Murphey and other stories ...

I haven’t written in a long time, this has maybe something to do that we did NOT have an absolute disaster every time we picked up our anchor or left a dock. We have a NICE time for a change. How scary is that? We think Murphy might have been washed over board at one of our wild sailing moments. But saying that would tempt Murphy to swim back to Lucky Star and move in with us again. Frankly, all three of us have decided that we have no space on Lucky Star for Murphy.

The toilet

Before we left Chicago we have read so many “horror” stories of people with toilet problems. We have never had any problems, but our toilet, which is a vacuum toilet never worked. That said, we did not pee in a bucket for the last two years but we used the shower faucet as our water flushing source. Which is not such a problem if you don’t have to MAKE your water, but water on a boat is quite precious so we would rather us the salt water that was supposed to be sucked in via our vacuum toilet seat. We blamed it on the French – the maker of this miracle toilet. We should have blamed it on our ability to install a gasket the right way. Per accident when I cleaned our great toilet the gasket fell off and Chris put it back in – neither of us could remember which way but it looked all right the way he did it. Well after that, our toilet flushed like a hurricane in a bowl. Murphy is gone.

We spent Christmas in Chatham Bay because Bequia was too roly. We had a great dinner with our friends from “Eyes of the World”.
Our menu was as always delightful:
We had a starter of Smoked Salmon Canapés with some lovely Drappier Champagne, an Amuse Bouche of Fried green Mango slices with Balsamic Reduction a salad of Asparagus Cucumber Boat with (stolen) St. Lucian, Piton Limes, and as a main course Magret Duck Brest with Potato Gratin and Crème de Cassis foam. The wine from the “bilge” was a Chateuuneuf-du-Pape Le Vallon Des Grives, 2002. As the Christmas desert we had Mince pie with ginger cream and a De Bortoli Noble One Batrytis Semillon 2000, Australia. So I still think Murphy has left – maybe he hates good food? I hope so…

New Years – also our anniversary; we spent in the Tabago Keys – a National Park with crystal clear water and lots of wild life. We got cooked by “Eyes of the World” for our anniversary. A cooked to perfection Pork Roast with a Prune Armagnac sauce, veggies and Apple pie for desert. Of course with great wine and a magnum Champagne. Murphy hates food.

From the Tabago Keys we sailed to Carriacou where they made some scenes of Pirates of the Caribbean. A lot of smart entrepreneurs try to make a dollar or two by selling fruit and vegetables, try to sell you hand made necklaces and carvings or anything that did not walk fast enough away from them. It was quite a pest and we were happy to leave there. After that we went to Sandy Beach Island which was wonderful. White sand and a great beach. From there we went to Grenada – the first island in more than two month that allowed dogs on land. Now Jackie definitely thinks Murphy left us.
It took a lot of stress from us as well. Since we are traveling with three dogs – two on “Eyes of the World” and Jackie we had to be quite invent full about how and where the girls can go ashore and do what dogs do best. Chase sand crabs and other critters…
Freedom for the dogs!

The last ten days we were at anchor at a small bay in Clarks Court Bay, Grenada. Most of the time is was just us two boats and we had a very relaxing time exploring an island called Hog Island.
WE got a present from a friend of ours before we left. A little book called “Embarrassment of Mangoes”. Which is a book about a couple of cruisers from Canada – they did the same route as we did and spent quite some time in Grenada – at hog island. It was very nice to get here and know things already. Somehow it felt all so familiar. The Canadian couple did this trip in the early nineties and went back to Canada for work two years later. The interesting thing was that when we were in Carriacou, the Canadian couple on their boat “Rosetta” stayed there as well. Unfortunately we did not realize it until we just lifted the anchor to leave. Bu who knows – we might see them again and than we can talk about her book again. Which is, by the way a very cute little read. It seems that Murphy must have stayed with them on their boat for a while as well.

We are staying at True Blue Marina in True Blue Bay, Grenada for two weeks with our friends – after that they will go back up North to go back to work in June. We are off to Venezuela – we are planning on going to the islands first and than see. Who knows – it all depends on what Murphy’s plans are.