Thursday, November 25, 2010

The days start to merge together a bit and power issues preclude much computer time, but - here is what we have been up to the past few days.

Saturday, Sandi & I went to the market and had a wonderful time. It was raining, and in fact rained a good portion of the day. The Market is packet with vendors and beautiful produce and I really enjoyed shopping there. Our friends from Ocean Jedi came back to Grenada for one day and stopped by to visit for the afternoon, while the rain poured on and off for hours. The mechanic also came by to check the oil leak we seem to be having from the saildrive housing.

Sunday, some family joined our friends on Hanco so on Sunday the girls heading over to town to do some shopping. Now generally speaking, nothing is open on Sundays, except when a cruise ship is in port, and since there was one, we got to enjoy the vendors again, with less crowds. The cruise ship in was the Queen Mary 2, and she is so big that she does not fit on the cruise ship dock and has to anchor offshore. We all jumped in their big dingy and took a ride out there to view the big ship.
On Monday, we did some chores and boat work, swam in the pool and hid from the rain.

Tuesday, we said our goodbyes and left the marina to go round to Mt Hartman as we needed to test check our engine. Unfortunately the seas were a mess and so we diverted into Prickly Bay for the night. The bay was crowded, so we ended up anchoring further out then we liked. The winds were blowing 20 from the N & E and the swells were rounding the bottom of the bay and catching us on the beam, which made for a noisy, uncomfortable night. Wednesday morning with the wind still blowing and rain squalls still marching thru we decided to head back to Port Louis where it is calmer.

So we rounded out the bay and into 20-25 + knots, although it was on our stern quarter, so not too bad until we made the turn around Pot Salinas (the airport) and headed directly into the wind. Eeeeyow!
But we made it back in and are tied safe and secure at the marina once again.

There was a piracy seminar yesterday afternoon that we wanted to attend over at da big fish, so about 3:15 we hopped a bus over there. As I said before, the busses here are an experience and apparently we discovered rush hour, when all the children are getting off school and pouring into the local transportation. Jim swears there were 23 people on the bus when we got on it. When someone wants to get off they knock on the roof of the bus, and the driver pulls over, then, depending on where the exitee is seated, several people need to get off the bus, then wait for them to exit, then get back on. It is an interactive experience to say the least. Meanwhile, when the bus is not stopped, it is going top speed around the hills and when we got off by the True Blue roundabout Jim said he felt seasick.

When we got back to the marina we visited again with our friends on Hanco, and made plans for a cruisers Thanksgiving potluck over at da big fish for today. So as I sit here and write, it is again raining and we are tucked under our canvas waiting out the storm. The locals assure us the rainy season is soon to be over...yeah right!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, we miss you all.