The trip on March 29th from Tyrell Bay to St. George at the southwest tip of Grenada was quite lovely. The wind was on the stern, which means that there was a lot of North in the wind, and it would have been hell trying to get north up the island chain. The northern angle actually made it difficult to make great use of the jib, especially after we reached the northern tip of the big island. We rolled the jib up, slung the main over as far as we could, and we actually hit a boat-speed of 10 knots as we sped down some of the larger waves.
Sandy Island as seen from the heights during our last hike in Carriacou 
Someone has constructed a concrete Grotto/home high in the hills of Carriacou. We don’t know whether the house style was chosen to keep the owners cool, to protect from falling rocks from the high peak above, or for some other reason. 
Dawn sitting at the Paradise Beach Club viewing Sandy Island where Cat Tales was moored
The northerly wind also made it too dangerous to attempt to anchor and get ashore in Gouyave to drop off our starter and alternators for repair at a gentleman’s shop who does that type of work. Still, it was a lovely trip and a great last cruise.
We had Cat Tales tied up to a mooring at the mouth of St. George’s Harbour by 1400 hours. Of course, the obligatory ‘anchor beer’ is also appropriate when mooring. Yes, it did lead to a second round.
The next day, we came ashore at the Grenada Yacht Club, took a bus to the Nissan Dealership with three alternators and a starter to be delivered up to Gouyave to our repairman, and then we carried on by foot to the Blue Bay Resort and Dodgy Dock. We had an appointment for lunch with Katheryn Winning and her boyfriend. We had not seen each other since she sailed back to the continent in 2016, and had been good friends with common interests and values. We quickly talked through all the old friends, books we’d read in the interim, and our future plans. At our age, discussions about transitioning do take up a lot of the agenda.
We spent the next two days near to the Yacht Club in St. George’s, running for boat parts and tools, and enjoying the Club restaurant and bar. I also cleaned the bottom of the boat and made lists while Dawn sorted our things for storage, laundry, travel, eating, and tossing.
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| Full Moon over Prickly Bay, Grenada |
The trip to Prickly Bay on March 31st was windy and wet, with both engines needed at full power to get up through the waves. We arrived with a very salty boat. Sadly, due to the gusty wind changing every boat in the bay through an arc of 30 degrees on long chains, it was difficult to lay our own chain out and stay out of trouble. We anchored 5 times before we liked our position enough to stay overnight; and then we anchored three more times in the morning before we felt we were no longer annoying anybody by being too close. No, that does not mean we had 7 anchor beers!
Haul-out came early on April 6th, and we both went hard to work. That does not mean our fun ended. First, Fred and Sandy (s/v Dakota Dream) rolled in, and we enjoyed some meals out with them. We also had drinks with Jock (s/v Unleaded) and met a number of his most interesting friends. He is really well-connected down here, with friends of all stripes. Steve and Maria (s/v Aspen) arrived after a terrible 2.5 day sail straight from Antigua, and were hauled out in our boatyard on the 11th. We also had friends Mike and Nancy (s/v Loonsong) as well as their friends join us in the wanderings for food and drink, including our favourite Lamb Shawarma restaurant. Some workdays were a little tough with headaches along with the sweat and heat.
It is now Sunday afternoon, April 16, and we’re sitting in our air-conditioned room at Cool Running, waiting for our taxi to the airport. It feels a little strange to be wearing socks again after 5 months, but we certainly do admit that showers, especially with hot water, are quite nice. It will be great to be home with our northern friends and family.
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| Cat Tales put to bed for another hurricane season in front of Dakota Dream |
TECHNICAL
The new mainsail seems to be working out, but it is robust beyond belief – so much so that we cannot store it just rolled up with battens in it. Just the reinforced head of the sail was unbendable and could not fit into the normal forward hatch. Considering the similarly layered tack, clew, and three reefs, we gave up and took out the battens. It is flaked, rolled, and sitting on the salon table. The top batten ended up too short, and I replaced it with a proper one here in Grenada.
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| Cat Tales’ new crispy, white mainsail, reefed as usual! |
The alternators were returned from Al Bernadine in Gouyave at the usual reasonable price. The starter needs a new armature, and will be returned in November. After giving the alternator issue some thought, I have concluded that the newer alternators, which come with insulated casings, need a bigger wire to manage the negative side of the circuit. The un-insulated older Hitachis relied on the connection to the engine to take some of the negative energy to ground through the casing. I’ll upgrade the Yanmar wiring for that circuit when we return in November. I have also concluded that the squealing that is heard upon startup of the little engines is belt-noise, related to using 80 ampere alternators instead of the original 55 ampere Hitachis (which are getting harder to find down here). Another issue is finding terminal covers for the alternators, starters, water maker connections, and some of the other electrical wiring. Shorting these terminals by accident is too easy, and the lack of covers is contrary to modern boat wiring.
We found the negative wire burnt onto the terminal, with the terminal boot burned off
On that note, I received over $720 US worth of electrical components to fix up the wiring of the boat around the batteries, and have most of it in place. This will allow the removal of numerous direct connections to the batteries, both positive and negative, and move them to busbars. It will allow a better fusing of these circuits as well.
Other end-of-season maintenance was hard work but non-eventful. I found a bit of glasswork to do in the anchor locker, but nothing serious.
