Pay It Forward
Hog Island, a protected little anchorage on the southeast coast of Grenada, is where ZTC now sits. The bay is protected by numerous reefs, marked with a pretty sketchy set of markers (or lack of markers is probably a better way to describe it). As you can imagine, we were pretty happy to motor through the entrance yesterday, instantly protected from the 20-25 knot trade winds that were blowing just outside. But that wasn’t the only reason we were happy to be there.
Back in August 2009, we received a very nice message from another Canadian couple who were in Grenada on their PDQ (36). Since that time, we have traded countless emails with our internet “pen pals” and they have tirelessly mentored us through first, our preparations to get ready to cruise and later, the trials that we underwent on the way south. The amount of time and information that they shared with us is typical of what you might expect good friends to do for one another, but yet, we had never met these two. As we thanked them time and time again, their only request is that we too try to Pay It Forward, and help others with similar goals and dreams. Hopefully, my efforts with this blog are, at least in some small way, living up to that.
So, as we were making our final approach to Hog Island, Rebecca on the bow spotting our way through the reefs and me at the helm, we received a cheery hail on the VHF from our “old” friends who were also comfortably at anchor there. After squaring ZTC away, we spent the next 5 hours on the beach with our friends, sharing cold beer and stories. Happy times!
Me, as a child. 😉
You guys have more than kept your end of the bargain! Your efforts to present relevant material day in and day out has been outstanding! You could have just as easily kept a normal travel blog but instead you took the high road and made an attempt to educate which is highly commendable. I think you kept your promise to your “old” friends!
That’s nice to hear that you feel that way, Jim. Thank you.
You guys may have been newbies to sailing and cruising but you expressed yourselves and the journey to others in a way that I believe will help many more newbies to cruising and sailing realize it’s a matter of learning something of the boat and your abilities everyday. Don’t rush it, common sense is the biggest rule and it takes quite a few little or near mistakes to build it up. You guys have made the grade.
Gracias Ken.
You guys have definitely been paying it forward. Can’t you hear me taking notes? Your most recent posts have me thinking about the length of time and time frames from when you start cruising to where you might expect to be by H season. I really couldn’t believe you guys have been out close to a year now. It appears it takes much longer to explore the islands that perhaps I was thinking about since you guys most recently have skipped a few with the intent of getting south. Ah…what a good problem to have… too many islands, too little time.
It really does take a while. You can’t head south too early because of H season and then you need to be really far south by the time it resumes. That gives you 6 months from Annapolis (or thereabouts) to Grenada (or Trini, depending on your insurance provider). You really need to decide where you want to spend your time. Outside of our 8 weeks in Georgetown, Exumas, we didn’t spend more than a week at any one place.
We’d say ya’ll are definitely doing your part in paying it forward! As future cruisers we eagerly read every one of your post to learn and plan our future. Looks like ya’ll are having a blast, which keeps us plugging away at our dream.
Keep working on it, guys. You’ll do it, and we can’t wait to read all about it.
Even more valuablethan the information you pass along regularly (and not to diminish the value of that at all) is, I think, the inspiration that the two of you are to those of us who dream of the life you have. I may not ever get to sail the Caribbean as I dream (because I would never do it alone) but I feel like I could now more than ever before – because of your blog.
Thanks Sandra.
By the way, I know there’s got to be plenty of men out there (or women for that matter) who would love to have a confident, smart partner like you to share a cruising adventure with.
What a very nice thing for you to say. You kinda just made my day. 🙂
🙂
I have learned much from reading your posts and the associated comments.
Hopefully, I will have the opportunity to follow in your footsteps, both aboard and online.
Cheers,
Ken
Gael Force
I hope you do too, Ken.
Hopefully you can still reach out to your Candian friends and let them know that your “pay it forward” obligation is still being successfully followed and appreciated by 2 new, future sailors!
Sadly we’ve lost touch with them. They sold their boat and have moved on.