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Here we are at anchor in Carriacou, just North of Grenada - waiting for relatives. This time, its Diane’s brother Ted and his wife Karin, part of 7 people (most of whom we know) that are chartering a 42’ catamaran out of Horizon Yachts in Grenada. Not that we mind waiting, its part of our lifestyle. We’ve been here now for a week. What do we do with our time?

Well, first off, we went diving again with Lumbadive, a dive operation run by four Canadians who are in “semi-retirement”. With 6 dives (split evenly between Diane and myself), it works out to $ 45 per dive - if you have your own gear (their tank). This is not too bad, we can afford it - and the dive sites are rich in coral and fish life. The staff are friendly and very helpful. We certainly recommend Lumbadive.

Next, we again took a local bus to the capital, Hillsborough, where we bought some of the hard to find items and this time discovered a small ice cream shop that makes very cheap and delicious smoothies (we had banana chocolate). Most of what we need though can be found right here in the small village of Tyrrel Bay.

We also tackled “the dryer” project. In 1998, I bought a Miele washer and dryer, at a cost of nearly $ 1,000 each - quality appliances. Although these appliances were unused (yes, I mean never used) for 11 years, I always figured there would come a time. In April 2009, just weeks before departing Kingston, I realized that I had inadequate electrical power to drive the washing machine. It needed 220V, two-phase power - but I could only supply one-phase power. Therefore, we removed the Miele washer and replaced it with a dependable Maytag washing machine (120V only). Now, 14 years after buying the dryer, we have very slowly - but finally come to the conclusion that we don’t actually need a dryer. We much prefer to hang our clothes outside to dry. The only time I can think of that we might like to have a dryer is on an ocean passage - and in that case, we are in agreement that we can wait until we make landfall before washing our clothes. Therefore, while waiting here in Carriacou, we let the word out that we were looking to give away our dryer. In short time, we had Kenneth from Lumbadive offer to find a good home for our dryer. Therefore, we un-installed the dryer, lifted it out onto the deck and onto a local’s boat (for shoreside delivery) who was very happy to receive a new, unused dryer. Now we have a hole, or as some might rather think - an opportunity - for more storage. Diane wants me to make a couple of drawers so that we can maximize what we put in there. This project will have to wait until we get dockside, so that I can have access at least to a table saw and some sliding hardware.

Another discovery was that our anchor light failed while here in Tyrrel Bay. This is an OGM LED anchor light (with sensor) that failed just 1 year beyond its 2 year warranty. How disappointing! After some research on the Internet (Seven Seas Cruising Association) and the advice of Brian Alexander (SV Novia), I decided to replace the defective anchor light with a product from Bebi Electronics in Figi. The Bebi LED lights come very highly recommended from cruisers and are not sold in retail stores (consequently, you have to order them on the Internet and they are manufactured and delivered all the way from Fiji). By the way, the Bebi LED lights come with a lifetime warranty. I also ordered some additional LED lighting for future projects and will eventually report on that. In the meantime, we’ll be using our backup anchor light, a Davis Mega Light (incandescent, not LED).

Ahh - here they are, they arrived on Saturday afternoon.

Shortly after they anchored, we enjoyed “Dark and Stormy” drinks on SV Joana, and then headed over to “The Lambi Queen” for dinner and onshore entertainment. I’m trying to get some duty free fuel (price is $ 9EC / US gallon versus $ 15EC / US gallon). After that, we intend to sail North again, this time stopping in Bequia.