On 1st January Andy’s partner Donna joined Ernestina and on 2nd we left for Grenada, a trip of about 150 miles which we made overnight arriving on the afternoon of 3rd January. We stopped at St David’s’ bay, the first port of call on the south of the island with a boat yard, hoping to get some help with the auto pilot and a few other jobs. But it was a Friday so nothing much happened until the following Monday. 

We spent the weekend exploring the island including visiting the capital St. George’s on Saturday, market day. Busy, vibrant and very noisy - everywhere there is music blasting out, including on the local buses which are mostly Toyota Hiace vans seating 22 people and driven by would-be racing drivers. 

Granada is known as the Spice Island for very good reason; it is green and lush everywhere with extensive production of nutmeg and mace, cinnamon bark, cocoa, turmeric and many other spices as well as coconuts, bananas, papaya, mangoes, star fruit etc., etc.. as well as the abundant produce there are very large examples of what we would recognise as house plants. 

A rainforest walk and a swim at a waterfall, foot massages for the girls at a sulphur spring, visits to a nutmeg/mace factory and a chocolate factory, “fish Friday” street food at a fishing village on the west coast were among the highlights of our sightseeing on Grenada.

Meanwhile, the people at the boat yard at st David’s, whilst being very friendly like all Grenadians, were too busy and not able to help us other than to provide contradictory advice as to the state of Ernestina’s batteries. So we moved round to Port Louis at St George’s. When we arrived I called a number based on research that Amanda had done and spoke to Stephen Walsh of Grenada Marine. He happened to be at Port Louis working on another boat and came over to us within a few minutes. Within 30mins he had tested the batteries, confirmed they were knackered, explained that the consequent low voltage was probably the cause of the problems with the auto-pilot, and specified new batteries, solar panels (something I had intend to sort in the UK but failed to make a decision) and a wind turbine with the necessary controllers and a new battery monitor. We gave Stephen the go-ahead and, working with the fabrication team at Spice Island Marine in the wonderfully named Prickly Bay, we had everything  done including a grand arch for the power-gen kit (which accidentally provides storage for our paddle boards too!) within a few days. 

Andy and Donna left Ernestina on 14th Jan to continue exploring the Caribbean and Lucy left on 16th to head back to the UK leaving Amanda and Nick aboard until we are joined by Lissa later this month in St Vincent.  

Grenada is a lovely country; beautiful with charming, friendly people and a great blend of the vibrant bustle of the capital with the relaxed, laid-back lifestyle of the coast and rural areas. 

We sailed up to Carriacou yesterday, 16th and will spend a couple of days here before working our way up the Grenadines to St Vincent. 

I have posted separate messages on the Ernestina blog with links to photos from earlier stages of our trip.  Here is a link to pictures from Grenada: -