Lin had to trust me to do the ‘shopping run’ on the shopping buses a few times armed with her lists.  A mini-bus full of local cruisers goes from Secret Harbour Marina twice a week and calls at the chandleries, supermarket and cash and carry.  It is only EC$10 (about £2.50) for a return trip so is well supported.  It is a good way of meeting other cruisers although ear plugs are sometimes needed as certain nationalities seem to prefer to shout rather than speak to their neighbours, even if they are seated right next to them!  It was sometimes like being on a school trip with over-excited children.

 

On the 4th we had dinner on Beyzano along with John and Georgina from ‘Shamal’, Daniel and Brenda from ‘Nanook’ and Karen from ‘Misty’.  The group was made up of a Norwegian, two Canadians, a Scot and several English.  A fun night and Lin looked a little bemused as she watched everybody ‘relaxing’ whilst she had another dry night.  We had a return bout on our boat with Beyzano and Shamal a week later.

 

We played Mexican Train on Sundays, went to half price pizza night at Prickly Bay Marina on Mondays and attended a boat jumble where we managed to sell our old dinghy.  We generally kept busy with the aim of being away from Grenada before Lin’s birthday on the 22nd.  Who said cruising wasn’t exciting?

 

One morning I checked the water meter which said that our aft water tank was empty which was strange as it was three quarters full the night before.  I lifted the floorboards to find freshwater in the bilges.  It looked like we had a leaking water tank.  After a lot of testing it turned out to be two different problems;  The switch was on the blink (we still had water in the tank) and the water in the bilge had actually come from water overflowing through the lid when refilling.  Refilling is done via an opening high up on the deck and the lid is supposed to be watertight.  The seal had hardened over time and was letting water through when the tank was full.  It turned out to be impossible to get another switch locally so I swapped the dud one for another which wasn’t being used.  We haven’t been able to source a seal either so we have experimented with various neoprene products from DIY stores.

 

 

 

 

This is one of four connected 100 litre tanks which make up the ‘aft tank’.  You might be able to see water in the bilge and on the top of the tank around the leaking green lid.  The two nappies are to stop water passing into other areas of the boat:-

 

 

 

 

Wednesday 15 January 2014

 

We left Mount Hartman Bay at last and motored around to St George’s on the west coast of Grenada.  This takes a useful two hours off our journey north up to the next island, Carriacou and it was good to be moving again.  We booked into Port Louis Marina for a couple of nights.

 

 

Two ‘Superyachts’ in the Marina, both with full crew in uniforms (not on deck when picture taken) who seem to spend a lot of time washing and polishing:-

 

 

 

 

 

From the lagoon in St George’s you can see up to the prison on the top of the hill.  They say the prisoners have the best view in Grenada:-