Hey folks, I don't know whats happened to the blog but I see that the front page is now different and you can't make comments. I'm working on it but it's not going too well.
O.K as you can see we moved from Marin and went to St. Pierre on the north end of Martinique. In 1902 this little village was called the Paris of the Caribbean and the volcano St. Pelee erupted and killed 30,000 people and left 2 alive that was in there basement. In the town every one of the building has at least one wall from the original buildings. So much for your history lesson.
There wasn't that much to see so we left after one day and headed to Dominica, and on the way this 4 foot Mahi Mahi jumped on a blue Rattle Jet and at the same time one quite a bit larger hit a red one. Now it was rough as hell and all I could do was get the one closet to the boat. The one I lost ran just about all the line on the other 6/0. Well maybe next time I'll get the bigger of the 2.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
O.K. folks look close at the green channel marker, it looks like a little green man with his hands on his hips. Just tell me the French don't have a since of humor when they make a marker. Here we are in Martinque at Marin ( Cul de Sac). We always stop in here because you can get anything you need to keep on going.
We left Bequia a few days ago just out of bordom. Been there don that so many times it's getting tiresome.
We had a great sail coming across and I just thought I'd show y'all what we see out the cockpit as we travel.
On the way I hooked a fine sail fish between St Lucia and Martinque, I got 6 tail walkings form him before he got off. Karen & I were both screaming and jumping up and down. O.K I was jumping up and down but Karen was excited also and realy wanted to catch it.
We are getting our Inverter/ Charger worked on. The charger has stopped working with my generator. To start with I thought it was the Genset but today we turned on the the air conditioning and it ran fine so I concluded that it was not the generator but the charger( du )
O.K. that enought info for one day and wy beer is running out and my cigars are on the boat and I'm in the bar so See Y'all Down the Road.
Mike& Karen
Thursday, November 11, 2010
O.K. folks just a supplement to this mornings post. Karen & I had a great sail to Canouan (That's pronounced Can A Jaun for you literary giants) and a good sail back. The island is only 15 miles from here so we made it in 8 hours there and back. We anchored in Charleston Bay and had lunch and since the anchorage was a little Rollie decided to come back to Bequia. We caught absolutely no fish. Next time we go fishing we have decided to go catching instead of fishing to see if that makes a difference. We did buy a nice Red Hind in Canouan of about 2 pounds and it was real good for the evening meal. We will more than likely leave Bequia Sat. or Sun. for St Lucia and look a the damage from Tomas but won't stay very long. O.k. See Y'all Down the Road. Mike & Karen
Hey Y'all, here we sit at the Carriacou Yacht Club ( now I say that with tongue in cheek) there is not o whole lot here in Tyrell Bay. We arrived here Saturday a day behind our friends from South Africa, Ayln & Maurine. We met them in Trinadad and they caught up with us in Grenada. While we were in Carriacou we said hello to some people that we were ask to say hello and to let them know that a friend of theirs has passed away. Now when we went to Hillsborough to pick up a few things we found out that the island has one gas station and 41 Rum Shops. Now to a fellow like me I kind of like the average. We left Carriacou because of our starting batteries decided to just stop and we had to run to Bequia to pay way to much for a new one. But since Bequia is one of my favorite islands. Here you see Karen & I sitting in the Whaleboner Bar that we featured in an early Posting. On the way over here we caught 1 nice Tuna 1 damn Barracuda and I had a Marlin that would not leave one of my lures alone. He hooked up twice but we were sailing at 7.6 Kts. and I could not get the Jib rolled in fast enough to slow down the boat. Today we are going back to Canouan and of course I will be fishing all the way. Well if we remember about a camera we'll take a few more photos on the way over. See Y'all Down the Road. Mike & Karen
Friday, November 5, 2010
Hey Folks, This is just a little note to let you know that we are going to start our march north tomorrow. We are heading to Carriacou, that's just about 40 miles from here and I hope to be able to post some good photos of us catching plenty fish on the way. We have enjoyed this stop over here in Grenada but have seen all we need to. We have met a lot of nice people and hope to keep up with a few of them for they are heading north in a week are so. It looks like everyone here thinks our storm season is over, I'm a little apprehensive to head off at a fast clip so I'll take my time. O.K. See Y'all Down the Road. Mike & Karen
Friday, October 29, 2010
Yesterday was our Halloween party and cricket match. We all drank to much and danced to much into the night. As y'all might guess some of the cruisers take Halloween serious and some of us don't. here are a few of the guys in there costumes just for you to look at. Until the next posting See Y'all Down the Road. Mike & Karen
Monday, October 25, 2010
Hey Y'all, Yesterday we went to the Concord Falls here in Grenada. They are not the biggest falls here but this is the only one that you don't have to hike to them. The 7 Sisters is a 3 hour hike almost straight up. I just don't know if I want to go take a hike just yet. Anyway there was about 25 or so of us and we looked just like a bunch of tourist. Some of us jumped in the water like the children we are and had a good time. The water coming out of those mountains is quite cold by the way, it make for real bad shrinkage. The falls have a couple smaller falls that are within walking distance so I managed to get a couple photos of that also. After about a hour of the falls we went to a new Rum Shop. Now most of you out there call these places beer joints, ice houses, bars and so on. Here they are called Rum Shops. This one was on a back road that if you didn't know where you are going you would never find this place. Usually during one of these opening you have what is called an Oildown, now I don't have any ideal how it came by that name but what it means is you eat all the local foods of that neighborhood, I guess because we had some stuff that I could not name. Well a good time was had by all with plenty beer and rum to drink and I think Karen and I had our share. O.K. that's about all for this post until next time. See Y'all Down the Road Mike & Karen
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
Just a short one for you junkies, if you know my boat Drifter you know she is 43 years old. Now she doesn't look that old but built in 1968 makes her that age. We are anchored next to a vessel that makes Drifter feel like a youngster. Lululua is 80 years old. The boat is all wood of course and looks like it was built last year. The people who own it are just like every other cruiser and that is always working on their boat. We don't call it cruising anymore it is now known as boat maintenance in exotic places.
Here is just a little shot of one of the Mahi Mahi we picked up on the sail from Trinidad. See Y'all Down the Road. Mike& Karen
Monday, October 18, 2010
Well we are out of Trinidad and back in Grenada.The last night we were in Trini Larry through an impromptu BBQ for us and and a few friends that we met at Coral Cove Marina. We had Swordfish that was cooked excellent. A good time was had by all. We managed to get everything fixed that was needed on the boat and it all seems to be working well. As y'all can see by the photos we enjoyed the the party and if you have run to the bottom of the post you will see that Karen and I enjoyed the water.
We will be going to a few water falls while here because Karen has to see every water fall on every island we visit. O.K. until I have something more interesting to post, See Y'all Down the Road Mike & Karen
Friday, October 15, 2010
Just to let everyone know, we are leaving Trinidad tonight and heading for Grenada. If this posts I'll be lucky because the Internet is so slow at the moment. I have been trying to upload photos of our last day here and night that lasted quite long with everyone saying good by and of course you always have a few that say good riddance. OK until Grenada. See Y;ll Down the Road Mike & Karen
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Hello Y'all, Here we are sitting in the marina getting our freezer fixed so we can start putting more than 3 days of food at a time. Anyway while I have a good connection on this computer I'll go ahead and post the photos from Chacachacare ( now if you need to know how to say this island all I can tell you is there are 2 ways). Here goes, Americans say ( catch a canary) everyone else say it correct ( Shocka Ka Sharere) so if you can pronounce that last phrase you have the correct pronouncenation .
Here at the top is a shot from the top of the highest mountain on the island. Karen & I jumped out of the boat at 0900 Hrs. and started up the trail. This damn thing was almost straight up. Two hours later we where back at the boat completly wore out. The say the hike is only 1/2 mile but that's not counting all the twist and turns and the 1/2 mile is straight up.
Anyway we did enjoy the time we were on the island. These are shots of the nunnery with the buzzards on the porch. Now I'm not saying that they weer following us but it did seem to us that everywhere we went there was plenty of these birds around.
The shot above is from the porch of the nunnery and the quarters they slept in, the had plenty of room and a very airy home. Karen is standing in front of the mens quarters and they lived O.K. but were a little cramped, not like the nuns.
Above is the Chapel in the womens quarters which had a lot more room than the men. I guess being run by nuns who happen to be women I can see why.
On the left is the doctors house which is real nice as for as the buildings go.
There was a rumor was that everything was left as it was when the whole island just up and left because they thought it was haunted. i have talked to a few people that was there years ago and claim that there was still dishes and file cabnets,x-ray machines and beds with sheets still on them,we did not see anything. There was plenty of trash and graffiti because the local Trinis think that the water ways and the beaches are there private dump sights.
This is a manned light house on the island and up at the top of that straight up trail that we hiked up. I hope y'all enjoy this rather long post form me . There will not be another for a couple of weeks because we are doing our best to leave Trinidad. The theft of dingies is rampant and now the boats on the hard are being broke into so this is not where we want to be.
See Y,all Down the Road
Mike & Karen
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Just a little tease of whats' to come when I decide to post again. See Y'all Down the Road Mike & Karen
Monday, October 4, 2010
Well here is how we spend our Sundays here in Trinidad, Karen plays Domino's and about 5 PM we start a BBQ. Larry our Master Chef from Cape Town is the instigator of this Sunday get together and a good time is had by all. If you can see the dates on the photos you will see this was on the 18 Th of Sep. Right after this we left to go to another island to see the leper colony. Those photos will be in the next post and since we don't look at the news paper or pay any attention to what day it is except Sunday and we don't care what time it is except weather it's day or night you don't know when the post will be.
See Y'all Down the Road
Mike & Karen
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Just to start off Karen is still alive and well, that may satisfy my skeptic friend in KW. Although she won't run get me a beer at the corner store because it's raining cats and dogs right now. We were put back in the water 2 weeks ago with a new rudder and bottom job and everything is working good. I know the rudder will hold up because I built the damn thing this time and had no Puerto Rican build it. I have a rant to put in the blog this time. This will more than likely be my last time to come to Trinidad because the locals here are so trashy. We have a great anchorage in Scotland Bay, but the locals just trash the place. They show up on the weekends and party quite hardy, but when they leave all the beer bottles and cups and garbage sacks are just left on the beach. this has to be because there is no education in this country. When you take a bus into town on the side of the road is all the garbage that they have in there cars and when you cross a bridge the sacks of garbage are piled up on the banks of the rivers. This is just disgraceful for a people to treat there country like a garbage dump. This morning having coffee on the back deck there was a boat anchored behind us and this young man pored his drink in a cup and just pitched the can in the water, when he finished the drink guess what; he through the cup in after it. No Pride In The Country. OK enough of that. Karen & I are still having a good time, but it's getting time to leave. Before we do we still have a few places to go and now that I have an Internet connection that works the post will be more often. For now the rain has stopped, Karen picked me up 2 beers and that will get me back to the boat so until next time, See y'all down the road Mike & Karen.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
As y'all know we are in the shipyard having another new rudder built. Well we get the new welded frame back today and start to fiberglass it tomorrow. Should have it back in the boat by Friday and back in the water Saturday.
Last month when we were in the US we rented a car to get around in. Well on the 6th. we were going to my brothers house and slowing down with the turn signal on doing about 30 MPH when this 4 wheel drive heavy duty ford truck without slowing down from 55 he plowed into the back of this plastic box and totaled it out. Here are a couple of photos of the results of a ford 3500 truck looks like. Well no one was hurt and the truck driver received the ticket and I was found not at fault.
OK enough about the past. When we get back in the water we are going to the Island of Chacachacare, until 35 years ago the island was a leper colony. In 1975 the people there thought the colony was haunted and they just walked away with out taking anything with them. all the X-Ray equipment and the files and everything else. It should be quite interesting, when we get there I will take plenty of photos so y'all can get an ideal whats it's like.
This was just a short post just to take care of my critics for not posting every day or every 4 to 6 hours.
See Y'all down the Road
Mike & Karen
Thursday, September 2, 2010
OK folks I guess I owe y'all an apology for the length of time between postings but in my defence the Internet is real spotty down here in Trinidad. We left Grenada on the 22 nd. of Aug. and had to motor all the way across the 75 miles because of no wind. We caught a 45 # Mahi Mahi are if you like a dolphin. Boy fresh fish is sure good eating it 2 or 3 hrs. after you catch it. The top photos is the anchorage that we are in, it's called Scotland Bay and it's a great place. On the weekend comes the local Trinis show up in there boat and party pretty hardy. A good time is had by all.
To the left of these next 2 is a resort in one of the bays here in Trinidad. The next is slave quarters. Back in the 1800's they brought in Indian slaves ( Dot not Feather) by the 1900s it kind of back fired on the locals, the Indian slave children have pretty much taken over the government. But I guess everything that goes around, it comes back and bites you in the ass.
This is a plantation next to the quarters, it's been vacant for plenty of years.
Well here is the bad news, when we left St. Lucia on our way to Bequia we had a great sail. We had 18 Kts of wind on a broad reach, I had all 150% jib out Main sail unreefed and doing over 8 1/2 Kts. Boy was I having a good time, until the boat wanted to head up and I took it off auto and grabbed the wheel and turned to . It was then that I felt something wrong. The steering was hard to turn. Well we made Bequai and got settled in, the next day I went under the boat to see if I had picked up something on the rudder. Low and Behold that new rudder I had to have built in Pourto Rico had a nice bend in the rudder post as it come out of the bottom of the boat. Knowing I was going to have to haul out again I wanted to wait until I got here. So Tuesday we pulled the boat out. If you look close you can see the bend, yesterday we peeled the skin off and now I know why. The SOB that built it did not build it the way I told him to and while I was in Brazil he completed the rudder and installed it. Now I get to spend another 4 or 5 thousand, if I could get my hands on the GD !#%&)#! I think they would throw me in jail. I hope we can get back in the water next week because it's hot on dry land.
I will try to keep you informed on what's going on and try to post more often so I don't get anymore hate e-mail from my friend in K.W.