S/V L'ORIENT

Kirstin and I went to the Bonaire Jazz Festival last night. Great music, but unfortunately not jazz; more like a world music festival.  By the way, what the hell is "world music" ?  It's the only genre of music that's defined by what it's not......(i.e. local, of THIS region/country). Fun true/false factoid (answer in another post)..........72% of all "world music" is actually written, produced, and performed in only two studios (one each in NY and LA) and performed by contract studio musicians. The first act should have been interrupted by a phone call............."Oh, Rina (the lead singer)........it's actually Cold Play and Tracy Chapman on the phone.........they want their sound back. Rina and Co. were actually pretty good, though. The place started thumping, and all the Dutch chickies started dancing. If you're a Dutch guy you are exceedingly lucky. Dutch girls are probably the worst dancers in the western world. Owing to their ex...

Hanging out in Bonaire OK- You have to be a fan of kitschy 60s TV to get that reference.........we're moored in Bonaire, and at six feet tall, I'm the shortest man on the island............and Kirstin ? A lilliputian. We're now in Dutch vacationland........all these Heineken swilling, beef-eating, super tall people are everywhere. Pick-up basketball game with a bunch of 5th graders ? No way (they're all 6' 3).........my "j" would get swatted into next week. Biking through the shrub Today we went for a bike ride.........sort of. Kirstin and I busted out the electric bikes. They look totally normal, but concealed above the back tire is a lithium-ion battery. You crank the throttle (like a motorcycle) and you can stop pedaling for about 10 miles. Sweet. People do look at you as you coast uphill, though. You can just see the "lazy american" smirk. Windsurfing in Bonaire Yesterday while snorkeling we got the scare of our lives. Kirsti...

                          Sailing off Venezuela Wow ! What a sail. We left Grenada on Friday and headed west. Our downwind pole was out, and we started going fast. The conditions started out very normal (10-15 knots of wind, 6 foot wave height). Then, the sh-t hit the fan............a small smudge in the sky got bigger, blacker, and finally became "squalpocalyse". We had gusts of 50 knot winds......AHHHHHH !!! This isn't the Chesapeake anymore. Actually, it wasn't too bad. We have a big, heavy boat with easy sail-handling so we were able to manage things OK. We also had numerous dolphin friends to keep us company. And that's all we had because we didn't see any signs of human life for almost 3 days. No speck of land, only 2 distant freighters, no other yachts. It's weird to look around you 360 degrees and see absolutely nothing but the churning ocean, hour after hour. All the empty space.........all the trackle...

The goal - reaching adulthood! So Kirstin and I woke up yesterday in a "giving" mood. We wanted to give more time to the beach and beach bar, which we've enjoyed quite a bit. We took the #1 bus to Pink Beach and walked towards our favorite coconut tree for shade. What we met there was nothing short of S-H-O-C-K-I-N-G. TURTLE ARMAGEDDON !!! Apparently, around 200 turtles had hatched from their underground nest last night. These "early risers" were lucky (and smart). They quickly scooted into the ocean before birds, dogs, and other potential predators could find them. Even in the ocean, their chances aren't great. That's why turtles lay hundreds of eggs. Long, long odds of becoming a card-carrying 500 lb loggerhead turtle adult. What we found, were the 20 stragglers. Those unfortunate enough to be born at the bottom of the nest. They were the last out.........by morning, they were tired, overheated, and obviously confused. Many were actuall...

Pink Beach, Grenada Here in Grenada, we love the beach. It provides us with three sources of fun. 1) The beauty of the sea, the sand, and the people watching 2) Having a Kindle, I can download and read any book, any time 3) Hearing new and innovative marketing pitches Number 3 is especially entertaining for me, as one of my roles at my job has historically been to teach sales and marketing techniques to those foolish enough to follow this path. In a professional life that's spanned 26 years (mostly in sales), I sometimes fall into the arrogant trap that I've seen it all. Then it happens.......... A blind, crippled man about 50 years old comes down the beach (hold the empathy, it's not what you think). He's not carrying any wares, but he stops in front of us for "a chat". I like talking to locals, so I have no problem with this, even though the ship-destroying hurricane in my book is just about to strike. OK, I can wait. Hey, it's the Caribbean...

                Caribbean Sprinkle Before leaving on our trip last year, Kirstin and I talked to a lot of seasoned cruisers. We heard things like "cruising is just learning to work on your boat in foreign countries". These folks estimated that they spend 2-3 hours a day on "boat projects"...........then basically start drinking. While cocktail hour appealed to us, we were mystified as to what these boat projects might entail. Three hours per day ? Really ? We smugly chalked it up to the fact that these cruisers must be driving half assed boats. You know, the old scows we see with home-made looking dodgers.........shredded canvas, bent rails. On our Amel (which we modestly regard as the Aston Martin DB3 of the sea), nothing of the kind could happen. Perhaps a bit of polishing here and there.............."Kirstin........I believe I see another water spot on our African mahogany interior.........go hire some workers to remedy this". We'...

How the pros do it in Grenada When we left on this trip, I foresaw spending next to nothing on food. I envisioned becoming so proficient at fishing, I'd just casually drop my line into the water and 5 minutes later, a mahi or tuna would be on our grill. I even imagined doing knife tricks while cleaning the fish.........like at Benihana. Chopchopchopchop........I could clean the fish and make the fillet into anything I want..........the shape of New Jersey..........a likeness of Aaron Rodgers...........bamm. Boaters would dinghy up to L'ORIENT just to watch me work my magic. I might throw them some scraps, if feeling charitable. Fish head, anyone ? Sadly, things have turned out differently. I'm O for the Caribbean. A couple of root causes; I haven't fished much during passages (that's when you're in deep water and can catch bigger fish). Why? I'm still haunted by the memory of one of our crew slicing his wrist during our passage..........cleaning up f...

We've now been in Grenada for over 6 weeks. We've decided this place is home (for now). Being creatures of habit, we've developed several routines and traditions along the way. Friday is play day. I play golf with Joern (remember the German with the Airbus designed outboard ?) and Kirstin and Joern's partner Nata have a spa and beach day. I'm a big believer in the law of averages. Put an unlimited number of monkeys in front of an unlimited number of computers and one of them writes "War and Peace". Fact. Well, Joern and I are playing golf yesterday for the third Friday in a row. Near the 10th fairway, a house is being built. Ten or so local Grenadans working their asses off.........and a new Mercedes coupe parked in front. Two Fridays ago, we tee off on the 10th and come within 20-30 meters (by the way, I've gone metric system now) of the car. No big deal. Last Friday, same thing...........kind of a near miss. Yesterday, the law of averages ...

On the Bus One quarter of Grenada is jungle. The capital, St. Georges, channels the chaos of Marrakech. You'd assume that public transportation, if it existed at all, would disappoint. You'd be wrong.  Grenada has the best mass transit system we have ever experienced, bar none. Missed the bus? No problem. The bus is actually looking for YOU. Grenada has a fleet of owner operated mini-vans. Each packs in about 18 people (all sweating and sitting on top of each other). The minivans post their route on their windshield (there are nine different - reasonably standardized - routes). The fare is the same for everyone.....about $1. The driver then trolls along his route for additional passengers. There's always room for one more. A walk down a major road involves being "propositioned" about once every five minutes by the "recruiter" - a guy leaning out the van window.  If you express the least amount of interest the driver screeches to a halt. It's...

St. George - "prison with a view" in foreground Cruisers are notoriously cheap. I don't just mean frugal............I mean petty larceny, hide the silverware cheap. Our German friends are notable exceptions..............Joern and I are usually both trying to pick up the check. Unfortunately, we were dining without our German friends last night. Let's set up the scene; 5 people dining.............Clara (from Canada) is alone. She's married, but her man left Grenada early for home. We know her well and she's a close friend. Basil and Constance (from the UK) are there as well. We're meeting them for the first time (friends of Clara). Constance arrives first..........Basil a bit later. With Kirstin and I this makes 5. As the drinks begin to flow, we order more. Nigel isn't there so the waiter asks me (being the only guy) if we want another round. "Sure" is my response. Constance turns to me and says "Thank you".........Hmmm. I...

Stay at a place long enough, and you make friends. Here in Grenada (at the Tiki Bar), Patrina, Kamile, and at least 2 others know what we drink and how we like our pizza. You also meet lots of sailors. We now know more people from Hamburg, Germany than we knew in our apartment building in Washington DC. Besides your sailing friends, you also have names for the sailors who mumbled their name or weren't interesting enough to remember.......Buddha, French Rocker, Russian Secret Police Guy, Dutch Pirate Guy, etc. But no matter how drunk sailors get, there's a closely guarded secret they all keep............the 600 lb gorilla in the room during any conversation. No it's not "Wow, isn't that Portuguese chick hot ?" Rather, it's "Do I have enough money to be doing this long term ?" You see, look around the bar.........all the weird faces, all the strange couples and stranger situations............what do we all have in common ? None of us are workin...