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.

Martinique and Grenada

The Battle of The Saintes
 

Hello Again
 

It is grey and overcast as we raise the anchor from Terra D’en Haut, The Saints. We had rain before dawn, and it looks like there are more squalls about. We are about to enter the Dominica Channel. It is only an 18nm run to the north end of Dominica, but these waters saw one of the great sea battles between the English and the French. There must be many a wreck sitting on the sea floor in these waters.

Local sail boats, Marin
 

It was called “The Battle of the Saints”. The year before – October 1781, Count de Grasse, commander of the French fleet, plays an important role in the war of Independence of the U.S.A. His victory at Chesapeake, shared with George Washington and others, leads to the surrender of Yorktown by the British. England has now lost its American colonies.

Forward to April 1782 and once again Count de Grasse and the English come face to face in yet another sea battle. The English had 36 vessels and a total of 2,640 canons, the French 31 vessels and 2,558 canons. The battle begins at around 0700, and is all over by about 1300. It takes until 1830 for the French to officially surrender. 7,000 men died in the battle. 22 English ships suffered a lot of damage, and France lost 7 of its ships. There is a magnificent painting in Fort Napoleon on the Saints of the battle.

Antigua, Guadeloupe and The Saintes

 

Sargasso weed off Antigua
 

Back again and still weather watching.

Friday 17^th August we leave Montserrat and sail the 32nm to Antigua. Well that was another interesting one. Not only were we contending with ESE winds, but also tons more of the dreaded Sargasso Weed. Again it was clogging the rudders and props slowing us right down at times. It has been interesting reading in the local yachting papers and the different Islands newspapers, how it is impacting the Caribbean this season. The wild life such as turtles are having trouble reaching the beaches to nest, and the baby hatchlings can’t make it back to the sea. The fishermen are also finding it affecting their catches. No wonder, as we can’t troll a lure without it becoming entangled every few minutes.

Nelson's Dockyard

Nelson's Dockyard
 

We arrive into English Harbour at 1400 and drop anchor in Ordinance Bay. Wow we have arrived in one of the most famous and historical harbours in the Caribbean. English Harbour, the historic home of Nelson’s Dockyard, to modern day and the famous Antigua Sailing Week which draws yachts and crew from all around the world. Well, where is everyone. The place is positively dead!! Nearly all the facilities are closed. Yes it is summer – the low season, but this is ridiculously low. We go ashore to check in with customs. They obviously want a short day as it is half an hour before closing, but we are told to come back tomorrow. We may wander around ashore, but not too far – really, thanks. Well there are plenty of opportunities to take photos with no one in them. Also we find the bank to top up the kitty with EC$ - that is the Eastern Caribbean dollar which is used on a few of the Islands we will be visiting.