We made it! 10+ years since the idea struck us, the planning and the preparation.We are in Grenada. Somebody pinch us to make sure this is real.

Francine and Mario aboard Leeloo for happy hour on May 8, 2014 in Martinique.

May 9, 2014

We left Martinique at 0600 with Leeloo as planned. We first motor sailed for an hour, then sailed for about three hours until we got half way through St. Lucia when we had to motor sail again. Unfortunately at the end of St. Lucia, we encountered about a 2+ kt current against us making the progress really slow. I swear we looked at the same land mass for three hours! St. Vincent presented us with some rain but we were fortunate enough to avoid most of the storm cells. Winds were really calm the whole trip giving us very little waves which we were thankful for.

May 10, 2014

We arrived in St. George's, Grenada and set anchor around 1130.

Approaching St. George's, Grenada.

 

 

Fort George.

After lunch we went to Port Louis Marina to check in with Customs. As Jorge and I are leaving the boat here when we return to Canada, we checked in with the marina authorities and wandered around the marina, also enjoying the showers.

Port Louis Marina (see the Canadian flag).

 

We met up with Mario and Francine later in the afternoon and celebrated a good trip and arrival by having supper at the marina. It was a very early night (2000) as it had been almost a 30 hour trip from Martinique.

May 11, 2014.

Needless to say, we slept until 0800 and then had a lazy morning. It was hard to get moving. Mario and Francine left for Prickly Bay this morning as that is where they are leaving their boat for the summer, until they return in November.

After lunch we returned to the marina, worked on getting flights home and enjoyed the warm afternoon.

 

Almost all of St. George's shuts down on Sundays so there wasn't much to do although we did find an ATM that worked for us (the first one we found wouldn't accept any of our cards). I don't know what is more frustrating - looking for good internet or looking for ATMs that work.

Back to the boat for dinner and again a relatively early night.

May 12, 2014

After breakfast it was off to the Grenada Yacht Club to do laundry. Jorge went in search of Digicell (a phone company) so we could put money on a mobile that was given to us by some cruiser friends going north and who didn't need it anymore. As the Air Canada website did not accept our credit cards yesterday when I was trying to make travel arrangements, I called the 1-800 number to pay. I made the reservations and was given a 1-888 number to call to make the payment. Okay so the local phones wouldn't take my money or credit card as the 1-888 number was not free so I used the mobile. I was put on hold and that ate up all the time on the phone. By this time, we were back on the boat having lunch, so back to the marina to use the public phone. After calling the 1-800 number again, they agreed to take the credit card info and stated if we had not received email confirmation within three hours to call them back.

We enjoyed a cold beer at the Yacht Club. The weather was 27C at 1900 and we had a gorgeous view of the Caribbean Sea.

Back to CS'ta Time for a late supper.

May 13, 2014

We took the boat to the Yacht Club in the morning for diesel and water. While there, I checked the internet for our travel confirmation. Nothing. I tried using the same public phone with the same 1-800 number at least ten times and was told "the number could not be connected, please try again". We left the marina, reanchored, had lunch and then went to Grand Anse for a visit via dinghy and to find another phone. When I got through to the airlines I was told our credit card was denied. Okay, we'll try another one. The guy also said he would email us or phone us if there was a problem. Okay (again), we had to find a Digicell to buy more time. Luckily there was one in the mall that we were at. Jorge then visited a hardware store and tried to make a purchase with his credit cards, none worked. Meanwhile I was in the grocery store trying to make a purchase with my cards and none worked! We used the last of our cash for the groceries and then had to find a bank. OMG things were going from bad to worse! We found a bank and were successful in getting some money.  No word from the airlines denying our credit card but no flight confirmation yet either. (Sigh).

Blogging and dinner at the Yacht Club.