Thursday, March 26, 2015

Drop and give me 10 Private!

 
 
The cruising life is a strange one. 
There are moments of physical exertion and activity interspersed
with idle time and well, let's face it, laziness! 
When we stay in one place like Grenada we pass many a day just laying
 around the boat, reading a book or maybe playing a game.
Add that to our time spent in the States where everything is super-sized
and there is always ice cream in the freezer and well the end result
 isn't pretty!  I've been trying to combat the inevitable effects of that
 with a little more exercise.



My friend Hope had friends visiting and one of the ladies is
a water aerobics instructor.  She taught us a few exercises that we
 can do when we are at the pool. 
I love working out in the water.  No sweating!



I've been diligently going to yoga twice a week. 
This is my instructor Pierre Yve doing a little warm-up before
class one morning.  I can do yoga for the next 20 years
 and I'll never be able to stand on my head.  OK, let's be honest.
I don't really want to stand on my head. 
But I will admit that yoga has been
good for me and I'm feeling stronger.


 
The yoga class takes place at the marina on the stage overlooking
the Tiki Bar and Prickly Bay.  Not a bad setting.
 
 
And of course there are always beautiful roads to walk on.
On this day Jim and I walked out to Prickly Point at the end of the bay. 
It's a residential area of beautiful homes.
 

 
The homes are there.  It's just that most of them are behind big fences!
 



The view across Prickly Bay. 
That's Merengue anchored in her usual spot along the west shore.

Whew, I'm worn out just thinking about all that.
Is it happy hour yet?


Thursday, March 12, 2015

A Sailing Legend



Last week we had the opportunity to listen to sailing legend Don Street
as he gave an informal talk at Prickly Bay Marina.
Don Street is the author of numerous books including
charts and cruising guides for the Caribbean.
At 84 years young, he has been sailing for more than 70 years!



It got me thinking of all the changes he has seen.
Looking out over Prickly Bay on this night, there were approximately
100 yachts at anchor.  When he first visited there were probably less than 5.
The anchorages throughout the Caribbean that we all crowd into today
were most likely his alone.  He was sailing without GPS, chartplotter,
radar, AIS, cell phones or solar panels. 
His boat didn't even have an engine!
He would have used a sextant for celestial navigation. 
 Charts of the day were unreliable.  He charted much of the region. 
When he arrived in a new country he couldn't simply go to an ATM
and withdraw the local currency as we do today. 
There were no computers for
paying your bills, emailing or for checking the weather forecast.
 
Sailing the Caribbean today seems simple in comparison.
 
"Yachts have changed and new equipment has come on the market
but one thing that has not changed is the sea and the size of waves." 
 Don Street Jr.