Grenada Continued

Here it is Friday evening and we are entertaining the Perry children aboard Mystic Journey. Our last blog left us in Prickly Bay after a great sail up here. We did the clearance thing and then just hung out for the weekend, swimming, walking and catching up on Grenada happenings. There are some very rich houses up here so we walked in the ritzy neighbourhoods looking at how the other side lives. One in particular caught our eye - not necessarily in a good way. Along with the biley/mustard colour, it has a round part that looks like the standard rook in a chess set, with the same types of top on walls that surrounded other areas of the house. Can you spell ostentatious??

Sunday we walked to the airport to see how long it would take us from Prickly Bay so that we could decide whether to take a bus or walk when we met the Perrys. It took about 50 minutes so we decided that was doable. We also took a walk up to the apartment building that we stayed in while we were here before so that we could say hello to Wendy, our landlady. She was delighted to see us and even offered us a free nights lodgings, an offer we later took her up on. It was nice to be welcomed back so warmly.

Monday we had lots of running around to do - Island Water World on Lagoon Road to get a couple of very short cables made for our dinghy davits - then to Turbulence Sails to take in our rear cabin hatch rain cover so they could make it a bit bigger - Budget to look at various and sundry hardware and Ace Hardware to replace my favourite screwdriver that joined other things that have ended up in "Davy Jones Locker".

Tuesday was the day we put Mystic Journey up to get a few spots on the bottom scraped and sanded and repainted. I think we mentioned that pieces of cardboard had stuck to the bottom after our last antifouling job and although it was expected that the sea water would take it off, it didn't happen. They were really good though and we put the boat up at 2:30 and lauched it again at 8:00 the next morning. They also did some other touchup that we hadn't asked for and it was all free so that worked well. We spent Tuesday night at the apartment that had been offered to us after having our evening meal at the Dodgy Dock at True Blue Resort. We enjoyed a number of good meals there previously with our good friends Aleitha and Randy when they were sailing with us.

Wednesday seemed to take forever to happen since this was the day the Perrys came to Grenada. According to the airline schedule they were due at 5:40 so we got there at 5:20 only to find that the real arrival time was 5:17. However, the plane had been delayed until 6:00 PM and then eventually 6:15, which is when they actually arrived. Cutty, the pre-arranged taxi guy was there with customs papers that Graham had arranged to have waiting. Graham had been told these were needed in order to bring in the boat parts they were bringing but as it turned out, customs at the airport didn't ask for them. Graham said it was because he left the talking up to Julie. It was absolutely great to see them although it was a short visit at the airport since as soon as they came out, their stuff was loaded into the taxi and away they went to Westerhall, their new home for the next (hopefully) less than 2 months.

Thursday morning we took a taxi out to Westerhall to visit Julie, Graham, Alex and Amelia. I will leave it to them to describe their place except to say that it is airy, spacious, sunny and we really enjoyed it. We spent the day there during which we visited Artemo and saw her in her bare bones state, had lunch at the marina there and then came back by taxi. We had a slight problem coming back because the apartment is up a laneway very much hidden by vegetation and hard to see. When we left we caught a bus from the lane end but unfortunately no one took note of exactly what it looked like at the lane and so on the way back by bus, none of us knew where to tell the bus driver to stop. Of course we have said before that on Grenada the buses are actually 12 - 15 passenger vans that they load to the hilt with the aid of the "conductor". Anyway, we missed the lane and ended up getting off at the grocery store down the road about 3 kms. That was okay since we needed to buy stuff anyway but when we caught the bus on the way back, we ended up squeezing the 6 of us into a van that already had about 10 people in it. Quite the ride and thank goodness it was short.

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention - on Thursday morning Graham and Julile realized that the bag that contained Grahams wallet, the boat papers and the laptop with all of their pictures on was missing. Cheryl had taken a short video at the airport but unfortunately the only thing is showed was Graham coming out the door and putting the bag down so we could all get hugs. Panic time!!

We phoned Cutty, who had arranged for the driver to take the Perrys to Westerhall on Wednesday night, and he said he would check with the other guy to see if the bag had been left in there. Of course he couldn't get in touch with the guy right away so there were a few uneasy hours. Cutty finally phoned later to say that the bag was safe and sound. Wow!!

What you are going to read now is a short note from both Millie and Alex to say hello and to add a few of their thoughts.

We will catch up later

Hey all it's Alex here.

Grampa Griff and Nana Cheryl are the same. We are stayin at Grampa Griffs boat tonight, its great be back on a boat. It's so hot and no fans so were a little sticky at night but its ok.

I will give it over to Amelia so she can write her note.

Miss you all Alex.

Last night we stayed on Grampa Griff and Nana Cheryl's boat. When I got on the boat I felt a bit sea sick because I haven't been on a boat for a month or two. For dinner we had macroni and cheese and we watched Ice Age the movie. We went for a swim and we went to the beach. When we were at the beach we went snorkelling and we saw a guy with Conch shells and he gave one to us. We went to bed. In the morning Cheryl made pancakes for breakfast and we went to Budget marine. When we got back we went swimming and we took two lines from the back of the boat and we swung on them. Then my parents came and had lunch and went to the beach again with us. Me and my Dad went snorkelling and we saw sea urchins and lots of fish. Well, I hope to see some of you soon. Bye Amelia