What’s Pete up to these days?
November 27th 2003
Now we are back at our base
in Grenada, Pat is at her house in Westerhall. Last night I picked up my old car
from her place and cruised around my favorite bars, had a burger and a few cold
beers, catching up on the last three weeks. Christmas will come upon us pretty
quick. The plan seems to be to head off for a six week trip northwards to
Martinique or beyond, maybe in mid January, we’ll see.
Happy
Birthday Graham!
We’ve been hanging out between Carriacou, Union and the Tobago Cays. The wind has been light a lot of the time but I have got lots of kiteboarding in and some paragliding on Carriacou. Light winds found me practicing the guitar.
November 11th 2003
I got back to Grenada on October 16th and stayed in the pool house until we launched Tiempo, the yacht I skipper for Pat, on November 4th. My boat, Rocinante, fared just fine, tucked into the corner at Hog Island with Ian on Manx Cat keeping his beady eyes on her. I am slowly paying off a large rum debt for that service.
I discovered that the best paragliding site in Grenada – the only one I feel safe on so far – is fifty yards from Pat’s house. When the wind is right I can take off from a neighbors lawn, soar the cliffs and either land back on the lawn or down on the little beach in a little bowl of a bay amongst the cliffs. Not the easiest site, as it’s small and you have to run down the lawn, surge the wing ahead into the sea breeze, then hit the brakes to get lift and jump an eight foot hedge. I hung out up there and watched the wooden boat Regatta races off the point. Nice! Caused quite a stir in the neighborhood. No one has flown there before. I’ll be kite boarding there when the trade winds kick in….
Lots of wakeboarding as my friend, Jason Evans, has the use of a boat with a 40hp. So I’d be out there most afternoons with whoever wanted to go with me. I’m jumping over things like mooring buoys now…..
We launched on the Tuesday and Thursday night we’re up in Carriacou already! Derek and Nitsa came up on the ferry for the weekend and we went kiteboarding. We’re both jumping like mad things and ripping around now. Damn, that’s fun!
We’re in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, in stormy weather. Hope to head to Tobago Cays for some more kite boarding soon!
Looks like a fun season ahead!!!!
Summer 2003
My
summer in Canada was great. I did a lot of work on my property, landscaping for
more light and view and improving the driveway. I built an outbuilding to house
my VW camper, a workshop and storage space. The place was pretty overgrown
after 18 months away and looked quite different by the time I left. I got the
building weatherproof and will continue next summer.
That work was fitted in between paragliding and kite boarding trips. The VW is perfect. I pack in two paragliders, three kites, my board, my guitar, my unicycle and off I go.
My cabin is a 20 minute drive from Miracle beach. The wind is pretty light in the summer but I had a few sessions there. Graham came and helped me setup and took pictures. Goose Spit in Comox is good too, a lagoon which when you get a good SE over the spit gives an unforgettable ride on totally flat water. Fastest I have ever boarded! I was able to paraglide the cliffs nearby but the wind is not often strong enough from the SE for either sport in the summer months.
I
also bought new 12m and 16m kites and a board from the guys at Ocean Rodeo and spent a fair bit of time
at Nitnat Lake which is an awesome kite boarding spot with a great campsite
right on the beach in old growth forest. Even a sauna on the beach! I kite
boarded for up to five hours a session for days on end and learnt loads. Kite
boarding is more fun than I thought it possible to have!
When
I had enough kite boarding I either went back to work on the homestead or went
down to Victoria to visit Sandra and her kids. and flew Dallas when it was
flyable. I bought a new Nova Artax
wing and had many hours of fun at some of my regular flying sites, Dallas Road, The Malahat, Mount Prevost,
Saturna Island, Comox, and the Beaufort
Mountains.
Graham,
Jenny and the twins have their home next to mine – that’s why I bought there. Graham
was away skippering and teaching
sailing a lot, but we still had lots of time together and managed to meet up
out on Saturna island when I was out there flying and they were cruising on
their boat. There’s Graham firing one of 35lbs of potatoes into the field on my
potato gun that I had been wanting to build for ages!
June 16th 2003
Happy Birthday to me!
Since April we did another trip up to Carriacou and did lots more kiteboarding. I seem to have graduated from Novice level as I can sail to windward gibe, ride toe side and feel comfortable and in control. It is so much fun! Went back to the Tobago Cays and just ripped around. Found a new site on Union Island. Twenty knots of wind over a six foot causeway. Flat water and lots of wind. Nice! Back in Grenada we have pioneered a new site in Grenville on the windward side of the island. A big bay sheltered by a barrier reef with a good curve in the beach that gives us a side wind section for getting off the beach from. The wind tends to be light as the trades get shunted up and over the island there. I need a 16m kite.
Tiempo is put away for the season and I’m doing the same for Rocinante. I’m living in the pool house of Pat’s place. The pool house is right on the cliff top and looks over the sea. I love it!
Wakeboarding every day with Rob, Kate and Alex in Prickly Bay. I sold the Liquid Force board to Alex though I still get the use of it! I’ll buy an Ocean Rodeo board, sod the cost!
Pat has left for the summer. and I fly to Vancouver on Thursday for four months back at my little cabin on Vancouver Island. I’m taking some of my kite gear and all my paragliding gear so I will be loaded down. I’ll buy a new board and 16m kite when I get there. Probably a dry suit too!
We’ll put Tiempo back in the water on Nov 1st
and repeat the season if all goes well between now and then.
April 19th 2003
Well we’re back at White Island in my favorite spot once more.
April 17th 2003
We sailed back to Carriacou where we picked up Pat’s friend Maria. She took the ferry up from Grenada. Tyrrel Bay for the night then round again to White Island for the day, returning to Tyrrel in the evening for a more restful night and to socialize on Rosie’s floating bar, “Angel’s Rest”. I went paragliding again. The wind got up a little after I took off so I landed after half an hour. Full speed bar and barely making headway is too stressful!
April 13th 2003
Derek and Nitsa came up for the weekend and we parked at White and Derek and I kite boarded our nuts off as the others hung out on the boat or snorkeled. Our boarding is getting a lot better and I can almost sail to windward. Staying up and controlling the board and kite are becoming easier; we need to concentrate on digging the edge of the board to get to windward. I need better foot straps to get better control of the board in the chop as my feet won’t stay in them. Derek has a new Ocean Rodeo board that is really slick but too expensive. I am thinking about making one from ply and expoxy. I want a narrower, shorter board than my Liquid Force 165cm, to really get that edge in.
After D&N left Pat and I stayed in Tyrell for a day. The wind dropped off so I went paragliding in my usual spot on the windward side of Carriacou. Then we went up to the Tobago Keys for two days. There were a bunch of kite boarders up there, some really good ones with big 16m kites. The wind was light for my 9m so I learned a lot just watching. Really need to get that board dug in to get to windward.
April 8th 2003
We left Hog Island, Grenada, headed for Carriacou, just Pat and I. We stopped at Isle de Ronde for a swim and it was so peaceful we decided to spend the night. I snorkeled and saw more than I have in years. The reef is teaming with life. I saw a nurse shark, a spotted eagle ray, a four foot long grouper, lots of decent sized fish and school upon school of colorful fish. I bought a shorty wetsuit the other day so now I can stay in the water for longer without getting cold.
Back in Prickly for short spell, I bought a set of windsurfing gear from the skipper of the lovely 1930 J class America’s cup boat, the Velsheda. Lovely gear – F2 282cm 115 litre board, carbon mast, two fins, 5,6,7 sqm sails and a bag for it all so I can keep it neatly on Tiempo’s deck. Now I can windsurf when there is nobody about to assist me with the kite. So I spent quite a bit of time round at Hog Island windsurfing out among the reefs there. At weekends I’d get people along as usual. While Maude was here I broke my toe launching my kite, yuk, it was sticking straight up – Maude set it for me. Anyway I couldn’t keep off it. I have used miles of duct tape strapping it up every time I do anything.
March 2003
Maude
arrived from El Paso in the middle of March. Oh My! I whisked her away to the
boat and we headed back up to Carriacou. We stopped at Isle de Ronde on the way
up. It’s wild and isolated, a lovely lunch stop or overnighter if the weather
is calm. After a night in Tyrell Bay we went out to White Island and anchored
in my favorite spot just off the beach. This one of the most beautiful places I
have been. We stayed there for days. The wind was light and the sea was calmer
than normal, making the visibility above and below the water fantastic. Maude
helped me kite board every day, acting as my launcher and rescue boat. We only
went back to Tyrrel when we had to; Maude had to do a nursing exam online. We
returned to White ASAP. We swam and snorkeled and ran around naked. When we
couldn’t put off leaving any longer we sailed down the east coast of Grenada,
stopping at another remote island, Les Tantes, on the way for a snorkel break.
On the east coast we caught a lovely fish so we phoned Pat and invited her to
dinner in Old harbor near her house. We crept in to that quiet mangrove lagoon
with the last of the light and had a BBQ, picking Pat up from the shore. Next
morning we sailed to Hog Island and spent the last night there so Maude could
meet my old friend Ian on Manx Cat. Ian is still talking about Maude! Next
morning we moved to Prickly Bay and I saw Maude off at the airport. Oh My!
February and March 2003
After our brief stay in Carriacou we took the boat back to Grenada and Pat moved back to her house for a while and I kept the boat in Prickly Bay. Maude was due to arrive for ten days. Pat very generously offered us the boat to sail the islands together. So until then I enjoyed being back in Grenada. Every weekend I filled the boat with friends for the usual weekend day trip.
21st February 2003
Today I got out on the kite again. Ellie on Bon Bini, usually my designated wakeboard boat driver for Tyrrell Bay agreed to be my rescue boat. The wind is a bit gusty out there off the bay but I had a good go. I got really trashed in the end, lifted up in a gust and dumped on my head then yanked up again and dropped on my side. As I hit the water the second time I really thought I had done some internal damage or broken a rib or two but when I got my breath back and my head cleared I was OK but decided to call it a day. I got up on the board though and had a couple of good fast runs almost in control, leaning back on the board with the kite in the right place in the sky. I whooped and hollered until I got tossed like a rag doll by a gust or a wave.
I just had a nap and have arisen for my evening wake board session. Petra from “In Stitches”, the local sail loft is going to have a go.
I must get some pictures on here. There’s a fun bunch here. Rosie runs the floating bar and the Pizza ladies run the Pizza place. Ellie, recently fallen for an ARC dude, lives on her boat Bon Bini, with her white Lab, Scooby, and has a dive school in Majorca in the summer. I’m surrounded by lovely women and am enjoying every minute of it!
20th February 2003
Clare, and her father sailed with us down to Bequia where they got the ferry to St. Vincent and flew back to Grenada. Clare’s boyfriend Roger was going to come but he misguidedly decided to stay in Grenada and get some work done on his boat! We sailed the 53 miles from Rodney Bay to Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent. Rough breaking seas had us surfing at 11.8 knots of the north tip of St. Vincent! No fish. The gearbox died on me as I was mooring Tiempo stern to – that called for some quick action but I had been expecting the forward gear to fail so I had a plan ready. Later I took the cover off the gearbox and managed to get it going again for the moment. My friends Kristian and Carla were still there so we had a few beers ashore. We stayed a day there and needless to say, I wake boarded at every opportunity!
Then
we sailed the short 15 mile hop to Bequia where we had dinner out before
sending our guests off on the early ferry the next day. Pat and I made a 0730
start and had a lovely sail back down through the Grenadines to Tyrrell Bay in
Carriacou, arriving at 1230 in Hillsborough to clear customs.
It feels good to be back in Tyrrell Bay, It’s so peaceful yet there are people for me to play with if I want to and the local people are happy and friendly for the most part. Pat took the fast ferry down to Grenada this afternoon and will come back up on Monday with her son and grand daughter. She really didn’t want to get off the boat. It’s so relaxing here!
Where ever we go I work fast to find somebody to
Later in February 2003
Let’s
see, what happened next … oh yeah, I’ve been slacking. It’s been busy with so
many visitors that I haven’t sat down to write. We had a couple days in St.
Lucia; I met up with three English friends I had met in Martinique. Both times
I have been out with them it turned into an absolute screamer of an evening.
The other time was in Martinique, I had a arranged to meet a couple of friends
in a beach bar for a sunset drink but they got waylaid so I decided to have a
go at chatting up a pretty girl at the bar – in French – what a laugh!. I
bailed out while the going was good, after about 20m minutes, before my
vocabulary ran out! So then I got talking to these two American girls and
arranged to meet them later in Le Marin for a night out. Chris Baasch and I had
dinner and met them afterwards and a crazy evening began to form. Our group was
joined by a young Kiwi from a tall ship. We made our way along the waterfront
to a bar they had found the night before. It was a quiet place until we got
there. We proceeded to riot and soon drew another trio into our group, three
English people – Sam, his sister Jo and her friend Vicki. With the addition of
those three the night went ballistic and we had a right laugh until we all
staggered home at 0230. It’s not like that usually, mostly the cruising scene
is much older than me and people hit the sack early and rise early. Nightlife
is a few beers at sunset happy hour. So it was nice to meet a bunch of younger
people and go a bit crazy. As is usually the case, the next day everybody was
due to sail in different directions, they north and us south.
So
anyway, a few days later, in Rodney Bay, our latest visitors had left and I
felt like going out. The place was dead and I sat at the bar having a rather
dull conversation about sailing, boats and anchors. And who should walk in? The
English trio – yeaahhhh! So we went on from there to a nightclub place with
music and dancing. Later, the two girls got chatting to a couple of guys – I’m
sure they said they were gay – but as it turned out, it was clear they were not
– nice one guys – lull them into a false sense of security and then nab them
from right under our noses! So anyway, it turned out that they were on a mega
yacht called Strait Jacket, and one of them was a suddenly rich computer whiz
not much older than me and he was the owner! We piled into the hot tub, on the
top deck, with tall drinks with little umbrellas. A button was pushed and the
roof slid back so we could see the moon. I staggered home at 0430 and for some
reason had a rather slow day! In fact, at 0900 Pat woke me up to say that Clare
and her father, our next guests would be on the dock in ten minutes. Oh my
head!
I
immediately put Clare to the task of dragging me around the bay on my wakeboard - burn off that hangover! That wakeboard is
so much fun, I can’t believe it – I just go crazy on that thing for an hour
everyday. I burn up so much energy, jumping and weaving and falling on my face.
But afterwards I’m on a high for the rest of the evening, I’m hyper for hours.
I must be driving people nuts! I’ve been doing that for a month and I feel
great! Clare got up on it too – first go!
13th February 2003
Chris left us in Martinique and David and Eva Fraser-Harris flew up from Grenada. In the seventies, they started Camp Carriacou, the Marine Biology school. David’s dad used to skipper Ring Anderson, which my family knew well in the old days down here. My brother went on charters as cabin boy when she was run by Jan de Groot. We sailed down to Rodney Bay, on the north end of St. Lucia, yesterday morning, taking about three and a half hours to cover the twenty miles. After we arrived it blew like hell and rained all day; we were glad to be in harbor. David and I took my kite over to the beach and set it up but found a leak in one of the air bladders so we scrapped that idea and went wake boarding instead. Darn, that’s fun! The rain and wind continued so we had dinner aboard and watched a video – first time we’ve found time for that!
St. Lucia has special significance for me in that we lived here for about two years. I think it was ’75 and ’76. I went to Sans Souci, a local school in Castries. I was the only white kid so I had to defend myself; everybody wanted to see how tough I was. I was pretty much accepted after I bashed somebody on the nose with a cricket bat – not very hard – more like I held it up and he ran into it, not my fault of course but it bled impressively!
So I looked up the Kessells, friends from those days and even earlier in Grenada and had a chat with them, Sean works for a weathly household on the waterfront with a dock and lots of boats to look after and Chris is a marine surveyor.
David and Eva get off here and more friends are coming up
from Grenada.
7th February 2003
Chris Baasch flew up from Grenada yesterday, to join us
for a while. Chris, a landscape designer, lives down in Venezeula. He comes up
to Grenada for various projects and joins us when he can. He is a welcome and
easy going addition to our cruise. This is the scene on Tiempo this morning,
Pat relaxing with her coffee on one side of the saloon and Chris making very
pleasant tunes with my guitar on the other. It’s 0915 and nobody has put the
hire car and sightseeing plan in action yet.
4th
February 2003
We left around 0830 and headed out past Pigeon Island,
Nelson’s former stronghold against the French in Martinique, our destination.
Half way across the channel my hi-tech alarm clattered and we landed a lovely
tuna, the perfect size for our fridge and our bellies. In Le Marin we anchored
in a quiet mangrove lagoon. I zoomed off to meet friends, Peter on Galatea, and
Ian on Piper. Later we ate rare tuna steaks with rice and broccoli. Hmm - fish
tenderloin!
3rd
February 2003
We
left Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent before 0800 and sailed the 53 miles to Rodney
Bay, St. Lucia. It was a superb sail. St. Vincent is a wild, green and
mountainous island with a big Volcano in the north – Jimmy Buffet sang a song
about it when it erupted in 1979. The island is known for it’s weed production
and looking into the hills you can see the grower’s plots and makeshift tents.
The passage between the islands is usually pretty nasty,
but today it was calm with a nice breeze. The boat on autopilot, I sat and
played guitar, watching my pop can alarm system on the fishing line we trailed
astern. The Pitons, named after my favorite Caribbean beer, heralded our
landfall off St. Lucia. We motored up the coast and anchored outside Rodney Bay
for the night.
1st
and 2nd February 2003
Managed to tear our selves away from lovely Bequia and
make the short trip across to Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent. Disney have taken
over Wallilabou next door and are filming “Pirates of the Caribbean. Some of my
cruising friends are working as extras and, as I expected, I found Kris and
Carla in Cumberland. Wallilabou is transformed into Port Royal and is full of
pirate ships – some real boats I recognize, and some fakes.
Cumberland
Bay was so nice we decided to spend an extra day there. I hung out with friends
and got Kris to tow me on the wakeboard on the lovely flat water outside the
bay. I’m getting better and fitter! It’s so much fun!
31st
January 2003
Now
we’re in Bequia, got here on the 29th, after a very pleasant trip up
from Carriacou through the Grenadines. Bequia is another favorite of mine and I
know lots of people here so we have been busy every night. I found some friends
to wake board with and have been going crazy on that. Did my first 360 on the
board – not a jump just to turn the bi-directional board is enough challenge
for me right now! I can do some little jumps before falling on my face. It has
to be said I am having a great time and am in a frenzy of self-gratification
down here!!!!
29th
January 2003
They left on the 0600 ferry on Monday 27th and
we decided to stay in Tyrell another couple days. Actually we tossed a coin to
see if we should leave and it said we should – we both didn’t like the answer
so we stayed. I went paragliding each evening – what a treat. And the kite
board is an excellent wake board behind the dinghy so I am at it every day with
whomever I can persuade to tow me. I tell you, I am getting a lot of exercise!
The more I get, the more energy I have, its great!
We had a string of friends come up from Grenada on the ferry to spend a few days with us in Carriacou. Mark and Jen are building a house on Grenada; Jen and their baby came up and spent a night with us. Then Derek and Nitsa came up for a kite boarding weekend. We steamed around to the north of the island on Saturday morning to Carib island, a lovely little sand bar with a wrecked freighter on it. It’s protected by a barrier reef and is perfect for kite boarding. We spent the weekend there and Derek and I completely trashed ourselves – what a sport – it’s going to take me a while to get good at it I can tell you that much. No kite photos yet but it wouldn’t have been a pretty sight anyway! Click on the picture and you’ll get a bigger version, right click and you can save it as your desktop picture if you want.
24th
January 2003
We
got away for our cruise on the 21st, up to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. So
nice to be back in Tyrell, one of my favorite places these days. It’s so laid
back, I literally kick off my shoes and don’t wear them till I leave. Except to
go paragliding! The wind went light on the Friday so I hiked up the hill – a
good hot 40 minute hike with the paraglider pack on my back. The wind was perfect so I took off and
soared the ridge and the little mountain for an hour. As the sun went down I
set myself up for the green flash, low in the lift band and as I saw the flash
I swooped up and saw it again and again as I rose. Six times – is that a record
or what! I landed with the very last of the light and packed up in the dusk
before walking back around the mountain and back to the bay. I paused at each
of the little rum shops along the way to chat to the locals about my flight.
They know me by now and are full of questions and interest. It’s really fun!
Later in January!
Well, back in Grenada I really had to put
my nose to the grindstone and get Tiempo ready for a cruise North with Pat. We
got the refrigeration finished and I put the engine room back together and
moved out to anchor where I got the job list down to one page or less. Good
enough for now!
The weekend’s are full, my friends on land
and other boats, Jason Evans and Jo and Nora and Charles, Derek and Nitsa, Sam
on Jai, Jeff Fisher, more of Jason’s friends, on various day trips we piled
onto Rocinante or Tiempo and sailed off to somewhere nice to swim and kite
surf, skurf , drink, eat and make merry. I must get some photos of those days
on here. I’m really enjoying Grenada these days.
My kite gear is arriving in bits and
pieces. When the kite arrived Sam and I went out and I got dragged from Prickly
point to Glover’s island as I tried to learn it’s wicked ways. What a monster!
Flying the kite is not too bad having learnt on the trainer, but riding the
board as well in those big waves, that’s a lot to think about. Felt like I’d
been beat with a rubber hose!
Early January 2003
Well, I drove to Alamagordo in Maude’s car and met up
with the paraglider pilots there and we went up to the Dry Canyon launch in
their 4x4. The launch overlooks the town and there was some snow up there
still. Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the wind was blowing over the back and we
couldn’t fly so we sat on the edge and chatted for a few hours to see if it
conditions improved. They didn’t, and we drove down at around five and I headed
back to El Paso. Thanks guys, for your hospitality! The drive back in the dusk
was awesome, this daytime road picture doesn’t do it justice at all but I
didn’t get one in the evening. The road stretched off into the distance,
straight as an arrow across the desert. Ragged mountain ranges flanked me 20-30
miles away on both sides, the air was pure and visibility crystal clear. In the
twilight the mountains loomed as a jagged black horizon topped by a band of
orange that changed gradually as it met the deep blue sky. The tiniest sliver
of the new moon rose into that outlandish color. This is Area 54 - I felt like
I was driving across Mars. The light faded and nothing but the white lines and
empty blacktop stretched in front of me; I relaxed into my seat behind the
wheel, found a oldies rock station and cranked up the volume. “What an
adventure!” I thought as I hurtled through the darkness back to Maude in El
Paso, she would be off work now and having a bath before a final dinner.
Maude dropped me at the airport at the
smack of dawn and saw me on my way back to Grenada. I travelled through the day
– El Paso, Dallas, San Jaun, Grenada, arriving at 9pm back at the Boatyard in
Prickly Bay. I felt like I had been gone much longer than a week as I opened
Tiempo’s hatches and settled back on board. I was still revved up so I showered
and headed to the Tiki Bar for a couple beers before turning in.
What a week that was! I’ll treasure that
spontaneous, spur of the moment, some say it’s not only the things you do that
you might regret but the things you didn’t. Oh My!