Monday September 21st,

We stayed in Prickly Bay till Friday morning, September 18th, hard to believe we left Belgium one month ago. While we were there we tried out our bicycles and did some grocery shopping. It is unbelievable how much time it takes to get food…getting out flipper, closing up the boat,either getting a bus or bicycle to the store and then come back with a heavy bag, get flipper from the dock and back in the boat…:-) . Easily more than 3 hours. On top of that it is pitch dark at 6.30PM. Good thing we do not have to feed guests yet :-).

Friday, September 18th we sailed up north to try out our sails, though not enough wind we only tried the Genoa and motored a part. We moored on a buoy in Grand Mal Bay, again a good excercise :-). We were nearby a fishing village but when we arrived with ‘Flipper’ everything was closed for the day. We decided to come back and buy fresh fish early tomorrow morning .

Grand Mal Bay is in a Marine protected area so the next morning the ranger came by to collect 27EC dollar. We could stay 24hours. We got sword fish the next day, but also frozen chicken and steak. At least food for some days. In the afternoon we went snorkeling in the next bay and saw our first exotic fish. We sailed a little bit further later that day to Halifax harbour. We had anchored in Beausejour Bay but the fishermen complained because we were anchored right where they wanted to fish. So we moved to the next bay, and anchored there. There was only one other boat. Peace and quiet we thought, except it was saturday night and the Caribbean music played loudly over the bay. We slept outside in our sleeping bags, under a starry sky, the sea was so calm, she looked more like a huge silver lake. It is clear we have to catch up on our ‘star’knowledge.

Sunday, September 20th, we decide to sail to Carriacou (means ‘land surrounded by many reefs’), a small island right next to Grenada, and is also part of Grenada. We leave at about 11.30AM. At the start not a lot of wind but the wind picked up (15KTS)and it was great sailing with the two sails ! We even got 26KTS at one point and decided to put in 1 reef. We goofed a little but managed, good exercise :-). At one point we had flying fish next to the boat, really great to see. Lots of pelicans and brown booby (Bruine Gent) circled the boat diving for fish.It was nice sailing right up to Carriacou, Tyrell Bay, where we anchored at 5.30PM, just in time for another nice sunset. Tired from sailing the whole afternoon but happy. Stefan grilled chicken on the barbecue, I fried plantain in coconut oil and we had mango chutney with it. Yummy, but we definitely have to go grocery shopping for vegetables and lunch.

Monday, September 21st, we seem to have internet on the boat :-). I catch up on the news from home, read the Standaard online and get caught up on my emails. We do a quick swim and then take flipper out to see what is on shore. Hmmm, looks like we will be able to bicycle to Hillsborough Bay and do our grocery shopping. The road does not look too hilly. After lunch and a swim we took out our bicycles and went ashore with flipper. We bicycled to Hillsborough, the next bay and did our grocery shopping there. We returned with a full bag.

Today, Tuesday September 15th, and have not written any update since ….

I will do a quick recap of what happened the past week before we got in the water…

From monday till thursday  September 8th till 10th Stefan ran around from the marina to the hotel, from customs to the marina and the hotel just to get the boat in the water. We were still hoping by wednesday but by tuesday evening we knew that would not work. It rained almost the full day and so they could not continue the paint work.  We were now looking for thursday. On wednesday evening the chef from the hotel restaurant made the national Grenadian dish for us “Oil Down”. An important ingredient is breadfruit (lots of it in Grenada )and either chicken or dried fish simmered in coconut milk together with herbs and vegetables. I really enjoyed it ! On thursday Stefan spent a full day between the marina and the customs office in St.Georges. He finally got our box in a truck and had them delivered by 5.30PM at the boat. We were ready to leave friday….

Friday September 11, we checked out of the hotel early because we still had to unpack all the boxes before they could haul us in the water…I had no idea where we were going to put it all. At 4PM , we were still busy getting everything more or less organised, they were ready to haul us in the water. They were still putting on the new name on the boat..

See below pictures of the hauling of the boat :

almost in the water 🙂

Finally in the water at around 5.30PM. We needed a technician on board because we could not start the engines. It turned out the diesel tanks were not open, nothing serious, only, to open the diesel tanks we had to get under the rear bunks….not a quick task since they had a lot of our stuff on top. We managed and got the motors started to leave the dock. Free…we moored at a buoy in the marina and settled in the setting sun after a long day. It felt good to finally be on the water.

Saturday and Sunday, September 12 and 13,were spent on organising everything in the boat and food shopping. We went to the fish market in Grenville and got tuna and red snapper to cook on our barbecue. Sunday it rained most of the day, but lucky me Stefan installed the washing machine (her name is Marcella).

Monday September 14th, ready to go and move the boat. First destination was Prickly Bay (L’Anse aux Epines) . But we still had to baptise Sanuk we the new name and the make sure the gods are with us during our journey. Stefan prepared a little text and I baptised (a woman needs to do this ) with a bottle of bubbles found in a local store, the most expensive they had ( cannot use cheap stuff to stem the gods well) :-)We then motored Sanuk the whole time  to Prickley bay since there was no wind and this way we got to know the motors, the GPS and the autopilot. We arrived there in the late afternoon just in time to find a nice anchor spot between the many boats that were there already. It was the first time we anchored with Sanuk and we had made the mistake of not trying it out at Grenada Marine where there were less boats. Anyway, the first time around we did not succeed in getting the anchor down so we had to make a little detour and figure out what was wrong.  Second time we did pretty good. We stayed in the boat for about an hour to make sure it was anchored right and went to the nearest food store at Grand Anse. We had squid on the barbecue with spaghetti and ratatouille from local vegetables. It was tasty 🙂

Tuesday September 15th, at 7.30AM we listened to the NET – VHF 66 – this is for cruisers in the marina of Prickly Bay and surroundings, it was a little girl of about 11 years old who made the announcements and the weather forecast for the coming days. Local stores and restaurants will also inform you about their specials. They announced that the french bread was ready! French bread! Wow we did not have bread for about a month now that would really be tasty with an omelet in the morning. So Stefan went to get the bread with Flipper ( the name of our dinghy)while I prepared the omelet. Never thought a piece of bread and omelet could be so tasty :-). We continued that day in cleaning up and organising further. It is starting to look OK and we are starting to find a routine. We swim at least twice a day. We now know how much we can use in electricity, when to adjust the solar panels and when to make water. It really is a learning process, but we are getting there. I am happy to be able to learn so much !