Friday, August 17, 2012

REEFS and JUNKIES

The Grenada Cruisers rescue squad were busy on Thursday afternoon when a 50 ft yacht called Troubadour
following the chart plotter instead of using the mark one eyeball found herself hard aground on the reef outside the entrance to Hog island and Secret harbour. Her call for help was answered by the usual squadron of dinghies armed with ropes anchors and enthusiasm. She had gone aground near the top of the tide which maybe only a foot but when the yacht on the reef is a 50 footer and weighs maybe 20 tonnes every inch counts. She did come off but not before a large rib with 115 hp came around from the next bay and was able to heel her over just that little bit more and with the dinghy squadron revving their engines in unison pushing hard, she scraped her way off leaving most of her rudder behind.

Quotes from the skipper

“Scull and crossbones marks the spot - obviously not 5 fathoms there. Harrowing reminder on chartplotter reliance, and a caution to all who are using C-Map charts. Thanks to all who helped pull me off!”

And

“Several hours of delays resulted in us trying to enter with the sun in our eyes. Obviously a poor decision.”


SO MANY JUNKIES ON PARADE

A surprising thing hit me as I looked at the Mas parade this year,

There were a lot of addicts in the parade, junkies who were not able to be without a fix even for the three hours of the parade.

Now to me that is scary. They work on the costumes, practice their moves and this is the culmination of a years toil.

But they are so hooked on their mobile phones that they have to carry them along adding a jarring counterpoint to the perfection of the costumes.

Can I say nice colours though? Or is that not PC now?

3 comments:

  1. http://www.zerotocruising.com/reef-1-rudder-0/

    You must have met my friends, Mike and Rebecca as they were there too.

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  2. Yup have been leepfrogging them all the way down the island chain and they are anchored somewhere close by as I hear them on low power.

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  3. The couple who own the boat you helped have posted a few pictures on FaceBook and asked those who helped them to tag themselves and identify their boat. I don't think you are of FB, are you? So I sent them a message and gave them your name and boat. Hope that was ok. You are in one of the photos; your dinghy was beside Mike and Rebecca's in the pic.

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