Hello family and friends:
Hope this email finds everyone well, happy, and in the Christmas spirit. It’s still tough for us to feel Christmassy without snow, guess we will get used to it. The stores and businesses are all decked out for the season and playing Christmas music. We are looking forward to spending Christmas in Bonaire, I will put up lights and decorations after we arrive there.
Yes, we are still in Grenada, back in Port Louis. We went to Hog Island for a change, with friends Doug and Wendy, when their daughter was here visiting. OPUS joined us there as well. It was great to be out on the water again, it was a two hour trip from St. George’s, to the south tip of Grenada. Hog Island is a quiet little anchorage with a beach and a neat little beach bar. That’s all that is on it at present, although there are plans for a resort to be built, which is kind of sad. We did a lot of swimming and snorkelling, jumping in right from the boat which is very cool. We found some sandy spots to snorkel that had sea urchins everywhere! Jennifer from OPUS gave me some beautiful green and white shells. We bought some HUGE lobsters from a local fishing boat. We got 12 pounds of lobster for $15 EC a pound. We cooked them up on the barbecue and enjoyed, what a nice treat! After almost a week, we headed back to Port Louis, and the dock.
About ten days ago, we began having problems with our refrigeration. The fridge quit completely, but fortunately our freezer still works. I used the cooler up on deck for a fridge, making good use of my Tupperware containers. With the help of another refrigeration guy, and a new part, our fridge and freezer are both working beautifully again!
At this point, the only reason we are still here at the marina and in Grenada, is our water maker. Greg put in the new membrane, and still we were making nothing but salt water. A technician came by, and after a few sweaty hours in the engine room, he figured it was a faulty membrane. They ordered a new one which came in the other day. Greg put it in, with no change whatsoever. Then he called Spectra directly, they emailed us a list of a few things to try. Did them all, no change. We are at our wits end. Greg is going to call them today (California is four hours earlier time wise than us, and we are now looking at getting a rebuilt model with a warranty, and sending them our old one in exchange. Wish us luck!
With a working water maker, we will provision, and head for Bonaire. We are really looking forward to doing some great diving there, it’s supposed to be one of the top spots in the world. About 10 days ago, we completed our last dive, and are now all certified Advanced Open Water Divers! As Brett is 15, he is now certified as an adult, but Dylan still a Junior. We completed the following dives: Deep Dive, Navigation Dive, Naturalist Dive, Wreck Dive and Drift Dive. On the Deep Dive, we dove to 100 feet, with the exception of Dylan, who had to stay at 70 feet. It doesn’t really feel any different, except that it is a lot darker, so less visibility. As you go deeper, you lose colours, losing red first, so our instructor’s shirt turned from red to purple, which was neat to see. She also had a small sponge tied to her slate, and it was all squished up. Makes you realize how important equalizing your ears is!
On the Navigation Dive, we had to use our compasses, and swim 50 feet and come straight back. Then we had to navigate a square. We had measured our fin kicks, so we knew how many fin kicks took us 50 feet, and had to keep track. It was a lot of fun. On the Naturalist Dive, we just looked at all the fish and coral, and wrote down what we saw. I have a two sided slate I keep hooked to my BCD to identify fish. The Wreck Dive was completely awesome! The Veronica was a 100 foot ferry that sunk about 20 years ago. The coral growing all over it was amazing, and we saw tons of fish. We swam into the back of it, and got to see an air pocket that is still there. The air is supposed to smell really bad, so I didn’t take out my regulator, but of course, Dylan did. He said it wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, but it was still pretty stinky. During the Drift Dive we learned, or were suppose to learn, what it feels like to dive in a current. Well, there was no current whatsoever, so it was not much of a dive. But on the Naturalist Dive, which was the dive after, there was. It is really cool to just kind of float along and watch all the coral and fish go by, it is very effortless diving! So, we had a great time and we are very proud of our boys. The knowledge we have gained has helped us all to be more relaxed diving, and more sure of ourselves.
By now, it is high season for tourists again, which means cruise ships. Most days there are cruise ships in the port, sometimes as many as four. On those days we try to stay out of town, because not only are you inundated with tourists, but with locals who think we are from a cruise ship and try to sell you spice necklaces and touristy things!
We have also been busy polishing and spiffing up our ship. Greg stripped and finished the woodwork on the helm station, and we have found a miraculous polishing product called Prism Polish. Greg attacked the binnacle and bell and they look amazing! Even our barbecue looks like new. I have polished our ship’s lamp and lights inside, and the stainless steel sinks and towel racks in the heads look fantastic. There is always something to do, especially on rainy days we try to take advantage and work on projects indoors. The weather has been somewhat rainy, and temperatures between 80 and 90 during the day. I spent three rainy days last week going through all of our cupboards and lockers. I removed everything, vacuumed and scrubbed, and with Greg's help, sorted through the stuff and put it back. While doing this, I made an inventory list of every item, which I am typing on the computer. Each cupboard will be labelled, and we will have a binder with a list of what is in each one. I wanted to do this before we left Charleston, but never got around to it. It was a huge project, I was exhausted, stiff and sore afterwards but I am so glad it is done. When you get to be my age, well.... let's just say my memory sucks! I can put away something one day, and can't remember where I put it the next. So this will be very helpful and will relieve stress considerably, especially when the Captain asks for something, and wants it like NOW : (
After being on the island for almost four months, we finally did an island tour on Saturday. We had the taxi to ourselves, and knew the driver, he had been our taxi driver to and from our dives, which were based out at True Blue Bay, at the south end of the island. It is incredibly lush, we were wowed by the thick green foliage along the road. We drove out to tour a rum distillery. The oldest on the island, it was built in 1785 and still uses all the original equipment. They crush the cane using a giant stone wheel with gears. The juice flows to another part of the building, where fermentation takes place. All the buildings are the original stone. The huge boilers are fed by workers who throw wood in, we felt sorry for them having to do this in 85 degree temperatures! The rum is bottled soon after fermentation, not aged in barrels. We had a taste at the end of the tour and it is wicked stuff! Pure alcohol, 75 per cent, 150 proof. We didn’t buy any, but we did buy a bottle of their Rum Punch, which is only 15 per cent alcohol. Mixed with local spices, the flavour reminds me of mulled wine. We thought it would be nice to have around at Christmas. We had a nice local lunch of king fish at the restaurant there, and then continued on our tour. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go the falls because of a road being out, and the spice plantation had closed at noon. Our driver showed us lots of spice trees along the way though, and we picked fresh nutmeg to take along. The nutmeg grows inside of what looks like an apricot. When the nutmeg is ready, this splits open and the nutmeg is there, covered by red mace. When the mace dries, you grate it, same with the nutmeg inside. We saw cinnamon trees, and got a few pieces of wood to take home. They strip the bark off, and that’s how you get the cinnamon sticks that are curled! We also saw cocoa trees, with huge cocoa beans on them. We stopped to pick fresh guava, and stopped by a stand where we bought and enjoyed fresh bananas. We saw and petted a Mona monkey, he liked the way Greg scratched his back. They are obviously used to tourists! The drive was beautiful, we drove through mountains, and when driving along the river could not believe how incredibly green and lush it was. Bamboo, ferns, and vines growing over everything, it was like something out of a story book. It was a great day, and we were glad we got to see all of Grenada!
We befriended three guys from Denmark on a 62 ft. Swan sailboat called Privateer. A couple of days ago they asked us to come along with them for a day sail, as they wanted to try out their new main sail. It was a perfect day for sailing, and what a boat! They have now left to go north, but we sure had fun with them. When they speak Danish to each other, it reminds us of the Swedish chef from Sesame Street! Finn, the owner of the boat, adopted Dylan and gave him all kinds of great lures and stuff for fishing.
Most of our friends have left Port Louis for points north. We said goodbye to our friends OPUS in Hog Island. We just got an email from them, they are now in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. Lucy and Richard from Montreal are still here, and Doug and Wendy are over at Hog Island for a bit, then they will provision and head north as well. We had a goodbye party on their boat before we left. Wendy and I drank the bottle of champagne we gave her for her birthday, and we all had big headaches the next day! We seem to be the only ones heading west. Our trip to Bonaire will take about 2-1/2 days. After much deliberation, we have decided to do the trip on one shot. The islands north of Venezuela, as well as Venezuela itself, are not very safe for cruisers. We would probably be fine, but we figure why tempt fate, so we are going to by-pass them and go straight to Bonaire. We will have the wind and current behind us for a change, so it should be a good, quick trip. We hope to be there by Christmas.
We will email again before leaving here. We look forward to hearing from you, we love your emails and photos. We miss you all very much but are having the time of our lives!
Lots of love, the Dutch Dreamers
