So it’s the start of October, we have been in Grenada so long now that we had to go and renew our Visas and our cruising permit.
We were originally granted 3 months and that has expired, we have renewed for another 2 months and that will bring us to the end of November and hopefully the end of Hurricane season.
To date we still have no plans or idea where we will be able to go or what islands will open up if any.
These things are changing constantly so we will just have to wait and see.
I actually haven’t felt like writing much or sharing, a very close family friend lost a child a beautiful boy whom we spent a lot of time with when our kids were growing up, obviously he is an adult now but I found it incredibly hard not being home to hold her hand and make her cups of tea.
It’s been a while and I’ve been getting messages asking how we are going so I think it’s about time to share.
How have we spent our time?
We have slowly moved up and down the coast of Grenada, stopping at a few anchorages along the way, only a couple of new ones, there are actually very limited places to stop/anchor, with reefs and steep cliffs lining most of the coastline, Morne Rouge one of our favoriteS is one of the few anchorages that has a beautiful accessible beach.
Another Quaran-tilla birthday party, this time in Carriacou at a little beach restaurant, we got together to celebrate Dan’s birthday - Breakaweigh, the food was just ok and we didn’t stay there very long, after we had eaten we stood on the road not sure whether to go right or left, luckily we turned right and came across a great little restaurant/bar called Lambi Queen where there was a local band playing, what a fantastic vibe, the members of the band changed with each song, they included a fiddle player, an electric guitar, a couple of bongo drums and a few other percussion instruments, as well as numerous vocalists, the band was so much fun they had everyone up dancing, then they cleared the floor for three incredible street performers, they used 3 sticks juggling the middle one (Devil Sticks is what it’s called) these guys danced and performed with so much energy, incredible balance, rhythm and acrobatics we were mesmerized.
The next day we Moved just around the corner and dropped the anchor in Hillsborough just so we could have the local fried chicken again, it’s that good, Millennial Falcon even joined us for the treat.
We are heading back to St George’s our new lithium batteries should be landing soon, on the way we stopped for a couple of nights at Ronde Island, this is the uninhabited one, close to Kick em Jenny.
Fruit Bat were there too and they were talking about going ashore and lighting a fire, Craig and I weren’t too keen on being ashore at sunset and getting eaten by mosquitoes, the Dengi Fever is rampant throughout all the islands. So instead we suggest going for a quick sail on Fruitbat and maybe catching a fish for dinner.
It was such a treat going for a sail on a different boat, we literally just headed out to sea with a light breeze on the starboard side, turned around and had the breeze pushing us back on the port, watching Scott and Sam work as a team maneuvering Fruitbat off anchor, setting and trimming the sails and then tacking back and dropping their anchor back where they departed from was a pleasure, plus we had Lupe for company.
One not funny but a little bit funny thing that happened, we put out 4 fishing lines and Scott was telling us one of the rods was very special to him as it had belonged to his grandfather and he had been gifted it just before he left.
As the foresail was being unfurled the line caught under that particular rod and whipped it overboard never to be seen again (not funny) but I was trying to film a few snippets of our sail and I actually caught the moment on film and Sams face when she realised what had gone
overboard was priceless. We didn’t catch a fish and Craig might get round to editing the footage into a little movie.
We caught up with Jack and Kyra - Yellowbird, around at True Blue Bay just for a night, It was lovely to see them they had been unable to go to Dans birthday night as they were studying hard and couldn’t take the time out to sail to Carriacou.
These guys are absolute legends, now they have had over 12 months experience out on the water they decided they do love this lifestyle and want to somehow make a career on the water and they were in the middle of doing their yacht masters course, this qualification will allow them to find work on charter boats or as delivery skippers, all the hours they have done captaining their own little boat helps add to their required sea hours for the course.
We called in to see them and had a hilarious night onboard Adriana but decided we were too much of a distraction to their studying, so moved back to Morn Rouge the next morning.
7th September 2020 it’s exactly 1 year since we were hit by Hurricane Dorian back on Magdalen Islands, reflecting back on our year since, we are still blown away by how many miles we have travelled, all the amazing experiences and all the beautiful people we have met along the way. We pinch ourselves all the time. I wonder where we will be in another 12 months?
The aerial for the Bad Boy WiFi extender had detached from the base, that was attached to the mast, we had been given a refund by the marine store we bought it from. While we had been anchored at Mon Rouge I had taken a bus into St George’s and luckily we were able to replace it, the one other marine store on the island had one in stock. The last one due to Covid they are no longer being manufactured.
Taking advantage of a very still morning at Ronde I hoisted Craig up the mast (using the electric winch) so he could reattach it, it’s 64ft up and I’m happy it’s not my job to go up there.
That evening we were visited by a local fisherman he sold us 2 plate sized red snapper for $35 EC about Au$18 gutted and descaled, we probably paid too much but fresh fish delivered, what a treat.
Pan fried, crispy skinned over mash with lemon and capers yum, I’m getting better at eating fish just don’t kill them in front of me.
We were invited on to Breakaweigh for Nawal’s famous (in our circle) lasagna so we left Ronde and had a nice downwind sail to Mon Rouge for a one night stopover and a swim, before sailed around the corner to busy not so clean water, Prickly Bay.
This is our first venture into the more southern bays of Grenada, consisting of Prickly Bay, Mt Hartman Bay, Woburn and Westerhall.
They are all very sheltered and hence more boats are anchored in their waters, we have avoided coming South this far until now as people seem to get stuck here.
We had a quick stop in Prickly where we motored over to Breakaweigh for dinner, Nawal has certainly mastered her pressure-cooker technique feeding us all a delicious lasagna, the minced beef here always looks a bit gray and fatty, Nawal had used spiced Italian sausages for the meat component, a brilliant idea, Nath and Craig had both made completely different styles of garlic bread, all served with chilled Sangria
Prickly Bay is close to the Budget marine store, here there is marina with facilities such as haul out, laundry, free dingy dock all one side of the bay and on the other is a little general store and the best find ever - Le Boucher a French Butcher, this bay is where the cruisers net emits from, there is walking access to a few restaurants and access to the only boutique brewery on the island.
But Craig seems to have cricked his neck maybe slept on it the wrong way, it’s been a week or so and it still hurts so he’s made an appointment to see Don from Kracken (we met them when we hauled out) Don is a chiropractor and has set up business a Le Phare Bleu a marina around in Woburn Bay so the next morning we upped anchor and headed around for his appointment. Le Phare Bleu is so pretty with a huge swimming pool lots of little nooks and crannies with outdoor seating and a French deli called Meet and Meat. Originally when we first arrived in Grenada we talked about booking in there for a couple of weeks, as it turns out it is where all the cruisers with kids hang out, so not really our cup of tea.
After Craig had his neck tweaked we had a quick look in the shop, oh my !! they hang their own meat, it’s all locally sourced, they make their own sausages, and cure their own deli meats, everything looked delicious.
We couldn’t resist the sliced ham (sweetened with coconut)
As well as the ham we picked up some huge fresh garlic and a handful of homegrown tomatoes and the obligatory baguette. Fresh ham and tomato baguette for lunch oh la la.
We had just plonked the anchor outside Le Phare Bleu while Craig had his appointment so we pulled it up again and sailed back to Morn Rouge, it is a favorite spot, Millennial Falcon joined us and we went ashore for sundowners, to a little beach shack bar, it’s all very shabby chic knocked together from crates and pallets and painted in bright colors, none of it feels very strong all a bit temporary really, we were joined by an another Australian couple on a boat called Esprit.
On the Monday we had such a fun day it was a bit of a dull drizzly one Millennial Falcon took a day off from their never ending routine of filming and editing as they produce an episode a week it’s a full time job for them plus they are constantly upgrading and fixing things on their boat so to have them spend most of the day relaxing on Adriana was such a treat, we played dominoes then cards as well as eating and drinking our way through the day.
Tuesday 15th September 2020
Our visas have expired, we have enjoyed 3 months rest and safe harbor in Grenada it is still hurricane season so we will renew our visas for another 2 months giving us until 15th November to decide our next move.
Renewing our visa involved (remember it’s 31c - feels like 38c that is what the weather app tells us) a lot of walking.
We decide to use the big boat like a car and move Adriana back around to St George’s where we can dingy to shore.
After dropping the anchor and ensuring it was well dug in, the first stop was Port Louie Marina to renew our cruising license, then we felt we couldn’t leave the dingy at the Marina so we took it into town.
A down and out local selling mangos to passers by said he would watch it for us and we agreed to buy his mangos on our way back, it’s a 1km walk to the botanical gardens where the immigration office is located, it’s up a steep hill.
So up to the office, hand over our passports, wait, we are handed a slip of paper with the cost, then a short walk to payment office, pay, back to visa office receipt in hand, hand that over, and wait.
Eventually maybe 20 minutes later a lovely young customs officer explains we have 2 more months to enjoy Grenada, look here is the date, “you are welcome” he says as we thank him, and he means it too.
A downhill walk back to the street and back in to our dingy still tied to the rickety old dock I bought 6 mangoes for $5 EC but I didn’t have change so I had to spend $10EC adding to the mangoes a bag of those tiny limes that go so well in gin and tonics.
Back to Adriana, lift the anchor and motor the 20 minutes back to Morn Rouge, just in time for 5 o’clock beers on the deck, it was a huge day.
Morn Rouge was a bit too rolly that night so the next morning we upped the anchor and headed back to True Blue Bay there is what’s called “ The Container Park” a collection of take away restaurants and bars, we have been hearing about it advertised on the morning cruisers net so we thought we might go for a walk and pick up something different for dinner. We ended up going two nights in a row.
The first night we are on our own and have Greek.
Lamb is super expensive here so we haven’t had it for such a long time, the lamb plate was really nice $25Ec a bit on the small side for what they cost but shaved lamb, seasoned rice and salad served with pita bread delicious.
This area is beside the University, Its is a medical School brining students from 140 different countries to Grenada but it’s almost completely closed, with only a few students still living in the hundreds of available apartments, we walked past a student car hire business with about 20 cars all sitting unused, a normally vibrant bustling community reduced to empty buildings and streets.
Our friends Tom and Laurie on Imiloa have just completed quarantine, they had stayed longer in USVirgin Islands than we did, then sailed down the chain of Caribbean islands finding StVincent still open for cruisers and spent some more time there before heading to Grenada, remember we left USVI’s as soon as Grenada opened up for fear of being in the path of another hurricane, Imiloa took the risk of traveling a lot slower and it worked out ok for them.
We caught up with Imiloa, Timmies Run and Yellowbird for a lovely evening at the container park, I guess it was a lebananese restaurant we had Shawarma (souvlakia) we were able to sit outside remembering to spray ourselves with bug spray.
Jack and Kyra have passed their course after just completing a week’s practical out on the water on a boat the same model as Timmies Run so they were keen to celebrate, but they were really exhausted we enjoyed and ice cream on the way home but I think we were back home by cruisers midnight (8pm)
So we end up being stuck in the southern anchorages the ONE thing we were trying to avoid.
We moved from True Blue around the corner to Prickly Bay, the next one along, our solar batteries have arrived and they can be delivered to the dingy dock here, it’s really calm and we are next to Budget Marine for all the bits and pieces we might need for the installation.
It wasn’t too hard installing the new batteries we had some help, with the layout and wiring pattern, an Australian couple Robert and Adriana - Cirrus, whom we had previously only spoken to via what’s app, Adriana had started the FB group Aussies stranded at sea 2020 they have purchased the same lithium batteries so Craig and Robert have been discussing the installation, Craig has received some great advice.
We advertised the 4 old batteries on the cruisers buy swap or sell FB page and 3 of them were picked up by a young couple Marcel and Manu not sure of their boats name. The fourth was picked up by a local guy for next to nothing, it was the least useable one so he got it really cheap, the old batteries were incredibly heavy so it was quite a drama lifting them up the stairs and out of the boat into the dinghy, but we managed it. The new ones are very light in comparison.
Imiloa are going home to the USA their daughter is expecting their first grandchild, they have left their catamaran at Whisper Cove Marina around in Woburn Bay and will return after Christmas to keep traveling around the Caribbean. We caught up with them and all the other Quaran-Tilla (except for Emilie and Tommy - Little Martha who sailed home to USA from us Virgin Islands)
We met at the Brewery for a burger and a decent handcrafted ale, finally we have finished those shit America beers we purchase in Fort Pierce all 630 of them, I think they were past their best before date by the end.
“We have broken our friends”
Sam says as Craig is hobbling back up the washed out path leading back from the 7 Sisters Waterfalls. Scott and Sam - Fruit Bat have hired a car for a fortnight and offered to take us with them to visit the waterfalls, we had already had a great day out two days earlier driving around (in air conditioned comfort I might add) taking us on my pilgrimage to the town of Dunfermline. I was born in Dunfermline in Scotland and was fascinated to discover a town with the same name here in Grenada, hence I was keen to visit.
It’s not really a town more a settlement or a village with a small group of stalls selling fruit and veggies with many brightly painted homes dotted through the thick green bush land, there are slim roads with goats tethered in the verges, the roads are concrete and quite well maintained, winding through the luscious mountainside.
We came to a hand painted sign that says “Welcome to Dunfermline “ painted in the Grenadian colors of red, yellow and green.
We stopped at the side of the road to have a look, Scott being not quite as shy as me started chatting to a little old lady, saying my “friend here (me) was born in Dunfermline in Scotland” she just looked at him blankly, he continued “did she know of anyone named Archibald” she wrinkled her brow and shook her head, then remembered that “maybe there might be someone of that name who lives somewhere up that road” vaguely pointing in a wide arc, Scott chatted to her for a few more minutes while the rest of us took some photos, back in the car we decided not to pursue the vague maybe up that road Archibald person and headed over to the town of St Andrews.
A busy bustling town spread out over many blocks of run down buildings, the church is very pretty, classic style but looking quite out of place with blue painted fence and palm trees swaying in the breeze.
We headed to the shop “Archibald Distributors” another local old fashioned supermarket Scott mentioned to the girl at the checkout “my friends name is Archibald” the girl just shrugged like why are you telling ME that, do I look like I care, we picked up a packet of chips each as a snack and headed towards the undercover market place, finding not a lot of produce for sale and most of the ladies were asleep at their stalls. In their defense it was the middle of the day and the heat was intense.
Walking through a lane way we were invited by the owner of a little hole in the wall beer shack to stop and have a beer and a chat. Happy to stop for a cold refreshing beer we watched a couple of men play a very unfathomable mix of droughts and chess.
We have found that most locals have travelled either to the UK, USA or Canada and many of the surrounding Caribbean islands as well and even though most of them don’t know much about Australia other than cricket they are always happy for a chat.
Back to our waterfall hike, the land the waterfalls are on are privately owned and there was a $5EC charge per person, so after paying and getting directions on where to start our hike from, we were the only car there so managed to park right at the start of the walk. Which was a godsend on the way back.
We knew the forecast was for rain showers but decided to just go anyway, we smothered ourselves in bug spray and set off.
It was so beautiful walking down the rough hewed steps there were bright red flowers, hummingbirds, lizards and yellow butterflies we could hear the water flowing just off in the distance. At one point there had been handrails but the jungle had swallowed them up.
After 20 minutes or so we had to cross the river all attempts to keep out of the mud and to keep our feet dry were abandoned as we sloshed through the muddy puddles, the air was thick with moisture and mosquitoes, everything growing seemed to be oversized, huge rounds of thick thick black bamboo, luscious vines wrapping themselves around tree trunks and huge ferns and palm trees lined our way.
The track was wet rocky and rough, slippery with knotted tree roots hidden in the deep layers of decayed leaves.
The track crossed another section of the river, climbing over the slippery rocks helped to wash the mud out of our shoes, this then brought us to the main waterfall, it was a decent size with a large natural swimming pool, we stripped off to our bathers and jumped in, the water was beautiful crystal clear and cool, we should have taken soap with us and had a shower, Craig and Scott swam over and stood under the torrential water flowing down over the rocks, but not in the middle and not for long.
As we were splashing around taking photos it started to rain, we were already wet but had to quickly pack away our cameras.
We had been told there were a couple of waterfalls that we could visit and a couple you needed a guide to find we decided to keep going in the rain (it usually stops quite quickly) the 2nd waterfall must be a bit further on.
It was all uphill, literally climbing up the mountain, using tree roots to hold on to to help hoist ourselves up, the rain kept up, at first the canopy above us was so dense we were just getting big raindrops but that soon changed, I’m not sure if we just got higher or the rain got heavier, but it wasn’t long before we could hardly see in front of us. The thought “are we having fun yet” did cross my mind, it was torrential then the wind whipped up with sticks and branches falling down around us, then the thunder started, it was so close and so loud, by this stage we were almost at the top of the ridge, hiding under a tree but trying not to hide under a tree for fear of a lightning strike, the path had veered away from the river and it didn’t look like it was rounding back in that direction, climbing up following the others I was sweating but cold and wet, any insect repellent had washed off and all I could think of was how far back we had to walk, but at the same time it was very beautiful and exhilarating being out in the elements and we did make comments about how lovely and cool it was maybe the “coolest we had felt for the longest period of time” in months.
Scott and Sam are a lot younger than Craig and I and have been out walking, hiking and doing all sorts of physical pursuits that we haven’t done so they have a fitness level way beyond ours so I was relieved when they conceded defeat and agreed we probably were not going to find another waterfall and the first river crossing was probably counted as the first waterfall and the one we swam in the second.
It was still pouring and the path down was now very slippery holding on to passing trees was very important I picked up a stick but quite often had to throw it down if front of me as I needed both hands to hold on.
A couple of times I just gave up and slid down on my bottom not caring how ruined my bathers were getting.
Meanwhile Craig was forging on ahead, that is until his right foot got caught under a tree root and his left leg slid out from underneath him twisting his right knee with an audible pop.
That slowed him down, he was now limping favoring his right knee, he used my stick to help him negotiate the steep inclines back to the car, he kept it quiet how much pain he was in and we still went to Dan and Nawals rental apartment for dinner, as planned
Lovely Scott had cottoned on and when we stopped to pick up beer and brownie mix for dessert he grabbed a box of ibruproohin painkillers for Craig.
Oh and the other thing was, our phone had been in the backpack which got absolutely drenched and we drowned our only phone !! I picked up a bag of rice hoping to salvage the phone by burying it immediately in the rice.
We had a lovely late afternoon evening hanging out at Dan and Nawal’s playing cards and drinking rum in air conditioned comfort. Nawal made little meat and veg filled goyozo as a special treat and Sam whipped up the brownie mix for dessert but the whole time I was wondering how we were going to get Craig back on the boat.
We managed to get him back in the dingy without too much drama, he was helped from the car to the dingy by Scott, and luckily it was a calm night, Craig managed to slide feet first from a sitting position in and when we reached Adriana slide out of the dingy onto our back deck then hoist himself up and slide down the stairs into the cabin.
He took himself off to bed convinced that he had done himself some major damage.
Next morning we brought out the big gun painkillers (OxyContin) after he nearly passed out with the pain.
So there we there Craig with a busted knee, no phone, no cooking gas and low on fresh food.
Our wonderful friends Scott and Sam were there to help us thank goodness.
Even though they were anchored in the bay next door, Sam drove the car around, the first time she had driven since leaving the USA 10 months ago, meanwhile Scott came around between the bays in his dingy to pick me up, their dingy has a bigger engine than ours we would never ever have attempted to come around the point.
Both our propane cylinders were empty the second one had run out the previous day and we had been planning to head back around to Grand Mal that day to get both filled.
Scott and Sam very kindly took me to get them filled, then we stopped at the IGA for a much needed shop, while there Sam snapped some photos of what phones were for sale in the little tech shop next to the supermarket. Luckily we still had my iPad and free WiFi so we were not completely out of touch.
Craig rested for the next few days dropping painkillers like lollies alternating between ice packs and zapping the tender area with our tens machine, by about the 4th day the swelling had gone down and he had stopped taking the strongest pain killers.
I had done the trip by local bus back into the supermarket and purchased a new Samsung phone as we had been unable to restart our drowned Oppo phone, we then had install all our important apps such as windy for weather, the anchor alarm one is important, it had also been a quick dash so we didn’t loose the left over data on our plan as we were due to renew that day.
As Craig was convalescing we were also working on finishing the install of our new lithium batteries, we have gone from 4 x 200 amp hour AGM batteries to 6 x 100 amp hour lithiums but with the AGMs we only had 50% usable amps, so in effect we have gone up 200 amp hours (message Craig for more info) it is all a little bit beyond me.
With the upgrade we had to install new regulators. These had been ordered separately and they arrived a week later, we were able to have them delivered to the dingy dock so no walking into town yeah.
We had a problem the regulator for the battery that we use to start the engine wasn’t working, it’s directly connected to the engine alternator and nothing Craig tried fixed it.
Craig was in constant discussion with the manufacturer of the regulator and Robert Downie our fellow Aussie.
Craig figured it was the alternator, the original one that was from the old batteries, this new system required an additional wire (field wire) that wasn’t there, we knew Bill the previous owner had left a spare alternator onboard so we dug that one out and installed it, I’ll just add to work on these systems we had to dismantle the stairs that allowed access from the cabin to the cockpit so I was either stuck down below or up top for hours on end while Craig contorted his body to work in the lower engine space.
The spare made no difference, we were looking for lights indicating the regulator was working but there was nothing.
We did some research and found a local who serviced alternators, the system was to pack it up, drop it to Budget Marine where a local would drop it off on his way home, the man was located in Guyave a suburb approx 20 km away.
There would be a small tip expected for the delivery guy.
We called the repair guy explained what we required “just a field wire added “ we attached a note explaining what we needed done....
It came back totally fucked he claimed it didn’t work and so had replaced parts plus didn’t attach the wire we required. $500 EC thank you.
Craig was devastated we had given him a perfectly good working Yalmar alternator and he had even broken the casing putting in the cheap replacement parts.
But Craig kept his calm, standing in the Budget Store on the phone to the repair guy, who agreed to replace all the old parts, a few days later we went back and collected our old alternator at no charge, thank goodness. We paid the budget guy the $60 EC delivery I guess it wasn’t his fault. Meanwhile we had ordered a new one, we were lucky Craig had been talking to the manufacturer and he gave us a new one at a discounted price.
Again we had to catch the bus in to pick it up from DHL, stopping at Port Louis Marina on the way with our boat papers so we didn’t have to pay import duty.
A funny thing happened in the middle of this, the Spice Island Marine is a haul out yard next to The Budget Marine Store, it has laundry facilities $10Ec per load, that’s pretty cheap the last lot we used was $30 EC a load.
When Craig dropped me off there was only one of the two machines working and someone with 2 loads in front of me, I waited there reading to pass the time, a few hours later Craig came to pick me up, I’d decided to use the dryer for my white cotton bedsheets seeing as I had to wait for the second load to wash and being quite thick and big they would be the hardest to dry, if the wind picks up which it is apt to do big things like sheets can suddenly get whipped off the pegs and dunked in the sea.
As we are sitting waiting on the dryer to finish we see huge storm clouds come over, and torrential rain heading over Adriana directly towards us, quick Craig yells “all the hatches (windows) are open” we throw the almost dry washing in the bag, grab the wet load and head back reaching the dingy just as the rain hits us, we motor back through the blinding rain, getting absolutely drenched, then just as we grab the rails back at Adriana the rain stops, the downpour has passed over us.
Every hatch was wide open including a couple that we don’t normally open up, the rugs were soaked and I had to grab clean towels to mop up the rainwater, she looked like a Chinese laundry for the next few hours with all our rugs towels and washing hanging off the rails, but at least I had nice clean sheets.
Nawal and Dan have leased an apartment for a month, with air conditioning, a good kitchen, a proper bed, a washing machine and WiFi just what we all miss oh and it doesn’t constantly tilt and roll.
We did consider renting a place for a couple of weeks to give us a break but really we live in luxury (or so we tell ourselves) with the new batteries we can watch movies on the Tv, if it’s overwhelmingly hot we can start the generator and put the air conditioning on, we have done this a few times but it’s a bit of a waste of time, it only takes a short while and the cabin is hot again, one night we ran it then went straight to bed that was nice luxury.
Also the thought of emptying the boat of all the spices and other ingredients we would need for cooking then all our clothes etc seemed like too much work.
But we did enjoy visiting Dan and Nawal, while Craig was resting his knee I had a day with Nawal, we watched movies ate chips and toasted cheese sandwiches and had a few drinks, it was hard to leave the luxury and go back to Adriana.
Nawal walked me back and Craig picked me up at a pre organised time. He was still able to slide in and out of the dinghy just not able to walk too far.
One half of the couple who purchased our old batteries, Minou is a physiotherapist so we contacted her and asked if she would mind taking a look at Craig’s knee, she very kindly came onboard and gave Craig an hour massage and consultation, he was most relieved to hear that she could see no major damage and to just keep doing what he is doing.
Our first outing was a 30 minute/ 2.4 km walk to the local micro brewery to catch up with the Quaran-tilla gang. Tom and Laurie - Imiloa are going home, their daughter’s baby is due within the month and they have secured flights back to the US, they live in St Augustine, one of our favorite towns that we visited on our way down the ICW.
** Laurie was home for about 2 days before her granddaughter was born, she arrived a couple of weeks earlier than her due date **
Craig ended up with a painful heel, after favoring his knee on the walk to the brewery and back.
So a few more quiet days onboard Adriana, we had Dan and Nawal over for lunch picking up a couple of baguettes, a whole roast chicken and some pâté from Le Boucher a rather delicious French butchers we discovered right next to the dingy dock.
Yellowbird are going back to Canada, Jack and Kyra are headed home for a spell, they will leave their boat tied to a mooring ball for a couple of months, Jack works in the film industry as a sound engineer/rigger and has some work lined up and I’m sure Kyras Mum will be happy to see her, she had planned to meet them in Dominican Republic then that was changed to Puerto Rico then the plans all fell apart due to Covid-19.
We will miss them we have been together on and off since early January, we first met in The Bahamas, 10 months of friendship, that’s a long time in this cruising lifestyle.
I just had a look and yes I did write about meeting them in my blog -January 2020- I didn’t go into much detail, how we met was....
We had heard of this water hole on the island that we were anchored beside, but we couldn’t find the start of the path to get to it, we took what we thought was the path but ended up having to bash through the bush, that’s where we met Jack and Kyra coming towards us doing exactly the same thing, we had to laugh at each other, we thought the Canadians would be good to follow seeing how outdoorsy they are and they were thinking the same about the Australians.
After getting back in the dingy and moving to the next beach we eventually found the path, when we met them again at the waterhole, they asked me to take their photo as they jumped off the cliff into the water using their go pro, they used the shot I took on their Instagram page I was just a little but chuffed.
Looking back we have had so many fun times together, exploring the Bahamas then Dominican Republic, dinners onboard, scary times like crossing to DR, crossing the Mona Passage being kicked out of Puerto Rico and chased out by the police to name but a few.
They will be back onboard Yellowbird in the not so distant future and who knows we mights still be here in Grenada when they do.
We also said goodbye to Carlos a single handed sailor who was headed to Martinique to pick up his French girlfriend who has been living in French Polynesia apparently she can fly French airlines and get into the French islands in the Caribbean, Carlos who has an Australian passport and Australian flagged boat will only be able to pick her up, not go ashore, then they will take off, heading to the Panama Canal and the South Pacific.
Our little Quaran-Tilla group has definitely split for now, Timmies Run and Fruit Bat are sitting in Carriacou waiting for a weather window to cross to St Vincent and the Grenadines, then I think they are both planning to head North towards home.
Breakaweigh are still here in the bay next to us, they plan to take their time heading back North expecting to be back in Nova Scotia at the end of this Winter. It’s just starting to get cold there now.
I guess we need to find some new friends that are heading in the same direction as us, once we know where that is 🥴
