On Monday we set sail from Tobago Keys to sail to Grenada.
We had a brief stop in Union Island to clear customs. Unfortunately a cruise ship had arrived that morning so we sat waiting for customs and immigration for 2 1/2 hours. By the time we set sail it was too late to sail all the way to Prickly bay in grenada so we pulled into Carriacou and cleared customs there then checked out the small town in the late afternoon.
We had left out 3.1m zodiac with friends in Union Island so only had the walker bay which can get pretty crowded with all the family and bags onboard. On the way into the beach the bung fell out of the walker bay and we began to sink. Unable to find the bung I put my hand over the hole and started bailing while Emilie steered us to the beach. We must have looked a sight!
We departed Carriacou at first light and sailed down the eastern side of Grenada. What a beautiful island Grenada is and we were quite surprised how much nicer it was than we had expected.
We arrived in prickly bay at midday, and I went ashore to check out the Budget Marine store and look for a hire car.
By early evening we were on the road I. Our Dihatsu jeep towards a large supermarket to do our Christmas and NYE provision (booze) shopping. The kids met Rasta Santa, got some sweets, and reminded us (many times) about our lack of Christmas tree.
The following morning I returned to Budget Marine to do some serious battening. We managed to purchase a new Tohatsu 9.8 for the dinghy, a silent x wind turbine and all our other chandlery spares snd supplies for $4000 US. A big shop, however we saved 40%!
I then had a meeting with the yard about storing Sunday Island and repairing the dent caused by a rogue yacht in Malta. The meeting with the yard went well. I was impressed with the cleanliness snd standard of work. We commissioned the yard to build a new frame for the wind generator snd organised plans for April 2024. While in the yard I spotted another Koopmans of very similar design to Sunday Island.
We then hit the road to explore this beautiful island, our first stop was the customs office in Camper & Nicholson in St George. Then onto a beautiful Annandale waterfall before visiting the Grand Etang national park complete with rain forest, volcano crater (now a lake) monkeys, armadillos.
On our way back to the boat we stopped by a chocolate factory, and finally the market to as we gave in to the Children’s Christmas tree request.
The next day was wet and squally. Not the nicest weather to be sailing, so Emilie spent the day organising the boat, while I installed the new Silent X wind generator and ripped apart the aft cabin to complete the wiring.
This morning at 0700 we departed for Union island to meet friends for a Christmas. We sailed up the more sheltered western side of Grenada with Easterly winds.