June, 2007 - Okay, it’s already July, but we’ll catch up with June first! Same old, same old. Tough life. Saturday nights at Lucky’s. Sailing club on Saturday mornings. Fresh veggies on Saturday morning. Grocery shopping in Hillsborough. Swimming at the beach.
Replacement Sail: The local sailmaker, Andy, repaired the sail our friends gave us, so on a Sunday morning when the trade winds were quiet we dropped the working jib and raised the new one which is 100%. We haven’t gone for a sail yet to try it out. That’s not something we can do at the drop of a hat as it takes several hours to stow all those items that we get out of hiding when we’re at anchor. As someone said recently, it’s like living in an apartment when you stay somewhere for a while!
Book Swap at the Carriacou Yacht Club: For the last couple of months we’ve been the recipients of lots of books as people move south and want to lighten the load on their boats. Guess that tells you something. Anyway, a transient cruiser arranged to have a book swap at the yacht club one afternoon. It was well attended, we met some new folks, and the bar was busy for a couple of hours in the afternoon when it would normally be closed. And we got a few new books. We’re now accumulating books that we have been reading for a book swap in August when there will be festivities here for the regatta and fund raising auction for the children’s education fund.
School Days, cont’d: The four cartons of library books that arrived in May have been processed. The week before school closed for the summer holiday two more cartons of books arrived from Grenada, and a U.S. Postal Service bag (large sack) arrived with more books from a lady in Ohio. Those books will have to wait until September for processing, although the books that arrived from Ohio already have pockets and cards. That lady knew what she was doing! The shelves are rapidly filling up.
Fisherman’s Birthday: This celebration is probably the most representative of Carriacou traditions according to our friend, Rufus. This year the festivities were held here in Harvey Vale on the 30th of June. A tent was put up with a stage for the speeches by local politicians, the awarding of trophies to the best fishermen, and dancing to a DJ later. Local food and drinks were free as long as they lasted. We sampled the rice, cornmeal dumplings, and goat stew, but the beer was all gone by the time we got there. The small restaurant/bar across the street was doing a brisk business as a result. Unlike most events this one started in the late afternoon and ended well before midnight. We met Stephanie and Jeff from San Francisco who bought a house here a few years ago, and are able to come here twice a year for a couple of weeks each time.
OUCH! Update: Kathleen’s tooth has stayed put with the temporary filling so she hasn’t gone to the dentist yet. She’s waiting til we get to Grenada where there is a good dental clinic. And for the last two weeks she’s been nursing a sinus infection which is just about healed. Imagine getting a "cold" in Paradise!
Happy Anniversary to Us: We celebrated our 6th anniversary on the 17th. We thought about going out for dinner someplace nice, but the nicest restaurant on the island was closed for the month of June. Kathleen rose to the occasion by making ham and scalloped potatoes instead. So often we find that a home-cooked meal is a hundred times better anyway. How many times have you been disappointed with a restaurant meal on a special occasion, LOL.
Current Weather: We’re watching a low pressure area at approximately 11 ½ degrees north and 55 degrees west, which means it’s going to pass very near us. This particular low appears to be losing strength and is breaking up. Future systems like this could react totally differently and become either a tropical storm or even a hurricane. We regularly view satellite and text web sites, plus we have several items emailed daily, one of which is from a meteorologist, Chris Parker. So, we feel pretty well prepared to watch the weather and then decide if we need to go into the lagoon hurricane hole here or "run" south to hopefully avoid strong storms.
