29th December

12 00 N
61 46 W

Weather; sunny, wind n/a, waves n/a

Last night we discussed moving to another anchorage for a week or so before we finally set off for good from Grenada. Dale and Lorie are keen for a move to another bay, especially as they had spent some time in other bays on their previous visit here. We didn't come to any great decisions - these things take time to mull over the pros and cons then decide where would be the best choice. I think Dale has a clear idea of where he would like to go for the brief interval but nothing is set in concrete as yet as we need to consider access to shops, to John Hovan's delivery service, dinghy dock facilities, any restaurants that are open, the taxi service from the dock etc. etc. I really don't care too much where we go as long as the anchorage isn't too rolly or too crowded.
The first job for today as far as Gerry was concerned was the defrosting of the freezer, we only did it a short while ago but he reckoned that it needed doing again - I'm sure it's because it hasn't got enough in it. The good thing is that I can't reach the freezer to do this job so it's all down to Gerry. The insulated bag was forced into action and everything taken out of the freezer before he began to fan assist the defrost and vacuum out the ice build-up from the depths. All I can say is that it can't have been too bad as it took hardly any time to do the job. Of course that wasn't the end of it, he spotted 2 small holes near the top of the freezer door which he was certain was letting warm air into the freezer and needed to be filled in, out with the silicone sealer and gloves and he smeared as much as he could just about everywhere, hopefully including the holes! The insulated bag then got emptied back into the freezer and that was the first job of the day out of the way. Next was to give Gerry a haircut, we got out the magnifying glass and identified the stuff he calls hair and I set to with the clippers and relived him of the excess growth, he now looks a bit tidier once more. It was now mid-morning and Gerry decided that he would try the mini mart for some bread once again (no we didn't make any yesterday as we hadn't quite finished the loaf). As normal he stopped at Gypsy Palace to see if they needed anything and Dale opted to go along for the ride - obviously in need of something to do as well! I thought I'd use the time to whip up some crepes for lunch and was just about half way through cooking up the batch when Gerry arrived back and I wished that I hadn't bothered. He had gone to the butchers near the laundry (we had never been in there before) and discovered that they sold homemade sausages, baguette, pate and blue cheese and he had bought some of each which we could have had for lunch but as the crepes were fresh out of the pan we thought we would save the other goodies for later on and enjoyed the crepes for lunch. The place apparently had a wine tasting going on as well, they didn't stay and imbibe, or so they would have us believe but it's good to have found somewhere new to get stuff from. We sat around and navel gazed for a while after lunch, feeling lethargic and unwilling to do anything as it was hot without so much as a breath of air blowing through the boat. In fact looking outside was very odd today as with no wind what so ever we were all swinging around on our anchors all over the place. Gypsy Palace is normally sitting just off of starboard side but today they are almost immediately behind us at present, having been directly in front of us for a while and off to our port side for some of the day. Lorie sent us a series of photos of our boat taken from every angle, that she snapped on her phone, it looks like we have gone in complete circles around each other! Anyhow after wasting a couple of hours doing nothing I made the decision to finish the job that I started yesterday and reluctantly clean the oven. It's not a job that I relish doing but I am always pleased with the resulting clean and shiny end product. The oven isn't particularly big but it is awkward to get at as the kitchen space is very small, add into that the fact that the oven door is one that opens downwards and slides under the main oven it makes for cleaning the door a bit of a trial. Anyway I got out the oven cleaner intending to spray liberally and leave until it had done it's magic but decided to take out the single shelf, our pizza stone and the protection plate that sits over the gas ring and do them separately outside of the oven. Ah, the pizza stone - being a small oven we found that, like most people with a marine oven, the oven tends to burn things easily on the bottom without the top of the item being cooked properly and a lot of people on boats use a pizza stone to dissipate the heat somewhat. We have had the pizza stone for a long time, it works better than not having it but due to its age and constant use the stone has broken into 3 bits, it's still OK to use but I fear its days might be limited. Anyway I removed the shelf and pizza stone but couldn't budge the protection plate so I asked Gerry to get it out for me using brute strength. Well I might as well have just handed over the job in total, he had nothing else on his agenda. Out came the protection plate and he started spraying the oven - I didn't want him to take over but he obviously had his own plans and after spraying the oven he started attacking the shelf with steel wool and elbow grease, at this point I couldn't get back into the kitchen so I started on the protection plate and the pizza stone from the salon side of the kitchen bench. Between us we managed to get most of the burnt on grim off of the 3 removable parts, it was looking better than it had in a long while. Gerry then wanted to start cleaning the oven interior up but I made him wait for it to do its thing - no point in using chemicals if you don't let them do the hard work! After a considerable amount of time I beat Gerry to the kitchen and began wiping out the yukky stuff that was now sitting mostly at the base of the oven with paper towels - I'm sure you've all been there and know exactly what I'm talking about. I finally got the last of the mucky stuff out and stood up to do the door, that's when Gerry decided to take over again, he couldn't help himself. Anyhow he gave the oven a wash down and it was time to put everything back inside, give the outside a once over and call it a day. I don't think the oven has ever been so clean, at least I'm hopeful that we won't get the burning smell next time I cook something. I think the cleanup took about as long as the oven cleaning with bags of paper towels, scouring pads and steel wool to get rid of and benches to spray and wipe down but we soon had it under control - time for a cold drink and a sit down as we were feeling virtuous! We did nothing else for the remainder of the afternoon just played with our electronics until the clock hands crept around to 5 o'clock. Gerry was eager to start in on the pate, cheese and baguette so made up a plateful for us to share to go along with our sundowner wine tonight.
Out in the cockpit we were still facing in an odd direction, looking in towards the boat yard with Gypsy Palace directly behind us. There wasn't a ripple on the water and still no breath of air to blow the cobwebs away - it was very odd but we sat there watching the sky change colour and the sun set, not behind us as is normal but out to our port side for a change. We noticed that there seemed to be a fire burning over on the shore near to the Sand Bar beach where we ate a few days back, smoke was pouring out from around the trees there and there was a distinct smell of burning. We watched expecting to hear fire sirens at any moment but as we watched the smoke began to move along the shore line at tree level and it finally dawned on us that it wasn't a fire burning, they were fogging the area to kill off the mosquitoes. There was enough smoke to kill off the entire population of the island and I think that it probably sent the mosquitoes flying out into the harbor, we are bound to have a few show up tonight on the boat now!
I was going to post the photos of the clean oven but I thought that the snack plate was probably a more appetizing choice for today - eat your hearts out, we are going to have to go back for more tomorrow!