arrived safely in Grenada

We checked out of customs and immigration and we still a bit unsure of the weather as they were calling for light winds and in many directions. Well, we decided to give it a go and headed for Scotland Bay. When we were anchoring, Laurie was backing the boat trying to get the anchor to dig in. No go. Up the anchor came and down it went a few yards from the first try. Again, Laurie was backing the boat trying to set the anchor. Suddenly we heard a clunk, clunk, knock, knock from the port engine. Laurie turned the port engine off and jumped into the water to see if we had picked up a rope in our propeller. He quickly determined that we had sheered a pin in the rudder allowing the rudder to swivel 360 degrees, which meant it had banged into the prop. Of course this is one of the rudders that Laurie had painstakingly repaired and was a showpiece to say the least! We didn't have any replacement bolts, but had some similar except that they would have to be sharpened. Out came Laurie's trusty table clamp and drill with appropriate attachments and he went to work crafting the ends to look like they had gone through a pencil sharpener, except a little more blunt. These would go into the side slots of the rudder (inside the boat) and lock the rudder into place so it would stay put and not spin.

All the time Laurie was working on this unscheduled project, I was watching a local powerboat on the beach unloading box after box of stuff and piling it high on the beach. It took me awhile to see that they group also had a couple of diesel jugs nearby and the pile would soon be lighted and we were definitely in the stink/soot/spark zone! We were, however unable to move because of the rudder problem. The pile was soon lit and flames were huge with big gobs floating down everywhere. The wind was wafting high and being carried away from us ever so gently. They continued to 'play' with the fire, throwing diesel onto an already good fire! When they left, the fire was still smoldering. We stayed put and had a quick dinner and off to bed, setting the alarm for 2:45. The smell of smoke was strong all night and sleeping was hot and restless.

In the morning, you could still see flames from the fire (which tells you what kind of rubbish they were burning). We pulled up anchor and headed out through the narrow cut of the Boca against an incoming tide...just our luck!

The first few hours of the trip were squally and unsettled with a lot of freighter traffic. The traffic didn't die off until well after 9:00. We had to change course for 2 freighters and another 2 had to change course for us. That's the part of the trip that is difficult, especially without the technology AIS onboard, that allows the freighters names and other information to be communicated to your boat.

The end result is that we are now in Prickly Bay, Grenada after a 14 hour sail. The latter half of the trip was a dream trip and we arrived just as the sun was setting in the west. We dropped our anchor, backed down on it to set it and poured wine into our glasses to toast a wonderful sunset successful day on the seas!