On October 17 Trina and Mark drove us to the Victoria Airport so that we could catch our flight to Seattle and then make a connecting flight to Miami. We left on a wet, rainy day and arrived in Miami to stars and warmth. After overnighting at the luxurious Wyndham Hotel, we caught the 5:15 PM flight to Grenada. A few hours later the plane began a very steep and fast approach. It was dark outside but suddenly Jim yells out as he sees the palm trees and the plane lands hard on just one wheel. The pilot taxied over to the terminal, the doors are opened and the warm, humid climate of Grenada greets us. Wow. Its wonderful to be back! That night we stayed at the Siesta Hotel and enjoyed a great dinner of curried lambi (conch) in their restaurant. This hotel is located close to Spice Island Mall and has a very nice view of St. George's harbour. Prices are reasonable and we would recommend it to any cruisers looking for somewhere inexpensive to stay.

The next morning finds us up bright and early. We have lots of grocery shopping to do before we take a cab to Grenada Marine. Afer stocking up on the essentials of rum, wine and food, our taxi driver drove us to Emerald Seas. Arriving at the shipyard, we directed our driver to our sailboat.............oh oh......its not there......Jim asks the office staff if they know where Emerald Seas is but they don't know.........hmmmmm no sign of fire.........why would someone steal our boat and not one of the mega yachts???........its gotta be here somewhere. Eventually we locate Emerald Seas. She is in the farthest part of the shipyard and tucked behind two other sailboats. We haul our stuff aboard using ropes and buckets. Open the hatch and climb inside. Everything is PERFECT. No mold, no stinky old smell, everything is exactly the way we left her. We are very happy to be back on Emerald Seas! After a homecooked meal, we sat in the cockpit and made plans for the next few days. Scraping and sanding the brightwork, bottom paint, setting up the solar panals and wind generator and putting up the bimini were going to keep us very busy. Time to hit the hay and enjoy our first night back on board Emerald Seas!

Its a few minutes past 3AM in the morning.

I awaken from a deep sleep to the sounds of Jim shouting and yelling and screaming "Get the F**** off my boat. You C****sucker!!!!!! WHOOOOO-OH-WHOOOOOOOO-OH-WHOOOO-OH-WHOOO-OH...A WHOOO GAH A WHOOO GAH (impressive imitation of a police car, firetruck, ambulance and a submarine making an emergency dive all combined). "You better run now, you b********, I'm after you now!!!" Dear God, thinks I, I sure hope he is having a dream. Please, please let it be a dream...........

A stark naked Jim informs me that he has chased off an intruder who was about to come down our companionway stairs. The sound of our boarding ladder making a bump sound against the hull of Emerald Seas had alerted Jim to the fact that someone was climbing into our boat. Jim's heroic actions and mighty voice worked. The thief ran like the devil himself was after him!

Jim quickly puts on his shorts and headed over to get the security guard. As soon as Jim left, I heard another intruder jump off the boat behind us and run away. When Jim and the guard returned they could still hear the sounds of the pirates fleeing for their lives. Later, back in bed, and unable to sleep, we make plans to increase our security at night. Bars on the hatches and companionway doors will enable us to have the ventilation we need at night to be cool and prevent intruders. An alarm system will be installed that will wake us if someone is on our boat. And wouldn't you know it, we left a can of pepper spray in Canada, given to us by our friends, Wayne and Teri!!!!

Next morning, the management at Grenada Marine were very concerned about the attempted robbery. The would-be thieves had cut a large hole in the fence to access the yard. The police interviewed Jim and said how lucky we were that the intruder had not actually made it to the inside of our boat. Who knows what might have happened if Jim had not woken up when he did.

Oh well, life quickly returns to normal. The brightwork is not going to sand itself. It would be nice to have a magic wand and abacadabra everything so that we could get back in the water and start sailing and scuba diving again. All this work interferes with our playtime but we realize the advantage of doing the work while she is on land- no rocking and rolling, no salt spray on fresh Cetol and benefit of benefits, free, unlimited showers whenever we want them plus free internet access and a very funky beach bar that serves ice cold Caribe beer.

Days later.........its October 30th and its SPLASH day. We are going in the water at last! Emerald Seas looks eager to get floating and Yanni has been checked over and is ready to roar again.

Hours later..............we are tied to a mooring ball at St. David's Bay. There is a gentle swell moving us back and forth. Our mainsail is where it belongs and we are pleasantly cooled off after a swim around the boat. The mosquito population is almost non-existant on the water as compared to the millions attacking us at Grenada Marine. Dinner is almost ready. We make a toast to future adventures, a job well done and sit back and enjoy the spectacular sunset.