Leaving Grenada – December 5

To the French speaking readers, you are on Méridien’s blog. For the enjoyment of Jim (remember one of the crew members of the Caribbean 1500) who is trying to follow our blog, I promised that I would write at least one in English. I tested Google translator on my text and sometime it is a real nonsense - the Google robot does not understand nuance.

This past week in Clarkes Court Bay was focused on trying to finish the installation of the Nu-Teak on the steps. Because of rain and showers was all we had, we left on December 4 and still some work needs to be done. We knew the weather would not be perfect for the crossing to Carriacou (which is only 30 miles) but we wanted to be in Martinique before our visitors arrived. So, between work and the rain, we also prepared for our departure. We stocked the cooler with meat from Whisper Cove Marina.

Jim, in one of my previous blog I explained that a couple from Montreal took over this small marina over a year ago and is revamping it. Also, aside from the marina, they developed a niche which is a meat market where we find good local meat with the North American cuts and not the machete cuts. All vacuumed pack, very practical for boaters.

Last Friday, we did groceries shopping from Clark’s Court Bay Marina in a small bus with more than 30 other boaters. Friday morning is a very busy day because the cargo arrived on Thursday and shelves are fully replenished. Buses from various marinas, for boaters are scheduled to go to St Georges. We’ve been there a couple of time before but we were 8-10 persons. But last Friday, on the way back, imagine 30 boaters, jammed pack in a bus with provisioning all over. Let’s say that doing the groceries with the crowd, is not the portion of our daily boater’s life we enjoyed the most. But a few days earlier, we certainly enjoyed walking, with our friends from Absaroque, to the North South wine place to stock the wine cellar. We also had a very casual smoked meat dinner with few other peoples that Gilles and Marie, the owners of Whisper Cove Marina, organized that night.

Since every day bring something exciting in our boater’s life, guess what!!! Thursday night André’s computer, on which he gets all the buoyweather report, and winlink stuff, went kaput. This is the third computer that walks out on us in a year. I guess we have a very bad computer aura. Friday, he visited Mr. Absaroque who knows more than he does with computers, but, although it seems that we may be able to retrieve the files once in Ottawa next summer, it is over for this season. An order is already place in Canada with the visitors coming in December. In the meantime, the captain download, some of his programs on the first mate computer who hopes that hers will be able to handle this for a little while.

On December 4, we set sail towards Tyrrell Bay, Carriacou. Méridien, motored for 3 hours, and once Grenada was behind us, we hoisted the sails, and away we went. We really enjoyed the close reach with 20-25 knots wind - really nice sailing. Although rain was forecasted, it was all around us but our weather gears were useless. Anchored by 2:30 in Tyrell Bay we were relaxing in the cockpit when the rain showed up once again.

We could now say that the live-a-board and sailing life has really started for this season. Today on our way to Union Island, we stopped for lunch and a little dip at Sandy Island. As citizens of this planet, it is a privilege to enjoy this secluded, wild and pretty little paradise. Afterward, a smooth sail brought us to Chatham Bay on the west side of Union. Very nice anchorage, hopefully we will be able to spend some time on our way back in April. The weather forecasted for next couple of days should allow us a nice sail toward Martinique.

New photos and a video were added to our photo and video albums.