Well, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy Birthday to all those I forgot. I was horrified to find the last time we put anything on this was Christmas Day, and I think that reflects on how busy life has been, or how troppo we have become!

So, we’re now in Grenada, a fantastic place after the hassles of St Lucia. I’ll try to fill you all in.

After Christmas we went back to St Lucia, horrible, wet, bumpy passage, to drop Will and Loz, and Sue and Oj off at the airport. John and I then had a few days to ourselves, including New Year’s Eve. This we spent at the Pitons, 2 huge mountains surrounding a bay with glorious snorkelling. It was made even better by Tenacious, a tall ship built so disabled people can sail as well, picked up a mooring buoy, much to everybody’s concern, as you can imagine. It was ok, as that one was for superyachts and could cope with her length etc with no probs. We then went aboard for drinks and finished up having a great evening at the Jalousie resort, with the people of 3 other ARC boats.

After that, we went to Marigot Bay, still in St Lucia, to collect Pip and Leighton and then Dick and Rachel. They were with us for 2 weeks, during which we went down St Lucia to Vieux Fort, completely non-tourist, just a fishing harbour and a really good local restaurant. Then back up St Lucia, stopping at Soufriere (bat caves), Rodney Bay to see who was still there and do customs. The boys, all over 60, none had done waterskiing for 20 years, did us proud by getting up and going round the bay several times. We girls were impressed, as was the boat driver who had looked very unimpressed when approached to take them all out waterskiing.

 Then up to Martinique, the land of good cheese and cakes. This was John’s birthday, so cake we did have!! Rachel’s birthday was spent at St Annes, a pretty anchorage.

Then off up the coast to Fort de France, where we went to Carrefour, (sad what makes a girl happy) and John bought his windsurfer, which he’d been after ever since we got here. Up to St Pierre, a lovely small place which had been destroyed by a volcano 100yrs ago but still had bit left. From there, we cleared customs and had a magnificent sail down to Rodney Bay, perfect wind, sun and sea. Conditions were so good, we got John’s windsurfer put together and after 20 odd years, he got up! Fantastic.

Time to say Goodbye to Pip, Leighton, Dick and Rachel in Rodney Bay and then John and I were on our own. We sailed overnight down to Prickly Bay in the south of Grenada, where we are still sitting. The anchor chain has grown fur, the boat has a line of green hair, but we do intend to move today. During this time, Bernie went home for 10 days, to see family,  friends  and the cats, to collect the post and shop. It was an awful shock to wear real clothes and shoes, and it was unbelievably cold after been sitting in the sun – well, somebody has to do it!

Since I got back, we’ve done the island tour, seen wonderful countryside and  a working rum factory which uses water wheels still. We’ve been birdwatching, bits of boat work and generally chilled for a bit. Prickly Bay is really friendly, with a well attended happy hour and we’ve had a great time here. While I was away, John hired a car and so we’ve driven round quite a lot and would certainly like to come back here, which of course we will as Maxine and Keith are here next month.

So, that’s a quick update, we’ll try to be better from now on,

Bernie and John

fruit man, Rodney Bay

Pitons with Tenacious by day and night

John at the Bat Caves

Old Plantation Restaurant, Vieuxfort