The cruising life in Grenada

Our favorite sundowner location, the small beach in Prickly Bay harbor. There's a great restaurant with rum punches and rotis (classic West Indian fare), and the water is shallow and calm; the perfect place to cool off at the end of the day.

We’ve been in Grenada for a little over two weeks, most of which Hans has been in Texas, working. Days have been busy but we’ve also developed some routines as we settle into life in one place for a little bit. 

I found where and when to get fresh produce, eggs, and bread (Tuesday mornings at 10:30 at the Budget Marine dinghy dock), which bus (the #1) goes toward St. George’s via the mall (grocery store) and big beach (Grand Anse), how much that bus costs for me and the kids ($5 EC, about $2.50USD), which days the marina offers half price pizza (Saturday and Monday), and where to take the trash. Our weekly needs are pretty standard (fresh food and fun), but the locations and services are different wherever we visit. Once we are somewhere for more than a few days, it’s nice to get into a little routine. It makes life easier and adds some predictability to our very fluid lifestyle.

Fun and games off the boat. Being at anchor is the best!

This solo time on the boat has been quite a bit different than the previous times. Until now, we have arranged a marina stay for when Hans is gone. Positive Waves turns into a floating condo with all the water and electric I need and easy access to basic supplies like groceries. For this two week stint, we decided to keep the boat on a mooring in Prickly Bar harbour on the south coast of Grenada. No dock, no electric, no water. The best place to be in the Caribbean is at anchor where you can jump off the boat to swim and cool down whenever you want and a cool breeze is always blowing. Being at anchor entails quite a bit more work though. I have to raise the dinghy every night to prevent barnacles and algae growing on the bottom and for security to ensure it doesn’t “float” off in the middle of the night. We are currently using more energy than our solar and wind is providing (more on that later), so I need to keep track of our daily energy consumption and run the generator every few days to top off the batteries. We like to rinse off with fresh water after swimming, so I need to make water every three days. All trash needs to be dinghied ashore every couple days. If I want internet beyond basic texting, FaceTime, and simple browser searches, I need to go to a restaurant to use their wifi. This amount of boat chores is entirely manageable, it’s just a lot more than when we’re tied to a dock and plugged into electric and a water faucet. There is a lot of system management I need to keep track of and going ashore is a little more involved than just stepping off the boat.

But, we get to swim in refreshing, clear water anytime we want and it is much cooler on the water than on land, so being at anchor beats marina life, any day of the week, regardless of the extra chores it requires.

Our one and only (so far) expedition to St. George's landed us at BB's restaurant where patrons are encouraged to write on the walls. I didn't have to tell our kids twice!

Just walking through a tunnel to get to the other side of town. Seems benign, until you realize that you're also sharing the space with cars and there is no sidewalk.

The second big difference for this “no-Hans” time was the haul-out. Positive Waves was in sore need of fresh bottom paint so it was time to haul-out and give PW some TLC. We scheduled the haul out for the time Hans was in the States so when he returns we can spend our time sailing, snorkeling, and visiting beaches instead of being stuck in a dusty and hot boatyard. This was big for me because, up until now, Hans has basically been the only person who drives PW under motor. He has a lot more experience than I do piloting boats under power and does a good job, so I’ve been happy to leave that job him. But, if we wanted to do the haul out when Hans was gone, it was time for me to step up, put on my big girl panties, and drive the boat. 

Whew. It was kind of stressful. Just a little bit. <she says, hands shaking and stomach churning just at the memory.> As usual, the cruising community stepped in and a friend of a friend came over to be on board for the haul out. Gary handled the lines for me and gave me advice as I entered the travelift slip. He came back a few days later when it was time to launch to help with the process in reverse. Of course in the middle of hauling out, Matilda banged her lip on something and got a bloody mouth, but Freja jumped in and took care of her.

We were on the hard, way up in the sky, for only three days. We hauled out on Tuesday morning and splashed again on Friday morning. Our list of underbody jobs was small (paint, install a rope cutter, change the zincs) and the boatyard stepped up and completed all the jobs by Friday lunchtime. They were ready to launch us on Friday at 1PM and I was more than happy to scramble to get the boat back into the water. The boatyard was hot and dusty and the boat always feels uncomfortable when we’re aboard and out of the water. It was also a three day weekend so I knew that if the work wasn’t done by Friday afternoon then we’d be sitting on the hard with no work being done for three days. No thank you.

A decent amount of growth, especially at the waterline after a year and half with no scrubbing or scraping.

It all came off easily with the powerwasher.

Spiffy new bottom paint, new color too!

After we were launched, I motored us back out to a mooring ball, Gary helped us get tied up, and the kids and I threw ourselves overboard into the clear, refreshing water the minute I turned the engine off. A few hours later we went ashore for a celebratory dinner at the restaurant on the beach—a lobster roti for me, chicken roti for Freja, and a hamburger for Freja.

Much nicer than the boatyard.

We've been going to swim lessons every Saturday morning at 9AM. Organized by Deb through her organization Get Grenada Swimming , a group of volunteers provides free swim lessons every Saturday morning at a public beach. Our kids are good swimmers but could be better. They love the swim lessons. Freja is working on the butterfly stroke and Matilda is learning how to dive and do rotary breathing with the freestyle stroke. It's their first swim lessons for years and we're so lucky to have this opportunity. While our kids have a lesson, I help out by giving other kids lessons. Skill levels vary from 0 to stroke development and ages range from 3 to over 20.

 
We’re settling nicely into cruising life, Caribbean style. Coffee at 7:30 while we listen to the cruisers’ net on VHF 66, a morning swim or small boat chore, school, lunch, then an afternoon free to go to the beach, run an errand, or just hang out on the boat and swim, paddle board, and read books. We’ve met another boat with kids (hallelujah!) and we’ve spent a number of relaxing afternoons together, parents chatting while the kids play.

We’ll be in Grenada for another week or so while we work with the welder at Spice Island Marine to change our arch to support an additional solar panel. Under ideal conditions of enough wind and sun we are just barely able to keep up with our power needs, but if there is one cloudy day or a not very windy day then we need to run the generator. Ugh. We’ve ordered a new panel from Budget Marine; it should arrive next week; the arch should be refitted by then to accommodate it; we’ll (Hans) will install it; and we’ll start sailing north with fully charged batteries!

Frequent rain showers keep the decks clean and often give us a beautiful show.

Good night Grenada, till tomorrow!