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 .........