I wanted to shake up my life and go sailing (or learn on the job, so-to-speak) so headed to Florida to crew on a catamaran. This is about how it went or, rather, didn't - and my life since. Hopefully it will lead to a catamaran on the clear aqua blue waters of the Caribbean Sea, watching the sunset, a coconut rum and coke in hand. You must START AT THE BEGINNING of the blog, April 2009, to get the whole story...

Saturday, October 19, 2013

BACK TO GRENADA

At 7am we pull up anchor and set for Grenada.  When I get up Rick and Alessandra are readying the boat to sail. There's no word about breakfast and I am thankful for coconut bread I bought on Mayreau as I set about making tea, a cold drink, and buttering a couple of slices of the bread.

There's a rainbow in the sky as we leave the harbour. It is sunny with clouds. I have to wear a light shirt as my back is sore with sunburn.

When we sail past Kick'em Jenny, Rick suddenly realizes that we are in the no-sail zone.  Eeek.

Off Grenada we hit a storm and I am ordered below. It's raining very hard and the wind is really strong, blowing the sails all over. Lines are whipping about as well. It's not fun. After what feels like an hour, we get through that and eventually head in to Port Louis Marina.

Rick has been asked to video a local girl singing at a club there tonight and he has agreed in exchange for moorage at the marina. There's a pool there and I am looking forward to that, especially because there is no breeze at all in the sheltered port and it is stinking hot and particularly stifling below deck. It will be hard to sleep tonight. What I wouldn't give for some air-conditioning right now! I am teeming sweat.

It's almost 4pm and we haven't eaten today, other than what I made for breakfast, and I decide I am going to make a meal for the three of us. I use lots of the vegetables we bought and have barely touched, chicken breast, and cook up some rice and make us a huge stir fry. It is absolutely delicious and Rick certainly seems to enjoy it. I honestly don't know how these two survive on the slim pickings that have been our meals. We never do use the fish we bought and not even half the bag of chicken. At one point I asked Rick about the bar-b-que he has on the rail, wondering if we could use it to cook up some burgers if I bought some ground beef. He didn't want to use it, citing it needing a new grill or more propane or something or other. I was dying for a burger (I rarely eat red meat) at that point and was very disappointed. As this will most likely be my only charter cruise, the whole meal situation has been quite the let down.

I am super frustrated because an adapter I recently purchased for my iPhone 4 enabling me to use the iPad cord, thus needing to pack only one cord for charging both, has broken. I bought it very cheaply online direct from China. It's a piece of garbage now and it leaves me without a way to charge my iPhone and for some reason I can't get online with my iPad.

The swim in the marina pool is very refreshing and I float about for over an hour waiting for Rick and Alessandra to join me... they were supposed to be right behind me. They eventually show up, just as I am thinking about getting out because my fingers are prunes. I stay a bit longer then leave to use the showers at the marina to clean up... what a treat and they are so much nicer than I expect!

Rick and I head over to YOLO, the bar at the marina, toting lots of video equipment. And it is air-conditioned!! Oh wow, does it ever feel amazing. What a relief!

We get a drink each and then Rick sets up the equipment. There are a few people in the club and I get to talking to a fellow beside me. Turns out he is the captain of a big luxury yacht in the marina called GO. We first saw the boat when we left Port Louis on our way to the Grenadines. We also saw them everywhere we went up there and we were so surprised to see them behind us when we pulled into Port Louis today - basically they had the exact same itinerary we had. He is a really nice guy from Texas and he shows me some photos on his iPhone of the interior of the yacht. It's gorgeous.



Tammy Baldeo arrives with her accompanist, a fantastic guitar player, and we get busy filming them. I take the camera on sticks and Rick works the steadi cam. The singing is really good, especially seeing this is one of her first public appearances, and I very much enjoy the evening.

While we were there the Prime Minister and Governor General of Grenada show up with a retinue including a female uniformed guard, red braid and all. They sit outside on the patio and have a meal and then leave without coming inside to hear the music. Rather exciting, regardless.

All photographs are mine and not to be copied without express permission from me (click on them to see the large version).
Some names have been changed to protect my butt.



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