Chapter 2: Grenada

I’ve been here in Grenada a full week now, camping aboard “Toucan” up in the yard. A long old rusty ladder takes one from the dirt up to the stern about 6 ft. I’m inside writing this since it is now raining cats and dogs. I got most of the hatches closed in time, except Ruth’s part of the bed. At least it’s not salt water. Hot, hot, hot and plenty of humidity. I’m now very dark, unshaven, unkempt and sweaty. Big transition from USA to here.

Making progress getting the boat ready for launch, first hose down all and scrub off 6 months of dirt, not dirt as much as sanding grit from all the boats getting new bottom paint. Must be 300 boats in this yard. New sails all bent on now. A new speed transducer installed in the starboard hull. That is just a small plastic paddle wheel that spins as the boat goes thru the water. Each spin ticks off on a magnet sending a speed signal to the instrument. One can always just read the speed on any GPS, but the paddle wheel gives speed thru the water whereas the GPS is speed over ground. Installed one new water tank gauge, cleaned and refilled both water tanks and got the pumps working. Sounds easy except the pumps have to be primed. Took our 66 lb anchor to the shop to be welded. Both hulls have now been polished and new bottom paint complete yesterday. I installed new zincs on both sail drives and serviced the 3 blade folding props. One engine starting battery was stone dead and the shop here sold out, so I hauled one a mile or so on my small folding bike, piece of cake!

Boat is now all ready for splashdown except for waiting for the refrigerator man to finish installing the new evaporator plate for the large fridge. I hauled the 40” plate here as luggage and paid 27.5% duty - so it better work. After waiting 3 days for him to return from "down island mon” he came by this morning and tore the old one out, said he would be back, but now 4 pm, so maybe tomorrow. I’m not sure he has ever done one of these before. He will have to bend the new plate to fit, thread 6 ft. of copper piping thru a bulkhead or two, and make the connections. He will then need to vacuum pump the system to remove any water or air, then fill with freon.

I’m now scheduled for splashdown Tuesday Nov. 24 -8AM. Ruth arrives same day 5:30, so we will haul her luggage out to the boat anchored in the bay. After a couple of days shaking out all, we will sail (first checkout of new sails) around to the west side of the island where provisioning is easier. Two supermarkets are near the dinghy dock, so we haul it all from the shop to the dinghy, motor out the boat at anchor, then lug it up the transom and stow all securely, heavy stuff down low. Don’t forget the water maker. It has to be cranked up, flushed and making drinking water. We do not drink water from the tanks. Every cruising boat that has a happy wife aboard has a functioning water maker.

Then we plan to sail north first stop Carricau, then Bequia, etc. 2500 miles or so to Florida. With the tradewinds predominately from the east, we should have some great sailing.

A day later - change of plans - will wait for my first mate before launching. Ruth comes in Tues PM, and we will splash down Wed. Easier transferring luggage onto the boat. And there is restaurant and shower close by.

Must be tough making ends meet for the locals. Food here is roughly twice the price of that in the USA with very little choices. On top of that - they charge 15% VAT on all foods!

I need to quit now before this computer goes up in smoke. I'm plugged into 220V and I don't think it has any grounding because the computer is buzzing and I can feel the discharge. On the boat I will plug into our own inverter or just use the 12 Volt adapter. Wifi will be limited near some of the islands. One of these days we should have worldwide wifi. We have GPS from the satellites, why not wifi?

<Note from Brad - We are working to bring wifi to the whole planet with Google's Project Loon, but it uses weather balloons, not satellite.>