29 Nov 2017

29 November 2017 - You guessed it, still in Prickly Bay

We were hoping to have left the bay by now, as much as we love it here, we need to start moving northwards towards Antigua to be there in time for the arrival of our first guests on the 15th December. We have had a trying few days with the battery bank inasmuch as they were not holding their charge having dried out during the summer in our absence.

We decided that we needed to replace the whole bank as mixing and matching is not healthy for the power supply, and went to the local chandlers yesterday to see what they had for us. We decided to embrace the new technology and opted for AGM batteries that are maintenance free (in theory) and that should last several years. We installed them this morning and hopefully we will get a full night's sleep without the battery alarm going off during the night as the charge fell so low.

Tomorrow we will head north up the leeward side of Grenada, over or around "kick 'em Jenny", an underwater volcano that decides to disturb the surface of the sea from time to time, past Les Soeurs, uninhabited rocky outcrops in the Caribbean sea, and on to Tyrrell Bay on Carriacou where we will stop for a couple of days before checking out of Grenadian waters. From there we will head up to Bequia, then Martinique, and Les Saintes before arriving in Antigua.

Right now, the Christmas winds have not materialised, which means that we should have a pleasant sail northwards while the winds are favourable. It would be nice for something to go in our favour this season. So far it has been a matter of solving one problem after another. Ho hum! At least we are enjoying the sunshine!  And the sunsets too.