I Love. Therefore I Am.
- Lauri G. -
Grenada
Sloppy seas, light wind up the bum and engine on - again. We are, I admit, motor sailors. The leg from Tyrrel Bay to St. George's was annoying in distance, about 35 miles. For Aliisa, that is a theoretical travel time of 7 hours. But while in theory there is no difference between theory and practise, in practise there is. In light winds and current against us, our speed was closer to 3kn and that would not see us in port by daylight. Fair enough, we could chill out, arrive whenever and anchor outside. Or we could just brave it and go in, look for a spot in the harbour at night. But I don't like doing that. I want to be in earlier rather than later, have time to tidy up, eat and maybe even check out the shore before retiring. We arrived in the flat calm, hot St. Georges and got a good hold in the small and crowded anchorage. It was early afternoon and we had burned another 6 litres of diesel.
Easter for Grenadidians is a time of drinking booze and smoking a good joint. The massive beach party on the NW coast was well on its way at 3pm with tens of food stalls and bbq's lining the back of the beach. The police presence was high but only to remove any firearms and then leave the crowd alone. We did not dare to stay the night, though after enough rum I'm sure we would have enjoyed ourselves?
Power to the people
Aliisa has 4 x 60W solar panels, though the glass of one of them is shattered and reducing the output. Since life is not all sunshine and the two lap top family needs to keep the tonics cold and the butter firm, we have sometimes struggled with power. Not because we don't have enough, but because we use too much. In line with the global economic recovery plan, we decided that we need to increase our consuming, rather than reduce it. No? Right, to get to the point and cut the crap, we had decided to buy a wind generator. This way we can generate the wind whenever we are becalmed in the middle of the ocean. Our next purchase will be a water maker, which allows us to generate more depth whenever we run aground. No? Sorry. Back to the boring story. After some research, walking the Rodney Bay marina on a windy day and noting the noise levels of each model, we had to cross out all three-bladers.
The bastard wind vane has provided lots of fiddling-exercises since I got it. One day it will steer the boat.
I wanted something that will start trickle charging in low wind speeds, rather than something that will push in heaps of amps but only in stronger winds. This is an important detail on long trade wind passages, where the apparent wind may not be strong and yet every amp is needed day and night. Being a cheap bastard, I also wanted to wire it directly to the batteries and not buy a controller / regulator at all. At the end the obvious choice was Aero4gen. I would like to thank Jonathan in the Island Water World for saving us 1500 US dollars by not putting that D400 in my arms. I would have taken it, but the manager of the shop was just a man. Not a salesman. Honestly, it would have been too powerful and making a dent much too big in our budget. The problem now was to make that Aerogen materialise. I sat and imagined our new toy everyday and after 16 days of heavy imagining, it arrived. It was in my hands! Lesson? Must keep imagining things harder.
It's up. It spins. It works. And it's all confirmed: on our next boat (which will be a lot bigger and which we buy as soon as we have lots of money, yeah?) will be a nice curving array of 6 x 125W solar panels as well as two Aero6gen wind chargers. Both quiet, both clean electricity and enough to satisfy the needs of a modern household - easy! (The Aerogen turned out to be fantastically quiet)
And the 16 days?
Jeesus bloody hell. They were a very long 16 days. I have already been depressed and anxious for more than a month. There's been a lot in my head - not least our decision to miss the Coconut Milk Run this year and not arrive in Australia until 2010. Oh, did I not tell you before? Anyway, for some reason, that decision caused a lot of anxiety and I reversed it many times. Even in Grenada I was still waking up in the mornings with a feeling of just wanting to go home. Something had gotten to me. A combination of things. I like to see everything in life very complex, so my current "condition" was of course very complex too. The world is very complex and so am I. Childhood, character, tendencies, inherited genes, life-situation, insecurity, fear, alcohol, financial concerns, physical health, responsibility for two lives, concerns of all things on board - mechanical, electrical, emotional, metaphysical...- anxiety and depression, concerns about personal safety - particularly on of my wife - (yeah, I'm a pussy and no, we do not and will not carry firearms on board)... all of the above blended together into a complex web of what became Lauri G. today. Things may change tomorrow.
We must make an effort and so we paid the money and had Mr. Alexis aka "Bubbler" take us around the island. It was worth the money, for without him our taste of the spice island would have been pathetically small.
The extreme heat in the windless lagoon of St. George's, the long wait for the wind generator that we had committed ourselves to buying and the ending of the season, approaching of the hurricane season added to my stress. The job list was long and the boat, as well as the skipper needed a good tidy-up. I wandered in town like a zombie, absent minded, leaving my belongings everywhere. I lost my credit card twice, but the good people in Grenada always gave it back. I then gave it to Annina. The weak mind weakens the body too, and finally I landed with a flu. Things were not looking really good, but my mind was fighting back hard. I could do nothing but ask Annina to keep buying grapefruit, lemons and oranges, stay in bed and take the need for a complete rest as seriously as I had started to take life.
It helped. On the fourth day I came alive again, and two weeks later we had our Aerogen installed, wired and all. The ammeter was reaching 10 amps in gusts and Annina stopped hating the wind. A windy anchorage was going to be the best anchorage from now on. I had serviced the wind vane and we were finally ready for Trinidad. Due to extended "goodbyes" with Sy Quartermoon's Amy and Sym - involving the usual partying until dawn - we didn't pull anchor until 6pm. The 80 miles ahead was perfect for an overnighter.
What to do when the lap top is not working? I thought of opening it and removing everything I can, before putting everything back together. It always works! I think the problem was over-heating.
The grace and beauty of the younger days is gone and gravity is acting on the belly more than the head. But the destination and the splash were as certain as ever before.
The moonles night and my hangover prevented me from trying out the wind vane. The wind charger soon grabbed a loose rope from somewhere and got jammed. But at least we were moving and our last surviving autopilot was still up for the job. Why Trinidad? I suppose for nothing, really. I thought I might get some boating stuff, a dinghy lock, outboard service fuel filters etc. which were not available in Grenada at the time. I also thought Trinidad would be the best place to shop for groceries. 1.3 million people, big supermarkets, a multi cultural population.
This month's ranting
Value Added!
Yeah, we live in a value added world. You see, nothing is packaged up anymore. All the packages are broken back to their original components. Gone are the days when you could ask for the price of something and have the answer equal the amount that you have to pay. I'm grown up to think that to be the decent thing to do. If I ask you: "how much are you selling that car for?" and you say: "five grand", to me. Now, when I come to pay for it, are you going to add the cost of the last wash, the value of the fuel in the tank, a fee for pre-setting the radio stations, a cleaning fee, a bit of tax, a little something for your girlfriend who thought you shouldn't have sold it and 50 bucks administration fee. Total 5746.35? Am I going to be pissed off? Yep.
One dollar for the photo, please - said the young dude, pushing a juvenile Armadillo on my face. The price was fully inclusive of tax and all.
Yeah, that's what I mean. I'm pissed of when I'm told the price of anything, if it's not the ACTUAL price. The ACTUAL price means the sum of money that I need to hand over to receive the full ownership of the item or the full reception of the service. ... oh, by the way, the price does not include the packaging, delivery, electricity, water, management wages, donations to charities and what-not? Where do you draw the line? Jeesus fucking Christ! Maybe I'm having a bad day, but as a customer, I'm entitled to have a fucking bad day. No?
Example? Crew's Inn restaurant in Trinidad. "How much is your buffet?" "It's 150TT per person, without tax". "Oh, how much is it with tax? "Oh, sorry, I'm not sure because there is the 15% sales tax and then we add also 10% for service so I would have to get a calculator to find out how much it ends up being". "No, that's alright. We'll have just a beer each, please" What is wrong with expecting the price of an item or service to mean the price that I have to pay for it. Including the chef's wages, rent of the property, management seminars, advertising... and tax?
Here is one reason for not stopping. The show must go on. The cruising yacht is a cruising yacht when it cruises. When it stops, there are forces acting on it in a same way than there are forces then acting on the skipper's psyche. End result? The cruising yacht is no longer a cruising yacht. The skipper no longer a skipper, even though he might still live on board as was the case with this one in St. George's.
In my shriveled up mental stage, the streets of St. George's sometimes appeared too macho and my tolerance for beggars and hustlers had been severely reduced. In reality and in a more positive frame of mind, Grenada was everything but threatening. It was friendly and laid back with people being straight forward and honest. The pace of St. George's was too fast for me though...I needed inner peace and a calm surrounding.
The streets of St. George's were busy and bustling. The town had charm and the people were friendly. The visiting cruise ships sometimes made prices turn from EC to US (nearly triple) and people to greet you in the language of the passengers. (Alles klar?, asked the lady in the markets on the day two large German ships were in)
Nice farewell party, Amy! We found Sym on the beach. He was still going strong and partying with his mp3 player but finally, around midday, he was transported back for a "little rest". I Love ya guys so much!
