Merengue

2012-02-09T13:08:00.000-05:00

Last weekend, February 4-5, 2012 was the annual Work Boat Regatta on Grand Anse Beach.

Part of the Grenada Sailing Festival, this regatta showcases the traditional boats that have been built in these islands for generations.

We arrived early to stake out a spot in the shade and watched the vendors setting up for the day.

We really enjoyed walking the beach for an up-close look at these beauties.

What is a boat without a name?

These boats are built by hand and without plans. The booms are bamboo.

A little duct tape will take care of that torn sail, hopefully!

Stepping the mast.

The starts were amazing. The boat is pushed into the surf and held in place while the rudder is attached.

One crew member has to wait on shore. At the sound of the race horn, he sprints into the water and jumps aboard followed quickly by the rest of the crew. The race is on!

Capsizing occurred frequently and with the high wind conditions some boats weren't able to recover quickly.

They ended up swamped and had to be pulled to shore.

The many faces of the regatta.

A broken boom.

There was also an Optimist class for the young sailors.

It's been a long day of rigging the boat and sailing 4 races.

Tomorrow is another day.

Pan Concert

2012-01-30T13:55:00.000-05:00

Last week, one of the taxi drivers arranged for a group of us to visit a "pan yard", the rehearsal venue for a Pan (Steel Drum) Band. The band was the Commancheros.

The "Pan" was first developed in Trinidad and has become the sound synonymous with the Caribbean.

The Commancheros rehearse at the St. Paul Community Center.

About a dozen musicians from the band set up outside on the basketball court so we could get an up-close look at the instruments.

The musicians we were listening to were part of the Junior Commancheros although they were very experienced players. Aging from 14-18 they had all been playing pan for several years. The leader told us that one of his jobs is to identify and recruit students for the band at a young age. Being a part of the band provides more then musical training. The band members study, practice, perform and compete together but they also have lots of fun activities that are planned for them. It is a prestigious thing to play in a pan band! The goal is to become good enough to play with the senior group who also compete and travel to perform.

There are tenor, cello and bass pans.

The bass drum.

A drummer to set the rhythm and a set of conga drums.

More bass drums.

Half the time the bass drummer is playing behind their back as they have 6 drums to play.

Tenor drums.

Here you can see how the pan has been hammered or tuned into sections that create different notes.

On a piano, one person can play a chord (3 notes) by themselves. A pan drummer can only play 2 notes, one with each hand, therefore it takes 2 drummers playing together to create a chord.

This musician is beating out a rhythm on an automobile brake drum!

Inside the community center is where they study new music and practice.

A practice pan with the musical notes written in chalk.

A wall of pans in the practice room.

There was barbecue chicken and salad for dinner and a complimentary rum punch.

There was also a pot of "mannish water", a goat or sheep soup that is believed to be an aphrodisiac and is made from various parts, sometimes including the head, brains, heart and testicles and various vegetables and dumplings. Lucky Jim got the goat testicle!

It was a wonderful evening of pan music spent with a talented group of kids.

They didn't even laugh at us as we danced along.

At least not to our faces!

Sailing on Kool Kat

2012-01-19T10:00:00.000-05:00

Last week we went sailing.

I know, some of you find this hard to believe but we did, we do and we really like it.

It's especially nice when it's on someone else's boat! We can relax because we're not in charge!

Our friends John and Linda on S/V Kool Kat were getting ready to head north. Here's a photo Linda took of their Houston Texan flag proudly flying from their dinghy. John and Linda were going for fuel and then sailing around to St. George's for some last minute duty-free shopping (code for "we're heading to the liquor store!") and to clear customs. We asked if we could be crew for the day.

I wanted to be helpful and earn my passage so here I am giving the anchor chain a scrub and wash-down while Linda raises the chain and directs John.

We motored to Secret Harbor, one bay to the east for fuel.

Kool Kat is a beautiful Leopard 47 catamaran where we have enjoyed Christmas dinner, domino games, happy hours, dinners and watched football. We were looking forward to this day-sail but in all honesty it was an opportunity to avoid having to say good-bye to our friends for one more day.

Fueling up at Secret Harbor marina.

I have always been intrigued by this house.

Look closely and you'll see that it is an earth home, built into the hill with a sod roof.

Here's the view looking over to the Hog Island anchorage to the east as we leave Secret Harbor also known as Mt. Hartman Bay. The south coast of Grenada has a number of great anchorages, the temporary and permanent home to hundreds of boats.

Heading west now and passing Prickly Bay where Merengue is anchored.

St. George's University on the south coast. I don't know how the students get any studying done with the gorgeous views and many distractions.

What's this? Asleep at the helm!

Who left Jim in charge?

Just as I thought, auto is on the job!

We had a beautiful down-wind sail around the south coast.

Here's John and Linda taking us in to anchor outside St. George's.

One last lunch aboard and it was time to say goodbye and head ashore for the bus ride back to Prickly Bay. Fair Winds Kool Kat and come back soon.

We miss you!

Whew! What a Happy Holiday!

2012-01-08T12:55:00.000-05:00

To say that I am a little late in telling you about our holiday is an understatement!

To say that we have been VERY busy and have not had time is not an exaggeration!

Christmas day was spent with our good friends John and Linda on S/V Kool Kat, a beautiful Leopard 47 catamaran.

Wendy and Linda......

Steve and Hope (S/V Starshine, an Island Packet 37), John and Wendy......

and Rikky and his mom Garda who was visiting from Jersey in the Channel Islands.

Yes, Jim was there too but as usual he manged to take pictures and not have his taken.

Ahhhhh, Christmas in the islands!

There was lots of great food, mimosas, bloody Mary's, wine, oh you get the picture. The typical holiday overindulgence! It was great! Thank you John and Linda for a wonderful day!

Two days later and it was time for more food and fun at De Big Fish's Pot Luck and Music Jam.

Linda and I helped with the organizing by making announcements on the morning cruiser's radio net, taking reservations and organizing the food and lists of performers.

More then 100 people attended bringing with them lots of great food and musical talent.

de Big Fish staff singing Bob Marley's "One Love."

You don't see this everyday, at least not in the northern hemisphere. This cruiser is playing a didgeridoo.

The music jam was a huge success, the highlight of the season. Thanks to de Big Fish for the great venue.

News Year Eve and we were back at de Big Fish for their annual party.

The sun hasn't even set and we're ready to party!

John, Lorna and Jim.

Wendy, Kim and Linda.

Larry and Jan (S/V Sea Bear)

Steve and Hope

Because they recognize that cruisers rarely stay out late, de Big Fish celebrates the new year at midnight GMT. They had the countdown from London, England playing on the big screen and we were all celebrating at 8:00 p.m. local time! This is great for cruisers who like to be in bed by cruiser's midnight, 9 P.M!

However, our happy group headed out to Sea Bear for more drinks and to await the midnight fireworks over the bay. We no sooner headed out in our dinghies when it started to rain.

So much for dressing up and trying to look good! We arrived soggy but happy.

Ahhhh, life on the sea!

In between the holidays were numerous happy hours and dinners with friends and lots of football. We've been able to watch several Green Bay Packer games as well as the Wisconsin Badgers in the Rose Bowl. This was the before picture. There wasn't a happy after picture. Oregon 45-Wisconsin 38 in the highest scoring Rose Bowl ever. More football fun to come as the Packers head into the playoffs.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:02:00.001-05:00

Prickly Bay

2011-12-17T13:52:00.000-05:00

Life moves at a nice, slow pace in Prickly Bay, Grenada and then all of a sudden you wake up to some excitement! I was making a cup of tea at 6:30 the other morning when I noticed a friend zoom by in his dinghy. Where could he be going so early? A few minutes later Jim took his coffee and went to sit in the cockpit and noticed what all the excitement was about. A boat had broken loose from it's mooring, bounced off of a pier and went aground along the west shore of the bay.

The boat was unoccupied and apparently the line was cut. It could have happened in the night if someone ran over the line in the dark and cut it with their outboard prop. Or I guess it could have been foul play but that sort of thing hasn't happened here before and with no one aboard it's doubtful that the owner had angered someone so it remains a mystery how it happened.

Several dinghies were already on the scene offering assistance. Here the man with the dinghy on the left has taken the main halyard (look closely and you'll see the line from the top of the mast running to the dinghy) and is pulling the sailboat over on her side to free the keel from the sand. A little more pulling and the boat popped free with no damage! Phew! Glad that wasn't us. It's not a good feeling to go to sleep in one place and wake up in another!

In Prickly Bay we are surrounded by beautiful homes.

This home is right off of Merengue's stern.

We've come to think of Grenada as home and have decided to make it our home for the next year. We'll stay here to do a few boat projects while we enjoy all this island has to offer. Oh, maybe we'll take a trip to the Grenadines but we have no plans to sail any further north. It will be a nice, lazy year. We're looking forward to it.

Merengue in Prickly Bay, Grenada.

Only 3 weeks Until Christmas. Yikes!

2011-12-02T18:06:00.000-05:00

We've had several inquiries asking if Jim put out a calendar for 2012 so at the risk of shameless self-promotion here's the link again. There is also a great Christmas card with a Caribbean theme.

If you hurry, you'll still have time to address the cards and get them mailed!

http://www.cafepress.com/Merengue

Front of card

Inside message

Thanks for your interest. It is truly appreciated!

Sophie's Sojourn

2011-11-19T11:09:00.000-05:00

Yahoo! Another niece!

We have 2 you know!

Sophie came to visit us in Grenada, her first time in the Caribbean.

The first day begins with a noodle-float in the ocean. It's a great way to begin a vacation!

Celebrating Jim's birthday with friends at De Big Fish Restaurant.

Sophie and Jim

Sophie and Wendy

Jim and Sophie doing a little cooking together.

It's thirsty work! Just a little sip as this is 15 year old El Dorado rum.

The result of their effort was a delicious chicken curry with breadfruit.

Beach day at the Aquarium restaurant on Magazine Beach.

The surf was really big so we had to skip the snorkeling. Instead we ate......

drank.......

drank some more......

and hung out on the beach.

Island tour time with our guide and friend, Cutty.

Cutty always teaches us about the local plants. This are cocoa pods.

Annandale Falls

River's Rum Distillery

Rivers is the oldest working, water-driven distillery in the Caribbean established in 1785.....

...thus the old pictures. Oh wait, cameras hadn't been invented in 1785!

Tasting the overproof rum. All smiles, Sophie's ready!

Oh, that's rough!

What is this stuff? Look at Jim thinking "I got her!"

Oh, there's the burn! Will I ever feel my throat again?

Cutty's favorite neighborhood rum shop. We stopped for a cold beer on the way home.

Another beach day. You can't have too many!

This is the view looking out from Umbrella's Restaurant on Grand Anse Beach.

Our waitress strikes a pose for the camera.

Not to be outdone, Sophie strikes a pose of her own!

We loved having you here sweetie. Come back soon!

Ghosts, Goblins and a Scuba Diver?

2011-11-08T09:11:00.000-05:00

Halloween in the Caribbean is like everywhere else. It starts with the kids looking for treats.

Only here they appear in dinghies.

Then the grown-ups get into it. It's one of the few days each year you can act like a kid!

Rikky announcing the costume contest winners.

Oops! This is Rikky!

Hope wins first prize for her scuba diver costume and for keeping it on all night in the tropical heat!

Another great party at De Big Fish!

In Case You're Interested

2011-10-04T15:27:00.000-04:00

I put out another Calendar for 2012. You can see it at http://www.cafepress.com/Merengue .

Watching the Weather

2011-09-21T09:56:00.001-04:00

Watching the weather is something we do at all times.

It's not like when we lived on land and wanted to know what the temperature would be or did we need to carry an umbrella. It's so much more now. Can we safely make a passage, will the conditions make an anchorage uncomfortable, will there be enough rain to collect water, etc? Weather watching never feels more important then in hurricane season. There have been 16 named storms so far this year and 2 have become hurricanes. Early this morning invest 98L became Tropical Storm Ophelia.

We have been watching this system closely because as it developed off of Africa it moved slowly, staying at about 10 degrees north. We are anchored off of the south coast of Grenada at 12 degrees north. Several predictions had it moving directly over Grenada. In the last day it moved and is currently at 12.7 degrees. Of course one man's good luck is another man's misfortune. The islands north of us may not fair as well.

We will continue to watch this storm because predicting the weather is certainly not an absolute science. The people of Grenada know only too well how a hurricane can turn as Hurricane Ivan did in 2004 when it took a sudden turn and blasted the island.
Wikipedia reports: The cyclone was the ninth named storm, the sixth hurricane and the fourth major hurricane of the active 2004 Atlantic hurricane season. Ivan formed in early September and became the 10th most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. At its peak in the Gulf of Mexico, Ivan was the size of the state of Texas. It also spawned 119 tornadoes across the eastern United States.

Ivan caused catastrophic damage to Grenada and heavy damage to Jamaica, Grand Cayman, and the western tip of Cuba. After peaking in strength, the hurricane moved north-northwest across the Gulf of Mexico to strike Gulf Shores, Alabama as a strong Category 3 storm, causing significant damage.

The reality is that you are much more at risk of hurricanes along the coastal United States then we are here in Grenada. History has proven that. But just in case, we'll continue to keep watch.

Celebrating 5 Years!

2011-09-06T09:50:00.003-04:00

5 Years of cruising and living aboard Mérengue!

On September 2, 2006 we dropped the lines from our mooring on Lake Michigan and sailed away on our Caribbean adventure. Since then, we’ve traveled almost 9,000 miles! It was difficult to pull just a few images from the thousands of pictures we’ve taken so we merged both still photographs and video into a 25 minute video. Come on, that’s not too long! That's just 5 minutes per year! Due to the length, we had to load the video in 2 parts. So grab a drink, make yourself comfortable and turn up the sound! Enjoy!

Hope you enjoyed reminiscing with us.

Thank you to our family and friends who have been so supportive of our dream.

Thank you to Connie, Bill, Jill, Kyle, Angela, Muff, Reed, Marcia, Mike, Tim and Natalie for visiting us in the islands. Natalie wins the prize for visiting 3 times in 13 months! The prize is a bottle of rum but she has to come collect it in person!

Thank you to the cruising community, those people from all over the world who have become friends.

And thank you to the people of the Caribbean for their hospitality.

"Oh boy, dis is fun. Ha ha ha! Widing awound on a boat." Tweety Bird

Grenada Carnival 2011

2011-08-29T14:45:00.000-04:00

Carnival in Grenada!

Each "band" is led by a truck with the announcer, speakers and refreshments for the revelers.

The speakers are huge, the music is deafening!

Jim was out front taking pictures and I attempted to get some video. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on how you look at it, we shot lots of pictures and video of peoples' backsides. So welcome to Backs and Butts 2011!

The kids.

The adults.

Kim and Lorna

Toga! Toga! Toga!

2011-08-08T09:51:00.000-04:00

We made it back to Grenada in time to celebrate Rikky's Birthday.

Kim and Rikky own De Big Fish Restaurant and Kim was throwing a Pig Roast/Toga Party on the beach for Rikky.

Kim with her Birthday boy, Rikky.

Break out the old bedsheets, it's time to toga. Here's Jim looking very Roman gladiator if gladiators drank rum punch!

Kim with the other birthday boy Mark.

There were lots of team competitions like dicus throwing and.....

tug of war.

A little toga line dancing.

Basting the pig.

John and Linda (S/V Kool Kat)

Mike and Bev (S/V Whitebird)

Nancy & John (S/V Silver Seas)

Two very Happy Birthday Boys!

Thanks Kim, we had a great time!

Bequia, Grenadines

2011-07-26T19:42:00.000-04:00

We've been in Bequia for the past 9 days, enjoying the beauty of one of our favorite places in the Caribbean.

We had planned to stay a few days but Bequia has a way of taking hold of you and not letting go.

Perhaps it's the crystal-clear water, like floating in a swimming pool.

Perhaps it's the picturesque town of Port Elizabeth, the green hillside dotted with pretty tropical homes or the great snorkeling right from the boat. It's all of those things. It's especially nice in the off-season when it's quiet. There are fewer boats then in the winter months. Most cruising boats have already moved on to Trinidad or Grenada, planning their cruising year by the insurance company calendars. We understand, we did that too our first year down here. Now we know that we can play around in the Grenadines in the summer while we keep one eye on the weather. We are only a day away from Grenada.

We'll move on tomorrow to spend a few more days visiting some favorite places.

Until next time Beautiful Bequia!

More Martinique, Rum!

2011-07-19T14:07:00.000-04:00

Martinique was just begging to be explored!

We have never ventured into the interior of the island, always sticking to the anchorages along the west coast or Fort Du France Bay so we were looking forward to renting a car for a drive north along the east-coast of the island. Our friends John and Linda (S/V Kool Kat) joined us for our adventure. Driving on Martinique is wonderful! The roads are beautifully maintained, they drive on the right and there are frequent informational and directional signs to guide you.

Our destination was Habitation Clement, a 16 acre historical site on the grounds of the original Clement Rum Distillery. Clement rum is currently made a few kilometers from here at a new facility.

The drive through the palms at the entrance to Habitation Clement.

Fields of sugar cane backed by a banana grove.

The old distillery houses the Rhums Clement interpretation center. Here you can see how rum was made throughout the centuries.

Barrel scale.

Barrel room.

Workers checking the barrels.

In this small building called the Bursar's House, you can view a video commemorating the meeting of U.S. President George Bush and French President Francois Mitterrand on March 14, 1991. They met at Habitation Clement after the first Gulf War. There are pictures of the presidential helicopters landing in the cane field we showed you previously, all the cane cleared away to create a landing pad.

The 18th century home of the Clement family, Creole House.

Linda and Wendy fell in love with the house and would have moved in right away. There are large windows to let in the breeze, beautiful antique furnishings and an airy, tropical feel that was captivating. It made you want to make a Ti Punch and retire to the veranda!

Within the grounds are several buildings that the Clement Foundation uses to showcase art. The exhibitions change and charitable fundraising events are held on the grounds.

Linda, Wendy and John taking a cool break in the gazebo.

Tour over. It's time to taste!

Now that's a happy man!

The final selection for purchase was a bottle of Clement Rhum Vieux X.O.

It is a blend of some of the more prestigious aged rums from

1952 (the year Jim was born),

1970 (the year Jim graduated from high school) and

1976 (the year Jim and Wendy met).

How could we not take a bottle with us!

The South Coast of Martinique

2011-07-15T22:32:00.000-04:00

It's amazing, but after all these years in the Caribbean we are still finding new places to explore.

This time it was Le Marin and St. Anne on the south coast of Martinique.

Neither of us was prepared for Le Marin. We knew it was the boating center of Martinique with every kind of marine service available. But that didn't prepare us for the size of the bay, HUGE, with more then a 1000 boats at anchor, on moorings or in the marinas. It's not exactly a swimming bay but it is close to lots of shopping and restaurants.

Customs office in Le Marin.

Looking downhill toward the crowded bay.

The small town is colorful and picturesque.

Poor weather kept us on board for the first 4 days. The wind blew 20-25 knots with frequent rain squalls.

This wasn't the only flag unraveling in the wind. We are on our 3rd French courtesy flag in 4 years.

Less then 3 miles from Le Marin is a beautiful beach and the small town of St. Anne.

These beautiful racing boats were out practicing for the upcoming Bastille Day regattas.

Hauling in the sail.

Half-full of water after a rigorous practice, this one is sitting a little low in the water!

Street scenes from St. Anne.

Our lunch spot on the beach. We had acras morue (fishcakes) and poulet coco (chicken in a coconut sauce). Tres bon!

On Sunday afternoon, a large catamaran with about 16 people on board anchored next to us for the afternoon. Girls in bikinis, bare-chested guys and photographers who seemed to be shooting a video.

Nice eye-candy!

The only downside was that we had to listen to the same song blaring for 4 hours. We couldn't make out the words but Jim thought they were singing "Who's got the hockey puck, who's got the hockey puck?"

Yeah right, on a French island in the Caribbean!

Photographer getting the close-up butt-shot.

Photo shoot is over and we are left alone to enjoy another beautiful sunset.

A quick position update for those readers who are wondering where we are currently. We are on a mooring between the Pitons in St. Lucia. Tomorrow at dawn we'll sail to Bequia in the Grenadines, approximately 57 nautical miles south.

St. Martin to Dominica

2011-06-24T21:17:00.000-04:00

Just a quick update to let everyone know where we've been the past few weeks.

After waiting 2 weeks for wind, (a little wind, we'll take any wind please!) we finally left for St. Barth's on June 11th, just 1 day later then last year. We spent 1 day enjoying Anse Columbier before heading off to St. Kitt's. It was a quick stop this time, just long enough to say hello to friends Mike and Renee before grabbing a weather window to head south.

We planned to island hop, overnighting at Montserrat and Deshaies, Guadeloupe but the winds weren't north-easterly as predicted so after a few hours we had some decisions to make. Option 1 was to keep on a close-hauled course and do long tacks to work our way up to Montserrat. This was going to be difficult and we couldn't be sure we could make it before dark. The second option was to continue on a close reach and take advantage of the full-moon to do an overnight to Dominica. We were having a good sail in that direction, doing between 5 and 6 knots in moderate seas. This seemed like the best choice. We probably would have traveled the same amount of miles tacking back and forth to Montserrat! Decision made, off to Dominica. Contrary to what some of our friends think, Merengue can stay out after dark. She just doesn't like to!

That afternoon we had a wonderful dolphin encounter west of Montserrat. Jim spotted a pod of dolphins chasing a school of fish about a quarter of a mile off of our port side. A moment later a group of rowdy dolphins broke away from the chase and came to play on Merengue's bow wave for a short time before heading back to their dinner.

The night sail was beautiful, star-lit before the moon rose to light up the sea and sky. But as the clock turned to midnight the weather changed with the new day. A squall blew through with 25-30 knots of wind. The seas rose and the wave interval dropped to about 4 seconds. It became a bumpy, miserable ride! It was difficult pushing through the waves even with 20 knots of wind. We should have arrived in Portsmouth, Dominica mid-morning on Friday but with these conditions we didn't drop anchor until 4:30 p.m. We were also having some engine problems so we didn't want to push it. We were only getting 1800 RPM's and thought that we might have stirred up some gunk in the fuel tank in the rough conditions causing the fuel filter to clog. The last 10 miles took us almost 5 hours!

Fast forward a week and Jim has changed the filter, installed a new fuel pump because the old one decided to quit and filtered all the diesel in the fuel tank. This afternoon we moved to Roseau, Dominica for the night and as we were pulling up to a mooring ball the engine died! We're hoping that it can be fixed by adjusting the idle which we'll try first thing tomorrow. If that works we'll head to St. Pierre, Martinique. We're hoping to spend a few weeks along the south coast of this beautiful island. If I close my eyes and breath deep I think I can smell the baguettes!

I'm Back!

2011-06-05T15:34:00.000-04:00

First I have to comment on the previous blog entry posted by Jim while I was off visiting family and friends in Milwaukee.

I Loved It!!!

What women wouldn't?

Married 31 years and the guy can still surprise me!

Of course it did come at a cost. He did take a few hits from some of his guy friends.

Our friend Tim came to visit while I was away and stayed with Jim onboard Merengue. He appears to have survived the experience. Jim and Tim (I know, it sounds like twins!) were college roommates so they have lived together in a small space before but that was many years ago.

In Brew City I was doing my best to take in every brewery tour and taste every micro-brew I could find.

This is Natalie, Bill, Connie and me each with a different flavor! Jim really misses having a variety of beers so I was doing my best to taste them all for him! Yeah right!

Back in St. Martin and we are provisioning the boat for our trip south and look what we found. BEER! Not just beer but different flavors of beer. A supermarket here has expanded it's stock and we found bock, dubbel, tripel, and more! Merengue's sitting a little lower in the water today!

Ruby Leffe. Delicious!

Another great bargain. Appleton Estate Rum for $4.51 a bottle.

The grocery receipt was the longest on record and I'm still not sure that we have anything but beverages. At least we'll be well hydrated!

Happy cat playing with the grocery bags.

Continuing on the drinks theme, here's a great combination of signs on the boardwalk in Phillipsburg. It's the St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church with a sign out front that reads "1 umbrella, 2 chairs and 3 beers."

What times mass?

It's Been 6 Weeks...

2011-05-23T09:27:00.001-04:00

.....and.....

Fun with Orchid

2011-04-06T11:27:00.000-04:00

The main reason for heading to St. Martin this year was to catch up with Orchid and crew before they left for their Atlantic crossing. This Australian family of four will be exploring the Mediteranean for the next year or so. We met up in St. Barth's.

Here they come, heading in past the mega-yacht.

Alexander and Nicholas did a great job of grabbing the mooring ball and securing Orchid.

It must be nice having crew!

Nicholas (age 8) jumped in the water and swam over to greet us.

A moment later, Alexander (age 9) appeared via dinghy.

These two kids can climb the mast and forestay like a couple of monkeys! No bosun chair for them.

I'm trying to get my fill of snuggles before they head off but it's never enough.

Time to sail to St. Martin. Alexander and Nicholas came along as crew onboard Merengue.

Alexander at the helm.

Nicholas takes a turn at the helm.

Here's Merengue under a full mainsail and reefed genoa and still going over 6 knots. I think we surprised Orchid with our speed! Of course this picture was taken by Rachel as they passed us by! We look rather small in this picture and we are accustomed to being the smallest yacht in most harbors but if you really want to feel small........

.....sail past one of the mega-yachts! This is Merengue cruising past one of the big-boys!

St. Martin will be our base until June while Wendy flys to Milwaukee to visit. Jim will be staying with Bailey and Merengue and contining to enjoy the beaches, baguettes and brie!

Carnival in Les Saintes

2011-04-02T12:49:00.000-04:00

Our short visit to Les Saintes happened to correspond with carnival. Carnival on this small island is very different then those we've seen on other islands. It's more about family and a lot less skin.

The participants were primarily school-age girls in floral costumes in keeping with this years theme, a Tropical Garden. Many of the children watching the parade were also in costume.

We are not sure what these were. Garbage piles? Compost? No, that's an ax in his head.

U.S. President Barak Obama with French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Great view of the parade from above.

The photographer in action. Hope you enjoyed le Carnival!

The Fast Track North

2011-03-25T13:05:00.000-04:00

We just arrived in St. Martin. What? St. Martin? The last update was from the Grenadines, more then 300 NM from here where we had been weathered-in in Bequia for a month. We had no particular sailing plan for this year and in fact, we thought we might not sail further north then Martinique. But then we were lured north by the crew of Orchid and the thought of rendezvousing with them in St. Martin was too tempting. With the weather improved, it was time to set sail again. March had come in like a lamb and the weather forecast looked great. We decided to take advantage of the good conditions and just keep moving which is a little unusual for Merengue and crew. We usually like to stop and smell the roses, or maybe it’s the baguettes! For those of you who follow our blog for the sailing, here’s a look at our trip north.

Ships log

3/03/11: Bequia, Grenadines to St. Lucia. 53.3 NM. Wind 10-25 knots, 4-5 ft. swell. Travel time 10.5 hours. Left at sunrise. Beautiful beam reach between Bequia and St. Vincent then the typical no wind in the lee of the island. Close reach from St. Vincent to the moorings between the Pitons, St. Lucia. Great sailing!

3/04/11: The Pitons to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. 18 NM. Motor-sailed in the lee of the island.

3/05/11: Rodney Bay,

St. Lucia

to St. Pierre, Martinique. 44.2 NM. Wind 12-18. Beam reach with speeds over 6 knots until north of Fort de France Bay, then wind died. Travel time 9 hours. Spotted 2 whales dozing in the water.

St. Pierre waterfront.

3/6/11: Martinique to Roseau, Dominica. 35.6 NM. Wind 10-18 knots, low seas. Beam reach again! Travel time 7 hours.

3/07/11: Roseau, Dominica to Les Saintes. 40.3 NM. No wind in lee of island then 11-18 knots in the channel. Travel time 8 hours.

These 5 days of sailing were some of the best that we have ever experienced. Beam reaches, low swell and waves, blue sea and sky, the sailing was fabulous! We celebrated with a 2-day lay-over in Les Saintes, one of our favorite places in the Caribbean. Watch for a future blog post on the carnival celebration.

3/10/11: Les Saintes to Deshaies, Guadeloupe. 38.0 NM. Forecast was for light winds but we had from 10 – 25 knots on the nose. Motorsailed. Travel time 8 hours.

Lighthouse on the southwest shore of Guadeloupe.

Leaving Guadeloupe at sunrise.

3/11/11: Guadeloupe to Montserrat. 42.7 NM. Wind 6 -8 knots, then slowly increased to 13-16 knots near Montserrat. Confused seas near island. Travel time 9.5 hours.

The Montserrat volcano is still very active. If you look closely you can see steam rising out of vents near the top.

Waterspout forming over Montserrat.

3/12/11: Montserrat to Basseterre, St. Kitt’s. 47.0 NM. Wind 13-16. Travel time 9.5 hours.

Leaving Montserrat.

In a rare moment of spontaneity, we decided to stop in St. Kitt’s to visit our friends Mike and Renee. We had told them that we would visit on our way south in June so they were a little surprised when they received our email telling them that we were at the marina. Hey, we’re in the neighborhood. Whatcha doing? We spent 4 days hanging out at the beach, by the pool, at various beach bars and restaurants and at their villa. It always feels like we’re on vacation when we visit them. They do a good job of spoiling us!

Sandy Bank Beach.

Ahhhhh! The swimming pool at the villa.

The view of Nevis from the pool.

Michael's Bar. Not our friend Michael, a different Michael.

Michael at Michael's.

3/17/11: St. Kitt’s to Gustavia, St. Barth’s. 47.4 N.M. Wind 11-15. Close-reach. Travel time 9.5 hours. Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

With all these islands named after saints, how come St. Patrick didn’t get the honor?

3/19/11: Gustavia to Columbier Bay, St. Barth’s. 2.8 N.M. Beautiful turquoise water, sea turtles, stingrays, reef fish and big remoras under the boat! Met up with our friends on Orchid here.

3/21/11: St. Barth’s to St. Martin. 17.8 N.M. Wind 13 – 18 knots. Travel time 4 hours. Alexander and Nicholas (S/V Orchid) came along as crew. We were greeted by a spinner dolphin off the south coast of St. Martin!

We will be calling St. Martin home for the next few months.

Fort Hamilton, Bequia

2011-03-01T10:12:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, we decided to take a walk and explore the other side of the bay and the ruins of a fort overlooking the harbor.

This beauiful little stone church, St. Michaels Catholic Church, is set back from the main road,

just up the hill.

The road follows the bay and then winds it's way up the hill through residential neighborhoods until it reaches the site of the old fort.

The view of Admiralty Bay from the top of the hill is the reason the British chose this location.

Nothing remains of the original fort which was built in the late 1700's. A wall has been constructed to hold a number of cannon that remain and to give you an idea of how this site could be used to protect the harbor and the island from American Privateers and French Raiders. Interestingly, the fort is named for Alexander Hamilton, a founding father of the American constitution who was born on the island of Nevis in 1755.

A panoramic view of Admiralty Bay from the site of Fort Hamilton.

Back onboard and it's time to make some decisions about where we'll go and what we'll do this year. The sea is settling down and it looks like we'll have good weather to head north. Our friends on S/V Orchid are headed to St. Martin to prepare for their Atlantic crossing to the Mediterranean and we'd like to meet up with them before they leave in April. So our plan was to take advantage of this next weather window and just keep moving, stopping just for the night until we reach Les Saintes. I'm beginning to think that PLAN is a dirty, 4 letter word! Everytime we try it, something seems to stop us. PLAN to meet Natalie in St. Lucia and the weather turns bad. PLAN to leave Wednesday and we break an engine part doing a routine oil change. Yes, the plastic top on the dipstick in the transmission broke as Jim was putting it back in. There are a number of marine services in Bequia but none carrying Yanmar parts. We asked around and were referred to Kerry Machine Services where Kerry informed us that he was well aware of the problem as he has fixed this very thing on a number of boats before. "They're made of plastic, they always break." Jim took him our broken dipstick this morning and Kerry says he will make a stainless top for it. Hopefully, all will be fixed by tomorrow and we can be on our way Thursday morning.

Here's hoping for fair winds!

The Nautical Nomad Natalie

2011-02-25T09:52:00.001-05:00

Our niece Natalie was coming to visit us in St. Lucia, her 3rd visit in 13 months!
Does she really miss her uncle and aunt or is she just getting hooked on the Caribbean?
Our weather window shut down the day after we arrived in Bequia. Boats that had sailed to St. Lucia emailed that "Merengue shouldn't try to go, the seas were too rough." Weather reports were showing 10-12 ft. seas in the channel between St. Vincent and St. Lucia.

We only had to sail about 50 N.M. from Bequia past St. Vincent to Vieux Fort on the south coast of St. Lucia. So near and yet so far. This is hard for non-sailors to understand. If you're living on land you would hop in your car and travel that distance in as little as an hour. At sea it's a different story. As Jim put it; "We've been out in 12 ft. seas before, but never intentionally."

We couldn't make it to St. Lucia. This is a risk we take when we plan to meet family and friends who fly in to see us. We've always been able to make it before but not this time.

Initiate plan B. Natalie arrived in St. Lucia Monday evening, took a taxi to the Castries airport to catch a flight to St. Vincent Tuesday morning, then another taxi to the ferry terminal for the ferry ride to Bequia.

We took her out for pizza and beer and then let her sleep for the next 12 hours. She needed it!

Arriving by ferry in St. Vincent to meet Natalie.

Missing St. Lucia might have been a disappointment but we were excited to have Natalie see Bequia. It's a beautiful place.

Enjoying breakfast at the Gingerbread Hotel.

Noodle-floating with a beer. Life is good!
Of course Jim and Natalie both complained that the 80 degree water was too cold. (wimps!)
Jim also cooked up some great Caribbean dinners with a common theme. They all contained rum.
Drunken Rum Punch Chicken Stew, Coconut Rice and Peas with Rum, Coconut Chicken, and Jerk Pork.
Delicious!

The weather improved later in the week so we were able to take Natalie sailing to the Tobago Cays where she could swim with the turtles.

The sailing was great both ways. The only down side was the terrible swell that developed both nights we were there. Natalie got a taste of what it's like to rock back and forth in a rolly anchorage. It doesn't happen to us often but it was sure bad those nights. Back to Bequia.

Some more time hanging out, swimming, snorkeling and the week was gone. Too fast!

This time we were able to get her a flight directly from Bequia to St. Lucia and she made it home all in one day.

Jim talked her into having one last beer with him at the airport. It was 9:30 in the morning. Oh well, it was 5:00 somewhere!

Which island next time Natalie?

Bequia Bound

2011-02-24T07:21:00.000-05:00

Sorry for the lapse in updating the blog. Internet connections do not come as easily as they do in Grenada.

Yes, you read correctly. We finally left Grenada. Did you know that you can actually move your boat from place to place when you don't have that big anchor hanging over the side! Who knew!

We left Grenada on February 2nd and headed north. It felt great to be sailing again.

Chatham Bay, Union Island was a welcome respite after the hustle and bustle of Grenada. Clean, clear water, turtles and fish and only a few other boats.

Here's Jim giving the anchor a check while enjoying a swim.

With no time to waste it was up-anchor early the next morning and off to Bequia. Our weather window was short and we needed to keep moving if we were going to make it to St. Lucia to meet our niece by February 13th. Bequia was bustling at this time of year. This picture of the anchorage was taken from the balcony of the Gingerbread Hotel.

This is why we love the Grenadines. We are anchored in about 8 feet of crystal clear water in Admiralty Bay. The snorkeling is always good here (octopus, eels, puffer fish, lizard fish, angel fish, trunk fish, etc) and we looked forward to doing more while we waited for the weather to improve for our sail to St. Lucia.

Wining, Dining and Having Fun!

2011-01-24T13:28:00.002-05:00

Whew, we thought things were supposed to wind down after New Years.

Not in Prickly Bay, Grenada where the fun continues.

There continues to be live music at De Big Fish with special dinner nights featuring pig roasts or paella. Whisper Cove had a great night of live music and tapas. Of course we could just say no and stay home but who can resist the temptation. Add to that a great group of friends and we are having lots of fun!

Kim and Rikky invited us to their home overlooking Prickly Bay for a pot luck dinner.

The theme was "bring food that is from where you come from." Our group hailed from Trinidad, England, Jersey (Channel Islands), Canada and the States (Louisiana, Texas, Iowa and Wisconsin). The meal included enchiladas, ribs, gumbo, beef roast with potatoes, Yorkshire pudding and trifle for dessert. When you think of Milwaukee, you think Beer, Brats and Cheese. We couldn't find any Wisconsin brew but we did find Wisconsin sausages and a good assortment of cheese.

That's Jessie pleading with Greg to drop just a little please!

Captain Jack saying, "Throw a little my way!"

Thanks to our hosts for a great time!

The Grenada National Museum in St. George's showcases local entertainment every Friday night.

We attended this past Friday and were treated to steel pan music, poetry reading, guitar playing and the most amazing group of drummers.

The face painting was beautiful, the music incredible.

If you think all we do is play...

...here are some of the projects we've tackled since being in Grenada:

Replaced the VHF radio and antenna, masthead light, wind indicator, Skymate system and cabin light that were all fried in the lightening strike. Replaced a faulty cabin fan, electrical panel light and bilge pump float switch. Repaired our bimini. Installed a new cord to power our GPS. Oiled the interior teak. Scrubbed the boat bottom numerous times! Last week we took apart the winches to clean and grease them for another year. That's the definition of cruising:

Boat Maintenance in Exotic Locations!

It's a New Year!

2011-01-06T15:07:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year Everyone!

I know we are a few days late with our best wishes but it's been a busy holiday season in Grenada.

We are exhausted!

In the weeks around Christmas and New Years we were out listening to music, eating great food and celebrating with friends. There is so much to do here!

We've been listening to jazz, blues, rock, reggae and a Christmas concert. Here's Doc Adams leading a jam session on Boxing Day. More then 25 locals and cruisers showed up to perform.

All the music was great, all the events a lot of fun!

So what's in store for Merengue and her crew in the new year?

Well, for the first time in over 4 years we don't have any plans.

None, nada, zip!

Even in paradise you have to do mundane things like go the dentist and I have appointments that will keep us in Grenada until mid-February. Then we'll see. No deadlines to meet, no schedule to keep.

That is kind of the point of this lifestyle, isn't it?

'Tis the Season

2010-12-22T10:16:00.000-05:00

It's Christmas in the Caribbean!

Christmas carols have been playing in the stores since early November, light displays adorn the businesses and holiday events are taking place around the islands.

Santa loves the Caribbean and he can ditch the heavy red suit.

HoHoHo becomes YoHoHo and a bottle of rum!

We're glad to see that our home state is well represented in the local supermarkets.

Check out the gift packs of Wisconsin cheese and sausage complete with 'You cheddar Not Pout, Crackers Toasting on an Open Fire and Tis the Sausage."

A wreath to hang on the bow has become a tradition on Merengue.

Making Bailey pose in embarrassing ways is another tradition!

Home for the Holidays!

Wherever you spend the holiday, we hope it's a good one.

Merry Christmas from Grenada!

Papillon Sails Away

2010-12-19T11:55:00.000-05:00

Last time we were saying goodbye to The Dunstan Family on the S/V Orchid. Here we are enjoying pizza and ice cream at the Tiki Bar.

When cruisers arrive or leave Grenada they announce themselves on the VHF radio cruiser's net. Alexander and Nicolas did one better when they left and read a poem. We just received a copy and thought we would share it with you. Merengue received a mention!

I'm afraid to say it's time to go. Will we be back? I don't believe so.

The med is calling, the Pacific too.

There are just so many places, so many things to do.

But it's been a wonderful chapter in the Orchid crew's life.

We've made so many friends here on this Island of Spice.

Silver Heels III as they took us for a run. (I'm sure they said a hash was supposed to be fun...)

Beachhouse's movies have kept the kids entertained.

Their search and rescue operations returned the Lilly crew safe.

Bocci at the Sandbar with Merengue was fun.

I think it's just an excuse though for Jim to drink Rum.

Papillon are great friends, they're dependable and true.

They don't much like computers, but fortunately we do.

Kamaloha, Xicale, Magnum and Free Spirit,

If there was an honor role of good yachties, they'd all be in it.

It's amazing to find so many in such a short time.

At least boats move so we need not leave them behind.

(Ha! 8 and 9 year olds have figured Jim out!)

This week it was Colin and Sandy's turn (S/V Papillon).

They are headed to the ABC's, Cartegena, the San Blas Islands, Panama and then down through the Pacific to Australia. They have a great adventure ahead of them!

It's hard to say goodbye to the good friends we've made along the way. It's the down-side to this transient lifestyle.

The crews of Merengue and Papillon will stay in touch and hopefully connect again. Who knows? We've always wanted to visit Australia and with Orchid and Papillon living there we have twice the incentive!

Fair Winds Colin and Sandy!

(for all you boat enthusiasts out there Papillon is a South African built Monte Carlo 43)

Fun with Orchid

2010-12-14T12:41:00.001-05:00

Much of our time lately has been spent with friends, trying to fit in dinners and excursions before they head off to destinations north and west. Matthew, Rachel, Alexander and Nicholas of the S/V Orchid came back to Prickly Bay to visit with all their friends before heading north through the islands. Alexander and Nicholas received an early Christmas present, a Tinker sailing dinghy and I was looking forward to a ride.

Alexander picked me up for a cruise around Prickly Bay.

Now this is sailing!

When the wind died, Nicholas offered us tow.

No Wind! Time to put some muscle into it!

Later Alexander stopped over to plant some seeds with Jim. Both Alexander and Nicholas have been fascinated by the plants growing on Merengue (basil, cayenne peppers and a lemon tree all started from seeds). They want to have a farm back in Australia when they grow up. Here's Alexander selecting the seeds.....

......and planting them in the jelly-jars that Jim had filled with potting soil. I know we'll be checking in with Alexander to see how things are growing.

There were many other fun events like dinners on Orchid and Merengue, lunch in town and bocce ball on the beach but we were having too much fun to stop and take pictures.

Alas, all good things must come to an end. Orchid and crew sailed off a week ago to visit the islands up the chain. They plan on crossing the Atlantic to spend some time in the Mediterranean before heading back through the Caribbean on their way back to Australia.

Rachel, Matthew, Alexander and Nicolas - we are not saying goodbye, just see you later! Miss you!

Carnival Ladies 2011 Calendar

2010-12-07T08:05:00.000-05:00

Some of the most popular pictures on the Merengue blog are those that Jim takes at Carnival. With that in mind, he has put together a calendar of the beautiful ladies of carnival, and they are Beautiful! Are you looking for that last minute Christmas gift or maybe a gift for yourself? 2011 calendars are available at http://www.cafepress.com/Merengue.

An American Thanksgiving in Grenada

2010-11-27T08:04:00.002-05:00

Thursday was our 5th Thanksgiving away from our home port of Milwaukee. We've been in 4 different countries in those 5 years and have celebrated with friends from our cruising family. We've spent Thanksgiving in Beaufort, N.C., Puerto Rico, Grenada (2 times) and last year we were sailing from Bequia to St. Lucia. With the exception of last year when we were sailing, we've always enjoyed a traditional feast. Last year was probably tuna salad!

Kim and Ricky at De Big Fish hosted a cruisers pot luck at their restaurant. The restaurant sits in the north corner of Prickly Bay and is a favorite of the yachties.

It's also where we leave our dinghy when we go shopping so it's a great place for a cold beer after the hot walk to town. For the Thanksgiving dinner, De Big Fish staff cooked a turkey and two hams and the cruisers brought all the side dishes and desserts.

John (S/V Silver Seas) carving the ham.

Everyone rushed to get in line for the food. There were more than 20 side dishes and almost as many desserts. Everything was delicious.

More then 40 people from all around the world gathered for the celebration.

The captain eagerly awaiting the turkey and ham. He even snitched a piece of ham while John was carving but because I failed to get a picture he denies it!

Lloyd and Val (S/V Puddle Jumper) who are from Toronto, Canada.

Colin and Sandy (S/V Papillon), our South African but more recently from New Zealand and Australia friends.

Yani (S/V Magus)

Colin decided he wasn't going to let that last scoop of potatoes with blue cheese go to waste.

Many thanks to our friends at De Big Fish for giving us a memorable Thanksgiving.

You are the best!

A Hashing We Will Go!

2010-11-24T09:19:00.000-05:00

Long-time followers of this blog know that Jim and I did a bit of hashing during our first season in Grenada. We still have the scars to prove it! After several hashes, one of which I considered good, I gave it up.

I developed rules related to hashing.

Rule #1: Never, ever do another hash.

Rule #2: if wavering, see rule #1.

So it was a great surprise when I decided that I wanted to hash last weekend.

(Someone grab some smelling salts and get my friend Renee up off of the floor)

Of course, it rained hard during the day. It always seems to rain hard to insure a nice, muddy trail. This was a moonlight hash and those have to be easy to so that no one gets lost in the rain forest or falls off of a cliff in the dark. Even better, this one was starting at the Tiki Bar, right here in Prickly Bay. Very convenient! Was destiny calling me? The sky looked ominous when we headed out around 5:30 p.m. I don't think we'll see that full moon tonight.

A nice surprise at the Tiki Bar. This is Lincus who we met hashing 2 years ago.

The walkers route turned out to be just what I was hoping for, a nice hike on the roads above Prickly Bay. Yes, it did rain on us but the temperatures were cool and comfortable. The walk was about 4 miles with a few steep hills to insure a good workout.

Back at the Tiki Bar, wet but feeling good.

The 3 for 10EC Caribs (about $1.25 U.S. each) never tasted better!

Will I do another one? You'll have to wait until the next full-moon to see.

What We've Been Up To

2010-11-02T14:26:00.000-04:00

The boat repairs from our lightening strike are progressing. Some of it has been easy, others a little more difficult. The anemometer (wind direction/speed) that we had is no longer available so we purchased a different model. Of course they are never the same shape or size so now Jim is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole. The VHF radio we want is ordered and should arrive in a few weeks. And so on, and so on....

Here are just a few of the fried instruments we took off and replaced.

Owen from Enza Marine did the repairs at the top of the mast. He spent most of the day in the bosun's chair...

... but remained ever cheerful.

Remember, when you think you've got it bad, there is always someone who has it worse. This small, uninhabited boat just sunk one day. It is owned by a Grenadian and kept on a mooring in Prickly Bay. We don't know how the leak happened but one day it was floating and the next day..... glug! Divers attempted to re-float it with an airbag. They had it part way up when the airbag ruptured and the boat sank again. It kind of puts our repairs in perspective, doesn't it.

October 13th was our 31st wedding anniversary and we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at BB's Crabback. That's a painting of chef BB in the corner of the photo with the restaurant behind.

The restaurant is very casual with a great view across the Carenage toward Grand Anse Beach, Port Louis Marina and St. George's. The food is anything but ordinary!

For starters we had the signature dish Crab backs (left) and spicy Salt fish Fritters.

Our main course was a spicy, chicken dish, curried goat (easily the best we've ever tasted) and a side of pumpkin fritters. When BB learned we were celebrating our anniversary he treated us to ice cream served with a passion fruit and rum sauce. Delicious!

We don't treat ourselves to fine-dining very often opting instead for the less expensive, local cuisine like rotis or chicken served with rice and peas and provision ( a sample of starches such as breadfruit, pumpkin, squash, dasheen, etc). I'm sure we'll treat ourselves to BB's Crabback again.

The thing that has been frustrating about our 2 months in Grenada is that Jim and I have been sick about half of that time. The day before Natalie came to visit I came down with a flu bug. Luckily it only lasted 48 hours and I was feeling good when she arrived. Unfortunately, I gave it to Jim who was sick for her first 2 days here. Then several weeks later we both became very sick. We thought we might have Dengue Fever, a mosquito-born illness that has been showing up throughout the Caribbean. We had flu-like symptoms; high fever, head and body-aches but then we developed very bad coughs. Maybe we had bronchitis, we still don't know. We wondered if the neighboring boats could hear us coughing and we thought about hanging up our quarantine flag to warn everyone to stay away! We ran a fever for a week and it took another week for us to get our energy back. We were miserable. Friends checked on us and picked up groceries when we needed something. Then after recovering for a couple of weeks I caught a cold! I don't think I've had a cold since I left the States 4 years ago! Guess my immune system was not fully recovered. And in the spirit of sharing, I've now given the cold to Jim. That's 3 illnesses in 2 months times 2 people. Sheesh! So the blog has suffered along with our social life but we have managed to get in a few outings between illnesses.

Our Sunday routine this year has been to join Matt and Karen (S/V Where II) at the Sandbar on Calabash Beach for a game of Bocce Ball. It's the Aussie's vs the Americans!

You have to love a sport that you can play with a rum punch in your hand.

The crew of another Aussie boat S/V Orchid joined us for a game. That's Alexander, Nicholas, Matthew and Rachel.

Matt and Jim buying refreshments from the happy crew at the Sandbar. That's P on the right who makes a great rum punch and supplies me with the Packer scores.

Another Sunday, another match. Karen and Matt talking with Christine and Guy (S/V Princess of Tides).

On Friday nights, the town of Gouyave holds a fish festival. They block off two streets and vendors cook fresh fish and lobster as well as a wide variety of side dishes. It's always fun and great eating. We headed out with the Orchid family and Colin and Sandy (S/V Papillon). It did rain on us but it couldn't dampen the fun.

At one point we asked someone to take a photo of our group. We ended up with a great shot of our shoes! Ooops, guess I forgot to tell you about the red-eye delay with that camera. Next shot and he cut Rachel out of the picture.

We finally ended up with this picture of the happy, although wet crew.

Here's one of the vendors cooking over a grill that is made out of an old wheel rim. We are always amazed at the ingenuity. This is a big batch of lambi (conch) chowder. The chowder wasn't quite ready when we took this picture and Jim forgot to go back later. Guess we'll have to go back again.

Hurricane Tomas

2010-10-30T13:20:00.000-04:00

There is good news and bad news. First the bad news. Tomas is officially a hurricane. The good news is that it is moving north of Grenada but that can hardly be considered good news for the islands of St. Vincent and St. Lucia as it passes between the islands. Hopefully it won't grow in intensity and will move through quickly with little damage. The winds at the center of the storm are currently 75 mph and the eye of the storm is currently 112 miles from St. George's, Grenada.

Here in Grenada Prickley Bay is calm and the wind, when there is any, is coming from the northwest. Forecasts are for it to keep changing directions until it blows from the NE tonight and E-SE tomorrow. We are expecting about 20-25 knots of wind. The government told workers to stay home today due to the tropical storm. They were anticipating heavy rain and the resulting flooding and we still may have some of that overnight. But overall we got lucky. Mother Nature decided to give us treats, not tricks this Halloween.

Tropical Storm Tomas

2010-10-29T19:32:00.002-04:00

Here's what Prickley Bay looked like just before sunset today. More clouds were developing but the sun broke through and lit up the shoreline and the boats at anchor.

The tropical wave to the east of Grenada has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Tomas and could reach hurricane strength. We are expecting tropical storm strength winds in Grenada currently predicted to reach 55 knots.

We decided to stay in Prickley Bay. Our anchor is well set, we let out extra chain and we've tied down anything that might move on the deck. Nothing to do now but wait and watch the weather reports. Will Tomas gather strength quickly and hit us hard? Will Tomas veer farther north and skirt the north edge of Grenada? We'll just have to wait it out. Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Trinidad to Dominica.

A comment was left on our last blog posting regarding my comment that we were getting this weather with only 2 days left in hurricane season. The comment pointed out that hurricane season technically goes through November. That's true. It also technically starts in June but here in the southern Caribbean cruisers consider hurricane season to be July through October. Most insurance companies will only require their policy holders to be south of 12 degrees north latitude until November 1st. Many cruisers already started heading north in the past week or so. I hope they have all found a safe harbor to tuck themselves in to.

Tropical Storm Tomas

Projected path of Tomas

Storm Watch in Grenada

2010-10-29T08:44:00.000-04:00

With only 2 days left in hurricane season we are on a storm watch in Grenada. A very large tropical wave to the east of us is showing a 80% chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next 48 hours. The tropical wave is the large, red circle at the bottom of the following image.

There is a large amount of rain showing in the satelite image.

Wind is forcast to be 25-30 knots on Saturday.

Of the 4 projections, one has the storm passing directly over Grenada. The others show it passing to the north.

This is not the biggest storm we've ever been through but it certainly has the potential to grow and drop a lot of rain as it passes. We're keeping a close eye on this one. This morning we are off to the supermarket to stock up for the weekend as we won't be going anywhere for a few days!

Reminiscing with Songbird

2010-10-11T14:54:00.000-04:00

How about doing some reminiscing with us?

Our friends Pat and Carol on the S/V Songbird put together a CD with photos and a video of some of the great times we've spent together. We sailed together for several months back in 2008 when we were all making our first trip through the islands. Many of the photos were taken then when we hiked on Saba and celebrated my birthday on St. Lucia. Last year we spent the holidays in Antigua and then hooked up again in St. Martin in June. We sailed from St. Martin to St. Lucia together. We have soooo much fun!

So sit back and relax and enjoy a recap of the adventures of Songbird and Merengue. First there is a slide show of some of Pat and Carol's photos. Second, there is a video of Merengue under sail between Bequia and Canouan in the Grenadines back in 2008. Don't forget to turn up the volume as Pat even set them to music.

Blue Water Insurance Update

2010-10-09T08:35:00.000-04:00

Time to give you an update on our communication with and from Blue Water Insurance. Things are looking up. Thank you to our readers who left comments and suggestions on the blog. I guess this topic touches a nerve with many people. One reader sent a letter to Blue Water. I'm sure that helped move things along. Another reader asked for the name of the company that insured the other boat with lightening damage. We'll try to find that our for you. We know it was another European company but don't know the name.

In our last update, we told you how we had sent 2 emails after a month of waiting to hear from Blue Water. No response. So Jim sent one directly to the insurance company in London with a copy to Blue Water. The rep at Blue Water contacted us on October 5th and said that he sent us the approval on September 29th. Hmmmmm?

We never received it. We were checking email everyday anxiously awaiting the approval. So, it either was never sent or its lost in cyberspace! The important thing is the claim is approved!

Now, in the interest of fairness, here are good things about our policy with Blue Water Insurance.

Blue Water is not depreciating our equipment and only providing us with a partial reimbursement. We are receiving replacement value. That is a very good thing especially because we are replacing in the Caribbean where everything costs more. They will pay us now or when the repairs are completed, our choice. If we discover more damage we can notify them and the claim will be reviewed. We do not have to sign off now if we accept the money now. This relieves some anxiety because we have not had the boat surveyed and are concerned that we could discover more damage.

I was a little upset when the customer service rep said in his email; "It appears that you have not initiated the repairs with the questions you are asking?" What!!! His email from August said "Send me the repair estimates before you do any repairs so the insurance company can review and determine if they need to assign a surveyor/adjuster to handle this matter." Of course we didn't start the repairs, we hadn't heard back. We were following directions!

Repairs will start in about a week. We are waiting for a wind instrument to arrive as both marine stores were out of stock on the model we want. They also didn't have the VHF radio we need and that will take 5 weeks to get. Jim can install that himself later as the antenna and wiring will be done with the other repairs. So I think we are finally back on the road to recovery.

Hopefully our next blog update will return to showing you the fun things we do accompanied by Jim's beautiful pictures. But hey folks, this is real life on a boat. As I've said before, it ain't all rum punch and sunsets!

Blue Water Insurance Doesn't Help!

2010-10-02T09:35:00.000-04:00

We are Frustrated, Angry, Ticked-Off, Pissed!

Someone tell me why we even bother buying insurance?

Merengue was struck by lightening the night of August 26th. We emailed Blue Water Insurance the next day to notify them of the situation. They responded by sending us a form to fill out and instructions to get 2 estimates on repairs. We were told we shouldn't repair or buy anything until we heard from them. They also told us that the approval process could take about 7-10 days. It has been almost 4 weeks since we submitted the forms. To make matters worse, we sent 2 emails this week to ask for an update on our claim. Blue Water Insurance hasn't even given us the courtesy of a response to either email.

Our policy is now due for renewal. Are they waiting to see what we'll do? We refuse to throw good money after bad. We have been their customer for 4 years and spent thousands of dollars on insurance, more then the repairs will cost. If they aren't going to honor this claim why would they think we would want to renew our coverage with them?

Another boat was also struck by lightening on the same night we were. They called their insurance company the next day and their insurance company called the marine surveyor in Grenada and scheduled an appointment. They didn't have to do the legwork like we did and they are currently repairing their boat. The survey showed they sustained $30,000 dollars in damage! We can't even get Blue Water Insurance to contact us or approve a survey much less make repairs! It's a good thing we are still planning on staying in Grenada for a while. What if this happened while we were moving the boat south? We would be without instruments and our system for obtaining weather reports. This is a safety issue. Does anyone have any suggestions on what we can do? Who's the watchdog for the insurance industry? We need help!

Whisper Cove Marina

2010-09-24T16:13:00.001-04:00

One of the first things we did upon arriving in Grenada was visit our friends Gilles and Marie France.

The four of us became friends when we were in No Name Harbor in Key Biscayne, Florida (2007) before crossing to the Bahamas. Gilles and Marie France decided to make Grenada home and last November they took over Whisper Cove Marina in Clark's Court Bay.

The marina sits in a beautiful, hill-side location. Gilles has improved the landscaping and opened up the view. There is a marina with water and electricity, free WiFi, a restaurant, bar and book exchange. Gilles opened a butcher shop on site and added "the Little Store" where you can pick up meat as well as a few staple items like garlic, onions, tomatoes and wine. What else does a good French chef need!

View from the restaurant towards Hog Island.

Marie France and Jim

Gilles

The chef at work!

Whisper Cove Marina is a wonderful place to enjoy good food and drink.

Gilles and Marie France, we wish you much success.

Bon Appetit everyone!

Natalie

2010-09-19T11:23:00.000-04:00

We just spent a wonderful week with our niece, Natalie. We've never had a guest on board before because, hey, there's hardly room for us. Our friends on Kajun Diva graciously offered to store our junk in one of their cabins so we could clear out the quarter berth for Natalie. Once we emptied it out there was plenty of room, about 6 ft deep with plenty of width, one porthole and a fan for air. Not bad!

The day before Natalie arrived I came down with the flu. I'll spare you the gory details. Luckily it was a 24 hour bug and I was in good shape by the time she arrived. Unfortunately I gave it to Jim who woke up with it her first day here. So Natalie and I headed out on our scheduled island tour without him. Sorry Jim.

We visited waterfalls, Rivers Rum Distillery, a nutmeg processing plant, beaches and saw a lot of the island. It rained the entire day but that didn't slow us down.

My stomach wasn't ready for Rivers Rum so Natalie was on her own in the tasting room. If I'm being perfectly honest, my stomach wouldn't have been ready for that rot-gut even if I hadn't just gotten over the flu! That's nasty stuff!

Brave girl!

Whew! Natalie said it burned for a long time.

The beach at La Sagesse.

Off to watch the Packer game at Bananas restaurant.

Packers 27 - Eagles 20

Go Pack!

Beach day at Grand Anse. I enjoyed watching the Grenadian men hit on Natalie and beg for her phone number to no avail. Hey, you can't blame them for trying.

Rum punch at the beach. Not bad!

Back at Merengue where Natalie figured out the whole float in the water with a beer thing.

She catches on quickly!

Last day in paradise and we couldn't think of a better way to spend it then with a trip to the Aquarium restaurant for more beach time, snorkeling and dinner. This is a gorgeous spot!

We have to confess to a few tears when Natalie headed off in the taxi for the airport. We loved having her visit and look forward to the next time when Jim said she has to come for 2, no that was 4, I think he ended up at 7 weeks.

Postcards from the Grenadines

2010-08-30T10:41:00.001-04:00

We took our time sailing south this year, spending a month in the Grenadines and Sandy Island, Carriacou.

We visited some new places and some old favorites. Hope you enjoy our

Postcards from the Grenadines

Bequia

"The Pool", east-side of Canouan.

Anchored behind the reef.

Squall moving in.

Leaving Canouan

Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau

Waterspout approaching Saltwhistle Bay

Chatham Bay, Union Island

Bollhead Bar, Chatham Bay

Sunset Beach and Eat

Union Island

Clifton Market

Fried Plantains onboard Merengue

Sandy Island, Carriacou

The beach at L'Esterre Bay, Carriacou

The Hardwood Bar

Off the Hook Bar.

Jim with Curtis, the owner.

Sunset over Mabouya, Carriacou

When Lightening Strikes!

2010-08-29T07:42:00.002-04:00

We arrived in Grenada on Wednesday, August 25th and anchored in Saga Cove on the east-side of Hogg Island. It felt good to be here. Really right. Like coming home. Unfortunately the relaxed feeling was short-lived. On Thursday night, at approximately 9:00 p.m. we were struck by lightening!

Before I give you the details you must know that we are O.K. Jim and I were not hurt, Bailey has recovered from her scare and Merengue will be all right. Those are the things that are most important. Those are the things we really care about. Even the crab that has been living in our cockpit drain for the last 2 months made it through alright.

Earlier in the evening we had seen lots of lightening far to the east of us. The rumble of thunder came long after the flash of light. Then everything got very quiet. There was no storm, no wind, mostly clear skies and a light sprinkle of rain. I was in the V-berth reading with Bailey laying at my side. Jim had just gone up to take a shower in our cockpit. Out of nowhere a bolt of lightening struck the top of our mast. The sound was deafening! The lights in the cabin immediately blew out but through the porthole above me I could see a shower of sparks raining down on the deck. I later realized that these were pieces of our VHF antenna that had been blown apart and were falling red-hot and glowing on to the deck and into the water. Jim had a head full of soap so his eyes were closed (probably a good thing) but he could still see an enormous flash of light. He yelled, “What just happened?’’ as I yelled “We’ve been hit!

The people on the boats next to us had just arrived back at their boats from an evening ashore and saw the lightening bolt hit. They said the top of our mast looked like it had fireworks shooting out of it. They also said they saw light and what looked like flames exiting the stern of the boat. They immediately yelled over asking if we were OK and then jumped in their dinghies to come offer assistance. Our friend Colin on S/V Papillon immediately dropped his dinghy in the water and headed over. Within a matter of moments we had 4 people offering to help. Poor Jim is standing in the cockpit stark naked with soap in his eyes! The immediate concern was were we holed? Did we have water coming in anywhere. Jim grabbed a flashlight and started inspecting the bilge. No water coming in. Next was the bilge pump still working? Thankfully, yes. Then we all stood there talking about what we had just experienced and what they had just witnessed. It felt surreal. Once we were sure we weren’t sinking we thanked everyone for their quick assistance and they headed back to their own boats. We’ve said it before but it’s worth repeating. Cruisers are the best part of this lifestyle. We really do look after each other. It was comforting to know they were close by and would be here in an instant if we needed them.

The initial inspection has shown that we lost everything at the top of the mast: masthead anchor light, wind direction/speed indicator and the VHF antenna as well as the VHF radio. Our Skymate satellite system is fried. The two cabin lights that were on at the time blew but it turned out that it was just the bulbs, the light fixtures still work. Anything that was on at the time blew. Amazingly, our computer that was sitting on the table was not affected. Had the lightening hit 10 minutes earlier when Jim was on-line, who knows?

The scarier thought is that Jim could have been seriously hurt. He was in the cockpit, exposed (and not just because he was naked!) and he was wet from his shower. I think we were very, very lucky.

This is actually our second lightening strike. The first occurred many years ago in a boatyard in Milwaukee. Lightening struck the boat next to us blowing 3 holes in the hull. Merengue was hit by a side flash and we had damage to some of our electronics. The current exited our hull through the water intake traveling down our cradle to the ground. The heat was enough to scorch the carpeting that we used to pad the jack-stands. We still don’t know where the current exited this time. Because our neighbors saw a flash of light at the stern that seems to be a possibility but we can’t find any damage.

Here are some interesting statistics for you:

- In the United States the odds of a person getting struck by lightening each year is 1 in 750,000.

- The odds of getting struck by lightening in your lifetime are 1 in 6,250.

- The odds of a person getting struck by lightening 2 times in their lifetime is 1 in 9 million. I don’t know what the odds are for boats but Merengue has been struck twice. I wish we had that kind of luck when we buy a lottery ticket!

It took me two days to get around to writing this up for the blog. After the adrenaline faded and I started to think about what could have happened, well frankly I didn’t have the energy to do it. A little delayed reaction I guess. I felt tired, sluggish and more then a little afraid of what might have happened. But it didn’t. And we are enormously grateful for that.

Storms, Sharks and Sewing

2010-08-17T08:20:00.000-04:00

We know it's been awhile since we last updated the blog. Internet connections have been few and far between lately as we cruise around the Grenadines.

We've been busy sewing a canopy to shade the bow,

running from sharks.....

and dodging waterspouts. It's exhausting work but someone has to do it!

Actually, that was Willena on the S/V Kajun Diva doing the sewing and she did a beautiful job. We now have a great sunshade/rain shield/ rain catcher. It's working great. No more opening and closing the hatch every time it sprinkles. Thanks Willena!

The Grenadines have been beautiful and we hope to share some pictures with you very soon. Today we'll clear customs on Union Island and clear in at Carriacou. We're going to hang out at Sandy Island and do some snorkeling before moving on to Grenada. We can see Grenada in the distance. It's beckoning.

Back in Bequia

2010-08-01T16:07:00.000-04:00

Last Monday we headed out of Rodney Bay, St. Lucia for the 18 mile sail to the Pitons where we would spend the night before heading out on the long sail to Bequia in the Grenadines. We've seen the Pitons many times now but are still always struck by their beauty. While moored between the Pitons we saw something we've never seen before. I guess you would call it a moonbow, a rainbow at night. It was incredible! The colors were very muted but the arch was definite. Jim tried to get a picture but even on a manual setting his digital camera wouldn't take the picture. It was too confused and didn't know what to focus on in the dark sky. I wish we could show it to you. Another new surprise from Mother Nature!

We said goodbye to Pat and Carol on S/V Songbird who we had been traveling with since St. Martin. They stayed in Rodney Bay awaiting the delivery of a boat part. They also wanted to move in to the marina for a few days to attend to a few boat projects. Can you say air conditioning and cable T.V.? They may never want to leave! We felt like it was time to move further south. The forecast was wrong again. No wind on the windward side of St. Vincent and pouring rain for part of the trip. We arrived in Bequia after dark, too tired and disinterested to even fix dinner. This has been a strange year, certainly very different then last year. We just aren't getting the nice sailing. Things seem too unsettled.

Bequia is a wonderful, quiet haven after the noise and activity in Rodney Bay. I'm glad we moved when we did because since then the weather has been rainy. Everyday brings showers, thunder and lightening. We are currently (along with every other cruiser in the Caribbean) watching the weather reports as a huge tropical wave moves across the eastern Atlantic. It is located about 850 miles SW of the Cape Verde Islands and looks like it will develop into a tropical storm by mid-week. It should pass through the Windward islands well north of us but we wait and watch. Predictions are that this will be hurricane Colin by next weekend. Florida - Heads Up!

Stay safe everyone!

St. Lucia Carnival

2010-07-23T15:27:00.000-04:00

So Many Islands! So Many Carnivals!

This time we are celebrating in St. Lucia.

Waiting for the parade in a downpour. Good thing I brought the umbrella. I was planning on using it for shade!

We started watching the parade about a quarter of a mile from the start but the bands weren't too organized and most of the participants were just walking, not really performing. They just weren't into it yet.

St. Lucian's enjoying the party.

Watching the parade from his art gallery.

When the bands pass by the music is deafening, pounding in your chest and ears. This guy will have no hearing left by the end of the parade.

We decided to go farther in on the parade route and eventually things got moving. Maybe they were more warmed up or maybe the alcohol was kicking in but we finally saw some action.

We kind of liked the sailor band. Wonder why?

There were discarded pieces of costumes all along the parade route. You'd think they would try to keep it together until they passed the judges but when you're partying, you just can't worry about those things. The St. Lucia carnival makes 7 for us so far. I wonder if we'll make it to Grenada in time for theirs?

The rain continued to fall for the next few days. During one short break we decided to make a run for it and go get some pizza. Here's Pat and Carol doing a drive-by with the umbrella up. The good news was that we were able to collect enough rain water to fill our tank and jerry cans, about 60 gallons. We like when the water comes to us and we don't have to go get it!

Next stop, Bequia in the Grenadines.

Martinique

2010-07-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

Boy, are we behind on keeping up this blog thing!

Our friend Tim emailed us the other day and wrote, "Where the heck are you? It's been over two weeks since you updated the blog." So here's a quick update on our time in Martinique.

After a great sail from Dominica, the first order of business was get to a restaurant. The French islands have such great food. Here's Pat (S/V Songbird) and Jim enjoying a some cold beer in Le Corsaire restaurant in Anse Mitan. Note to our cruising friends; you can now clear customs at the marina in Anse Mitan.

Anse Mitan is a pretty tourist area with lots of great restaurants and shops. This sign caught our eye. Anyone interested in some tripe in cider? Blegh!

This resort is uniquely Martinique. It and the adjoining beaches are set in a series of small coves with shallow, calm water, perfect for families.

We didn't get in much sightseeing while we were here. You may remember when we visited Martinique in early 2009 the island was on strike. Fort de France was a ghost town with the businesses all closed, no taxis or buses running. This time we found a bustling city of a 120,000 people.

We wandered up along the river to see the fish market and stopped in a few shops along the way.

This beautiful building houses a theater. Then it was off to a mall for some more shopping and lunch before catching the ferry back to Anse Mitan. There would be many more pictures if I had remembered to charge the camera up before we left! We didn't get any other sightseeing trips in. Been there, still didn't do that!

The weather was very unsettled while we were there. This is one of the many storm systems moving through the area one night right at sunset.

But the clouds did provide for some great sunsets.

Next stop, St. Lucia