Sailing Sandstar: Caribbean Here We Come!

Back in Grenada and a reunion with the Frenchie and Soulstice crews!

By Kathy
Actual Dates: The month of November 2018

It is time to start Season 2 on SandStar!! Everyone was really excited to return to Grenada. After traveling for the last two months the Caribbean felt like coming home. It surprised all of us to feel like Grenada was home. We always thought that St. Pete and our house on 14th Street would be home and SandStar would always the boat but this was different. Grenada felt familiar after a whirlwind adventure but I think it was more about getting back on SandStar that just felt right.

There was also a lot of excitement about what this new season would bring since all of our travels would take us to new islands. But first things first, we need to get SandStar back in the water. We had a lot of stuff to unpack and put away. Remember the week we spent getting the boat ready with foil on all of the windows and decommissioning systems? We needed to do the reverse of all of those tasks to get things ready. Overall we were thankful we spent the days sweating away in the boatyard before we left Grenada in August. It really did make a difference when we returned to a relatively clean boat with no uninvited 4-legged guests. On November 2nd just four days after returning to Grenada we splashed Sandstar and headed out of Grenada Marine.

We are ready to rock and roll back into the water!

Almost there!

The kids are excited to be back in the water

A great picture of SandStar in the lift and the marina behind. You can see this is a good place to store for a hurricane.
Photo credit: Moose on the Loose

But (and this is a BIG but) like many boat projects, some of the projects we had on the list did not quite go as planned so we scheduled another haul out a week after our splash date at another marina.

It feels good to be back at anchor!

We had a nice week before our next haul out at anchor in Wolburn Bay and we were able to reconnect with old friends for bbq on Hog Island, sundowners and dinner. The kids enjoyed just being on the water again and swimming off the back of the boat.

Whoohoo!! Back in the water and there is no difference between driving goggles and swimming goggles for Sam

Sam and Barrett discussion their burger choices on a Sunday afternoon on Hog Island

Bathing suit shopping in Grenada. You find a Brazilian cruiser who sews nice suits on her boat and you meet up at the volleyball court to shop

Some things might be lost for good

Dinner with our friends on SunSplash!

Another fun Sunday afternoon on Hog Island

We also did not hesitate to jump back into hashing our first full day back at anchor. The hash was in a beautiful part of the island with we were lucky to have some friends with us for this trek. This was also the first hash that the food was donated by a catering company and we were able to try some pretty interesting menu items.

Always a treat to see what the trail has to offer for the day

This was a pretty one through the rainforest

Post hash party - A little ACC representing going on!

Your eyes are not deceiving you! I thought it was a joke at first too.

What is manicou?? It is like a possum.

The kids dancing the night away

Day after hash shoe clean up! It was a muddy one!

Another thing we had to do before the next haul out was stock the boat with food since we had to get rid of most of our food before we left in August. We just had a few canned goods left in the pantry. This is usually a pretty easy and straight forward task on land even if you have to do the triple run between Publix, Fresh Market and Sam’s Club. On the boat this is a LONG multi-day process. After a couple of trips to the store (a trip to the grocery store take about 6 hours on the shopping bus), a trip to the meat market, and a couple of deliveries from a local we still were not done before our next haul out but we had a pretty good start.

Trying to organize the freezer after a stock up on meat. I should take more pictures of this crazy provisioning thing but I forget when I am in the mix of it. Throw in the fact that you bag your own groceries and it is usually a mad race to finish before the next person starts their checkout. It is not for the faint of heart.

Time for our next haul out. This time we would be hauling out at Clarke’s Court Marina. We did what is called a short haul– just one week out of the water. That meant we needed to get things done fast and efficient. What that means in real life is that the boat was a disaster. We had about 10-15 people working on the boat for four days straight. We had to come up with a plan for the kids during the week and fast! Luckily, the marina has 4 rooms for rent above the restaurant and we were able to get one on Monday morning when the work began. The only kicker is that we had to switch rooms during the week. We were so happy to have a space to do school and hang out during the day off the boat it really didn’t bother us at all to change rooms.

Hauled out by The Hulk - one of the largest lifts in the Caribbean

The kids doing school work at the marina restaurant

Because the boat looks like this

Lots of projects going on but this was the biggie. New escape hatches!

Lunch break at a Grenadian food truck. She would show up everyday at the same time and when the food was out it was out!

There was about 12 people working the boat - some inside, some outside, some underneath

The kid enjoying the hotel room

They were pretty happy

We splashed back in the water Friday afternoon with big smiles on our faces after a great haul out and we are now officially ready for Season 2!

The Hulk is back and ready to splash us!

Celebrating a successful week of projects with the guys who worked on the boat.

The kids are happy to have things back to normal

Now it is time to look at weather and figure out our exit out of Grenada. Should we move closer to St. George? Should we stay until after Thanksgiving? What does the weather look like for the next 10 days? What should we do for Thanksgiving? In the end we celebrated Thanksgiving in Grenada. I use the word celebrate very loosely here since it is only a US holiday. We had some Canadian friends over for a swim party and mojitos in the afternoon (they did not know it was a holiday). Then we planned a casual dinner on the boat of steak and mashed potatoes for the five of us (there is no way a turkey would ever cook in our boat oven).

Thanksgiving swim party with Sunsplash and Moose on the Loose. Complete with mojitos and popcorn

The kids watching a movie after swimming!

We are thankful to miss the craziness of the rest of the holiday weekend since Black Friday does not exist in Grenada. But we did shop on Friday as we finished our provisioning which included a trip to the local home store to get some much needed Christmas decorations.