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June, 2008 - The days are flying by! When we said goodbye to friends, they all asked when we would be back!
Cruisers to the Rescue Again: At least this one was not life-threatening. One morning a local workboat broke free of its mooring lines, and was headed, stern first, out to sea. S/V Island Girl made the announcement over the VHF radio. Roland and another cruiser headed over in dinghies to keep an eye on it until a fellow from the haulout yard came with a powerboat to tow it into the lagoon where he tied it up for the time being.
Cute Little House: Well, maybe not so cute, but the color is typical Caribbean blue. Loads of potential. See the pictures for June. We heard about this place for sale from Trevor at the Carriacou Yacht Club so we decided to take a walk over the hills to take a look. In the picture on the internet the house was alone on a hill, but we weren’t surprised when we found a LARGE house being built just below it on the same hill. At first we thought the new building would totally obstruct the view, but it didn’t. There was a man at the house who claimed to be the caretaker for the owner, and who happily gave us the tour. This is supposed to prevent squatters from taking over a building so who knows if he was legit. He sure was comfortably settled inside. The inside basically was four walls, a loft with stairs at each end for sleeping or storage, and the beginnings of a cooking area with some cabinets and a counter. Three “stable” doors graced each side with one more on each end. The total floor space was about 400 square feet. The property was fenced in, had a few trees, an outhouse, and a lovely view of the Atlantic side of the island. Now, wouldn’t you be willing to pay the owner’s asking price of $95,000 US?
Lightening the Load: It takes a great effort sometimes to get some weight off the boat, short of losing 50 pounds each However, we have succeeded in small ways. Last month we gave slightly used clothing to two local guys, Alvin on Union Island and John here in Tyrrel Bay. Kathleen purchased a new pair of fins in Bequia so the old ones went to the kids here at the sailing club. That didn’t really lighten the load, but at least the replaced items were gone. The heaviest piece by far went to Thomas, the Rastifarian, here in Tyrrel Bay, who had helped us repair both outboard engines last year. We gave him the old Johnson outboard which has been riding our stern rail for the last three years. Our Yamaha has been behaving for the most part so we felt secure in the knowledge that the Johnson would be useful to someone else. We’d been trying to get John to take the spare wooden oars, and he finally took them the night before we sailed down to Grenada.
Grenada: Another good sail took us to Grenada on June 5th, steady comfortable wind almost all the way. In mid-afternoon the wind has a tendency to drop to nothing along the leeward coast so instead of doing a steady five and a half to six knots (sometimes even 7 ), we found ourselves doing two and a half. Oh, well, we still had four hours of daylight, but it didn’t take that long to get to St. George’s. Considering that we didn’t leave Carriacou until 9 a.m. we did well. Inside the lagoon the next day we found old friends Diane and Joe on Moon Goddess and Mary Ann and Ron on Mighty Sparrow. It has been a year and a half and a year, respectively, since we have seen them.
Harrowing Ride in a Pick-up Truck: Actually, in the back of the pick-up truck. Diane and Joe invited us along to Sunday brunch at the home of Don, a former cruiser, who lives up a few steep hills on the east side of St. George’s. Transportation was provided by Dave, another former cruiser and owner of the truck. Along for the ride were Mary Ann and Ron from Mighty Sparrow and Liza and Heinrich, a German couple, from Salzberg 7. We met at the Grenada Yacht Club around 10:15, were met by Dave a little later. Seven of us rode in the back as the truck made it up the steep hills, occasionally scraping the towing hitch on the pavement. The first stop was up a hill to meet Gisella and Orlando so they could follow us. The next stop was south to the Spiceland Mall supermarket for a few groceries. Finally arriving at Don’s a few minutes after noon, we could have used some sun screen. All of us brought something to replenish Don’s larders (eggs, pancake mix, bacon, sausage, juice, soft drinks, beer) for the next set of brunchers who get to spend the afternoon at his house eating, relaxing, using his computer, watching NASCAR racing on his TV, and visiting with anyone who happens by. As a former cruiser Don knows how nice it can be to spend a day ashore, and he’s a great cook.
Changes around the Lagoon: We really try to stay apolitical down here, but occasionally something just makes us shake our heads and wonder. We also like to read the local papers to find out what is happening. This time an open letter to the company building the marina in the lagoon appeared, written by an intelligent, well-spoken “native” woman. She addressed several issues, not the least of which was whether or not the company actually has a business license to claim maritime rights in the lagoon. The natives are being pushed out of the area, and the shore line, which is part of the National Parks System, is in jeopardy of being totally taken over by this company which plans on backfilling the shore in order to build - condos, shops, you name it, all in the name of progress for tourism, but aimed at the luxury mega-yachts they hope to attract. By the time this happens, if it happens, there will no longer be room for any cruising boats to anchor in the lagoon. All the space will be dominated by the marina facilities. As it was, the marina gave letters to all the boats anchored in the lagoon telling them that on Monday, June 16th, they would start charging 32 cents per foot per day (US$) just for anchoring there. Well, some boats moved out, others stayed, and the word was “just ignore them, the lagoon still belongs to the Queen, and the marina has no right to charge for anchoring.”
Mail Delivery: Oops, the FedEx office moved, and they forgot to tell us. We had gone into the Carenage to pick up our package, and, lo and behold, we found that DHL had moved into the FedEx office. Sometime since January, the location was moved to a vacant auto repair shop across the street from the Tropicana Hotel. Back into the dinghy, around the commercial docks to the little dinghy dock in the lagoon across from the hotel, probably three tenths of a mile by water, and there it was in a pretty nice, newly painted and much larger facility. We retrieved our box, wondering how there could possibly be 300 feet of quarter inch rope and 300 feet of new halyard line, some electrical circuit breakers and a switch, and mail. It did weigh 28.5 pounds so it must all be in there. And wonder of wonders, there were no customs duties on our eBay purchases. In addition to several issues of magazines and SSCA bulletins we were delighted to find drawings and papers from Roland’s grandchildren, Elizabeth and Derric, and pictures of Kathleen’s granddaughter, Amanda, and her two babies, Jessica and Matt. That’s the best mail of all.
What They Don’t Have in Venezuela: Sandi, an ex-pat who lives in Porlamar, keeps us up-to-date on items we need to bring with us. Peanut butter, always in short supply, has become very expensive so we bought more before we left. Kathleen bought lots of cheese for pizza, too. Kathleen is currently working on a list of groceries that we buy wherever and whenever we can to compare the prices. Look for that next month, probably on a separate page. The price restrictions have been lifted on many items so that eggs and milk are once again available in stores. Kathleen brought Bounty paper towels for Sandi, and Sandi brought a BIG jar of horseradish back from her visit to the States.
From Grenada to Venezuela, Preparation: The decision to leave on Thursday, June 19th, was a little hurried. We still wanted to get more US$ at the bank first so we did that as soon as one opened. The problem was that the closest bank ATM severely limited the withdrawal amount as well as how much we could exchange because we did not have an account. The bank down the street exchanged the rest of our EC’s for us. We did keep enough to be able check back into Grenada on our return without running to the bank first. Now mind you, all this requires taking a bus and walking, and takes time which includes standing in a line, waiting for what would seem an inordinate amount of time in the States. Finished with the banking, we went back to the Grenada Yacht Club to check out with Customs and Immigration. We were sure we would be ready to leave by 11 a.m.. What we did not count on was the roughness of the anchorage. We tried and tried to lift the outboard off the dinghy with no success. It was just too rough Exasperated, we lifted the dinghy with the outboard now laying on its floor onto the forward deck with the halyard we use to lift it at night. Then we were able to walk the outboard to the aft deck where we tie it down for passages. SV/Moon Goddess had already lifted the anchor and was waiting a little further out. SV/Salzberg 7 was almost ready as well. At noon we were finally on our way.
The Trip Itself: In August of 2007 the trip from Prickly Bay to Porlamar took 28 hours, going to the south of Los Testigos. This time, .leaving from St. Georges and going to the north of Los Testigos took 30 hours, and required a full day of motor-sailing from Los Testigos to Porlamar. The distance was just about the same, but the conditions were a little different. We must admit that our floating home does not like 6-8 foot seas, even if they are following. She just doesn’t like to steer straight so that made for some tiresome hand steering until nighttime when the seas settle down and the autopilot worked okay. We experimented with our light air drifter for a bit until the wind behind us didn’t want to cooperate. We realized we should have dropped the 100% genoa in favor of the 165% light air genoa which we could have reefed with the roller furling.
Checking in: Even this is more expensive than last year since the government has added some new taxes. There is one group of cruisers which believes that Juan’s service should be used for this, and another which feels that they can and should do it without Juan’s help. The Port Captain’s office used to be in Pampatar so it was much easier to use Juan as an agent in Porlamar, for travel and translation purposes. Since Customs and Immigration are now nearby on shore where all the cruisers are, Juan’s services are not necessary, but in addition he provides a dinghy dock, a small store, laundry service, propane tank filling, a book exchange, a place to have mail delivered, and cheap beer for Happy Hour. If he is not supported by the cruisers, all that may disappear.
The New Bolivars: Venezuela’s new paper notes are quite pretty, nice not to have all those 000's on everything. Unfortunately for us the exchange rate in Margarita has dropped to 3 B’s for $1US. Since we left here last year when we getting more than 5 to 1, our buying power is certainly curtailed. It’s always possible that it may improve so we don’t want to exchange too much at one time. Another unfortunate fact is that the inflation rate here is about 30% annually, and in our trip to the supermarket, we did see evidence of that. Campbell’s soup, Cream of Mushroom, is over 22 B’s, more than $7.00 US. Glad we stocked up on that in Grenada where we paid from $2-$3 dollars per can. Some things you just can’t live without. That, and Lay’s Potato Chips! Last year we paid 60 cents US for a decent bag. Now that same bag is $1.35 US for us, because of both the inflation and the exchange.
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