22/06/2009, Bexleyheath, Kent
After a 10 hour flight to Gatwick, via Antigua, we have arrived in the familiar surroundings of Bexleyheath where I spent the first 18 years of my life. Back at mum's with great cooking, comfy settees and...a TV to catch up on a few episodes of CSI and NCIS! However, far more interesting was the 2 hour walk on Saturday afternoon around London's Pall Mall and St James's area, hosted by 'Alan' (with the white suit and green carnation...) to learn about, and see, the places that the infamous Cold War Cambridge Five Spy Ring, (Burgess, Maclean, Philby, Blunt, and Cairncross) operated from for so many years before being caught. An excellent tour arranged by London Walks (www.walks.com) and highly recommended by us. Sunday was spent at Eltham Palace remembering Henry VIII, watching jousting, falconry (some from horseback), listening to period music, and generally enjoying the sun. Again, another great place to visit, steeped in history. Off to High Wycombe at the weekend to rabbit and goldish-sit for our friends Chris and Helene, as well as planning trips to France and Cyprus while we are back. It's just all go....
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15/06/2009, True Blue Bay Marina Resort
Well, having slogged our guts out for the past 6 days in what has been sweltering heat in the boat (drops to 37 Deg C ....at night!), many small maintenance jobs have now been completed. The pace of work has been about a third of that planned, so we have a large number of jobs to complete when we get back ....what a surprise! We did have one saving grace; an absolutely torrential downpour highlighted a small hole through the saloon ceiling which turned into a waterfall and necessitated the entire saloon roof being taken down to stop the flow. Problem identified, repaired, and roof dried out, it's all back together again now. As a small luxury, and to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversery (slightly delayed), we booked into the True Blue Bay Marina Resort about 15 minutes walk from here. What a fantastic place - complete luxury, fantastic restaurant, amazing views (photos to be added soon), and very attentive staff. A truely relaxing way to end our 19 months of living on QUASAR IV for a while and returning to life ashore in Blighty for a while.
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12/06/2009, Spice Island Marine, Prickly Bay
QUASAR IV has been in the water since November 2007 and, having a hull made from fibreglass, needs to be lifted out of the water now and again to 'dry out'. Although originally planning on this event in Trinidad, for a number of reasons, we decided to haul out in Grenada. So, we left Hog Island a couple of days ago, moved around to Prickly Bay (rolly or what!), removed the sails, and started generally preparing the boat for storage ashore for 5 months while we return to England. All went well on the morning of the 10th, where we were met promptly at 8 am by the boatyard staff, and by 11 am, we were out of the water, jet-washed, a moved to our new home ashore, next to about 170 other boats. Eight steel stands prop the boat up, and very heavy duty webbing straps have been added to tie the boat down in the event of high winds, or worse still, a hurricane. 'Da Big Fish' restaurant has a book exchange, does excellent pizzas, and a fine pot of real coffee (3 mugs worth) for just over one UK pound! Today, the temperature is now just reaching 38 Deg C in the boat, so we are off out for a beer!
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