November 17 - December 6, 2014  |
| Time for John and Gail to fly home to Minnesota. |
As a boating friend down here likes to say, "boaters plans are made in jello". She is right. They wiggle and jiggle and never seem to stand up. And so it goes with our plan to travel to Tobago and Trinidad. After completing our provisioning on Friday, the four of us sat down to discuss the weather and schedule. We all agreed that going to Tobago and Trinidad was putting us in a box that might be a mistake for several reasons. The weather is stormy and the Christmas winds have started early this year. Nine foot waves are predicted. When Brian loaded the course from Grenada to Tobago, it was 100 miles. That is a long trip in questionable weather and big waves. Our daughter and grandchildren (8 & 5) are coming back with us after Christmas. We don't want to subject them to a trip that long in what could be equally bad conditions. And, two days after they leave friends are arriving in Grenada to join us on board. We vowed, when we began this trip, we would never knowingly put ourselves in a dangerous position in order to meet a schedule. Soooo, all of that boils down to a month and a half in Grenada and no trip to Tobago and Trinidad. Hey, no problem -- life is good in the islands!
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| Pulling out of Port Louis Marina on our way to an anchorage. |
After six nights in the marina, we left the comfort of electricity, bus service, the bakery and the IGA and headed to the local anchorages. The south end of Grenada is a series of bays that are well protected from waves and wind. Protection is what we were looking for. The hot humid air and frequent rain storms are a constant reminder that we are in the tropics.
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| The local fishing fleet in front of downtown St Georges. |
Brian has spent every free minute for the past four weeks making repairs, fixing and replacing parts and systems. We think leaving Gotta Smile on the hard for four months in this heat took it's toll on her. It looks like everything is under control again. Now if he would just put his feet up and relax!
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| Before we could drop our anchor the sky went from bright blue to stormy gray. We could see the wall of pounding rain quickly moving towards us. A few minutes later the sky was blue again. Life in the tropics. |
A dingy ride into the town of St Georges:
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| To get into town we walked through this narrow tunnel that pedestrians share with cars. |
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| No trip into town is complete without a bakery stop! |
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| Walking the commercial fishing docks |
We left St Georges Bay and headed to Clark's Court, Woburn Bay. It is a quieter location with very little commercial traffic.
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| Thanksgiving dinner 'island style'. Baked chicken breasts with stuffing and gravy in one pan. A simplified rendition of our traditional dinner. Another beautiful sunset...... |
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| Touring our anchorage. |
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| This private island (in our bay) can be rented for $500,000 a week. You can bring 49 of your best friends along for no additional cost! |
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| A huge fireworks display at the resort and right off our bow. Thank you, wealthy people!!! |
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| Happy Birthday, Brian! A chocolate cheese cake that tasted much better than it photographed. |
