I started broadcasting on the net in July. But now I realize that the Facebook pages and other info is controlled by a bunch of old cruomgends. Hyocricracy is their goal.
I will no longer support the net until cruisers take control.

I have 90% of the V-berth repacked. Still have the last few items to go in. This time it is packed based on my estimate for needing access. This is working out well so far. We are going for pizza night at Whisper Cover and hopefully the boys will behave. Did two load of laundry, charged batts, added oil to the connection that are frozen on the antenna and put up the Bow cover to keep rain out of the front hatches. I hope now I don't have to get up a night to close those hatches…. Looking good so far. Got a delivery of beer and rum today. I have to go shopping on Friday On Thursday I'll go to North Yacht Shop and see if they have the boat parts I need.
I went to Taffy's last night for the music and had fun, drank too much and smoke a little, overall a good night with BBQ chicken for dinner there. I went to CC Marina for the market and picked up some fresh fruit today.

Cinco has resumed attacking Jupiter this week. This morning he latched onto Jupiters leg and wouldn't let up even though Jupiter was yelping. I had to pop him on the nose to get him to release Jupiter and sent him to the back room. I then bandaged Jupiter to stop the bleeding. Cinco is confined to the aft cabin for now. After 13 years together, Cinco is now attacking Jupiter for no reason. Jupiter walks past him and he snaps and snarls at him. I think Cinco may have to be classified as a vicious dog now. He did this in St. Martin for a couple weeks but after a few corrections, he quit. He just started this again this week, but he has become more aggressive against Jupiter. We have a Vet appointment soon, I'll have to discuss it with the Vet. I cannot live on the boat with one dog confined to the aft-cabin and another in the main cabin. Choose between two dogs that you have loved for 13 years… now you know why I have tears.
Cinco and I had a long discussion today, but he wouldn't give me any kisses tough he gave me some good hugs. On Monday I'll let him out of his confinement and see what happens between he and Jupiter.
Later today we had another discussion and I got lots of kisses. We have a vet appointment next week, so we will see if there is a medical cause for his bad behavior. Fingers Crossed cause you only get one free "bite."
Daddy is drinking Rum early today.

Water maker is running today, we haven't had significant rain in a while. I'm reading the news on Dominica. There is a relief effort here in Grenada to load boats that will be heading up there in the next few days. This island was destroyed by a CAT5 hurricane earlier this week and there is very little left. Every tree stripped almost every roof top destroyed. This is a small island country that relies of agriculture exports and tourism. There is no more agriculture and the rain forest that attract the tourist have been shredded. Pray for them, but they need more than prayers - do what you can to help, they need everything.
The Lesser Antilles have never been hit by CAT5 hurricanes in recorded history, this year two of these storm have hit and destroyed most of the northern islands. Vote for politician that believe in science and the impact CO2 is having on the global environment! Governments are to manage resources, yet we fail to manage CO2 emissions (thanks Big Oil and Big Coal - drill baby drill, burn baby burn - makes you rich while destroying the world). If you want to see how extensive the air pollution is go to Hong Kong when the wind is from the North - it is not much different than the reports of London in the coal burning days.

CAT5 hurricane is still mucking with our winds and seas down here in Grenada. CALABUIG drifted over the bar as the tide went out in northwest winds. This is a 100ft sailboat and she is sitting on the bar, waiting for high tide to float her back. Divers when on her just an hour ago to check the rudder and keel. They left so I assume she is okay. Her stern is about 1 foot above the waterline at low tide. She should be fine once the high tide comes in this afternoon. The waves are crazy and the white caps on the reefs are huge just outside of the bay. We have a steady short chop of waves coming in from the South, but the wind is also from the South so the boat is pointed straight into the waves which is comfortable, not rolley. Looks like Dominica was destroyed, Guadeloupe was damaged and St. Croix is next. Most of the Leeward Islands have been destroyed this year.

Not much else going on today.

Here is the sequence for constructing the pot of goodies for Oil Down. First the pot is lined with bread fruit:



Then the meats that take a while to cook are added (in this case Turtle and Lambis)
Then herbs and spices are added

Then bananas, dashine, and more bread fruit

Looking pretty Yummy eh?

More veggies on top before the next layer

Chicken, pork, salt fish and then more herbs and onions, bananas and bread fruit

Now comes the seafood, ochre, carrots and more dashine.

All in the pot before the final topping


Callalou is then put on top the help seal in the steam with coconut milk and turmeric spread on top

Then on to the fire, once it is hot dumplings are added and then she simmers for a couple hours.

Yummy Stuff!!! This was our second Oil Down on Hog Island. I don't know how you could make a small pot of this stuff. Feeds 30 to 40 people and it is rich and yummy.

Yeh, we went to Whisper Cove and I purchased two veal chops with bone-in. This afternoon we went to Hog Island for a coast guard briefing where I asked lots of questions. This evening I cooked the veal medium rare to rare and after eating the chops the dogs each got one of the bones. They have been chewing on them non-stop since they got them. Chances are I'll have to hear them chewing on bones all night long… Oh well, It is Jupiter's Birthday. I'll live with it and love it all the same.

At 4AM you could hear the thunder approaching. By 5AM the sky were filled with lighting and the winds started to blow out of the south. Well that woke me up. Some of the strikes were near, but I don't think any boats were hit. The rain poured for about 20 minutes and then it passed and the winds clocked back to the ESE. A second smaller squall hit at about 7:15AM. It has been raining on and off (mostly on) for a couple of days.
Planning puppy baths today after I touch up their hair cuts. I also have to service the little generator today and begin repacking the V-berth (that will take a while cause I want to rearrange how it is setup for storage).

They don't like it and neither do I, but today was hair cut day… Cinco was a little more patient with me, and Jupiter was great, he only sat down twice when he didn't like what I was doing. The cockpit is full of puppy hair. Ugh. This afternoon we are going to go swimming and then tonight we are going to "rub-a-dub-dub-in-the-tub." They will hate that as well, but it is needed to get the last trimming off of them. Daddy hair cut is tomorrow once I recover from the puppies hair cuts.
I've seen pictures of bitter-end yacht club and Nanney Key… we spend time at both locations and I'm shocked at the damage. There is almost nothing left to Bitter-end and severe damage to Nanney Key. The pictures of St Martin are also very disturbing. We were hoping to go back up there this spring, but there may not be much to go back to this following year.
I was making burritos today and the dogs have decided to have a sit down strike if I don't share. They are sitting in the Galley making it almost impossible for me to prepare my two small burritos… They smell the beans and chili. Once I managed to wrap my burritos, I had to eat outside so they wouldn't drive me crazy. And they just got a fresh batch of puppy jambalaya after our swim so it's not like these dogs are starving!

My Batteries haven't been fully charged since Jan. of this year. So now I'm on my second day of charging them using the Batt Charger and a small generator. I hope that today I will get them fully charged and balanced. I had a problem last week and this week in that a Cell alarm went of indicating that one of the cells was not in spec for the voltage being provided. I came really close to charging them last week, but not close enough to get them to balance. So last night I ran the charger for 14 hours but still didn't get them up to charge. Today I'll run for 8 hours (my guess) to get them up to charge. I should do this every month but I haven't in the past cause my generator is dead. In July I got a gasoline powered generator that puts out about 1600Watts. I'll post more info once they start to top-balance.
Well, really close to top balancing. We are within .1Volts of that but the generator ran out of Gas. I'll see how this goes for the next couple of days. I'll get more Gas on Wednesday.
Rainy day here in Grenada.

While the rest of the world is hit by CAT 4 hurricanes we are doing the mundane things of life: laundry, doggie hair cuts, and charging batteries.
No rain today, YEH, but laundry is really stinky and will soak overnight…. Hopefully there will be no rain on Sunday :)

Tonight is the Cajun vs Creole cook off for Gumbo. The results were good, everyone loved the gumbo and we stayed up late eating and drinking. The puppies are sleeping-in after their fun night including drinks on Flip Flops with the crew of TARDIS.
Here are a couple pictures of the gathering. Sorry no food pictures.

It looks like the storm is going to slam Barbuda, St Martin, and the Virgin Islands. To all our friends that may still be up in St. Martin, Stay Safe.
I went grocery shopping today to get the ingredients for a Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. We are going to have a Gumbo cook off on Hog Island Thursday. It's Cajun vs Creole Gumbo… I should win hands down :) But then again, only a few of these folks know what real Gumbo should taste like.

Little Dipper is run by Joan and this little restaurant has the best view I have ever seen in the caribbean.

The view is over Woburn Bay looking towards Hog island where I take the pups for their walks every day. My boat is the black hulled Cutter rigged vessel in the bay.

The food here is great. Joan makes fish, chicken, lambis, or vegetarian… You get what Joan cooks and nothing else. So for my foodie friends here are the pictures.

And the end result (needless to say it was great Lambis):

I think I'll be back to Little Dipper in the future!
Listening to Steely Dan music today to celebrate the death of Becker. A big loss for the music world.

We had a gathering at Clarks Court Marina for happy hour and a birthday for Last Tango. This is a nice bar overlooking Woburn Bay. The lighting wasn't the best for the first photo but you have a good view of the bay.


Overall, a good time with cruising friends and kids.
And here is the birthday boy for Last Tango and his wife in the background: