It was just a few days after Christmas when we got our outboard motor back from its urgent freshwater servicing at Xtreme Marine in Jolly Harbour, Antigua.  Not only did the team there get it running again but they gave her a real once over and she is even better than before our capsizing adventure. With our outboard motor ready to go, we immediately started making plans with our friends on Rode Trip to depart from Antigua and to make our way to St. Martin for the New Year celebrations there.
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We weighed anchor at 4:00pm on Friday December 29th for a very easy 96 nautical mile overnight motor sail, under a bright full moon, to Marigot Bay, St. Martin (French side).  We arrived at the anchorage just before 8:00am, cleared in by 9:00am and were sitting in the Chez Fernand bakery eating croissants and drinking americanos by 9:30am.  What a great start to the day!

​The New Year’s celebrations on the island were fun, capped off by several incredible fireworks displays. During the day we had a wonderful ad hoc picnic with several of our boat buddies, including our friends on Kemana who were docked on the Dutch side of the island.  It was a special time with lots of chatter about what we all have accomplished over the past year, as well as our future sailing plans. 

Ah, sailing plans. This has been a big topic on Wild Horses for the last several months.  It is easy to dream of far away destinations and big voyages, but the world that is more real for Wild Horses includes so much more than just sailing and exploring.  It contains our family and our friends back home.  Every phone call is an emotional tug at our heartstrings to go back to Canada, even just for a quick visit. The longer we are away, the more we are realizing that we need to have more of a balance between sailing the world and being home for family. 
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Before we started this trip, the plan was clear.  We would sail the Eastern Caribbean for at least two years and then decide where else we wanted the wind to take us. We would go home, of course, but the plan was to make separate trips (Mike goes one time and I would go the next time) so that Wild Horses was never unattended.  And the dog?  We knew we didn’t want to subject Ocean to airplane travel.  Our dear pup, we thought, will just stay on the boat with either Mike or myself (whoever wasn't travelling).

Our plan was solid…until we had to put it into action. We have learned a lot about ourselves on this trip and one of the biggest is realizing that we only want to travel as a pack.  We are the three amigos and, well, it just will not do to leave an amigo behind 😉. By the time we departed Grenada, we knew we had a problem to solve. We wanted to go home for a visit with family but we wanted to keep our little family intact while doing it.

Just this past week, the final pieces of our new sail plan have come together. We will be sailing back to the continental United States over this winter, visiting the USVI, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the Bahamas along the way.  We will then make our way to Green Cove Springs Marina near Jacksonville, Florida by the early summer months. There, Wild Horses will be hauled out and stored while we drive back to Canada over the summer months for our much-needed visit with family and friends. When Fall descends upon us, we will re-launch Wild Horses and sail the Bahamas over the winter.

What will we do after that? Not sure but being in the Bahamas will keep us closer to home and also to other sailing destinations like the Eastern Caribbean, Guatamala, Aruba and so much more.  We will have built in flexibility to decide on next steps. 

Perfect.  Freedom but also being able to hug mom and dad once in awhile.  I think we may have found our balance 😊.

​After spending seven wonderful days exploring Antigua’s eastern and southern harbours and beaches, last Thursday we decided it was time to move further north. Our plan was to spend Christmas and New Years in St. Martin.  This decision, however, meant that we would be moving along alone.  Our friends on Rode Trip were still waiting for their engine water pump to be installed so they wouldn’t be moving north until after Christmas at least. Other friends on Bitty Rose and Hop Drop would also be moving towards St. Martin before New Years but would be setting out from Antigua a few days after us. Kemana, Caretta and That’s It were already ahead of us in either St. Martin or Puerto Rico.

Last Wednesday we cleared out of Antigua and then moved Wild Horses from its spot on a harbour mooring ball to the anchorage just outside Jolly Harbour’s entrance.  This would be a perfect place to leave at first light to make the 32 nautical mile trip to Barbuda, Antigua’s sister island.  Together, they form the country of “Antigua and Barbuda”.  We were excited to get to see this small and very flat island known for clear, beautiful water and is home to a large colony of frigate birds.
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The next morning, we were underway.  Well, almost.  We had a slight delay when our anchor windlass decided to not work, preventing us from lifting our 88lb Rocna anchor.  Mike quickly found a loose wiring connection, fixed it and we were back in business.  Surely this was our one glitch for the day.

As it turns out, this was far from the truth.

The passage to Barbuda was a windless one, which meant motoring the whole way.  Our first glimpse of Barbuda was surprising.  It is flat as a pancake and pretty sparse!  Such a contrast from mountainous and lush Antigua.  We motored into the Cocoa Point anchorage slowly and carefully, avoiding the many reefs scattered about.  It was an easy feat as the water was clear and blue.

Next on deck was to get Ocean to shore.  We piled into the dinghy and started to head towards the shoreline.  Hmmm, strong breakers at the nearby beach looked very ominous.  We dinghied further south to where the shoreline was calm but there were “private property” signs there.  Yeesh.  We doubled back and started heading north again, towards the one and only beach bar.  Surely people can land their dinghies here?  Right?  Well, it didn’t look good there either.  There was a mooring ball slightly away from shore that we contemplated attaching the dinghy to but it would require a fairly sporty swim in for all three of us, especially with the crashing waves at shore. Finally, we thought we saw a calmer section along the shore line, just 10 metres away, and motored the dinghy towards it.
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We were wrong about the calmness.  Very wrong.  It was a catastrophe.  The dinghy swung violently sideways as it got caught up in a large breaking swell and then it flipped.  I was underwater and scooped out behind the dinghy. Ocean had made a premature jump out of the dinghy before the flip (she is so smart) and when I found my way to the surface of the water, I could see her playing onshore with some of the debris from our capsized dinghy.  Where was Mike?  Trapped under the dinghy.  I helped him get the dinghy off him and then we got it righted.  We were shaken but still had to secure the dinghy from being pummeled in the breaking swells.  Out of nowhere, a gentleman (who we later found out was the beach bar owner named Enoch) came along and, without asking, started to help us pull the dinghy onto the beach and then rushed to secure everything being swept into the ocean that had fallen out of our dinghy.  He did this even though our large dog was running free around him.  He did this even though he was working.  He did this even though it was difficult. He even brought us a 2-gallon jug of his fresh water to wash down the salt and sand drenched engine.  Wow.

We had a moment to catch our breath and assess our situation. The important part was all three of us were safe and with minimal injuries. We had all our gear, including our wallet and phones and nothing had been damaged.  Um, scratch that.  We had an engine that had been submerged in saltwater. We knew it wouldn’t start and although we had our oars, we knew that rowing the half mile to our boat in the swell was not doable.  We needed a tow.  The bartender assured us that someone would be coming to his beach bar before dark.  But, for over an hour, no one came.

Finally, our heroes arrived.  A small dinghy loaded down with six people approached the same shoreline where we capsized.  Surely, they would suffer the same fate?  Nope.  They had the landing process nailed.  Three young people in their 20s jumped out of the dinghy, swam to shore and awaited the dinghy they just left. They waited for a big swell to crash and then the race was on. As the dinghy approached the shore, the last three people jumped out and swam while the three on shore rushed out and secured the dinghy.  All six then pulled the dinghy onshore.

Oh, that’s what we did wrong. 😉

There was no hesitation from the dinghy’s captain when we asked for a tow.  “Yes!  I will do it right now!”  Mike had previously rowed our dinghy out to the beach bar’s mooring so the three of us needed to swim out to it, in the crashing waves.  Mike and I had no issue with this but we worried about Ocean.  She had her lifejacket on but could she negotiate the crashing waves and strong swell?  Our heroes had an answer for that.  They offered to put her in their dinghy so she wouldn’t have to swim.  Great!  Except Ocean did not like the idea of Mike and I swimming away from her while some strangers took her elsewhere in their dinghy. Out she jumped!  But her attempts to swim to us failed as she struggled to negotiate the crashing waves.  Once again, our heroes leapt into action.  Two strong swimmers from the group grabbed the handle on her lifejacket and guided her through the waves and swell to us waiting in our dinghy.  They then tread water while pushing her up and over the dinghy gunnels. Wow!!

After being towed to our boat, we gave the engine a fresh water rinsing, removed the spark plugs, oiled the cylinders (clearing it of any water) and got pounds of sand out of the housing.  Still the engine would not start. We knew we had to get the engine properly serviced immediately or our almost new engine would be trash. We couldn’t remain in Barbuda, with its very scarce services and amenities.  We had to go back to Antigua.  Our friends on Rode Trip, still in Antigua, had secured us an engine mechanic who could take care of our engine as soon as we arrived back there.  They also offered us the loan of their dinghy for use over Christmas. They are currently at a dock so the dinghy wasn’t being used.  Amazing!

At the end of the day, we know we were lucky.  Lucky to have suffered no injuries.  Lucky to have great sailing buddies who never hesitate to assist however they can.  Lucky to be in a world where complete strangers will go out of their way to help you without hesitation.  A big thank you to Rode Trip, to Enoch (the bar owner at Barbuda) and to the crew on Inukshuk, our towing heroes.

Merry Christmas indeed!

Enjoying the adventures aboard Wild Horses?  Want to know where we are headed next?  Click on the buttons below!

Wild Horses arrived in Carriacou, Grenada on Oct 28th and we immediately started to prepare for our trip to St. Vincent & The Grenadines (SVG).  The first island in SVG is just a few hours away and we were excited to start island hopping our way through the beautiful waterways of the Grenadines, including Union Island, Canouan and Bequia.
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Cue “screeching stop” sound.

After almost two weeks, we still have not received a pet permit to SVG for Ocean.  All necessary paperwork was submitted, but we haven’t even so much as received a confirmation of receipt. Processing time is supposed to be three days.  I have emailed several times to get an idea of the status of our application.  No response.  I have also tried calling (probably more than fifty times).  No answer.  Yeesh. It helps to know that I am not alone in this.  I have met several other cruisers with the same experience.  Only one was able to finally get someone on the phone at the St. Vincent Government Veterinary Office.  They pleaded their case and was issued a permit.  Hence, I keep calling the office with the hope of winning the Pet Permit lottery 😉.

In the interim, we have been exploring the beautiful island of Carriacou.  Last week, our boat buddies (Kemana and Caretta) and the three crew from Wild Horses took the city bus out to Windward, on the northeast region of the island.  This area is ripe with wooden boat building and we were able to see a few in progress as well as chat with a few locals. It took two buses to get to windward and two for the return.  In each case, we had to ask if Ocean could board. All but one gladly had her ride, albeit under our seats.  She was a champ about it though! The one bus driver who resisted, complained about Ocean’s size, her fur and just about everything dog-like about her.  But he finally still let her ride, even though he scowled his way through it.  Funny thing though, since that day our scowl-faced bus driver has stopped twice to ask if we want a ride while we were walking Ocean along the street.  I guess she warmed his heart a little bit! 

We have also had some fun hanging out on a nearby beach, and checking out some local stores, events and great restaurants.  And, with our days and nights getting a little cooler (just one or two degrees but we’ll take it), we have enjoyed some very nice walks around town.  ​

Although we haven’t minded waiting a few weeks in Carriacou for our pet permit, there might be a weather window early next week to start moving north and we don’t want to miss this window.

Cue “Plan B”. 

The next country north of St. Vincent is St. Lucia. This country is near and dear to our hearts as we visited a resort there several years ago.  We absolutely fell in love with the island and the people and have been excited to visit on our own sailboat.  On our way south, we had to skip St. Lucia (and St. Vincent) as Tropical Storm Bret was hot on our tail and we wanted to be the furthest south we could safely get.  That was Grenada, which is south of both St. Vincent and St, Lucia.
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This past week, I requested the pet permit for St. Lucia.  Not only did I get a “thanks for your email” receipt but I received the actual pet permit the very next day.  Yay!  Our new plan now is to head to St. Lucia.  Sadly, our boat buddies will not be joining us as they, rightly so, will be exploring SVG.  No worries though. We have plans to meet up with them either in St. Lucia or Martinique.     

Want to catch up with where we are?  And where we are headed? Click the buttons below!

We have had one of our busiest weeks since we arrived in Grenada but every minute of it had us smiling from ear to ear.  Well, that isn’t entirely correct after this morning’s events.  Sigh.  But let’s start with the good stuff.

We were elated at the beginning of last week with the early arrival of our shipment of packages from Miami. We got the call late on Monday (Oct 17) from our cargo broker that he would be bringing our boxes to Secret Harbour the next day.  Thankfully, all eight boxes made their way quickly through Customs.  We had heard of others who had to wait two or three weeks for their clearance but ours came in just five days.  Yay!
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Mike was away from the harbour doing our weekly shopping so Ocean and I signed for all the boxes, loaded them into the dinghy and got them aboard Wild Horses.  In this shipment were our oil filters (boring but important), our port navigation light (boring but important), our new radar (so-so exciting but important), a few items from home (fun and important) and our new Solstice Pup Plank (super crazy exciting and important).  

​Later that same afternoon, Barry (our amazing buddy and electrician from Caretta) came over to Wild Horses and helped to install the port navigation light.  When ordering the port navigation light, we tried desperately to get one with a white encasement so that it would be a perfect match to our still intact starboard navigation light.  Unfortunately, they were all back ordered at the manufacturer.  Yeesh. We decided to go with function over form and get one with a black encasement.  Is it a big deal?  Nope!  And we kind of like our “black eye” at the bow.  It doesn’t stand out to anyone else and, to us, it is a badge of honour.  It is the only equipment we lost when we were dragged into during Tropical Storm Bret and that is due to Mike’s keen captain skills.  I love looking at that light!

The following day, Barry was back at Wild Horses to do the outside installation of our new radar.  I wish I could say the installation went smoothly and easily but it didn’t.  It took a lot of ingenuity and hard work from Barry to get the radar mounted on our mast.  Not only did he have to go up our mast several times to feed wires that did not want to be fed but he also ground out a spot in our mast to properly hold the radar mount.  The guy was tired, sweaty and full of metal shavings by late afternoon.  And, on Saturday he returned to finish the inside wiring pieces.  Thanks to Barry we finally have radar on Wild Horses!  Barry is definitely one very skilled and hard-working guy and we will be spoiling him appropriately to say thanks!
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Ah, and then there is the Solstice Pup Plank. Yes, Ocean already has a great ramp for swimming off the stern of Wild Horses and that won’t change.  The Pup Plank, however, is a mobile swim platform that we can attach to the dinghy so we can swim her when we go snorkelling. We never run out of ways to spoil our pup!

​In between installations, we decided that we were due to play around in another waterfall.  We had heard great things about the Mount Carmel Waterfall located in the parish of St. Andrew and all of our boat buddies (Caretta, Kemana, Bitty Rose) were happy to come along.  It was a good hour drive there by taxi but well worth it. These waterfalls are less touristy than the others we had been to in Grenada.  Our taxi took us down a narrow tree lined road and parked just off a little trail into the woods.  At the end of the trail was a beautiful and tranquil waterfall with a gorgeous swimming area at its base.  But wait, that isn’t all.  Continuing along the woody trail and across a stream, we found ourselves at any even more stunning waterfall.  The water cascaded down 70 feet and there was lots of room to swim and play in the falls and in its refreshing pool of water.  We had thought that these falls would be very busy but we were the only ones there for most of the morning.  

After we had our fill of the second waterfall, we walked back along the trail to the first waterfall where our driver (Devon) had prepared us a traditional Oil Down lunch. Full of salted fish, coconut milk, callaloo (like spinach), breadfruit (like potatoes), carrots, and dumplings – it was delicious!  After lunch, we played in the waterfall until early afternoon.  It was an incredible day and we felt like real Grenadians.  It is days like this that make this adventure worth the hardship of travel and boat issues. ​

Speaking of which, this morning was one of the not so great times ☹.  We had arranged to have our anchor chain and the hull of Wild Horses thoroughly cleaned (the barnacles and slime are nasty after 3 months of sitting still!) and to have our propeller zinc changed by a great company here in Grenada in anticipation of leaving Grenada in the coming week.  For non-sailors, the zinc is a sacrificial metal that will take the brunt of any stray electrical current that may be running around our hull from our own boat or from other boats.  Without it, our through hulls could get damaged and, well, that just makes for a very wet and potentially sinking boat.  

Anchor chain cleaning – CHECK. 
Hull cleaning – CHECK. 
Zinc change – Uh oh.

The screw that holds the zinc onto the end of the propeller was completely stripped and the only solution put forward so far is to get the Wild Horses hauled out to fix the screw/zinc issue.  Will this delay our departure from Grenada?  We have no idea as I write this but we are now scrambling for options.  It is never a dull moment around here!  Thankfully we still have visions of our day in the Mount Carmel Waterfalls to keep us smiling!

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Hurricane season is just about over and we have started to see a few boats leave our anchorage and begin their slow meander north, up the Eastern Caribbean island chain, or west to Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao.  For us, we are planning to make our exit from Grenada within the next few weeks and will be heading north.  However, before we weigh anchor, we have a departure list of several tasks that will need to be done.  The first on this list is to receive our cargo shipment from Miami.  
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When we first arrived in Grenada, West Indies, we quickly learned that it is a common practice of cruisers to get items shipped to Grenada from the United States, Canada and elsewhere.  The island is just too small to have “everything” a cruiser would need for their boat so many cruisers have to use an importing company.

The process is fairly simple, although it involves several steps. Order your items from a vendor and then ship them to the importer’s Miami address. If there are multiple items then the importer opens the boxes and consolidates the items to reduce the overall size of the shipment which lowers the cost to the cruiser.  The boxes are then shipped (by cargo ship or airplane) to a Grenadian address.  Once the shipment arrives in Grenada, it has to be processed through Customs so that the appropriate duty charges can be applied.  If all goes smoothly, the whole process takes about a month.  And the cost?  Well, it won’t break the bank but it isn’t super cheap either.  Suffice it to say, a person would generally only ship an item that they really needed.

For us, we had a few items that we couldn’t find anywhere in Grenada but all were critical to us as cruisers so we had to get on board the “ship-or-go-without” train.  In our shipment will be our new radar system, a port navigation light (replacing the one that was broken in Tropical Storm Bret), oil filters for our Westerbeke engine, and a Solstice Pup Plank for Ocean to use when we are snorkelling from our dinghy.  Oh, and we have a couple of items arriving that were replaced under warranty and had been sent to our Canadian address.  A few packages of Swiss Chalet sauce may also have found their way into that bundle before it was mailed to Miami (thank you Betty and Barry!).

​Until our shipment arrives, we are easily entertaining ourselves.  Ocean swims off the boat on a daily basis and we still hang out quite a bit with our friends on Caretta, Kemana and Bitty Rose.  Just this morning we had a great sailing and fishing outing, on Caretta, to the reef outside of the southern bays.  Although we had no luck with fishing, the sail and camaraderie were perfect. 

​We also had a great time watching college football on Bitty Rose this past weekend.  And last week?  Well, we played Bingo at Prickly Bay Marina where the grand prize was a goat (yes, an actual live goat). We did have some winners in our group but, thankfully, none of our gang won that prize!  Too bad, having a goat as crew would certainly spice up the anchorage!

We will be on the move again soon.  Click on the buttons below to check out where we are today and where we plan to sail next season.

This past year has been a big learning curve for us.  For sure, there have been big surprises, like lots of engine work, but there have also been many little surprises along the way too, which have made the journey just a tad more interesting.
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Here are our top five surprises from our first year:

First – No bugs!

Mike and I thought that living in the hot Caribbean would mean a lot of bug management on the boat.  We had read many articles and posts about not bringing cardboard onto the boat as they are likely full of roach eggs (yikes!) and that the mosquitos down south would be a lot to handle.  Yeesh, this was not something I was looking forward too.  Back home in the Thousand Islands, I was constantly fighting to combat bugs.  Mosquitos during the day, no-see-ums at dusk and spiders all the time.  Well, so far, bugs are a non-issue for us in the Caribbean. We have taken cardboard onto the boat on several occasions throughout our trip and have never suffered for it.  We also never put the screens in our hatches, preferring to allow as much wind to flow through the boat as possible. Mosquitos seem to be more of a land issue, thankfully.  And spiders?  I have not seen any on the boat, I mean, not even one, since we left the New York State canals. At anchor, we are blissfully bug-less 😊.

Second – How challenging it would be to get stuff
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We had no idea how difficult it would be to get stuff along the way on this journey, that includes deliveries, marine supplies and our groceries.  I mean, we knew we would have to walk to grocery stores and that walk would sometimes be long.  We just didn’t realize how many towns along the New York State canals, in the Chesapeake, along the AICW (Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway) and further south in the Caribbean, wouldn’t have stores at all.  Or, if there were stores, that they would be only marginally stocked and the size of a convenience store back home.  Thankfully, my ultra-conservative self decided to stock up on lots of groceries and house supplies before we left Canada.  When a good store couldn’t be found, we simply shopped on Wild Horses!    

Marine supplies were similar.  It wasn’t always easy finding a marine store and when we did, we couldn’t always find the right parts.  It was a big surprise that something as simple as an oil filter for our Westerbeke engine could not be found once we left the United States.  Truth be told, knowing what we know now, we could have done better with our spare parts before we left Canada. Too often, we had to borrow from our boat buddies until we could get the part we needed. 
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The other challenge was getting deliveries like warranty parts, bank or credit cards, SIM cards and amazon deliveries while travelling. When the weather was good, we wanted to keep moving and it was painful to have to stop and wait for a delivery to arrive. In Grenada, getting those same deliveries is a huge and expensive process. For example, it would have cost $130 CAD to get our replacement bank cards couriered from home.  Yikes!  Thankfully, a cruiser friend was able to bring them back for us when they flew back to Grenada from Canada.

Third – The beers keep getting smaller
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How is this even possible?  So unfair…

Fourth – What a blend of people we would be cruising with
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Of course, we figured we would meet people from around the world (and we have) but what was surprising was the wide variety of people from all walks of life that are cruisers. Our little anchorage alone is full of retired (or working!) lawyers, business owners, government workers, realtors, medical people, police officers, teachers, tradespeople, kids, animals, young people, older people and everything in between.  You name it, we got it. This diversity was hugely highlighted one afternoon when a young lad and his friends were fishing off the docks. All of a sudden, there was screaming.  One of the young boys had gotten a fish hook in his cheek.  Yeesh!  Within minutes, several cruisers were on the scene. A numbing agent was applied by a retired dentist, then a retired ER doctor removed the hook while a retired nurse assisted.  Incredible!

Fifth - Ocean’s popularity with the locals
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We were definitely unprepared for how much attention Ocean would get on our travels. From our first moments in the Bahamas and all through the Caribbean, Ocean has caused a stir. Locals react strongly to her, in a very respectful and positive way.  Kind of like she is a loaded weapon.  Eyes become wide as we walk down the street.  Women usually give her a wide berth and say “woo-wee, that is a big dog” while guys will challenge each other to get close to her.  Almost everyone will finally ask to meet her though and when they see how calm she is, well, then they want to know if she can have puppies (she can’t).  They want a dog just like her.  And once we throw on her sunglasses to take off in the dinghy, it is game over.  We get big smiles from everyone, or a thumbs up.  It is an incredibly fun experience for us and we have met so many wonderful people. And the word spreads.  Walking along a roadside or arriving at a dock, people we have never met will ask “Is that Ocean”?  Well, yes it is!  Our little girl is pretty popular!

​These surprises are exactly why we are enjoying this lifestyle so much.  Not all of it is fun but all of it keep us captivated and on our toes! 😊

Want to know when we are leaving Grenada and where we will be headed?  Click on the buttons below!

There is a lot one can say about this sailing lifestyle.  It can be breathtaking, scary, frustrating, inspiring and, yes, downright crazy at times.  For us, one thing it has never been is boring.  There is always something new or interesting that pops up, usually out of nowhere.  This week it was a Ladies Tea Party.  Huh?
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I never thought I would have to be searching about the boat, looking for the perfect tea party outfit, especially not once we got to the Caribbean.  But, yup, that is exactly what I was doing earlier this week.  Lisa from the boat “HaHaLua” had organized a tea party on Tuesday for 30 of her friends at the grand Tower Estates in St. Paul’s, about 30 minutes from our anchorage.  But this was no ordinary tea party.  No, the theme was “blue” in honour of the Blue Pea Butterfly Flower tea that we would be tasting at the Tower Estates. I was very intrigued.

The morning of the tea party, all 30 of us ladies and girls piled into four air-conditioned vans and headed to the estate. Air-conditioning?  Oh, wow, today we were getting spoiled and it could not have started off better being that the day was targeted to top off at 34 degrees Celsius with absolutely no breeze. 

As our van rounded the top of the hill leading to the estate, the beautiful Tower Estates building came into full view.  Built in the early 1900s, the estate features a Great House on five acres of land filled with gorgeous fruit and spice trees, as well as stunning flowering plants of all colours. Speaking of colour, our “blue” theme was definitely in full bloom.  Every attendee wore blue from head to toe, the estate was decorated in blue and our event organizer Lisa even handed each of us a pretty blue fan to complete our outfits. All this blue was incredibly decadent! 

​After a quick meet and greet, we were treated to an interesting and breath-taking 45-minute tour of the estate grounds.  On a less hot day, it was easy to imagine lingering about the scented trees, watching the birds and butterflies flit amongst the bright foliage.  But not today!  We were happy to escape the heat outside and to start our tea party within the fan-cooled spaces of the Great House.

Back inside, all the ladies were seated in the main dining room at one very long table. Ladies in summer dresses with their hair coiffed, sitting prim and lovely in front of a proper tea party table setting.  My, my.  It was quite the culture shock for us merry band of sailors!  We are more usually found in our natural habitat: sitting in a salt-caked cockpit with sweat soaked shorts and tank tops and hair thrown messily in a top knot while eating directly out of a plastic mixing bowl.  Yes, sailing is this fancy!
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To start things off, we had a few fun “get to know ya” games organized by Lisa, and then it was tea time.  Of course, there were a few nibblies – cucumber and cheese sandwiches, deviled eggs and really melt-in-your-mouth sweets but it was that Blue Pea Butterfly Flower tea that really hit the spot.  It was delicious and, yes, very blue!  The star attraction did not disappoint!
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Our day at the Estate ended in the mid-afternoon and we were all back at our boats by early evening.  It was a wonderful break from the boat, from boat-y life and also a really great chance to connect with all these other female sailors, some of whom I knew well, others I had met just a few times and several who I had the opportunity to meet for the first time.  It was a delightful day with just the gals!

​And what was Mike doing while I was living my high society day?  He and Barry were on Wild Horses installing our new high-powered solar charge controller, replacing the three smaller (less powered) ones we had added to Wild Horses just three years ago.  Our old charge controllers were working okay but we were losing a little bit of power through their set up.  Having one big controller (instead of three smaller ones) means more efficiency but also the ability for us to expand our solar array in the future.  More power is never a bad thing on a boat!

​Besides tea parties and improving our boat’s power grid, we are trying to stay cool.  This past week has been a hot one (34 degrees C every day) with very little wind to cool things off.  Thankfully, we are able to sleep at night with the temperature dropping to a tolerable 27 degrees C.  During the day, we rest in the shade and cool off in the water. Oh and a cold beer (or two) at the end of the day helps a little bit too 😉.

Click the buttons below to see where we are today and where we plan to sail next winter!

Our little crew of three got a real treat last Sunday when we volunteered at “Jenny’s Open Farm Day” to help raise funds for the GSPCA (Grenada Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).  It will be a day that will remain dear to us for a long, long time.
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The Jenny of note is our market lady.  A lovely, sweet sliver of a lady who loads up her small car with her fresh farm fruit, vegetables, eggs, ice creams, yogurts and juices and drives the half hour from her home to the southern Grenadian anchorages.  Three or four times a week she makes this trip and it is easy to see why so many cruisers line up well in advance of her arrival at any of her markets. She charges very little for her wares but the quality is top notch.

It was at one of these markets, about a month ago, that Jenny talked excitedly about the annual GSPCA charity event she would be hosting at her Farm on September 17.  The Open Farm Day was an opportunity for her to raise some much-needed funds for the GSPCA while also showcasing her little farm which houses eleven rescue dogs, two rescue pigs along with a rescued donkey, several chickens and lots of fruit trees and gardens. This year, she explained, the event was very special as she was hoping to raise enough money to get an MRI machine for the GSPCA. Everything was already starting to get organized for the event but she was needing a few volunteers to help out with set up duties on the day of the event.  Would any of the cruisers be interested?

Yes, please!  Mike and I happily signed up as did a few other cruisers, including our friends Andre and Joane on That’s It.
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The morning of the Open Farm Day, five of us volunteers, plus Ocean, arrived at Jenny’s farm with the full eleven dog welcoming committee receiving us. Several more volunteers arrived after us, carrying along sound system equipment, BBQ fixings, beer and many other “we’re having an event” bits of gear.  After a quick tour of Jenny’s beautiful two-story open-air home, we got to work.  

By noon the Open Farm Day attendees began arriving in droves.  For four hours, they enjoyed some great entertainment (songs and comedy), a silly dog show with prizes, a few ad hoc presentations and a great BBQ with free-flowing beers, water and rum punches.  Smiles were everywhere!

​Exhausted from a full and muddy day at the farm, the remaining volunteers and attendees loaded into the last bus back to the anchorages.  There was lots of chatter and laughter, fueled by a fun day and a few leftover beers.  All in all the day was a major success. The event raised enough money for the new MRI machine for the GSPCA, Mike and I got to enjoy lots of laughs with many cruisers and locals and Ocean made a new best friend.  Hmmm, could a play date on Wild Horses be in the cards for Ocean and Betty?  Yikes!

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We have met a lot of people doing what we are doing. Or, sorry, one small but important correction - we have met a lot of people living on boats long term.  You see, although on the surface we all seem to be doing the same thing (i.e. living aboard in exotic places), we are all essentially snowflakes.  The most obvious “same but different” element is the boat.  The word “boater” is so general - we are on sailboats, motorboats, catamarans, monohulls, big boats, small boats, expensive boats and, yes, boats that look like they are about to sink.  And then there are the actual people themselves, and their choices, which really tell the story.  We come from different countries, took different routes to get here, we travelled alone, or with buddies, and our future boating plans vary wildly. There is always something to talk about, and learn, when you strike up a conversation with a fellow boater.
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As we near the end of hurricane season, the question that pops up most often these days is “Where are you going next?”. 

Some people are headed west towards the Panama Canal, others are going south to Trinidad and Tobago, many are headed back up north, some are planning Atlantic crossings and a few are staying put in Grenada.  These content souls have boat work to finish up, family visiting or they just have fallen in love with the island and are happy to stay a bit longer.
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Whichever direction they are going, boating plans seem to fall into one of two camps.  People are either “continuing” or “returning home”.

Several of our boat buddies had set agendas for their boating trip.  The plan was to sail south to the Caribbean and then head home.  Back to their houses, cars, family, friends, and even to careers.  This was a trip of a lifetime and may even be one that they repeat sometime in the future.

For us, this is not a one-year gig.  We are doing the travel thing indefinitely, whether it is on a boat, in an RV or some other method of travel we haven’t even thought of yet.  Right now, it is on a boat and we are loving it.  We are “continuing”. 

But when people ask us “Where are you going next?”, we are a little less definite. We know we will be headed north, back up the eastern Caribbean island-chain but where we turn around, or “if” we turn around is less clear.  This year, we have less of a schedule.  We have the freedom to go as far and as fast as we choose, with the only certainty being that we need Wild Horses to be safely sitting in a hurricane-sheltered spot by next June.  That could be Grenada or Luperon in the Dominican Republic or even in a hurricane hole in the United States.

That is a decision we will make sometime over the next several months. 

​Our plans for our time in Grenada are more solid.  We are getting Wild Horses ready for our trip north to St. Vincent & the Grenadines, which will happen in just over a month from now.  We have a few boat spares and upgrades getting delivered to the island, and our new high-powered solar charge controller will get installed next week.  We have renewed our Grenadian cruising permits and visas to mid-November and we have a list of tasks that need to get done before we depart the country – for example, Ocean’s paperwork, another boat bottom cleaning, servicing the dinghy, and also installing our new navigation light which was broken during Tropical Storm Bret. We even have a list of “cheaper in Grenada” things to stock up on before we leave this great island.

​But don’t worry, we are also fitting fun things into our days, including exploring more of what Grenada has to offer.  This weekend we have a great opportunity to explore a local farm that is having an open house to collect donations for the Grenada SPCA.  Oh, and it is football season so catching a few college or NFL games with our boat buddies is also on the menu. 😊

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Oh gosh, another crazy week!  Our days are getting a little busier now that we only have about six more weeks left in Grenada.  We will be heading north to the island of St. Vincent once hurricane season is over, about November 1.

First up this week was renewing our Grenada cruising permit. Most islands in the Eastern Caribbean require you to maintain a valid cruising permit while hanging around in their territorial waters.  For Grenada, the monthly cruising fee is $75 EC (Eastern Caribbean Dollars) which is equal to $38 CAD.  Not a bad deal considering it is our only “rent” cost since we can anchor Wild Horses for free.  The only down side to renewing our cruising permit is the process of getting to the Customs Office, which is at the Port Louis Marina, about two hours away on foot.  To get there, we can get a taxi for $80 EC ($40 CAD) or we can take the city bus for just $2.50 EC ($1.25 CAD).  Awesome!  City bus it is 😊.  We dropped Ocean off to be babysat at her favourite boat, Caretta, and headed off to the bus stop.

Oh, what an adventure.  There are no bus routes close to our anchorage so we had to dinghy around the bay to Woburn, 10 minutes away.  Catching the bus is straightforward.  You just stand outside Nimrod’s bar and wait for a van that has a big “2” on its windshield.  Don’t worry about which direction its going, the route runs in a big circle so you will get to your destination either way. Okay, interesting.  But it worked.  We caught the bus and twenty minutes later we were at St. George’s Inner Harbour.  After getting off the bus, we had a lovely ten-minute walk along the waterfront and, voila, we were at the Customs Building at the Port Louis Marina.  Easy!

After renewing our cruising permit, we decided to do some shopping.  We picked up a few grocery items at the nearby Foodland and then popped into the huge marine store called Island Water World that was on the way back to our bus stop. Island Water World had a lot of the boat supplies we needed (yes!) so we left there with several big packages and two big smiles!

We got to the bus stop at about 1400 hours and waited for our bus. And waited. And watched as a few #2 buses sped by us.   Then we waited some more.  And watched more buses go by us.  Each bus was packed full.  Hmmm, what is going on?  Well, we came to learn from a local guy that today, Monday, was the first day of school.  And, 1400 hours was the end of the school day.  You guessed it!  We were competing for bus space along with hundreds of school kids and their school (and bus stop) was well before ours.  Yikes!  No wonder the buses were full!
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Forty-five minutes later, a bus finally stopped and the driver said there was room for just two more people.  Awesome!  Well, sort of.  The two available spaces were more like two half size spaces that we had to wedge into.  And all those packages from Island Water World?  They were stacked high on our laps!  But the fun was not over yet.  The bus was still on route.  Stops had to be made and, remember, this is a van.  When someone wants off the bus, everyone in front of that person must get off the bus to let them out, and then reboard the bus. This happened many, many, many times along the route. With our big shopping bags in tow, this was quite the exercise.  Thankfully, the regular bus riders were very patient with us crazy tourists!

​The next day was a bit of a play day for us.  Dale on Wahoo (our event planner extraordinaire) booked a tour of the Belmont Estates Chocolate Factory, followed by the beautiful Annandale waterfalls.  For those keeping score, this is our second chocolate factory and third waterfall in Grenada.  Neither disappointed.  We had a fabulous tour, some exceptional chocolate and then it was off to the waterfalls.  

We rounded out our week with getting a few more tasks off our plate.  Barry, our resident master electrician and amazing boat buddy, came over to install a second engine blower on Wild Horses (with two blowers in place, we now have a system that both sucks and blows 😉) and to create a new 50 to 30 amp shore power converter (lots of dock spaces have a 50 amp power supply but our boat runs on 30 amp).  While Barry was creating the shore power converter, Mike mentioned that two of our solar panels were not working.  This issue had just developed this week and was causing us to be in a power deficit every day, even on very sunny days.  Not good!  Barry dove into the issue and we are extremely glad he did.  After testing the panels and the charge controller, and working through a few different scenarios, he found the issue.  A fuse between the charge controller and the battery had melted.  Yes, you read that correctly.  Fuses should blow and not melt but this one was defective in a very dangerous way.  It had loose connections inside the fuse that must have been wiggled free during some recent wiring upgrades we had done.  This was a situation that could have resulted in a nasty electrical fire in the stern of our boat.  Luckily, we have a battery monitor that showed the defective panels and a master electrician friend who was able to trace the problem right to the melted fuse. Whew!

Just a side note, tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of the day we threw off the dock lines and sailed away into the sunset.  Well, technically, we motored into the mid-morning sun after waiting out some early morning fog, but the feeling was the same 😊.  It has been a journey of gorgeous vistas, up-and-at-‘em days, planning, fixing, exploring, laughing and a lot of adult learning.  A lot.
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It also brings us a lot of excitement, hope and inspiration as we look forward to Year Two.  We can’t wait to see what is around the next corner!

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