Gra'inne is now in Summer Storage

We have the boat waxed and secured at Grenada Marine for another summer season.

We cleaned and waxed the hull, flushed all raw water systems (saltwater) with fresh water, cleaned all perishable foods or anything that had been opened off the boat, redid the interior teak with Daly's teak oil, washed all bedding and towels etc, changed the oil, oil filters, fuel fitlers on the main engine and generator, and applied a UV protectant to the deck topsides.

Lesley with one of the local "pot hounds". In the Bahamas they call them pot cakes. She's never found an animal she doesn't like. While we were in the yard today we even had a local come by and show us his pet "tortoise" . We had not seen this species anywhere but Mustique so they must be indigenous here as well. So we bought some local nutmeg and passed on the tortoise. The tortoise was looking for a new home!

We have a small amount of work to do tomorrow and then we are going to the beach. We are seriously tired tonight.

Gra'inne is out of the water

We left LePhareBleu Marina yesterday morning with the wind kicking up to 20 knots. We got out of the slip OK and made our way East to St David's arriving at about 1000. We continued getting the boat ready for our "SCHEDULED" 1300 haul out. We dropped the stay sail and folded it, lifted the dinghy up and stored it upside down on the foredeck and gave the boat a good freshwater wash down.

Our 1300 haulout was doomed from the start - we heard the Marina hailing a large Amel (French hailing port) at about 1030 - no answer. The hail was repeated several times and the Amel finally answered and said something about water before one of the guys on the boat jumped in the water and swam around front. We are pretty sure that the mooring ball was tangled on the guys bowline. The Amel then moved into the lift well and we thought that we might just make our scheduled haulout. WRONG - It was now lunch time..... At 1310 we heard the travel lift start and thought we might make a 1330 haul but the guy was not ready and had to get someone from the sail loft to drop both of his head sails.

We were finally hauled, the boat power washed and blocked by about 1545 - the yard shuts down at 1600 so we manged to squeak in again (LONG STORY).

We spent the night in a small privately owned guest house, had a nice shower with cool water (another story here), and then dinner. Sometime during the night we had a very heavy rain storm so we are hoping that the rain also fell in St David's so the boat would have an extra fresh water rinse!

Le Phare Bleu Marina

We are now in the marina completing preparation for our 27 April haul out for summer storage. Work goes so much easier when you have the air conditioner on in the boat! We are nearly finished with our work so today will be a catch up with the little things day.

The trip from here to St Davids (Grenada Marine) is a short one but it is always really rough - heading directly into the trades and short steep chop.

Calvigny Island

While getting ready to haul out for the summer we like to anchor behind the reef off Calvigny Island. The island is private and they make there own water so they can keep the lush grounds looking nice and green.

You can see the severity of the drought by looking at the hill in the background of each picture. We had some rain last week that started to bring some green back to the trees but it remains unusually dry and the ground cover is still just brown.





The Island has a very unusual looking resort type hotel and there is always lots of construction going on. The main work this visit appears to be major renovations to the private residence on the Island.

Kite Surfer - She's Back

Several days later, the kite surfer lady came back and tried again. This photo was taken from our boat with the surfer and here husband setting up on Calvigny Island, Grenada.










The kite is up!















Now getting ready to take off!














She's up and off!

Kite Surfer

Several days ago we were sitting on the boat in the early evening and a dinghy came up near us and went ashore. We watched as the couple unloaded and started rigging something. When the compressed air bottle came out and they filled the leading edge of the wing we figured that it must have been a kite surfer rig. We watched as the lines were laid out, the woman then hooked up the harness and attached the wing while here husband stabilized the wing.

We continued to watch as the wing lifted off, drug the woman toward our boat, and the wing and lines snagged our bow and anchor roller and rigging. The couple were very apologetic but we told them that there was no problem as we helped them untangle the lines, deflate the wing, and gain control of the whole setup. The couple were older than me and were French but the woman spoke very good English.

I didn't manage to get any pictures of the encounter.

Caribbean "DUST BOWL"?

First we had volcanic ash from Montserrat while up north, then after arriving in Grenada about a week ago we anchored off Calvigny Island, southern Grenada. What, more dust? This time it is wind blown dust from the Sahara.









Dust on our sheets (ropes for you land lubbers), sail covers, and overhead hatch screens.




We've finally gotten a few showers and most of the dust ended up on deck as a nice dark red gooey looking mess.



We were able to wash the boat pretty thoroughly on our way here from Carriacou during two very heavy down pours but after only a week here, red mud.....





I've talked with several locals about the dust and was informed that the dust was airborne all the way from the Sahara. Apparently the local news reported on the ongoing dust arrival.