1.BACK ABOARD ABRACADABRA AFTER HIATUS

  We were welcomed back to ‘Abracadabra’ with a balmy tropical breeze and enough humidity to sprout some beans. Nothing like a warm, moist blanket to wrap ourselves in upon arrival! Tom, from the boat ‘Pontea’, came in the dark to pick us up, with all our luggage, and take us to the boat.

2.  Tom’s dinghy is an 11 foot, canoe shaped, wooden boat. There are three pieces of wood, slats, as seats and with a 3 horse power engine, that at full speed, would be as fast as an old person on crutches. With each person getting on, the boat rocks. He had the sailing dinghy from ‘Island Swift’ in tow, and with careful and slow driving, (as if there were an alternative) it was able to safely bring the bags without getting swamped, while we 4, plus Tom, rode in his dinghy.

3.  We had not met Tom before that night, as our friends on ‘Island Swift’ arranged that Tom would pick us up. And that is one of the most beautiful things to experience, in this lifestyle we choose. A person you have never met, coming in the dark, to take you and your family, plus 4 back packs, 3 computer bags, and 2 duffel bags to your boat and drop you off. Just because.

4.  Because you never know when it might be you standing there, with your family, or it might be you, out there on the ocean, in need of help. If you have never lived on a boat, or experienced the community that exists in the sailing world, you may not comprehend the depth of a simple act of selfless kindness.

5.  With all our luggage, Tom deposited us on our boat at 10 o’clock at night, and we opened the hatches, and let that warm tropical night waft through our home.

6.  Jo Jo and Simon, from ‘Island Swift’ left us a 5 liter bottle of water, and a bag of food to get us through until we could launch our dinghy and get to the shops. This care package consisted of : a loaf of fresh bread, a dozen eggs, a bag of muesli, a box of long life milk, 2 cans of local beer, and a bar of 70% Grenada dark chocolate. It was not a small gesture either, as the captain and crew of ‘Island Swift’ have a sailing dinghy to do all their provisioning and they must sail or row the distance it takes us 5 to 10 minutes with an engine.

Jo Jo and Simon from Island Swift, in their rowing/sailing dinghy

The next two weeks were taken up with scraping all the lines tying us to the mangroves. In the time we were gone, barnacles, little mussels, small oysters and plenty of sea grass had taken over the lines and the anchor chain. Anneleize in the optimist, ‘Bear Necessities’ and Jabez standing in the mangroves, took scrapers to the lines to chip, hack, and scrub their way back to something that resembles usable lines again. We won’t talk about the way they smell just yet.

The bottom of the boat was equally covered with its own aquarium, including areas of thick, tough barnacles, requiring the ice scrapers for car windshields to get the job completed. With the amount of growth on the hull, keel and chain, we would not have been able to sail with any speed, much less use the propeller to get us out of the mangroves. The barnacles are especially fond of the bronze propeller, but Jabez covered it with a plastic bag before leaving the boat, and so the growth on the propeller was minimal.

2Meanwhile, top sides, we had an infestation of mud wasp nests. The next generation had already come and gone, leaving behind little dirt cocoons with a larvae or two, spent and all dried up. The wasps made their nests on books, inside cupboards and hats, on curtains, and even one little mud parcel on the lens of a pair of reading glasses!

A fine mixture of sand and mud, with dried up cocoons

3.  During this cleaning process we were ready to launch our dinghy, in order for us to be able to get off the boat, and to get food, water and fuel. It’s also important to have transportation in case we wanted to socialize with any friends.

4.  We had two scratches on the port pontoon of the dinghy that needed patching and Philip remembered he bought hyperlon patches for this occasion when we were in the Canary islands last year this time. Perhaps you have experienced putting something somewhere and when you want it, you are not able to find it? This is a standing joke on boats because there are many small areas, lockers, underneath floorboards, and pockets of space that get used to keep all the food, clothing, spare parts, extra batteries, wet weather gear, snorkeling gear, and on and on, the list is not endless. As you have limited space in a  house, so you have limited space on a boat, incrementally so.

5.  And so now began the search for the Canary island patches. We looked, we rifled, we combed through all lockers, floorboards, quick stash places, we racked our brains trying to remember that specific day, what we did, what Philip was wearing, if he put them in a carry bag, with the diving equipment, with his tools, in a jacket pocket. There was even a reward put out for anyone finding the patches. And then we had a day of only searching for the elusive Canary Island patches, a total of 12 man hours put into this endeavor. Alas, t’was not to be.

 We used other patches, two of them, that made the job less than ideal. But at least we had a floating dinghy.

  Next came the outboard engine that needed to be carried from the bunk inside the boat, outside and carefully pulleyed down and placed in the dinghy. Because of good preparation by Philip and Jabez, for the outboard to sit for a long time without use, and with the fuel tank installed, the 15hp engine started right up with the first pull.

 With mobility comes provisioning, water, fuel and finding a washing machine. Once a week a woman brought local produce and eggs to Secret Harbor, which was a 10 minute dinghy ride away, and for heavier provisioning, there was a bus from Secret Harbor to the supermarket. This process got us started in filling the boat up and stocking the lockers. Secret Harbor also had water and fuel, so with each trip a 25 liter jerry can was filled with water, and the dinghy fuel tank was kept topped up.

 With all this amount of work, there needs to be the balance of play and Anneleize and Jabez took turns jumping off the spinnaker pole with their friend Lochi. We managed to get Christmas and New Year’s squeezed in there as well.

          And as we were nicely tucked into the mangroves, we did have excellent front row seats to watch and listen to what must have been a Green  Heron.  There was nothing green about him, with a rusty colored head, grey wings and tail feathers, and a beak that is much more like a kingfisher than a heron. They are a bit stumpy looking, but sitting on one of the lines tied to the mangroves, one would watch the water, quietly, patiently, and then all of a sudden, his or her neck would stretch out like a giraffe’s!!! And without moving from his place, without getting in the water, there would be some breakfast in the beak.

            There were also brief sightings of the Little Blue Heron and, my favorite, the Antillean Crested Hummingbird.