12:02.773N 61:44.852W

Barbados to Grenada 

2^nd January 2015by

5318 Miles from Ramsgate by log.

Sue has just accused me of  being far too laid back and even of ‘going native’ since we arrived in the Caribbean by being very slack with my Blogging and so with that stinging criticism ringing in my ears I have forsaken the wine and sat myself down behind the laptop again. So what have we been up to? The boxing day horse racing was a fun day out for the whole family and took place under clear blue skies and a sizzling hot sun. Norma announced that Duncan our son in-law had given her a tip on the Skype link on Christmas day and so she would be betting on horse number 3 in every race, she remained committed to that decision despite all evidence to the contrary. The first race started with a cheer from the crown and ten of the eleven horses thundered along the track, horse number three however stayed in the trap and looking quite upset that the jockey kept kicking him. Race 2 and horse number three could have been a winner if the rider hadn’t fallen off after 20 yards and so it went on, some of Norma’s horses looked like they had recently been retired from the milk round and some looked like they wouldn’t have passed the medical in the first place but Norma stuck to her guns and backed number 3 all day. Finally, on the penultimate race with my wallet nearly empty she cracked and looked at the odds. After much study 5 dollars was placed on the second favourite number 6, he could have been a winner if the horse in trap 3 hadn’t streaked around the course like a small child on M and Ms and won by two lengths, ho hum. After the races we all went to the Barbados cruising club for a dinner at the invite of a Canadian diplomat that we had met it was a lovely end to the day as we sat on the balcony overlooking the beach, this was to be Tony’s last meal out on the island. 

Number 3 leads the way for the last time that day

Studying the horse flesh

You can get really close to the track at the Garrison race course

4 AM the following morning found Norma and myself bleary eyed and sleepy seeing Tony off as he caught his taxi to the airport which was quite a sad occasion as it will be next summer before we see him again, it has been great having him along to share a part of our dream over the last couple of months. Later that afternoon Tommy and Sue moved aboard and we all trotted up to the port to clear customs for our departure on the 28^th. The rest of the day was taken up with last minute shopping and converting Spectra from a floating hotel into a sea going boat again, and of course taking down all of those Christmas lights. 

Its behind you Tommy

The crew of a local pirate ship wish us a safe trip as we sail out

11 Am and the bridge lifted spot on time for us to slip our lines and head out of the Bridgetown Careenage, in true Barbados style several locals waved and wished us a good trip as we sailed out. Our last contact with Barbados was by VHF radio as Norma called up the signal station to let them know we were leaving, there response was, “Thank you for visiting our country, happy new year and we hope to see you again” which just about sums up Barbados perfectly I would say. The weather report was for 15 Knots from the North East and so I expected a nice smooth down wind sail and no dramas. At three O’clock in the morning I was standing on deck in the driving rain dragging a second reef into the main sail after being woken by Steve informing me that we had a steady 30 Knots plus wind and the swell was over 3 meters. Spectra was steaming along at over 9 knots when we pulled the reef in and still doing over 9 Knots when we got back into the cockpit and so half the foresail was put away as well, that bought the speed down to a comfortable 8 Knots but with the confused seas and swell no one got much sleep. We finally arrived in St Georges, Grenada at 1130 making our average speed 6.5 Knots for the 150ish mile crossing. We are now moored in the Grenada yacht club opposite the sparkling new Camper and Nicholson marina which has a clutch of 100ft plus super yachts gleaming in the sun. Norma and myself jumped into the dinghy to row across in order to clear into the customs office located at the marina and made a bit of an entrance when in full sight of the super yacht flunkies my dinghies seat collapsed and I ended up flat on my back with my legs in the air while Norma had a giggling fit, I do like to make an entrance. The customs process was a hassle free affair and as we walked back to the dinghy after clearing in the UK joint services military yacht Discoverer came into the marina, this is the same 67ft yacht that we last met up with in Madeira when we lent them our keys to the shower block, It is also the same yacht that Steve sailed back across the Atlantic on in 2010, small world. Needless to say a 67ft yacht looked about as impressive as a mirror dinghy in that marina.

View from the Grenada Yacht club balcony

That’s it for this one as I am suffering from a terrible and possibly terminal hangover after last nights Old Year party but that’s a story for next time………

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PS. All of the time I have been writing this Tommy has been badgering me to only writing nice things about him and so I have had a very long think about finding some feature or attribute that I can say nice things about.  It has been surprisingly hard but eventually I have found one so here goes, He knows some really nice people.

Spectra {CHANGE TO AT} mailasail {DOT} com

No attachment or pics please as this is a very low bandwidth satellite link and costs a small fortune per minute for downloads and they block up my weather reports.

If you want to send normal email pics attachment etc.

Paul {DOT} russell732 {CHANGE TO AT} hotmail {DOT} co {DOT} uk and I will pick it up when I am on WiFi