Cruising People

We are heading into our final week(s) here in Grenada. Everyday we have been working on the boat and finishing up final tasks to prepare her for the passage. We have also been trying to get online for the past week but every time something has thwarted our attempts, so we will keep trying and will be posting as we catch any internet signals! We are heading south west hitting La Blanquila, Los Roques, the ABC Islands (Aruba, Bonaire, and Curacao) and eventually to Cartegena, Colombia.

But the plans of sailors are even more prone to change than those of average mice and men. The first leg of our journey will take us on a 30-40hr passage cutting across the southern Caribbean above Venezuela. What is ironic is that we are skirting above Venezuela and heading towards Columbia. What I mean by that is only a few years ago Venezuela was the hot destination point for most cruisers and Columbia was a must miss. However the world never stands still and the recent rise of pirates and political unrest in Venezuela combined with the increasingly calm and stable atmosphere in Columbia is reversing the tide of visiting cruisers. Cartegenea has been especially proactive in trying to create a peaceful atmosphere in order to entice visitors. There will be many stops along the world famous islands along the way and we will be looking for wifi to share the pictures and stories as we go.

While we spend most of the daylight hours working on the boat and occasionally jumping off the side to cool off we have been hanging out on the beach at night listening to the stories of other world travelers and cruisers. What makes travel by boat so unique than any other form is that each boat is its’ own little universe, and the people on them always have such distinct and fascinating stories. Take for example this Italian woman we have met anchored off the beach of Hog Island. She lived in Germany before the wall fell, got drafted in to the “social improvement” plans of the era and ended up being taught how to screen print. “I got out of having to do photography, but eye, they got me and I loved it!” Her and her boyfriend at the time ended up opening a print shop and specialized in the punk-rock scene of Berlin at the time. By the time the wall fell her store was doing well and by the time the tourist showed up her store was doing extremely well. They ended up buying an old tug boat (?) from a nickel-and-dime style magazine on a whim that took them to North Africa on several occasions. One thing led to another, and she ended up selling the business, raising a daughter in England, and ended up in Carique (The Island north of Grenada). Here she ran a beach bar for a little while until all those “lazy people’ who n‘ever buy nothing stay all day” made her sell the bar. While walking around town she happened across this adorable building and fell in love with it. She bought it on site without even going inside and with another Italian friend decided to open a pizzeria. “I learn’t how to cook the day we opened, but the hype was there, the place we made so nice, that we ended up being the best pizzeria in the Caribbean! And I found out I can cook.” This conversation took place on the beach over a course of a couple of beers and I am sure there are many more up her sleeve.

Yesterday John and I went over to the next bay for a English Fish and Chips meal. There were about a dozen or so other sailors from around the world there as well. While we got our plate filled with battered Mahi Mahi, coleslaw, and chips (French fries for us Americans) we settled into a table with our new friends. There is Tony (lady) and Joe, a German and Portuguese couple who own this amazing 94 year old Nova Scotian fishing boat that has been re-rigged to be a sailboat. They are very friendly and are quite hilarious. Between the two of them we figured that they spoke about ten languages! They speak great English but modestly tell us English is their worst one. There was also a Celtic/Welch gentleman at our table called Mich. He is quite the ‘ol salt with a range of stories going back to the second world war. Being a rugged sailor type his stories are both fantastic and colorfully decked out as well. By the end of the evening with the bar’s speakers playing Irish music he got his 67 year old body out of his chair and gulping down the rest of his beer began to dance the jig!

These encounters and swapping of stories is what I love about traveling and meeting new people. One day I hope that the stories that John and I bring back will ignite that spark of imagination and wonderlust into someone else.

There are all types of people anchored near us.

Young and old. Retired, married, divorced, always single, skinny, big, with kids, or with dogs. (Not many with kids and dogs though.) American, Italian, German, Grenadian, French, South African, Brazilian, Swiss, Norwegian, and countless others I have not even met yet. Every boat is different, large, small, expensive, deteriorating, sloops, catamarans, trimarans, schooners. The photo above is of Neil and Rusty. Neil is a gentleman in his late 60s and Rusty is a 13 year old Terrier. They are best friends and partners as Neil gets his boat ready for his first sail…across the Atlantic Ocean alone with Rusty. Rusty is the bay’s favorite mascot, he is a very relaxed dog that smiles and knows his manners on boats better than most sailors. You will often see him and Neil on their dingy racing across the bay, Rusty always on the bow as if he were on lookout.

Though we only have a little more time left here I think we will have our hands full just trying to scratch the surface of potential friends and stories.

Next blog I will write about our extremely cheap and exciting tour of the Island using just the local bus systems! I’ll show you how you too can tour the island, have a large lunch, and a few beers by the beach for only $40. Stay tuned!

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