We spent 4 days in dirty, oily Chaguaramas, newly painted decks turning black from the pollution. Torrential rains, problems with our outboard engine and power outages made the 4 dinghy trips (each about 250 litres) an uphill struggle but we have probably saved about $800. It was a lovely surprise to meet up with JP and Christine from Galacsea, whom we first met in Tunisia and last saw in Turkey. They kindly offered to include us in a shopping trip to Port of Spain in their rental car.
With a degree of trepidation we set sail north on Monday afternoon, the weather reports forecast heavy seas and strong north easterly winds and we had heard much scare-mongering amongst the cruisers both in Trinidad and Grenada about the terrible conditions. Irony took it all in her stride and we managed to reach the southern tip of Grenada by dawn on Tuesday morning. It was more of a challenge to beat our way up to Union Island and tacking added 38 miles on to the 123 mile route. It doesn't sound that much until one translates it into time - about 7 hours extra. The passage was so rough that our bathroom door was wrenched off its hinges, breaking the long mirror (glad we're not superstitious!). Such large waves broke over the foredeck that they overflowed the dorade vents onto my newly laundered bed linen. We were relieved to anchor in pretty Chatham Bay on Tuesday night, happy to have a hot, de-salting shower and an uninterrupted night of sleep.