Chapter 122: Grenada

We arrived in Grenada from Bequia on 8/18 and it felt like a HUGE accomplishment.  For as long as we have been working and planning – the goal was to get to Grenada for hurricane season.  Originally, we thought we would have Meraviglia ready to leave the US in July or August of 2023.  How naive we were!!  We thought with that timeline we would have a leisurely journey and be in Grenada by June and the official start of the hurricane season.  For those who have been reading this blog from the beginning,  obviously that did not happen!!! Instead we ended up leaving Florida to cross to the Bahamas in February 2024 and it has been a bit of a race ever since to get south before hurricane season got crazy.  So from 2/24 to 8/24, we visited a total of 16 countries!! The longest stay in one place up until now was Martinique which was four weeks.  Now we are in Grenada until early October- at least 8 weeks. Phew, finally time to relax and catch our breath! But not really…

We are currently on a mooring ball in Prickly Bay along with probably 75 – 80 other boats.  And this is just one of the bays – there are also large numbers of boats in Mt. Hartman Bay, Woburn Bay and in St. George Harbour.  Grenada is a very popular place to sit out the hurricane season and is very cruiser friendly. But as we saw earlier this season with Beryl- they definitely can still have hurricanes which can be devastating so we are continually on watch to see what the next named storm might be.  So total relaxation is not possible (honestly not sure it is ever really realistic on a boat!).  We currently have two tropical waves in the Atlantic that we are monitoring with a third potentially behind those.  What does monitoring look like?  We subscribe to Chris Parker’s weather service so we have daily emails and webcasts to provide updated weather information. Our amazing sailing coaches at Sailing Totem also provide us with guidance as areas of concern arise. We check  the NOAA National Hurricane Center daily.  Finally, we monitor the local weather and cruiser’s net for additional information. We also need to make sure we are fueled up and ready to move quickly if the weather warrants.  One of the challenges with so many boats in Grenada is that there are only so many places to go and hide from storms so it can be a race to find a safe place to be. 

In addition to needing to monitor the weather closely, we also have a long list of projects lined up for our stay here in Grenada.  We will be moving to a marina on Tuesday and will remain there for four weeks. Part of the reason for the marina stay is that we have a quick six day trip back to the states for my niece’s wedding – we are so excited for both Jenny and Seth’s wedding as well as seeing our family!  The other reason is that we will be getting Meraviglia hauled out to do some work on her including bottom cleaning, touch up on some of the bottom paint, repairs to our windlass, and installing a new propeller! We will be doing most of this work ourselves so it will definitely be a busy two weeks while she is out of the water! 

So with the upcoming project work and travel, we are trying to chill a bit this week and next while we can.  We are moored in close proximity to the dinghy dock so we have been able to go ashore and explore some of the restaurants and shops. Bob has been able to go running in the mornings and I have been able to get back into a weight training routine.  There is a shuttle bus that runs twice a week from the marina to the local mall and grocery stores which has been great.  I was also finally able to get my haircut and colored again.  We are also catching up on dentist and dermatology visits while here.  It was amazing to me that you can call and get an appointment the very next week – so different from the States! All of the local people we have met so far have been very friendly and helpful.  The only challenge so far has been the heat and humidity.  We have had some very hot days with very little wind but we are hoping that will improve a bit soon. We hope to rent a car and be able to explore a bit further and perhaps do some hiking and visit some of the waterfalls and national parks which we have heard are beautiful. So for now we will call Grenada home and enjoy being able to stay for a while!