April 10, 2018

Our 20 hour passage from Virgin Gorda, BVI was exhausting!  We had to motor most of the way, and the winds and waves made sleeping during an off shift not an option.  Our auto-helm, usually affectionatly referred to as Bob & Gayle steering, typically does most of the work to keep us on track, but I think the waves were just too much.  So my brave, handsome, cool under pressure, Captain Robert spent pretty much the entire passage behind the wheel.  Not that I got any sleep either, but he is so much better at steering under these rough conditions than I am.  So my job was to keep him company and awake, which I did.  Needless to say, when we finally anchored up in Marigot Bay we headed straight for the aft cabin bed to get some much needed sleep!

After our check in process was completed, we moved the boat up to Grand Casse for a few days.  They have a really good open air barbeque in Grand Casse, and we were wondering if it still existed after the hurricane.  We took the dinghy to shore and found that the barbeque was still in operation, so we made plans to have a late lunch/early dinner there after walking through the main streets of Grand Casse.  These normally very busy streets were virtually deserted.  Not very many cruisers, or other tourists for that matter, were visiting the island so soon after hurricane Irma.

By mid April we continued our trek south stopping in St. Barthelemy (better known as St. Barths), Guadaloupe, and then, in time for my birthday of course, we made a stop in Marigot Bay, St. Lucia for some rest and relaxation at the resort there.  Two days after my birthday, we sailed into Bequia, another favorite stop.  At the beginning of May, our friend Shawn Hughes flew into Grenada to spend a week with us.  We picked him up at the top end of the island, with the plan that he would sail with us south to St. Georges enjoying some snorkeling stops along the way.  Shawn got a little too relaxed on one passage and fell asleep on our back deck.  After only a short nap, we told him that he should take care as the sun in the Caribbean can burn his unseasoned skin very quickly.  He moved up to the edge of the cockpit, but still left his back exposed.  The next morning his back was the color of a cooked lobster!  We said with a smirk, “we tried to warn you!”.

We arrived in St. Georges, Grenada by May 5th and took a slip in the Port Louis Maria for a week.  This would give us the opportunity to show Shawn around the island a bit before his return flight to Toronto.  It also meant that we could prepare BnG for her upcoming storage for hurricane season.  Following Shawns departure, we gave BnG a good desalting bath, took down the sails, polished stainless, basically cleaned her up inside and out.  

By the 13th we departed the marina and motored over to the anchorage at Prickly Bay for a couple of nights.  Our scheduled haul out at Clarkes Court Marina was on May 16th, and it would only take us a couple of hours to get there from Prickly.  We don’t like to spend any time at anchor in Clarkes Court Bay, as the growth on the boats bottom would manifest very quickly due to the run off from the nearby rum factory.  We went straight from the anchorage in Prickly Bay into the haul out spillway at Clarkes Court.  Following her haul out, we spent a week completing our put-away check list and hurricane plan preparations.

Sleep well BnG, until we see you again next fall!