Grenada - USA for Christmas - Grenada

Rainbow off St George

Shamal dressed in world flags

A Very Very Happy New Year To You All.  We hope your festive season was a happy one. How time flies, here we are nearly at the end of the first month of 2019!! Yes I am  a little late with another posting to the blog, but we have not yet set sail for more adventures this season.

 

We sat out the latter part of the hurricane season in Prickly Bay, Grenada. Made new friends, and when not doing boat maintenance, or visiting the local area, we enjoyed the peace of the bay and lots of swimming. It is so nice to stop and reflect on all the great adventures we have each season. We do a trip into St George each week to the fruit and vegetable market. See photo for an example of an imported New Zealand Honeycrisp apple from the supermarket,, and yes I am talking about the price per apple.  Local money $8.22 – converts to NZ $ 4.47, so we left that behind!!  The local mango and pawpaw are much better priced, and yummy. Passionfruit are in season, so this all makes for a lovely fruit salad. The fishing is good if one knows where to drop your line, so we enjoyed lovely fish meals as well.  As our water maker pump died, I collect rain water, and we have not needed to buy water which has been great.

New Zealand Apple
 

 

Local Mango and Pawpaw

Then in early December we flew up to New Jersey to spend Christmas and New Year with our daughter and her family. After only being their three days our daughter had a work trip to London for five days. Her husband flew to the UK to meet her as he had not been to London before, and they were able to see the Grand Old City all dressed up for Christmas, and have a few days together which is difficult for them with their busy schedules. So Nana and Poppa were left with the twins, who are now six, to get off to school, and the baby who is 14 months old. It all worked very smoothly, and we were so grateful for that quality time with our grandsons.

 

Youngest Grandson

Baltimore

Our daughter’s in laws came down from Connecticut for an early Christmas with their family, and it was lovely to see them again. After New Year we were taken on a road trip to Baltimore to visit the Science Museum and their huge Aquarian which was tons of fun. The only down side to our USA trip was that both Alec and I came down with horrid colds. We have not been sick in the whole eleven years we have been sailing, so it came as a shock to our systems. At least we were sick at the beginning of our holiday, so once recovered were able to enjoy the rest of our time.



Baltimore

 

Light snow in New Jersey

Just before we left, New Jersey got a good inch of snow.  We headed up to New York and caught the flight back to Grenada first thing on Sunday morning, along with ten dogs and one cat!! Alec announced that it was a special S.P.C.A. flight.  On talking with one dog owner, we discovered it is not expensive to bring your pet with you. We were flying on Jet Blue. Our bags are full of the usual replacement parts and spares. It took a couple of days for them to be cleared through customs, and we are now setting about fitting things and getting the boat ship shape for the next leg to the ABC islands. Today our new Mastervolt Inverter/Battery Charger was fitted. This means I will be back on track for my morning Nespresso coffee – great!! Alec will fit the new water maker pump in the next couple of days. A very big thank you to Simon and Kay in New Zealand who did a superb job in sorting that all out for us. We cruisers need help from our landlubber friends to help us out from time to time, and it is very much appreciated.

Port Louis Marina, St George

 

St George

SHAMAL had sat on the mooring well, and was in great shape on our return. No mould, and very little growth on her hulls. Just goes to show that the copper coat on the hulls is still working after ten plus years. My little pot plant garden partially survived. Alec put them all in the tender, and there must have been just enough rain to keep three of the five alive. I have already planted more seeds, so should see them sprouting soon.

 

St George Markets

Local fisherman next to Shamal

It has been lovely to catch up with another Seawind 1160 owner whom we met in this part of the world just after our Atlantic crossing four years ago. Jim and Liz Hanson off  “Imagine”. We have a couple of outings planned with them before we both depart in different directions.

 

We will sign out for this posting, and update again once we are on the move.

 

Another Mutton Snapper

Love from

 

The Admiral and The Commander