Ken's first mahi mahi

Ken and I going around Vancouver Island

Alanna , Kens and I at the airport in Mexico

Ken with his Marlin Catch

RJ, Ken and I in Mexico

To a sailor a Green Flash can be an occurrence seen only once in a lifetime. Green Flashes and green rays are optical phenomena that occur shortly after sunset when the sun appears to have just gone beneath the ocean. A green spot is visible for usually no more than a second. On our last night crossing to Grenada Ken and I witness the flash. We were jumping around like little kids. It was the first one we had seen in the 3 yrs.

Nature has a lot of wonders. We just need to open our eyes and see them.

Winds that are gentle breezes that turn into gales. Sunrises, moon rises, sunsets, moonset. Sea turtles, sea snakes dolphins doing tail walks.

Animals like crazy Lucy the monkey that attacked Ken for touching her yet when I fed her was as calm as could be.

Birds of many colours that have the audacity to sit right by you and crap on your freshly stained handrail.

We have been on the boat for 3 yrs getting her ready and cruising. It has been the best 3 yrs one could have asked for. Some would say living with a person 24/7 would be impossible. Not if you love that person and have the same dreams and goals. You want to explore what life has out there for you.

I have said many times that people out there told us we couldn't do this type of trip with our type of boat. I want to say to all those that try to hold people back,"Keep your opinions to yourself". Anything can be done with the will and desire and with proper weather indicators.

Ken did not survive his heart attack and on Dec 26 became my guardian angel. I am sure he is telling my Grandfather to move over!

No one could have asked for a better Captain and Mate. He touched everyone he met. His booming voice, his unforgetable 40 yr old mustache and his charm. I know that everyone that met him was fortunate.

With help from fellow boaters and friends Genesis will be brought up to Florida. I will be there with her. She will get put on a ship and taken back home to her slip where I will make her look pretty again. (She needs a face lift with all the rain). Ken was concern for her right until the end. She has played a big role in this dream.

There will be a memorial service in Calgary then in the spring the ashes will be put in the ocean to finish his dream.

I thank all those that followed the blog, for all the prayers and condolenses.

When I owned the flower shops a verse that stayed with me.

When you were born you cried and the world rejoiced. If you live your live in such a way that when you die you rejoice and the world cries your life has had meaning. That explains Ken to a tee. We have been told to expect many at his memorial, We have received hundreds of emails already and only some people know

He was my best friend, my love and my life. I promised him I would be strong and I will try.

For all those that have touched our lives, thankyou and I cherish everything. The nature, the friendships of the boating community and all who have followed the blog. This week there has been 250 people because of his health. What does that tell you. He was loved and respected

Time will only tell if I write about future boating on this blog but for now this was our chronical of OUR journey so I will end it here.

My aunt just sent me this message and I thought it worth repeating.

Where God puts a period, none of us must put a question mark.

We arrived in Grenada on Dec 13th giving us a full day before RJ would arrive. We anched in Prickly Bay and proceeded to go into Customs and Immigrations for 1000 hr. First one must go to the Health part of Customs and show them your medical records and passports. After everything is in order you are now allowed to take your quaritine flag down. (This was the first country to actually ask for our medical records)

We then continued to finish with the paper work for Customs. All went quick with Customs but it wasn't until about 1300 hr that the women from Immigration showed up. By 1330 we were legal to go wander. Waiting patiently is one thing a boater must learn to do when traveling between countries it is nothing like entering a country by air.

Grenada is a beautiful mountainous, green lush country. It is referred to as the Spice Island as it provides 2/3 of the nutmeg to the world. It smells like bananna bread when you walk through the markets!

The evening on arrival we took the dinghy to the restaurant at the head of the bay and were entertained by a wonderful Blues band. It was a great way to start out trip.

We had decided to not do any touring, geocaching until the kids and Alanna's boyfriend arrived for Christmas.

The transportion to downtown St George's is simple and inexpensive. It is a collectivo bus (not sure what they would call it in English) basically a large van.

Grenada is very English. However it does sound like a foreign language. The difference is that they understand us. Now when the little girl points at my blue eyes and say something I know what she said and can reply!

When Ken and I embarked on this adventure we had researched and planned for many years. We knew all the risks that could happen and have tried to be ready if something should ever happen. Our boat carries and extra toilet! Just in case. We have had to replace 2 now. Salt water is hard on them. In fact it is lucky we float with all the extras. Grenada has great marine stores and guess what I am getting for Christmas. Boat Stuff! Anyways to continue you must have everything in order. We had our pirate bait, have embarked in Mexico and Panama for emergency dental work. Mexico health care for Ken's burnt leg. I write about this as my daughter had to remind me that we knew and wanted to undertake this wonderful trip.

This will be the last blog for awhile and hopefully not too long but realistically it will probably be awhile.

On Dec 18 we were having a normal evening and went to bed. Ken all of a sudden did not feel well and we took him to the hospital in St. Georges. Ernie our crew was still with us and my son had now joined us. Ken suffered a heart attack. He was admitted to the hospital. There were no rooms in the ICU so he was put on a male ward. This is 3rd world medicine. They have great doctors and nurses. A fact that Grenada has a Medical University accepting students from all around the world. However they do not have the equipment. The head Dr after checking the xrays said he would have to medivac to Barbados where they have the state of art equipment. Through insurance time went slow as they wanted him medivac to Alberta. The problem was the doctors would not release him for that as he was not stable enough. Eventually he was medivac to Barbados. I will not get into any of the details but it is very serious. The people in Grenada are very religous and the nurses would sing hymns to Ken as they went about attending to him. Total strangers wanted to know his name so they could pray for him. The taxi driver we found became our personal helper at our beck and call and would not let us pay him. He helped calm me down more than once. I will always be greatful to him

The facilities in Barbados are second to none. We could not ask for better care. Today he will be operated on an then I am sure we will return by medivac to Alberta on time will tell.

The Genesis has been put on the hard (land) and the boatyard will take good care of her until I can get back to close her up. This is no longer huricane season so the urgency is not there and can be dealt with at a later date.

I decided to write about this as we have between 150 - 200 people that watch this blog weekly. I started it originally as a way to keep family and friends in touch and let other boaters know what to expect. I have had boaters email me and tell me after following our journeys we have given them some courage to get out there on the water. To us that is what this is all about.

We have been blessed with 2 wonderful children that have medical knowledge and are keeping their mother grounded and informed. They are awesome.

This journey has been about the people we have encountered in all the countries. Their generosity and willingness to share their lives with us. Show us their culture which is not much differnent than ours in so many ways. The main difference to me has been that they have not lost their spiritual selves or their family values. I really do not see that in our culture now adays.

The boating community. Awesome, awesome people there to help when needed at any time. We have met cruisers from around the world. It is a very tight community.

We are not sure what will happen. We will return someday to the boat I am sure but only time will tell.

So again thanks for following the blog and I hope to be able to pick up where I left in the near future.

Ken anf Faye

And of Course Genesis the magic carpet.

Flamingos at the Salt Pans

Salt Piles behind the Salt Pans

Slave Huts Used at the Salt Pans

Anxiety back to normal!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well we are safely anchored in Prickly Bay Grenada awaiting RJ's arrival tomorrow.

We had one tense moment where we brought out our bearspray, flare guns and a plan. A boat was taking a little too much interest in us. We immediately got on the VHF and gave our lat/long to the other boats behind us. Now we know that the pirates have vhf as they take all the cruisers! Anyways as soon as we transmitted the lat/long the boat was gone. I will never know if it was curious fishermen or something else and I don't really care. We are now in safe waters. The real shame is that Venezuela has a wonderful cruising ground and the world would love to see it but until the government changes lesser and lesser people will travel this route.

Now back to why we are on this voyage.

We have just finished the most difficult portion to date. 1000 nautical miles. We were told by MANY we couldn't do it, we were headed in the wrong direction but we DID IT!.

These blogs will be behind for awhile based on what we have to write about.

Bonaire

We had planned on spending 2 days in Bonaire but it turned into 9 days due to bad weather. We made the best of it and didn't have a difficult time adjusting.

Bonaire's waters are a marine park and therefore you cannot anchor . They have set up mooring buoys to tie to and the charges for the useage goes to help maintain the marine parks.

The island is a snorkle and diving paradise. The parrot fish alone were enough reason to stop here. I have never seen a fish so beautiful. A rainbow of colours.

We rented a car and took our list of geocache sites along. We have learnt that geocaching takes us to some pretty awesome places.

Bonaire is a small island. It is 285 sq km. The main town is Kralendijk. The major road loops the island and the total island can be seen within a day.

There is no public transit and hitchhiking is a main stay for the locals. Hence we rented a car.

Our first geocache took us south to the salt pans where ocean water evaproates to produce salt . Metal windmills are used to transfer water out of the ponds. As evaporation progresses the water takes on a vibrant pink colour from tiny sea organisms. It is these sea organisms that the pink flamingos eat causing their distinct pink colour.

As you go down the coast you witness history. Slave huts that were used as shelters for the slaves that worked the salt fields. Living conditions in these miniscule shelters are hard to imagine now, but they were home to 100's of slaves. Ernie went inside one and he could only squat. 6 people would fit in each hut.

The pyramids of salt were breath taking. Hard to imagine that much salt.

The salt is bulldozed into the piles where they are put onto conveyor belts and put onto waiting ships.

Sea salt was very important to Bonaire's culture and history. Harvesting was heavy and all done

by hand.

Our next geocache site took us to Lac Bay. It offers nearly the perfect conditions for windsurfing. It is very shallow but gets great wind.

The mangrove forests in Lac Bay are one of the best maintained mangroves in the Caribbean. It is in here that you could see seahorses and turtles.

I do believe our highlight was seeing pink flamingos up close. We saw them wading in the salt ponds but did not get to see them fly.

Bonaire is a semi desert with cactus and shrubs. We however saw 9 days of continual flooding. It rained hard with no ground to absorb all the moisture.

I would recommend coming here if you love to dive as the whole island is a reef. The coral and fish are plentiful.

One of the things we like to do is try out the local dishes. This time it was iguana soup and goat stew, and salted fish which I had had as a kid. As the saying goes it tastes like chicken!

(no subject)

Well it is a SSB week of the blog again.
I am writing this while on the way to Isla Testigos. (Witness Island)Our planned route had to be changed due to the weather. Instead of traveling along the Northern Outer Islands where we would be safe from piracy we had to head below 11 degrees to get out of the high winds and large seas.
We arrived at Isla Roques at an anchorage that was absolutely breathtaking. We were very happy to catch a very large dorado, a 50 pound marlin, 4 big eyed tuna and a sierra. Our freezer is finally filling up again with fish but we still have room for more. We have eaten fish everyday for a week now. Never get tired of fresh fish.
We walked the shores of the fine white sands and hiked the sand dune. Unfortunately we wore saddles and the burs were unforgiving. Conch were everywhere and we even saw a turtle. We were accompanied by 4 other boats in the anchorage all from France. When we left there were 7 one being a Canadian boat from Victoria heading West.
We have been using Herb from Southbound II on the SSB as a weather router. He is a Canadian from Mississauga that has won the Canadian Award of Honour (Can't remember what it is called) for his dedication in helping the boating community. Saving lives. His recommendation was to head south then cross from Testigos to Grenada on Sunday/Monday.
The seas were large crossing from the Roques - Isla Tortiga then onto Isla Margarita. It was basically a 2 day journey. We changed our shifts to be 2 people on at a time. 2 hour shifts with one hour off. This meant we would be tired but there would always be someone to spell you off for a bit. The autopilot didn't want to cooperate so hand steering through the night was the way to go. The blessing was that the waves were on the front quarter and we did not have to take any beam seas. Genesis also is very good at tracking without the autopilot so it wasn't too bad. It also helps that Ken and Ernie are very good at steering by compass. Me not so much I find I get turned around at night and disoriented to direction. Not a good thing but hey I can talk and keep them awake! Steer while nature calls and,fetch etc. I have found the difference between the Pacific and Caribbean to be very significant. Most the time on the Pacific side it felt like a Magic Carpet ride. On the Caribbean it feels like you are in a washing machine. But we are all use the the rhythm now.
This area is known as a very high security risk were there have been armed robberies on boats that are in transit. A Canadian boat traveling West was boarded by 4 gunman and everything taken just a month prior. We had been trying to avoid this area for this very reason and the fact that we now are in the area has left me not sleeping so well.
I have put together a pirate take list. A fairly new Sony camera that rusted out after 2 years, the dell computer that Ken dropped the coffee on (No insides, Debit cards and credit cards that are no longer used but good dates, a little bit of money from everywhere including some US money.
I have hiding spots that we only found after 7 years of owning the boat. If they find them good for them. Our good wallets, hand held vhf, this computer and Spot are well hidden. I still need to find a good spot for our camera.
We stopped at Isla Tortuga for 5 hrs before continuing on so that we would arrive during daylight in the pirate waters. Running at night with no lights on.
We arrived at Isla Margarita anchorage at 1000 in the morning. Had a good rest and filled up with fuel. The boys in the panga came by and asked how much fuel we would like. 600 litres. It is too bad that we were not empty as we payed 20 cents a litre. That is not a typo. In fact the actual rate is around 15 cents a litre if you were to go to the dock. However US currency is black market and it would be hard to get. Who could complain at 20 cents? We were immediately befriended by the boating community. They were a wisdom of knowledge but the best thing to happen was that we are traveling with 2 other buddy boats now to Grenada. I am still going to hide everything but there is safety in numbers and we will anchor together at Isla Testigos. We travel a little faster then the others but not by much.
We will hopefully be in Grenada Monday around 1600 hour and I will post an update on Tues as we received some emails with people concern about our whereabouts. I would also like to upload some pictures of these beautiful anchorages and describe what we have been up to.
Keeping Safe
Genesis

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(no subject)

This blog is being sent over SSB radio and will be reformatted once we have internet.
Rain and Wind Go Away Come Again Another Day (Year)
We had planned on spending 2 days in Bonaire which turned into 9 days due to extreme winds and waves. I will back track to Bonaire and write about this wonderful place once we have internet.
We are currently making our way very slowly towards Grenada for hopefully the 14th Dec.;that is when RJ is expected. However should the weather continue to give us greif, he will have to get a hotel until we get there.
We left Bonaire at 0500 hrs and made a decision to stay at the first anchorage along the way. Waves were reaching 10' on 5-7 secs. Not comfortable but not dangerous. We are heading now into the wind and waves with the current against us. (Having the current against is actually better, because if they were with us they would kick up even larger confused seas).
Our first anchorage would be Aves de Sotavento. Isla de Aves are two separate little island archipelagos, separated by about 10 miles of deep water. They got their names by the large number of birds that make their homes here in the mangroves.
Mangrove Bay is the most protected anchorage in this area. A sailboat from Spain and a motor-sailor also made this anchorage their home for the night. As fate would have it we are all traveling the same direction which for us has been a 1st in a long time.
The Coast Guard came by to check our papers and advise us that there was a 40k system over the Roques and that they would like us to stay the extra day.
We checked 3-4 sources of weather but nothing indicated any system so the motor-sailor named Passage Maker and us decided to go 13nm to the next archipelago where there would still be some protection.(This would get us a little closer for the next passage). Isla Sur is now where we call home for another day or so. It is the most beautiful place. The island is very colourful, with patches of southern glasswort, seaside purslane, and saltwort all in different shades of green. Supposably fishermen use the saltwort for tobacco however I think they wait for visiting boats to supply them with free cigarettes.
The water is a quilt of different shades of blue. Coral just 50' from the boat comes in various colours. There are many different species of birds the most different being the Red Ibis. Normally they are white. Boobies with all different colours of feet.
Peter and Louise from the Sailing Vessel Passage Maker invited us over for cocktails aboard their boat. Now unbelievably this boat is how this dream of ours began! Passage Maker was a boat built by Robert Bebee and an article written in the magazine "The Passage Maker" was about the trip that we are now undertaking. They had however gone in the opposite direction. Peter is the new owner of the boat and he comes from Trinidad/Tobabgo. They are a very nice couple and we will travel probably the next few days together until we turn North and they turn South.
Well, as I have said before I believe we may have a few guardian angles that are staying on the boat with us otherwise we never would have found out about the weather and be in a very secure place to wait it out.
Our next destination is about 35nm to the Roques and we will head out when the weather looks favourable. Pictures of this place will follow with internet.

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