May 8, 2021
I got up at 6am today and I’m writing this while drinking my coffee. It’s raining outside. In a few hours Jeffrey, who owns a taxi, will drive me to the airport. My flight to Miami departs at 3pm. In Miami I’ll change planes and fly to Washington DC. It’s the end of this trip, I am starting the trip back home.
I got my health clearance on Thursday early afternoon. Life at anchor in Martin’s Bay was quite pleasant and I wouldn’t have mind staying longer but daughters and wife are waiting. And I have to get my second shot on Monday. The plan was always to fly back to Beirut on May 9th. Because of the vaccine I changed the reservations to Tuesday.
After getting the health certificate at the Yacht Club I rode the dinghy across the channel to customs and got my cruising permit. Back to Antares I pulled the anchor, not without difficulties because the chain got caught on a rock, and motored to the Marina. Once the boat was safely tied down in her new home, I took a long, hot, shower, changed into clean clothes, and hit the Marina’s bar — Victory. I had a couple of G&Ts first, then ordered a burger and two glasses of the house cabernet sauvignon. The burger was good, the wine not so much.
Yesterday was a more stressful day. I had to get a PCR test to be able to travel and to my surprise only two places do the test here and they were fully booked. At the end I was able to get the test done by paying USD 300 (yes!). Soon after I realized that I had entered the wrong date when purchasing the airplane tickets to go to back to DC (May 22nd instead of May 8th); believe it or not. It was a cheap non-refundable ticket that I was about to loose. When I first called the airline the agent on the other side of the phone told me there was nothing he could do. I asked to talk to his manager, explained the situation, and she allowed me to simply pay the difference in fare. That made my day.
In between tests and phone calls I also went to Water World to buy a pigtail (adaptor) 50 to 30Amps to be able to connect Antares to shore power, and supplies to varnish her teak (a never ending chore). During my absence, Patrick, who I met yesterday, will sand and varnish the starboard rail and add a couple of coats to those parts that were already varnished in St. Martin. I am also thinking about painting the deck.
Otherwise, I spent the day packing and storing things. At around 4:30pm I took another shower, poured my self a gin, and went out for dinner. This time, Sails, in the Carenage. The guides describe it as a great restaurant but I was rather disappointed. I came back early, had a glass of white at Victory, and went to sleep.
After posting this I will cover of the main sail (yesterday the cover it went out for repairs and came back as new), remove and store the wheel, close the propane tank, move halliards away from the mast and coil lines. That will be pretty much it.
I plan to come back here with Natalia on June 27th. She would stay for a couple of weeks. Marina is likely to join me afterwards. The next leg is to Colón-Panama, most likely in spring next year. For now, I want to enjoy having the boat in Grenada and do some cruising in the area.
Sailing to the Pacific 