Catch up and New Year

Sorry it has been such a long time since our last update but we have been busy with visitors and have had limited access to wifi.

Kay and Linda arrive Thursday and we had a good sail to Grenada on Saturday. We were all feeling a bit queezy with the swell but most of us were OK! Arrive in Prickly Bay in the dark which was fun anchoring. We visited a number of bays in Grenada and the capital St George where we did a walk into the rain forest. Unfortunately this was very muddy and we all had completely inappropriate shoes on. We chose to go round the east coats of the Island which few people do and we were the only bot in Grenville which made us all feel quite nervous.

Next it was on to Carriacou which had lots of flies and we got ripped off by a taxi driver so we won't be going back there!

It was another long overnight sail to Tobago but we made such good speed that we arrived in the dark again! Tobago is a very quiet unspoilt Island and the people were very friendly. We visited Charlotteville on the west coast before heading around the east coast to Scarborough and Pigeon Point where we were hoping to drop Kay and Linda and pick up Jeff. We tried to go ashore onto the beach and all got drenched, looked around and did our impression of Hawaii Five O to get back to the boat. Decision was taken to move so it was back to Scarborough.

After Kay and Linda left we headed north and back to Charlotteville before a lively overnight sail to Becquia. The wind blew up to 30 knots as we arrived but the boat handled it well. The boat sails well and has no problem with the big Atlantic swells, we just wish things would stop breaking (boring and long list!!).

The last week has been spent chilling in Becquia, getting the fridge repaired and having a new dinghy outboard mounting plate made! We spent Christmas day on the beach drinking rum punch before cooking a lovely roast beef dinner complete with Christmas pudding (thanks Alice!).

Tonight is New Year and we are going out for a meal before the local fireworks start. Tomorrow, hangovers permitting we are heading south down the Grenadines. We are hoping to be back in Trinidad for 9 January to collect our generator which is fixed but could not be re-installed before Christmas.

Happy New year to you all!

Still working!

Well, we have been on the water for a while and it's lots better than sitting on the hard. We are still working hard trying to get the boat ready to sail. Only the mainsail is on so far and we are still finding new problems - generator is not working this morning! We keep eliminating things and the list is going down slowly but it's often hard to get bits and there is a lot of work arounds needed. As noted previously, getting people in to sort things is a long process and even longer to get things done.

All our stuff arrived from the UK OK and thanks to the nice lady at Chaguramas customs, NO duty. This is such a relief as we had worries that it was going to be expensive. Just about found room for it all but boat is definitely sitting lower in the water!!

Friends arrive here on Thursday and we hope to have a usable boat by then. Aim is to leave for Grenada on Saturday. That will be around 80 / 90 miles and will be a long first sail but that is the nearest point to the north. Tobago is unfortunately straight in to the wind so we can only visit there coming back to drop our friends off.

More later.