First Crew-Grenada to Trinidad January 2013

After a fun Holiday and Christmas Season at home on Lake Kegonsa, and a great after Christmas visit with Niki, John and the kids,  Ken flew to Grenada and I flew back to Madison.   I stayed at the house until January 28^th and Ken will meet up with the first crew to get the boat splashed (again) and ready for some sailing.

Kicking off a new sailing season – Grenada to Trinidad before turning west to Panama but ……. still some 2012 issues plus an instrument retrofit upgrade to do.  The crew – Charlie, Kristi, Kyle and Garrett arrived ready to sail and Paul – done at the last possible second – instrument guru all arrived on time.  But Granada marinas are closed from Dec 23 rd to January 6 th.  The crew spent time at Da Big Fish, Paul started the install of the new super duper instruments and Captain Ken tried to “spring” the new sail drive from the container with missing papers in St. Lucia.  No way Jose on the St Lucia container but for few bucks one could FedEx a new sail drive from the good old USA.  New problem – the Grateful Red was in Spice Island marina, the Volvo dealer in Grenada marina and the interior repair person in the Port Louis marina.

New plan – the crew would move the boat from marina to marina with a sail drive that had no neutral, no reverse and the only speed was five knots.

Spice Island to Port Louis motor sail went without issue.  Port Louis is the high end, terrific pool, fine bar and restaurant Grenada marina.

Kyle instituted “Pirate Night” when one wears a pirate outfit (Kyle had conveniently enough brought a pirate outfit with him) and drink pirate drinks.  This led to a Pirate blender party at the Grateful Red.  Amazingly in a few days the crew had numerous friends from bartenders to Holly and Fleur – the party crew.  The party went well ….. Except for the use of diesel in the gasoline power blender (we now have a new blender), spilled daiquiri mix everywhere on the boat and Paul the instrument guy needed Garrett assistance to return to the boat at eight ….. a little out of shape??

The motor sail from Port Louis to Grenada  Marine was a little rougher – upwind but uneventful.  The dock was quite eventful as the Grenada marina shore crew didn’t clearly realize what no reverse, no neutral and only five knots forward meant in docking.  Luckily the anchor took most of the beating as the Grateful Red ground to a halt before hitting the lift.

Grenada marina is the working marina in the middle of nowhere.  Luckily the crew found a terrific lodge – Sousons .  On the beach, bodying surfing, lots of sand, nice bar and restaurant – while the crew worked days and slept at Sousons Captain Ken and Paul stayed on the boat.  With a zillion little instrument issues unresolved Paul’s time ran out – as usual – and he headed off to his next boat in the US.  The Souson’s owner so liked the Grateful Red crew that she “gave” Ken a room for a couple of nights at the resort.  Twenty four hours before Garrett’s flight home from Trinidad and one Pirate’s night later the Grateful Red was ready to sail with new sail drive.  The boat was splashed at three in the afternoon and by five Charlie, Kristi, Kyle, Garrett and Ken were doing an overnight to Trinidad.

A beautiful overnight sail for the crew and landing at Chaguaramas marina in Trinidad.  Garrett checked in at customs, grabbed breakfast at the marina and went off to the airport to fly home.  Charlie had a video conference interview for a summer internship ( Charlie closed the intern deal and will be interning at Newport Beach, CA this summer) and at night Kristi, Kyle and Charlie celebrated Ken’s birthday at the Crew’s Inn restaurant before leaving at 0530 the next morning for the airport.

Boat in Trinidad job well done.