QUASAR IV is back afloat and ready to set sail again
25 November 2009 | Prickly Bay, Grenada
Graham
After an incredibly busy week, a final night in Da Big Fish with an excellent Blues band called Doc Adams and great food, we got up again at 6 am and re-attached the genoa sail before the daily wind started to pick up to its steady state for the day. All set to go, the transporter came across the boatyard bang on time at 9am and QUASAR IV was loaded up and moved to the dockside. Cranes turning, alarms beeping, and we were gently lowered into the water. This can be a tense moment as it is this point in time that you will generally find out whether you did actually remember to reconnect all of the hoses to the through-hull fittings below the water line! With no water in sight inside the boat, we started the engine, reversed out of the hoist, spun the boat around, and we were off to find a spot to anchor in the bay. It is a great feeling being back on the boat in the water now - a good breeze is blowing, the inside of the boat is much easier to live in with the warm draft passing through, and we can use all of the boat's water supply, cooker and toilets once again. We were anchored by 10am, kettle on, tea 15 minutes later, then the Coastguard came alongside and asked us to move as we were blocking 'the channel'. We have yet to find any reference to any channel on any chart or in any pilot guide, but hey ho, arguing with Customs Officers is not the way to have a quiet life in Grenada! We moved, re-anchored, and were promptly visited by Dic and Lizzie from Indian Summer, whereupon, tea became all too difficult as your hand needed to go past four bottles of Carib beer in the fridge before reaching the milk for the tea. I need say no more! This afternoon will be a dinghy rebuilding activity session as we get all of the planks back in and try to persuade the outboard to start after 5 months of inactivity. This will no doubt be a challenge, but a somewhat essential task if we ever want to get off QUASAR IV again whilst at anchor! We are now back on our HF email, so no internet, Facebook or Twitter (hurrah!), just good old email. Planning on staying here for a few days and meeting up with Tracey's sister Sara and her friend Zoe who are out on holiday from tomorrow. In the meantime, just relaxing, listening to music in the sun again - life is back to normal!