Day of Rest for whom? Up with the sun, watch the local spear fisherman for fill his bag up with treasures. Another fishing from shore. Didn’t find any breakfast takers, so I had an orange. Christine wasn’t ready hungry yet.

Last nights pasta dinner was cooked on our 2 small burners the large one didn’t want to stay light, had to hold the button in.. Seems like the thermo-couple wasn’t getting its heat. So tore the stove apart, cleaned up some gunk underneath, couldn’t really get to the thermo thingy but was able to identify it from the top side, gave it a once over with a light emory cloth, thinking I had done nothing substantal put the shiz back together, and whatever it worked, now all 3 burners work like the should.

Replaced a faulty light switch, Christine wen’t through the pantry and organized our keep and discard, and removed the cardboard that breeds bugs in the tropics. She added some shelves to her swimsuit storage. I wear the same stinky shorts, till they can stand on their own, course I did split one a the seam, and they had to be retired. Hopefully no one at the bar noticed..

Off the ball, just as the day boats came with loads of tourists to see the gardens. Left ourselves plenty of room to raise the main, it wasn’t blowing all that hard, 20knots ish, but this was the first time since we put it on, and there is always the question of the reefing lines. So, 2 reefs, yellow was the plan. All looked good, till it didn’t. I had not tied the yellow line far out enough on the boom, so it made for terrible sail shape and possible chafing. Okay, lets go 1 reef, we still had room. Green it is.. Green looks better, I can see where the forward yellow reefing line was on the wrong side of a line. But green looked good. The Ketch sailboat we were racing was catching us, but we were still ahead. Looking closer, green wasn’t good had a twist. Fixed the yellow while we were on green, so ran the yellow 2 reefs as I wasn’t in a hurry. Still managed to leave the Ketch behind.

Hugged the Grenada coast line, all the way to Sugar Loaf then headed for the ‘lunch’ stop. Actually dropped the fishing lines in the water, nothing was hungry today. Still using old lures .. fixed up new ones while moving along today, maybe better lunch tomorrow.

There was a 60 foot mono here at Ronde Island when we got here, 5 or so local boats, anchored out, we found our spot dropped anchor and relaxed.

Made some lunch along the way and Italian sausage pasta for dinner,

We are parked pretty closed to shore on the anchor, the locals boats are a bit further out, so seemed like a perfect time to try out a Bahamian anchor, where you have one anchor off the bow and one off the stern. Pull us around a bit to change the direction of the rollers, that causes this to be a rolly anchorage. Christine carried the anchor chain, I carried the light anchor to the dingy and set off to drop it away from the boat, Heavy and tiring but seemed like it was going to work. Time to start dinner.

Snugged up on the stern anchor by hand.. then some more bit later, and a bit more later and still.. it seemed to not be holding. I kept pulling and pulling got tot he chain, damn I must be strong. The swivel that connected the chain to the anchor had had enough, and left the anchor behind. Well there you have it, perfect excuse to go snorkeling. Of course the 200 foot of line, makes a large circle to look and its 25 feet deep too, guess I should have a scuba tank on board.

Anchor alarm set.

Tomorrow, Tyrell bay and who knows what adventures..

Sun is warm, sky is blue, so is the water, drinks are cold – Sky is full of stars, buy this island and we’ll come to visit you.

Okay, it was just yesterday, but we didn’t find a decent wifi connection to post an update. All is good, we made it out of the boat yard.

Up with the sun, few boat projects like, running the reefing lines, little internet in the morning, then started thinking about provisions.. aka stocking the bar. Looked at the yard bar/restaruant from the water, it looked closed, course it was before 8am. We had a name, Boney, of a taxi driver from the last time we were here but could’t find his number in our books. Christine called our normal hotel, La Sagess, a nature preserve on a pretty secluded beach, and asked for Boney’s number and luck would have it, he was right there. Its high season and lots of flights and guests at La Sagess, but he was able to work us into the schedule. Yippie. He will be at the marina in 10 mins. What? This is island time, no time to put up the Jib, stop that mid progress, and drop the dingy in the water to try to get it to run.

Break a sweat but she, the dingy, runs us to the dock and we find a taxi waiting, tho it was for the ‘other’ cruisers who had arranged a trip to mostly the same spots, for a group of 6. Bummer, we could have caught a ride with them, but we had already called Boney. That and we were provisioning for 3 weeks, we might have never made it back.

Boney shows up a few minutes later, we are off, he is on the phone but remembers us. Our stops, Bank get some local currency, even tho most places, if not, all take US cash. And the Grocery store, and Gas station for some Benzine, its what we call Gasoline in the states, so we don’t get confused with Diesel. For the dingy and maybe the Honda generator if we sit someplace too long.

2+ hours later we are back, not sure what the rest of the folks on the island are going to eat or drink, we filled the cart good. Pork Chops to Chicken wings and everything in between. Of course a couple of cases of beer too. Its kinda like Meclazine.

Now it looks like rain, afternoon shower that normally doesn’t last long, but we still have to raise the Jib. I get it started while Christine checks in on some email, thats when I look up and see the wind, I have Christine sit on the sail in the rain, while I go get cold beer. Oh.. I bring her a jacket. Kidding but she does end up sitting in the rain for a bit while I practice my grasshopper bowline’s on the jib. Let the rain pass, 10mins, and in the calm after the rain, we raise the jib, swapping positions of cranking and feeding a few times, All good, cold beverage well deserved, play with GPS and create route to the underwater sculpture gardens.

Jib motor sail, we had the foresail out as it was down wind, and the engines running, catching up ons some electricity and we know we want a hot shower when we get to the gardens. Get there, no issues, have the place to ourselves. I took my place in the shade, I think I sweated off all my sunblock, and was needing to cool off. Had a cold one, should have gone snorkeling to see the gardens, but chose to relax with the promise to go in the am when the sun was high.

Some dingy and 2 jet skis off a yacht called “Unforgettable” came by and asked if we knew where the gardens were. Of course we told ’em, but shouldn’t someone on a mega yacht with a captained dingy in full matching uniforms know these things?

Made some pasta and garlic bread for dinner, Since it was Saturday night our stereo competed with the Boots and Pants, Boots and Pants coming from the nearby town. Didn’t matter much we slept like a baby on a superior waterbed. Minus the few times the breeze stopped and we bounced into the mooring balls, probably a good thing there was no other boats on those moorings.

All systems are working good, so far. Tomorrow, some place new, possibly and island you can own for $100M, Isle de Ronde. Perhaps a lunch stop, supposed to be rolly, then maybe onto Tyrell bay to check out of Grenada.

Pictures on my I touch.. will add when we get decent internet.

Omg. Or at least that’s what the kids say.

Relatively early to Grenada Marine. Quiet and pseudo cool.

Tasks. 1/2 the boat wash. Deep engine sauna, check the motors and rinse the filters fluids etc. Even if the engines haven’t been run its like a sauna in there. Finish the main, all while the yard finishes the wax job that was supposed to be complete before we got here.

Day starts out great they come by early set up scaffolding. Did I mention we are about 15 feet off the ground when we are on the hard? Awesome we will be done by noon and in the water “right” after lunch.

Mean while. Engines looked good. Starboard needs some antifreeze, yeah like it’s gonna freeze here. I guess it does keep the engine cool too. Top that up clean all the strainers. Check the battery and all looks good. Minus a little corrosion clean up that ill tackle later.

They set up the waxing on the starboard side which happens also to be the side we still need to clean. SO the cleaning is on hold.

Christine gets some inside the boat time organizing the boat. Putting cushions back together. Emptying the suit cases. She helps put the outboard on the dingy. All is good. It’s hot we are still making progress. Decided to drain the water tanks an fill with fresh water. One of the filters I changed didn’t smell so good. So since we had time. Why not.

The starboard side got waxed. And I guess if was break time. 2+ hrs later we had to send Christine to find what’s up.

Had lunch. They said they would go take care if it. The lift only operates on week days. Uh we are NOT spending the weekend in yard cause they didn’t finish the job. Skip the wax just put us in the water. And wouldn’t ya know it. When we walked the 1/2 mile back to the boat they were waxing us up good.

Terry the freon guy was supposed to go early. But he stuck around to double check the gas levels after we finally got launched. The sun was up. Just barely. Little traffic jam on the island. Little raised voices when they saw the shack about to drop on top of them but it all worked out.

Engines started. Water cams from the exhaust as its supposed to. Terry showed up to check the levels. Checked the bilges. All dry except where I had messed with the paddle wheel speed sensor. Leaking pretty good went back upstairs and saw the lift had already undone the straps. So back down to see if I could fix it. Loosened it twisted it slightly and retightened. All good.

Checking systems while Terry topped off the freon. The last boat of the day came and we had to move. We took Terry with us. Grabbed a mooring ball. Really light air. Christine tried the happy hooker but ’twas the wrong type of loop so we picked up the ball off the stern and walked the lines to the front.

Now to get Terry back to shore. The dingy didn’t want to start or when it did didn’t want to stay running. Probably 30 mins of futzing and it seemed like we could get to shore. Took Terry to shore. Stopped at the bar and had drinks and dinner.

Made it past sailors midnight. All thing are cooling. Now to make a run to the grocery store and get going.

Our chariot to the water

Keel envy?