Shortly after our last blog, Grenada was put on the UK’s Green travel list, which meant we would not be required to do the 10 day quarantine with 2 PCR tests if and when we get home. Instead, we would be able to go about our business and do one PCR test on Day 2 after arrival. Perfect….but days after booking our flights home for mid August, we began hearing rumours via St Vincent sources that both Virgin and BA were cancelling all July flights. This of course caused us some anxiety as we got up daily fully expecting to have an email from Virgin cancelling our newly booked flight, but thankfully, within several days the Grenadian Minister of Tourism confirmed that both BA and Virgin would be resuming their service to Grenada from London in July. What an absolute relief that was ,but having been disappointed and upset several times as flights have been cancelled over the last 18 months, we couldn’t allow ourselves to get excited about spending time with our loved ones until we had checked into the flight and were sat in the departure lounge.
At the end of June, a weather system left the African Coast very low with a 70% chance of development into a tropical depression within the following 48 hours and a 90% chance within 5 days. We obviously watched this very closely as it crossed the Atlantic towards the Lesser Antilles. It was predicted to go North of Barbados on several of the weather models we use which would mean Carriacou would be affected by wind, rain and wave surge. On the 1st July, Tropical Storm Elsa formed and was still coming in low. The weather models maintained that it would remain a storm and pass North of Barbados. Many yachts in the bay decided to up anchor and move into the mangroves for protection, but we decided to stay put so that we could see how our anchor would perform in storm like conditions. At 6.30 am the following morning, the bay became a little rolly and the rain started – then we discovered that Elsa had become a hurricane and was affecting Barbados, St Vincent and St Lucia with high winds and heavy rain. Down in Tyrell Bay, we had some short lived heavy rain with 30 knot wind gusts. The system was moving NWN at 28mph, so passed through quite quickly, but we had some large swells into the bay during the afternoon with almost constant rain, and we did a 360 degree turn on anchor as the winds went through over the course of the day. Shawn swam out to the anchor between gusty episodes to tie a marker onto the anchor as quarantining boats had been cleared in and were moving to more comfortable areas in the anchorage – we didn’t want anyone plonking themselves over our anchor preventing us from moving over the next couple of days.
Shawn spent time running in our new ( 10 years ago!) and unused dive compressor, so we decided it was a good time to try and get Ally back into the “diving vibe” after a freak out she had way back in in 2013. We did several shallow dives on some very pretty areas where she was able to play around with her bouyancy and improve her confidence under the water again. We also took part in out first ever Regatta on the 30th July, just for fun. 6 catamarans and 9 monohulls took part in the Round the Island Race and we had friends Andy and Shane on board as crew to help us out and enjoy the day with us. Initially we were doing well, sailing at 8 to 8 1/2 knots in around 16 – 20 knots of wind, but then the wind dropped before we were engulfed in a 10 minute squall and we all got totally drenched. The winds remained low for the rest of the race and we were able to use the spinnaker for a while as we came down the windward coast but as we came up the South side of Tyrell Bay, we got trapped in a wind shadow for around 20 minutes – just as we thought we were close to finishing! We are a heavy boat, being fully equipped and ready to start our round the world trip, so didn’t take part to win which was just as well. We took part purely for the experience and the fun of it and had a great day.
Ally’s 1st dive in ages – Beneath Imagination 
Getting more comfortable 
Moray Eel 
Flying the spinnaker 
Captain and his crew 
Soaked!
On the 13th August, we finally flew home after jumping through all the hoops necessary to be able to do so. We had to wear masks for the whole trip back and Ally had a “fainty” episode and had to be led to the back of the aircraft and lie on the floor with her legs raised in the much cooler galley area for around 15 minutes! Embarrassing! It’s happened to her once before ( when travelling alone) and she has come to the conclusion that she should not have wine with her meal, especially after a pre dinner gin drink….both together seems to cause a big drop in her already low blood pressure, so lesson definitely learned!
We have really enjoyed being with our families and friends over the past 3 months, but we returned to Grenada yesterday which is probably just as well as we have eaten way too much and spent too way too much! We had to do a pre arrival PCR test, pre book and pay for quarantine accommodation for at least 48 hours, pre pay for an arrival PCR test and apply for Travel Authorisation from Grenada before travelling to the airport for our flight. If we’d left it another few days, we wouldn’t have had to do the arrival PCR ( just a lateral flow) or the quarantine as policies change in 2 days time! Oh well – it’s given me time to get this blog done and some other admin I’d been meaning to do for a while. Once “freed”, we will prepare Imagination to go back into the water ( probably just as well as we have eaten way too much and spent too much!), return to Carriacou to catch up with our friends there before saying farewell to them at the end of the year as we head up to St Vincent and The Grenadines in preparation for the start of our “Round The World” adventure. Over the last 4 or 5 months, we have put up ads on various online pages for people to come and join us and we have had a massive response. We are now full until August with only a few places left to the end of 2022 which is brilliant. If you are interested in joining us anywhere along the way, have a look at our planned route here on the website and get in touch for more details 🙂
