We have been very boring since arriving in back in Grenada in mid July. However, things have been done, fixed, bought and replaced.
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Andrew celebrated his birthday in Prickly Bay. He was very quiet about it and even went to morning exercises on the beach without telling anyone. Dave, Sandy and Elric came over from Woburn Bay in a taxi that evening and we had pizzas at One Love. They have the best, cheapest pizzas we have found so far, and their happy hour special isn't bad either (beers: 3 for 12EC, gin: 2 for price of 1) Their pizza chef that night was very slow and we got our pizzas in twos. Not great when there are six people eating pizza. We eventually all got our food and had a lovely evening celebrating Andrew's birthday.
Remember I said that I had not prepared for birthdays or presents. Well, I went into town with Faye in the morning and bought Andrew a JBL speaker, which he loves. It is a wonderful speaker and we have used it almost every night, especially on a Friday night!
We have watched the rugby matches at Prickly Bay Marina restaurant on the big screen, sometimes both big screens are working!
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Brandon's partner, Gayle, finally arrived in Grenada. She waited 8 weeks for a transit visa through the UK. They left us for a couple of weeks and went up north as far as Bequia. We tried hard to keep up the beach gym, but it just wasn't the same without Brandon there telling us to "Earn the burn!" We had to say goodbye to Gayle at the end of August as she had to return to SA to work.
While all that was happening, Laura and I tried to stay out of Andrew's way as much as possible. The boat is very small when there are no steps and there are tools everywhere! We spent Monday morning at the West Indies Brewing Co, no, not drinking beer, but tea and using the ultra fast Wi-Fi.
Another project Andrew has spent the past month working on is the deck repair. It gets so hot during the day that he only worked on it in the morning and later in the afternoon. He bought a space suit to prevent fiberglass shards from going all over his body, which only worked a bit. We can't go anywhere until it is finished so hopefully he will get a move on and finish it soon.
The Sand Bar is still our favourite place to watch the sunset with a few beers and anyone who wants to join us. We usually go for a swim first and then make sure we are there for happy hour.
Another good way to see people is to have a raft up, or meet on the trampoline of a catamaran. We had sundowners on Brandon's boat, which is always lots of fun.
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| Dave, Andrew, Beverly, Andre and Shaun |
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| Martin, Michael, Rebecca (just see her head), Janice and Shelly |
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| Ian and Laura |
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| Ian, Siobhan, Fay, Gayle, Brandon, Sandy and Tony |
We had to say farewell to Dave and Sandy as they had hauled their boat out for a few months while they visit friends and family in the States. Rebecca Childress went back home to visit her parents. Rob and Paulynne went to the States to be there for the arrival of their grandchild.
A few more South Africans arrived in Prickly. Even though some Saffas had left, at one stage we counted 11 Saffa boats in Prickly Bay.
Shopping is always an interesting experience. I went shopping with Faye and Tony one morning. Faye showed me a whole array of different shops, from the veggie shop, to the Indian market and the place to buy cheaper wine! There is one main road, Maurice Bishop Highway, which is about a 2,5 km walk, 2 minutes in a speeding bus. At the end of the road is CK's where we get wine, some meats, New Zealand cheese and butter. The veggie shop is just a little further on. If we need to go to the big supermarket, IGA, we catch a bus. I enjoy the walk and will walk back to the dinghy dock as well if the shopping isn't too heavy.
We get eggs from the egg lady who sells on a Tuesday at Budget Marine. She is not very reliable and is often AWOL. We have discovered that when you see veggies that you like, eg cauliflower, cabbage and avocado, buy them! Next time you go to the shop they might not be there. The same goes for meat. Everything is frozen so when we find fresh meat such as pork, we buy enough for a few days. The standard fare is chicken or mince meat, (chicken or beef?) steak is not found or is too expensive to buy. One would think the seafood would be freely available, but it is not. Fresh fish is nowhere to be found but you can get frozen shrimp.
Laura's highlight of the month has been being able to watch Disney+. Andrew spent hours on WhatsApp chat with someone trying to work out how we can pay for it here. It keeps booting us out because it recognizes we are in Grenada but the credit card is South African. They couldn't help us so they gave us a month free subscription! Laura has been in heaven!
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There are quite a few boat dogs of all shapes and sizes. One guy paddles every evening with his little white dog on the paddle board. Another guy comes down to the beach and puts his dog on the board while he swims around the bay. The best behaved dog is the one on Black Sheep. We miss our dogs, but would not have them on board for various reasons, the biggest one being the red tape you have to jump through when going to certain islands.
We still can't quite believe we are actually here and spend many hours talking about things we could have done differently. Everybody we meet says they should have stocked their boat more. I have thought about that a lot and the only thing I could have had more of was wine, gin, whiskey, and rum! Our batteries would not have managed any more fridges/cooler box type fridges and we are still using the pasta from home. I think the biggest surprise is that we are eating differently to the way we did at home. We have had to adapt to what we can find and afford. I should have loaded us up with more popcorn, peanut butter, jams, tomato sauce, hot sauces and Mrs Ball's Chutney.
We have met lots of people who have crossed the Atlantic and we have come to the conclusion that we had a fairly good passage. I thank Andrew and his excellent weather watching on Predict Wind.
I know you all think we are in paradise. We are, but life is life no matter where you are. We have problems on the boat which are sometimes big, sometimes small, sometimes an easy fix and sometimes not. Our worries are different from those back home living in a house. When it rains we have to close the hatches so the saloon and nav table don't get wet. So on a good rainy day we spend a lot of time doing hatch gym, opening and closing the hatches! I miss my washing machine and clothes line! Washing is a chore and costs 10EC per wash and 10EC per dry, and can take up to 4 hours to finish if other people are also washing. But on the up side, it is a place where you meet all sorts of people, and learn about their travels while waiting for your turn with the machine.
Do you know how much hair the average person sheds?!! Well, on a boat it is a lot. Ask any cruiser with long hair how much hair they find in all sorts of nooks and crannies! And look how long Laura's hair was. She had been asking for a hair cut for ages so I saved a bit of money and hacked it off myself. I am sure my mom was looking over my shoulder while I was being hairdresser! I had to get it straight first time.
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| Long hair gets everywhere! |
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| Eek! Maybe a bit short! And is it straight? |
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| Gorgeous! |
The thing that has struck me most is the sense of community a group of cruisers share. We all have a common love - sailing, and most of us have at least crossed an ocean. All you need to do is stand on you deck with a sander or paint brush and you have every passing dinghy stopping off to see what you are doing and offer advice. Reach out for help and you have at least one person willing to assist, lend a spanner, give you a lift or just help wherever needed.
Early one morning, we had a massive squall with 50 knots winds rip through the anchorage. Nobody was expecting it and we had no prior warning from the Grenada weather centre. Most of us were up in a hurry, checking that our boats were okay. Many boats on anchor dragged, some were knocked sideways, and some people lost cockpit cushions and paddle board paddles, amongst other things. Shaun had a boat drag onto his anchor chain, with the other guys anchor going up the chain and resting on his bow. He spent the rest of the night watching that they both didn't drag.
Later Claire put on the Prickly Sailing Mates' WhatsApp group that there was a boat dragging and heading out to sea. It didn't take long for about 6 people to respond, Andrew being one of them. They jumped in their dinghies and raced to the yacht. Andrew and another guy got on the boat and tried to pull up the anchor only to find the windlass was not attached to the deck. Apparently the boat was a mess, with pots and pans and rubbish lying around in the cockpit. A call on the radio was put out for a knife so that they could cut the anchor. We had been sent a weather warning that another big gust was expected and I was so worried about them halfway out to sea.
They eventually managed to release the anchor, attaching a buoy to it so that the owner could find it, and towed the boat back to safety.
The big blow didn't materialize and they were all safe. The owner returned to his boat a few days later, but didn't even say thank you for saving his boat. Maybe he didn't actually want it saved! A few weeks later he asked one of the rescuers where his anchor was dropped. Who knows if he found it!
This was our dinghy after the rain and wind came through, filled with water.
Remember in a post a few posts back, I said we had put the dinghy on the side of our boat at night. Well, Sandy and Dave were knocked sideways when the 50 knot gust came through and we are sure it was because they had their dinghy on one side. They wind had something to get under and push them over. Needless to say, we have not had our dinghy up on the side since.
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