Life at Crews Inn, Chaguaramas, Trinidad can be pleasant. Nearby chandleries, nearby roti shacks, nearby grocery store (and nearby transportation to larger grocery stores), and nearby swimming pool. Interesting restaurants, both in the immediate area, and toward Port of Spain. By the time America’s Thanksgiving arrived, we had much to be thankful for. While back in Savannah, Barb had had her cholesterol tested. She was shocked to learn that her cholesterol was 287! The doctor advised that she immediately go on statins, but she had heard about so many negatives associated with the drugs that she decided to try diet and exercise first. So for over a month she stuck to an almost-total vegan diet, and exercised every day by doing yoga, walking or biking, and totally eschewed alcohol. Then we both caught a maxi-taxi to the West Shore Clinic, where we had our cholesterol checked and I had tests done to see if the high-risk drugs for my arthritis were causing any problems. Two days later we got the results: Barb’s cholesterol was down to 185, mine was about the same as last time at 177, and my liver and blood counts continue to be normal. Yes!

Thanksgiving fell on the normal Crews Inn potluck day. Barb decided to celebrate by roasting an 11-lb. turkey for the event. (The standard protocol is for each couple/person to bring a covered dish to be shared, and to bring their/his own meat to be cooked on the grill.) Other couples learned of her intention, and brought mashed potatoes and dressing and cranberries and vegetables. Not everyone was in on the plan, so many had their own meats, but everyone got at least a taste of the traditional American thanksgiving menu.

On Nov. 28 the Wheelhouse Pub enhanced their normal “swordfish or ribs” night with seasonal entertainment: the parang band called “Los Hombres Sexuales”, whose motto is “the more you drink the better we sound”. Parang is a type of music imported from Venezuela. The songs are sung in Spanish, and often have a Christmas theme, but also sometimes include social commentary and in no way sound like North American Christmas carols.

On Nov. 29 it was time for another Crews Inn potluck. It was also Barb’s birthday and she decided to save her restaurant birthday dinner for St. Lucia, so our shared contribution was a German chocolate cake that I made. Alas, the cake was such a hit that there was none left over to take back to the boat at the end of the evening.

Early the next morning, we arose at about 4:15 and prepared the boat for departure. We had decided several days in advance to leave for Grenada on that day, and stuck with the plan even though the sea conditions had not moderated nearly as much as had been originally forecast. It took us 13 ½ hours to cover the lumpy 84 nautical miles from Chaguaramas to Prickly Bay, Grenada, a trip made all the more lumpy by the fact that the port stabilizer failed almost immediately, and had to be disabled. That night in Grenada I stayed up late and replaced the knuckle that joins the hydraulic ram arm to the yoke that swings the stabilizing fin.

Next day we motored the 37 nm from Prickly to Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou, where we anchored well in front of a sailboat that immediately began to suggest we were too close. His wife was nervous he said, because they had recently been rammed by a boat dragging on its anchor. How much chain did we have out, he wanted to know, and he expected that we would soon be starting a loud and stinky generator.

We were in no way too close. Fortunately, good-natured Barb did the talking. She pleasantly explained that we had backed off on the anchor to check its holding, and that we were secure. That our generator was neither stinky nor loud, and that in any case we had no intention of using it that evening, since our stateroom was well-ventilated and our batteries were fully charged. That we had never drug in five years of cruising the Caribbean, but that she would snorkel out and check that the anchor was firmly set in the sand. (It was.)

The irony was that the boat flew a French flag. Fellow cruisers will understand that sentence.

Next day (Dec. 2) we travelled another 39 nm in another 6-hr. passage; from Tyrrel Bay to Bequia. We always have trouble getting the anchor to set in Bequia, and this time was no exception. The sand layer is too thin, and the substrate too hard, apparently. Finally, on our fourth attempt in a variety of locations, we were secure. There were no nervous French cruisers behind us, and in fact no boats of any description to our rear, which would make it easy to depart at o-dark-thirty the next morning. After supper and after letting the engine room cool a bit, I tackled another project: I had noticed during the engine-room checks during the day that the raw water pump on the John Deere was leaking a little. So down into the warm and sweaty holy place I went, in order to change out the pump. While I was at it, I trimmed off about 2” of the feeder hose; its attachment point to the pump had gotten soft.

As this is being written, it is Dec. 3, and we are on our 69 nm trip from Bequia to Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. The seas are extremely calm and the winds are slight; this is a lovely day for a trawler. Shortly after landing a small mahi-mahi, some of which we will have for a very fresh lunch, we passed right by a sperm whale that revealed its presence with periodic blows. Life is good!

Later:

When we arrived in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia, Barb bought some fruit from the “flag boat”, and also impulsively decided to try once again to raise her own herbs.

Later, we had Cathie and John (Oceana) over for sundowners. Good to see them again and trade news and rumors.