I get asked all the time, “so what are your plans?“, and the question is always innocuous, dirt dweller society creeping in, even sailors sometimes slip up and ask. Us ocean rats know though, we cannot have plans out here, mother nature just laughs and laughs when we make plans, the best we can do is have intentions. Last blog I said it was my intention to do A… B … C…. and as usual my intentions were pretty meaningless.
Go with the flow and let the adventure find you
Personally I think this blog is sort of funny or ironic in light of how I ended my last blog, with my spoken intents. How my last ten days has worked out has so little of my intentions or previous plans in them, I am the leaf floating along the ocean going with the flow.
Sailing Solo
I did set sail from Egmount bay as intended but a day later than intended, as the weather was rough on that Monday. Scheduled a sail around on Monday, mother nature did not agree, I ended up sailing on Tuesday when Mother allowed me to. My intentions again irrelevant to mother nature.
intentions vs. reality
The sail around went just lovely. You can CLICK HERE to see the video of that lovely sail on that fine day so I will not lose you in too much reminiscence of times long gone. I realize in my lonely isolation my blogs have been getting longer.
The sail back to Prickly bay went well and I actually did troll a fishing line and actually did not catch anything, moving too slowly. Life was good and I had a lovely day. As I did not intend to stay long I ended up anchoring way out in the crowded bay and on the edge of the channel. Two day here then I intended to sail around to St. George’s bay Thursday for my VISA renewal.
New Friends
It was the day of my arrival (Tuesday Oct 12th) and I was over to visit my boat parents for social contact upon my arrival. The weather was lovely as usual and I had just finished a happy easy sail to get there.
Under the current covid restrictions on freedom here in Grenada social visits are still forbidden but how long can I be expected to maintain my isolation? Most cruisers were visiting friends by now, I was not the only rebel around.
As I was visiting my boat Parents they had a neighbour stop in to visit them as well. It was a french girl, around my age, on a nearby boat, who had come to give them some cat food her cat no longer wanted. Cat people help each other out, pet supplies can be hard to find out here. Island people do not think about pets like westerners do.
The new girl, named Virginie, was delightful company and we hit it off right away, same soft kind gentle spirits full of empathy. We exchanged whatsapp numbers and went separate ways.
Well later that Tuesday night Virginie had texted me to invite me to go to YOGA the next morning with her and another cruiser lady named Marie. Marie had a rented car and the two women were doing YOGA 3 days a week together. After meeting me, and seeing how pathetically lonely I was she thought I could use some social contact with other girls. At first I was focused on the missions of my intentions and I almost refused her. Thinking more about it though…. why not go with the flow.
I am not good at YOGA, not very flexible and with my heart condition downward facing dog puts my lights out almost every time… but meh… why not go anyway. I let the adventure find me and I said YES to it.
The next morning I picked up my new female friend at her nearby yacht and we dinghied together to shore. There we met Marie who picked us up in the car and we three girls drove down to the YOGA class. There I met other lovely women and we had a delightful time. I often truly miss the company of other women. Girls make sense to me… boys do not.
From there Marie was like… hey do you need to provision..? let me drive us to the IGA grocery store. There I found the shelves fully stocked with real milk and loaded up like an alcoholic in a liquor store. As we were driving back they said “is there any other errands you need to run… we can help you…”. I said actually yes… I needed to renew my VISA by Friday and I would have to sail around to St. George’s the next day to do so. Right away Marie said why don’t you just keep your yacht there and let me drive you around? it will be so much easier.
Just like that… a door opens and I say yes.
With Friday plans us girls would all drive into “town” for my little errand and a short adventure together. Things just fell into place.
intending to eat wings…
I returned home alone before noon to await my big chance for wings later that day. My big exciting plan was to go to the Prickly bay marina that afternoon (Wednesday Oct 13 2021) for the half price chicken wing Wednesday special I had been dreaming about since the Covid lockdowns began a month earlier. I was soo excited for those wings. I had been dreaming of the wings for a month.
With the Covid curfew and restrictions still in place the food establishments had to close their doors by 5pm to get their employees home before the 6pm curfew. So happy hour at the marine moved from 3-5pm.
I did not eat all day… saving my very small appetite to gorge myself on as many of those delicious wings as I could. I waited around for the rest of the afternoon in the heat and kept myself entertained on my boat. Finally at 3pm when I was about to launch the dinghy to head in to the marina a sudden storm blew in and it began to rain.
Optimistically I thought… well okay… this happens everyday here… just be patient… it never rains for long…. just wait for it to pass soon.
Half an hour later it seemed like it was about to let up. I was dressed and about to launch my dinghy when it began to pour down heavy monsoon type torrential rains. It rained and rained for hours. It rained heavier than I had seen it rain down here in Grenada since I got here 3 months previously.
It rained so much, so hard, and so heavy for exactly the 3 hour window I wanted… intended… strongly desired… to go to the marina for those magnificent wings.
Mother Nature laughed and laughed at my intentions and she said… “ no… no… no Captain Lexi… no wings for you today…” and mother nature always gets her way.
I cursed my terrible luck and opened a can of soup for my meal that day.
VISA renewal
On the Friday morning, as planned I picked up Virginie again and we dinghied to the marina for Marie to pick us up again. We drove into St. George’s that morning and the girls had both already renewed VISA here several times before so they knew where to go. I was so grateful I did not have to drive here, the roads rules are difficult for me here.
Governments always want to keep what they do a big secret but I snuck in a few pictures for you anyway. The main ministry office here is a nice and modern building full of government workers as you might see anywhere in the world.
I was grateful Virginie came inside with me as the process is confusing for me. I am generally government stupid and bureaucratically retarded on the best of days. Go here to these unmarked doors… “just know” to go over there and get some forms to fill out… then “just know” to go to that window over there to submit them and begin to wait for a receipt… “then just know” to go outside and around to the back of the building to the basement to pay and get a receipt… “then just know” to go back around and upstairs to the main building to submit the receipt to a different window to “just know” to sit and wait an hour and half for your name to be called.
I realize to the government workers everywhere who have been doing these stupid jobs for years, same thing day in and day out, everything is obvious to them. They treat you like an idiot for not knowing, what to them, is so obvious… but for me… this is a first time… and none of it was obvious. If I was alone to figure out this maze I would have cried with frustration for sure. Later I hugged Virginie and thanked her so much for her help.
Everything went fine. I was wrong though about an earlier blog about Grenada being cheaper than Antigua. It seems, in Grenada for your first 3 months the customs and immigration fee is only like $20ec. … but after 3 months you have to pay the $50ec per month port fee… PLUS an additional $75ec per month immigration fee. Really you are just paying to keep these nicely dressed government employees well paid to shuffle papers.
But basically it costs $125ec per month to be in Grenada and only $100ec per month to be in Antigua. So I was wrong… Antigua is cheaper than Grenada to visit. Except Covid tests in Grenada are now $50usd and in Antigua, as far as I know, they are still charging $200usd for the same test. Grenada lets you enter with a Vax card and test upon arrival. Antigua still makes you test before you come, be vaccinated, AND PAY THEM their $200usd to test again upon arrival. Soo… cheaper government fees does not mean cheaper in total to visit.
but I am good here until the middle of January now
Adventure in “town”
It was before 11am when we arrived in there and after 1pm by the time we left. The girls knew the shopping in town and wanted to bring me along to run a few errands with them. I was happy for the opportunity to explore with new friends and I had a little mission of my own.
St. George’s was a very interesting place and historic old town. With my own personal tour guides the girls lead me up and down all kinds of confusing streets and alleys to find the little shops they needed.
I did go back there a few days later with Virginie and a camera to make a YouTube video of the place for you guys. You can CLICK HERE to see that video to join us to explore the place. Interesting place and interesting people. Since you can go watch the video to get a sense of the place I will not bore you with too many words on the subject here.
Basically the girls lead me around to a few fabric shops where I was able to buy a beige canvas material to reupholster my back cockpit cushion. A task that has been on the to-do list for a few months. Now trying hard to sell WildChild with the broker I thought it would be a good time for sprucing up projects.
The girls also got their errands done and after an hour or so wandering around we began to head back to the car parked up the hill somewhere.
As we were making our retreat from the hustle and bustle of the town center it was mid afternoon and the other girls were hungry. They knew of this little indian food vendor who made and sold wonderful Samosas and Roti. It was cheap too.
The vendor took our order and told us to just wait ten minutes and she would make them fresh for us. So, not wanting to wait in the sun, we retreated across the road to sit in the shade of the adjacent buildings on the sidewalk.
Empathy and Compassion
Here I should caution any islanders who might be reading this to stop reading. I am about to be pretty harshly critical of part of your culture, I warn you… you will not like this next part.
As we are sitting just on the curb at the edge of the sidewalk waiting there is a dog watching us from a distance. The brown dog is mangy, skinny, and in rough physical condition. It watches us 3 white ladies from a distance for a few minutes before it makes its approach to us. All of us girl are just bleeding with tender compassion and dripping with empathy for the poor animal.
Even emotionally dim men will admit it’s a hard life for animals down in these tropical islands. Island people… are severely lacking in empathy for animals.
The animals know it.
The animals develop a racist attitude from their experiences over time. Dogs and cats in the tropics are afraid of black and brown people down here. I have seen it personally on a dozen different islands. The animals do learn though that white people do have kindness and compassion in their souls. They can feel it.
This dog watched us from a distance, carefully and slowly walked its way clear around the passing black people and came over to us for love. How could we not feel bad for this poor starving injured wounded animal…? A lifetime of neglect from the thousands of locals around him the dog was so skinny its ribs were clearly visible thru its very thin skin. Its fur coat was filthy. Its body was covered in open sores.
The poor dogs right ear had recently been injured in a fight with another street dog, there were chunks of flesh missing and an open bleeding hole.
Tears begin to trickle down my cheeks. I am shocked, paralyzed with horror. I have been trapped down here in the Caribbean with these heartless savages for years now, this is not the first suffering animal I have encountered here, but still I am so moved by my own compassion and empathy for this poor creature.
The locals around are watching us as though we are idiot children, stupid westerners for giving a shit about a stupid and lowly animal. They clearly know that animals do not deserve love or compassion, they truly believe in their culture that animals are just objects and things without feelings intelligence or able to suffer. Locals are completely immune to the suffering of animals down here.
Of course us white girls are soft and gentle and kind to the delicate suffering dog. I try to give it water from my hydration pack. Virginie buys the dog a Samosa and we carefully hand feed the starving animal. I am very gentle petting the dog and speaking soft loving words to it.
The locals are now gathering around pointing at the stupid white girls being nice to the filthy wretched animal. They think our compassion is a joke. One of the local black men yells at us to tell us they call the dog “Trump“, like named it after Donald Trump, both pathetic he said.
This subject burns me up
In Canada all domesticated animals are someone’s responsibility. Cruelty to animals is a crime punishable by fines and jail time. Because we are a civilized society. Because Canadians are intelligent and well educated. Because we have read science books like WHEN ELEPHANTS WEEP (that you should click here and read yourself) and we have been following the science to know that animals are also sentient beings quite capable of suffering and having emotions and intelligence. We know that humans are also only animals (only slightly more evolved than elephants) and if we deserve compassion so too do animals. Empathy is a higher order intelligence that the local black island people have not evolved to yet.
It’s sickening
Think about this, their ancestors only 200 years ago were also considered animals and were treated just as they now treat dogs and cats down here. White people evolved beyond this savage ignorance but island people have not. The local black population is Sooo RACIST and they think white people are the “bad people”. They act and think now as white people did 200 years ago. We evolved, they are still catching up, it shows most in the way they treat the “lesser” creatures they have power over, just as the white man did to them 200 years ago.
The locals mocked us for feeding the starving dog
They find our empathy amusing
The dogs down here develop a racist attitude and dislike of black people for a reason. Even the dogs and cats can tell the difference between civilized humans and uncivilized ones and it is distressingly along colour lines.
Cats and dogs in Canada are not racist because all Canadians, of all colours, have some amount of empathy and compassion. Our society would never tolerate this kind of animal suffering as they do down here.
It is hard to be a highly educated, intelligent, emotionally sensitive, spoiled Canadian girl out here.
I have to keep a lid on my empathy lest I explode into the well of infinite sadness.
I have been having nightmares again since this encounter.
I like dogs more than I like people
Hot Tropical Boat Life
The exciting news is we are now past the peak of summer down here. In the last two weeks I have noticed a difference in the daytime high temperature. August and September it was above body temperature everyday. Now it is usually just 1 degree below body temperature. Also it has been windy as heck lately, which is good for cooling off.
The wind makes such a difference.
Interesting side story though. Last week as I was sitting in the cockpit doing the bright work on my cockpit coamings I was listening to the music on the boat radio down below in the cabinet. The sound begins to fade away into this weird buzzing sound. I put down the paint brush go below to figure out what has gone wrong.
The radio running in the cabinet, in a sealed box basically, with one wall the outside blue hull in direct sunlight, has gotten so hot, it is about to catch fire. I have a degree in Electronics engineering as well, I will save you all the exciting technical details, but sometimes when transistors and amplifier circuits are drawing current and get hotter the electrical resistance goes down, and they start to draw more and more current. It is called thermal run away and will begin to escalate until either something catches fire or the fuse gives up.
Super dangerous.
That’s how hot it gets down here in the summer.
interesting huh….
Trapped by Wind
My original intention was only to stay in Prickly bay for two days then be moved around to the leeward side of the island for a change of scenery.
The new friends and reality that evolved has demolished my “plans” and I am still in here 10 days later.
I decided to wait for the Wednesday night chicken wing special at the marina a few days ago. I did get there on time, they were open, it did not rain. Finally so close to heavenly delight. The marina stopped doing chicken wing Wednesdays. No special anymore. You could only buy 30 wings for full price or none. I split an order with my Brazilian friends but the wings sucked.
Sigh… lots of craving and desire for no relief… story of my life huh.
I waited in here too long to be able to leave. It has been very windy for the last week and I have added my Sentinel anchor and put out extra chain to hold me thru the strong gusts. I have had my anchor drag alarm on all week and have been woken up by alarm warning several times during strong gusts. It is not the my anchors have dragged, they have not, but when the strong winds pull the chain tight, and sometimes the GPS fix is not so accurate, it puts me outside of my “zone”.
Prickly bay is extremely rolly. For the sailors reading this you know exactly what this means. rolly means on the beam, boat rocking side to side. My dirt dweller readers have probably never experienced this though. Have faith when I tell you it can be SUPER ANNOYING.
Usually a yacht at anchor is facing directly into the wind, which is also usually the cause and source of the waves. When you are anchored in the lee of some land mass it blocks out most of the ocean swell and the little waves that do hit you are on the bow and go along the axis of the boat.
However, the thing about Grenada, is that all the cruiser anchorages are along the southern shores of the island. This presents a weird problem for us all.
Now I am a sailor, and even more I am an ocean sailing yacht captain, which implies a certain amount of toughness and immunity to the motion of the ocean. Normally I hardly even feel it. It seldom bothers me. But… for the last week it has been awful.
WildChild is a skinny girl, makes her fast as a race boat.
But when the ocean swell is almost a half meter tall, only 5 meters apart, and hitting her on the beam, it is fuckin horrible.
Now there are things we can do to mitigate this. Personally I like to rig up a Y using the spinnaker guy line to the stern of the yacht and hold myself sideways to me anchor chain. The problem is, and this is my fault, I am anchored beside a boat that keeps setting out a stern hook to hold them perpendicular to the wind and facing the roll. The problem with this is that they do not swing with the rest of us as the wind changes direction.
So if I were to turn WildChild here and now sideways to the wind using the Y technique, I will slam into my neighbours eventually. I do not want to, or have room to also throw a stern anchor here either. It is 36 feet deep here so to throw a strong stern anchor I would need to be putting out at least 120 feet of line on it.
Also the big risk my neighbours are taking, is that in the night, when it sometimes gets very gusty, if it gets up over 30 knots… and they have pinned their yacht beam on to the wind… those force loads can cause dragging or damage. Its an okay technique in less than 20 knots of wind… it gets risky in over 30 knots of wind.
A risk I do not want to take. I am alone, if shit goes bad fast it is hard for me to handle alone in the night.
My Sentinel anchor systems has held me firm in the strong gusty winds, keeps the yacht pointed into the wind, and is easy to deal with if severe gusts cause dragging. This week I have been tolerating the roll.
I have no idea where I will go next.
I will not even be so foolish as to try to give you my future intentions in this blog.
Next Blog I will just tell you how it went.
Cheers Sailors and sailing fans…
Wild Captain Lexi
. I tried to keep this short 🙁