While we were waiting in Rodney Bay for a weather window, Barb was a busy beaver.  Every morning she announced on the VHF a water-aerobics noodle session and then led the class.  Every afternoon she practiced her swim strokes, sometimes on her own and sometimes under the tutelage of Hunter (Arctic Tern).  Inspired by her dedication, I finally resumed, after a long hiatus, my own efforts to learn how to swim.  With Hunter’s help I am finally making a bit of progress.  Barb also used our good internet connections in St. Lucia to work on finalizing travel arrangements needed for our upcoming trip to Norway (July 27-August 23), Ireland (August 23-30), Raleigh, NC (August 30-Sept 3), Savannah (Sept 3-12), Las Vegas (Sept 12-19), Bismarck (Sept 19-Oct ?),  Rochester, MN (Oct ?), and McFarland Lake, MN (Oct ?). Whew!

Barb, the poor girl, also had some major dental work done while we were in Rodney Bay.  Fortunately, Doyle’s guidebook mentioned the name of an excellent dentist in Rodney Bay, and soon enough Barb had a root canal and a new crown at a fraction of what it would have cost in the USA.

On June 19, while I was engaged in some chore or another, Barb took the dinghy in to Customs/Immigration in order to check us out of St. Lucia.  Questioned about our intentions concerning stopping at the Pitons, she naively answered the question truthfully, thereby incurring a hefty fee for staying in the St. Lucia Marine Management Area.  We left St. Lucian waters the next day, moving from a mooring between the Pitons to an anchorage off Canouan Island, St. Vincent to spend the night before continuing on to Carriacou.  As we passed by Union Island, I snapped a picture of the imposing Pinnacle, site of TT2’s and Receta’s successful summit followed by a delightful partaking of Union’s annual Maroon feast.  See our 2009 blog entry here.

We checked in to Carriacou/Grenada expecting to be able to immediately purchase duty–free diesel from the huge fuel freighter that is permanently moored off Hillsborough, but alas, both sides of the freighter were already occupied as we passed.  Huge ships that took all afternoon to fuel.  Never mind, we were the first customers next morning.  We took on 620 gallons of the Venezuelan diesel at $3.33/gal. that the enterprise is licensed by the Grenada government to resell.  The fuel is perfectly clean and we are very happy repeat customers.  Sailboats with tiny fuel tanks (but I repeat myself) need not apply; they only sell to volume purchasers.  Call Tanya at 784-529-5044 to check on availability and to make a reservation.  (By the way, we keep track of our fuel consumption:  since our last fueling the John Deere has used 2.11 gals/hr.)

The high-capacity pumps took less than an hour for us to take on our fuel, so we had plenty of time to get back out on the sea and get on down to Hog Island, Grenada.  To learn about our experiences there, tune in to the next installment of this blog.