S/V L'ORIENT

We're anchored here in Prickly Bay, getting ready to do a haul-out. That's where a big crane puts your boat on stilts and you paint the bottom and do all kinds of maintenance projects. It's important for us because it's "half-time". We're going to be heading west later...........possibly Cartagena, Columbia......definitely the ABC islands.........maybe even Honduras. The boat has to be ready. View from our boat this morning - Prickly Bay For now, we're waiting patiently for our haul-out appointment. Prickly Bay seems to be like the town square of Grenada (for non-locals). Everyone ends up coming to the bar/restaurant and congregating. This is like a Bogart movie............guys down on their luck swilling a cheap beer..........women with masculine looking tattoos eyeing every guy who walks in.........St. Georges University med students.......locals sizing up the situation......even Rasta gangsta looking guys. There all here for just one reason, ...

Welcome to Grenada. With Kirstin's chemical burns on her ass now under control, we proceed to the beach. Two miles of white sand, interrupted by a few beach bars. What could be nicer ? Or so we thought. We tie up the dinghy and proceed to a perfect spot under a palm tree. This is like a beer commercial setting, except without the models and unwarranted laughing. Of course it couldn't last..........and it didn't. Up walks this really drunk, vaguely Colombian looking Snoop-Dogg guy. He wants to chat me up. I want to read. Conflict ensues. El Snoop- "Hey, mahn.......jou ever read National Geographic ? Like, wit them animals, man ?" Tom- "Don't have any money........can't talk now. Good bye, my friend" El Snoop- "I'm tryin to conversate, man............I'm tryin to discuss shit, man" Tom- "Sorry, dude.........look, we just want to read and be alone. See you" Then, sensing trouble, the beach maintenance guy walks...

My wife and I share one dangerous trait. When we get overheated or dehydrated, we lose the power of reason and our fine motor skills erode dramatically. Yesterday, Tom drank a bottle of water before shopping...........Kirstin did not (how's that for foreshadowing ?). Anyway, upon arriving in Grenada we quickly dinghied over to Island Water World. I know it sounds like a theme park, but if you live on a boat in the Caribbean this is your Home Depot. Everything you need. Well, we needed some charts, spare parts for the bathroom, and some waterproofing chemicals for the Sunbrella canvas  (hey, we have problems too, OK ?). We leave the store, and Kirstin's overheating symptoms start to emerge. Instead of throwing our master-lock into the dinghy, she hits me in the hand. "Oh shit !!!! WTF ?........." OK, I'm bleeding, but it was an accident, right? Whatever. Then, in the course of getting into our dinghy, the unthinkable happens. She loses a flip flop. Gasp. Kirs...

House in Bequia Well, after a month we have left St. Vincent and the Grenadines (BTW, how can Grenada not be part of the Grenadines...........poor branding if you asked me). Anyway, one of the salient features of this place for cruisers is definitely the inability to spend money.........on anything. Case in point. We anchor off Carriacou (our final island in the SVG chain). A guy in a decrepit, sinking dinghy motors out to our boat. Sad-sack- "Hi, my name is Simon. You've probably heard of me." Tom- "Never heard of you" Sad-sack- "I'm in all the cruising guides.........I'm Simon........I'm famous for helping cruisers". Tom- "Nice to meet you Simon. Still never heard of you". He proceeds to try to interest us in "low impact" (on him) services he could sell us. He offers us these 4 small red snappers that are in their death-rattles flapping on the bottom of his boat.........in the oily, slimy bilge water. ...

Bequia Countryside Nothing like putting Caribbean medicine to the test like a long walk. Tom's recent trip to Dr. Babu was scarcely 24 hours behind us. How to get Tom to agree to such a long hike? My husband is a sucker for animal snuggles. If it snuggles, he wants to touch it. With that in my pocket, I was able to convince him that the 2 1/2 miles (each way) to the turtle preserve would be worth it. And it was. Will snuggle even turtles A man named Brother King started the turtle preserve some years ago. He finds hatchlings (who have a 1 in 3000 chance to of surviving) and brings them to his preserve. There, he raises them in tanks and when they are ready (usually in about 4 years), he returns them to the ocean. His success rate is 1 in 5. To date, he's returned 970 turtles to the wild. His preserve has about 70 turtles at any one time, ranging in size from gi-normous to babies the size of a cookie. This kind of conservation in Bequia is an interesting contrast to ...

This was what I was afraid of when planning this trip. We're in Bequia.  One evening.......pain in my right side. Go on WebMD........is it lower abdomen or upper hip ? Why? I get to choose between appendicitis and cancer of the gall bladder, intestines, or liver. It's kind of in between. Hmm. This island has a small "hospital". The corregated tin roof doesn't completely cover the interior of the building. Air conditioning, I guess. There's a Rasta house a few blocks away. 'nuff said Now I'm getting scared. Burst appendix down here and you have a big problem. Anyway, I let the pain get worse for a few days. My mind (which isn't occupied by much, I'll admit) is racing. Hopefully it's a problem with some part of me where there's a spare. Do I have 2 kidneys or is it 2 livers. Whatever. I go to this "hospital" as a last resort. (we can't really sail anywhere at this point). This nurse asks if I want her to examine me ...

We read a really sad article in the local paper yesterday. A German couple (long-time live-aboards) were peacefully anchored near a restaurant. A French tri-maran anchors too close, hits the German boat at midnight as the tide shifts, and all hell breaks loose. The French refuse to move, they hit again (this time doing damage), then in the process of re-anchoring the French pull up the German's anchor as well. The French leave the bay and shout derisively "Auf Wiedersehen". It gets worse..........the German guy is really upset......in fact, he feels light-headed. He passes out and dies of a heart attack before his wife can get help. Now there are assholes in every country, and at first when I read this article I failed to see why the fact that they were French was relevant. Until I started thinking about our own experience. Just about every case of anchoring too close........poor seamanship..........being discourteous............it's almost always the French.  ...