Washed up Sailors in Grenada

By Paul Stansby

A fictional series of stories set around chilling on Grenada, initially inspired from a comment by a passing German lady whilst I was drinking beers with a couple of women. I'm still guessing whether the comment was derogatory or complimentary if she was referring to Tom Hanks in Castaway

• Language: English
• Publisher: Paul Stansby
• Release date: Aug 24, 2022
• ISBN: 9781005806002

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cover-image, Washed up Sailors in Grenada

© Paul Stansby, UK/Grenada  2019 

Washed up Sailors

in Grenada     

          Fiction

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Introduction

  There’s sailors that live aboard going shopping once a week, there’s sailors that work on other people’s yachts for a pittance, there’s sailors that boat sit for others, there’s sailors that drink coffee and surf on the internet in cafes all day and of course there’s those that reside in Rum Bars watching live sports on TV, one thing in common everybody’s arrived in a boat at one point or another, some travel on some remain transfixed with the beauty of this island where the trade winds blow all day and everyday at twenty knots not forgetting the good gusts. Excellent for clothes drying and girls drying their hair after showers not so good going west for the sailor men, from my experience you just end up from where you’ve started, A to A, B being a fictitious point on the chart or the electronic plotter.

  If you have a fine cut sloop with long overhangs, low freeboard, narrow with lousy accommodation, this type of boat will plough the oncoming wind and sea with much alacrity, there are so few of these vessels around. So why washed up? To me this island you arrive and remain with little wish to go farther, a place for journeys end, with its scenery, chilled out inhabitants who seem to have few problems, play their steel drums to perfection and generally love their music, Bob Marley still being a god amongst inhabitants; washed up was one german’s lady comment to me, bearded, sun tanned and darker polarised sunglasses donning shorts, sandals and T-shirt, generally a sloppy Joe who hangs out at rum bars on the beach who on a rare event enchants a beach babe or a dumb blonde, a castaway, not as in the film but immersed in the freedom, sun and rum surrounding him. There are other islands, around, the Grenadines itself are a fair sized collection, the Caribbean generally having the best beaches and spectacular anchorages of islands around the world; oh and rum bars. Europe are second contenders to me for great islands with Ile de Re and Ile d’orleon and other islands dotted around the bay of Biscay and the classy collection of greek islands where supposedly the greek gods hung out. Naturally all people have their fondness for islands which they’ve visited with good experiences that instilled great memories . How many persons qualify for the title of washed up sailor men on Grenada?

  There’s some of the inhabitants of the island of course and a sparse collection of floating visitors, a lot of the yachting fraternity wishing to people to think their elitists to some degree so relinquishing any association to being washed up, alcoholic yes, all the sailing fraternity like a good drink, whether on there gin palace, rum boat or beer sloop. In this sailing fraternity of the Caribbean, unlike European cruising  family boats appear, boats which have taken up the role of a semi-detached house with man, wife and children aboard, sailing the world cruising routes and sometimes just floating around while the parents home school their children until they’re old enough to go to boarding school, I’m assuming this for I’ve never seen any teens hanging around onboard, teens on a boat must be sheer hell with their need to hang out with others their own age, experiment in life and chill. 

  In a group, all the different sailing persons, the washed up, elitists and families you’ll find in the large Prickly Bay Bar, which supports a small marina and some 250 boats at anchor out in the large bay. The next bay around is smaller and more reclusive with a charter company who have a pontoon. around and up to the lagoon past two fine beaches, the second beach which has a handy anchorage at the end so easy to pick up provisions from the nearby lagoon which has gas stations, a large supermarket, some beer holes, a yacht club and pontoons for super yachts in the Port St Louis Complex . The latter is definitely elitist with a fine restaurant to match.The other direction from Prickly Bay going east there’s Secret Harbour, around 100 boats at anchor and on moorings, a largish marina, sixty slips which is mostly empty, of course a bar flaunting high end cuisine for eaters, currently having an identity crisis with yachts people but has the best pizzas I’ve come across, around the corner to Hogs Island, another hundred odd boats moored, an enterprising man called Philip runs a makeshift bar and shop on the island and the inevitable beach barbecue, onwards and under the bridge, dinghy only, into the Clarke’s Court expanse of water behind Hog Island and the private Calviginy Island, with stretches of open sea strewn with reefs as is secret Harbour all with narrow navigable channels for boats. Here are four bars to my knowledge, so lots of choice, a mediocre one at the Clarkes Court boatyard complex, but supports the coolest place in temperature to chill in the as it catches the breeze, not much good for smokers, across the way the sports bar as such, one screen showing various matches and spicy fried chicken pieces to soak the generous portions of rum, served in small measured bottles similar to Raki or Ouzo in Greece around 15 centilitres, three ounces, for 4 US dollars, along from there’s fancy cuisine at Whisper Cove, a small french enclave with eighteen odd slips for boats on a marina type of setup, and a mile along from there is Phare Blue, 30 odd slips for boats on a marina theme with substantial concrete pontoons, the bar cafe has excellent cocktails and a small pool alongside the beach with views of the Calvinigy Island where’s located a luxurious resort which looks faultless, not a territory for washed up sailors. Onwards and around there’s more coves with some bars, two to note St David’s Harbour and La Sagesse Bay.  From Secret Harbour to Phare Bleu is possible on a dinghy crawl, so no getting the yacht into sailing mode to go careering around the reefs and back into the various coves. In all excellent locations to hop ashore from the boat and experience life in the slow lane, that slow that the days merge and soon a months goes by as it had just been one day, everyday being blissful.  A fifteen walk from Secret Harbour takes you over to Prickly Bay which then leads one up to St. George’s town with a bus ride to the Grand Anse beach then to the Lagoon where the town stretches down to shore line on the northern side; over the ridge just north of this are Grenada’s liner terminals and duty free mall.  A rather unique part of the world where the washed up sailors events and stories take place on this island of Grenada, fictional mostly though some based loosely on actual adventures.                                                                         

Part  I  Chilling

  Chapter One 

  ‘Good morning, still here Larry’

  ‘Evidently so, the plane is as well, in St Lucia, I surrendered my boarding pass to escape the airport as fixing planes take time Henrique’

  ‘I used to fix them, not in the Caribbean region though. I was surrounded by all resources needed to do such work, expensive for you for you can’t go back’

  ‘Another ticket eight hundred US two ways for a new ticket bought here as in Europe so less the tax allowance as I write for a profession, it’s not so bad’

  ‘You get a free return out of it almost’

  ‘I do, it leaves four hundred after tax’

  ‘That leaves you free to sail off to another island on return, so not to waste a ticket which would be inevitable’

  ‘I came to that conclusion, leaving a decision though whether one was to leave here’

  ‘You’re over in Secret harbour in a forty footer, too expensive for me in, my boat is sixty seven foot long’’

  ‘I’d get lost in one that size’

  ‘Lost in the work as well I’ve four cabins ensuite, plus crew quarters, mooring out in the bay here is survivable’

  ‘Its for sale?’

  ‘As are many others, whether the appeal of floating around the world, sailing some of the time has some appeal left I hope’

  ‘Storms, hurricanes and typhoons tend to have caught people’s attention with climate change, not forgetting the dramatic films produced along this genre’

  ‘A new avenue for the film producers to exploit as climate change fills up another chasm of peoples doom and gloom’

  ‘Over optimism that the planet will miraculously right itself from man’s exploitation is running thin, the many possible scenarios which are conceivable of how we all end are good topics for the film producers’

  'You’ve not done a story?’

  ‘No, my candour does not suit this topic’

  ‘Indeed your humour and writings are rather black already, taking the ridicule on the end of the world would not be well received’

  ‘I’d run into a parallel, where we all realised these more than possible cataclysmic events in our present world and merge all into a more sensible and relevant world where sense and practicality has taken over from our capitalistic pursuits in this one’

  ‘The dumb blonde versus the radical red head’

  ‘That may be a good analogy, extremely sexist, but as the main male species on this planet we do prefer blondes and women love being them’

  ‘You don’t get blonde gorillas’

  ‘If you did we would never have become the dominant species’

  ‘Possible, peroxide plays a role here, as do beach babes’

  ‘The beaches with bikini clad girls took precedence over the jungle’

  ‘Add the cocktails and there became the new evolution of our species’

  ‘Sex on the beach as oppose sex in the grasslands of jungle mountain terrain of our ancient ancestors, alcohol bringing down our cultural barriers’

  ‘The mixing of our species concluding in present day man, I can see why now some cultures alcohol is now prohibited’

  ‘Here’s the waitress’

  ‘I’m going for a prickly breakfast with extra sausages with a large rum on the rocks’

  ‘Brave’ ‘Keeps me going all day’

  ‘I think after a long night of weighing up the possibilities of a longer stay you need it, for myself another coffee, I’ve another six week before flying out and back to Scandinavia’

  ‘Any real reason for returning?’

  ‘Not as such, all will be the same over there, bar the weather, you?’

  ‘Oh no, just to participate in more of the other world for a while, then return to realise how it all should be, hi a full english for me with extra sausage and coffee and just a coffee for Henrique, plus a large rum for me on the rocks Serena’

  ‘Yes sir, toast?

  ‘No thanks’.

  Eggs’ ‘Sunny side’  (she goes)

  ‘I’m surprised she bothers coming over’

  ‘Eggs, I may change them, there’s three options’

  ‘Three options is of little disposition to the mind, I’d go for poached’

  ‘We’re fortunate to have options’

  ‘With food It’s a variety, texture and taste changes, changing that is of little consequence, options like shall I sail to Antigua is a lot greater’

  ‘Oh yes, new bars with different rums and breakfasts, the beaches and beach babes are still around, otherwise its almost the same’

  ‘Its better here with the bays, you drop the hook, pick up a mooring or slip in a slip in the marina then its dinghy territory too many places, everything up on deck out of the way and organised space down below’

  ‘I agree, if you’ve found what suits, you should stick with it, I’ve three years on my mooring, quite content’ ‘I moved from the lagoon up in St Georges as it was stifling and noisy’

  ‘I drop in over there for fuel for the generator as it's not far, easy than going along side here and gives the engine a run, not forgetting stocking up on essentials’

  ‘So what’s planned for today?’

  ‘Oh the same, I’ll surf the internet, go down the beach, romanticise on possibilities of the bikini clad ladies whilst sipping a rum punch and watch the sun go down, at our age, except you of course we’re going to have little impact on the world, I’ve the boat for sale, as it has been for three years, relinquish that then realise future possibilities, what possibilities are yet unknown’

  ‘I suppose they aren’t, I just write to fulfil all mine, the stories certainly won’t happen, a way of passing days and nights’

  ‘You’re lucky to find that such an easy pass time’

  ‘Stories flow out’

  ‘My daughter tried, she actually completed a couple of stories’

  ‘I’ve volumes, they go on and on, I change to different to different genres to liven my days up plus new characters, it all satisfies my mind, previously everyday life stunted my outlook and streamlined my activities’

  ‘You like working?’

  ‘As with hands, yes, I think we’re all taught that from an early age, it’s a different form of satisfaction to writing, we’re naturally creative in vast number of areas, I prefer writing to reading, whether its bores the pants of people I don’t mind particularly, plenty of writers have done it to me’

  ‘I’m wrapped up in doing the boat out which is ongoing’

  ‘They are or can be, I have occasional boat days, maintenance, lots actually look for the work on a boat’

  ‘Improving our surroundings’

  ‘I’m thinking of replacing some windows and hatches would be good, the last time I did that it turned into a big job’

‘Certainly a summer job or the dry season, the winter differs little in temperature it just wet, and the selection of hatches is none existent, its just the Lewmar make’

  ‘I know’

  ‘Today is shopping for the yachts people, slipping over to the Spice Mall at the Grand Anse beach’

  ‘The bus run for the boat people, stocking up for the weekend, each time I go over I go to Umbrellas Bar, a few cocktails proves to be a good detour, I just end up picking up sachets of coffee, no milk required for those’

  ‘Here’s our coffee, I’m going to need a detour in life when I sell this boat I have’

  ‘Many older boats are now superseded by ones with uncanny features and design, I’ve three doubles on my forty footer, a larger main with in mast furling for the mainsail would be good, but for the expense how much extra sailing would be done to warrant it’

  ‘I’ve got it, very handy in the breezy conditions around here and your mainsail is small for the size of the boat’

‘Something to dwell on, I’ve been doing so for two years and here’s breakfast, the meal that lasts the day’

  ‘It is with a couple extras you have, cooking is an activity for me, my inventiveness for the day’

  ‘A few thousand words on the laptop placates me’

  ‘You change from a series to another you’re doing?’

  ‘I write one part or episode, always around 12000 words then go to another, I’ve ten on the go, so lots of variances for the mind; thanks Serena’

  ‘Anything else?’

  ‘The rum, Serena’

  ‘Ah yes, on the rocks, a large on, I’ll bring one over’  (she goes)

  ‘Hows that work?’

  ‘Perfectly with the breakfast, they’re very good at making rum over here’

  ‘They’ve certainly had plenty of practice, I shall partake later on the beach’

  ‘On the look out for G&T’s or Pina Colada’s?’

  ‘The forty year old singles on holiday, wishful thinking, most ladies are unattached for a reason at that age, all the others have found their man and have stuck with him through heaven and hell’ ‘Rather like a boat’

  ‘We both keep to boats for a reason’

  ‘If we sink, we sink together and when floating around in them, we’re in perfect harmony’

  ‘No irritating neighbours, looks good that breakfast and here’s your rum’

  ‘Goes well with the sausages, plantain and fried bananas’ ‘I need to nurture another activity besides surfing the internet’

  ‘Especially if some person miraculously turn up with money to buy your boat, new boats people can get loans on as they have a recognised value’

  ‘There is that, even with a full survey the banks view old boats with distrust’

  ‘Old is old, like a car in a way to them, not worth much, getting an old boat that’s good does not have good odds’

  ‘There’s many old ones online ’

  ‘Too many, a killer for the new build market’

  ‘Lots of projects for people to renovate, put pleasure and pride into achieving a new look on their purchase’

‘They’ve still got get the fact it’s an old boat when they try to sell it for twice the price, and do the same again’ ‘No, and rarely the engine is replaced’

‘On sailing vessels they get little use, clean fuel and good oil are a necessity for the auxiliary power, I’m going back to secret harbour after this, you want to tag along, I’ll take the dinghy out’

  ‘Your liquid lunch with the laptop, maybe tomorrow and watch some sport that a bar in Westerhill, its Friday today’

  ‘It is, and new arrivals to entertain ourselves with for the weekend on the off chance, which is big off chance that some entertainment arrives’

  ‘More odds than a lottery, here come some families off the boats’

  ‘Yep, a popular place to keep them entertained, space for them to run around and wi-fi to fill  their minds with online games and films’

  ‘I fill my mind with a mass of information on the internet  which is mostly irrelevant to me’

  ‘News and politics are useful on the TV for people all have their points of view to debate, a news channel on in bar at happy hour in the afternoon gives rise to some banter amongst the drinkers’

  ‘I’m finished, perfect timing as the young ones will run riot for ten minutes after escaping off the boats they’re on’

  ‘Tomorrow, football then?’

  ‘You know the bar, opposite the Clarke’s Court boatyard, the rum is cheap and there’s fried chicken pieces served all day’

  ‘A possibility, you’ll be down here again in the morning?’

  ‘Possibly back over to the beach here this afternoon, it’s a quick and pleasant walk, then here for happy hour at five, time for an exit for me.'

  Larry goes to pay and leaves, Henrique picks up his phone and returns to online news items

Chapter two next day

  The wind is blowing strongly into Secret Harbour, also known as Mt Hartman Bay, as is the second island after Hog Island, there’s a few dinghies at the dinghy dock as Larry surveys the scene, its around eleven am, too rough for the Shadow fax trimaran from Port St Louis to Hog Island with its party of tourists so the barbecue won’t be on