Woo Hoo

We have been accepted into Grenada so now we can keep heading south no need to double back to USA.

There were FB pages “ Stranded at Sea 2020” “Grenada or Bust” “Salty Dawg May 20” “USVI Cruisers and Boaters”  we were following them all.  

The stranded at sea one was actually started by one of our fellow cruising boats, that was stranded in the Bahamas at the same time we were running down the Dominican and Puerto Rico coast.  Grenada or Bust was our connection to the other boats wanting to enter Grenada to get away from the hurricane zone, not only boats from USVI’s but all the Caribbean islands had boats under the same circumstances as us and there were even boats coming across from Europe.  The Salty Dawg page would have been our lifeline if we had had too sail North.

USVI Cruisers and Boaters was full of local information, so we were not alone, there were hundreds of boats anchored in the USVI’s a lot of them departed with the Salty Dawgs flotillas over a period of weeks.

The group GrenadaLima were working with the Grenada government to try to gain access for the hundreds of boats who would normally be passing through, hauling out or just spending time in Grenada waters during hurricane season, the marinas and other general businesses would be losing a huge part of their annual income so there was a working group set up to help facilitate the border opening.

Grenada had been relatively clear of the coronavirus not seeing the horrendous numbers the larger countries had experienced and I guess knowing that cruisers were low risk carriers being generally Isolated onboard their own boats it’s not like arriving on a cruise ship or an airplane,  so they were happy to open their border and I’m sure after much discussion and debates set up some ground rules.

We will be required to do 14 days quarantine onboard.  Then pay for a medical test to check we are definitely virus free.

There are arrangements in place for supermarket deliveries, water and propane, just before we left we received word we can order a local SIM card online and have it delivered to the anchorage, they are also setting up a free WiFi. Doesn’t sound to complicated or too hard to comply with their rules.

It’s bittersweet for us being able to keep going south we are happy to continue our journey but more than a bit disappointed, we were looking forward to maybe catching up with a few people we had met along the way Seamlessly and Little Martha to name a couple, but also there was a good chance we would not be allowed into Canada due to borders still being in lockdown so the chances of catching up with our many Canadian friends in the summer weather time frame was pretty slim.

We started to see posts on sites when other cruisers received their entry confirmation and we were very relieved to receive ours, deciding to take an early arrival date just in case they changed their mind...

Our American friends were all going to hang out in the USVI’s for another month before heading south, some had family flying in to visit but we figured they probably also felt more comfortable in their own territories.

We made our departure date, planning with the Canadians in our group  Yellowbird, Breakaway and Timmies Run.

We tracked Alexis progress on the predict wind app he was making good progress we can communicate with him using iridium go email.   

Before he left everyone had contributed to Alexis pantry gifting him homemade bread and muffins, the most delicious looking trail mix full of dark chocolate bits, I bagged up a mix of custard powder, sugar and powdered milk, just add water and stir and Craig made a fish curry,  Alexi sent Craig a message thanking him for the fish curry saying “man that curry was so good, better than sex”.  

Every evening Craig emailed Alexi for a chat. He had such a long way to go over 2000 nautical miles he is taking route 3 the outside route, furthest offshore, heading to Bermuda before catching the Gulfstream to pull him north/ westerly to Nova Scotia.

A week or so before our departure we had done all our chores in Charlotte Amalie, St Thomas including having a technician check the watermaker, a big provision and filling up our diesel tank and topping up the 3 water tanks so we felt we could sail over to St Croix  and hang out for a bit.  We decided to go to Frederiksted instead of Christiansted the other main town on the island. It’s a bit further round on the South side also the best departure point for our passage to Grenada.

We feel very lucky and privileged to have been able to spend time in such a beautiful anchorage with no cruise ships or charter boats around us but we feel very sorry for the local people who rely on the tourists for their incomes. 

The streets were dead with only ever a few locals out and about also its very very hot.  Nath and Brian on Timmies Run were anchored around in Christandsted but hightailed it around to join us after there was a shooting at the town docks.  They said they heard gun shots around 8pm then in the morning there were police and ambulance on shore Nath was checking it out through the binoculars and could see a person lying on the dock at first she thought they just needed medical assistance then she watched them drape a white blanket over the whole body.   There is no strict gun control and gang shootings are very common on both St. John’s and St Croix.

This island was discovered first visited by Columbus In 1493.  At one time it was one of the wealthiest islands in the Caribbean famous for its  to sugar plantations rum production. But when slavery was abolished in the mid 1800’s the island lost its wealth, there are still ruins on the island from the early plantation estates.

There is a large Rastafarian population, so many men with dreadlocks, they tie them on top of their head and then cover them with specially made stocking type hair nets, unfortunately all the Rasta restaurants were closed it was such a shame we couldn’t enjoy all the food and attractions the island had to offer.

We did find an awesome bar called “Feds” it’s a resort on the waterfront they opened the bar the day we arrived you could have a drink while waiting on your food to be cooked (wink wink ). 

We spent a lovely late afternoon with Fruit Bat, we treated ourselves to the local speciality cocktail “painkiller” at $10 it was great value, a mixture of local rums topped with coconut milk and orange juice with a sprinkle of nutmeg on top. 

Captain Morgan Rum is produced here on St Croix, we rang them but there were no tours running due to covid19. We also tried the local rum distillery Cruzan Rum but with no luck.

Craig has never been happy with the output of our watermaker that’s why we had a technician go over Craig’s installation, turns out he had installed it perfectly. They kept trying to work out why it’s liters per minute were low and the parts per million were high.

Craig replaced the membrane twice (the first time we were sent a faulty replacement) then after the technician had been the unit completely stopped.  Going back through all the components we found the problem one of the dc motor brushes (there are 2) had burnt out.  After many phone calls to electronic shops and engine shops we took a taxi with Timmies Run visiting a few of the businesses we had spoken too, but no one had what we needed - one shop offered to repair the brush so we returned the next day the shop owner repaired the part as best he could, he didn’t think it would actually work so there was no charge.

The repair did work and the system was running even better than before but the manufacturers are sending a whole new motor that we will have sent to Granada.

Driving around that day was the first time I’d been so far inland it was lovely to see the countryside it’s greener here on this island than the other 2 but still quite dry, with steep hills lots of cactus, bougainvillea, flame trees and coconut palm, we had seen 2 mango trees around in chrisiandstead but couldn’t find any more. 

There is evidence everywhere of wind damage from hurricanes and lots of really old broken down stone buildings, the occupied ones are painted pretty pastel colors but not many were in good repair mostly the business along the waterfront.

Timmies Run had lots of luck finding conch but there was not much spearfishing being done just plenty of looking I think fruit bat and Craig had a snorkel most days, a favorite spot was under the large pier again there is no way they could have had as much freedom if the cruise ships had been in town. 

It’s getting closer to departure date, things always get a bit stressful on the boat, it’s so nice being on anchor it’s a hard thought to up and leave but it will also be good to be moving again, to me the sailing part is a means to an end whereas Craig is in his element adjusting the sails, reading the weather and using the charts to get us to our destination.

We still have so much dry food onboard pasta and rice noodles from our provisioning in Florida, we even still have cartons of beer but we make a last minute dash to a great supermarket we found it’s only $2.50 pp per trip and a short walk carrying the shopping to the dingy.  This supermarket is worth the bus trip the one I walked to with Fruit Bat was dirty and the fruit and veggies were not so fresh. It was a 45 minute walk there, and as much as I needed the walk, as it was nice to see the houses and how the locals live but it was sooo hot I wouldn’t have done it a second time.

Everyone was relieved to hear that Alexis had arrived safely in Bermuda after 8 days at sea, he still has the 2nd stage of his journey to complete.

We made our plans Saturday 30th May is D day we are off to Granada .........

US Virgin Islands

It has been over a month bobbing around at anchor in The US Virgin Islands, once we were granted visas we felt a huge flood of relief, we could stay here not only stay but our visa is for 6 months, so no need to stress for a little while, time to relax, take in the scenery and complete some cleaning and maintenance.  

We will have to wait and see what happens with the other Caribbean Islands to work out whether we can continue our journey south or will we have to head back to the USA before the onset of hurricane season.

Watching the world go into lockdown we are happy to be where we are, following the news reports about the spread of the COVID19 virus, and then the horror of the magnitude of the deaths in Italy and the USA there are worse places we could be stuck.

The Virgin Islands seemed to get off lightly with only minimum cases and a handful of deaths.  

There  are three Islands that make up the group - StThomas, the largest with the capital Charlotte Amille population 50,000, St Croix population around 50,000 and St John 5,000 the least inhabited as its mostly National Park land. 
Visited by Christopher Columbus in 1493 the islands were owned by the Spanish, the French and then the Danish who eventually sold it to the US in1927.

That first day when we visited the customs office we had stopped at a fruit stand and picked up some much needed fruit (a couple of apples, a couple of oranges, a papaya, an avocado and few sweet potatoes) the cost was US $25 hmmm we thought that’s expensive but as it turns out fruit and veg are not cheap here, another day we were visiting the Home Depot store and spent $17 on 3 mangoes ($10) 6 limes ($5) and 2 tomatoes ($2).

The supermarkets are maybe a little cheaper but not such good quality as the roadside stands.

A few days after we arrived, after we had checked in, provisioned and visited the marine and hardware stores (all having social distancing and the wearing of masks in place) we headed over to St Johns Island, we joined around 150 other boats in Maho/St Francis Bay for a few days away from the noise and not so clear waters of Charlotte Amille.

It’s a National Park with mooring Balls provided but you are allowed to anchor if all the balls are taken and they certainly were all being used, to the point people were starting to fight over them, they were in such demand boats were tying their dingy to the mooring ball when they went out the regulation 3 miles to pump out their holding tanks and boats waiting to secure a ball were untying the dingy and grabbing the ball for themselves we didn’t care we are always just as happy to use our anchor.

On our way there we passed Alexi’s boat, there was a huge swell running, creating surfable waves over a normally inactive reef, a once a year occurrence and Alexi was in the right place at the right time to catch some surf, but oh my his little boat was really bobbing in the swell. Yellowbird was anchored in the next bay along and they didn’t look any more comfortable.  

Some of the local population were concerned about the number of boats that were anchored around the islands, a human poo had been found in Maho Bay and the cruisers were being blamed.  Im sure cruisers more than anyone are more aware and respectful of the state of the ocean environment, Cruiser are allowed to empty their black water tanks 3 nautical miles offshore and most cruisers do abide by this rule, most tanks have macerators so the origin of the Poo was unlikely to come from one of us more likely a local swimming at the beach especially since the public toilets had all been closed.  Once the water authorities returned to work after Easter they tested all the popular bays and declared every beach clean and safe for swimming.

But it reenforced what we had been feeling that the locals didn’t want us anchored in their waters.

On our second day we had spent the day resting- recovering, late in the afternoon Yellowbird met us onshore and we all walked to McDonald’s for a well deserved junk food fix.  Wearing masks and keeping our distance from each other we had our first taste of how the locals felt.

We couldn’t work out if the girl serving us just couldn’t give a dam or was being rude, virtually throwing the food at us Craig had to ask twice for the drink he had just paid for, that was until she served a local person then she was all smiles.

The locals are afraid we will be bringing the virus to their island, there are approx 600 boats taking shelter in the bays, probably no more than normal visitors for this time of year, the bulk of them are US flagged so not really foreign it’s an American island. 

They are afraid we will use their medical resources and I guess their food if it becomes in short supply.

All of this is understandable so we stay on our boat only going ashore to supermarket, marine supplier and hardware store (and junk food fix)

The Governor called for all the beaches to be closed over the Easter break to reduce family gatherings and help contain any potential outbreaks of COVID19.

We spend our time in a few different anchorages, Charlotte Amille was convenient to supermarket, hardware etc but dirty and noisy with ambulances, police and fire trucks using the busy main road opposite where we were anchored making for hot restless nights.

There were a number of homeless people begging - that always feels uncomfortable and reading the local news they seem to have shootings daily, mostly gang/drug related but nevertheless you wouldn’t want to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.  

The town is so very pretty, full of historic buildings but they were all closed.  All of them. Taking a walk to check out the town was a draining experience it is very hot and with all the shops closed there is no air conditioned shops or cafes to escape into to cool down. As a cruise ship destination the big name stores are all here but the streets are completely empty.

Maho Bay was lovely with clear water and a pebbly beach but so many boats anchored there.  Timmies Run had been sitting on anchor for a few days  when we got there so it was nice to see familiar faces.
Maho/Francis Bay is pretty, it’s part of the National Park system and there are about 50 mooring balls spread over the huge natural harbour.  The beach is coral sand, so a bit rough with large and small rocks, pebbles and broken coral and quite a steep drop that made pulling up in the dingy a bit awkward we heard that a few days earlier a wave had come at the shore and tipped up a dingy that was sitting parallel to the shore, turfing the occupants into the water.  
We survived the landing and had a nice walk along the beach with Nath and Brian from Timmies Run, they closed the beach the next day.  That had been our first walk in 14 days other than running errands on shore a few times.

Once the beaches were declared closed we upped anchor and joined a few of the Quara- tilla at Blunt Island a locals favorite for snorkeling and diving.

Easter was spent anchored off Blunt Island with Yellowbird, Little Martha, Timmies Run and Fruit Bat.  The beach was closed but the water was nice and clear,  with the occasional turtle popping up to take a breath. Craig, Sam and the boys from the other boats all joined forces and had a day cleaning each other’s hulls, barnacles and a weedy film grows below the waterline and causes the boat to loose speed if it has a dirty bottom, there was a very large barracuda hanging around under Adriana that put me off swimming, the boys tried to scare it away when they were cleaning the hull by lunging at it, but it didn’t seem to be bothered by their actions, it eventually left after they fired a spear gun over its head. 

But I still wasn’t too keen on swimming until one very clear day there were so many people snorkeling around us I thought what the heck and jumped in, I used my snorkel mask and hung off a floating rope tied to the back of the boat, there was so much to see, directly under us. Some big coral heads with so many different colorful fish it was like an aquarium.  

The longer I hung out floating above, the more there was to see, as my eyes adjusted more and more schools of tiny colorful fish came into view.  So many blue, orange, striped fish too many to identify and list.

This had been a lovely anchorage but eventually we had to head back to Charlotte Amille to re provision.

We had decided to order a whisker pole, this has been on Craig’s wish list since we first started our journey.  The pole will hold out the foresail helping it to catch more wind, it will also allow us to sail wing on wing that’s where the mainsail opens to one side and the foresail open on the opposite side, allowing the sails a much wider area to catch the wind, this is used for downwind sailing when the wind Is directly behind.

When Craig had been picking up new bolts to re attach the mid sail the local rigging shop okd for us to have the pole delivered to their door. Yay that’s been our problem the whole way not having an address for deliveries, we never did  received the pressure gauge for the watermaker that was sent to Georgetown Bahamas, at the start the shipping company wouldn’t give it to anyone without id, by the time we realized this and organized someone else to go there with copies of Craig’s passport they were closed for the weekend, then that person had to leave, (weather window to get south) then we asked Seamlessly to go and they were closed then Seamlessly had to leave, we slightly think it’s a bit of a scam we wonder what happens to all the unclaimed parcels.

We did manage to purchase a replacement pressure gauge at a watermaker shop in USVI’s.  Kyra’s (Yellowbird )mum was flying in to meet her in The Dominican or Puerto Rico so we ordered a few items on eBay, courtesy flags for the Caribbean, a seed sprouter and some heat shrink soldering clamps, Kyra’s  Mum had to abandon her plans once everyone went into lockdown so she posted out the flags for us, Alexi had met a couple living on their boat while working at the local hospital, they had a post box and we were able to use that address.

Luckily we had an AT&T SIM from our time in the US and once we worked out that for $75 instead of $60 we could have totally unlimited Internet we were all set for iso on Adriana, Originally we had re actived the card in Puerto Rico where we had purchased the cheaper plan, but we were governed and slowed right down after a couple of weeks, so it was worth the extra money, but in saying that the Australian $ has gone so low we are virtually paying double for everything.  

A horrible thing happened to us we had a rat onboard, we awoke one morning to find something had snacked on a banana ripening out in the cockpit, we waited overnight before doing anything leaving the banana in place and sure enough next morning it had been chewed again, Jack and Kyra picked up a set of sticky traps from the hardware for us, we set them out overnight but Stupid me had put some garbage on deck ready to take to shore in the morning and our visitor got into that instead of  going to where the banana had been and so didn’t walk onto our sticky trap. 

The first day there had been no fecal evidence to show that we had a rat but once it had started eating on board it started defecating, we totally freaked out that we had missed our opportunity to catch it overnight especially when I found evidence inside a drawer that the little pest had made its way into the wall cavities. 

It had found our snack drawer and chewed on some biscuits and a couple of muesli bars so we emptied that drawer stuck in the 2 sticky traps and went ashore for a few hours.  On our return we were relieved to see we had caught the little bugger, we have no idea where it came from or how it managed to get onboard.  It either swam from the island we were anchored closest to but we were still about 800mt away it may have climbed onboard via the anchor chain or it maybe climbed into the dingy and hitched a ride making a tightrope out of the dingy painter. Ether way we were so relieved to catch it before it started chewing wires or hoses!!! 

While we were back in Charlotte Amalie  Alexi realized that his rigging and his rudder were in desperate need of repair so we decided that Alexi was like family and just like my brother at home who’s children Tabitha and Charli were going out to work each day but still allowed in the family home we would be accepting of Alexi on our boat.  Did I mention Alexi is from the Magdalen Islands  and I think because we had been so looked after up there during Hurricane Dorian we wanted to “pay back” by helping Alexi as much as we could.  When we were in Magdalen Islands the local coastguard Bruno whom Craig had spent many hours going over the approaching “Hurricane “ weather With,  had said “ oh you have just missed one of our sailors he has just left heading in the same direction as you, going to Puerto Rico” talking to Alexi he confirmed that everyone we had met, Bruno, Chislan and Pierette (who gave us shelter) were either his Dads friends or connected through family.

But he is also a lovely lovely guy, aged between my two boys, so it was nice to have him around.  

We also spent time with our other Quaran - tilla friends although I think we all consciously kept a distance because we knew it was so easy to get together and party and that was stretching the quarantine guidelines.  

We felt safe enough looking at the figures for the surrounding Islands

By the numbers - 1st May 2020

From the Virgin Islands Health Department

and Johns Hopkins University

World: 4,118,783 cases, 283,0013 deaths

United States: 1,329,799 cases, 79,528 deaths

U.S Virgin Islands: 69 cases, 5 deaths

St. Croix: 29 confirmed cases, 3 deaths, 656 negative tests

St. Thomas: 38 confirmed cases, 2 deaths, 416 negative tests

St. John: 2 confirmed cases, 0 deaths, 30 negative tests

British Virgin Islands: 7 cases, 1 death
                   ———————————————————

We headed over to St Coix and joined some of the others for a couple of days, it was nice to hoist the sails and feel the cooler air away from the hot concrete in Charlotte Amalie.  Again we went ashore and had a walk around but most shops were closed, except for a great local bakery, a couple of the bars on the waterfront selling take away pizza and burgers and the best ice cream ever!! 

Maybe it was because it was the first ice cream we had had in a long time, we have been unable to buy it from the supermarket, remember we usually have to walk back to dingy then we have to climb in the dingy to get home and the temperature is around 28-30 everyday.  But US$16 was a bit expensive we probably should not have had 2 scoops.

We tried Brewers Bay a little anchorage close to the airport, with great swell protection and after CA it was nice to have minimum rocking and rolling, for an island in lockdown there were a lot of airplanes coming and going.  Mostly smaller planes but there was the occasional American Airlines jet coming in.

It was a pretty bay, nice clear water, Timmies Run joined us and we had a couple of evenings onshore, heading over around 4pm and just hanging around on the beach or waist high in the water, we made some new friends Carol and Tom on Gina Lee, an American couple from Florida around our age, we were waiting on the whisker pole and a replacement membrane for the watermaker that had been playing up. So when we knew the parcels had arrived we upped anchor and headed back to Charlotte Amalie.  

Upping anchor was not so easy this time, for the first time ever we were snagged, the anchor was caught under a piece of coral. A whole bar of the anchor was caught right underneath a rocky outcrop in about 7 -7.5 mts of water !!  Craig donned his snorkel, flippers and weight belt and was able to take a deep breath and dive down to check it out, firstly he tried to shift it from its wedged position but it was jammed in tight, then he wanted me to drive the boat forward using the anchor winch to pull it out but at an angle rather than straight up, the problem with that was I couldn’t receive instructions from him in the water at the front of the boat and I was scared I would run him over.

Luckily Brian and Nathalie dinged over to help us extract ourselves Nathalie climbed on board to stand at the bow so she could relay instructions to me at the wheel, Craig was in the water diving to see how we were progressing and Brian was in his dingy relaying Craig’s instruction to Nath but before we even tried this method Brian suggested tying a rope to the anchor and then using the dingy motor to maneuver the anchor free, Craig had to dive down a couple of times to secure the rope he had grabbed from the rope locker but eventually he was happy.

Brian had to get the dingy facing in the right direction while holding the rope tied to the anchor, then gun the dingy.  It took a few attempts to juggle the rope and the dingy engine handle but with Craig’s directions he managed to free it.  What a drama not only for us, but we were upset we may have damaged the coral, we had dropped the anchor on a sandy patch but it must have been sand over rocks and it had jumped a bit before settling.  

Around the 1st of May we were sad to say goodbye to Tommy and Emilie on little Martha they are headed home to Georgia USA they are the first of our group to depart, everyone else is waiting to see what is going to happen with Grenada and Trinidad’s borders.  We loved meeting and spending time with them exploring and hanging out in the Dominican Republic and I’m sure we will see them again someday.

On around the 4th May we heard all our Quarantine-Tilla friends were anchored in Magans Bay, Kyra from Yellowbird had said how pretty it was with a beautiful beach and we should get ourselves over there, but we didn’t realize just how pretty it was !

Our whisker pole had arrived, after a quick trip to the supermarket to top up our fruit and vegetables we upped anchor and had a beautiful 4 hour sail, Magans is directly opposite Charlotte Amalie on the northern side of the Island and Kyra wasn’t wrong we sailed right in to the most gorgeous horseshoe bay with a beautiful kilometer long, golden sand beach and crystal clear water, we were kicking ourselves we had stayed so long in dirty, noisy Charlotte Amalie. 

Not only is it gorgeous with lots of schools of fish clearly visible under the boat, there is plenty of bird activity with brown pelicans and terns diving right next to us, the seagulls have black feathers on their heads but still act the same as all seagulls, I passed a good half hour watching a seagull land on a pelicans back each time it snagged a fish it was trying to steal the fish right out of the pelicans mouth and there is a resident turtle  - but the best thing is all our friends are here too.  Yellowbird, Alexi, Fruit Bat, Timmies Run, Imiloa, Breakaway and Gina Lee joining us too.  Alexi and I were saying how pretty it was and he said “I feel like I’m on holidays” and yes he is right that’s exactly what it feels like, restrictions are lifting so we don’t feel so bad all getting together in fact the bay is full of charter boats with lots of big parties happening onboard and the beach is busy especially on the weekends.

Nath from Timmies celebrated her birthday with a gathering on the beach, each day around 4pm we would all head ashore for a cooling swim and a few social drinks.  But reading through my calendar most days say “quiet day on boat”

It’s all lovely and fun but there is still a stressful undercurrent causing sleepless nights.  We are still waiting on news that Grenada or Trinidad will be opening their borders but the closer it gets to Hurricane Season the less likely it looks like happening.  The US is in total chaos, no social distancing, no face masks and an ever climbing death toll, but it looks like going back there is going to be our only option, it’s the only country we have an entry visa for.

There is a group called “ The Salty Dawgs Sailing Association ” and they normally run regattas (a way of boats traveling in groups sharing weather information and keeping in touch with each other for safety and company) this year due to the coronavirus they are unable to run their normal regatta so they decided to open their extensive wealth of knowledge and information to help boats that are stranded in the Caribbean get to the states, all for free or a donation if you can afford it.

We signed up with the Salty Dawgs but have also completed forms for marina space in both Grenada and Trinidad.  Remember all the other islands in the Caribbean are totally shut down, so no stopping enroute  to get fuel or food or even to rest. 

Grenada will be a 4-5 day sail and the US a minimum of 9 days.  There will be no stopping in any of the countries we came through, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic or Bahamas they  are completely closed off to transient boaters, but going with the Salty Dawg Association means that if you do get into trouble there is someone on land watching your progress and with resources to be able to help you.

There are 3 suggested routes back to US, we are opting for route 3.

Basically route 1 takes you closest to land, route 2 a bit further out, and route 3 the furthest offshore heading towards Bermuda, then using the Gulf Stream to get further north, for us it will be an easier way to make landfall further up the US coastline, towards North Carolina or Georgia.

So that’s where we are at right now Wednesday 13th May 2020, hurricane season officially starts on the 1st of June. 

From what information we are receiving Grenada is talking about opening up to tourists early June, looking at the statistics there have previously been no tropical storms or hurricanes go through USVI’s before mid July but realistically how long can we risk waiting, all indications are predicting an early start to the season as the oceans are much warmer than normal for this time of year.  And we don’t want to wait too long or miss out on the help of the Salty Dawgs Association if we don’t go with their last group back to the USA.

But for the next week we are doing all the little jobs that need to be done before we go to sea, prepping some easy to heat up meals and checking our emails every couple of hours for updates and news, Craig is glued to his weather apps constantly going through all the route planning scenarios in his head.