[Cruise News] Phare Bleu Marina, Grenada

A good friend and neighbour, who lives between the UK and US, made a very valid point to me last week, that we are not on a vacation but are living a two-centre life so should expect to have colds, toothache, housework and other chores to do, just as we do at home.  She's totally correct and so, having finally kicked off a head cold, I launched with gusto into defrosting the fridge/freezer yesterday, remarkably all achieved in about 30mins given the air temperature!  And that was my job done for the day!

As a "reward" we hired a car today to spend the day exploring Grenada in more depth.  One rum distillery, herb & spice garden, waterfall and two crater lakes later, we returned to Pandora tired but happy.

We've moved around to a small marina for a couple of nights which is in the most lovely setting - quite the nicest marina I've come across ..... but that's not saying a lot!  It was a tight entrance and the berth we'd been allocated looked very narrow indeed.  But Paul did us proud, reversing from the bay all the way into the marina and straight into the berth first time!  The dock master complimented him on his prowess this early in the season and he's been receiving plaudits all day.  I even received a compliment for the calm and unflustered way I handled the mooring lines.  What stars!!

[Captains Blog] Grenada

Yesterday, we finally got our hands on the dreaded switch that was causing us to yo-yo between Carriacou and Grenada, and within 40 minutes, the new one was wired in, fitted and working. 

It's been a funny old week weather wise, with strong gusting winds and quite big seas as a result. We sailed back down the windward side of Grenada which was a much better passage until the last couple of hours when the wind decided to swing around right on our tail but shifting constantly from side to side making it difficult to goose-wing. Forecast is for 10-13 feet seas at the weekend when we are planning to head north again, so it could be a rough ride!

[Cruise News] Back at Tyrrel Bay

I finally got my pizza tonight at the Lazy Turtle and it was worth waiting for ... fantastic.  Friday night's attempt was thwarted by the incredibly big swell in the bay making a beach landing inmpossible and then last night it was raining and blowing a gale.  But, wow, it was worth waiting for!!!!

[Captains Blog] Carriacou

Last night as we were watching a movie (Stardust, very cute) I had the impression that we might be dragging the anchor in the gale that was blowing outside. We had laid the anchor with 5 times the depth in length of chain, which had held for 2 days with no problem, but on this occasion it wasn't enough. So at the height of the storm, we were out on deck raising the anchor, motoring to a new location and re-setting said anchor, this time with 6 times the depth in length of chain. It held on the second attempt. But we were both absolutely drenched at this point, and the subsequent checks to see that we weren't dragging again didn't make for a good night's sleep.

happily, today dawned bright and sunny, albeit a bit breezy with winds of 20+ knots. Made for an interesting sail with 2 reefs in, but the rum cocktails at the end of the day helped to soothe the frayed nerves, and the sunset was glorious.

[Cruise News] Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

Well with my toes/shin healing nicely we've been sailing this week and have made it as far as Carriacou, the smaller sister island to Grenada where, apparently, it's possible to see a pelican sitting on a buoy with a sea-gull perched on its head!  Well we've seen plenty of pelicans on buoys but no sea-gulls as yet. The one on the right perched atop a solitary tree was photographed at Sandy Island.

The whole communication side of things is taking more time than we imagined it would, but please don't stop sending your emails which we love to receive.  It's more finding somewhere to sit quietly for a couple of hours to update the website, answer emails and make Skype calls without interruptions or losing the signal ....

We're eating well and making use of local produce as much as possible as imported goods are very expensive indeed! I'm becoming the master of one-pot cooking .... and dishing up some simple but tasty meals.

When we went ashore this morning to a small supermarket, in the hope of buying some fruit etc., we were disappointed to see empty shelves but just outside a local man, Rufus, told us he sells fruit and veg from his garden every Saturday morning so we followed him along the street to his stand and had our pick of fig bananas, papaya, tomatoes, green oranges, limes, a type of basil etc., so we came back laden down with his produce.

I have to say, whilst the range is limited, the flavours are great .... possibly the sweetest tomatoes I've ever had!  Must be something to do with all the sunshine .....