Twixmas (Grenada)

 

Happy Twixmas! We’re in that delightful lull between Christmas and New Years, traditionally celebrated by forgetting what day it is and eating too much cheese. We’re anchored in Prickly Bay, about 100m away from the advertised ‘best fireworks display on the island’ due to detonate on New Year’s Eve.

Our leaky canvas, which ineffectually covered the cockpit for the last few years, has been repaired. The work done by waxed moustached Frank from ‘Ever After’ (another yacht in the bay). He made a good, cheap, and quick repair for us on Boxing Day. With that done, and the canvas put back in place, I mixed up white spirit with silicon and painted it on as a homemade water-proofing. It worked a treat, the rain came down hard overnight and no leaks to speak of. This is good news, as Columbia has the highest annual rainfall of any country in the world. This and a few other little jobs are the last of a long list of items to tick off before we depart West once more. Our planned departure - as it was last year - will be on the morning of New Years Day. Back then, we were leaving Gran Canaria heading for Antigua via the Cape Verde islands… what a year we’ve had since. This time round, our eventual destination is Australia… with quite a few stops and lots and lots of ocean before then!

It’s New Year’s Eve - we’ve bussed into Port Louis and back, done a provisioning shop at the supermarket and successfully checked out of the country at immigration.

Very mixed feelings leaving here..

I’m excited to be heading West, slowly sailing towards our distant home.

I’m excited to be moving on to the Pacific and to new exotic destinations… gut tinglingly so in fact!

But leaving here, somewhere that’s become yet another home to us over the last few months is hard.

I likened it this morning to the sad hollow feeling after finishing a particularly good novel; You’ve come to know and love the characters, the places, the distinct sounds and smells of the place. As the last few pages draw to a close, there’s already a feeling of loss for somewhere we may never see again...as you’ve probably gathered, we liked Grenada a lot.. So much so in fact, we seriously considered buying Whisper Cove Marina at one point! - sanity however prevailed (for now!)

It’s 11:45pm on New Year’s Eve - time to wake Chez up with a cuppa (We know how to party!!). At midnight we sit up on the bow with our favourite tipple: a cup of PDT tea (perfect drinking temperature) and watch what turns out to be a rather spectacular display of pyrotechnics. Each venue on shore apparently vying with the next to put on the best show. Darren at Prickly Bay Marina pulled a bit of a sneaky one, waiting until his opponents ammo was nearly exhausted, then letting off his full barrage some 10mins after midnight. Great show, and a wonderful way to welcome in the new year.

…and that must mean it’s now 2023:

Happy New Year all x