A not so perfect day..

I guess I deserve it. After my yesterdays' blog there had something to come....but let me start from the beginning:

We decided to move to the next anchorage before finally heading on Monday to Grenada for Hurricane Season shelter. It was again a very short trip - not even much sailing. But the bay is amazing, full of cruisers and even with a mangrove swamp in one corner. This time the anchor set right the first time. Great. When I made some final adjustments all of the sudden the windlass stopped. No movement at all - the breaker always tripped right away. At least the anchor was really in so I could address that problem without any hurry. After spending one hour in the real cramped anchor locker and measuring all kind of connections it looks now like the motor or the gearbox is seized. Since the windlass company is not longer in business it may be hard to get some spares, looks like another 2500 USD replacement!! 

We are both not sure if we should be really mad about this or not. We anchored now for months, sometimes at night in really hairy spots and the windlass never let us down. Now, the LAST TIME we set the anchor before heading into a marina for weeks it failed?? Is this now luck or bad luck? The only thing I really do not look forward to is to haul out by hand 40 meter of chain with a 50 pound of anchor attached. If you are back in the office on Monday please think of me - this weeks' start will be harsh as well on Habibi. 

After all that stress we decided to check out the "Lazy Turtle",  a highly recommended cruisers bar - famous for good snacks, real espresso and quick internet, they even have their own dinghy dock. Well, that guy who wrote the guide with this recommendation was maybe already too long in the Caribbean. The 400 pound lady behind the counter made the bars' name program. Sitting there and watching TV she looked more like a big lazy turtle than a waitress.  She was in fact hardly to convince to move at all. The most irritating fact was that she started to crawl her beard while explaining to me why the kitchen is partly closed. French-Burgers? No, the fryer is cold so no fries with it. I could convince here that we have plenty of time since we are on holiday. I could her hear swearing while she slurped finally into the kitchen :-)

The burgers would be basically ok, really made with fresh baguette.  It's maybe the fact that they have been served by a bearded 400 pound women which made me simply a bit too frightened to enjoy. And yes, the internet was fast as promised but the highly praised espresso machine is broken for months....

So you see, cruising can sometimes be hard as well. If the windlass would still work and the local waitresses would shave in the morning I felt much better.  Now I have to sell a kidney to pay the new windlass and I still hadn't any real espresso....I guess it's fair to say this was not that perfect day after all..

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