June 2005

Once again I begin my annual migration to Vancouver Island in British Columbia. I'm excited to see my brother and his family again. I'm looking forward to my little cabin in the woods, settling in, getting my VW camper on the road, calling my friends, making new ones, and setting the scene for another summer of adventure

My seven months in the Caribbean has had it's adventures too. Hurricane Ivan nailed Grenada in September and badly damaged the 53 foot yacht I skipper. Tiempo fell over in the yard, losing her rig and crushing her hull on the port side. Pat, the owner, had her house trashed and car written off as well. My little yacht, Rocinante, miraculously survived, without a scratch, where I left her in the mangroves being minded by a friend for a bottle of rum a week.

The last 7 months have been focused mostly on fixing things as you can imagine. I have been taking care of the insurance claim and repair of Tiempo. The hull is fixed and she is waiting for her new rig to be installed this summer while we're away. I patched her temporarily and motored her to Carriacou and had the hull fixed by in the little yard there.

Living in a rented house, Pat got ADSL so I setup three new websites on 20gb of server space I leased. I set up www.grenadinewindsports.com for the scene down here, www.goosespit.com for the scene at my kitespot near my cabin, and www.macaulayrd.com for my local community around my cabin. Forums are the key, setting them up is like planting a seed. Either it grows or it doesn't. I haven't done any advertising of setting into search engines and so on. Grenadinewindsports is gathering way slowly and is useful to keep our little crowd together a bit more. When I get back to BC I will push Goosespit a bit and I'll put a sign up at the end of Macaulay Road. If I make a few new friends and have put something back into my sport and community then that's cool.

Meanwhile, of course, I kiteboarded at every opportunity. I bought a 2005 Ocean Rodeo 16m and later the 14m. The 14m is my favorite, the wind range is great and it's pretty much all I use along with my beat up old Outlaw 142 board. In the back of my mind was a vague plan to do a long distance kite trip so I put in a lot of hours doing long upwind beats up the coast and back. We took my boat, Rocinante, up to Carriacou and used her while Tiempo was in the yard there. Meant we could be in the Grenadines kiteboarding and co-ordinate the repair by phone and periodic visits. Cool! I was kiting about six hours a day for long stretches.

Grenada has a round the island yacht race at Easter and I formed a vague idea that I could kiteboard the forty miles from Carriacou to the southern end of Grenada and only need a support boat to the north end of Grenada as I would have safety cover from the yachts (though they would kill me anyway if I stopped a boat racing).

So, leaving everything to the last minute as usual, the night before the race found me frantically calling everybody I could think of, trying to find a support boat that wasn't busy for Easter weekend. Finally I found a boat and arranged for them to take me to my start point. Easter Saturday found me making lists, gathering gear, wondering if I was crazy up until the boat arrived.

I timed my start so I would arrive at Grenada to fit in halfway through the fleet. The fifteen mile crossing was pretty bloody rough and I was overpowered on my 14m but I knew I would need the big kite for the lighter winds down Grenada. I slotted in with the yacht race in 9th place out of twenty and passed them all by the time I reached Prickly Bay, where they honored me by hooting me over the finish line. I made it in three hours and felt like I could have done it again. I sailed 25 miles on one tack so my back leg felt a little wobbly. I felt so alive! I partied with the racers and caught the 8 am ferry back to Carriacou, got on Rocinante and that night we were anchored at Ashton in Union Island to begin another long stretch of 6 hour kite sessions.

The Tobago Cays is such a fun place to kite. A nice beach to launch from and a bay of yachts cheering you on. Reefs to play around and long distance trips within the relative safety of the Grenadines with full cell phone coverage. One day I kited to Petit Saint Vincent and back. Covered the six miles of ocean swell in 20 mimutes and got nailed by three big squalls of 35+ knots on the long tack back . Survival conditions on my 14m, yes sir, nothing to see but spume.

Check out www.grenadinewindsports.com for our forum and lots of Photos from this season and those gone by.

I tell you what though, it's not all roses. Sometimes it's so damn hot I feel like I'm going to shrivel up and die. My brain just grinds to a halt. It's OK if you're in the water but if there's no wind or I have to get some work done, I find it a real struggle to function when it's 100% humidity and 94 degrees. I look forward to cooler temps, at least at night!

So now I am in Grenada. I fly out on Sunday. Grenada-Barbados-Toronto-Vancouver-Campbell River-Cabin. I finished putting Rocinante into the mangroves yesterday. She is moored with four lines to the mangroves and three anchors out the back. I put her in exactly the same place. Hopefully she'll be fine. I rely a lot on luck! I gave Ian two cases of rum .....

I'm missing the Canadian National Paragliding Championships but will follow it online. The weather looks pretty dodgy and Don just broke his leg ..... perhaps it's just as well I'm not there.

I wonder what's in store for me this summer?