Farewell Frank. Back to Work for the Astarte Crew

First – new pictures on the web page www.sailastarte.com – there’s a new photo album started.

Last night (Sunday), Frank treated us to drinks and dinner at the Prickly Bay Marina Bar and Pizza place (thanks Frank). It was the end of a really terrific day.

We pulled up anchor and sailed to Prickly from Clark’s Court Bay. Clark’s Court is named after “Grenada’s Number One Rum” (or perhaps the rum was named after the Bay??) Frank sampled this rum last night “because he had to!” The sail from Clark’s Court to Prickly had following seas of about 4 feet and easterly wind 10-15 knots. Frank was at the helm for most of the trip and did a terrific job in tough quartering seas. Not bad for an old “stink-potter.”

We anchored and then went dinghy exploring around the new bay. After some exploring we came back and went swimming / snorkeling from Astarte to some nearby grass patches/rock ledges. There were some great little tropicals and it was a nice day to be in the water. Then it was happy hour time – thirst called and we headed to drinks and dinner. Came back to get Frank packed up, exchanged photos of the visit and finished off some beer and scotch – because as Frank would say – “room aboard Astarte is a premium.”

At 0530 on Monday morning (today), the alarm went off way too soon. Had to relaunch the dinghy (Barbara’s back on the job now that deck boy is gone) and get Frank to shore for a 0645 pick-up by Bernard. Unfortunately we saw that the flight was delayed and just watched Frank’s plane fly overhead at 1135. We all could have slept in. But after Frank was making his way to the airport for a long wait – the crew of Astarte listened to the morning radio nets (weather, coconut telegraph, local Grenada net) and then started on projects. The headsail was lowered, folded, tied and put in the dinghy and brought to the sail repair place. The propane tank was dropped off to be re-filled. The forward head shut down until our next guest and the head and V-berth remade into garage and attic yet again, And this was all before noon!

Frank was a terrific boat guest – and we think he accomplished what he wanted to – break out of his routine and experience a really different culture. Not sure he was wild about the local busses or open air fish market – but he was a good sport. Now he’s heading back to his lovely wife and three beautiful daughters – and work – and we’ll be getting Astarte ready for the next leg of her journey.