We had a blast on Grenada. Again, we were surprised by just how different the Islands could be despite the short distances between them. Grenada had a great vibe and had a large network of expats and sailors. The early morning VHF broadcasts were entertaining and full of great information about social happenings and events. We enjoyed sailing week and in particular the working boat regatta which was very entertaining. Ole, a fellow Norwegian became part of the social team for a week and we took part in a few social events including dressing up as Pirates(again) in rather elaborate costumes, including Barry setting fire to himself to get the authentic pirate look before removing his leg while Ole and I swapped parrots for rubber ducks… Original, we thought. The night culminated in Barry blagging us entry into ‘Bananas’ by paying with ‘pieces of eight’. Later that week we joined a group of Norwegians on a bus tour around the Island, visiting a rum distillery, chocolate factory and sulphur pools, stopping all along the way to taste and smell the local fruits and fauna. Great fun. Barry and Steven went exploring and munched and drank their way through the local street food and rum shops all the way to the centre of town. No small feat. We also discovered the Brewery, a fantastic pub selling proper craft beer. On Burns night we made home made Haggis and celebrated in Style at The Brewery and a nearby nightclub, culminating in Barry and I hosting a wonderful get together back at the boat with some new friends where we happily emptied the entire boats drinks cabinet which Steven had luckily restocked that very same day! It was a long, eventful night and we made a lot of new friends. We got to know the Island well and walked a lot exploring the forts, churches, sights and sounds Grenada had to offer. During our stay we moved around from St.Louis to anchor in Prickly bay where Barry and I attended Kata and Tai Chi classes (and I managed to upset a grumpy old lady by scaring her with my lightning fast technique). Unfortunately it wasn’t all fun and games in Grenada as Rose-Marie had taken quite the battering, getting us to paradise so we hauled her out for a week of TLC including a defouling, rudder, engine and keel bolt maintenance and an attempt at repairing our busted auto helm. All part of the charm… After a week of solid graft we were in the water again on our way to pick up a visitor from St.Vincent when disaster struck in the form of an overheating engine. Which turned out to be caused by a blocked heat exchanger. Luckily Chief Engineer Carbis finally got to the bottom of the issues but it meant that our visitor from Scotland had to make his way to us! Our visitor arrived while our fix was underway but we did our best to make the additional days in Grenada pleasurable. The drama was not over however as we slipped our anchor and had to fight off a Belgium boat we had drifted back onto, which was very dramatic. However we survived this too and we finally got underway and continued our adventure North!
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