MUTUAL FUN - A SAILING ODYSSEY

June 2, 2001

Bequia is as cute as can be. In town is a marketplace with the usual hawkers of fruits, vegetables and misc. useless trinkets. There is a bank, a few restaurants and a few supermarkets. Well, supermarket is a bit misleading; we'll call them small groceries. There is a boat that comes out to pick up your laundry ($25EC, about $10USD per 10# to wash, dry and fold.) There are all of the other options: wash and line dry, just wash, no folding. There is a boat that will bring you ice, diesel and water. You can buy fruits and veggies from your boat. There's a semi-decent hardware and chandlery and the people are friendly. We were talking to some acquaintances in the street when a couple came up to us and asked if we were cruisers. We said yes and they invited us to a huge potluck on their boat. There must have been 30 people who came. The boat was a big 65-footer with lots of flat deck space to hang out. The food was great and we had a good time meeting new folks and revisiting with others. One guy came up to us and asked if we were in Beaufort 2 years ago. We said, "oh oh, yes, why?" Turns out he watched Bob and I try to row our dinghy, before we had the motor, against the current there and he came over and towed us in. Then, the next day, Don Wilms and I went over to the island with the ponies and beached the dinghy. Well, the tide went out and took the dinghy with it and Don took off swimming after it and this same guy came and rescued us again. He and his wife were astonished that we made it this far. Sometimes, so are we. We met cruisers from London, New York, Canada and more from the U.S.

Another tropical wave has formed off the coast of Africa which should make the conditions here a bit windy and squally in the next couple of days so we'll stay put until the beginning of the week.

We are officially in the Grenadines, by the way. We're at 13.00N and need to be at 12.03N, I think by June 15th for our insurance, for hurricane season. We'll make it or be real close. We're in no hurry and the next few islands should be real cute. For now, our neighbors beckon us to the beach so I better get my chores and exercises done. I'm up to 74 sit-ups and 28 leg lifts. I do them everyday with the exception of long passage days. Then I figure I get enough exercise trying in vain to fish.

June 4, 2001

It's so cute here we haven't left yet. I think tomorrow we'll be on our way to Mustique. Only a few miles away, Mustique is home to the rich and famous, such as: Princess Margaret, Mick Jagger, David Bowie and Raquel Welch. There are only about 80 homes on this island, it is privately owned and they are all mansions. We understand it's exceedingly clean (that will be a switch) and expensive. I'll let you know if it's all it's cracked up to be.

June 6, 2001

We can't get out! The winds are hollering all day and all nightlong. It's difficult to even get in the dinghy to go into town. I was up at 4:00am and couldn't get back to sleep. Good thing I have a good murder mystery to keep me company. I don't think we'll get out today, either. The anchorage is Mustique is exposed and the holding isn't good so we'll just have to stay here and party on.

Connie on "Kryslali" offered her hair cutting services and she did myself and another lady yesterday. It was the only think I got accomplished yesterday. She cuts her son and her husband's hair but she had never done a woman before. She did fine. It'll hold me till I get home in July. Our friends on "Pride" sailed in yesterday so we dinghied over to see them as they were anchored right behind us. They had quite a boisterous sail in these high winds. If we stay, we'll take our lives in our hands and dinghy in for pizza tonight. It's a tough job but someone has to support the local economy.

June 9, 2001

Here we are in fancy-shmancy Mustique. We had a boisterous 3-hour motor-sail over in 25k winds and 4-6ft. seas. The anchorage is rolly; I have to keep my legs wedged under the nav table as I write this. There are many mooring balls here but we chose to anchor, hoping to save ourselves some money. After our first attempt to drop the hook, we found the bottom too hard and as we moved and started our second attempt (at the edge of the channel), we were approached by a couple in a dinghy who wanted to know if we wanted to split a taxi and take a one-hour tour of the island. We agreed and asked them to also go ask "Legacy", who we traveled over with. "Legacy" is a beautiful catamaran, brand new, where we had a big potluck party in Bequia. By the way, she's no slouch, on the market with a price tag of $700k. Then, this couple told us they charge here whether we're on a mooring ball or anchored so we decided to grab a ball and they helped us tie to it.

We met at the dinghy dock at 4:00pm. They are John, from Long Island and Bridgett from Quebec aboard "Gabrielle". Bridgett is French speaking but does a terrific job with English. They are on a huge trawler and have been out 4 months. "Legacy" allows Joe and Ruthie to own her and they are brand new to sailing, only 6 months out. I guess we are the veterans in this bunch.

The tour was great up until the point where we misunderstood Slim, our driver, and went too far in to the private drive of Mick Jagger's house. He yelled at us and the Doberman barked at us; you can see him in the picture. The dog, not the taxi driver. We then moved on to Tommy Hilfiger's house, which was the prettiest, to my eyes. There are a few houses here, which may be rented out, and one of them is the picture with the huge lap pool. If you happen to have a spare $26k, she's yours for the week. That's right, I said week. You'll get your money's worth, though. It has 5 bedrooms.

Along the way we stopped at a pretty lookout, this one of an uninhabited island. To the left was a little beach with the softest sand you ever felt on your little piggies. Two ladies wrapped in towels stopped to chat and one of them, Mrs. Irving, invited us to her home which she built 20 years ago. Her home also rents out and we were delighted with the invitation and our taxi driver agreed to take us back after the tour. By now it's 5:30pm and we're already over our hour time. After seeing just the tip of Princess Margaret's house and a few others, we went back to the Sea House, I think it was called and had a nice walk of the grounds and were introduced to a couple staying there. Either private guests of Mrs. Irving or just a couple who had rented from her for a number of years, we never did find out. We did find out Mrs. Irving was THE Irving of Irving oil. In any case, the grounds were beautiful and it was like taking a walk through the Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous. Mrs. Irving was completely gracious and hospitable, not at all stuffy, in her bathing suit and wrap, sans makeup. Our taxi driver had another appointment so we had to leave before we had the cocktails offered to us. She was on an international call when we left but her guests were amazed that we lived and sailed on a teeny 41ft. boat. I think she envisioned a toy in the bathtub concept. Too bad we had to leave because we wanted to learn more about how they lived and they about us, as well.

We were then dropped off at the world-famous Firefly bar for an over-priced delicious drink (or two) where we begged for food and they served us the most delicious snack. It was coconut, sliced thin, salted and baked like potato chips. It was even better than potato chips. We then all declared ourselves starving (I declared ourselves broke, but to deaf ears) and walked over to the world-famous Basil Bar for burgers and sandwiches. The food wasn't that world-famous to me but it was fun. We finally got back to our boat by 10:30pm, pooped. Turns out John, is a fisherman by trade and has some frozen tuna that he will be bringing to our potluck tonight. I'm going with a salad. The mooring ball is $75EC for 1-3 nights so we'll be staying a second night here. We knew this island wasn't going to be cheap but figured it would be fun.

June 10, 2001

A very fast sail in 15k winds to Canouan island. It's quite pretty here, the anchorage is nice and we were immediately accosted by a boat boy in the saddest looking boat you ever did see. He wanted to get us fruit, vegetables, bread or ganga (pot.) We didn't need anything so he asked for a coke or beer and we gave him a raspberry ginger ale. Well, it was cold. "Legacy" sailed with us and we are all going snorkeling in a few minutes. A bunch of our friends are sailing past us to Mayreau. It's a safe weather haven and everyone down here seems to get paranoid over the tropical waves. Tropical waves are only pressure systems; they are not actually waves. They look like waves on an isobar chart so, hence, the name. They bring squally conditions and can become hurricanes but we would have a few days notice. Our old motto, why sweat the little stuff. It's hot enough down here to be sweating all of the stuff. If we weren't by beautiful water, I would be back home in Hidden Harbour in my air-conditioning. Tomorrow, weather permitting, we'll be on the move again to the Tobago Cays. They're supposed to be beautiful. Kind of on a fast track now to get us to Trinidad by July 1 so Bob can get settled before I fly home on the 6th.

June 12, 2001

We spent two days in the pretty anchorage of Canouan Island. The first day John on "Gabrielle" brought to the dock a big cooler with 2 barracuda, one tuna and a wahoo. He was trying to sell them to the locals but it was Sunday so he just sold one barracuda. He got $45EC, about $20USD. We split the wahoo with "Legacy", on the condition that John filet it for us. We all went aboard "Gabrielle" and watched him. We then got a tour of that huge boat, 5 staterooms and 5 heads and then we had cocktail hour. John jumped over the side to cool off and when I saw how far down it was, I had to jump over as well. It was about 10 feet down. He's said it's even more fun to jump off the top level but one story it quite far enough for me.

We hosted dinner that night. We had sliced wahoo, marinated in soy sauce, a bit of olive oil, teriyaki sauce and honey, glazed while pan frying with mango chutney. I made sliced, buttered, salted potatoes with beer in the foil for steaming, on the grill. Ruthie brought a salad and Bridgett made crepes ALA melted chocolate bar with nuts, drambui and a slice of mango for presentation. It was a wonderful meal but a bit tenuous when the grill kept going out and Bob had no idea how long the potatoes had actually been cooking. The next day we were supposed to leave but John and Bob attacked the nonworking generator and John had a good solution. We found the problem was not the injector pump (about $500) but the solenoid (much cheaper.) After much work and cutting wires and cleaning fittings, John put together a system whereby if we pull a rope on a pulley, through the hatch in the cockpit, the generator will work. Bob knows all the details and all I know is right now as I write this, the generator is purring away and we're making amps, cooling the refrigerator and have the inverter on so this computer will work. It's a temporary system until we get to Trinidad but we're most appreciative. We treated John and Bridgett to a bad meal at a hotel restaurant where Joe and Ruthie joined us.

We left about 10:30 this morning for a short jaunt to the Tobago Cays. We didn't even pretend to motor sail, just motored. I was all intent on the new fishing tackle John rigged up for me, hoping to catch me one of those tunas. Also, there are many coral heads and shallow in the cays and I had to reel in my line and take the walkie talkie up to the bow and try to spot scary areas. We got in fine and were anchored by 12:30pm. There are about 30 boats here and we probably know 1/2 of them that are not charter boats. We stopped over to see our new friends on "Kristali" and all went for a swim together. Tonight I made probably the worst looking meal of our trip, to date. I won't give you the gory details but it looked bad. The taste wasn't as bad as it looked but the leftovers should kill plenty of fish.

We'll stay a day or two here, depending on this new tropical wave and then head over to Union Island and Palm Island. With the water being so shallow here and all of the coral reefs, the snorkeling and swimming is excellent. Right up my alley.

June 14, 2001

Wow. This is some gorgeous place. It reminds us of the Bahamas with the shallow turquoise water and all of the different shadings of the coral reefs. The morning was devoted to chores. I have to admit to letting my interior work slide, what with the heat and all. I gave a good dusting to my berth, changed the sheets and that took a couple of hours. Imagine having to dust all of your walls, not just the furniture. I then asked Bob to bag up the garbage cause something smelled like it died. He did that and the smell persisted so we ran sniffing tests all over the galley and found the offensive odor in the oven. Apparently when the bunch was over for dinner the other night, we spilled some fish juice in the oven and boy did it smell! We passed another hour cleaning the oven, the stove, underneath and on top and viola! No more smell. The stainless steel on the outside was to be the chore of the day but I was absolutely exhausted and so a huge bunch of us went snorkeling. It was the prettiest reef I have snorkeled on since the Bahamas. And the water is gorgeous. We were actually outside of the reef, meaning we had to dinghy very carefully through the reef and there was a pretty good swell, which made for more fun.

This morning was dedicated to another room of dusting and cleaning and now we are ready for another group snorkel at 11:00, bocci ball on the beach at 4:00 with the obligatory cocktail hour after. We were only supposed to stay 2 days here but another tropical wave is coming our way on Saturday so we have to decide where to stay put for it.

June 15, 2001

I feel like I'm on vacation. This place is a huge blue playground. I had a morning snorkel with a big group of 12 or so. Bob stayed behind figuring the surf would be quite rough out there, which it was and he was saving his energy for our afternoon snorkel, on the shallow reefs. After lunch we got in the water and cleaned the side of the hull and then dinghied out to the shallows and had a wonderful time, just the two of us. I decided to try to swim back to the boat while Bob stayed kind of near in the dinghy. I made it quite fine. We then had our late afternoon bocci ball on the beach. I had never played before and it was fun and easy. Cocktails and gabbing were broken up about 7:00pm when the dinghies started drifting off the beach, one by one, as the tide came in. John and Bridgett then invited us over along with "Legacy" and we completed our night with lots of laughs and a wonderfully marinated chicken dinner. Joe on "Legacy" tells us a story on his wife, Ruthie that goes something like this: Joe drives a maroon Buick company car but that car had to go into the shop for repairs. They give him a maroon Chevrolet as a loaner and he comes home, has his shower and cocktail while Ruth gets the kids all settled down for the night so the two of them can go out to dinner. Ruthie's a bit flustered, trying to get everything organized and they get into the loaner and Ruthie asks, "Joe, did you get a new dashboard?" My jaws still hurt from that one.

A bunch of us are climbing aboard "Legacy" for a 5 mile sail over to Union Island. Bob will stay behind and fix our dinghy motor along with John and I'll go over and check us out of the Grenadines and grocery shop. The winds are up a bit and it should be a great sail on this 47ft. Catamaran.

June 19, 2001

Our fun in the sun days of Tobago Cays has come to a halt with our departure yesterday. We sailed past Union Island, where we would have had to check out but I already had the day we sailed over on "Legacy" and past Palm Island, past some other islands to the island of Carriacou. We had to actually stop and anchor in Hillsborough to check into customs. The anchorage is rolly so we moved on to Tyrrel Bay, where we are now. We came to wait out the tropical wave which started assaulting us with gusty winds and heavy rains about 3:00am. There are special little things that we end up doing for one another, aboard this small home and one is that Bob usually tends to the closing of the hatches and ports when it rains in the middle of the night. It�s a special treat for me because if I fully wake up, I won�t go back to sleep for hours. So I woke up enough to close the window over me and then went back to sleep with the pitter-patter of the rain over my head.

We are here with "Free Spirit" and "Vitrain". We went into town with Sue and Geoff for dinner and came back to "Vitrain" for a nightcap. We haven�t been with Leo and Anna Marie in awhile and it was good to see them. I would like to leave for Grenada tomorrow but it depends on the weather. It�s about 40 miles, which will be a long day for us, but this little town leaves much to be desired. One thing I miss the most is good food. We have opened more stale boxes of cookies and old food and I�m getting a little tired of it. I haven�t prepared chicken in months and we defrosted the freezer 2 days ago and ate up all of our frozen meat. I had ground turkey and 2 frozen hamburger patties that I had to thaw out and so made a big pot of spaghetti for "Free Spirit" and "Gabrielle". Bridgett brought over this beautiful smoked salmon that she served on tiny pieces of bread with onion, capers and lemon juice. Sue made her yummy tuna dip with crackers and carrots and the dinner salad. Bridgett also did up a garlic bread and I cut up fresh pineapple, apples and mango for dessert. When I went to put in the miniature bananas, they were hard as a rock. Today, all 20 of them have turned and are ripe at the same time. Banana anyone?

June 21, 2001

What a whopper of a sail from Carriacou to Grenada. Winds were 15-23k, seas were 8-12ft and good old Mutual Fun was trucking along at 6.5-8.4k. We were smokin�! We�re at anchor in Prickley Bay. The water doesn�t look too appetizing so we�ll get the laundry done and move over to a nicer anchorage. Need to do big grocery shopping and some assorted hardware shopping. Will stay a week to 10 days, then its time to get me to Trinidad to catch the flight home. More later.

June 22, 2001

We moved this morning out of Prickly Bay, right around the corner to Mount Hartman. Much better over here. The water is a bit cleaner, snorkeling pretty close and the view is much prettier. Also, there's less roll over here. There's a big barbecue going on in an hour and we'll be showered and over there along with a couple of boats we know. Dutchess and Dick, aboard "Dutchess" should have some interesting stories. They have been in St. Thomas all of this time giving day charters to the cruise ship people. They have a beautiful Hylas sailboat. We think maybe the plunge in the stock market may have affected their cruising kitty and so they spent the last few months doing this. The stock market has had a negative affect on many of us out here but we have found that, for the most part, most of the cruisers have some sort of pension or monthly income. Maybe from the sale of their business or whatever. The cruisers like ourselves without monthly income, other than our investments, have been hit the hardest and are most vulnerable.

June 26, 2001

We've been playing dominoes and swimming and otherwise acting lazy until yesterday. We, along with "Free Spirit" and "Duchess" and their guests, Gloria and Paul whom we met in St. Maartin, took a land tour. Our taxi driver and tour guide was Leroy. The eight of us piled into his 4-wheel drive vehicle and had a full day of touring the island from the nutmeg factory to the rum factory (quite interesting. They average 75% alcohol. Tasting mandatory.) to the longest beach in the Caribbean, the rain forest and lastly, a beautiful waterfall. We had a good day and we were all pooped and sweaty upon our return.

I thought Internet cafes were going to be plentiful in Grenada but we're having a bit of trouble getting to one. It's either a mile or so hike uphill in the hot sun or a long dinghy ride and our motor is on the blink. Again. I stalled out the other day in the middle of the harbour and started rowing (have you ever tried to row a soft-bottomed dinghy?) when I was rescued by a young man in a beautiful green boat. He took pity upon me and promptly delivered me back to my boat where Bob checked out the motor and immediately got it running. Go figure.

We have to start watching for a weather window in the next few days for our overnight sail to Trinidad. Maybe the end of this week will look good.

June 28, 2001

Things are cooling off here in Grenada. Yesterday we spent the whole day watching movies, playing games on the computer and reading as buckets of rain fell over the area. It was cool and refreshing but gets a bit boring, as well. We all stayed put on our own boats but chatted on the radio from time to time. The local pass time is to sit around and listen to everyone else chat on the radio. We did some of that, too. There had been a boat watch out on a sailboat named "Tropic Bird" since the 7th of June. The skipper hadn't kept his radio schedule with the appointed people (he was a single-hander) and the family was quite concerned. The boat watch was announced everyday on all of the SSB radio nets and the coast guard was calling for them every hour. The boat left Trinidad and was heading north. "Tropic Bird" was found off the rocks of Antigua a few days ago. She had all of her sails up, her autopilot was steering the boat, and the boat was neat, clean and in good condition. There was nobody found aboard. This was a very sad time for all of us and, of course, we're all waiting to hear more information but the conclusions can be made fairly easily. She was not pirated. The captain must have gotten up in the night and was not harnessed in and fell overboard. Can you imagine the shock of falling in the water and then watching as your safety vessel sails away without you? We didn't know this man but our heart goes out to his family and friends.

We are looking and think we found a weather window for our overnighter to Trinidad. Meanwhile, we heard an announcement this morning that a boat in our anchorage was severely hit by lightning yesterday, just 2 boats away from us and are in need of help to get to Trinidad. They are aboard "Suzannah" and I dinghied over this morning and told them of our plans to leave tomorrow. Also offered them our old VHF radio, which they much appreciated. All of their electronics were blown out with much electrical damage sustained, although they were not hurt. We will go around the corner to Prickly Bay tomorrow at noon, as it is a very reefy entrance here and we need a good sun to see, anchor in Prickly for a few hours and then get underway approximately 6:00pm. It is about 80 miles to our destination and we should arrive and be anchored by midmorning. There are no islands between Grenada and Trinidad so I won't be nervous about hitting anything, other than your stray whale. I'm hoping for a nice, pleasant sail and possibly some fishing, if I have the energy. Until Trinidad�.

June 30, 2001

78 miles from Grenada to Trinidad. We left at 6:00pm with "Suzannah" and away we went. We had about an hour of light left so I scurried to make us hot dogs and we ate in the cockpit with the sunset. The moon kept us company for about � the night. It was a half moon but quite bright. The wind was a perfect 15-20k and was close enough to the beam to be almost perfect. The seas started out 4-6ft and reduced to 3-5ft. All in all it was a near perfect night sail. The last 20 miles or so were tough with a 1-2k current against us and the winds died so we had to take the sails down and motor. The sky started brightening ahead too early, about 3:00am and I knew I was starting to see the cities of Trinidad, still 35 miles away. My watches were 8-11:00pm, I slept until 2:00am and took over again 2-5:30am. The sky started to lighten in earnest about 5:00am and I was having a grand old time. I kept busy adjusting our course because of the current and tweaking the headsail as the wind shifted slightly to the south (the direction we were headed.) "Suzannah" had no problems but they did have to hand steer the whole way as their autopilot was electrified. We met at the customs dock where Bob checked us in and I tidied the boat and then gabbed with Sue and Don. We took advantage of our dockside position (we had to actually take the big boat to the customs dock) and did some grocery shopping where we actually found a neat and organized store that was air-conditioned. I haven't bought ground meat in many months and felt comfortable buying 2 pounds here. Also some chicken and packaged lunchmeat, etc. We then treated ourselves to lunch in a quite nice restaurant, met up with "Island Spirit", "Passagio", "Great White Wonder" and a few more. Trinidad is definitely a party place but there are some negatives. Many boaters tie up to a dock and stay for the whole hurricane season. Most haul out to do bottom work or for other reasons and many leave the boats "on the hard" and go home for different amounts of time. The marinas here are fancy, compared with what we are all used to. There is electricity for those boats that have air conditioning, cable and satellite TV, daily newspapers, free water, swimming pool, free showers, laundry facilities, and free rides to the malls and stores. That's right, I said malls. This isn't really our cup of tea, because if that were what we were after, we would just come home. So, for now, we came around to a quieter anchorage called TTSA and here we have dropped the hook for the night. Bob's not nuts about it here so we will move to anywhere he wants to be for the time I will be home. Even a dock, if that is where he'll be happy and keep occupied (meaning restaurants, bars and lots of people to eat and drink with.)

The water in Trinidad is just plain gross. It's a greenish-brown color due to a muddy river that dumps into the ocean. Sort of like how the Maumee River dumps into Lake Erie and makes it green. There are millions, and I say that without exaggerating, of jellyfish in the water which makes swimming in the acceptable areas out of the question. As far as I can see, other than everyone meeting down here, I'm ready to move on as soon as I get back but that is just first impressions of two very tired people. Tomorrow is another day with fresh outlooks. We're just thrilled to have had a wonderful passage here and to be safe and snug in our floating home.

- MORE TO FOLLOW -