Credit Cards again!

We had fairly good luck this winter with credit cards while we were in the Caribbean - two of our four cards were potentially compromised in a problem with the Card processing center in the US.  We dodged that and were able to keep the cards open till we got back to Florida.

Then on Friday I got an email from Walmart.com that my order had shipped (hadn't placed an order) so logged in and found that someone had placed an order for $5.32 (plus 5.00 shipping) for an item to be shipped to us and had also placed about $300.00 worth of prepaid phone cards in the shopping basket to be picket up at the local store!  I called the Credit Union and Walmart and had a nice discussion with the Credit Union but Walmart was no help at all.  I cancelled the Walmart account and will not order from them again and we already have our replacement card.

Again, no harm just inconvenience.  Finished processing auto pays to the new card this morning.

Now I'm working on a Leopard 39 helping with the commissioning - really amazed to see a 2012/2013 boat with an aluminum holding tank - at least the tank is easy to get to when it will have to be replaced.

Flying to Miami

We were sweating that the budget issues with the current state of government (or not) would impact our return to the US.  Had heard that the issue would create a serious delay because of the folks that would be on layoff (particularly Air Traffic Controllers).  What a shock, we were on time to Miami and then we found out that the real issue was with the folks that worked the customs and immigration counters.  Long story short - two hour delay getting through customs and we got our car and drove home...

More issues with credit cards, story for tomorrow.

Leak no more

We walked back over to Grenada Marine this morning and tested the leaking hatch.  Leak resolved.  We paid our bill at the Beach Bar and then walked back to La Sagesse where we are relaxing.

Back to Florida in the morning.

Rain leaking!

Yesterday afternoon we removed the topside canvas and stowed it away for the summer season.  Last night was unusually rainy and when I got to the boat this morning to finish a few small tasks I was not ready for the water leak that was apparent in the aft cabin.  I was shocked and after cleaning up the mess set out to quickly locate and repair the leak.  Water was dripping out from around the outboard edge of the trim ring around the overhead hatch.  I removed the teak bungs and screws holding the trim ring to the headliner and then pulled the thin fiberglass trim sleeve out away from it as well.

There was not a large puddle of water inside the headliner - so far so good.  I hooked up a water hose and started running the hose around the outside of the hatch and almost immediately got a good drip started that looked like it was coming from the inboard aft portion of the hatch frame.  I decided to go ahead and remove the hatch, clean and remount rather than trying a temporary patch.

I removed the hatch,  the old (5200?) and cleaned up both the hatch and the deck surface and then used a whole tube of Boatlife caulk and rebedded the hatch - will head back to the boat tomorrow and see if the leak has been stopped.

What a mess this would have been had we not had the rain last night!

La Sagesse

The season we are based out of La Sagesse Nature Center as we go about the daily chores involved with putting the boat up for the summer.  Besides an awesome beach the grounds are beautiful and the bar and restaurant are also welcome a welcome sight at the end of the day.

 

Pressure Cooker

Several days ago while we were still in Port Louis Marina Lesley made homemade dinner rolls and pressure cooker pot roast.  I took a few pictures and finally got around to posting them.

Dinner was awesome.

We use the pressure cooker for many different meals, sides like risotto, and some of the best cheesecake I've ever eaten.

Making progress

We got to the yard this morning about 9:00 am and started on maintenance and decommissioning.  I changed the oil filter, oil, and both fuel filters on the Yanmar and ran the engine for awhile using fresh water to flush the raw water loop.  Loosened the alternator belt and the engine is put away for the season.  I had serviced the diesel genset earlier but had not run fresh water though it yet so tried to start it - no luck.  Pulled the access panel and bled the injector and it started right up - lucky again as I was not in the mood to start troubleshooting the engine today.

We serviced all of the below waterline thru hulls and removed batteries from everything onboard!  Amazing how many items use batteries!  Luckily we only have to deal with AA, AAA, CR2016, CR2025, CR2032, 357A!  Did I say luckily!

We had our customs form completed for the items that we are bring home with us - makes reentry much easier and cheaper.  Those items are now packed in our luggage.

Lesley took the freezer and ice box apart and we still had ice in the freezer.  Was nice to have ice water during the day today.

I was able to get UV polish on 1/2 half the boat today and will finish that project tomorrow.

We got back to La Sagesse early this afternoon and after a nice swim and a shower are relaxing and waiting for dinner - the cook told me that the special this evening involves Lobster so I'm already licking my lips.

Tomorrow should be easier as we are putting things away, vacuum sealing  bedding, getting things ready for our return.  Perhaps another 2 days (1/2 day each and we will be able to kick back and relax) and we are close enough to the boat so I can run over and check on the last minute items that we might have forgotten.

On the hard in Grenada

We got the boat out of the water and power washed just before lunch.  The yard guys left the boat in slings while they went to lunch so we climbed back aboard and had lunch to.

After lunch they moved the boat to the upper yard and got us blocked and set up scaffolding so that we can start waxing the hull.  We finished cleaning the underwater metal and keel cooler and then acid washed the hull.  Enough work for this day so we rode back to La Sagesse and had a nice cool drink or two.  Showered and then had chicken curry for dinner and some chocolate ice cream for desert.

After breakfast this morning we will head back to the yard and wash the topsides down with soap and water and then will apply UV protectant to the boat.  I still need to service the engine, thru hulls, waste system, etc but we have plenty of time as we do no fly back to Florida till next Thursday.

Haul out - bring it on

The boat is prepped for haulout and we are ready (hopefully).  Last tasks today were organizing and inventorying the stuff that we put in the stbd lazarette - in reverse order that we will need the items.  We got the main down, removed most of the lines, put the dinghy up on deck, topped off the fuel tank, continued prepping the salon, and cooked our last New York Strip Steak, Basmati Rice, Greek Salad, homemade rolls.

Once we move to Grenada Marine tomorrow we are land based ans serious prep starts, more to follow.....

Met some nice folks on a PDQ (Brazilian version) and will be in La Sagesse with them over the next week as we continue summer storage prep.

More later.

Leaving St Georges

We got out of Port Louis about 9:20 this morning heading for LePhareBleu Marina with a stop off in Prickly Bay to drop of some of our excess frozen meat to some boaters in need - thanks for your help Glen (Blue Pearl).

The Dock Master in Port Louis is a jewel - helped us drop the two bow lines holding us off the concrete wall and we were on our way.  I called Glen several times on VHF after we were off St Georges and finally made contact and switched to the Island wide Repeater on 66 to coordinate the food drop off.  The trip around is OK till you come around Point Saline and then it is Shitty (notice the capital "S"),  always is.  This time though, as we came around the point, we lost NMEA data to the autopilot - I'm assuming it was from the Airport Radar as the problem cleared up once we were about 1 /4 mile East of Maurice Bishop Intl AP.

We came in to Prickly Bay and as has been our experience it is still "Prickly".  Swell rolling in and it really does not matter where you are, you are going to roll.  We came up behind Blue Pearl and Glen came out and picked up the frozen food and we were off.  We came across a floating red fuel tank leaking fuel, a quart of oil and some oars as we moved on past Mt Hartman Bay but never heard or saw any other signs of a boat in distress.

We turned up into Phare Bleu Bay and made contact with the Marina on 16 and spoke with the dock master asking us to wait 5 minutes and he would send a boat out to help us in.  We've been in here a bunch of times so did not think we needed any help - till we realized that the new outer dock is fixed and a new floating finger pier was situated about halfway down.  We came in, tied up port side to and Colin made an emergency power cord so we have AC (AC power and Air Conditioning).

We washed/scrubbed the dinghy and took the staysail off and continued our haulout prep till is was near cocktail hour. Went in and our favorite bartender (Donald) made Lesley a Pina Colada and I had a couple of beers then back to the boat, showers, and Lesley made cornbread and is now making chili pork stew.

We are both pooped and after dinner I think it is going to be early to bed and some Advil for us both.  One more sail tomorrow, pick the dink up on deck under the Hoyt boom then remove the remaining lines and blocks and we should be ready to head to St Davids on Thursday morning - hoping for a late morning haul.

Will see.

Burgers - not out here

I was all hyped on trying the burger here yesterday - was disappointed - greasy meat, undercooked, but at least it was not loaded with fillers and garlic powder.  Will stick with homemade, using at least 88% lean ground chuck.....  Not sure what we had but uck!  Bun was great, toppings were to, meat didn't make it!  Burgers in Paradise - NOT!

Dinner was great, we did brisket with a side of baby back ribs with a chipotle sauce, very good.

More haulout prep today and a trip in to Spicelands Mall for pre provisioning.  Cleaned the shower pan discharge, treated the shower curtain, prepped the Outboard, removed outboard fuel filter, cleaned and stowed tie down straps and polished some stainless.  Water maker is put to bed for the season.

 Tomorrow Lesley is making homemade dinner rolls and pressure cooker pot roast.

Things are coming together for our haulout

Sailing from Carriacou

We left Carriacou this morning at about 7:00am.  Windguru report on wind/waves was right on and we had the best southbound trip to Grenada of our 7 seasons doing this.  Waves were a little confused just North of Il Ronde but we were able to sail to just off Dragon Bay.  Considering that the last 10 miles or so of the trip to that point is in the lee of the Island  we were very lucky.

We tied up at Port Louis and I went in to Island Water World for some Hull Cleaner and a scrubber pad for the bottom.  We've already started decommissioning systems and have our haulout check list on the bulletin board.  

First thing on the agenda in the morning is a quick trip to the airport to get a customs form completed for some items that we are taking back to Florida with us this summer (we can then bring them back duty free).  Then it's to the Merry Bakers for Fridays Build a Better Burger Bar and out to the various stores for shopping for provisions (preprovisioning for next season where possible) and out to Ace Hardware and Budget Marine. 

Dinner tomorrow night is the Port Louis BBQ - will take some pictures and post over the next several days.

In the meantime - Carib time.....

No Green Flash

Well, I've been waiting, no green flashes as we spend our next to last night hoping.  We did get a great double rainbow over the anchorage this afternoon.

 In the meantime, taking it easy and headed in to Patty's in the morning for some baguettes and great roast beef and pastries for breakfast when we head to Grenada on Thursday morning.

Tyrrel Bay

Over the years we've noticed more and more of the Venezuelan fishing boats up this way are not so much into fishing as they are into selling fuel.

These two came in yesterday and were gone this morning when we got up.

As we near the end of our sailing season this year we are hoping for one last "Green Flash".  No luck last evening as we had to much moisture in the air and also one strategically positioned cloud on the horizon.

Carriacou

We left Clifton this morning after I had gone in and chatted with the ladies at Erika’s Marine Services about WiFi Hot Spot issues.  Found a piece of LMR-400 hard line (coax) that had a bad connector on it and the antenna center pin was damaged.  The site is working better than most of the others that we have used in the Caribbean.  We used Skype, streamed some video, downloaded some files, etc.  Logged in and added the “Union Island” description after the HotHotHotSpot! So now the SSID come up correctly as HotHotHotSpot! Union Island.

We pulled out at 10:30 headed for Hillsborough, Carriacou where we clear in to Grenada.  Each time we clear in and out here I use a form that I downloaded from the Grenada Government website that I modified so that it is a fillable .pdf file.  The only thing I change on the form now is inbound or outbound, date/time of arrival, and date, print 4 copies and go in to Immigration.  There is ALWAYS a full line at the counter filling out forms.  I really enjoy walking in, handing my completed forms and passports to the Immigration Officer and getting them back in less than 5 minutes while the people in line wonder if I’m related to the Prime Minister or something!

Photo of the form – here is a copy of the Grenada Customs Form , it really makes life easy.  This is the easiest clearance in the Islands, even those French ones where you have to enter your info each/every time……

After clearing in I walked down to Patty's Deli  and picked up some great coldcuts and a baguette.  I called Lesley on CH 16 and she scooted in and picked me up and we were off to Tyrrel Bay.

As we passed by the no anchor area near Sandy Island (Sandy Island Oyster Bed Marine Protected Area) we though it really strange that cruising/charter boats have to take a mooring but that a Windjammer “Mandalay” was anchoring!  Guess it's size that matters……  Looking at some of the photos of the boat that we took the boat might have been clothes optional and it was all men!

We arrived Tyrrel Bay and washed and rinsed the boat thoroughly – boat soap and fresh water rinse – then dried her off and are now relaxing.  We plan to stay here till late next week then will head down to Port Louis Marina where we will start pre-provisioning for next year and start to decommission the boat.  We always try to be in Port Louis on Friday as they have an excellent Texas BBQ – Brisket with 4 sauces, beans, salad, yum…..

Last day in Bequia

We spent our last day in Bequia stowing stuff on the boat and getting ready for our trip over to Union Island.  We met Friends aboard IP-38 Salty Shores for cocktail and compared notes on some boat projects.  Without a doubt this is the nicest 38 I've ever seen.  The owner has replaced the teak and holly sole, improved the reefer, the teak looks great and all of the stanchions have been replaced, the hull is in great shape and the boat just looks superb.

I cleared customs yesterday morning then we sailed over to Union Island and are now in Clifton.

On the way over I took a few pictures.

Over the past several seasons I've posted photos of the ship wrecks lining the shores in Portsmouth, Dominica (and those at anchor waiting to go ashore in the next storm).  One of the captains in Portsmouth who own a number of derelicts brough this one down and left it fo the folks on Bequia earlier this year.

As we approached Mayreau on our way down I got a picture of a very crowded Salt Whistle Bay.  This is a very pretty small Bay on the North end of the island but it is almost always overcrowded like this, usually with large charter cats but now we've noticed that some sport fishers are starting to appear.

As we sailed down the West side of Mayreau, near Saline Bay, I took this photo of the town.  Very interesting colors.  All of the Islands in the Southern Grenadines are suffering a very serious drought.  Will be interesting to see how Grenada is fairing in this regard as we move further South.

Today I'm going ashore to checkout a WiFi access Point then we will zip across the channel to Hillsborough, Carriacou.

Larger double enders

We waited and waited for the start of the larger double enders but the race never got started - so I took some pictures of the boats in the area.

Double ender race

We headed over to Lower Bay at abot 10:00 this morning for the start of the last days races. There were lots of people on the beach and this girl in particular was making quite a fashion statement with the "MAN-O-WAR"  swim cap!

 Which helps to prevent the Don King look
 

Anyway it appeared that todays races were on the Island Time System as nothing seemed to happen at all!  While we were waiting for the first race to start we noticed a boat from one of the earlier race strarts that had a bit of a problem.

The first races got underway in what seemed to be almost an accidental start.  Not sure if this was due to the large swell or high winds.
 

 With the first race finally underway.
 

When disaster strikes one of the boats

 The crew got the boat upright in the water and a committee boat towed them back to shore where the bailed the boat and then took off again!