Our plan, to snorkel the Sculpture gardens were thwarted by rain, and clouds. Normally a snorkel in the rain is a no brainer but when the sun isn’t showing a shadow, the sculptures down 25 feet in the water would be a little washed out out. And so were we.

I had heard they were charging fees for the mooring balls in Grenada’s natural parks and sure enough, about 10 mins before we were giving up on snorkeling the rangers showed up. Super nice people. They couldn’t believe there were only 3 people on board, and must have asked us 6 times to verify. Very interesting that the fee was in USD–we could have come up with exactly 26.70 EC, but it was much easier to just pay 10 USD.

Twas a long day, and no sail so we let Trawler boy Wayne take control in the rain and bashing into the wind and waves. The only thing we had going for us today, is that we were not starting in Trinidad so the sail was only about 1/2 as long, the Christmas winds sometimes come a little north of east, and of course the direction we are heading is NorthEast, with the wind directly on the nose.
We could have sailed it, it would have taken at least twice as long and we needed to be in Hillsborough before 4pm to clear out of Grenada.

As of tomorrow, we will “officially” be cleared out of Grenada, but for now we are floating along side one of the Grenadine islands, Petite St. Vincent An island with a private resort and only a resort. At this hour, I can almost make out music from shore, but can’t see anyone at the bar or restaurant. And it was pretty much that way too last time we were here.

Since the crew liked last night’s dinner, chicken in pasta with a light alfredo sauce. A repeat was requested and honored. Too many boats around us to use the pre-salted ocean water to boil the noodles, but the redo was pretty close.

The freezer, Hmmm. it worked when we got on the boat, froze everything like its supposed to. Then it had enough, 45 degrees celcius is not remotely close. At one point, even tho it read 30 something we still had ice. This happened last trip as well, but when we turned if off for a few days it started working again so we are trying the same technique, St Lucia will parting our funds from us to get it working correctly. I brought the filter that should stop the issue with me, but would need to evac and recharge the system to install it – a job best left to the professionals with the correct tools. Donald, does Victoria air make bot calls? The only real downside is the fridge is fullb0C akakes finding the cold beer a bit of a challenge (and Christine misses her jello)

So as you may gather, when sailing mother nature plays a huge role in schedules. We are still ahead of schedule, We have a full couple of days to get 20 miles north, clear in to the grenadines and stock up on some Hairoun beer. Last couple of times here, we made the mistake of trying to return the stag bottles from Grenada in the Grenadines and they ended up in the trash and visa versa. So this time, we dropped off the Stag while clearing $mms UizKAۇ
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Today we had one of our longer sail days for this trip (50 miles) we encountered lots of squalls, some lightening, thunder, and 25-30k wind. Luckily the swells never really exceeded 3-4′ and Wayne took the helm for most of the day from Grenada to Hillsborough. Wayne in foul weather gear, me in my favorite Layla’s jacket and swim wear and Matt in swim trunks scrubbing down the deck. All I can say is thank goodness for the gingerbread cookies I made just before we left (I have frozen dough too so we can make more before the family arrives). We sailed with a smaller charter boat most of the way which kept us entertained, they caught a nice big wad of seaweed but we did not do much better as our pretty fish got off the hook once it hit the sugar scoop.

Matt and I went ashore to clear customs/immigration and the island was alive with holiday music and people in the streets making jolly. It cost us $1 to clear customs and it was relatively painless with few people in line – yeah! We visited our favorite place, Patsy’s deli which has the best meats and cheeses! She is an adorable English woman! I sailed over the short stretch from Hillsborough to Petite St. Vincent in big gusts, no sails, and COLD. What, why am I cold in the Caribbean? At least I don’t have to hide from the sun as the sun is hiding from us.

We are going to have to do a liquor run tomorrow before the islands shut down for the holiday. I did a quick inventory and we had 5 bottles of vodka, 2 bottles of malibu rum, 1 bottle of regular rum and lots of mixers. Although I love when the boys take care of me, 5 bottles of vodka might be a bit much for me over 3 weeks! Unfortunately, our freezer decided to die and we had to move all the food to the fridge and it means no jello!

Before we left Grenada Marine, we bargained with a few locals, Sammy and Beverly, who were selling fruits. We bought two bags of oranges (5 pcs in each bag) and a bag of five fingers (5 pcs) and then they gave me a free bag of baby tomatoes, a bag of fresh cinnamon, and a beautiful bouquet of flowers! Nothing like fresh, local flowers to make a woman feel loved and beautiful! All under $10 US

Sending much love to you land lobbers and wishing you a night where you sleep dreamily!