Our first week as boat owners

Perfume of choice - Baygon


Day One - Friday 20th Jan

We liked the boat, the survey and sea trial had gone well and we had a verbal agreement with the owner as to the price we were going to buy her for. Next step was to get the money to him and sign a bill of sale - both of which are rather tricky when in a country where you know no lawyers and have no local bank accounts. Luckily Alex jumped to our rescue and we managed to transfer the money within a couple of hours using an FX exchange account. Living in a budget apartment a stones throw away from the boat made us want to get onboard her as quickly as possible. Practically unheard of we went from a verbal agreement to transfer of money and signed bill of sale in 48 hours. 

A handshake and our boat keys (well in our case, combination code) on Friday afternoon officially made us boat owners and we hurried over to get on board and have a good rummage around. The boat is like an aladdin's cave full of goodies. All the lockers are full of useful 'stuff'. Opening up all the cupboards, lockers and lazarette we made a 'to do' list as we went to organise our impending work effort.

Unfortunately that night we could not stay on the boat and so we begrudgingly went back to our budget apartment for one final night of air conditioning, water on tap, hot water, electricity on demand and free wifi. To celebrate Dylan made me some 'tuna noods'..yeah we are really rock n roll...and Dylan snuck outside to smoke a cheeky Cuban cigar to celebrate (courtesy of his brother).

Day Two - Saturday

Waking early we paced over to our boat (still feels good to say that!) and moved our belongings onboard. Having only 2 big sailing bags with us, it didn't take long to find places for our items. 

Keen to check out the local chandleries and price up the kit we needed to start the work necessary on the boat, we caught a bus into the capital. Having persuaded Dylan to make this a fun trip and as it was Saturday morning, there is only one place to be in Grenada at that time...the Saturday market. This small square in St George is heaving on a Saturday, full of locals selling all sorts of foods and spices, it is how I pictured the Caribbean before we arrived. Bright colours, larger than life stall owners and bizarre looking fruit on display (I forgot my camera on this trip so see photo courtesy of trip advisor below). We met Rhonda, a huge, friendly Grenadian lady who taught us how to prepare breadfruit. The passion in her voice when talking about her country and produce was infectious and Dylan and I came away with spices, whole nutmeg and a keenness to go and try a truly Caribbean dish.

Laden with bags of goodies to fill our galley we went to the chandlery and paid an eye watering price for 2 tins of anti foul...here starts the realisation of how expensive anything with the word 'marine' in the product actually is.

Back at base we got stuck in with our to do list, Dylan commenced scraping and sanding the hull whilst I painted 20ft lines on the anchor chain and cleaned the cabin.

Content with our productivity on the first full day of being sea gypsies (although to remind you...our hull is yet to touch the water) we went and treated ourselves to a meal and several buckets of beer in the Happy Hour at De Big Fish. 

Perhaps still on cloud nine that our dream is actually going to happen, we fell asleep with little mosquito protection on and no net. The next morning I awake to find my entire body covered in red blotches. On a huge learning curve, ever since we have stocked up on Baygon (the local bug repellent) and dug out the mozzie nets...my red blotches are yet to go down, an angry reminder to bathe myself in the stuff at dawn and dusk.

Day Three - Sunday

My apparent chickenpox like blotches aside, this was another day of working through our to do list. Very little happens on a Sunday in Grenada and hardly any shops are open. With the sun blazing in the sky, Dylan concentrated on cleaning out the bilges and anchor locker whilst I continued cleaning the cabin. 

Having done a considerable amount of walking in the past couple of days in cheap flip flops and feet now covered in blisters, I didn't even leave the marina all day.

O, I must mention the showering and toilet facilities. For those of you not up to speed on yachtie life this is the score. When 'on the hard' you obviously can't flush the toilet onto a passerby and we also don't want to flush the toilet into a holding tank (think of the smell) so most people decide to use the bathroom facilities in the yard. 3 showers and 3 toilets for the people living on the yard is more than adequate and a key gives you access to these 24/7. Although at first I felt like I was back on a Duke of Edinburgh camping trip when lugging my toiletries and towel to the opposite side of the yard and returning my journey with a towel on my head, I soon got used to this way of doing things.

We choose to sleep in the v berth and above us is a mozzie proof hatch. After a night of being rained on and continuously being woken to close the hatch every time it started to pour - we put an awning over it and later replaced that with the inflatable dinghy.

Day Four - Monday

7:20am - Dylan's watch alarm goes off and he scrambles up to turn the radio on - this was the first time we listened to the cruiser's net. Found on channel 68 this is a forum specifically for yachties in Grenada to hear about local events, businesses, gain advice from fellow cruisers and buy /sell goods. Its a great way to stay in the loop and hear about the opportunities to explore the island on a budget.

Another day of boat work, Dylan became an electrician and fixed the wiring to the port nav light and fan in v berth, ordered Garmin depth instrument to replace the original (then cried silently inside at the price and how long it would take to arrive - 10 days) and took off the mainsail and dodger and sent them to the sailmakers to be repaired. We reminisced about our day skipper course whilst flaking the mainsail beautifully on deck - it was one of the tricks our instructor Mike taught us, how to impress fellow sailors and intentionally leave the sail bag off to show your skill.

Not wanting to use marinas in our trip, we are trying to make our boat less reliant on electronics so they chew through the batteries. As such, we signed up to a Facebook group to get rid of a microwave, toaster oven, air con, TV and DVD player that came with the boat from the previous owner. Facebook is everywhere! One item we can't live without though is our Mac and thankfully, the inverter works really well charging this device until we find a suitable 12v replacement.

Continuing our search to try new food, we came across Rosie selling her wares near the yard entrance. Christophene was our new vegetable of choice and as usual, the seller was more than happy to prepare it for us and give a recipe prior to taking any money. That night we dined on minced beef and mashed christophene - tasted very similar to pumpkin but was green in colour and white inside.

Day Five - Tuesday

Keen to crack on with our boat work whilst waiting for the depth sounder to arrive, we got up early to beat the blazing sunshine and completed the following: Dylan replaced the anode on the prop shaft, masking taped the hull and performed minor fixes that the survey had highlighted. I cleaned the brass inside (a satisfying yet tough job) and empty and cleaned the port water tank. Yet to finish all the brass work, here is a photo of one of the lights half cleaned and half not:

After another physical day that our bodies are slowly getting used to, we headed to De Big Fish to meet a Vernon and Donna, a Canadian couple that own a Tartan 40 in the same yard.

Day Six - Wednesday

Feeling like we hadn't seen daylight for a while whilst scrubbing away inside, we treated ourselves to a day of tanning...whilst working on the deck. Dylan angle grinded the hull (courtesy of Vernon's orbital sander!) and I took my bottle of trusty Brasso and attacked the rust on the stanchions. Cooling ourselves down with the excuse that the deck needed to be cleaned, we then tested the theory of soapy water apparently making lines softer - it works! Revelation over, we located the Bosun's chair and hauled an eager Vernon up our mast to check out the Windex. Unfortunately when we bought the boat one of the cups had already broken off so at present we are without wind speed. Upon Vernon's descent he informed us of the problem and we hope to find suitable parts before launching.

Our day was completed with sun downers on Vernon and Donna's boat, now part of the elite and self formed 'Tartan Club'. Wow what a beautiful boat they have (1985 Tartan 40 - Endless Love Too).

Day Seven - Thursday

We had decided that today we were giving ourselves the day off to explore the island. I wake to find Dylan on his hands and knees, contorted into a weird shape under the galley sink. Having not been able to sleep, he got out of bed at 4am and decided to start fixing the manual water pump - although Dylan is not one to stay still, I had stern words and after using the radio for the first time to invite ourselves to a fish braai the following evening, we commenced a day where I chose what to do.

First task of choice was to make a typical Caribbean breakfast of salt fish. Usually bake and salt fish is the dish but we did without the 'bake' part and put our energy into fish preparation. The fish (bought salted) needs to be soaked to remove excess salt, then we added tomatoes, garlic, oregano and onions. Not what I would have chosen back in London but when in Rome....verdict was that it was far too salty and we had rumbly tummies for the rest of the day! Not one to be defeated, I shall be trying it again but perhaps soaking the fish overnight to remove more of the salt.

By the time we got to Grand Anse beach the heat was phenomenal so we popped into the local mall to cool ourselves down with their homemade mango smoothies, mmmmm.

A couple of hours spent sun bathing on Grand Anse beach we caught a taxi into St George and went exploring. The roads in the capital that veer off the bay are very steep so we worked up a good sweat to get to Fort George and beyond (see picture below). When at the top of Church Street we witnessed a funeral procession where an entire town had flocked to mourn the passing, jamming up the narrow one way street for a good 10 minutes. People dressed in black and white followed the Hearst with the ladies tottering up in high heels!! Ever friendly Grenadians, despite the circumstances they all gave us a wave or stopped for a chat. For the second time since our arrival, Dylan was offered 'hash'. This time from someone in a graveyard at a funeral! Politely we pointed out that Dylan was now too bald to be a Rastafarian and too conservative to be a hippie.

Thanks to the Cruisers Net, we were aware of the Budget Marine billfish tournament taking place in Port Louis so on our way back home, we stopped in for a beer and to check out the size of the sea monsters they had managed to haul. A respectable 141lb tuna was the winner of the day and I started to dream of how good that would taste on our boat with some wasabi and soy sauce....no pressure Dylan but I am expecting some pretty decent fish to satisfy my sashimi cravings as soon as we get underway!!

All in all, life is pretty darn good just 'chillin' on de island'.