Pete flew out to Grenada, from Gatwick airport, on Sunday 20th October, after a train ride around the houses due to engineering works and an overnight stay at the Premier Inn (A23). Just before boarding the flight, he was returned to the lounge; there was going to be a significant delay due to a fault with the aeroplane. In the end, he was around 2 hours delayed. The upside was that immigration and customs in Grenada couldn't be bothered checking anyone's bags, so he was through quickly and in the Siesta Hotel within 50 minutes. After the stop in Saint Lucia, there had been only 12 people left on the plane. As you might expect, his first priority was a beer on the beach.
Pete spent 2 nights in the hotel before travelling to Clarke's Court to check out the boat, which we had left on the hardstanding throughout the hurricane season. Thankfully there was no damage as a result of Hurricane Beryl. His first job was to make the boat habitable, as he would be sleeping on board until the boat splash (lift in). Pete suffered badly with jetlag and was very tired. He agreed to pay someone US$600 to polish the boat, saving him a job, while he concentrated on scrubbing the boat's bottom, to remove any barnacles and activate the coppercoat, which acts as an antifoul. It turned out that the polish and cleaning cloths were chargeable on top of the price, plus the guy tried to squirrel away an expensive bottle of polish that wasn't used. Pete refused to pay until it was returned, so he could get a refund at the shop.
Next job was polishing the propeller. This tends to be a satisfying job, as the propeller gleams once it's clean but I don't think Pete enjoyed doing it in the 30 degree heat and 80% humidity, with mosquitos attacking him constantly.
Terri and one of his team installed the watermaker. It was supposed to take around 6 hours but took almost 2.5 days, such that the resulting bill was for US$2700, including an in water test and a 4% credit card charge, cheeky when payment in cash was refused.
The splash was scheduled for 2pm, on Friday 1st November but didn't happen as there was still another yacht blocking the way. Pete spent another hot and miserable night on board, in the yard and eventually launched on Saturday morning. He headed straight for the Cove Marina, on the opposite side of Woburn Bay. First job was to unpack and put on the foresail. The mainsail went on the following morning, with Pete managing to put the stacker pack on the wrong way round, evident when he tried to zip it up. Having corrected his error, he went to Taffy's for a proper Sunday lunch, before getting a lift to the airport to meet me off the plane. This would be a surprise for me, as I was only expecting Rian, from One Love Taxi, to pick me up.
I followed much the same route as Pete had done 2 weeks previously but without the engineering works to contend with. I managed to break for a drink with good friends, Ric and Blair, at Kings Cross, before walking to St Pancras to catch the Thameslink to Gatwick. I had tried to check in for my flight while on the train but couldn't do so because the hold bag I had paid for wasn't showing on the booking. So, on arrival at Gatwick I went to the BA check in desk, only to be told they couldn't sort it until twilight check in opened at 4pm. It was only 2.40pm, so I spent an hour in Cafe Nero nursing a cup of tea and a toastie. The baggage issue was quickly sorted and I managed to get rid of my bag by doing twilight check in, which was a bonus. I couldn't blag a free upgrade though, for my earlier inconvenience. I caught the Hopper bus to the hotel, checked in and relaxed. By chance, friends we made in Antigua in January, John and Ali, were flying from Gatwick too and were staying in the Premier Inn North Terminal, a five minute walk from my hotel, so we had drinks and dinner together, which was lovely. We all had a pie and chips, as we wouldn't be having another for a long while. We met up again in departures next morning, too.
My flight was showing as on time and we were called for boarding. While waiting on the air bridge, everyone started to receive text messages saying we would be delayed by 50 minutes. We continued to board and the air hostesses were unaware of the delay. The delay continued to lengthen and the reason was sketchy other than we were waiting for an additional pilot who was driving from Heathrow. We sat on the plane for 2 hours and 45 minutes before eventually taking off. In that time, BA didn't even give us a cup of water and it was more than another hour before we had a drinks service. With lunch, we were given a small plastic cup of wine and we didn't see another alcoholic drinks service again; just juice and water. We landed in Saint Lucia, expecting to drop the majority of people off and not take on many passengers but the flight was almost full on departure. That was when I found out what had caused our delay. The previous day's flight to Grenada had ended in Saint Lucia and all passengers had to stay overnight in hotels. There is normally a crew change there, with the new crew flying to Grenada and then back to the UK. However, the new pilot had collapsed and died, aged 47, in front of guests at the resort where the relief crew were staying. In turn, we had to wait for an extra pilot to join our flight to take the other BA plane back to the UK. It was a tragedy and I suppose we were lucky that our flight went at all. However, after 14 hours on board, I was very tired and uncomfortable, not to mention hungry and thirsty. Standards have definitely slipped on BA. It took over an hour to get through immigration and customs in Grenada, with so many passengers. Luckily, the customs lady believed me when I said I didn't have boat parts in my bag, which was true but I avoided a search. Pete was waiting for me outside the little terminal and called the taxi to say I had arrived. On board Muirgen, we had a beer and some crisps and collapsed into bed.
I didn't suffer jetlag. Monday morning, we were up and about at 7.30am and caught the local bus to Saint George's, where we had breakfast at Port Louis Marina, collected the repaired sprayhood, new windlass motor and filters for the watermaker from Sherri, called into Island Waterworld to look at dinghies and picked up essential provisions from Huggins supermarket. We returned on the number 2 bus and I spent the afternoon unpacking my bag and all of the vacuum packed bags from the boat, a job that would take 2 days, including rearranging all of the cupboards. It was uncomfortably hot and humid; yes, I was back in Grenada!