Since our last post we found room on a charter flight that would take us to St. Thomas where we can get a connection back to Miami. The flight is scheduled to leave Grenada in two weeks and we have reserved our seats and secured connections to Miami and then on to Jacksonville. Since the COVID situation is at best uncertain and seems to not be getting any better at least in the United States, we thought long and hard as to what our next move
We finally made it to Grenada! If you take into account all three of our starts to Grenada, from St. Martin, Guadeloupe and St. Lucia, it took us 30 days, 23 hours and 10 minutes to get here. The last run from St. Lucia was scheduled to take around 24 hours. We made it just under that with 23 hours and 10 minutes. The trip was pleasant and no surprises. We arrived around 07:20am and docked at the designated Quarantine Dock in Port Louie Marina as
We got through this 14 Day Quarantine and made it to the Bas du Fort Marina to begin repairs. We tied up along side of the travel lift dock in the boatyard where we would stay until repairs were completed. I thought that the days there were free and just part of the repairs but I was mistaken. What was I thinking? Our first project was to begin the cleaning of our fuel tank and to polish the 35 gallons that was currently in our tank.
We raised anchor at 7:40am which gave us enough time for a nice slow motor through the lagoon to arrive at the Causeway bridge 15 minutes prior to the 8:30am bridge opening. It also left us enough extra time in the event we had an issue raising our anchor. After all, it has been in the mud for 70 days so we knew it was stuck good. Renée raised it without issue and we were on our way. We hailed the bridge operator requesting the next
Things have eased up a little more on the French side and we are now allowed off our boat and can go to shore. We took advantage of this and took off for a 6 mile hike. We really didn't care where we were going, we just needed off of the boat and craving some exercise. We continued along the road hoping we would find a public beach along the way because the beaches were now open for use. However, seems like all of the real-estate along
Today begins Day 52 of our Living the Dream in Quarantine! Things haven't changed much for us here on 5KNOTS. Still Quarantined to our boat with the exception of going to shore for Groceries (provisions), Fuel, Water or Laundry needs. Renée typically goes to shore once a week for groceries and I make the run to Shrimpy's (image at left) for water and to drop off laundry. Renée does the grocery shopping at a gas station that also has a small market with a pretty good
Since arriving on March 15th, there really isn't much exciting to report except that we are still Quarantined to 5KNOTS. Today is Day 24 of our confinement! When you say day 24, that is quite a long time for us because the only place we stayed this long at one time was a couple of years ago when anchored at Long Island in the Bahamas. We stayed there not because we had to but because it was a great island to visit. Restrictions here in St. Martin
The trip from Antigua to Saint Martin went fairly smoothly with a few exceptions. Around 3:00 am during Renée's watch we ran into a couple of squalls and rain. I was asleep in the cockpit and awoke when I felt water landing on my legs. Wind perked up to around 26 knots but Renée handled the situation like a seasoned sailor. So I went back to sleep. A little while later we found ourselves in another squall but this time without rain so it was much better.
One of our goals this season is to get to St. Martin, St. Thomas and then St. Croix before turning south to make the long trip to Trinidad where we will store 5KNOTS for this hurricane season. We have friends on all three islands and was hoping to be able to visit with all of them. It is better sailing if you want to hit these three islands to go counter clockwise because the trade winds routinely come from the east so while heading north or south
Rather than make the 110 nautical mile trip all at once, we decided to break it up into three relatively easy short hops. From our current anchorage in Saint Anne we would travel 33nm to Anse Turin located on the northwest side of Martinique. The next day was 56nm to Portsmouth, Dominica. Portsmouth is a large deep bay with a number of moorings that you can purchase for the night. We had been to Portsmouth on our way south and knew it would be an easy in/out