforts to shore up the island and help to stop the erosion. It is in a small national park and there are moorings now to keep people from anchoring. So, we opted for a nice mooring and a good night sleep.

Next morning we were up for a quick dive on the island as marked in our dive book. The location was not spectacular but different enough and easy enough that we really enjoyed the dive. Back on board and just before leaving, the park ranger came to collect the mooring fee and scolded us for diving in the park without a dive guide. We took the warning, promised not to do it again, and paid the fee. Oops! If we had left the mooring 10 minutes earlier we would have missed both the fee and the warning! Oh well!

So we were off for the 5 miles around the corner to Tyrell Bay and a quiet evening. But to our surprise there were about 100 boats of all kinds already in the bay. It's big but still crowded. We found a good spot to anchor right in the middle and hopefully in antenna range of a good wifi connection. The anchor set well but no internet! So off we went in search of a restaurant, bar or other internet establishment. Again to no avail. The one little bar with DSL internet was down and the owner (or just hanger outer) didn't know who to call. We actually tried to reset it ourselves but again with no success.

So we wandered the little town and walked around until we ended up at the Lazy Turtle and met others already logged on. We managed to get the password and finally had enough bandwidth to check email and bought a beer to justify our use of their wifi. And had a pleasant conversation with several other cruisers and charterers that we had seen but not met in the Tobago Cays.

However, back at the boat, we had several other new arrivals anchor around us very close by and we were not as comfortable with our anchoring as we had been at first. In fact, with our plans to leave at sunup the next morning for St. George, we warned one boat that they might be over our anchor and told them of our early departure. As it turned out, all was okay even if very close as we were up and off for a nice sail south.

We had almost perfect broad reaching conditions with the winds at 15 knots or so just a little behind us. We passed by the islands between Carriacou and Grenada and neared the active underwater volcano named Kickem' Jenny. It had last erupted in the late 80's and is still considered a potential hazard. There is a 1.5 km exclusion zone area around the volcano just in case it was to blow again as you passed. But not today! We skirted by the area and didn't see even one bubble. We did get a good look at its name sake island and were amazed by the rugged formation. We approached the northwest coast of Grenada near David Pt. (named for some other David, I guess) and did our coastwise looksee as we like to do and covered the last 15 miles into the beautiful capitol area of Grenada, St. George.

Our plan was to pull into the Port Louis Marina for a few days as we did maintenance and provisioning for our long crossing to Bonaire later in the week. We got a slip on the 220V side of the marina and had to use our generator to make power as we did oil and filter changes, cleaned WD and tried to get in touch with our Dutch friends, Jacque and Annet on "Panache", who we planned to buddy boat with to Bonaire. We started to meet several Texas boats already here and were immediately accepted into the marina family.

After working diligently on Saturday, we decided to do our island tour and take a break on Sunday. Everything seemed in perfect order as far as the trip was concerned. We got a nice rental car and took off for the famous Belmont Estate plantation for lunch. It was open on Sunday even of some of the other tourist spots were not. The drive up the east coast was typical of the other islands and we got lost a few times but did find Belmont even of a little late. The grounds were well maintained and they still are noted for their chocolate production. It was past closing time when we finally left and headed back.

On the way back to the marina, we drove south to the area most used by the cruisers to anchor for the season. We found a few boats but could not reach the cruising grounds by car. Lastly we stopped at a very nice IGA grocery close to their closing time. They let us in but as we mozied down the aisles we were oblivious to the fact that everyone was waiting for us to finish. It was almost an hour after closing that we checked out and they could go home. We had had a very nice day and everything was going well that we decided to check the car in the next morning!

But things were to change rapidly! First, we had to move to another slip because the current slip occupant was coming back. As we pulled out and waited for the marina staff to get the lines ready at the new slip, the engine died and we were immediately blown by the luckily soft breeze into several other boats. Gail got the anchor down quickly and there was no damage, just a big red face on our part. The marina staff was already there and helped with their big dinghys to pull us away and tug WD into the new slip with help and audience of many cruisers on the dock! So much for the day's excitement.

Secondly, we had a rigger come to inspect the mast and spreaders for damage before we did the crossing to Bonaire. While up the mast, he found that our faux pas in the Turks and Caicos last January had come back to haunt us and the spreader casting that attaches it to the mast was completely broken. Long story about that but needless to say it was going to put a delay in our departure. We set about to identify and locate a replacement. The prognosis was not good!

Thirdly, a little tropical low pressure area was forming east of here and headed directly for Grenada with a chance for development into something bigger. While only one hurricane had hit Grenada head on in the last 100 years (and that is why so many boats are here), this one was on a direct line but not expected to be a hurricane. Even a tropical depression or tropical storm can be a big headache.

So, here we are! The engine is fixed. Turned out to be a little twisted gasket on the fuel filter that I had changed and let air into the fuel line. We had the engine fuel bled out and got her running again. They actually moved us to another slip today and she ran great. We are not only secure for the potential winds, we also have 110V 60Hz power to run the systems onboard. And we "think" that we have located our needed part to fix the spreader.

I did forget to mention a good thing that happened during all maintenance as we found that the water impeller for the generator was completely shot and the sea strainer for the generator was completely corroded and falling apart. Both of these items were caught before any problems and easily fixed. Thank goodness for little things!

So, stay tuned to Grenada Part Deux and see what happens. Did I mention that Monday is a national holiday and nothing will happen and that Carnival starts next week so really nothing will happen? We will have our challenges to get ready to leave again! So it goes!
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