After four months, nine flights, one stranding, two quarantines and four PCRs I'm finally back! Back on Gráinne, back with Karl, back in the Caribbean,
back at anchor and back to retirement. Sigh. It's lovely.
Well now, many's the adventure I've had since I left Grenada in
August but it all worked out in the end. I did make it to the Gold
Coast and indulged in supermarkets that stock everything your heart
could desire, magic water and power that just come out of the wall
whenever you want them, a huuuuuge kitchen, people whose use of the
English language I understand, big, wide, smooth roads with loads of
lanes and millions of cars, miles and miles of wide beaches being
pounded by surf and a fabulous bike path from Southport down to
Burleigh. And surf clubs everywhere. Oh, and two local microbreweries
(Lost Palms and Black Hops, both highly recommended). It was
brilliant to get back to Brisbane and to see everyone again and we
even managed to sneak in an early Christmas dinner with (almost) all
the usual suspects as well as the turkey, ham and mince pie ice-cream.
No pavlova, alas, a serious oversight.
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| Watching a sailboat go by from my balcony. |
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| Bike path at Miami Beach. |
And then I had to leave again. Yikes.
The trip back went pretty smoothly all things considered. The
International Terminal at Brisbane is as close to being closed as you
can get while still being open. You now get grilled on your mountain
of paperwork before getting anywhere near a check-in desk. There's no
entertainment to be had while waiting for your flight. There is,
however, much relief when you are allowed to board a plane (all
masked and visored) which then takes off and brings you towards your
hoped-for destination. And the planes aren't full so you get to
stretch out over the whole row of seats to sleep! Who says there's no
upside to Covid.
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| First up - a drive through PCR test. |
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| A spookily empty Brisbane International. |
Transit through Doha – simple. Overnight in
Frankfurt – cold. Flight to Barbados – a success. The sight of a
Caribbean island – amazing relief. Transit through Barbados –
exciting. The airport was packed. Several international flights had
arrived and everyone was now either queuing in a bid to enter
Barbados or madly dashing to catch connecting flights. Navigating the
chaos was made much easier though by the lovely Monique from Umnyama
who turned up to see me – my airport angel – soooo nice to see a
friendly face. So, I was too late to check in my luggage (thank God I
had checked in online) but the staff at the desk (when Monique
finally tracked someone down) were happy for me to take it to the
gate with me and then suggested “but go now, run!”. So I did. I
was that queue-skipper squeezing apologetically past everyone trying
to explain I was about to miss my flight, running through the
airport, sending a backpack through the security scanner and finally
arriving sweaty and breathless at the gate.
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| Doing my best to socially distance at Barbados airport. |
And then the aeroplane
door broke. But they fixed it. And then..........I flew to Grenada!!!
And when I got out of the terminal Karl was waving at me from outside
the fence on the far side of the carpark. Later he stood underneath
my quarantine balcony for a mobile phone version of Romeo and Juliet.
It was a bit weird to see him in real life after all that time –
like meeting a filmstar in the flesh.
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| Karl's paparazzi shot of me exiting the terminal from as close as he was allowed to get. |
Karl was allowed to drop me off
supplies so I got a visit from a Christmas elf with some goodies. I
made the most of my solitary Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and
after some uncertainty as to exactly when I was going to get my PCR
result I got a surprise release on the 26th (best
phonecall ever!) just in time to make it to the beach to join the
locals' Christmas vibe. Yay, Kara's back.
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| A Christmas Elf drops supplies on one side of the barrier..... |
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| And I pick them up from the other side. |
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| Quarantine Christmas. |
So I've been settling back into boat life and getting a glimpse of
Karl's life while I've been away. We had a weekend away for a scooter
circumnavigation of the island and I've had the Karl guided tour of
his favourite watering holes, the rugby pitch, the spot where his
scooter broke down and other notable landmarks.
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| Karl's favourite chocolate factory at an old rum distillery. |
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| And the cocoa beans... |
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| Pilgrimage to the village where Karl's scooter broke down. |
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| And a little indulgence. |
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| Sugar Loaf Island in the background - the private island I want to buy. |
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| Windy high bits of the island. |
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| Karl explores an abandoned aircraft at the old airport where we got to drag race the scooter down the former runway, fun times! |
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| And a little bit of work to upgrade Gráinne from "man clean". |
Then we decided it was time to get started on our few months of
sailing around the islands. First target was Carriacou – the next
island north and still part of Grenada so no tricky paperwork
involved. And then Doris (our faithful dinghy) finally gave up the
ghost having been valiantly patched together by Karl for weeks. So we
had no choice (no really, none) but to head back into the marina (and
suffer the torture of airconditioned hot showers, a swimming pool and
an onsite bar) while we hunted down a new dinghy. After welcoming
Dingo to the family we were ready to head off and were literally
slipping the lines when Karl noticed a failing weld on the stem
fitting (which has an important role in keeping the mast up). We tied
back up and got the welders in.
And then finally finally we sailed
away from Grenada (well, the main island at least) off to adventures
unknown!
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| Farewell mainland Grenada. |
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| Finally sailing again! |
https://www.flickr.com/photos/karl_oneill/albums/72157720002892852
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