Yacht Aditi

Provisioning at SpiceIsland Mall. The Mall is inhabited by a woman who approaches all foreigners asking for $10EC. The supermarket is well stocked and is within a couple of hundred yards of Grand Anse beach.

More views of the beach infront of the anchorage (never anyone on them!), the marina seriously-mini mart, and Tiki Bar. It’s always Christmas here. Many places in the Caribbean are still flying Xmas decorations so we are ready for the next one in eleven months time. Fancy hiring a boat bar? The marina is the first I have seen to have the docks lit by glass chandelier.  

This is proving to be a friendly island where you can relax. After our time in St Lucia if anyone approaches us we are immediately on our guard; what do they want, are they pick-pockets, where’s the threat? But here people come over and chat then leave having had a good conversation. The younger kids play instead of begging for money and people are out mixing together and having fun. It seems odd given our previous experience. We went to the workboat races. The bass thumped the beach so hard and loud that the sand was jumping. We had barbecue

We pulled in at De Big Fish to get a bus to the airport. Departures was oh so busy, and arrivals doubly so. After a long wait Francesca emerged from customs and back we tracked over the 2.5 miles to the tender by taxi.  

The time is coming when we have to decide on next steps. This involves so many issues and of course draws upon our experience so far. The key question is ‘do we go through the Panama Canal? The key issues are; Distances to sail to return to the UK (c.39,000nm) versus the potential experiences en route? Education & A-levels? Is the ship fully fit for a maintenance free passage to New Zealand? Security? It’s one thing to read about being permanently cautious, not going out at night, staying in crowded public places and so on. But it is quite different

We are anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada, at the end of the airport runway (reassuringly we have seen a couple of planes). Our eldest daughter joins us from the UK tonight so it’s a short trip on the bus to collect her. The Tiki-Tiki bar has internet pods with multiple types of power connections, lays on entertainment and judging by the ‘car park’ has got something right.

We had to motor down to Grenada from Union Island, about 34 miles, despite the wind being c20kn on a nice beam reach. Our Rondal headsail furling system has packed up again and after 3,000 miles of manual furling I don’t have the appetite for more especially with the need to furl/unfurl every couple of miles due to islands, rocks and squalls. Then of course there is the main sail. We had to manually furl this into the boom at Canouan Island as our second system, the mast hydraulics, have also packed up. The switch gear seems OK but it

Another sandy, palm covered island on the way to Grenada. This island seems to be friendly, colourful and best of all this bay has no boat boys. We are in Hillsborough but the yacht anchorage which may hold 100 yachts is around the corner at Tyrrell Bay. It’s a little bumpy here in comparison but with only 8 boats or so we have plenty of space. Tomorrow we leave for Prickly Bay, Grenada.

A quick stop at the anchorage on the way to Grenada. We arrived in a 30kn squall with little visibility and got soaked as we anchored just ahead of darkness. Next morning we awoke to find that a commercial ship had anchored and was lying roughly over our anchor and last 10m of chain. With the constant trade wind acting on it’s topsides it would sail off to one side on it’s own chain until it stalled, then it would stop, change tack, and sail picking up speed throughout the pendulum arc until it eventually stalled again on the other

This is the place to study for A-levels, a Bequia hotel.