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Larry's LogTuesday we went back to Hillsborough to extend our length of time allowed in Grenada, to look around and do some shopping. We also ate lunch at a nice restaurant on the beach. Diane later pointed out that it was the first time we had eaten in a restaurant since Bequia, almost a month ago! When I had cleared in, I only requested a stay of 2 weeks, forgetting that I was also clearing into Grenada as well as Carriacou. We were a bit worried that they might charge us a large fee but the procedure was simple, painless and free. Now we could stay until the end of September if we wanted to. The town was nice but we didn't stay long but we did find out that the Annual Carriacou Regatta was next month. I had heard that it was really good and a lot of fun. Not like the Heineken Regatta in St. Martin, but pretty good. We would talk about staying that long. As we waited for the bus to bring us back to Tyrell Bay, we watched the comings and goings of the local people around the dock, where customs, immigration and the police station were located. It was a busy place considering that the island was only 13 square miles and had a population of about 2000. Diane had done a little shopping and went to the bank so we were set to go back to the boat. When we got back, Eric from Driftwood came by and said that a get together for the Fourth of July was planned for tomorrow at the yacht club where Diane and the other women cruisers had their get together the day before. Everyone would bring as dish and buy drinks at the club. Another party! But hey, we wanted to be patriotic. Diane and Connie did some more organizing and went around to other boats to make sure they knew about it. It didn't matter if they were American or not, just come along. All told they got about 13 boats that would definitely be there. Unfortunately, Legacy and Gabrielle had to leave tomorrow; Legacy to get their generator fixed and Gabrielle to get Bridget's niece to the airport so she could catch her flight back to Quebec Also unfortunately, nobody had ANY hotdogs or hamburgers to barbeque. Oh well. During the early evening, a large group of charter boats came in and anchored around the bay. Usually, I don't get bothered although Diane does, since they tend to anchor closely and may not (typically) anchor very well. We were reading in the cockpit when Diane noticed that a charter catamaran was anchoring in from of us. As they drifted back, setting the anchor, they came to rest about 20 feet from our bow. This is really too close but they refused to move saying that they had a "captain" who knew what he was doing and there was about 100 feet of chain out. I saw the captain, and he also said they were OK, but it was clear that he just didn't want to move the boat. I didn't make a fuss since they did dive on the anchor and said they would only be there for the night. Since it was very settled weather, I thought they would be OK, and fortunately, they were. Happy Fourth of July!! That morning, we didn't do much except get ready for the party. We heard Gabrielle on the radio though talking to Legacy at around 9:30. It seemed that they were having really good luck fishing and had already caught another large Wahoo, a 30 pound Spanish Mackerel and 2 small tuna. (I guess he doesn't need my fishing advice!!) Hopefully we would see them again in Grenada or Trinidad. At 1:45, Kristali, Driftwood and us took our American flags on parade around Jacobite, the Canadian boat who had flown so many Canadian flags on Canada Day, We tried to sing the "Star Spangled Banner", but with only some success. We all got a kick out of it though, and Ron and Lena on Jacobite enjoyed it too, although they were singing "Oh Canada." We all went to the Carriacou Yacht Club for the party. There were about 50 people there and Americans were certainly not the majority. English, South African, French, Canadian, Swedish and probably others were all there. Everyone made a tasty dish to share and we all certainly ate well, even if it wasn't the traditional Fourth fare. The club was a nice place, with a great balcony and porch that looked out over Tyrell Bay. We actually did have a barbeque, a French boat had caught a small Barracuda and cooked that. Not bad, and it was sort of shaped like a hot dog anyway. After the party, we went back to Destiny and just relaxed, read and updated logs. I finally finished Michener's "Caribbean." I enjoyed the book tremendously, perhaps because we had been to many of the places he wrote about. As a historical novel, its one of the best I've read (I didn't think I would finish it, but that was before I started to read the book.) On Thursday, Diane and Connie went into Hillsborough to get some provisions. A boat carrying vegetables was due in and they wanted to see what they could get. I picked up Connie and together they took the bus into town. Back at Destiny, I did some miscellaneous boat chores and then picked them up again at about 11:30. They didn't get to much as the choice wasn't very good, just the usual bananas, green peppers, onions and eggplant. The day had been rainy and overcast and I would have to run the engine again to charge the batteries. While I did that and ran the water maker, Diane worked on her logs and then started making the eggplant for dinner. At about 4 that afternoon, just after a pretty strong rain, I saw that another boat had come in just in front of us. It was Kajsa who we had last seen in St. Lucia when we dropped them off at the airport. We waved and yelled out hello. They were anchoring still and waved. After they finished anchoring, during some more rain showers, Patrick and Theresa came over in their dinghy to say hello and give us a bottle of wine for watching their boat while they were away. We immediately invited them on board for some drinks. They were a little hesitant since they were going to invite us to their boat but we said it might be a bit drier on Destiny (but only just a bit). They agreed and went back for a minute to Kajsa and then came over and we spent a very nice evening together. We talked about the difficulty of adjusting to the States after being in the Caribbean for so long and we agreed that it was going to be an adjustment for us as well. Its hard to imagine sometimes going back to that lifestyle - large, modern supermarkets, cars all over, latest movies, consumerism at its best (and worst), and unlimited fresh water! |