SERENITY NOW

  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 ...

  Well that was a funny old Christmas! Woke on the boat bobbing around once again in Woburn Bay, Grenada. One of our pre-arranged festive activities for the day is to head over to Whisper Cove and get a load of washing in the machine! The bar/restaurant is closed for the day, but Landlord Steve had OK’d us to come over, do the washing and use the wifi in his absence. Nice to catch up with the socials, and be able to wish people a Happy Christmas from all these miles away. What could have been a rather lovely morning sitting over there on the shady veranda, was a little spoiled by the loud compressor used by the guy power washing the bar floors. He was probably equally upset by our presence, as well as having to work on Xmas day, every time the washing machine pumped he lost all his water pressure. Having caught up with our far flung friends and families, we headed back to the boat for a light lunch… A couple of glasses of bubbly, some prawn vol au vents, mini scotch eggs, and lots ...

  Still anchored in gorgeous Woburn Bay, Grenada The stainless steel arch that supports our solar panels, somewhere along the way, had been blown hard enough to cause a concerning crack in the tubing. Having personally bodged it up with duct tape for some months, it’s now time to get it professionally welded before we head off again. Weldtec are a small company based in Clark’s Court Marina. I had previously agreed a price for the work with them, and collected two guys, Cody and Kimon, from the dinghy dock. They’re a smiley chatty pair, local lads who enjoy being out of the workshop on the water for the afternoon. The job doesn’t proceed all that well… Their little arc welding machine needs 110v so they’d brought a transformer to step down our inverter’s 240v. As soon as they started, the circuit tripped below, and after another couple of tries, with similar pops, I dug the petrol generator out. It wouldn’t start. I asked the Weldtec guys if they minded waiting; “No worries man!” D...

  I find myself in the frustrating situation of having written three days worth of diary, only to inadvertently delete it with a single mis-stroke of my finger. Well here’s the highlights of what you missed: - A typical Grenadian supermarket trip with three full paragraphs bemoaning the available food, and advising people crossing the Atlantic to stock up on provisions in Spain before they come. - Finally decided to buy a reliable outboard motor for the tender. - Finding and agreeing a good price on one from a nice South African cruiser called Chris. - A bus ride into St. George - …and getting my bank card gobbled up by an ATM whilst trying to withdraw the cash for the new outboard. There… we’re back up to date. I hope to be able to collect my bank card from the branch tomorrow morning after it’s cleared out of the machine overnight - fingers crossed. It’s tomorrow morning, or today as I now call it. I take another trip into town only to be told by a smiling apologetic bank clerk ...

  We jumped in the tender and ventured ashore this morning. The outboard, for now at least, seems to be behaving itself. No real reason to hit land other than to get a change of scenery and stretch our legs, an activity that life on a boat severely restricts. We tied and locked the tender to the marina’s jetty and headed up the road. Strolled along until we came across a group doing yoga at the back of the beach. Skirting around the downward dogs we paddled along the sandy shore. It’s a clean, white, soft on the feet beach, in front of the grounds of a rather nice looking Hotel Calabash. Along the way we pass what we judge from their ripening rosy skin tones to be either day 1 or day 2 holiday makers happily lounging and tucking into the first few pages of their novels - lovely spot for them. From there, we followed the road along to a sign for the West Indies Brewery. It’s a hot day, and close to lunchtime, we pop in for a couple of craft beers - which are overly hoppy and not gre...

As you may know from previous entries, the outboard on the dinghy is a little less than reliable. Having been dropped in the sea at one stage by a previous owner and not exactly lovingly cared for since, it’s hardly surprising. Our reliance on the dinghy and outboard forced us to drastic action: a visit to the local Mercury dealers workshop. This involves a slow tick over journey ashore, unbolting the outboard, tying it to a folding hand trolley at the floating dock and taking it the 2km walk along the grassy verge of a busy roadside to their workshop. Left it there to much umming and arring with a plan to return later in the day to hear the full diagnosis - and hopefully also the cure! Back at the dock in the restaurant overlooking the bay, I have an excellent breakfast of eggs Benedict - good enough to give any of the Sydney beachside cafes a run for their money. There’s free wifi there, so checking the emails, I get news from home: a hopefully delightful occurrence of a lodger (Oli)...

  As the drama of an uncomfortable overnight crossing up from Trinidad slowly fades from the front of our minds, we ease ourselves back to the good life in Grenada. We’re back in Woburn Bay, anchored opposite Whisper Cove marina once more.. This means peaceful evenings listening to the cicadas, palm fringed surrounding hills, lambi boys waving as they whizz by on their way to work, and the friendly familiarity of the cruiser’s radio Net Being here also means no limit Texas hold ‘em on the shaded veranda of Whisper Cove Marina as the sun goes down on a Friday night. 21 players; All the usual suspects I’ve played before are there. There’s also a good smattering of assorted pirates, hillbillies and cowboys with whom I hadn’t previously had the pleasure. The first game back turned out to be a slow one with lots of chat at the table. Some wonderful hands came my way, and with a few lucky all-in calls, some hours later I come away with the win - splitting the cash with Steve the landlor...