St. George’s, Grenada

Spice Island Marine/Cool Runnings Apts.

12.00 N

61.45 W

 

12/01/2020      Confirmation:  Opal has a water leak.  The Voodoo doll has been passed.  They’re having a welder come out to have a look at what options they may have. 

 

           Dale was finally sprung from quarantine with new whiskers and we transfer all of his stuff back into my apt. before taking a walk over to the boat and showing him where we are at the moment.  I had started keeping a log of date, time, temp, battery levels and voltage when I first began checking such things when Dale left and Gerry started asking me what the various numbers were each time I saw him.  After a couple of days, the numbers started to blur so figured I’d better start writing things down.  Dale inspected the AC repairs, the window replacements, what work had been completed on the sail drives, the broken stanchion, and reviewed my log.  All repairs were either completed or coming along nicely.  He approved of my log and decided to keep it going. 

 

12/2/2020        The baton has officially been passed back to Dale.  Although I did get up with him at the crack of dawn to walk over to the boat to open it up, after today, it’s all his again and I intend to return to my normal sleeping pattern of up at 8 or 9 and down at 11 or later.  I return to the apt. to send another message to PLM asking where we are with ordering the replacement gauges; I’m getting frustrated that they’re not responding.  Dale uses the remainder of the day to catch up with Dane, the yard owner and Johnny, the yard work supervisor.

 

12/3/2020        Dale cleaned up starboard side stateroom putting things back to order; sanded, waxed and finished off the repairs on the starboard side swim ladder area he had started work on prior to leaving on his 2^nd trip. 

 

12/4/2020        Friday, shopping day.  We decided to drop by PLM to see where we are with ordering the replacement gauges (since they aren’t responding to our e-mails).  They haven’t been ordered as yet, she says that she can’t get them to answer the telephone.  When we return to the apt after our shopping Dale calls the facility referred to on the Manta site, they do answer but you have to negotiate a phone tree to get to the right party.  He then relays the info back to PLM.  That evening she sends confirmation that she has ordered the parts. 

 

12/5/2020        Dale gives the Palace a good scrub to rid it of all of the yard dirt, dust, footprints, etc.  I take the old parrot decals off the hull and put one new one on before it starts raining.  The old ones were fading to the point where you needed to be on top of them to see what they were.  The new ones aren’t as detailed but are darker, so they should last a bit longer. 

 

12/6/2020        Sunday trip to the Brewery for brunch and veggie shopping.  We watch another installment of the Grand Prix.  I don’t know the first thing about racing but decided to root for a young guy named Russell.  Unfortunately, Mr. Russell had a series of problems with his tires and fell from 2^nd place to 15^th but managed to pull himself back up to 9^th before the end of the race. 

I buy a refillable beer bottle for Dale and fill it with the flavor he’s been selecting; a nice souvenir and something different to drink.

 I’m cautioned that it only lasts about a week once you open it. 

When we return, we add the 2^nd decal to the boat. 

 

12/7/2020          PLM sends info that gauges are not in stock and it is unknown as to when they will be.  The decision is made to continue with the order as we can’t find another site to order them from.  Spice Island says we’re on schedule to go back into the water on Wed. the 9^th.  I run all of the laundry through while I still have free laundry facilities.  Dale waxes the port side deck and front of the boat. 

 

12/8/2020        While Dale waxes the starboard side deck and front, I start packing up all of our belongings into bags.  We had planned to move the majority of our food and clothing back to the boat via taxi after closing hours but Joel, our normal taxi driver, can’t make it.  He has his 4 year old son to watch.  We schedule to move everything for tomorrow morning at 10am. 

 

 

Grenada

Prickly Bay Anchorage

11.59.985 N

61.45.818 W

 

12/9/2020        Dale heads over to the boat bright and early and telephones back that our 11am move has been postponed until 1pm.  I figure this gives us more time to move our stuff back onto the boat and get somewhat settled before the hoist.  Dale returns just before 10 and helps me carry all of our bags down to the parking area where Joel’s taxi is waiting.  As Dale transfers the last bags, I go in and check us out of the apt. asking the manager if he has anyone scheduled to go in immediately; just in case.  He’s apparently used to this (being right next door to the boat yard) and says, if we need to come back, no problem. 

            Joel drives us over and helps us load all (23 bags ((about the size of grocery bags)) back onto the boat.  I set about getting the refrigerated and frozen foods back into their rightful places and then move on to pantry items.  I leave the clothes in the stateroom and put the computer items someplace safe from falling for the next couple of hours.  About 2pm, the hoist finally arrives, I’m instructed to get off, and the Palace is lifted enough to clear the supports its been resting on and the last bits given a swath of bottom paint before slowly making its way to the concrete dock where it is lowered back into the water.  Both sail drives are checked and a small leak is detected, so she is held stationary while the technician in charge of that type of repair is summoned and the leak is fixed.  Unfortunately, in their zeal to fix the leak, they break the support that holds the engine door open and tweak the door itself.  Dale is rather annoyed as he had told them about 10 minutes before that they needed to watch the door’s support.  In any event, the technician in charge of wood crafting was summoned and the support was refashioned in short order.  In the meantime, Dale readjusted the door’s lock, tightened the placement and had it working by the time they returned.   

            Heading out to the anchorage, we first located Opal and then tried to find a place near them to anchor.  We found one straight away but we dragged to the point where our aft end was hanging out in the channel.  We moved to the opposite side of Opal and farther in front but when we let out a sufficient amount of chain, I wasn’t comfortable with our positioning with two other boats.  Our 3^rd attempt was well inside the mooring field but again, we dragged.  Our final anchoring was essentially back to our original spot but this time we set securely although we were definitely in the channel.  What can I say?  It was that or move further into the swell already rocking the boats. 

 

12/10/2020      We began our day early with another move as a boat in front of us left the anchorage, so we moved up to keep from being as close to the channel as we were.

 A moth about the
size of my hand

Later, we contacted Gerry and Nicky to see if they were in the mood for exploring the perimeter of the Prickly Bay area.  We started by heading in to the Prickly Bay Yacht club to see what was available.  We found a tiny grocery store that stocked the bare minimum, so that if we ran out of something at mealtime, a quick trip there might locate the item.  The bar/restaurant was under construction.  Gerry found a laundry further in but the old customs/immigration building we remembered from 2006 was no longer in use and we couldn’t find the old refueling docks at all. 

Back in our dinghies, we circled around the harbor until we located the beach front of a resort we had seen from our road explorations.  We saw a little beach bar where there were a couple of dinghies tied to a tree but as it was clearly part of the resort, we didn’t think they would want grotty yachties befouling their sand.  As we stood off, Gerry made a quick call to the resort and confirmed that yes, they would accept our money and we could come in for drinks and a quick bite.  We enjoyed some quick bites of wings, learned when the happy hours were and promised to come back in the future. 

 While there, we learned that Gerry has been busy fixing his leaking water tank on his own.  He had a welder come out and together they decided that they couldn’t figure out how the tank was held in place, it was too large to come out in one piece and they really couldn’t tell where the leak was without enlarging the inspection area. So, Gerry, over a period of days, cut 2 more inspection ports into the top of the tank, was able to find the leak in a seam, came up with a solution of using epoxy over the seams as well as the hole found and then epoxied 2 plastic inspection port covers into the holes he cut.  So far, his solution is holding and the leak seems to be gone. 

Back at our boat, Dale turned on the genset and tested the AC—which didn’t work.  Next was a call to the installers to make an appointment to pick them up on Monday at 9 am. 

            We finished the day with dinner on Opal where we learned that there might be another brand of gauges that might work that could be ordered from the local Budget Marine (more expensive, so we’ll need to work with PLM on it)

 

12/11/2020      Played open/close the hatches throughout the night with on again/off again rain. 

            For some crazy reason, I decide today would be a good day to defrost the freezer.  I get about half way through and Dale takes over as my hands are getting stiff from the cold.  I rearrange the items as they go back in so that the oldest is on the top and try to organize the contents again.  It never lasts.   Invariably, what you need is below something else and despite good intentions, it never goes back in the way it came out.  Another observation:  even though I pull something out, I never seem to gain any space until I defrost again. 

                        Gerry and Dale dinghy into Budget Marine to investigate the gauges we’ve heard about; he’s told to come back with the part numbers he wants ordered (so much for customer service). 

                        We invite the Cooper’s over for a steak dinner (found at the bottom of the freezer).  Nobody keels over with food poisoning, so I guess they were still good. 

 

12/12/2020      Not much going on today.  We decide to have dinner at Sand Bar, the little beach bar/restaurant we found a couple of days earlier at the resort. 

 

 

12/13/2020      Sunday means a trip to the Brewery; veggie, egg and bread shopping; a quick lunch; and visiting with those we recognize.  A sign was posted for a “pub crawl” for next Saturday that we signed up for.  It’s actually breakfast, a bus tour to various micro-breweries or distilleries, lunch, more tours before heading back and possibly dinner.  A good way to kill a Saturday.  I need to remember to take my refillable bottle back as I forgot today. 

 

 

12/14/2020      The AC installers come back and do various checks on the system and make a determination that the cable that connects the AC to the remote is either not compatible or not working.  They don’t have the proper cable with them, so they are returned to the dock so that they can go get one.  A couple of hours later they return.  Dale dinghies in to pick them up (and the cable that came with the AC) for transport to the boat.  Once arrived, a quick check shows that the AC works with the new cable but its too short to connect the AC to the remote.  They’ll come back in a couple of days with one long enough to fit. 

            Since Dale is on the dock, he takes the item numbers for the gauges to the Budget Marine folks to send off to find out if they are in stock.  Nothing is ever easy. 

 

 

12/15/2020      A quiet day of routine things.  Dale ran one of the engines to heat the water and charge the batteries.  We ran the water maker and ice maker; I toyed with the idea of running a load of laundry through but decided it could wait for another day.  The remainder of the day, Dale read as I answered mail, did a little on-line banking/bill paying, and finished my Christmas shopping. 

            As I’m on the computer, Gerry sends word that the Brewery has cancelled our “pub tour” and that we’ll have to add picking up our refund to our Friday shopping day.  The site he links to his message to actually says that the Brewery is closing for an unknown amount of time due to new CoVid restrictions.  Well, this stinks.  They’ve changed the rules again!  I like my Sunday brunches there. 

                        Upon further investigation, I learn that for some reason the Sandals resort on the island has a carve out with the local government, saying that their customers are not required to conform to the CoVid requirements all the rest of us have to comply with.  I’m sure as they are an “all inclusive” resort, they promised that none of their customers would leave the facility.  So no testing for them!  You can guess what happened.  Grenada goes from 1 or 2 cases that are controlled in quarantine to 36 over the weekend to 71 by Tues.  Although I can’t tell that any of the guests left the facility, what was confirmed was that their staff (who do leave to return home each night) carried it outside their facilities to their own families.  The Ministry of Health is using their tracking methods to identify where those people went to but in the meantime, they are returning to the earlier CoVid restrictions of closing all commercial facilities, all restaurants are restricted to take out only, limited travel to grocery stores, medical facilities, etc. with limited numbers within said facilities state of affairs.  Friday is not going to be fun.  Not only do we have to go grocery shopping but had planned on a trip to customs/immigration to extend our visas and cruising permits again.  What a pain!  Things were just starting to open up again.