Grenada Day 23 – Christmas Day

It was a bit of a rocky, rolly anchorage last night but we were beautifully rocked to sleep and it didn’t bother us.  It was also fabulous to go to bed and stay dry as we had used the air conditioning in the evening to dry the boat out but turned it off when we went to bed and just relied on the little wall fan to keep us cool.

I come to slowly, luxuriating in a lovely clean bed with my new 400 thread Egyptian cotton bed linen, to see my husband’s smiling face next to me.  “Good morning, beautiful” he says.  He says this every morning, no matter how scrunched, bleary-eyed and grumpy I am when I wake up.  “Happy Christmas, would you like a cup of tea?”.  What more can a girl ask for?  Well, my South Sea pearl necklace that has been promised to me but that will have to wait until we get to the Pacific.

I lie and wriggle in bed, and my cups of tea duly arrive along with a still smiling husband.  I get up to another beautiful day, put on my bikini and make a few Christmas day phone calls on Skype while Mike pours me some champagne and orange juice.

Phone calls over, I make some scrambled eggs and bacon.  When I assemble the grocery items, I notice the eggs are from Wisconsin USA, the butter is from New Zealand, the milk is a Waitrose brand from the UK and the bacon is all the way from Redditch, about 8 miles from where we used to live in the UK.  How ridiculous is that!  We take it outside to eat in the shade of the cockpit.

Photo:  Happy Christmas everyone!

Photo: Another glass of champagne slips down

After breakfast, Mike announces that we are moving round to Prickly Bay as we can clear out of customs there.  They are actually open on Christmas Day which means that we can leave Grenada tomorrow and head island by island to St Lucia.

He explains our new rigging system ie which brightly coloured bit of rope does what.  The new ones all look like the colours of Opal Fruits (are they Starburst now?).  We can pull all of them from the side of the cockpit now and even the main halyard now comes back to a winch so it goes up much more easily and smoothly.  However am I going to work those calories off now!

We arrive just outside Prickly Bay without mishap, if you don’t count the encounter with the fishing line cunningly hidden underneath the waves that is helpfully strung out across the channel as we leave ST David’s Bay.  Honestly, the fishermen would be the first to complain if we dragged their nets.  As it is, I spot it just before we go right over it, engines running, and Mike manages to get into neutral before any damage is done.  Getting the main sail down is now done with the new downhaul, which electrically pulls the main down even if you are not facing into the wind.  No use for the "’Sutton Method” any more, Steve.  The boathook can stay in its place!

We anchor and Mike immediately goes off to customs to clear out.  Luckily they are still open although they should have been shut – the guy hadn’t noticed as his watch was wrong – thank goodness.

The internet connection isn’t as good here so Skype plays up badly and keeps cutting out as the line drops.  It’s a good job I can use it to send text messages cheaply.

Mike and I have a little lie down late afternoon and read.  He seems to be a bit burned today and for some reason we both feel a little sick.  I think it’s all the tension and pressure of the last few weeks.  Certainly he has never spent so much money in such a short space of time on anything other than a house.  Oh, and a money pit boat!!

Neither of us feel like eating in the evening which is lucky as I don’t feel like cooking.  After a shower we just settle down to watch TV, just like any other Christmas Day really.  Not!