The water maker is working beautifully. There was no pinched hose after all. Apparently that little hose barb was responsible. The larger water tank is full, and we’re filling the forward tank. It sure makes it easier to do the laundry. We still use sea water to wash and rinse, but now there is sufficient fresh water to rinse out all the salt water.

Of the "boat boys" (gotta find a better name for them) our favorite is 45-year-old Dougie. He brings us fresh bread every couple of days, and will bring whatever we need, charging a little extra for his gasoline. This is how he makes his living, driving his boat around to the anchorages on several islands and "taking care of" the cruisers. Yesterday he picked up our two gasoline jerry jugs and delivered the gas this morning. This afternoon he’ll be back with our propane tank, filled over in Clifton. We don’t mind paying him at all because we sure have done our share of lugging jugs, and this is a treat that is not available in many places.

Remember last week? The day Kathleen was cleaning all the seafood? There was a Rastafarian-looking fellow rowing around Chatham Bay in a smaller neatly painted boat (bright blue, red and yellow). His oars were branches from some tree, tied to the gunnels with rope or twine, not very efficient looking from the way he way rowing with them. He was talking to himself, gesturing with this hands, swearing a little, not exactly the kind of person you’d want coming to your boat. We don’t have guns, just a baseball bat! Well, he tried talking to the people on the boat next to us, and they ignored him as he shouted at them. Then he rowed over to our boat and asked if we had any bread. Roland thought perhaps he wanted money, but he really wanted a piece of bread. So we gave him a chunk of our loaf, and watched as he devoured it. It was lunchtime and we had just sat down to some fresh-out-of-the-oven baked macaroni and cheese ourselves. Then he wanted to know if we had cigarettes. Out of luck there! Half the time he was lucid, and the other half he was talking to someone else we couldn’t see. Yes, we were a little nervous! Kathleen was feeling more sorry for him than Roland was, not that she wanted to invite him aboard or anything, so she gave him a bowl of macaroni and cheese which he ate as quickly as he ate the bread. We had a little more conversation before he left, while we sighed breaths of relief. He must have been high on ganga (marijuana), and wasn’t feeling too good either. We don’t normally put ourselves in such a position, but we didn’t want to be "Ugly Americans" either. We figured we’d never see him again anyway.

A couple of days ago we went into Ashton, the second village on Union Island, to do our exploring. The first stop was to find a trash receptacle. For five dollars E.C. Dougie will take it for us if we’re not going ashore. We walked up the street trying to decide which road would take us to Chatham. A local man asked us if we were going to Chatham Bay, and pointed out the right road to take up behind the church. So now we know if we decide to walk over the hill. The second person we saw was the fellow we fed last week. He recognized us and said hello, he was feeling so much better. He looked like a different person, smiling and certainly happier than when he had last seen him. This time a little kindness went a long way. We met him again a few days later, still happy and friendly.

Then we explored the street with all the grocery and variety stores, about ten of them. We were checking out the availability of the ingredients for St. Patrick’s Day corn beef and cabbage. We also found the post office and the health clinic. We kept walking up the road thinking we would get a bus to Clifton to do a little shopping and have lunch. Well, with the sun straight up in the sky, we got a little turned around, and unknowingly took the north road around the island. Fortunately, this is not a very large island, only several square miles. As we walked over the crest of the hill, a woman was coming down her path to the road. We always say hello, and if folks are in a talking mood, we talk! This lady walked with us down the hill, telling us about the seeds on one tree that are used for glue when they are still green and the pods on another tree which long ago were used to make soap. It was when we saw the island offshore, and were told it was Mayreau that we realized what direction we had actually gone. Oh, well, we could still get to Clifton from there.

At the bottom of the hill was a strange new sight, women, sitting under corrugated aluminum roofs suspended on wooden stilts at the corners, on top of mounds of crushed rock, that they were making with hammers. We took pictures of the quarry behind them, and then approached one woman to ask if we could take her picture. She proceeded to tell us about people who come and take pictures with telephoto lenses, never asking is it’s okay, and selling the pictures for lots of money to magazines, etc., and how she considered it harassment. Wow, did we get an earful. But she also told us about a woman from Ireland who had taken pictures and sent them to her, including a large one in a lovely frame. In the end she did say it was okay, and Roland printed the photo out on the computer. We took another walk a few days later and gave it to her. She said she would frame our picture too.

So, back on the road again! This walk took all of one hour and fifteen minutes including the visit with the rock crusher. By the way, the women make a little money selling the crushed rock to the government or to private buyers. We guess the up-side is that they can work when they please and not punch a time clock. Once in Clifton we bought a few more fresh veggies, and had chicken roti for lunch. One of the fellows working in the lunch shop was from Trinidad so we had a nice chat with him about Divali, the Hindu Festival of Lights.

Sitting on a bench in front of the Lime Lite Bar waiting for a bus back to Ashton, we were treated to the influx of European vacationers who had come by tender from the cruise ship anchored at Mayreau a few miles to the north. Most of the guide books tell visitors that it is in very poor taste to go around town in bathing suits as it offends the islanders’ sense of modesty. Well, the men were for the most part dressed all right in shorts and tee shirts, but the women!!!!! Women of every shape and size were wearing bikinis, maybe a shirt, and it beats us how they can be so, well, immodest. It was quite a show as they walked up the main street and back ignoring the fact that they were also blocking traffic, apparently not even caring.

Since the buses were nowhere to be seen, we went into the bar, and had a couple of Cokes while we watched a little of the cricket match between the West Indies and Pakistan, which we later found was won by the West Indies. A cruiser we had met in Trinidad at TTSA stopped by on her way to the airport to play dominoes with Dougie at the snack bar there. Soon a bus came by and we got a ride to Ashton. Home by 2:30, ready to nap after some exercise and fun in the sun!

Roland again took the Yamaha outboard engine apart. We recently received a large Clymer’s shop manual (another eBay acquisition), which has some interesting insights into troubleshooting and carburetor rebuilding among other things. So, again the carburetor has been torn apart, cleaned, and reassembled. Usually the engine runs perfectly for one day after a carburetor cleaning then starts a decline in performance until after a few days it nearly won’t run at all. By the way, we do have two in-line fuel filters installed. Roland thinks he found a couple things (corrected float level and assembled fuel pump diaphragms in correct order) that might help it to run better "this time," but only time will tell. Stay tuned. LOL

St. Patrick’s Day was warm and sunny, not at all like the Parade days in Buffalo. But we did have corned beef and cabbage, a la Kathleen, and made two meals out of it. Nice change from fish, conch and lobster!

We finally decided it was time to pull anchor and go a little further north to Mayreau, smaller than Union Island with a population of fewer than 200 people and 10 vehicles, 9 too many for some people. We spent four days in Saline Bay which was a two and a half hour sail from our anchorage at Frigate Rock. Several times a week a cruise ship with several hundred passengers would anchor off the point and tenders would deliver "tourists" to the beach for the day. A short walk up a very steep hill from the beach found us at a place called Robert Righteous and De Youth Seafood Restaurant and Bar. There we found Robert, the proprietor, and Shirley, a young lady who sells tee shirts out front. Later we also met Leonette, a young woman who works for Robert. We ate a delicious dinner, one fish, one lambi (conch), prepared by the chef, Robert’s son, Richard. And we had a very long conversation with them all, getting to know them. Before dinner we had walked up the hill a little further to the "Top of the World", or actually, the top of the hill. Up there is the Roman Catholic Church which has a black Christ statue, a rare sight. Around the back painted on the wall is a map of the islands done by a local artist (see this month’s pictures). Down the other side of the hill is Salt Whistle Bay where we anchored for a few days before returning to Union Island, The view of the Tobago Cays from the top of the hill behind the church was spectacular. We had hoped to go there for some of the great snorkeling, but Roland had an infection on his shin, and he needed to stay out of the saltwater as much as possible. Oh, well, there’s always time to go there.

Now, Salt Whistle Bay is your quintessential Caribbean island beach, full to brimming with charter boats, mostly catamarans and mostly Europeans. By Europeans, we mean the topless, and in some instances bottomless as well, variety! But the beaches on both sides of a small neck of land are beautiful. We’re trying not to make you feel too bad with pictures of all the lovely beaches, but this is one of the prettiest with guest cottages and individual tiki huts for a restaurant.

We walked up the hill from Salt Whistle to see Robert and the girls again before we left. More friends to visit on our next visit. Kathleen had purchased a tank top from the restaurant, and Roland bought a "No Problem!" tee shirt from Shirley on our first visit. On our second visit, Robert gave us one of his embroidered caps because he liked us so much! We’re looking forward to seeing them all again.

After a lovely weekend there, we decided to head back to Frigate Rock off Union Island to check out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and return to Carriacou, the place we feel so at home! Back to Patty’s Deli for cold cuts, the only place here to get some. Back to Lucky’s for Saturday night BBQ Pork. Into the anchorage came S/V Scott Free, friends Heather and Scott from Vermont, last weekend. We spent some time with them before they headed off to Los Testigos and points west. Then S/V Elusive arrived, Gary and Sharon, from Wisconsin who have been out here for twelve years. We played dominos with them in Prickly Bay at Christmas time. Dan and Jamie, S/V Nereia, should be back here soon, as well as Mark and Deb on S/V Sea Cycle, from Toronto.

Guess it sounds like we’re having a good time. Yup, we are! But all play and no work makes us lazy so Roland has started rebuilding the forward head. The door is up on hinges, and the wood piece has been screwed to the ceiling for the bulkhead wall between the head and the saloon. It will be a slow process, but who’s in a hurry?

Easter Weekend was pretty quiet. We stayed on the boat even though we thought we might go to the kite flying event sponsored by the 4-H Club. Just lazy! However, last Saturday we helped out with the Junior Sailing Club over at the beach. Roland has brought one of the Opti sailing dinghies to the boat to do some fiberglass repair work on it. This Saturday there is supposed to be someone from the Grenada TV channel here to film the kids sailing their Optis.

So that’s it for this installment. Maybe a shopping trip via sailboat to Grenada to the "real" supermnarket". The Maroon Festival is coming up the end of April with quadrille dancing and big drum music. The "plan" is to hang out between here and the big island unless there is a threat of a named storm, a.k.a. hurricane, when we will be forced to head to Trinidad. We’ll be going back to the school when the twenty cartons of books arrive, and we’d like to be here for the fund-raising auction in August. And finish the forward head. And the rear plastic panels for the cockpit. And....

Submitted 4/11/07 - Happy Birthday, Bob (Roland’s youngest brother)!