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American Spirit II - Day 434; Our First Full Day in Grenada; We're on Same Time as Florida; & One of Our Whale Shark Pictures Appears in Yachting World's April Issue; Monday, March 16, 2015



One year ago today:



"Day 72; Main Sheet Traveler Car Blew Up; Sunday, March 16, 2014. Rain showers 6:30 AM. What else is new? Rally boat II Audacious 3 miles abeam to starboard. A 49 foot boat. Wind increased to 22 knots. Reefed main and jib. Seas 8-10 feet. Shook reef out of main couple hours later. At 9:15 AM we crossed under transom of II Audacious. Had to double reef main to slow boat down to do so. Not sure who had right-away. AIS alarming - collision. Missed by 100 yards."



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Due to Daylight Savings back home?, the time in Grenada is the same as in Florida. If that's true, then this is the first time in over a year that the time of where we're at and home are the same. Another BIG indication that the circumnavigation is coming to an end.



Heidi first up at 7:00 AM. Joel and I got up at 8:00 AM.



Breakfast at 8:30 AM consists of eggs; bacon; and sausage mixed with potato...for Joel and me. No fruit today. Oops. Heidi had eggs and bacon.



I went to the marina office to check in and pay for our berthing thru March 23. Rally control got us a 50% discount. Thank you Rally control! I also put a $200 deposit down for an internet router, which Joel installed on our boat. No charge to use the router, just a refundable deposit. Cool. A first class marina. After filling out the marina paperwork I walk around behind the marina office to the Custom's/Immigration office. There I fill out more paperwork, including a special form for Heidi because she is flying home and not leaving in a boat. After this we started up the boat's engine to move to our permanent berthing spot. When the engine was warming up I tried to activate he bow thrusters, but they didn't work. However,once under way they did work. Joel thinks that a low battery may have inhibited them from working initially; and that once I got the engine RPM's up the battery charged up enough to work. At any rate, we move to a part of the marina where most of the other Rally boats are. A dingy or tender from the marina helps us grab some bow lines that are underwater; and its also used to 'push' us into place and keep us there. Very cool. We back up to a dock, med-moor style. Once we're in our new berth next to Festina Lente, Joel hooks up our electricity and internet cable.



Next we get together all sheets and personal clothes we want laundered and drop them off at a laundry in the marina. We'd prefer to go to laundry machines and do our own laundry, but that's not an option here. Not sure how expensive the laundry is here. I guess we'll find out when we pick the clothes back up at 4:00 PM today. A quick turnaround.



I lay out some frozen Mahi Mahi for dinner tonight, and put two filet's on a 'thaw plate' that will expedite the unfreezing of the fish. Later I will then add olive oil and seasoning to blacken the fish.



Joel and Heidi than head off to the restaurant to have a light lunch, a beer and do internet there. Heidi tells me later that the internet in the restaurant is slow and lousy. Go figure. While they're there I go to the spa on site to inquire what a haircut costs. I'm told $37.00. That would be a price comparable to what I paid in Hiva Hoa or Nuku Hiva in French Polynesia. Way too expensive. So I grab a taxi, with George is my driver, and tell him to take me into town to get a haircut.



We end up in St. Georges, the capital of Grenada. The streets are very narrow and mostly all one way; we pass thru a tunnel to get there; and the streets are very crowded with cars and people. The people walking around are either all natives of Grenada, who are all black; or white cruise ship passengers. A cruise ship had arrived earlier that morning. In looking at the people from the taxi it becomes quite apparent that the locals all have traits that are Caucasian in origin; especially in the face and hair. Grenada used to be a French, then British colony; and in 1983 was 'rescued' from socialism and Cuban/Russian domination by a United States invasion orchestrated by then President Reagan. Later in the day the streets will be crowded with school children all wearing the same type and color of school uniforms, with slight variations due to which school they go to. The predominant colors are blue and white.



At any rate, back to my hair cut experience. George is taking me where he gets his haircut. We stop along a narrow street and walk into a building with a hallway that is the size of a small tunnel, with no lights in it. Down a few stairs, turning left then right. I wonder if I'm being kidnapped. Finally we end up at a room that has 2 barber chairs in it. A security guard gets into a chair ahead of me, gets a slight trim, then its my turn. As I sit down, the barber takes a roll of toilet paper, rips off about 2 feet worth, then wraps my neck with it. In the US a cloth would be used. I can honestly say that I've never had my neck wrapped in toilet paper before. Never. At any rate, I have George my taxi driver take a picture of me in the chair so I can show it to Joeline, my barber back home, when I return home. The hair cut is conducted exclusively with an electric razor, using different cutting heads. The barber says he's been cutting hair for 32 years. Never once does he take a pair of scissors or a razor to trim any part of my hair. Amazing. I tell him my hair is way too thick and long; and that I haven't had a haircut since St. Helena in the South Atlantic Ocean, 6-7 weeks ago. When I'm home I get a haircut every 3 weeks. When I'm done I give the barber a $20 bill, as the cost of the haircut is $10. He looks at me like I just fell out of a turnip truck. He's not going to have change for a US $20 bill; nor does he have enough local currency change to give me. So I open my wallet and find I have $9 in US money there. He takes that. I tell him I owe him a dollar; and he says forget it. I won't. Tomorrow when my driver George and I return to St. Georges to find SIM cards for our phones, I will stop by the barber and give him his dollar and a tip. Right is right. And by the way, I got my money's worth. If my hair was any shorter I'd be confused for a US Marine recruit.



I also stop at an ATM and find that my new debit card DOES work. Thank you Janet. However, I tell the machine I want $100 US dollars; but get 100 EC dollars, the local currency. My mistake, I'm sure. The exchange rate is 1 US dollar to 2.67 local currency. The taxi driver is not waiting for me when I exit the bank as a Police Officer has made him move. The streets are overloaded with traffic and people, so I wait for 15 minutes until he circles the block and finds me. Oh well. I then stop at a book store to buy a book on Grenada, but all they have are children's books. Then back to the marina. The taxi charge is 60 EC, or about $22. Kind of high. When we take the taxi tomorrow I'll have to 'negotiate' a price with George before we start. With no taxi meter in his taxi, we're at the mercy of the driver.



I'm back at the boat around 3:00 PM. Civetta II arrives around 4:30 PM and is berthed next to us. As Suzana and Nicky from Rally control are there to greet Civetta II, and give them a welcome to Grenada fruit punch loaded with alcohol, Suzana tells me that Paul Tetlow with Rally control has sent me an email and attachment showing a picture we had taken of a whale shark with a swimmer 10 feet above it; had been published in the Yachting World's April issue. The caption with the picture says:



"This amazing photo was taken by Brian Fox, who is sailing around the world with crew Joel Heyne on his Beneteau 40, American Spirit II. During a three-day stopover in St. Helena, while on passage from Cape Town to Brazil, a group took a boat tour/dive excursion to swim with whale sharks. Brian captured this image and titled it 'Swimming 10 feet above the whale shark.' He says: 'I had bought a Canon Power Shot D30 camera in Cape Town in December and Joel had bought a Canon Power Shot D20 when he was home for Christmas. We used these cameras to take the underwater whale shark pictures; and we're also using them for above-water pictures as they are so handy to keep in the cockpit." The only 'mistake' in this description is that Joel actually took this picture, but since the World Cruising Club sent Yachting World 9 of our pictures, they couldn't figure out, though no fault of their own, which one of us obviously took which pictures. But this one is definitely Joel's. To view this picture you can go online to Yachting World's April issue; or you can buy a copy at a book store or West Marine. It should be at the newsstands now or very soon.



Jonathan, Jenny and Sigi from Merlyn of Poole stop by for drinks and dinner around 6:15 PM. Jenny brings a dish of au gratin potatoes that are to die for. Besides the Mahi Mahi and potatoes, we have corn. It is a sumptuous meal. Dinner starts as Joel finishes cooking the fish, which takes only about 15 minutes to cook on our propane grill. The dinner party breaks up at 10:00 PM.



From 10:00 to 10:55 PM I type one log, then off to the shower. I'm in bed by 11:45 PM. Joel and Heidi went to bed an hour or so earlier. Traveling is tiring.



Brian Fox


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