Steve and Laura's Excellent Adventure

  Happy Halloween everybody! We had a pretty quiet - but productive weekend. Among other things, we serviced the engines, hoisted the dinghy, and painted stripes on the boat.  The highlight, though, was my trip to the marine store when I ran into a couple of pirates 😀 We also tried some new local fruit:  water apples. They were pretty good...they have a thick skin that you peel and a pit, but the meat is similar in texture to an apple.  Another comment about fruit, while I'm on the subject:  we also brought bananas from the street vendors and they actually tasted like the artificial banana flavoring in candy or creme de banana liqueur.  I guess that's what happens when they are allowed to ripen on the tree...Yum! P.S.  Many of you know how worried we were about leaving Jake in Charleston for so long.  I'm pleased to report that he seemed to adjust within a day and a half and looks like he's doing great :-)

We finally received our US Coast Guard documentation after many months.  This is a critical milestone since we wouldn't be able to sail without it.  Hooray! Meanwhile, the chores continue....we've measured anchor chain, secured a dinghy, polished (filtered) the fuel, cleaned the speed sensor, and I did my first epoxy repair  ! My skill set continues to develop :-D We also spent a lot of time shopping today to make sure we have adequate provisions when we (finally...) set sail.  We're definitely getting antsy to get on the water.   We did, however, take a break to go swimming at Grand Anse Beach today. The water was absolutely perfect and it was a fantastic break from our routine. Cheers!

One of the really fun parts of making our new boat our own was deciding on the name and selecting a graphic. Steve and I discussed several names before landing on Starry Night. Some of our fondest boating memories - starting with our first date - involved star gazing. Those memories, along with our shared love of Van Gogh provided the inspiration for our final choice.  Credit  for the graphic design goes t o Laura Oates Design.

Steve and I had a pretty quiet day today.  Steve worked on getting the stove and oven propane system operational and I studied the boat electronics system and started walking through all of the functionality and menus on our GPS.   We decided to quit working on the boat early today and headed to Grand Anse to do some shopping.   On the way back, we stopped for a walk along Grand Anse Beach and had an early Happy Hour and dinner at Umbrellas.

So I've been working on logistics over the last day or two and our official launch date is set...November 3rd! I've had a couple of questions about what's taking so long to actually start sailing, so I thought I'd explain a bit. The primary reason is that we aren't able to put the boat into the water until November 1st due to insurance regulations (November 1st is considered late enough in hurricane season to be safe). The time here in the boatyard isn't wasted, however.  For those of you who have never owned a boat, there is a LOT involved in keeping a boat "ship-shape"! This particular boat has actually been very well maintained but nevertheless has a lot of small details which need to be checked, serviced, cleaned, waxed....the list goes on and on. Today, for example, we replaced the fire extinguishers, CO2 monitors, waxed a bit, checked on mooring locations, arranged for refrigerator repair, sent our "check-out" captain's CV to the in...

W ell, I haven't posted for a few days because we haven't been doing anything noteworthy lately - as you can see from our current view shown above - but I can share a few highlights and observations: 1. There's a certain joy that comes with the simplicity of hanging laundry to dry and inhaling the warm, sunkissed scent of the sheets. 2. 81 degrees Fahrenheit in Grenada feels like 93 degrees Fahrenheit in Oviedo and the sun rises at 5:30 am. We have thus fully bought into the concept of siesta! We rise around 6 am, work until lunchtime, and rest for an hour or so. By 5 pm, we are completely wiped out. This works out just fine since the current curfew requires we order dinner by 5:15 pm.  3. Screen enclosures for the cockpit and helm are like giant jigsaw puzzles. I like jigsaw puzzles :-D 4. Sidewalk lunch fare is awesome! Yesterday's delight was a mouthwatering ginger honey barbecue pork chop with macaroni pie. Yes, please😋  5. Steve is my hero. 😍 He insisted on bring...

Saturday is fresh market day in St. Georges so Steve and I took advantage of the local transportation to take our trip to the market and see the town. I t was a gorgeous, cloudless day but quite warm.  Grenada has beautiful breezes but the buses (mini-vans) were quite crowded and not air-conditioned.   The roads are bumpy and curvy, so it was a bit of a wild ride! Before we made our way to the market we  took a look aroud town and  climbed the hill to Fort George. The market itself was quite crowded so I didn't get any photos there, but we did meet some of the locals and get some fresh produce.  We also enjoyed a local delicacy called chicken roti.  It's quite delicious, and is a wrap filled with chicken and potatoes in a curry sauce.  One hint though, the chicken is still on the bone! We finished our shopping expedition at one of the local supermarkets, where we learned an important lesson....don't shop on Saturday in Grenada! Grenada is current

Spent all day on the boat cleaning, unpacking and checking out what's already on board, but we're staying at the Spice Island Marina hotel for a week or so since Starry Night is in dry dock until end of October. We will venture out to the local market tomorrow...will post more pix then!

We are finally here in Grenada - albeit in quarantine.  Still...not so bad :-) So while we're waiting for the real fun to begin, let me take this opportunity to share the abbreviated version of the "journey before the the journey". Steve and I have been talking (read:  Steve has been talking to Laura) for many years about living on a boat.  This conversation normally ended something like:  "no way, not ever".  At some point, the discussion turned to what kind of boat would we need to buy in order for Laura to consider living on a boat.  Fast-forward a few more years and we began to actually plan and prepare for retirement and Laura says "why don't we live on a boat for a few years before we build our new house?"! Go figure. So now the abbreviated part:  September of 2020:  Make decision to do this! September 2020 - May 2021:   Get Oviedo house ready to sell (i.e. tons of repainting, refinishing, etc) Get rid of lots of stuff Move to a