Are we in a Grenadian Rut?

Here it is Sunday, November 20 and we are still in Grenada, not that that's such a terrible place to be. We got here October 26, and began working on ILENE the next day, planning to sail away November 1. We were the victims of our own excessive ambitions. In fact we launched on November 7, but remained in St David's Harbor until November 14, when we finally sailed about five miles to Prickly Bay, where we have remained until today.  Roger was getting depressed about how slow everything was going here, in addition to being physically sick. But in reality, we are in no worse shape than most of the other boats around here. The fact is that the hot humid tropical summers take their toll on the boat's systems.
     First we had no windlass making it hard to lower and raise the anchor. If we would have let the yard's expert electrician staff do it, it would have been fixed in a day. But it took us a day to get the bolts backed off the studs, turning 1/6 of a turn at a time, times about 100 turns time four studs, and once removed, we still couldn't get the damn thing off until a yard worker smashed at it with a big hammer; Roger can't bring himself to whack away at our boat so mercilessly. The third day was for fixing the rusted bushings and the fourth for re-installation with instructions to give it more lubrication to keep out the rust.
     Then we had no electronic chart or autopilot. I saw a block of six rows of two connections each which looked rusted in a high corner of the big starboard lazarette. How did water get in there, so high, and what to do about it. Herve, the brilliant French electronics expert from Grenada Marine came and saw and replaced: Voila! we have electronic fix and autopilot again. Now it is the VHF radio that doesn't work, though we have two hand held ones that do work. And Friday morning our propane tank ran out of fuel during breakfast. We have an attachment and small cans for campers and attached one and took the big can to be refilled, but that won't be back until Monday.
      Monday we plan to round the SW corner of this island and anchor off its capital, St. Georges. We'll stay and do some touring on Tuesday by visiting the underwater sculpture garden with our fins and snorkels before heading north and east toward home...with one month of our anticipated eight month journey behind us. We have a lot of lovely spots that we visited last winter but in a month or two we will branch off to the west from last years track to visit St. Croix, the Spanish Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico's south coast, The  Dominican Republic's north coast, and then Turks and Caicos, a great route up through the Bahamas and joining the US in Florida for a slow trip up the coast to New York. Planning these trips, not that the schedule is set, is half the fun, but Roger realized that he is missing Bahamian paper charts and up to date cruising guides.  His objective is to select routes of moderate mileage for each passage. Up to date cruising guides are useful to prevent surprises at the end of the day; if you plan to anchor at XYZ Cove but it is now completely filled in with an expensive Marina, it is better to know this before you set off than when you arrive all tired at the end of the day. Columbus didn't have cruising guides but we should not leave home without them.
Photos: Da Big Fish Restaurant, with its dinghy dock in front, masts from the other marina, Spice island marina, behind, and the Blue building to the left as the local Budget Marine store. Live music by night and internet access by day.

 The same, looking out from the restaurant to the dinghy dock, with the coast guard station ahead and the masts way in the background being ILENE's mast and others.

 And here is Da Big Fish's library. Leave one; take one.

     We have socialized with Marti and Danny several times. They live here, except when visiting Arizona from time to time. Danny is a professor and administrator at the Medical College (we invaded Grenada to save its students from a Communist coup during the Reagan years but the school has grown manifold on a new beautiful campus since then.) Marti will be remembered from last winter as the "goat lady", among her many other talents. They live in a home that they are expanding on a ridge overlooking Grand Anse, the big fashionable SE coast beach here. Yesterday we introduced them to Manu and Michelle, of "Teepee," at a lunch at a restaurant perched on the side of the road about 100 feet above Clarke's Court Bay and Hog Island, where Teepee is anchored. The restaurant is called The Little Dipper and has four tables. We six diners filled one of them and were the only diners in the place. The restaurant is operated by Joan, the wife of  "Rock," the taxi driver who "watched" our boat for us this past summer.  A faded article from a cruising magazine listed this place as one of the ten best restaurants in the Caribbean and while this was a bit hyperbolic, the food was wholesome. A very limited menu of broiled lobster, curried lambi (conch) or marinated grilled tuna steaks -- and you can drink beer, non-diet coke or water.  We enjoyed introducing friends to each other, and Manu and Michelle's plans have changed so they will be with us for part of the way north. After lunch a swim in the ocean and then home for dinner, a very calm dry night.
      Roger is eager to get started.