On Friday we left Bonaire to make our way west to Aruba. My friend Andy and his wife Aliza are flying down for a few days of warm weather and sailing on Tahina. We had made the arrangements weeks ago, and were slowed down for repairs and a new computer back in the Grenadines and Grenada This is why we had limited time to stay in Bonaire.

We did manage to stop in Curacao for a quick look. Curacao is much more developed than Bonaire and has a sizable, and growing, population. You could see construction trucks and cranes all over the island. There are many more cars than buses on the roads. They have a huge bridge over the main port entry - big enough for ships to go under. We were enjoying looking, and taking pictures, of the island so much, that we passed the entry to the anchorage called Spanish Water. We ended up having to turn around and motor against wind and waves to get back to it. In our defense, the entry is almost impossible to spot from offshore.

We stopped in Curacao partly because there was a chance to get a new anchor light at the Budget Marine chandlery. I tried to catch a bus to the store, but it didn't show up when expected. I was told it was only 2-3 miles, so I started walking, but fortunately a boater drove up and offered me a ride. It was at least 5 miles.

Earlier in the morning, I went to take a shower in our guest bathroom (so I wouldn't wake Karen). The shower drain pump stopped working. Uh oh! So, I checked out the wiring and found there was 12V going to the pump. So, I removed the pump assuming the pump was bad. While at the Budget Marine, I managed to get a suitable pump replacement (it turns out two spares I had bought back in the US were not the right size). Back at the boat, I spent a few minutes setting up the wiring, and then put in the new pump. Nothing happened - but, I noticed when I pushed on the wiring it would sometimes make a slight noise. Our friends on A Small Nest also came to Curacao on the same day. We invited their kids to come over for Wii and ice cream we had bought. When their father Willem brought them over, he offered to help diagnose the pump problem. We did some testing and found both of the new pumps worked. The problem seemed to be the 12V power wire. It had slightly less voltage than the other wires. I went to pull on the wire to get a closer look, and a 6 inch piece of the wire came right out. On the end was green gunk - the wire was corroded! We had found the problem. We soon had a new power wire in place, and the pump worked perfectly. I'm a bit perturbed about the corrosion though. Good marine wire shouldn't do that, and this wire was put in by the boat builder.

Yesterday, Sunday, we left before dawn and made our way slowly out the Spanish Water entry in the dark. We soon were having a nice downwind sail to the NW along the Curacao coast towards Aruba. It was about 80 miles to the main port of Aruba and we wanted to arrive well before dark. We had a great sail and made good time. There was only a brief period where the winds died down and we ran a motor to keep our speed up. Once we got to Aruba we had a great run in the lee up the coast making 11-12 knots on a beam reach!

We called Aruba Port Control on the radio several minutes before getting to the port. But, they didn't answer until we were entering the harbor. They told us we had to go back to the Barcadera commercial port to clear into customs. So, we turned around and sailed 4 or so miles back. Once there, we found a small ship dock with 5 boats already parked - and no room for Tahina. There was more dock space to the west, but it was behind a fence and the water was shallow. A coast guard boat came by and said we should wait for a boat to leave. We waited for over 30 minutes trying to hold position with the wind. Finally I called the port again. Fortunately, the local marina listened in and told us that although the water was shallow, if we would move in close to the dock on the closer end it would be deep enough. He was right, and we were soon docked. Customs and immigration were speedy and I was in and out almost as fast as I could fill in the forms. That was nice!

We motor-sailed back up to the main port and called the marina. They told us where to dock, but explained they were leaving for the day. So, we tied up ourselves. The ironic part is that the water was even shallower at the dock, and I'm sure we touched sand in the process. As we were arriving, the sound was incredible. It turns out the first Carnival parade was going on at the street next to the marina. But, as we were finishing tying the end of the parade went by and was followed by a series of trucks that picked up all the pedestrian barriers and the parade was gone.

As we were cleaning up and having a late dinner, the Superbowl had started. They had it projected on the side of a nearby hotel, and loud enough we could hear the commentary. But, we enjoyed seeing a taste of good ole US of A. We're glad to be in Aruba with a couple of days to clean up the boat. And, we've now completed a brief visit of the ABCs. I would definitely enjoy being able to spend more time at the other two islands. But, hopefully we'll have a chance to see a lot of Aruba during the next week.

We have been having a wonderful time in Bonaire. This has in-part been due to our having met some nice cruising families on nearby boats. But, the larger factor has been the wonderful island, people, culture, and amenities of Bonaire. Today I'd like to share some of what Karen I have enjoyed here.

Bonaire is part of the Netherlands Antilles. As with many Caribbean islands, the people here have organized and asked their government to allow them to separate politically and form their own self-governance. The Netherlands have come close to agreeing to this, but the approval has been postponed for many months now.

The main languages here are Dutch and English (as they mostly are in the Netherlands). Although, given the close proximity to Venezuela, there are also many who speak Spanish as well. Official currency is either Dutch Gilder or US Dollar. The culture here is very international, and you are likely to hear many other languages as well. Cruise ships also visit the main port every few days, and this of course can greatly impact the local culture (for a few hours). Yesterday the Caribbean Princess arrived and nearly doubled the local population since it carries as many as 3100 passengers!

Kralendijk is the main city, and is the home to the main ship port. Here you will find numerous restaurants and shops that both cater to the cruise ships and many other tourists to Bonaire. The population seems to be increasing quickly now. We spoke to some regular tourists who say there are many signs of growth - new housing developments, condos, and hotels. We rented a car and drove around the island and saw much evidence to support this. Like we saw with French islands like Martinique, there is much evidence of modern regulations and infrastructure. Well-designated roads, trash is well maintained, water seems safe, no evidence of a sewage problem. The island seems to be safe - we felt secure everywhere we went.

The main draw in Bonaire for other tourists is the local diving conditions. The local Bonaire government was smart, and has treated their environment as a precious commodity. They have treated their coastline and off-shore marine environment as a national park. No anchoring is allowed except in very strict locations. All diving activity is monitored and fees are charged which go toward supporting the park service. The result is that even in the main port, the coral life is nearly pristine.

There is a large wind-generation project on the northern coastline under construction. It looks large enough to potentially supply much of the island with electricity. This is a big change from most of the islands of the Caribbean which mostly use diesel/oil to supply power.

We have been diving right off the moorings where Tahina is parked near the main city. Although there are signs of pre-park abuse (tires, bottles, cans, and other trash in the deeper water), the coral reef and marine life is recovering nicely. The water is beautifully caribbean-blue clean with fantastic seeing conditions. There are many other designated diving sites all around the islands here.

It's a shame we need to continue moving west. We would love spending more time in Bonaire. We hope Bonaire controls their growth and, if they are successful in their political changes, that they are able to maintain the infrastructure, environment, and culture they have developed thus far. We have noticed many of the west indies islands (which switched to self-governance many years ago) have experienced many challenges in maintaining the quality of their citizens lives, population control, their environment, and the necessary infrastructure to make self-governance a success.

As mentioned in yesterday's post, we're having a great time here in Bonaire. We have met up with two other boats: Sunboy from Australia, and A Small Nest from Belgium. Both have kids on board, and cruising kids are always a lot of fun.

I've had the VideoRay ROV out two days now and have explored around behind and underneath Tahina. That's been a lot of fun, and I've captured some nice video. I'm working today on copying some of the video taken of the kids swimming around the ROV and giving it to their boats on DVD. It's a shame good Internet is so hard to find in these islands. It makes it impractical to upload video to YouTube. Although, I find the process of making videos very time consuming, so that adds to the difficulty.

Today we hope to rent a car and do an island tour - including the national park of Bonaire which reportedly has some beautiful sights and wildlife. The park has one of the only breeding grounds of pink flamingos in the Caribbean, iguanas, blow-holes on the sea, and interesting vegitation. There's a bay on the southeast side of the island that is supposedly the top wind and kite-surfing destinations in the world. And, we'll do some shopping at a grocery store we heard is good on the other side of the town where we're moored.

Yesterday afternoon, Karen did some repairs on our spray dodger (some of the threads are breaking apart in the UV of the sun). She also repaired the bosun's chair that was damaged slightly while I was up the mast last week putting up the jib sail. (I forgot to tell that story, it was kinda scary at the time - I heard a rip as I was being brought down - it turns out I had left the spinnaker halyard attached to one of the straps of the seat and the halyard was still locked as I was coming down - fortunately it was just a join - not the strap itself).

Depending on weather, we'll leave as early as tomorrow for Curacao. Here are some photos showing the mooring area, the VideoRay ROV we're using (thanks to our partnership with VideoRay), and a shot of Karen working on our spray dodger:

We are having a great time in Bonaire so far! There is great diving conditions right off the back of our boat in front of town here. It goes from 30-250 feet deep within a couple dozen meters to the west of our mooring. Yesterday we drove the ROV and took some video, and we went on a dive as well. Fantastic conditions for diving! We also had some kids, off two other boats we've met (Sunboy from Australia, and A Small Nest from Belgium), come over to play on our Wii. And, we've even gone into town and done some shopping/eating.

Today, I wanted to share some pictures - so I spent the morning processing the last several days. And, here is the GPS track from our passage between Grenada and Bonaire. NOTE: if you visit the album you can see the locations in Google Maps. And, I always recommend viewing the full-sized slideshow for more detail.

First up, we have Google Picasa web album of our passage from Grenada to Bonaire. There was a sailing race regatta going on as we departed Saturday morning. Later you'll see some shots of us sailing under spinnaker, and how fast we were going. And, then what it was like as we arrived at Bonaire:

And, here is an album showing some shots of the underwater scenery behind our boat from our dive yesterday (and one photo of the kids playing Wii on board):

(Pictures will be added when I have a better connection)

This is a long tale describing our two-day adventurous trip from Grenada to Bonaire. We left Grenada on Saturday morning. It was a shame we weren't able to stop in some of the islands of Venezuela like Los Roques. Especially unfortunate because we had hoped to link up with some American friends of ours (Sid and Manuela) who have been staying on their boat (called Paradise) in Venezuela for the past few years. Unfortunately, they were not ready to leave in time for us to link up.

The winds were going to be a bit strong at the start of our passage, but it was all going to be down wind with a following sea as well. We planned to leave after 10 AM so we wouldn't arrive too early in Bonaire. When we left Prickly Bay, a regatta race was under way so we went around the race area. The winds were especially strong (near 30 knots) near the island. It's common for the winds to be accelerated around the ends of the islands. But, once we were a few miles away, they calmed down to around 20.

We had been flying the mainsail only with the stronger winds, but they started slowing down to less than 15 knots by lunch. So, after lunch we raised the spinnaker. Karen and I have only raised this one a few times. It can be challenging at times to manage this sail. But, we raised it without too much difficulty. Because the winds were not real strong, we went ahead and lowered the main. We were soon going 8-9 knots. The winds picked back up and soon we were doing 10-11 knots and surfing on waves up to 15 knots!

We had a nice afternoon sail, but as evening approached we decided to drop the spinnaker in case the winds picked up at night. So, we first had to raise the main going downwind - which we haven't done before. By using the reefing lines, I was able to get the sail between the jacklines and we got it up. We then used that to block the spinnaker's wind. The chute came down ok, but we forgot for a few moments it was best to tied down the chute line and had some difficulty holding on. Then lowering the sail without the bottom portion fly out was a challenge.

Since we were pretty much directly downwind, we had to keep an eye on the wind to make sure we didn't jibe. We had one accidental jibe which makes a huge racket and really shakes the mast.

I turned on the tricolor (with our new LED light bulb) before dark. Karen cooked up a nice meal, and we had dinner. We were still making 8-9+ knots with just the main. I looked up to check on the new light, and it wasn't on! So, I tried turning on and off the switch. No luck. At first I guessed maybe the bulb (which was a bit wobbly when I installed it) was loose. So, I turned on the anchor light to make sure it was still working. Uh oh, it wasn't on either! Now I was really worried. I remember when I went up to install the light module that the locking ring was hard to get to lock while at the top of the mast. But, it seemed pretty firm when I pushed on the module. But, I remembered that jibe and how hard the mast shook... So, I got out a spotlight and the binoculars and looked up at the top of the mast. My worst fears were realized - our entire light was gone off the mast. A quick look around the boat (including the sail cover) showed there was no sign of the light. I imagine that hard jibe slingshotted our light right off the boat. Our light was in Davy Jones' locker. Argh!

To some, this might be funny. But, after I spent weeks looking for those new bulbs, and hours climbing up the mast and custom installing the bulbs (and lets not forget lots of money), the loss of the light was particularly painful. And, now we'll have to buy and install another one! Captain Frank is not a happy camper.

We had a full moon during the night, so the seeing conditions were great. And under mainsail alone we made good speed and a comfortable ride. We did have to jibe a few times to make the direction we wanted. There were several ships in the area, which we had on our AIS and radar.

Sunday morning the weather was great, and I was anxious to get the spinnaker back up. I knew we would go 1.5 knots or more faster. We made another mistake with the spinnaker though. I decided it would be nice to have the spinnaker all rigged up before we dropped the mainsail. So, we got it all ready on the trampoline. We were very careful to get it set up right. Then we thought we'd quickly tack into the wind and drop the mainsail the easy way. The winds were so light going downwind, I forgot they were pretty strong. As I was making the turn into the wind, the spinnaker started to fly off the deck! I immediately turned on the autopilot and grabbed the sail. Some of it had already gone off the side. Karen helped get the sheet out of the water, but the sail was all jumbled up again. We eventually got it back in place and dropped the mainsail while Karen was lying on it. We just learned another obvious lesson about the spinnaker. This time the spinnaker went up very smoothly without incident.

We were so busy with the spinnaker that I completely forgot to call on the SSB to Grace at the time we had picked. So, I got on the SSB and sent them E-mails. We had a wonderful day of weather and sailing. We were making very good speed all day with the true winds 18-22 knots steady. And all afternoon there was not a cloud in the sky. In fact, it was so good we decided to continue with the spinnaker into the night. We were passing Los Roques by dinner time.

We were going to run the generator to recharge the batteries, so after dinner we decided to watch a movie. I had to pause every 10 minutes to check for other boats, and the winds. Things were mostly good except that the wind was starting to come a bit from the ENE instead of due east. This was making it hard to maintain our course due west which we needed to get around another set of islands. After the movie, I realized the winds were picking up a bit too. We were debating taking the spinnaker down and either tacking, or just going to main. But, I was focused on missing those islands. I found if I hand steered I could maintain the west course. So, we pressed on. But, after an hour or so, the winds started picking up more. It got to 25-30 knots true. The boat was flying at about 12-15 knots (sometimes faster).

Now we really needed to get the spinnaker down. And, we knew from past experience this would be challenging with these winds. Not only that, but the autopilot was having a hard time maintaining course on its own. I changed the rudder settings, and the winds eased just a bit. So, I got the autopilot going. First, we needed to get the mainsail up to block the wind. We turned on our bright decklights to help. In these winds, it was challenging, but we eventually got the mainsail up. I had to watch out that I didn't get thrown off while trying to coerce the mainsail up the jacklines.

Next, we got the spinnaker chute lines ready. Karen was on the deck with the lines, and I got ready to release the sheet. I got the mainsail fully out to block the wind. The spinnaker started flopping. I released the sheet, and Karen started pulling the chute down. I ran up to help. We got it down most of the way. But, the bottom portion of the sail was still blowing hard. We quickly got the bottom of the chute tied to the mast (although, my hand almost got caught in the line). Then we attempted to start lowering the spinnaker. For some reason, as we lowered, the winds grabbed the sail and started pulling it out of the chute! Now we had a big part of the sail flying in the wind and trying to go into the water! I quickly re-raised the sail. We were trying to gather the bottom portion to collapse it. It took us many minutes and a LOT of effort. I grabbed the tack and pulled it to the mast and tied it off to help block it. Then we were both lying on the tramp on top of the sail. Somehow, I managed to get back up to the mast (while holding to sail) and quickly dropped the entire chute. With the weight of the chute on top of the sail, it was finally under control! We got the sail into the bag and stowed. This entire operation must have taken well over 90 minutes as it was now 2 AM. We were really tired and a bit bruised. Thank goodness the autopilot did its job! We were still going 10-12 knots with just the mainsail up with these winds. And, during this time we were headed right for those islands (but, they were still 40 miles or so away, so I wasn't worried).

We decided to lower the mainsail and just motor a while until we got around the islands. Karen took the watch while I slept a while. Around 5 AM, I woke up and we raised the jib with a reef, and turned off the motor. Karen went to sleep. The winds eased just a touch to just 20-25 knots. This is still quite strong, and the seas were pretty strong about about 3 meters. But, it was a relatively smooth ride since we were downwind with following seas. We were still making 8+ knots with just the reefed jib. We were soon approaching Bonaire on its southern tip. I saw the lighthouse first, and at dawn I saw land. "Land Ho!" I said to myself quietly (since Karen was sleeping). We were almost to the southern tip when I called Grace and Ascension and told them our position. Grace told us some friends of theirs should be in Bonaire on a boat called Sunboy.

Once around the southern tip, the seas gradually smoothed since we were in the lee of the island. When you've been at sea for several days, you get used to pure clean air. When you approach land, you always notice how much the land (and what people do on it) smell. Yuck! But, soon your mind filters the smell of garbage and other things out - thankfully. We had a nice early morning sail up to the port. By 9:30 we had picked up a mooring and were at rest. We were just tidying up the boat, when a dive boat pulled up right behind us. A couple of scientists told us they had some instruments behind our boat and needed to collect measurements. Wow! I'll have something for the ROV to go look at! We were very tired at this point, so we decided to go catch up on sleep.

So, thus ended our adventurous sailing trip from Grenada to Bonaire. Although we had a few bad things happen (the light, and challenges with the sails), we had a successful passage of nearly 400 nm in less than 48 hours. We're really looking forward to being in one of the most-famed diving sites of the Caribbean - Bonaire!

Yesterday, Friday, we accomplished all the priority tasks we had planned for Grenada. We had to sacrifice a few of the minor tasks in order to accommodate our schedule. But, with a lot of hard work, help from the other cruisers here, and frequent trips to shore with the dinghy, we got it done! So, we're ready for departure.

We're kind of sad to be leaving our new friends already. But, unfortunately, we have to get going or we will miss one of the best dive sites in the Caribbean - Bonaire. We hope to be able to spend at least 3-4 days there. We're hoping to leave either today or tomorrow - depending on the winds/weather.

After getting things cleaned up in the boat mid-evening, I took the dinghy over to talk to the other cruisers about our plans. Ended up at s/v Grace, and the crew from Ascension were visiting there. Grace is also headed west and we may end up at the same island in a few days. We had a really nice chat again about cruising experiences, teaching kids on boats, plastic in the oceans, pollution around the world, and even Patrick O'Bryan books (author of "Master and Commander"). It was amazing listening to Ascension - who have traveled around the world - describe with passion the travesty of pollution they have seen, and the disregard of the local people for the consequences of dumping trash and plastic into the sea. They also described beautiful atolls in the Pacific with trash all over the beaches - these are islands with no people on them!

Below is a summary of some of what we got accomplished yesterday:

We finished re-installing our jib sail. I spent the early morning soaking the jib sheet lines in a bucket of softner to remove salt and stiffness. Karen and I installed a new furling line in the morning, because the old one had some chafe. Thanks again to some help from Gord on Ascension, and help from Karen, we got the new sail up, and I went up the mast to properly affix the special steel halyard we have for our jib and adjust the furling system stopper at the top. We weren't done with all that until about 4 PM because of other parallel tasks.

I picked up a new engine starter battery because the old one was starting to not hold a full charge (and it was suspect because of a problem with our battery system when we first bought Tahina). Although, I had to go back to the store and exchange the new battery because it turned out we needed bolt connectors instead of posts. And it turned out the new one had 1/16th inch larger bolts. But, that wasn't a problem since I bought new butterfly nuts. The local bus didn't hesitate to pick me up with my battery in a rolling crate. I had to pay double-fee for a drop at the boatyard, but that meant it cost me about $2 US. A lot cheaper than a taxi.

We also finally got the custom security bars we had made for our two ventilation hatches. These bars are intended to give us more comfort at night in areas where crime is sometimes reported. The two hatches are quite large and accessible, so making it impossible for someone to just crawl through is a prudent move. We got the idea from another catamaran we met.

Karen got some last minute grocery items to make sure we're ready for a few days with limited grocery supplies. One thing I wanted to mention is that when we went to pay the rigger for the sail work, our credit card got declined. This has been happening to us at least once a month. And, apparently its getting to be an all too common occurrence with boaters traveling down here. I had called and informed the credit card company of our travel plans months ago, and they said they had made a note on our account. But, it keeps happenning. Fortunately, the business owner happened to use Skype, so I was able to make a call to get it cleared up. But, they took nearly 15 minutes to do it and made the business owner late for a lunch appointment. What a pain!

Finally, I wanted to mention that the customs guy I met when clearing out late yesterday is the nicest customs agent I've met in the Caribbean. I mentioned it to the other cruisers, and they all agreed he's the nicest man. So, if you want a positive customs experience, hopefully you'll get this guy if you try Prickly Bay's customs office.

We began our journey in mid-November with our departure from North Carolina, and a seven-day sail to St. Martin. We started moving south towards Grenada within a week with stops along some of our favorite islands of the Caribbean island chain. As we approached the holidays in St. Lucia, we had seen many charter boats, but few cruisers - people who live on their boats and travel extensively. One thing that increased their visibility was the arrival of the ARC - Atlantic Rally for Cruisers: about 300 boats left to cross the Atlantic from Europe and arrived in St. Lucia - mostly arriving in the middle of December. We started seeing several boats flying the banner of the ARC meaning they had made the crossing. But, we weren't meeting many of the cruisers.

Admittedly, we were traveling through the islands more quickly than normal for that time of year. And, the economic conditions have resulted in fewer cruisers plying these waters. But, our previous experiences had caused us to expect we would have met and made friends with more cruisers by the beginning of the new year. We met a couple of boats - like Northfork and Bamboo. And had some good times with them. But, not as many meetings as we expected. Maybe we just weren't sociable enough.

Well, we now are almost overwhelmed with a positive taste of the cruising community. Here in Prickly Bay, Grenada we have met up with at least a dozen boats. And, we really feel like we've finally joined the cruising community. Yesterday was a particularly moving day for us. We found out our furling hardware was completely ready to go first thing in the morning. By noon, we had taken Tahina back to the boatyard and loaded the re-assembled furler and forestay onto the deck. Thanks to help again from the cruising skippers on Djarrka and Ascension, we anchored in the small bay near the boatyard and re-installed the equipment. It was a great feeling having our boat back together (except for the sail which we should get back by mid-day today after its minor repair).

Later in the afternoon, a cruising boat with kids on board was expected to arrive. This boat, called Grace, has 3 kids on board and the owners are from Australia. Like most kid boats, they are very popular with the other cruisers. There was a happy hour scheduled at De Big Fish, the main bar/restaurant with the dinghy dock near the boat yard. So, a number of the cruisers decided to converge there. Karen and I offered to go help take Grace over with our larger dinghy - so they wouldn't have to take down their dinghy after their full day of sailing (they had come down from Bequia and left at 3:30 AM).

Karen and I had a wonderful time immersed amongst these friendly people. And, their helpfulness has been fantastic! Many of these cruisers have traveled thousands of miles together, or met in dozens of ports. Others may have only met once or twice. But, you would never know as it seems just once or twice is enough to form lifelong friendships. In fact, last night it felt very similar to being at a family gathering. The kids from Grace were bright, energetic, and friendly as could be. You should have seen the hugs they gave to the other boaters. Half the evening they were sitting in the laps of their parents or other cruisers. The other half they were running around playing inside and outside the restaurant.

It turns out Grace is headed west also. With about the same schedule as us (at least up to Tahiti). So, we will probably get the chance to spend more time with this family from Australia. Based on first impressions, we are really looking forward to it. And, at the mention of the Wii we have on board, we're likely to be quite popular with the kids.

After only a week here in Prickly Bay, we've made many new friends. Originally we hoped to finish as quickly as possible because of our deadline to meet up with friends who are flying into Aruba. Plus, leaving west from Grenada means we will be sailing in new waters and visiting islands we've never been to before. But, now we almost feel reluctant to depart because we will have to say "Au Revoir" to so many of our new cruising friends. Fortunately, with the arrival of Grace last night, we at least feel we'll have a part of this community coming along with us. And, we certainly will remain in touch with the others via the Internet.

The cruising community is a big part of the wonder and excitement of traveling the world by sailboat. It's really great to feel we are now truly a part of it. Here are some pictures of the last few days - mostly showing the removal and installation of our furling unit and forestay. But, also showing a few shots of the dinner on Tahina (with Djarrka and Ascension visiting), and of the cruisers get-together last night (it really looks like a family outing doesn't it?).

When we discovered on Tuesday we had more repairs to do, we were worried about our schedule for leaving late this week. Fortunately, yesterday we worked with the local rigging shop (called Turbulence at the Spice Island Marine Boat Yard), and they were able to help us off-load the headsail/forestay (we pulled Tahina up to the boatyard dock), and then quickly got the sail off. They hope to have the hardware part done by today (Thursday). The sail repair is a small job, but they can't do it until Friday because of other work in their schedule (there is a regatta starting this weekend, so lots of boats are having their sails repaired). The prices are mostly reasonable, the only sticker shock is the extrusion for the headsail track is pretty expensive. Fortunately, the labor hours will be low - in part due to the fact I'll be able to re-install the headsail with some help from my new cruising friends.

Speaking of which - we invited the crews from Ascension and Djarrka (who helped us on Tuesday with the sail) to come over for dinner. So, Karen and I spent the day cleaning up Tahina (inside and out), and Karen spent all late-afternoon cooking up a mighty feast. Djarrka and Ascension seemed pretty impressed with our comfortable new home. I, of course, had to show off some of my tech toys (VideoRay, cameras, kite rig, etc.), and photography. It turns out both of the crews had been gone so long, they had not even heard of the Wii. So, we gladly gave them a taste of the Wii experience. And naturally, a fair amount of time was spent talking about sailing adventures, problems, and fishing stories.

During the day, we also managed to get laundry done, trash unloaded, and a propane tank filled and put back in place. Today we hope to get more errands run, and in the afternoon pick up the repaired jibsail hardware. If we do that early enough, we hope to re-rig the forestay and hardware so we'll be ready to simply re-install the sail when its done on Friday (tomorrow). We will then be able to leave for Bonaire as soon as the appropriate time/weather window opens.

Yesterday we went to the Fedex place first thing in the morning to pick up the furling unit sent to replace our broken furling drum. We had to take a bus over to St. Georges (the main city in Grenada) to get to Fedex. Once there, the guy asked if I had the proper paperwork - which I did. He then got out the receipt and said unfortunately I would have to go back to Prickly Bay to get customs to fill out a form. Oh great. I started to walk out the door and saw the nearby yacht club - which I knew had a customs office. So, I walked over there and went to customs and explained I had a part arriving. He got me a form, signed off and stamped it, and sent me back. That was easy! So, I went back and paid a small $35 EC fee on my "duty free" part (there's always some kind of fee down here). I happily had the package and headed back to the boat.

I won't go into all the details here. But, with the help of my new friend Gord from Ascension, we started the operation to get the old unit off. We were going to need to take the sail off we thought to lessen the weight so we could get the drum off. So, we re-anchored near the eastern shore of the anchorage. When we unfurled the sail and attempted to lower the sail, it wouldn't come down. That was not a good thing. We looked up and Gord spotted that two of the several pieces of metal that make the "slide" for holding the luff of the sail into the furling unit (called extrusions) were not connected properly. The screws connecting the parts apparently had come out. As a result, the sail luff was getting caught in the now uneven slide, and had been chewed up in the sailing since it had happened. So, we were going to have to take the whole forestay down.

It ended up taking several hours as we puzzled out the best way to get it down. We actually talked to the local marina and boatyards, but neither had a good spot available at the moment to park Tahina so we could use a dock to get the sail down. But, we ultimately decided to do it at anchor, laying it on Tahina's deck, with the help of a dinghy and a third set of hands. Before sunset we had it down on the deck, but still couldn't get the sail off. Looking at the extrusion, it appeared we were going to have to get it replaced/repaired. And, the sail is going to need repairs! Ugh. So, today (Wednesday), I'm going to the sail rigging shop to see if they have the time and parts needed to get this job done quickly.

We need to get out of here by the end of the week or we're going to really have to rush to meet our guests in Aruba on the 9th of February.

I owe a big debt of gratitude (at least lots of drinks and food) to GB of Djarrka and Gord of Ascension.

Yesterday when I posted the photos I took while up Tahina's mast showing boats in the anchorage, I had no idea it would result in our meeting more cruisers in one day than we've met the entire trip so far. One of our regular readers is a guy who sailed 27,000 miles starting in the US, only to stop in Turkey a year or so ago. Chris and his wife KT, on s/v Billabong, had decided to stop their journey on the seas to start a bigger family. Now happily parents of a baby boy, they still keep in touch with the sea by living vicariously through other sailors on the web.

When I posted the photos of the anchorage here in Prickly Bay, Grenada yesterday, Chris stared closely at the boats. He knew some boats he had traveled with before might be in the anchorage. He suspected two of the boats near ours were ones he had traveled with and quickly sent me an E-mail. I pulled out the binoculars to check the names, and it turned out he was right in both cases! One of the boats, a Canadian flagged mono-hull called Ascension, had their dinghy parked behind, so we assumed they were home. So, Karen and I jumped in ours and went over to greet them. I first made a quick copy of the photos onto a USB stick.

You can imagine their surprise when I explained how we had taken pictures on Sunday and posted them on our blog, only to have Chris spot them in the photo! We were instantly invited aboard and began introducing ourselves to one another. We learned they had traveled extensively with Billabong from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, all the way to Turkey. Ascension also has an extensive web site documenting their travels. They were thrilled to get pictures of their boat off the USB stick.

The coincidences got even more uncanny though. Earlier in the morning I had gone to the boatyard to talk to a mechanic about making some bars to cover our two large hatches used for ventilation located between our bows. There have been reports of burglars climbing in through hatches. The mechanic said it was a big coincidence I came in, because I was the second person that day to ask for that. He had not had anyone ask for them in 6 months. Well, can you guess who the other boat was? Yep, Ascension! And we somehow managed to meet them within 2 hours of learning from the mechanic (without his telling us who it was).

The next coincidence was also fateful. Ascension told us there was a meet up going on at a nearby beach in the evening to meet other cruisers in the anchorage. So, at 5:30 we took the dinghy to the beach and got to meet a bunch of cruisers - including those on Djarrka - the other boat Chris recognized. Most of the other boaters were world travelers who have already gone most or all the way around. I was nearly overwhelmed with offers for useful information about our upcoming destinations. And, there was a lot of interest in what Tahina is doing with our web site and photography. Karen and I were both thrilled with getting to meet so many people who share our passion for the cruising life.

The only thing wrong with the day is that the furler never showed up at the marina. It never moved from the Fedex facility all day. One of our cruiser friends suggested it is most likely actually at customs waiting for us to go fill out paperwork and pick it up. Oh wonderful, I could have done that earlier in the day! So, first thing on Tuesday I'll call FedEx and go over if needed.