A quick trip through the islands.  After Union, we stopped at Tobago Cays to swim with turtles.  Always beautiful but lots of boats and somewhat surreal all anchored behind the reef.  Then to Bequia where we met up by chance with some friends in Chanto (UK) and Moosetracks (US).  The US contingent of course gearing up for Thanksgiving today.  But which is most embarrassing – Trump or Brexit?  Finally an energetic sail up to St Lucia today, conditions quite lively between the islands and we are now covered in salt.

Having got as far as Carriacou we realised that the newly repaired Autopilot was not working at all, so we decided to head back to Grenada to get the guys to have another go at fixing it.  Fortunately the electronics guy from Turbulence Ltd came quite quickly and did have the spare part required and it is now working.  Meantime we spent a couple of nights in the rather smart Marina at Port Louis in St George’s (the main town in Grenada). We set sail again, stopping in the same bay up the coast of Grenada then anchoring in almost the same spot in Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou.  We are now at Union Island, which is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines and is a different country – we need to head out to the airport to find Customs and Immigration tomorrow.

Finally got away from the pontoon at Clarkes Court on Wednesday.  Much fresher and cooler even just anchored further out near the entrance to the bay.  Spent one night at a pretty anchorage just north of Halifax Harbour on west coast of Grenada, only problem is the proximity to the rubbish dump.  Tourist season is getting into gear out here – there was a huge cruise ship in St George’s when we passed.  The Grenadians do also seem to value the yachting tourists like us. Much horror a boat was  broken into earlier in the week, next bulletin said 2 perpetrators had been caught in possession of stolen goods, unfortunately next one said one guy had escaped again ….

Moved north to island of  Carriacou today, passing Kick em Jenny underwater volcano, still quiet.  Rain of biblical proportions though, also thunder.

After 3 1/2 months in the U.K. It was time to get our return flight to Grenada on October 17 and rejoin Timshel. A mountain of luggage was assembled and eventually packed. The set of charts just as far as Australia weighs a ton, also pilot books and almanacs (really must get to grips with the Astronav this time), lots of odd bits and pieces and spares for the boat ranging from mugs and a mattress cover to gas regulators, capacitor for the generator, canvas things I had sewn etc etc (and a few clothes). Ended up with 3 x 23kg bags (1 extra cost £65) for our BA flight. We had enjoyed spending time with family and friends but the week we left the weather turned suddenly cold wet and windy in Aberdeen so definitely time to head back to the sun. We had of course been keeping an eye on the weather in Grenada. The only bad stuff to come close was Hurricane Matthew, but in the end it was 100 miles north and Grenada got heavy rain but not a lot of wind. Further north say in Antigua they got a lot more wind and of course Haiti, Jamaica and Cuba were severely hit. Luckily the boats in Grenada were unscathed and Timshel seemed fine.

We spent 10 days working on the boat on the hard while staying in an apartment up the road a bit. 

It is EXTREMELY hot at the moment, 33 degrees, even the locals say so, and it is really a shock to the system coming straight from the UK all peely-wally. Grenada is a riot of vibrant coloured flowers and greenery as before, people are really friendly, but the livestock seems to be getting bolder. There are loads of goats, and we observed 3 kids (young goats) jumping nimbly onto the balustrade round the balcony at the apartment to nibble the underwear on the washing line belonging to the Polish lady downstairs. There was also a mouse in the apartment which would run out and eat our leftovers if we didn’t clean up immediately – we called him Jerry. And the tiny lizard we called Leary. And the cow and calf met in the growing dusk on the path to the apartment (with a guy frantically holding on to the lead rope of the cow. The new solar panels have been fitted on top of the Bimini, the bottom has been cleaned and the whole boat has been polished.

 We were launched on Friday 28 about 3 hours ahead of the time booked which caused much confusion as most boats had been launched late. It it is great to be afloat again. Only problem was, not having done a lot of shopping, the only thing available to toast our return to the water was the very cheap vodka bought for pacifying the fish (that we never caught anyway), well needs must, it wasn’t too bad mixed with local mandarin cordial! At the moment we are tied to the pontoon off the boatyard and the job list is growing. It’s all very sociable and we have met up with Cruising Association members from Delphinus and Lynn Rival for a meal out. We were also pleased to meet up with Helen and Chris Tibbs and Tastealei who will also be doing the World ARC rally come January.   

Hopefully we should be able to head off north by the end of the week.

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Timshel was hauled out at Clarks Court boat yard in Grenada, not with the huge green travel lift (“the hulk”), but floated onto the (yellow) trailer and pulled up the slip.  The boat is now secure in a strong looking cradle, and tied down to big concrete blocks.  Note the hulk is driven by a guy using a remote controller something like a Wii I guess, who walks along in front of it.

We intended to stay on the boat, but wimped out after one night as we were attacked by hordes of mosquitos – don’t think there was any other fresh meat in the vicinity.  We were trying to sleep under a net but as the deck head is quite low it necessarily drapes against you and they don’t have to get inside the net they just bite you through it, so painful.  We moved into have a small one room apartment, basic but clean, just 10 mins up the road.  We have been working hard getting the boat jobs done.  We kept the dinghy in commission until nearly time to leave so that we could zap across the bay to  go to dinner or to catch the bus into town.

We are now sadly leaving TIMSHEL for nearly 4 months while we return to the U.K.  It will be strange sleeping in a house, wearing long trousers and socks, but it will be nice to see family and friends again.

We will be going back to get the boat ready to continue sailing in late October, once the risk of hurricanes is past.

We have lots to do to prepare TIMSHEL for being laid up in the boat yard while we go home for a few months.  It seems to be de riguer out here to wash the whole of the inside of the boat out with 50% white vinegar, so I am working my way round the lockers.  We are going to move into the small marina opposite he boat yard for a few days before we get hauled out.

Meanwhile we had a very sociable evening with members of the Cruising Association at the excellent Marina restaurant, we’ve been to the main town on Grenada, St Georges and went on a wonderful Turtle watching trip.  The female leatherback turtles come ashore at night on a beach at the north end of the island to lay their eggs.  We got to watch a turtle dig a deep hole in the sand, lay 125 eggs, carefully fill in and camouflage the area then make her way back to the sea.  It is of course dark and you are only allowed to have red lights so as not to distract the turtles.  In all we saw 7 females on the beach then our guide found an earlier egg deposit that was hatching out, and tiny hatchling turtles, perfect miniatures of the adults, struggling out of the sand then down the beach to the sea.  Turtle photos courtesy of Lynne and Steve of Aztec dream as we had not take a camera.

Yesterday we arrived in Grenada at the southern end of the chain of islands where we are going to lay up the boat for the hurricane season.  Apparently the season officially starts today 1st June but storms this early at extremely rare and while not quite far enough south to be completely out of the hurricane belt, storms are rare in Grenada (and none forecast at the moment).  After Martinique we called in at islands St Lucia, Bequia and Carriacou and met up with a few boat friends en route.

Carriacou is the same country as Grenada so we did our last Customs and Immigration Check in of the season.  The forms asks for ” countries you have visited in the last 6 weeks” but I just wrote in as many as would fit in the space (3).

On the way from Carriacou to Grenada you have to take note of the underwater volcano Kick ’em Jenny that lies on your path.  The last eruption was a year ago in July 2015.  At the moment the alert level is Yellow, just one up from the lowest which is green, description: volcano is restless.  There is a compulsory 1.5km exclusion zone and we kept as faraway as we could without going  an excessive distance off track.  Needless to say we saw nothing.

We now have quite a bit of boat work to do and to organise for leaving Timshel while we go back to Scotland for a few months.

Still heading south, stopped off in Fort de France for shopping, wine, cheese, French bread and croissants of course.  Progress is easier as we are mostly able to the lay the course rather than it being directly into the wind. Saw 4 dolphins yesterday too.  Just now taking advantage of free wifi in the very impressive Schoelcher library an ornate metal building.

It’s hard work this upwind stuff!  Also the current is against us.  We were heading overnight  for Antigua as hoped to get new parts fitted to the generator there, the clew ring of the mainsail came adrift half way through the night which confirmed our destination as at least there are sailmakers here.  I had noticed the tapes attaching it were chafing and had sewn on some extra tape to reinforce it, obviously it didn’t last.  The sail which was new when we left has performed well apart from the tapes.  I’d previously repaired the tape loop attaching the tack as it chafed the through by the time we got to Cape Verde.  A and F sails at English Harbour have done a speedy repair on the clew plus tack and head tapes and delivered it back today.  They could only put a temporary patch on some damage to the batten pockets that we discovered when we lowered the sail, that will have to get fixed during the lay up in Grenada.  A gentleman called Stead (I keep thinking of the Avengers) seems to have fixed the generator at last (fingers crossed).  So we will soon be heading off again to Guadaloupe.  Would have liked to go to Nevis and even Montserrat but we are running out of time and reluctant to give up our hard won easting, so will have to save these islands for another year.

Now on our way back south as booked to lay up the boat in Grenada in June for the hurricane season.  Plan to fly back to UK and Aberdeen late June/July.  Just now in a beach bar in Anguilla, a little iguana wandering about under our feet eating the insects.  Island of Anguilla is still British, apparently they were supposed to get independence lumped  in with St Kitts and Nevis but they didn’t like that and rebelled.