When we started this adventure in October of 2021, our plan was to go 12 months straight through and come home once in May. We decided to take breaks in between and we're thrilled with our decision.
During the three months of Chapter 1, we spent a great deal of time figuring out our catamaran, learning how to move it from point A to point B and getting used to living on a boat.
During the almost three months of Chapter 2, we traveled 448 nautical miles, visited 8 countries, 14 islands and made 26 stops. That was a lot of sailing, mooring, anchoring and exploring!
We're back in Colorado after Chapter 2 and recently found out that Category 1 hurricane force winds hit Grenada right after we left, so we're glad Making Connections is on land with hurricane straps holding it down. And we're glad to be home.
To wrap up Chapter 2, we moved from George's Bay on Grenada around to Prickly Bay where we enjoyed a great hike over to Secret Harbour, a rather "bougee" area and restaurant. We felt very underdressed in our sweaty, salty sailing clothes as we entered their beautiful restaurant on a Sunday afternoon. We enjoyed the quiet mooring area in Prickly Bay as St. George's was getting pretty rolly at night. Remember, this is rainy/hurricane season.
After successfully docking to do our final fuel up for the season, we motored over to our very final destination, Clarke's Court Bay, which took about an hour. Jose the dock master helped us go "bow in" to avoid having the rains blow into our cockpit (living area.) We enjoyed being on this dock for a full week while getting our boat ready to be put on land for hurricane season. Our lists of work and play are below if you're interested, but it's mostly for other cruisers as we have rounded out this list now that we have put the boat on the hard three times.
When we weren't working, we found time to play in the area. We enjoyed:
Hanging out at La Phar Bleu, which is a cute little marina a 15 minute dinghy ride around the corner. It had a pool and excellent restaurant, and we had friends who we met in St. Lucia staying there.
Celebrating Joe's birthday on the 21st of July with about 15 little kids in the La Phar Bleu pool. We were entertained by all of these kids at all different ages playing together. Cruise life is good for kids as they have to meet many others and figure out how to get along.
Meeting a couple of guys on Hog Island, a remote island with a couple of little shack bars that are only kind of busy on the weekend. We're amazed at how many single guys sail on their own.
Eating at Whisper Cover Marina on BBQ night and meeting another "cruiser" couple
Then on Monday, July 25th, "The Hulk" a large green marine lift, lifted our 40 foot catamaran out of the water. We have to give Clarke's Court staff kudos for their care and hard work to move it into it's parking place for hurricane season. It took them a couple of hours and they did an excellent job.
With our "baby" tucked away and settled, we taxied to a local hotel called the Siesta for a couple of days of beach walking, pool sitting, and reminiscing about chapter two of our adventure. We cannot say enough about the service and staff at the Siesta. When we departed, they all stopped what they were doing and walked down the driveway to bid us farewell.
We are very grateful to be able to experience this adventure as our retirement dream and look forward to starting Chapter 3 at the end of October.
Until then, we'll enjoy being with Tyler and Wesley, visiting family members and hanging, hiking and golfing with our friends in beautiful Colorado.
Our list of chores the last week of Chapter 2:
Finding the Right People. Since this was our first time to Grenada, we had to find all new people and services to help us do the following:
Re-run our halyard. Thanks Damieon from Turbulence.
Service both engines for hurricane season including replacing our rear engine mounts on our starboard engine. Thanks in advance to Grenada Marine, the local Volvo Penta dealer.
Service our "AirCon" (while we hardly ever use it unless we're in a marina, it's a live-saver.) Thanks in advance to Stuart from Iguana Marina.
Service our Yamaha dinghy engine. Thanks to Nigel in Woburn.
Store the dinghy as we didn't want to leave it under the catamaran. Thanks to the wonderful people at Palm Tree Marine.
Polish the fiberglass (luckily we kept up the rust removal and stainless steel polish so we really only needed fiberglass polish.) Thanks to Kyron.
Repair our sail bag as it had minor tears and the zipper was broken. Thanks in advance to Bronwen McKiever at Island View Sailmakers.
Determine whether we want to increase solar panels as we still have to run the generator a couple of hours a day to recharge the batteries. Thanks in advance to Stephen Welsh from Marine Tech Grenada.
Manage the boat while we're gone for three months. Thanks to Terry O'Connell.
Take down sails, clean them and store them and paint the bottom of our boat. Thanks to Ralph.
Getting Ready for The Hard: This list is really for other cruisers and for us in the future. Our chores also included:
Flush dinghy engine
Pickle water maker
Flush generator
Clean anchor and anchor locker
Flush air conditioners
Unhook propane
Clean engine compartments
De-rust everything
Top off diesel and put in stabilizer
Polish all stainless steel including cleats
Clean all four heads, put in deodorizer and oil
Defrost freezer and clean refrigerator
Put DampRID in all four cabins and in salon
Wipe down everything with vinegar including all beds and outdoor pads stored inside
Make sure any food is thrown out
Take batteries out of everything
Take down bimini and curtains and clean with vinegar
Wipe down all teak with teak oil
Clean stinky forepeaks - fix leaking locks
Take down peddle board rack - de-rust it
Locks on all lockers
Put peddle board inside
The view from La Phar Bleu pool on Joe’s birthday
Happy birthday boy
”The Hulk” getting ready to lift our boat out of the water.
Our final walk on Grande Anse Beach before we headed to the airport.
The staff at the Siesta Hotel bidding us farewell.
That sounds like a great wrap-up for Phase 2. Can't wait for Phase 3.
Thanks for the "on the hard" checklist - I'm collecting as many of these as I can!
I am exhausted reading about it! Well done you!!