We had eight great Caribbean weeks of fun, meeting new friends, having Jo & Bob join us for 2 weeks before returning to Melbourne for Barb & Dirk's wedding. We had just really got to know the boat and arriving in Grenada felt like coming home. We prepared the boat for my 2 weeks away as Sue remains in Oz for an extra 2 months to catch up with friends and be with Nick & Beth for Autumn's 1st birthday in Sydney.
The flight home from Grenada is fairly straight forward, fly to Miami wait a little while then on to LA rest up for a few hours then do the long haul back to Melbourne. But the best plans do not always go that way. We were almost 5 hours out of LA when some turbulence woke me and as I looked at the screen I noticed we had turned around and were heading back to LA. The short story is that the both fuel pumps on one of the tanks did not work and we would have not made it to Aus. So a 10 hour flight and a stay in an LA hotel courtesy of Qantas saw us fiy out the next day to arrive safely a day and a half later.
The wedding went as planned; the bride and groom looked gorgeous and were very happy and a good time was had by all.
After the wedding I flew back to Grenada on the Monday not without another hitch as my flight from LA to Miami had to get another plane due to a fault and my 5 hour layover turned into 10 resulting in arrival at Miami at 4 am! The Hotel was good and gave me a late check out. :)
Back on the boat life is good. I was on a mooring in Mt Hartman Grenada which is such a beautiful spot.
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| Kool Kat I Mt Hartman Bay |
After a couple of weeks of organising the boat I moved to Prickly bay as access to the town and services is easier here. I have had my share of problems, the generator was overheating (cleaned out the heat exchanger), the water maker boost pump failed ( new ) purchased another and all is good, the batteries were not holding voltage found one was dead and so replaced them with 8 golf cart 6 volt batteries.
I miss Sue as first mate and my days see me changing/fixing/polishing something on the boat, playing volley ball with other cruisers 3 days a week, happy hour at the bar ( a beer $1.75 Aus) lots of walks, catch the cruisers shopping bus to the IGA and lots of reading and swimming. Have met a lot of interesting and friendly people who have sailed from all over the world and have such interesting stories to tell. I am in awe of their adventures and achievements when we are doing it the easy way.
When Sue arrives on the 27/6 the first thing we will do is the Turtle watch at the north of the island which at present is really special as some of the female leather back turtles weighing up to 500 lbs are laying their eggs and some of the previous layings are now hatching and cruisers are saying how wonderful it is to see both events especially the little ones trying to make to the water. Grenada is the 3rd largest site to see these turtles.
SUE:
Coming to the end of my time here in Oz and I am having
very mixed feelings. Whilst I am really keen to see Mal and return to our
Caribbean adventure I have had a ball in Melbourne and Sydney and it will be
hard to leave.
Melbourne was a very busy time with Dirk & Barb's
wedding and catching up with family and lots of old friends. The wedding was a
great success and they were so happy! Sydney has been more relaxing with quite
a bit of time spent further north with son-in-law Nick's lovely family at
Copacabana, a gorgeous little seaside resort. The weather has been mixed and is
getting quite cool now for Sydney but I've had a ball. How could I not? 5 weeks
with Beth, Nick & Autie; I know I'm biased but she is a delightful child
and they make a great family unit.
I've done some great walks in this pretty city and we
have Autie's 1st birthday next week. I fly out two days later and will be back
on Kool Kat by Friday night! Looking forward to warm weather, swimming daily
and cooking some new recipes I've been testing on Beth & Nick. I'm doing a
"quit sugar / paleo" sort of health kick. After three weeks without
sugar my arthritis in my big toes disappeared! This gave me encouragement and
I'm exploring lots of new blogs, apps, ingredients, etc. I'll give you an
update on our next post, cheers Sue. xx
