Some pics of our last few weeks as live-aboards. Some things are just too sad for words.
Some pics of our last few weeks as live-aboards. Some things are just too sad for words.
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So difficult to say goodbye to Feijao.After 13 of the best years of our lives, we say farewell to Feijão as she starts her life in the Caribbean with her new French owner Stéphane from Guadeloupe. I don't know how it happened, but we somehow managed to get to the end of our stay in Grenada. Over four months. No idea where the time went. As always, we've made lots of new friends and it's going to be difficult to leave. We're planning on heading north early next week. Island hopping slowly up the chain to be in the BVIs before Beejay arrives on 20 December. Bitter Sweet!
We've been here in Grenada for two months. Another two and a half until the hurricane season is officially over and the five hundred odd yachts spread across the southern anchorages start heading north. We sure are enjoying ourselves. Getting used to spending day after day at anchor without moving. Brought the anchor up the other day and cleaned it off. It took two hours. Every single thing we do requires a dinghy trip - shopping, yoga (four times a week), weekly music jam sessions, noodling, happy hour. Absolutely everything and since it rains daily, we always get wet daily. Just a way of life. Here are some pics of the carnival and our home. Clearly we aren't roughing it: We're settling into the hurricane season in Grenada. At anchor with about fifty other boats in one of Grenada's southern anchorages. It has taken some getting used to. It's not Europe where everyone hangs out in a marina for six months over winter, but we're getting into the swing of Caribbean cruising. Here everyone is at anchor and we take our ribs from bay to bay for social events. it's harder to get to know each other because nobody's on foot, but we're getting the hang of it. It's summer time so we're in the water daily and it rains a little almost daily (which I love). The real dampener is that we all tune into the hurricane warnings each morning and hold our breath waiting for the words "NOAA advise that there is no hurricane activity forecast for the next 5 days". Aaahhh, lets swim! Carnival next week. We made it to Grenada and the party began at 9am this morning. Beers all round on Agua Therapy with Don and Glenys - cruising friends since Spain. Now at 19:00 we're still drinking. Sitting in the open air Prickly Bay Marina bar listening to a brilliant steel pan band. We won't be moving more than a half nautical mile between bays for the next month or so. A welcome change from the past months. Since March we've sailed over 600 nm from Puerto Rico right down through the Caribbean and we're glad to be putting our feet up and staying in one place for a while. That's the way everyone feels when they arrive here for the summer. Though I will be researching that ever elusive trip to Cuba. We've had terrific weather since St Lucia (trying to forget the northern passages). Constantly good winds and easy passages. We got so lazy that we stopped putting the main sail up. Just the headsail partly unfurled and we still cruised along at over 7 knots. Most of the photos here are at Carriacou, the island just north of Grenada. A real Caribbean gem. So glad to be down south again, though sailing the Virgin Islands will always be our favourite. I agree with Glenys, wish we could move the islands around and squish our favourites together. Bequia We sailed into the island of Bequia a few days ago. Must have paid the piper enough for the time being because we had a couple of lovely days sailing down from St Lucia. Easterly breeze between 15-23 knots and Feijao cruised along at between 6-8 knots. Lovely. Our poor old flag took a beating though. Sue and Ian gave us that flag in Greece. Just a teeny patch. Nobody will ever notice. Off to Saltwater Bay, Mayriau tomorrow and down through Tabago Cays. Ever closer to our Grenada destination. Still nobody has caught up with us. Friends ahead and behind and we are still on our own. This will be some party in Grenada. Slowly sailing south through the Caribbean islands to Grenada. Trying to stop off where we haven't been before, but the weather is playing havoc with our plans. While I can only use one arm it's quite a big decision for us to launch the tinny and go ashore so we are rushing through some islands and spending days in others. Spending our time-out productively though. Gave our old sail cover a face lift. Silly enough to take my star pattern from the Australian Flag which has seven points on its stars. Have you seen how big a sail cover is? Try manoeuvring that through a little home sewing machine to sew each star point onto the sunbrella. But doesn't she look beautiful? Some days you wouldn't change anything for the world. Drinking with lots and lots of cruisers in lagoons bar on the Dutch side of St Maarten. where are you heading? we all ask each other. "The Bahamas ; Cuba; back across the pond (the Atlantic); Grenada; Trinadad; French Guiana; Suiranam; East coast of USA" and on it goes.... Loe the indecision - remembering of course that we were headed for USA and turned around in Pureto Rico. My favourite answer to the question "where are you headed?" is "we're not sure". That always turns into an enticing conversation. Love this Life. Mind you, the $1.00 stubbies of beer are spurring on the possibilities.
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AuthorLenny & Gina Archives
February 2015
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