Long story short……..we have started our adventure!! :-)

Now, for the long version, if you’re interested 😉

The last 5 months since we got back to the Caribbean have been crazy busy….maintaining, repairing, preparing, planning, interviewing, doing our last charter and saying farewell to our friends on the islands so here’s a ( not so condensed) summary.

After 3 nights in quarantine in Grenada we returned to Imagination on the day the rules changed in November meaning no more arrival testing or quarantine for fully vaccinated arrivals – too bad we just missed out on that. We spent 2 weeks in the boatyard where we worked on the boat doing usual out of water maintenance tasks and also removed our “bluescape” logos as we are no longer doing charters and then some hull repairs. Imagination was floated on 25^th November and it felt good to be back on the water with the light breeze and gentle rock. A few days later, we were able to catch up with one of the couples that had been on board on our last charter in 2020 as COVID-19 started to affect travel and borders and ports were closing around us. We spent a fab few hours catching up on news and chatting about their time on board.

Whilst at home our lovely SA friends JK ad Nelia returned to their homeland to spend time with their loved ones and were due to fly back to go back on their boat early December. They were going to come on board with us and do some shopping on mainland Grenada on their return before sailing with us up to Carriacou to return to their catamaran, but the new variant of Covid meant that the UK banned flights from SA from midday on 26^th November and then the US and Grenada quickly followed suit, not allowing any passengers that had been to SA within the last 14 days. So sad…we had been so looking forward to having them on board and spending time with them. Our good friends, Andy, Jane and Mike who all live in Carriacou came down to stay with us in Grenada to shop and eat ( lots!!) before we sailed back up to Carriacou together with an overnight stop off at Ronde Island. We always have such a wonderful time together – we really will miss them when we go.

We had 2 barrels shipped over to Carriacou in October full of more stuff that will need homes and also bottom paint for the hulls and we also had a new main sail on order from Hong Kong. Because they were arriving in Carriacou, we hauled out there again and the barrels were delivered the same day and 6 days of hard and sweaty work followed with a little bit of help from some friends and we got a lot done. On picking up anchor to go into the boatyard, the starboard engine failed so we had friends Angie and Mike helping us with dinghy’s. Then the windlass failed at the last minute as we were picking the anchor up and the Port engine started to cut out on approach to the yard!! A few swear words were uttered!! Shawn had done recent filter changes and hadn’t had the chance to run the engines long enough to flush them through so both issues were resolved but only once back on the water. We were really impressed with the excellent team work by the crew at the yard – very friendly and helpful guys.

As if time wasn’t passing way too quickly already, 2 days after refloating on the 11^th December, we did a 3 night charter, met friends for drinks at Sparrow Bay, went to a house party, had friends come up from Grenada and meet us and other friends at Anse La Roche and stay on board for 2 nights, spent a day on Sandy island with a group of friends, did a “xmas island tour”, spent Xmas Day at the home of more friends along with others, had blini’s for brunch, had lunch and a farewell boules tournament and spent a final afternoon on Paradise Beach. I did take pictures of these events, but once again, my SD card corrupted!

Having had our PCR tests, we left Grenadian waters on Imagination for the first time in nearly 2 years on the afternoon of 3^rd January. After leaving Tyrell Bay, we tacked in to be closer to the coast as we passed by friends homes for the last time. We did wave furiously and let off our air horn, but don’t think we were seen or heard as we were still a way out. We spent the next couple of weeks getting ready for our final charter and catching up with friends in Bequia as well as preparing Imagination for the world trip.

From 17^th to 29^th Jan we had a returning charter guest with 3 friends on board for 12 wonderfully chilled days filled with lots of fun and laughter and we even visited areas we hadn’t been to before – can you believe that 11 years later?! Such a fabulous charter to end our 11 year chartering career on! Thank you so much for being such an easy going bunch of ladies!