The day we arrived we were showered with a heavy duty rain/wind storm. It was surprising how windy it was and it made me nervous knowing it would only get worse as the season gets going. We were only at the front of the yard, I had not seen the back part of the yard where the cats were stored so I was a bit nervous. It was a big storm that faded after about an hour, long time for island squalls.

This morning for haul out we had perfect weather, little breeze and calm seas which made it a little less challenging to squeeze our 26′ wide boat into this cement slip in order to get hauled out. Matt drove up to the slip, turned her around and then expertly “walked” her over to port to glide her in effortlessly into the slip backwards. Of course it looked effortless to me as all I had to do was toss the stern line and then the spring line and then hold a fender on the side between the boat and cement. But it went really well, the entire team, of about 6 men at Grenada Marine took great care of our boat! The lift drove our boat (photos to come) all the way to the back of the yard, head first facing a nice protective berm! I was thrilled with our placement and so impressed with the chalking process! Our insurance broker will be happy to see how protected we are!

The rest of the day was spent delivering food, donating items, doing 5 loads of laundry, and cleaning until my hands were raw. The boys had to suffer in the heat while they removed the very, heavy main (maybe our next one with be lighter, like Kevlar). We were all hot and took a break to eat some tasty ribs and fries then back to work. We met Gary and his wife on Sol Surfer and chatted them up about our sail bag and insurance broker. After a very long day, we headed to our hotel, La Sagesse.

The owner, Mike picked us up from the yard’s little bar, a nice free perk of the hotel, and brought us to this lovely little oasis on the next bay over. We were told we could walk through the bushes and over the hills but with the luggage and our lack of energy we opted for the ride. This hotel has 22 rooms, a manor with 12 and then two other buildings. It is incredibly lush, very tropical and on its own beach – less than 30 feet from every room. Yes a gorgeous, lean, sandy beach! It has gorgeous twisty palm trees, flowers and smells that delight all your senses. We showered, a nice long hot shower and headed to the restaurant. We could not be more pleased with the atmosphere, the open setting on to the beach, the amazing food, and helpful staff. We met a really nice cruising couple from Germany and shared lots of stories well into the night. Our room is called Ted’s room, named after Mike’s dad, and it has a loft overlooking the beach and great space. We will certainly come back here as it is a bit of paradise.

Thank goodness for great charts, our Garmen (well, Wayne’s) and the guidebook to tell us how to safely navigate to this bay, lots of reefs, Grenada is a rocky little island, with a lot of reefs, with not many sandy beaches that we’ve seen so far. We motored from our bay the previous night as the wind was on our nose and found St David’s bay. It is a nice rolly bay with a good breeze. At first glance my impression of our new yard was not all that. But they have a lift large enough to haul our baby out, which is hard to find and they come highly recommended for rigging work. We went ashore to walk around and were greeted by a lovely bar/restaurant right on the shore peppered with palm trees and friendly people. We ordered some beverages and I went off to find Raquel, the office manager to let her know we had arrived.

Today was just an short excursion ashore as we had a lot of work to do to decommission the boat. The boys removed the jib, cleaned out the anchor and line lockers and worked on the exterior as I worked on removing perishable foods and items to be donated. Packing started and sorting of laundry too. The cleaning then kicked into full gear with striping the beds, wiping down all of the interior walls, cabinets, and floors. Storing items in closets and cabinets and more cleaning – mostly salt water residue and my hair! We finished our day with the last of Charlie and again a yummy meal to conclude our productive day!