Christmas in Grenada

Hi Everyone

 

Sorry we have gone a bit quiet, we have been super busy! We’re getting used to the yachtie way of living everyone has 2 names, their boat name and their actual names.  So if your rubbish at remembering people’s names then this is hard work! it’s the boat name that’s used mostly! ‘Hi, we’re Ocean Lady’  So we’re mixing with the likes of Spruce, Bluemoon, Secret Smile, Christina Pearl, Norna, True Blue, Maribel 2, Chalupa and the list of boat names go on! 

 

Since our last blog, we have moved away from Le Phare Bleu marina, and decided to go and explore some anchorages.  We spent a few lovely days in a quiet anchorage called St Davids.  It was a pretty anchorage, but not a lot to see when you go ashore.  We stayed there for a couple of days, had some very relaxing nights aboard the boat but Wednesday we made our way back to Prickly Bay to find a few long lost friends from our Atlantic crossing. 

 

We were delighted to be welcomed by ‘Spruce’ (aka Andy and Sue) and managed to find a space to anchor right by all the boats we met in the Cape Verde Islands.  Suddenly our social life seemed to be busy again (yeay!) we had a dinner invitation from Jan on Thursday (our friend living in Grenada introduced to us from Uncle Mike) and Spruce invited us over to their boat for a BBQ on Friday, Saturday was a big night for Christmas eve at the restaurant (De Big Fish). 

 

Our night with Jan was great, her house is just stunning.  She treated us to traditional rum punch overlooking the most incredible view we had ever seen from somebody’s house!  We were amazed, she overlooks Port Luis and St Georges.  A great evening, fantastic food, great company in a beautiful setting, thank you Jan!!!  We had a great night with Spruce, joined by Pete and Courtney from Norna who has just arrived in Prickly Bay after 25 days at sea. Excellent timing just in time for Christmas.

 

The View from Jan’s house

 

Our Christmas celebrations started on Christmas eve with a bit of a party at the restaurant ‘De Big Fish’.  We enjoyed a typical turkey dinner and a few festive drinks!  When getting back to Ocean Lady with 15 minutes to go until Xmas day, we put on our Christmas tunes and had a few more beers. 

Christmas eve at De Big Fish

 

Christmas morning we were welcomed with some heavy rain…boooo!!! But as always in the Caribbean it didn’t last long, and we set up our Christmas breakfast on deck.  Christmas pancakes and present opening! Yeay!  We had initially decided not to do presents, but Laura decided at the last minute this was a dumb idea and sent Stuart to the shopping mall.  The boy did well!!!  After some present opening, and calls home to family we set off to the beach.  What a great way to spend the day, on a beautiful beach, lots of food, great company and some frizbee in the sea after Christmas dinner.  We ended up in the Tiki bar where we enjoyed happy hour all night and free pizza kindly given to us by the festive owner.

Everyone just setting up the BBQ

 

Swim in the sea and a game of frizbee to help let Christmas dinner go down

 

Our next bit of socialising was pot luck dinner and open mike night (except it was afternoon).  Pot luck means you bring your own dish enough to feed 6 people, and that’s your ticket to the buffet, we baked a chocolate Christmas cake.  There were some great dishes made by everyone on the boats.  This was followed by Open Mic entertainment where everybody on the boats who could play a musical instrument got up and played a set.  The talent was amazing, Sue and Gavin showed off their talents on the saxophone and flute, while Pete and Courtney played the mandolin and banjo, they were brilliant.  There was a lot of great music and dancing!  Fantastic night had by all!!!we finished the night off at the Tiki bar to say goodbye to Ed and Alice who were crewing on ‘Christina Pearl’. 

Sue from ‘Spruce’ and Gavin from ‘Secret Smile’ play American Pie

 

Courtney and Pete off ‘Norna’ play the banjo and the mandolin

 

We have a local bus driver booked on Friday to take us to the rain forest and waterfalls and other hot spots of the island.  Then we head back to Le Phare Bleu marina on Saturday for some New Years Eve partying.  We plan to go to Hog Island on Sunday and then prepare to welcome back Alan with Margaret! YEAY!!!!

 

Happy New year to everyone at home, missing you all!

 

Laura and Stu

x

 

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas everyone,

 

Love Stu and Lau xxx

Life in paradise/Grenada week one!

Hi Everyone

 

Since Tuesday we have been busy bees throwing ourselves into life in the marina, making friends with other boats who have done or about to do similar routes to us. 

 

We had a great day out in St Georges, such a beautiful city!  If you walk up to the fort you have the most stunning panoramic views across the bay overlooking the bustling city and beautiful marina.  We walked through the busy streets and the market, did a bit of shopping and then attempted to catch a bus home!  So they say catch the number 2 bus to Grenville! …. Not so easy!  We waited, we waited and then finally the number 2 bus to Grenville arrived, only to be told we weren’t allowed on! Humph!!! Probably not a good idea to try and catch a bus at rush hour!  Finally a bus agreed to let us onboard!  Lets just say we were happy to be alive when we reached our bus stop! The driving was interesting!  But a fun experience all the same!

 

Wednesday, we took the marina’s hobie cat out for a bit of a play! And Stu tried to teach Laura how to dingy sail.  I’m not sure he succeeded, but we had loads of fun sailing down wind, and around Calviginy Island which is an extremely luxurious private Island just over the water from where we are staying.  We took our motor dingy for a trip around some of the bays to the south of Grenada, there we found some beautiful little spots!  We even came across a boat that used to belong to the Sail Training project Stu and Alan sail with in the UK ‘Lily Maid’ (small world!)

 

Laura’s Uncle Mike and Jane put us in contact with a friend of theirs who lives out here, Jan has been brilliant. It is especially nice to get in a car with someone who drives more like people in the UK!! She has taken us to some great places such as a restaurant called ‘Umbrellas’ where her and her friends entertained us; and La sagesse a small cove with a lovely beach and restaurant. We were surprised to see cows being herded home across the beach and witnessed a fire baptis baptism.

 

Saturday evening We were entertained by the local chiropractor Doc Adams playing in a rock band, firing out lots of 60’s and 70’s classics. A fantastic night he was brilliant!!

 

Love to all at home,

 

Bye Bye Skipper

Hi Everyone

 

So we have now had a good few days in Grenada, what a beautiful Island!!!

And so nice to have all the creature comforts like electricity :-) we have taken the opportunity to upload a selected number of photographs from our trip.

 

We arrived in Prickly Bay on Thursday, after checking in with customs and having a lovely swim we took the dinghy to shore to have dinner!  We ate in a restaurant called 'Big Fish' here we were all able to skype home for the first time!  Lovely to hear from everyone!  The following morning we awaited the arrival of our Atlantic companions 'Spruce' (aka Sue and Andy) they were due in a day behind us.  A good clean of the boat, a shopping trip and another swim in the sea later and we were preparing to play host to Spruce!

Andy and Sue arrived and we had a lovely evening toasting our successful arrival in Grenada and safe crossing with Champaign!

 

Sunday we needed to stop in a Marina so we have now moored up in a beautiful marina, paradise is the only word! (We will upload photos!) We have access to a swimming pool, pool bar and restaurant and a lovely little beach with lots of shade!  We had live music on Sunday night, and we have enjoyed relaxing with a rum and coke (or few)!  Alan flew home yesterday to spend Christmas at home with the family, so it is just Stu and I left to look after Ocean Lady in Paradise!  (it's a hard life!)

 

We have lots of plans on how to fill up our 3 weeks.  The marina has a dinghy sail boat which Stu will teach Laura how to sail, we are going exploring today to St George's today and then just more chilling in paradise!

 

We hope everyone at home is preparing for a great Christmas.  Lots of love

 

Laura and Stu

Xx

Laura Keeping Watch during a squall.

Day 14 - Roast Pork, cooked by Stu (!)

We were treated to some fantastic Sunsets

Laura's catch the Blue Fin Tuna

Laura baking bread

The first beer - Well deserved!

 

We have arrived!

The subject says it all, Ocean Lady, Alan, Laura and Stu have safely arrived
in Prickly Bay, Grenada. A total of 2291 nautical miles sailed.
The first swim was divine. Ocean Lady's hull looked in great shape, with a
little netting around the propeller and the usual passage barnacles.
Now time to enjoy ourselves. Will post some photos when we have a wifi
connection.

Love to all.

More wind...?

Dear all,

Time flies when your having fun and have the engine on! Since our last blog
progress has been slow. Still managing 120 odd miles a day but mostly thanks
to our star crew member "Perkins" (the engine).
But it has allowed time to do some maintenance, sun sights etc. We are quite
amazed that the trade winds have disappeared, especially so close to our
destination! Frustrating! We are all ready to arrive now. Fingers crossed we
will arrive tomorrow lunch time.

We have put up the light genoa to try and get as much power as possible, and
even tried the cruising shute. Unfortunately there is just not enough wind!

On the plus side Alan was successful yesterday and caught a blue finned
tuna, which will go nicely on the BBQ. we also had another big bite shortly
afterwards, but the fish broke the snap clip - obviously very big and didn't
want to be supper!!

Hope everyone at home is well and getting into the Christmas spirit,

Love from all on Ocean Lady

5th Dec, noon position 12deg 39N, 54deg 41W
6th Dec, noon position 12deg 26N, 57deg 0W
7th Dec, noon position 12deg 13N, 59deg, 25W (estimated)

Headwinds??!!!

Dear all,

530 nautical miles left to go! Yesterday we had a great day of favourable
winds, stronger than forecasted. Ocean Lady continued to chomp the miles up.
After a lovely chicken and pasta supper the skyline got progressively
darker, Stu came on deck for the 8 til midnight shift and within what seemed
like 30 seconds We were experiencing torrential rain and 35 knots of breeze.
Soaked to the skin and four hours left of his shift! - thats the last time
we leave him in charge on his own!! For the next four hours the squalls kept
on coming, wind across the deck of 40 knots and persistant rain! Even with
the bimini up there wasn't a dry place to sit. At midnight Alan came on
watch, the weather wasn't any better and to top it off, Alan was attacked by
a flying fish who got a good clean right hook to Alan's face, the fish then
landed in the cockpit, jumped around a couple of times and disappeared down
the cockpit drain.

The weather has now cleared up, but unfortunately we have light headwinds of
around 8 knots. The sea is slight and we are taking the opportunity to dry
out from last night. We were treated to a pod of dolphins thismorning which
was beautiful and always makes a nice start to the day.

Our noon position yesterday was 12deg 49.9N, 50deg 14.8W
Todays noon position was 12deg 46.2N, 52deg 43W

Love to all at home, xxx

1 ship, 2 lures no fish!...

...On the plus side 5 days to go!!!

So Ocean lady continues to Grenada with good progress. We are hoping for
the wind to stay with us for the next few days and at last the Atlantic
current is favourable to us!!!. Traffic has been quiet, but we did see one
ship last night which came quite close. We are all excited at the prospect
of seeing land!!!

Yesterdays noon position was 12 deg 54.5 N and 48 deg 12.5 W.

The Atlantic has an overwhelming amount of seaweed floating on its surface,
we think it has blown over from the Doldrums. Yesterday Alan threw over the
fishing line only to find a few hours later another one of his lures had
been swalled up by the sea! We attached Stu's silver lure and threw that
over, but to our disappointment that fell to the same fate!!! We think that
the seaweed is catching it! so a trip to the fishing shop is needed.

Yesterday Laura baked a cake, and this morning stu has baked more bread for
us to have with our lunch!!!

Love to all at home

Ocean lady

Day 9

So last night the wind picked up to 35 knots, not forecasted, but still
Ocean Lady ploughed on making fantastic progress.

Then this morning Alan dropped the fishing line overboard and within seconds
caught another fish, Well Billy the fish wasn't interested in being a
splendid meal for three and decided to wrap himself around the towed
generator. To our surprize and Billy's gain he got away. Alan then spent
half an hour untangling the towed generator and resetting the line. it's now
been out for 5 hours and not a sniff!! Equally, Billy the fish will never
try and eat another green muppet!!

The bread has now all gone mouldy and we have resorted to making our own -
just from packet mixes at the moment, but i'm sure we may try a "from
scratch" approach in time. The fresh veggies are also looking worse for
wear. Unfortunately Stu's most disliked veg - cabbage seems to keep rather
well.

Our noon position was 12deg 56N, 45deg 40W, The wind is good at the moment
and favourable for the next 48 hours, before becoming lighter.

Love to all at home, xxx