After arriving in the dark in St Anne’s, Martinique, on the night of 28th Match 2024, we had a very lazy day on Good Friday, starting with a cooked breakfast of poached eggs and bacon, accompanied by freshly baked soda bread; it was the best we could do for Easter eggs on Paw Paw this year. The stunning sunsets, however, made up for the lack of chocolate Easter eggs over the Easter weekend.
After breakfast, we dinghied ashore to dispose of our garbage, clear in, stop in at the little church situated on the village square and enjoy an ice-cream under the shade of the trees on the waterfront. That was indeed the sum total of our activities for the day, aside from dosing on and off in the cockpit while enjoying the cool breeze.
Fortunately all the shops were open on Easter Saturday, which allowed us to get all our errands completed, particularly, to do a “bulk” provision in preparation for our upcoming passage westward, not something we had expected to be doing again, but with the lack of variety and supplies, not to mention expense, on the other Windward Islands, Le Marin, specifically Leader Price, was the best place to purchase everything we needed and wanted, including all our French favourites, although this required two trips in the dinghy. Our busy day, however, never got started until we’d enjoyed a breakfast of French pastries and coffee at Mango Bay restaurant, following which we got dinghy fuel and visited the various nearby chandleries in search of a few specific items we needed.
Easter Sunday was another lazy day after we got our provisions sanitised and stowed, following which Elaine also decided to use her spare time to explore specific Irish traditions for this major event in the Christian calendar. As it turns out there were many traditions associated with Easter in Ireland, from a “black fast” on Good Friday to “cake dances” on Easter Sunday.
For some in modern day Ireland, Easter is all about chocolate eggs and a long weekend; even the pubs are now open on Good Friday. This, however, is a significant contrast to how it used to be celebrated, mainly as a religious festival, marked with some unusual festivities and customs.
As is still custom today, on Palm Sunday, “palm” is blessed in the church and taken home, although this can be any green plant such as conifer, spruce or yew, but it’s usually with branches of Leylandii; its abundance and flatness make it perfect for slipping behind statues or pictures in the home. In the past, slips of blessed palm were also worn by men in their lapels and it was customary to hang it in barns to protect livestock.
Good Friday, a day of prayer and fasting, meant a so-called “black fast” in days gone by, meaning that nothing but water was to be taken, nothing important was to be started, no work was to be done, although the day was considered a good one on which to plant potatoes and grain, no blood was to be shed, so there was no slaughtering of animals, no fishing boats were to be launched, no wood was to be burned and no nails driven through wood, in solidarity with Christ’s suffering on the cross.
Some women hung their hair loose as if in mourning and some people went barefoot all day. Men trimmed their hair and fingernails; doing this on Good Friday was thought to prevent headaches for the year ahead and, although cold and wet weather was expected, many visited graveyards, shrines and holy wells, where water obtained from a holy well was considered especially curative.
On Easter Saturday, holy water was blessed in the churches and people took containers of this “Easter water” home to bless the house and farm. At this time, since Lent was nearly over, butchers around the country held symbolic mock funerals for herrings, given that herrings sustained many people during the meat-free Lent and butchers were looking forward to an upturn in business by selling meat instead. In parts of the country, notably the southern counties and Cork city, they held a procession heralding the final day of Lent known as “whipping the herring’”, where a herring was tied to a rope and pulled along while it was whipped to pieces by the crowd.
At sunrise on Easter Sunday morning, many people rose early and gathered on a high vantage point to witness the spectacle of the “dance of the sun”, observing the sun reflected in a pan of water.
The use and decoration of Easter eggs is still customary throughout Ireland today. Not only had eggs connotations with life-power, but there would have been an abstinence from them for Lent, resulting in a rather large glut that needed to be used, satisfied by way of a feast of eggs for breakfast on Easter Sunday. Children added dyes to water to colour the eggs while they boiled or they were painted and decorated to be eaten, displayed or played with. An Easter dinner, comprising seasonal spring meats such as lamb, veal or kid were customary, with richer farmers distributing meat amongst the poor so that they too might enjoy a festive dinner. Dinner was followed by a “cake dance” held outdoors on Easter Sunday evening, with a large cake as a prize, a custom that has been revived in County Leitrim apparently. Will definitely have to see this!
The Easter weekend was brought to a close on Easter Monday with fairs, consisting of the usual trading and games, sports, sideshows, food and music, etc, to celebrate the end of the dark days of Lent and to look towards the late spring and summer.
For us, Easter Monday involved a nice hike from St Anne’s around the southwestern headland, followed by a light lunch ashore and then clearing out before returning to Paw Paw to prepare for our early morning departure to St Lucia.
Another tradition of Ireland undertaken over the Easter period is to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, which involves a formal ceremony to commemorate those who died and where the Proclamation of Independence is read aloud. It is attended by the President, the Taoiseach (Prime Minister) and the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister). This year, however, it was also attended by Northern Ireland's First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, for the first time. Given that Easter 1916 was the foundational event for Óglaigh na hÉireann (the Defence Forces), representatives from the Army, the Air Corps and the Naval Service take part in the ceremony, as well as a brass and a pipe band. The ceremony concludes with an Air Corps flypast and prayers of remembrance.
Tuesday, 2nd April 2024, was an eventful and special day in many ways for us. Although it was a methotrexate day for Elaine, she decided to try something different by taking her medication just before breakfast rather than early morning and going back to sleep. This definitely helped with the nausea and made our sail over to St Lucia far more pleasant than it would otherwise have been. Having the wind and sea in a perfect direction certainly helped add enjoyment to the sail and by 1000 we were safely tied up in our berth in Rodney Bay marina.
After clearing in with Customs and Immigration, something we’ve done multiple times this year in St Lucia in particular, on this occasion, we had a new online form to fill in for Immigration, a form that was designed for someone arriving by air or cruise ship. Needless to say, it required a vast amount of irrelevant data for a yacht, including the name and address of the resort we were staying at. Setting frustration aside, we completed the form as requested, although it added a considerable amount of time to our cleaning in process. This was just another example of the hit and miss service we’ve experienced throughout the Windward Islands since our return. Regardless, once that was completed we made our way to the Rodney Bay Medical Centre, where Elaine had her blood work done.
As a treat we stopped in at the Swiss Bakery on our way back to the marina to enjoy a coffee and baked delight and then headed to the marina office to check in there. It was a tad worrying that a new controlled entry system had been installed at the marina office because the staff had felt unsafe. Given that we had preferred to be in the marina rather than at anchor because we felt unsafe too after the recent boarding of a yacht in Rodney Bay, this revelation didn’t fill us with a great sense of reassurance. Safety and security unfortunately has been a major concern for us since arriving back in the Caribbean, primarily on the islands from St Lucia southwards; a real shame given that we never had these concerns ten years ago. Back then there was the occasional theft of an unlocked dinghy, which continues today, but never yachts being boarded while cruisers are onboard or indeed cruisers being assaulted or murdered while onboard. In all honesty we were both glad to be leaving the Windward Islands because of this uncertainty. A real shame!
Back onboard Elaine tried to nap while Roy went to purchase a new water heater for the starboard side, since the multiple repairs undertaken on the new one we fitted in Australia, developed yet another leak. There was clearly a problem with this particular rather expensive purchase. However, neither of us were successful in our endeavours. Unfortunately Elaine didn’t sleep a wink and the water heater that had been available in December, was no more. A new anchor light still alluded us too. Guess we’ll be needing another delivery from the US. Instead Roy used the remainder of his afternoon to wash the deck in the pouring rain.
While our return to St Lucia on this occasion was a short visit, it was primarily for two reasons. The first was for Elaine to see the doctor for a review and to get her prescriptions filled prior to heading westward, but more importantly, it was for a celebration of life.
We first met Rowena and Richard, off Galene, 10 years ago during our first hurricane season in Bonaire and have remained friends over the years. A fond memory we have was getting completely pickled with them one impromptu night on Paw Paw in Antigua; Elaine and Rowena on a warm bottle of Johannesburger purchased that morning, but was absolutely putrid and Roy and Richard on the worst bottle of rum Richard had ever tasted. To this day none of us can explain why we continued to drink such unpleasant beverages on our empty stomachs, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.
With Richard being the rum connoisseur that he was, he vowed to improve Roy’s taste in rum and bought him a decent bottle just prior to the start of our circumnavigation, with strict instructions that it wasn’t to be opened until we’d crossed the Pacific.
Of course, when we reached Australia and visited the Bundaberg Rum Distillery, buying Richard a bottle of rum was a foregone conclusion, a bottle which had sailed with us on Paw Paw since 2018 in order to bring it back to the Caribbean for him.
Sadly Richard passed away before we could give him our gift, but his family and friends had gathered in St Lucia to scattered his ashes just off Pigeon Island in Rodney Bay. Producing the bottle of rum during his sendoff, having conveyed its history, was very much appreciated by the family and indeed a fitting way to toast Richard’s life; a very special occasion for us and one we were glad to be a part of. Needless to say, it was also lovely to see Rowena again and to meet the rest of the family. St Lucia was one of Richard’s favourite places in the Caribbean. May he rest in peace.
The next few days were all about the final preparations required for our passage to Bonaire, one of the ABC islands in the Southern Caribbean. Preparations included getting through the usual pre-sail checklist, Elaine seeing the doctor for her review and test results, as well as to pick up her six month supply of medications at the local pharmacy and Roy running more errands for bits and bobs we still needed, including yet another new MOB (Man Overboard) light, since the last one, purchased in Gibraltar, simply fell apart; another example of expensive, poor quality equipment for a yacht! While Elaine was at the doctor, Roy took the opportunity to get some top up fruit and vegetables too. The final task was to top up the diesel tanks, which required two dinghy trips rather than queuing at the fuel dock with Paw Paw or indeed delaying our departure by having to wait on the fuel dock to open. Even the small savings we would have made on getting duty-free diesel wasn’t worth the hassle. Instead we opted to clear out for a sunrise departure, casting off the dock at around 0600, but not before wishing Elaine’s folks a Happy 63rd Wedding Anniversary and we’d enjoyed one last Happy Hour at the Broadwalk with Rowena to say our goodbyes. What we definitely weren’t expecting was to get a message from Time Bandit (Anne and Stuart), who had arrived in St Lucia and were anchored in Rodney Bay waiting to clear in the following day. Unfortunately, with Elaine only seeing the message after our outing with Rowena, the timing of everything precluded us from seeing them again, but we did see Time Bandit resting peacefully at anchor as we sailed out of Rodney Bay at sunrise on Friday, 5th April 2024, bound for Bonaire.
With that, we said our goodbyes to the Windward Islands.
After splashing on Tuesday, 19th March 2024, and saddened at having to wave goodbye to Time Bandit (Anne and Stuart), we were left wondering if and where our paths would ever cross again. A definite downside to our vagabond lifestyle, but setting that thought aside, we motored the short distance around to Prickly Bay.
After we were safely anchored, we dinghied ashore to visit Budget Marine in order to get a refund for the products we hadn’t used during the haulout and to purchase the items we need for the upcoming hurricane season’s maintenance ritual.
While Elaine got comfortable in the lounge seats of One Love, Roy walked to the chandlery. However, Elaine had barely got settled, when a familiar face and voice appeared; it was Anne. Her and Stuart had got a taxi to Budget Marine for odds and ends they needed, not knowing we needed to visit the same shop. What were the chances! If we’d arrived five minutes later, we would have missed each other. Needless to say, it was a wonderful surprise and made the parting a little easier.
Sadly, it was the absolutely putrid coffee we had at One Love later that left us scratching our heads. It was barely a week ago that Elaine had complemented the establishment on the great coffee they served, but what we got that morning can best be described as lukewarm dirty dishwater. They’d certainly lost our patronage after that.
The following morning, we were both up early, after another rolly night, to complete our provisioning, purchase a few South African favourites at the marina’s mini-mart and by mid-morning we’d weighed anchor and said goodbye to Grenada Island, deciding to head straight to Carriacou Island for some much needed R&R. Although we could have enjoyed a great sail, unfortunately we had to motor, given that it had remained far too windy to hoist our headsail and neither of us felt like dealing with the mainsail flopping around in the swell.
It was just after sunset by the time we dropped the hook and got settle on our third attempt; finding a sandy patch between the rocks was a tad difficult in the fading daylight. Thankfully, though, we were back in a quiet, comfortable anchorage, where we enjoyed a barbecue with a tasty fresh salad for dinner, topped off with a nice long chat to Keenan and Brooke after receiving a video of the twins riding their bicycles for the first time without training wheels. Needless to say, they were very chuffed with themselves!
By 21st March 2024, not only did we get to celebrate Elaine’s dad’s birthday on a Zoom family get-together; he’d reached the grand ol’ age of eighty nine, but it felt like the first day of settling back into our sailing life. Everything that needed to be done was done and we had nowhere in particular to be. We could simply enjoy the rest of our sailing season. Our relaxing day was topped off with a lovely surprise of Michelle and Drew, off Pyxis, who were our floating neighbours in Rodney Bay Marina, St Lucia, popping by. They’d been out lobster diving and happened to recognise Paw Paw as they were returning to Pyxis. Over a sundowner, while savouring a beautiful sunset and moonrise, we caught up and made plans to see each other over the coming days, before they hauled out and returned home for the summer.
Since Roy had spent most of his day cooking the huge ham we “won” at the supermarket in Grenada, based on the amount of money we’d spent on our groceries, dinner, not surprisingly, was sliced ham with a fresh garden salad. Given the size of the ham some was diced and frozen for omelettes and pasta dishes, while the rest was sliced for future dinners and sandwiches. His efforts were definitely worthwhile as it was quite delicious.
The rest of our stay on Carriacou Island involved a number of coffee mornings at the Iguana Café, walks on the beach, exploring the little village, including the surprisingly well stocked new supermarket, a dinghy excursion through the mangroves of the nature reserve and enjoying time with Michelle and Drew, which included a dinner outing at the Slipway restaurant and a Sunday afternoon of Mexican train dominoes on Paw Paw; another cruising couple were hooked!
However, while Carriacou is a reminder of the “old” and indeed more authentic Caribbean we remember, even in this little slice of paradise, there’s always those individuals who society could do without all together; inconsiderate imbeciles.
An incident with yet another smoker, who decided to sit down in a café amongst all the nonsmokers and light up a cigarette, upwind of everyone, was the straw that broke the camel’s back and moved Elaine’s tolerance needle to zero. She’s decided to start getting even after it occurred to her that it’s always the nice, ordinary, considerate, kindhearted people of the world, who, at the micro level, are permanently accommodating idiots rather than cause a fuss by working around situations, like moving to another table or simply breathing in the smoke that has been expunged from the smoker’s lungs together with heaven alone knows how many germs. Unfortunately the only result is that the decent people have been accommodating this behaviour for so long, the morons are now running the show; they’re simply everywhere!
This inconsiderate attitude sadly expands to so many other aspects of every day life in this post-pandemic western culture we live in now; people vaping in crowded areas, people pushing in front of you in a queue, people almost knocking you over on the sidewalks rather than pass politely, people pushing passed you to squeeze through a door or to get on/off public transport ahead of you, people literally leaning over you to get to a grocery item without as much as an “excuse me”, people zipping into a parking spot you’ve been waiting on so you can use it, people blasting out their hideous choice of music at all hours of the night and, let’s not forget our all time favourite of the Caribbean, cruisers anchoring on top of us. The examples are endless, including people making rude remarks about Elaine wearing a mask; comments like: “Doesn’t that stupid b*t+# know COVID is over” or deliberately coughing in her face. The ignorance and ill-mannered behaviour is astonishing and bewildering, especially given what the world had to endure through the pandemic. You would think kindness, consideration and respect are behaviours that would’ve come to the fore, but we’ve actually experienced quite the opposite instead.
While Elaine knows she has to walk away from these situations for the sake of her health, rather than confront them as she has done in the past, she’s working on a more subtle, but should be effective retaliation rather than accepting the behaviour of these morons any longer; itchy powder, sneezing powder, stink bombs, chewing gum, spilt drinks or fake vomit comes to mind. She’ll have to think of a few more legal tactics for the various scenarios we encounter on a daily basis, but these are a good start. Now to source the items!
By Monday, 25th March 2024, we’d cleared out of the country Grenada, although this was no easy feat, given that everyone and his dog had the same idea, taking us nearly two hours to get the paperwork we needed to enter St Vincent and the Grenadines. Regardless, by early afternoon we were anchored off Union Island, a new pasture for us.
Our chosen anchorage for the night was the beautiful Chatham Bay and a walk along the beach revealed a number of quintessential Caribbean eateries and bars, as well as a boutique resort. A swim and a sundowner at Sunset Cove followed by a beautiful sunset, accompanied by a “green flash”, which we hadn’t seen in ages, as well as a stunning full moon, wrapped up our stay.
Our next destination was the very swanky Sandy Lane Yacht Club on Canouan Island, although we enjoyed the scenery of Mayreau Island en route. Unfortunately with the strong winds continuing to blow while we were in Carriacou, we were still unable to hoist our headsail, but the period of calm weather we were patiently awaiting eventually descended on our anchorage off Union Island overnight. This meant we could hoist the headsail at last while berthed at the yacht club.
This yacht club was built by an Irish billionaire for suoeryachts, but accommodates the likes of us for a rather hefty price tag. However, we’d heard from more than one of our cruising friends that this was well worth the visit. Celebrating Elaine officially becoming a retiree and spending her first social security payout was the perfect excuse. Being the only yacht in the entire facility, though, reminded us of our stay at the IGY superyacht marina in Malaga, Spain.
Since the clearing in facility at the resort in Chatham Bay was inoperable and getting a taxi for the bargain basement special rate of $100USD to cover the 5Km drive into Clifton, was a price we were definitely not going to pay, we opted instead to clear in at the small airport on Canouan Island. This involved a golf cart ride to the gates of the property, compliments of the yacht club, and a short walk to the airport Customs and Immigration offices. Although it was hot, we enjoyed the return walk too, given the beautiful gardens, excellent walkways and stunning views.
Then, after clearing in to the yacht club and getting the scoop on the property, we decided to dinghy over to Shenanigans for lunch on their terrace, followed by a beach afternoon and a swim. A shower in the awe inspiring bathrooms was a far cry from the facilities at the Clarkes Court Boatyard and Marina and returning to our air-conditioned abode was priceless, given the scorching temperatures.
The next morning, before setting sail for Bequia, Roy enjoyed a morning exercise walk, his first in ages, we’d walked to the bakery for a morning coffee and freshly baked French pastries, we’d got our laundry done and washed the decks. We’d certainly enjoyed a very pleasant stay with a huge dollop of luxury.
By Thursday, 28th March 2024, we’d returned to Bequia Island, cleared out of St Vincent and the Grenadines and set sail northwards, taking advantage of the continuing calm weather to get as far north as needed to avoid beating to weather in stronger conditions.
Since we made good timing to reach Rodney Bay, St Lucia, we decided to continue on to St Anne’s, Martinique. Although we hadn’t undertaken a nighttime arrival in an anchorage in forever, by 2000 we were safely anchored, thankfully in a calm St Anne’s we know of old.
With that we’d like to wish everyone a very Happy Easter. Enjoy those Easter eggs, particularly more expensive this year due to the price of cocoa.
Deciding to explore our old stomping ground on the island of Grenada to see what had changed, we opted for dinner ashore. Dinghying to the head of Prickly Bay, we discovered an eatery we frequented often, now under new management and renamed to One Love. Since they were advertising their pizza night, we enjoyed a delicious and inexpensive pizza each, accompanied by a few sundowners.
Sadly Roy’s pizza didn’t stay put for very long. By the time we returned to Paw Paw he had clearly picked up a bout of food poisoning and spent some time expunging his body of the scourge. This incident certainly got Elaine worried, both for Roy and for herself, but fortunately he recovered quickly and Elaine was unaffected. It wasn’t the greatest start to our return to Grenada, but, note to self, avoid eating at the One Love restaurant. Instead we took our chances at the very much improved Prickly Bay Marina restaurant the following day, a favourite hangout during our 2015 hurricane season, for a coffee and baked delight. This was in lieu of not being able to get a morning treat at Secret Harbour Boutique Hotel and Marina after enjoying an early morning walk over to Secret Harbour Bay. Not only was the hotel restaurant still closed when we got there, but we were nearly knocked down by the speeding driver of the hotel’s shuttle bus. When confronted by Roy once we got to the hotel, the driver claimed he swerved to miss a brick in the road, but never apologised. It was even more infuriating knowing there wasn’t a brick anywhere to be seen; he clearly wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see us until the last minute when he swerved, at which point we were about to jump into the bushes bordering the road. Regardless, stepping back for a moment to reflect on what he said, he clearly valued avoiding a brick in the road more than attempting to avoid hitting two human beings; what exactly does that say about this modern world we find ourselves in!
Setting that scare to one side, it was a lovely morning walk nonetheless and we found Seaduction (Kirsten and Neil) in the marina, having last said goodbye to them in Finike, Türkiye. Unfortunately it was far too early to be visiting, so we took a slow stroll back to Prickly Bay, where we phoned our granddaughter, Capri, for her birthday.
The reason for our early morning walk, though, was as a result of Roy waking Elaine at around 0530, given that the wind had eventually calmed and we needed to get the headsail down for our haulout, a rather peculiar requirement for Clarkes Court Boatyard and Marina. Groping around in the dark in a very rolly anchorage was a tad interesting, but we managed to get it down incident free.
The remainder of our stay in Prickly Bay was primarily to collect the antifouling we had ordered and to purchase the last of the bits and bobs we needed for the haulout, as well as to stock up on provisions again, although the latter has continued to be a challenge across all the islands we’ve visited this year, with the exception of Martinique. It’s been slim pickings on a number of fronts, including bread, meat, fruit and vegetables. When Roy visited the large new supermarket not far from Prickly Bay they didn’t have an ounce of meat anywhere to be purchased and we’ve resorted to baking our own bread again to have something decent. Chandleries have also proven to have the same problem with Roy having to take a taxi or walk to hardware shops instead to purchase a number of items we’ve needed.
While back in Prickly Bay, we stumbled upon S/Y Windwalker and stopped to say hello, having last seen them in Phuket Island, Thailand; they had just completed their South Atlantic Ocean crossing a month earlier, having crossed the Indian Ocean via South Africa. It was also lovely to get an update from them on the whereabouts of other cruising friends with whom we’d lost contact since leaving SE Asia.
Other activities over these past few weeks have included running errands, completing our regular chores, catching up with family and friends, continuing with our Irish lessons and re-advertising Paw Paw privately in an effort to generate more interest than the complete lack of interest we have experienced via the broker, while updating our website to reflect the latest maintenance and services undertaken on Paw Paw. Fortunately we’ve had a steady stream of interest since then, but nothing that is likely to come to fruition before the start of the upcoming hurricane season, leaving us with no alternative, but to progress with our backup plan.
While the weather had improved, all things considered, with slightly cooler temperatures and some rain, but mostly sunny days, the easterly wind and apposing southerly swell had been relentless, making for a very rolly anchorage, something we never experienced before in Prickly Bay. So, after bouncing around for almost a week and feeling rather sleep deprived, we decided to explore pastures new in Grenada, weighing anchor early on the morning of 6th March 2024; our destination, Clarkes Court Bay, where we anchored just off Clarkes Court Boatyard and Marina behind Hog Island. Given that the wind and swell were in the same direction in this bay, we had a far more comfortable experience. What surprised us again, though, was the number of yachts crammed into this large bay and its adjoining coves.
First things first, however, after we were settled, was to dinghy ashore to chat to the staff at the boatyard to make sure everything was still in order for our haulout and to have a general snoop around, including checking the slipway, since this facility was still being built when we were last in Grenada.
The second thing that struck us about being in this neck of the woods, was the number of cruisers ashore taking advantage of the various delivery services, including the bread man, the meat lady, the fresh produce lady and the jack of all trades, John, who provided various services like getting propane tanks filled, getting dinghy fuel tanks filled, delivering pre-ordered groceries and soft drinks, etc. What we didn’t appreciate, though, was the blaring television tuned to some or other American news channel; definitely not what we wanted to listen to!
First impressions of the Cruisers’ Galley restaurant were not all that favourable, but that improved somewhat while eating most of our dinners there once we were on the hard. The experience, positive and negative, was purely dependent on who was working. This included the chefs and the waitresses, with some combinations resulting in absolutely appalling service and lucky dip meals ie did you get fries or didn’t you, did the same menu item produce the same results or not, did you get a glass for your drink or didn’t you, did you get your bottled drink actually opened so you could drink it or didn’t you, did you get sugar with your coffee or didn’t you, did you get hot or cold milk with your coffee; the combinations of this hit and miss service and meals presented were endless.
While the three perpetrators who had hijacked a yacht and murdered the cruising couple onboard in their attempts to escape to St Vincent, but were apprehended and extradited back to Grenada to face capital murder charges, we learnt that another murderer had escaped custody while appearing in court. As you can imagine, this sent reverberations through the cruising community and had us exploring the security at the boatyard in far more detail than we would have normally. Suffice to say, they had plenty of security guards scattered around the yard day and night with the gates permanently closed and manned.
Additionally, we were concerned about the orientation of the haulout slip to the direction of the prevailing wind, particularly, since the wind was howling when we arrived, which would have resulted in us being blown onto the starboard side of the concrete dock. Fortunately our concerns were unfounded because the boatyard staff were fabulous. We were very impressed with their efficiency and proficiency. It certainly helped that the wind had died down on the morning of our haulout, 8th March 2024, but members of staff still visited us in their dinghy, explained the procedure we were to follow and provided an extra set of hands on deck. Before we knew it, Paw Paw was hauled, pressure washed, positioned and chocked. By that evening we’d finished scrubbing the port hull and cleaned the stripes.
Over the following days we progressed with our well practiced method, a project we never expected to be doing again mind you. Regardless, we finished scrubbing the hulls, creating a wonderful mud bath in the process; not what we wanted, but dry sanding was prohibited. Then, using paint stripper, we stripped and sanded the waterline, applied the primer, then set about applying three coats of antifouling. While Roy did most of the painting, Elaine sanded the propellers and saildrives and sanded and cleaned all the throughhulls then applied the numerous coats of antifouling to the saildrives. She did assist Roy with the first coat of antifouling, but, with the subsequent applications coinciding with her methotrexate day, she wasn’t much help after that.
Other than the few odd jobs left of antifouling the propellers, marking the chain, cleaning the bridle, clearing the saildrive water intake slots, adding the new anodes to the propellers and saildrives, doing some polishing, getting the jack-stands moved to do the primer and antifouling on those patches and Spring cleaning Paw Paw inside and out, we were done, but had missed our slot to splash, resulting in us having to wait a few days to wait our turns. This meant we celebrated St Patrick’s Day on the hard, but Roy cooked up a storm in the galley with the slim pickings we had left in the way of provisions and we had Anne and Stuart, off Time Bandit, for company, which was definitely the highlight of this haulout and our time on the hard. The last time we’d seen them was in Penang, Malaysia, during the pandemic. Who would have thought that after we each left SE Asia a year apart and going different ways around the African continent (They went south via the Maldives, Chagos, Seychelles and South Africa in 2021, while we went north through the Suez Canal in 2022) that we’d all end up on the hard at the same time in Grenada. With our splash day revised to 19th March 2024 and, although we were excited to get sailing, it was sad to say goodbye to them. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed their company and will miss them. Fair winds and following seas as they head north for the hurricane season and we head southwest.
In between all this hard work, what we didn’t get completed, was having the plastic screens replaced on the helmstation weatherguard. After visiting two different sailmakers, we came up empty handed, but we enjoyed a nice long chat to Keenan on his birthday, a few coffee mornings and most dinners with Time Bandit, as well as watched the Guinness Six Nation Rugby final between Scotland and Ireland. Well done to Ireland on winning this championship for the second consecutive year. Before being hauled we also enjoyed a dinghy excursion to Hog Island and over to Whisper Cove, a boutique-type marina, where we enjoyed the lovely gardens and beautiful views while sipping our morning coffee. Receiving the news that the murderer on the loose had eventually been re-apprehended was a hugh relief too to everyone in Grenada, residents and cruisers alike.
On that positive note we wish you all: Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!
And, of course, Elaine has to share a little bit of trivia relating to the country we hope to make our home in the not too distant future.
Long before any “global greening”, the very first known St Patrick’s Day parade, marched in honour of the 5th Century bishop credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, was thought to have been held, not in Ireland, but in Boston in 1737. However, later historical evidence recorded in Spain's Archivo General de Indias changed the established history, when the 17th Century documents revealed details of expenditures in the St Augustine colony and made reference to a procession in 1601 in honour of “San Patricio”, who was recorded as the “protector of the maize fields”.
As one of the patron saints of Ireland, believed to be buried in Downpatrick, County Down, the 17th of March is an important date in the Irish folklore calendar and has been marked with special customs and rituals throughout the centuries. His carefully crafted image is deeply intertwined with the story of Ireland.
So, while we await a sale and wonder when indeed we will make Ireland our home, we’ve re-immersed ourselves in our sailing lifestyle, accepting that this remains our future for some time to come.
Being a leap year, by 29 February 2024, we’d returned to Bequia Island from Mystique Island to clear out, spent the night and cast off the mooring ball at around 0700 to head further south; our destination, Carricou Island, just north of the island of Grenada. It had been 9 years since we last visited Carricou and Elaine remembers it well because the Customs officer, besides being extremely rude to her, but got more than he bargained for as a result, gave Elaine the flu which turned to pneumonia. This turn of events resulted in us spending a month floating in St Anne’s, Martinique, while she recovered just in time for Christmas and New Year as well as for the start of our circumnavigation with the World ARC on 9th January 2016.
With a forecast for strong northeasterly winds, we set off expecting a fairly fast downwind sail, but found ourselves bobbing around at barely 5 Kts until a storm passed over us, increasing our SOG (Speed Over Ground) to 9.5 Kts. Sadly it didn’t last, so on went an engine and we motorsailed the rest of the way. It was a tad disappointing because the last time we sailed this route we had one of our more memorable sails doing 9.5-10 Kts all the way.
Given that it had been more than 9 years since we last visited Carricou, we updated our knowledge of the area by reading the latest comments on Navionics, only to discover that we had actually been sent on a wild goose chase after reading about a change in the location of the Customs office which, according to the author, it had been separated from the Immigration office and moved to the northern side of Tyrell Bay. Confused as to why this had been done, we nonetheless dinghied to what looked like a new marina being built, a new commercial dock already built and a larger haulout facility. It was indeed infuriating to learn that the information we’d read was incorrect and that the Customs and Immigration office was located exactly where it has always been; at the southern end of the anchorage.
Climbing in and out of the dinghy is a mission for Elaine these days, so having to do it unnecessarily is an aggravation, only to be compounded by the ridiculous “musical chairs” she had to partake in while clearing in, not to mention yet another fee to be paid. Unless our memories have totally failed us, we never remember paying all these fees.
It was nice to see the Iguana Café had been spruced up, though, with what looked like very nice breakfast, lunch and dinner menus, although at hellish prices.
The rest of the establishments along the shoreline of the bay looked a tad more derelict than it was in a past life, although we understand a new “supermarket” had opened. Regardless, deciding to eat onboard, we both settled for an early night.
On waking to the stronger winds we thought we were getting yesterday, we decided to take advantage of this gift, so we weighed anchor and continued south to our next destination and a planned stop to collect our antifouling; Prickly Bay on the southern end Grenada Island.
It was somewhat sad, though, to be cruising along this route, knowing that a couple had lost their lives going in the opposite direction less than a fortnight ago, after their yacht was hijacked by three escaped convicts originally from St Vincent, while their yacht was anchored off Grande Anse in Grenada. The perpetrators used the yacht to get back to St Vincent. Fortunately the three were re-arrested, but two cruisers, enjoying their retirement, had lost their lives through negligence on someone’s part. It’s definitely left us very uneasy and uncomfortable about being back in this part of the world.
Another reminder of what part of the world we are in are the certain ilk of French cruisers who persistently anchor on top of us and our encounter in Tyrell Bay was no exception. After hunting around for a nice sandy spot when we arrived and just when we were about to sit down to dinner, along comes a late arrival who thinks it’s perfectly acceptable to anchor within spitting distance of us, over our anchor and swinging across our bow. Too apathetic to engage these kind of cruisers these days, we simply lifted our anchor and re-anchored. Needless to say their eyes grew somewhat larger by the second as Elaine manoeuvred Paw Paw to within inches of them to sit alongside in order to retrieve our anchor, which, needless to say, was buried directly underneath their yacht. However, rather than move forward to help the situation or indeed re-anchor after settling too close to us to begin with, all they did was wave. Incredible how shallow the gene pool has become!
By mid afternoon on Friday, 1st March 2024, we’d returned to our old stomping ground of Prickly Bay, Grenada, surprised again to see the number of yachts on mooring balls as well as at anchor and it wasn’t even hurricane season yet. It will be bedlam by then, no doubt!
For us, though, our time here will allow for some respite before our haulout.
Deciding to switch our itinerary to explore pastures new, on Sunday, 25th February 2024, we cast off the mooring ball on Bequia Island around mid-morning and enjoyed a slow motorsail over to the private island of Mystique, with its year-round population of about 500 people, who mostly live in the village of Lovell or in staff quarters of the private villas, while the remaining inhabitants occupy about 120 of these private villas scattered around the island.
The island is owned by a private limited company called Mystique Company, which is in turn, owned by the island's home owners. Ownership includes the airport and the private airline. There’s only one hotel on the island, the Cotton House, also owned by the Mystique Company.
After being greeted by the Harbour Master, who helped secure us to a mooring ball, we paid our dues of $220EC for a three night stay and dinghied ashore for a snoop around.
Mystique is a rarely visited island by cruisers for a host of reasons; one, its a beat to get there, two, it’s very expensive and three, cruisers are restricted to where they are allowed to go, enforced by a security team permanently established on the island. Why?
Well, it’s an exclusive sanctuary for royalty, rock stars, politicians and business tycoons to relax in anonymity. It’s been home to Princess Margaret, it was a holiday destination for the late Queen Elizabeth II and her late husband, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine, holiday there, it’s home to rock stars like Mick Jagger and fashion icons like Tommy Hilfiger, and it has been a holiday destination for other famous individuals including Noel Gallagher, Liam Gallagher, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Denzel Washington, John Travolta and Bryan Adams, all of whom clearly did not want the common plebes like ourselves snooping around their homes or indeed socialising with them in the majority of the common areas.
We were restricted to the waterfront, a section of the beaches on the western shoreline, part of the park area nearest the mooring field and the beautiful little village, located opposite one of the lovely beaches, which comprised a number of colourful “gingerbread” buildings serving as boutique shops, a fine wines and cigars shop, the Sweetie Pie Bakery coffee shop and a supermarket, as well as a fruit and vegetable stall. We were also allowed to frequent Basil’s Bar jutting out on stilts from the shoreline.
Additionally we could take a tour of the island, for a fee of course, but we weren’t actually interested in looking at hedges and gates of famous people’s homes. Better still, though, some of the villas are for rent at the bargain basement special rate of $8,000-$150,000 USD per week depending on how many bedrooms you would like.
Attending the Sunset Jazz Dinner at Basil’s Bar on our first night, while a very enjoyable outing, albeit expensive, was definitely an interesting and somewhat bizarre experience, given the clientele that seemed so out of place in the modern day Caribbean setting; it all seemed very colonial.
Although Roy and I would not recognise most people considered to be famous, even if we tripped over them, we were sitting in the company of many, given that the restaurant was absolutely jam packed, testament to the number of golf carts associated with the different villas parked outside the venue. It was also evident that tables were “designated” to specific individuals and their families who seemed to regularly attend this weekly dining event, most walked in like they owned the place, which in fact they did, and no one was dressed in anything less than a designer outfit. Greetings between parties were kept brief and nonintrusive, bordering on nonchalant, and polite applause was offered to the band at the end of each song. All this while we sat squashed in a corner of the restaurant, at a table undoubtedly reserved for the visiting cruisers or indeed for the few cruisers willing to pay the prices.
A few days later, if it wasn’t for the lovely couple, Sharon and Martin, off Sonsy Lass, who had joined us for a morning coffee, we would never have recognised Shania Twain enjoying a coffee too at the Sweety Pie Bakery coffee shop, while we tucked into our baked delights.
That entire morning was, in fact, a series of chance encounters. It started with us meeting Sharon and Martin for the first time on the dinghy dock, although we knew of their yacht, given that they too had completed the ARC 2023 rally with us and we’d all shared the same dock in Gran Canaria. It was indeed another random event that resulted in us meeting cruisers that we could just as easily have met months earlier since we all probably walked passed each other numerous times on the dock back in Gran Canaria. Regardless, it led to an unexpected, fun morning and a celebrity sighting.
Other activities, besides lazying around onboard, included walks along the waterfront, although a security guard in her car was positioned strategically to ensure we didn’t infringe on the privacy of any home owners or overstep the stated boundaries, swims in the crystal clear water and taking the opportunity to clean Paw Paw’s topsides, as well as enjoyed our Zoom family get-together.
Would we visit Mystique Island again? No, but we’re glad we did. It was indeed an unusual destination with its own very distinct culture of privilege, class and all the trimmings.
Looking at the state of our St Lucia flag, it was clearly time to leave, but, although we had planned on leaving during the early hours of Tuesday morning, 20th February 2024, the winds were more out of the southeast than east, so we decided to stay an extra day. This decision paid off because we had a lovely sail over to St Vincent Island after passing the Pitons at daybreak and again after rounding the southern end of St Vincent. We did, however, get our provisioning completed as planned on the Monday. This required a 5 Km round trip in the heat and humidity, lugging all our groceries on the return leg because, out of principle, Elaine refuses to pay the exorbitant taxi fares; total daylight robbery, so she’d rather walk! Our little grocery cart certainly came in handy, thankfully.
With time on our hands and having decided to haul out in Grenada to get the antifouling done, we returned to shore for an afternoon coffee and to purchase all the bits and bobs we need for the haulout, deciding to get what we could when we could, since everything seems to be a tad hit and miss in this part of the world at the moment.
On the Tuesday we woke to an overcast, rainy and much cooler day and got wet going ashore in the dinghy, but we still had a few errands to run before our departure, none of which turned out to be simply; first, after running around like headless chickens to get ashore to clear out, we discovered the Customs and Immigration offices had decided to take an earlier lunch break. Then, needing cash, we discovered the cash machine was out of order, resulting in Roy having to walk into town through all the mud. Getting dinghy fuel ended up being the easy task of the day and gave us a better option for filling the diesel tanks before we head west for the hurricane season, instead of using the very busy fuel dock in Le Marin, Martinique.
When the Customs and Immigration offices eventually reopened an hour and a half later, we completed the officialdom process, but not before bumping into our yacht broker, who happened to be chatting to potential buyers. That encounter resulted in a mad dash back to Paw Paw to get her presentable for a viewing, following which an unexpected enjoyable evening ensued over wine, as we showed the couple around.
On Wednesday, 21st February 2024, we were up early to weigh anchor and by 0140 we were heading out of Rodney Bay, bound for the Grenadines. After 9 years it seemed the security situation in St Vincent had not changed, so we were giving the island a wide berth. It was, however, the first time we’d seen the island from a distance during daylight as dawn gave way to a beautiful, calm, sunny day and we were definitely surprised to see how picturesque it actually was, with colourful houses, in little villages dotted along the coastline, cascading down the mountains to the shoreline. We also saw a few yachts in some of the anchorages or Med moored to the rocks along the coastline, indicating that the security situation may be somewhat under control. We, however, were happy with our decision to sail on by, based on our research and what we’d read on the Caribbean Safety and Security Net. Regardless, we still had a few “boat boys” come out to Paw Paw while we were underway, who were selling fish, while others attempted to entice us onto a mooring ball.
By early afternoon we’d reached our intended destination; we had returned to another favourite spot, Bequia Island. After picking up a mooring ball, we dinghied ashore to clear in and enjoy a quick snoop around. Thankfully we were not disappointed as we were with St Anne’s, Martinique. While much had stayed the same, there had been positive change too, particularly improvements on some of the infrastructure and new businesses had opened, but the old favourites were also still in business, including the Gingerbread Café, which had become an ice-cream parlour and the café section had expanded to become the Sugar snd Spice Café. The Fig Tree restaurant was also still operating, a place that brought back wonderful memories of our 2015 Christmas potluck lunch enjoyed with cruising friends, as well as the Frangipani Hotel, where we had enjoyed a sit-down Christmas Eve Dinner with the same bunch of cruising friends, while listening to a steel band. All of this was noticed as we walked along the “promenade” / beachfront to the Princess Margaret trail and onto the Princess Margaret Beach to stretch our legs. It was lovely to have somewhere to walk again too without dodging potholes, mud, cars, derelict pathways, etc.
Having frequented most of our favourite establishments over the following days, we decided to visit the Plantation House, an advertised 5-star hotel that was not in existence when we last visited Bequia, to enjoy a morning coffee and baked delights, but the latter, especially for the astronomical price, was sadly anything but a delight; a stale croissant with jam, no butter served, and a frozen slice of cheese cake. Appalled , we decided to rescue our day by exploring pastures new and walked over to Friendship Bay, enjoying the stunning scenery along the way, the beautifully painted colourful homes, the pretty gardens with all the flowers in bloom, a lovely walk on the beach and a delicious lunch at the Bagatelle Restaurant adjacent to the Bequia Beach Bar; a West Indies Chicken Roti each which we’ve been dying to have since returning to the Caribbean. It was definitely worth the wait! The stunning setting overlooking the other Grenadine islands and the cool breeze to keep the heat and humidity at bay, definitely added to the experience.
One of our days was spent trying to get a local SIM card service, but given the ridiculous cost of $150USD to purchase the card with some data, we decided our T-Mobile service out of the US would just have to suffice. It wasn’t until we returned to Paw Paw that we discovered the SIM card service and data we’d purchased in St Lucia was actually working in St Vincent and the Grenadines. After all that, all we had to do was top-up our plan online. Problem solved!
Other significant changes we noticed, apart from the price of things, was the number of yachts in the anchorage, either on the vast number of new mooring balls installed since our last visit or at anchor, the tremendous increase in tourists, either staying on the island or arriving from the mainland, St Vincent, by ferry for the day and seeing cruise ships in the anchorage, with passengers being ferried back and forth in tenders, but unfortunately churning up the water as they did so, which had us rocking around all day. It was the ferries, however, that gave us the biggest headaches because they didn’t slow down at all until they were almost on the newly built commercial dock. Regardless, the place was actually booming and a rather unexpected surprise were the number of French-speaking tourists on the island; they’d clearly given up on Martinique too, it seemed!
By Saturday, 24th February 2024, having enjoyed the delights of Bequia, old and new, as well as barbecued onboard given the very pleasant weather, enjoyed swims off Paw Paw’s stern in crystal clear water, chatted to family and friends and continued with our Irish lessons, our time had came to a close. We were off to explore pastures new, but not before topping up our provisions and spending $100USD on the most pitiful handful of fruit and vegetables we’ve ever seen; the price of visiting what had now become a tourist trap. We were definitely missing the Saturday market in Finike, Türkiye.
Our desire to explore further afield coincided nicely with that of a more famous explorer, given a memorial stone that was unveiled in Westminster Abbey to mark the 150th Anniversary of Ernest Shackleton's birth; an explorer regarded as a quintessential British hero, but was born in Kildare, Ireland, on the 15th February 1874. The memorial stone contains Connemara marble and Kilkenny limestone and is situated in the abbey's south cloister near to memorials to fellow explorers James Cook, Francis Chicester and Francis Drake. We may not be as famous as these fine gentleman, but we have followed in the footsteps of James Cook and Francis Drake during our adventures around the world.
That said, the Irish government is now being urged to purchase Shackleton's Polar Medal, a medal with three clasps to represent his three Antarctic expeditions and was one of many honours bestowed on him.
Shackleton is most famous for overcoming adversity when his ship, The Endurance, became stuck in ice on the third expedition in 1915.
After being stranded on ice for over a year and moving camp a number of times, Shackleton and 5 other men took to a lifeboat from Elephant Island, travelled over 800 NM in stormy seas and hurricane winds to reach South Georgia Island.
Shackleton and 2 others still had to cross 51 Km of mountain to reach a whaling station and summons help for the rest of the 22 crew still stranded in Antarctica and who were all subsequently rescued.
However, what is also not widely known, is that 6 of the men who travelled in the open boat for 15 days, 3, including Shackleton, were Irish. The other 2 were Tom Crean and Timothy McCarthy.
Just a little bit of trivia as we educate ourselves on a country we hope to call home someday; now if we can only get Paw Paw sold!
On Saturday, 10th February 2024, after we woke to our first beautiful Caribbean morning as we’d experienced in a past life; sunny skies, dotted with puffy white clouds, and a light breeze out of the northeast, we weighed anchor and set a course for St Lucia.
By the time we anchored in Rodney Bay after enjoying a fabulous sail back to St Lucia from Martinique, we’d fallen in love with our sailing lifestyle all over again and we were back in the groove!
Once we were satisfied that the anchor was secure, we dinghied ashore to complete the officialdom processes. Being a Saturday we’d expected to pay overtime, but not quite as much as we were charged. Regardless, we were content to be in a far more protected and comfortable anchorage, having bounced around in St Anne’s for two weeks.
A coffee at Café Ole followed. This was an establishment we decided to try once more after the unpleasant experience we’d had when we first arrived back in St Lucia in December with the ARC 2023 rally, but decided to take the recommendation from Pete and Jeremy, off Chiron, when we unexpectedly bumped into them in St Anne’s. To our surprise, we discovered our first experience had indeed been an exception. We’d no sooner got back to Paw Paw, though, when the heavens opened again.
With the torrential rain continuing unabated all night, we nonetheless, continued with our evening plans; a barbecue while blaring out our favourite tunes; nothing was going to dampen our spirits! We were certainly back in the swing of things. We were also definitely grateful for the freshwater rinse Paw Paw got from all the rain.
The 10th February 2024 also kicked off the Lunar New Year with the Year of the Dragon, the fifth of the 12-year cycle of animals that appear in the Chinese zodiac, based on ancient Chinese mythology. This holiday is also known as the Chinese New Year or Spring Festival and is filled with rich culture and tradition, centring around the hope for good fortune and prosperity in the coming year. It reaches its peak with the annual Lantern Festival. Each year, the exact date differs as it's based on the cycle of the moon, although it usually falls between the 20th January and 21st February on the Gregorian calendar.
Fireworks, music, fairs, lanterns, dragon and lion dancing fill streets across Asia and SE Asia as locals begin their celebrations. For us, the Lunar New Year in January 2020 will remain a highlight of our circumnavigation as we celebrated it in Penang, Malaysia. Sadly a few short weeks later the world was in lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, a time in our lives, like most people, won’t easily be forgotten, especially since we still see destinations barely recovered from the devastation it caused.
Sadly, though, It seems the world learnt nothing from the experience; succinctly summarised by the statements of the UN (United Nations) Chief, Antonio Guterres, when he recently remarked to the General Assembly that the world has entered "an age of chaos" and indicated that the UN was more dysfunctional than during the Cold War.
He went on to say: "For millions of people caught up in conflict around the world, life is a deadly, daily, hungry hell” and that we’re seeing the results of chaos in "a dangerous and unpredictable free-for-all, with total impunity". Additionally, statements included: "After decades of nuclear disarmament, states are competing to make their nuclear arsenals faster, stealthier and more accurate. New potential domains of conflict and weapons of war are being developed without guardrails, creating new ways to kill each other – and for humanity to annihilate itself.” He indicated that the UN Security Council, the primary platform for brokering global peace, was "deadlocked by geopolitical fissures" and, although this was not the first time the council was divided, it was the worst; "today's dysfunction is deeper and more dangerous.”
He said the UN was founded on peace, but, around the globe and across the range of issues, "peace is the missing piece”, going in to say: “There is so much anger and hate and noise in our world today. Every day and at every turn, it seems it’s war; terrible conflicts that are killing and maiming civilians in record numbers; wars of words, turf wars, culture wars” and “so many peddling the perverse math that says you multiply support by dividing people," adding that this was especially troubling in a year when "half of humanity will go to the polls".
On a separate subject, he called on member states to "make peace with the planet," by reducing emissions and phasing out fossil fuels, adding that "humanity has waged a war we can only lose: our war with nature; it is a crazy fight to pick.”
Case in point as it pertains to cultural wars; young people in Cambodia were urged to avoid "losing dignity" on Valentine's Day, a day people with more traditional, socially conservative beliefs view as a foreign celebration that threatens the country's Buddhist culture, adding that the occasion was "not the tradition of our Khmer nationality" and to use the day "in line with the beautiful Khmer tradition for the sake of one’s honour and dignity".
Cambodia is not the only country where the 14th February has caused controversy in the past. From 2008 to 2019, religious police in Saudi Arabia banned the sale of Valentine's gifts, including red roses, as authorities considered the celebration un-islamic. In India and Pakistan, religious groups also protested in past years against Valentine's Day celebrations, saying they are an insult to hinduism and islam.
Wouldn’t it be nice, just for a change, if the world designated Valentine’s Day to be a day of universal peace and love as apposed to nations bickering amongst themselves about a day celebrating love. Preconceived ideas and fixed paradigms must truly be humanities greatest enemy!
More worrying, though, are the statistics on recent defence spending and policies. A record 18 member countries of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) are set to meet the defence alliance's target of spending 2% of their economic output on defence this year. Additionally, German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, declared recently that his country would have the "highest defence budget" in Europe and would maintain the 2% target "in the decades to come... for safety and reliability". Germany's projected spending is set to climb to the equivalent of $73.41bn according to German press agency DPA and the number of countries expected to allocate 2% of economic output on defence this year was "another record number and a six-fold increase from 2014 when only 3 allies met the target", adding that overall, European nations and Canada will have spent an extra $600bn on defence since the 2% target was set 10 years ago. Estonia has already said its defence budget will surpass 3% of its economic output this year, and that 0.25% of GDP will be provided in military aid to Ukraine.
Most alarming is that, according to NATO figures, in 2023, the US and countries bordering Russia, such as Poland, spent the highest proportion of their national incomes on defence.
On all counts, we have to agree with the statements of the UN (United Nations) Chief, Antonio Guterres, and, while some might prefer to be ostriches, these matters are, in fact, impacting us more than we originally realised.
We definitely did not expect to struggle to sell Paw Paw and definitely did not prepare ourselves for the possibility, but, after reading these statements and statistics, coupled with the recent announcement of which countries are indeed in recession, the continuation of the high interest rates, with certain countries even considering further rate rises and others indicating that cuts won’t be occurring anytime soon, it’s little wonder!
It has become abundantly clear to us, after having Paw Paw advertised through a yacht broker for a month and not having one single viewing or a smidgen of interest, selling her is probably not going to happen anytime soon! A chat with the broker cemented our thinking that people are looking at the state of the world in general and deciding to keep their status quo versus rushing out to spend money on a luxury item, like a yacht. That said, though, it could just as easily go the other way if people decide “to hell with this malarkey, we’re buying a yacht and going sailing!”
Regardless, what does all this mean for us?
Having complete our comparisons of various yacht insurers and resolved the associated yacht insurance logistics, as well as resolved the medical care logistics for Elaine, to some degree, we’ve made the only decision we can make; settle back into our sailing lifestyle and take the opportunity to visit pastures new. In other words, we’re not going to sit around anymore waiting on a sale! Life goes on as we prepare for our imminent departure from St Lucia.
To this end, we’ve spent some of our time and effort on chores, errands and yacht maintenance, the latter including a replacement of the watermaker membrane, re-gassing the fridge and freezer and cleaning the waterline. Having eventually been able to refill our propane tanks since leaving Türkiye, Roy also reverted our propane system back to its original configuration. In between all this activity he managed to buy Elaine’s favourite chocolates for Valentine’s Day; you’ve got to go a long way to find these in the Caribbean; Lindt and Ferrero Rocher.
A minor inconvenience was discovering that our email facility to post to our website has become obsolete, which is forcing Elaine to now make updates directly; a real pain actually!
Besides continuing with our Irish lessons and being entertained by the goings-on in the anchorage, Elaine also put together a high level itinerary, with input from Roy of course, and which includes a haulout, all of which should keep us occupied for the remainder of this year.
