To Grenada

 

Our summer plans went through several revisions before we settled on waiting out the hurricane season in Grenada.  This gave us a chance to travel back to the states as well as to put into a boat yard to have some work done. In addition our insurance wants us further south.  So as the end of June 2011 approaches we are on our way to Grenada.  With the wind ESE at 15k we once again have a great sail taking seven hours to reach Prickly Bay and our anchorage for the night.  A word about Prickly Bay, ROLLY!  If you can avoid it, do so.  We picked up and moved to Mt. Hartman the next morning after spending a night in the washer.  Now to get ready for the boat yard.

Grenada's east coast

Upon our arrival in Grenada we tune into the Cruisers Net on VHF 68 and find that there is no end to the activities available to us.  There are BBQ's and Happy Hours, Dominoes, Yoga, Potluck Dinners and Burger Nights, Cricket and Movie Night's, the list goes on and on.  Our first night in Mt. Hartman we settle for a beer with the crew of "Freya" Peter and Jutte.  They have been in Grenada for a while and will be leaving soon, they are fun folks, we'll see them later down the road.  Of course there are old friends here as well, Rob and Lauren of "Arita" are just back from Trinidad and we hoist a sundowner.

Vicky makes our arraingments with Spice Island Marine Services to haul BOTO on Tuesday June 28th and we are set for a weeks worth of work.  The main job is to repaint the bottom, then we'll wax and compound the hull above the waterline plus several other smaller jobs.

primer coat, the yellowbelly



on the hard, stairway to heaven



a HI gloss shine

The yard did the bottom for us so we could concentrate on the topsides, WOW what a workout standing on a ladder working the polisher.


one of the dedicated yard workers



Hey! Where's the water

 It was a bit warm in the yard without a nice sea breeze nor AC.  But Chula had the chance to play on terra firma for a week.  Meanwhile, the ladder gave us a wonderful workout, up the seven rungs, down the seven rungs, oops forgot something up again.  Notice the spacing between the boats.  Many of these boats are being stored for the summer, and in addition to the steel supports they are tied to the ground with straps and steel cable.  Normally this would suffice for a small storm, however a number of years ago a hurricane blew through Grenada and knocked all of the boats down, remeber we mentioned dominoes.



new bottom paint to last a lifetime (?)

 Well our work here is through, turns out we only needed four days to get things done, and what you ask did we do?  Well the bottom paint is obvious and the crew at Spice Island did a great job.  Vicky and I waxed and compunded the topsides, we had the cockpit canvas, dodger and bimini restiched, we repaired the "small" leak we had in the stern (while under way we would normally collect a few gallons of seawater, no big deal, yeah right), pulled the galley sink and cleaned rust, reset and recaulked, installed two new DC fans (may not sound like much, but try running wires while hanging upside down in the heat), replaced zincs, polished stainless steel on deck, cleaned below decks removing mildew (yuck), and etc......  Oh one other thing important item.  Boats have thru hulls, these are holes in the boat that allow water to come in, such as to cool the diesel engine.  They also allow for water to go out, such as to drain a sink our a toilet.  When on the hard and workers are about DO NOT us a thru hull, someone will get wet and annoyed.  Well by the end of the week we're ready to get wet again.
We splash Boto on Friday the 1st of July, this is not technically the beginning of a voyage so we should be ok.  We're heading to the Port Louis Marina, where we hope to have airconditioning and unlimited showers.  We will be disappointed as we will not have AC, but the showers are World Class.  Oh well, can't have it all.


that's a back on the water smile



dreamin' of land

We make our way into the marina just in time for the 4th of July and Canada Day Celebrations compliements of the staff.  We reunite with old friends and make new, such is life.


 

"Zero to Cruising"



"Happy Times"

 

"Song" and "Boto"



Ron "Molly Bloom" (l), Steve "Celebration" (c), John "Oceana" (r)

 Festivities behind us, and Carnival just around the corner we take off for a day trip around the island, with Cutty.  Next up, Grenada, an Island Tour.