NEW YEAR STARTS WITH SURGERY

May 2009 fill :
Your home with Joy,
Your heart with Love, and
Your life with Laughter


We sure missed our family and friends at home this holiday season. We put aside our usual traditions except for hanging our string of 12v lights.

We did get together with our special cruising friends enjoying each others company on Christmas Day having a pot luck dinner.


Kathy & Marie France

Gervais & Kerry

Jim , Tom, Gervais

Marie France, Gilles and Wendy

Sorry, pictures of Manon and Yvon are too dark.

I have been admiring all the Calabash bowls here in Grenada and Trinidad. I did manage to find a Calabash and wanted to try my hand at carving.
The Calabash is a gourd and grows on trees. I read on the internet it is easiest to carve your designs first and then cut the Calabash in half. Carving with a kitchen seratted knife was hard on the wrist. Next time I think I will try a dremel drill.

I used a hack saw blade to cut the Calabash in half. Kathy on Bellagio called just as I was sawing to tell me the inside is quite poisonous. So on with the gloves. The insides in fact looked the marshmallow and was easy to scoop out.

We now have two new bowls.

New Years Eve morning Randy checks the weather and we decide we should head over to Clarks Court Bay as we need to be at the Marina by the 4th of January. The seas are forcasted to hit 11 feet with winds possibly up to 30 knots. So within an hour we're packed up and on our way.

Our first night we anchored off the privately owned Calivigny Island . The architecture is gorgeous.

Shortly after anchoring we have new neighbours.We watch as the bow deck rises and a dinghy is unloaded. In fact the yacht has the dinghy and a beautiful classic run about which ferries the owners to the island for New Years Eve Celebrations.

We enjoyed exploring the Phare Bleue Bay to our East. There is a new Marina Yacht Club Resort. The Marina is particularly unique with the presence of the historic light house ship, Vastra Banken. The marina washrooms, showers, ships historic museum are on the lower level with a restaurant on top which happened to be closed today.

On shore there is another restaurant/bar where we enjoyed a "cool one".

Gorgeous view from restaurant.

Hog Island is to our West.

We decide not to venture any further as our dinghy is dying a slow death.

We’re enjoying our “French Connection” Company with Marie France and Gilles spoiling us; picking us up in their very large dinghy.

Celebrating New Years Day with our French Friends.

Whisper Cove has a small marina with a restaurant where we can get free wi-fi. A bonus; they make a good hamburger.

The winds are hitting their predicted 30knots and the seas are up to 11 feet so we are getting hit with lots of rain and huge swell in the bay.

We've moved into Clarks Court Bay Marina none too soon as the swells this past four days have made it very difficult to sleep. We are constantly awoken throughout the night with rain splashing on our faces; closing up the hatch and then of coarse boiling in the stiffling heat; so we wake up again to open the hatch to get some air only to have the rain start again. I know, quit the complaining we could be at home surrounded in the white stuff!!

A special THANK YOU to Gilles & Marie-France, Yvon, and Gervais & Manon (Our French Connection) for helping us get to the dock and grabbing our lines. Manon has forwarned us we may find her sleeping in the cockpit if the rolly seas continue.....Anytime is fine with us.

And what is this??? "AT RISK" as the book title says???

Randy’s hernia surgery went very well this time. The surgery is done in a private clinic where he has his own private room with three piece bath. He especially likes his blue hat and matching slippers. This time he is being put completely out instead of a local anaesthetic which he had an allergic reation to. He surprized us all by being able to stand up three hours after the surgery, allowing us to come home the same night.

Now he is in for alot of R&R.