Tuesday, December 31, 2019

Happy New Years Eve or "Old Years Night" as it is called here in Grenada

It's New Years Eve and we are sitting in Grenada.

The last post I said we were scheduled to be launched Monday afternoon.  We are used to "island time" and how things don't happen on a tight schedule.  We had a number of things that had to be finished by our 3:30 launch time and we were working on them when the lift operator stopped by to confirm he would be there and have us launched by lunchtime.  They only had two boats to launch and they wanted to be done early.  Soon he was back to let us know the other boat was not ready and he would be right over to get us.  So much for "island time".  The launch went without incident, nothing leaked, the engine started and we moved over to the slip we planned to spend the night in.  I made a trip over to the Customs office to let them know we were now in the water.  Last year we did not notify them and they were displeased.  This year they couldn't seem to care at all.  You never know what rules they are going to enforce.  The next day, Christmas Eve, the rigger came over and did a final tuning of the rigging.  I noticed that the fresh water pump seemed to be cycling more than usual.  A quick check showed that one of our water tanks we had just filled was down a quarter.  We searched everywhere looking for the leak and couldn't find anything.  Cori did a final load of laundry and sent out our float plan.  When traveling to and from Trinidad we have three Trinidad contacts that we notify so they are aware that we are out there and our contacts back home that we notify in case there is a problem and they get contacted.  After that we moved out to a mooring to finish preparations.  The weather forecast was saying the next two days were favorable for the trip to Grenada.

Wednesday, Christmas Day.  It was a quiet night on the mooring and it felt good to be back in the water again feeling Hi Flite gently rolling.  I found where I suspected the water leak was and decided to do a temporary fix.  I bypassed the pump that distributes the water and connected to a foot pump at the galley sink that usually pumps sea water in.  We still had fresh water but only at the galley sink.  By this time we were down a half a tank, thirty gallons.  We made another trip to the yard for a quick shower then went over to check out.  I had asked at Customs what the fee would be for checking out to be sure we had enough TT money.  I had not thought to check with Immigration if they had a fee.  Checking out with Immigration went very smooth and I was glad I had the $200 TT ($30 US) to pay them.  Off to the Customs office we went.  Because it was Christmas Day there was a clerk who didn't normally do that job.  After filling out the paperwork and she calling her supervisors to decide if everything was ok she asked for the fee, $250 TT ($37 US).  It was a holiday and overtime charges were added.  I had checked with Customs and had money for their fee but gave most of it to Immigration.  I was $200 TT short.  She was able to find enough change to break some of our US currency and we were checked out.  A lesson for next time, check with both offices about their fees.  Back on the boat we finished preparations and decided to move over to the fuel dock to top off the water.  We didn't want to leave without our tanks full.  Being a holiday the fuel dock was closed but the water was still turned on.  With the tanks full we cast off for our overnight trip to Grenada.

We make this trip overnight because of the distance and speed we travel, 80 miles at about 5-6 knots.  If we leave during daylight we will arrive after dark,  We try very hard not to arrive after nightfall, too many things can go wrong.  It was 4:00 pm and we raised the sails and headed off.  We have made this run two other times and we agreed that this was the most pleasant of the three.  The winds were out of the east-southeast at about 15 knots and the seas were only about 3-4 feet.  The best conditions we could ask for.  We made the passage without a problem arriving in Grenada just after sunrise.  It had been a cloudless night without a moon and the stars and milky way were as bright as I had ever seen them.  We motored up into Clarks Court Bay and dropped anchor at 8:00 am.  We sorted things out and lay down for a nap.  It had been a long night even with us changing off shift.  The day after Christmas is Boxing Day and is another holiday.  We opted to not check in and waited to do it the next day and avoid the overtime fee.

Friday morning we took the dinghy around to the next bay and checked in.  We were now officially in Grenada.  On the way back to the boat we stopped at Whisper Cove Marina to pick up a loaf of bread.  They have a bakery  and have some of the best fresh loaves of bread I have found.  Once on the boat it was time for a PBJ sandwich on fresh bread.  There is little else that can compare.  Now it was time to get to work.  I had planned out how to troubleshoot the leak problem by disconnecting and plugging one feed line at a time.  I reconnected the pump and started changing connections.  The third line I checked was the culprit.  Fortunately it was a line we do not use.  Several years ago we removed the sink in the V-berth and had left the line to feed a connection into the anchor locker for wash-down purposes.  Since then I had installed a wash-down pump and feed line from the forward water tank and that line was not being used anymore.  It was a simple matter of capping it off at he distribution manifold.  Problem solved.  Since the boat was built around the line it will stay there unused forever.

Saturday we made a run to a marina to buy some gasoline since I needed to charge the batteries after running them down on the crossing.  We are still using more power then the solar and wind generator can put in.  Cori joined her local friends at Hog Island to clean and prepare sea urchins to make what they call "sea eggs" and I spent the day reading and listening to the generator.  Sunday was a quiet day on the boat and we later joined a group of cruisers at the Hog Island beach for a couple of beers.  Monday was spent going to visit a local family that is storing some of our stuff and sorting it out and making arrangements to get it back on the boat.

It's Tuesday, New Years Eve and again I am charging up the batteries.  We have had a couple of overcast days and we are anchored where we don't get the full effect of the wind so the batteries need help.

Here is a little story about our time in Trinidad.  Trinidad and Tobago are an independent country that was a former part of the British Empire.  They have their own currency, the Trinidad/Tobago dollar ($TT).  The exchange rate of one TT  dollar is equal to about fifteen cents US.  Therefore it takes a lot of cash to pay for something.  For example one evening we went out for fish and chips.  The price was $98 TT or $14.50 US.  Needless to say most transactions are made with hundred dollar bills.  They announced that beginning December 14 they were introducing a new one hundred dollar bill.  Now when the US does this it leaves the old bills in circulation and takes them out of circulation as they wear out.  Here in Trinidad they announced that you had 14 days to trade in your old bills.  The old bills were being replaced and after December 31 would not be worth the paper they were printed on.  They become scratch paper.  You can imagine the confusion and the lines at the banks.They also required that you show proof of identification and fill out a form describing how you came to have this money.  There were several stories of people showing up with millions of dollars to trade in but they put a limit on how much you could trade at one time, depending if you were a customer of the bank or not.  It also took several days to get the new bill into the ATMs.  There were stories that car sales had jumped with many instances of being bought with cash.  People with too much cash were looking for ways to get rid of it.  This was all taking place during the Christmas shopping season and several days when the banks were closed for holidays.  Many of the businesses put an early limit on when they would no longer accept the old bills so that they would have time to exchange what they had on hand.  We had to be careful when exchanging money to be sure that we received the new rather then the old.

That's it for now.

We want to wish all of our friends and families a Happy New Year!

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