Last week we did the annual haul-out at Spice Island Marine Services at Prickly Bay, Grenada. It went great! What a huge difference from our "haul-out from hell" at Independent Boat Yard in St. Thomas last year. This time everything went smoothly and on schedule. In fact, BEBE had been pressure washed, prop cleaned, hull washed and waxed, 2 coats of bottom paint with additional 3rd coat around water line and on keel and rudder by Wednesday afternoon. Talk about fast service!

We could have splashed Wed afternoon but we were still hopeful of finding a connector link to join the additional 80 feet of anchor chain to our existing 230 feet anchor chain, so we opted to schedule splashing for Friday mid-day. Never did find the 10mm connector link for the anchor chain (none to be had on the entire island of Grenada. So we stored the new additional chain in the forward deck locker where we keep our secondary anchors. Eventually we will find the required connector link.

While in Carriacou last month we had new side and rear shade panels made for our cockpit bimini. We are thoroughly enjoying this additional shade, as well as the additional privacy that the enclosure provides. We can see out much better than others can see in.

As soon as weather permits we will be leaving Grenada and heading to Los Testigos for a couple of days and then on to Isla Margarita. Plan is to do major provisioning at Isla Margarita and then work our way on to Bonaire, as always, weather permitting. If a hurricane does appear to be approaching the southern boundary of the Windwards, then we know about a hurricane hole on the Venezuelan mainland. It is less than a day sail down from Bonaire. It is not a port of entry to VZ, but in the case of bad weather; that would be the least of our worries. If this worst case scenario should happen, then we would go to Puerto Cabello to clear in after the weather improved.

We are hoping that our younger son and his family will be able to visit us in Bonaire in August. It would be great to see them all, but most especially our 5-year-old granddaughter BeBe.