12.6.2021 - 12.12.2021 Last Weekend in the Marina?

This week was another busy week of working and trying to get all our boat maintenance project finalized so that we can leave the marina.

• Since we got organized inside last weekend, I was able to try the desk station on the owner’s side hull.

• Early in the week while cooking dinner, we blew a fuse and Mike spent 2+ hours trying to identify the source. We were able to get a local electrician, Aaron, to do a quick assessment and was able to find the source so we could repair it.

• Hero continued work for us to fix the two guest heads and cleaning all the bilge pumps (pumps that control fluid movement within the hulls). So far the project has take 20+ hours over 3 days and it’s still not done :/

  • Cleaning the bilges is something we’ll continue to do as part of routine maintenance (we’ve been working on a list about how regularly to manage things and will share on a future post).

• One of our paddleboards popped on Tuesday ☹ We were working inside and heard a very loud booming noise outside. Then we started to notice people walking by on the dock pointing at us and the boat so we investigated – the loud boom was the popping. It was so loud one of the dockmasters came over to ask if our boat was sinking! We think it was due to being accidentally overinflated, but have reached out to the manufacturer since it’s less than 3 months old – they responded and are able to give us a refund until we’re back in an area of the world where we can order a replacement. In the meantime, we preemptively deflated our other paddleboard a bit and have several repair/patch kits that we’re going to try.

• We reached out to one of our boat Facebook groups for storage suggestions for our paddleboards. We were able to find the suggested brackets at the marine store and Mike installed! The brackets are great because they store the paddleboards outside of the lifelines and can hold 2 paddleboards/kayaks.

• Our generator repairman ghosted us for about 2 weeks. Mike was able to find the part we need at the local boat store and picked it up this morning. He contacted the guy once more and he was able to come and install it so our generator is now fixed!

  • Why is the generator so important? The generator provides alternating current power (A/C) which basically means it’s a substitute for shore power (when you’re plugged in to a marina) for a short amount of time. When the generator is running, this is when we optimize it’s usage – taking a shower (because is powers our water heater), running a load of laundry, charging our laptops, topping off our batteries.

• Mike was able to troubleshoot our water heater so that it heats again! This was largely due to the lack of response from local maintenance/repair workers (so far our biggest frustration of #boatlife is everyone local is on #islandtime).

• I finally got a dinghy lesson from Mike! Up until now all our dinghy outings have been him driving, but this week I was able to take us out a few times for errands.

• The local decal design company stopped by after ghosting us for 2+ weeks. They took measurements and we figured out what we want for them to provide a mock-up and quote. The were able to send the design mockup with measurements and cost on Sunday and we’re really excite for how it turned out! They plan to come back this upcoming Tuesday to install (they specifically said it’s going to be easiest to install while still in the marina).

  • In preparation for this, we got the remaining “Windancer IV” decal removed from the port sugarscoop.

• We’ve been working with Ollie to be able to come up on the berth on his own using two built-in side steps – he finally mastered getting up! We still need to work on him using the steps to get down, because right now he either cries until we lift him down or he catapults himself off. I did a mini-project to help with traction for Ollie this weekend and he is jumping up/down with much more confidence!

• We had a date-night in/on the boat on Saturday. Went to the marina restaurant for a late afternoon lunch/cocktails, followed by another walking tour of the slips with Ollie, then hung out at the helm as sunset came in, and finished the night with some homemade gluten-free chocolate chip cookies :)

Our hope is to be move from the marina to an anchorage at/near Prickly Bay this week. It’ll take us about 1 hour 15 minutes if we motor there and doing so will fully allow us to be living the lifestyle! Fingers crossed we’re able to transition to an anchor and sail back up to Carriacou next weekend. We also started to do some chart/route plotting for our passage to St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Our tentative plan is to do final provisioning next weekend, check-out of Grenada (clear customs and immigration) on/around 12/22-12/23, then start the passage :)