We've arrived at our final destination! We are so happy of our achievement. What a journey!
Here are a couple of subjects that have nothing to do with Grenada but that I wanted to mention:
Many anchorages have different degrees of waves and/or swells, which makes the boat roll sideways like the pendulum for many hours, sometimes non-stop. For this reason, when friends or family will want to visit us, we'll need to be careful which bays we anchor depending on the experience of our visitors. We don't want them to get sick on Day 1 ! Another advice we heard from experienced Caribbean sailors is to stay on the island that our visitors arrive. Because of somewhat rough seas between islands, the experience of our visitors and the date of their return flight, we will want to make their vacation as smooth and pleasant as we can. As we all know, we can't predict the weather and the consequent seas during that vacation period.
We learned first hand about a scam at Clifton Bay, Union Island. As I mentioned before, we often have "boat boys" welcome us to their bay and offering to guide us to a good anchorage spot or a mooring ball. We appreciate this service and other offers they may have. However, we heard that at Clifton Bay, some boat boys lead boats across a submerged rope between mooring balls. The rope wraps around the propeller, which stops the engine and thus the boat starts drifting towards other boats due to the constant wind. The boat boys then offer to help the powerless skipper for a high price, yelling and creating mayhem; and even blackmail the skipper with violence if he doesn't pay (they boarded the boat without invitation). The skipper didn't go to the police afterwards. But he, and many of us, started to put warnings on websites and apps that mariners use. There are other scams that we heard of, but nothing as drastic as this one.
Thanks to our friends from S/V Ambition, we now have a comprehensive list of tasks that can or should be done to prepare Komeekha for the rainy season. We've put these tasks into small daily lists in our calendar. By dividing this big endeavour into small lists, it is less daunting and stressfull; and it ensures all tasks will be done by the departure day. The fact that some tasks can only be done when the boat is hauled out and that most cleaning can be done more efficiently when we no longer live in the boat, a lot of logistics has been thought through and organized. You can end the career of a project manager but you can't take project management out of him/her. LOL!
One thing we've needed to deal with since we've been in salt water is salt on Komeekha. Salt accumulates a lot when we sailed in open seas, waves crashing on deck and on the cockpit cover. After a crossing from island to island, if I let the water dry, the dried salt water left so many salt grains, they could be amassed for cooking? If I don't wash off the salt, a grimy film lands all windows and plastic covers which makes it hard to see through them. We usually pray for rain to rinse it off because cleaning it by ourselves would drain our fresh water tanks too quickly. If there's no rain and we don't wash, even stainless steel stanchions start showing rust spots. Removing these rust spots was one of my chores when we arrived in Grenada. I scrubbed the stainless steel with a stainless steel pads or brush, then applied Collinite Metal Wax for final removal and protection. If the rust persisted, I used Magica Rust Remover Gel.
By now, we removed the sails and brought them to a sail maintenance company called Turbulence. They will mend them, clean them, then store them on Komeekha. Frank cleaned and desinfected under the floorboards - a big, dirty, hot job. There was some water and mould. For most of the cleaning, we use vinegar and water. Much of our summer clothes are now washed and stored in airtight bags. All the winter clothes are coming back with us to Canada (3 bags so far). These bags will be moved to the AirBnb we're renting from March 31st to April 6th. There, having fresh water, I'll rinse all ropes and wash all sections of the cockpit cover. Some non-perishable food items, such as cans, will stay on Komeekha while others will be given away to the marina/pub staff. To prevent bugs, we'll put clove in cupboards and bay leaves in lockers. There is so much more to do.
We don't have time to visit Grenada. But we promised ourselves to spend most of November in the area while waiting for the hurricane season to end by November 30th.
Now back to work ....
