After a long flight (Travel in covid-19 times), we finally arrived in Grenada and took a taxi to Grand Anse Beach Palace, the hotel where we will spend our week-long quarantine. The hotel is nicely located directly on the beach. The day we arrived, the rules changed and the hotel guests were no longer allowed to go down to the beach and swim, so we had to content ourselves with looking at the beach.

First, we got a room downstairs without a balcony even though we had booked with a balcony. This was because the room we would have had was not cleaned after the previous guest, but when it was ready a few hours later we were moved to the new room :). Finally, the hotel wifi worked very well all the time and we could even stream Swedish TV.

Quarantine

Since the hotel does not serve food and we are not allowed to go out shopping, we had to arrange food ourselves. We had found that it was possible to buy food in an online store and get the delivery to our room. They had that good assortment, unfortunately not freshly baked bread. After a while, we found a bakery that delivers orders a couple of times each day. We contacted them via WhatsApp, which is widely used here in the Caribbean.

It was also possible to order ready-made from some restaurants and have it delivered to the room. Unfortunately, the courier does not find our hotel and arrives 30 minutes late, which means that the pizza is only lukewarm when we receive it. It was still good to have other dishes than the rice and pasta dishes we make ourselves.

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I thought time would pass slowly trapped in a hotel room. But the days passed quickly because we were constantly inventing things to do. Social media and updating yourself about the situation in the world take quite a lot of time. It also takes quite a long time to find what we wanted in the online store (slow home page). We also take the opportunity to work with our blog and videos for our Youtube channel. I have time to finish all 13 videos that I started with at home in Sweden before we traveled to Grenada.

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PCR-test

On day 4 in quarantine, staff from the health authority come and PCR-tested us. We will receive a response within 24 hours and if it is negative, we will have to leave quarantine and they promise to send the response by e-mail. Unfortunately, it takes almost 3 days before we receive a response and that after the hotel staff has contacted the authorities for us. So it will be the hotel staff who tell us that we can quarantine, not what we expected. We also never get a document that says that our PCR test was negative. The main thing is that we have been released from the hotel and can move freely in Grenada!

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Clarkes Court boat yard

It’s Monday lunch when we get to the yard where Sally was laid out during the hurricane season. On Friday, the idea is that she will launch Sally and until then she will be bottom painted, polished, the mast will be dressed, the dinghy will be out of storage and the electrical system will be started after being shut down for several months. We will also get ready inside the boat, food and clothes will be unpacked.

I have already booked with the companies that will do work on the boat. For safety’s sake, I will contact them again as soon as we get to the shipyard so that they can see that we are there and that we intend to launch on Friday as we said.

Since I did not ask any of the companies to coordinate the work with the others who will work on the boat, I will be the one to make sure to synchronize their job. For example, those who are going to polish the hull need space to build a scaffold around the boat and then all the concrete blocks need to be moved away and this is done by the shipyard. Unfortunately, I will not know until they start polishing. Fortunately, they still have time to be ready before launching. Those who are going to mast on need a place next to the boat where they can lay the mast while we prepare it. This means that the shipyard needs to move 3 sailboats that are close to Sally.

So all Tuesday, it feels like I do nothing but run around between the different companies that will work with Sally.

Meanwhile, Carina is working to tidy up the inside of the boat. She notes that it pays to wipe all surfaces with vinegar, there is no mold anywhere. All the dry goods we saved also look to have done well, no insects in the pasta or the flour. We pack all that stuff in double plastic bags to reduce the risk of them getting out.

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Sally was ready for launch on Friday morning and will be launched as planned just before lunch on Friday. Great to finally be back in the water! We have ordered provisions from the online store and they deliver as agreed on Friday afternoon. Really convenient to get everything delivered to the boat!

When we arrived at the shipyard in June, I ordered oil filters and impellers for the power plant that were to be delivered to the shipyard. Unfortunately, they do not have time to be delivered before we fly home to Sweden and I agree with the shipyard that they will take care of the package until we return. A few weeks after we arrived in Sweden, the parts come to the yard and they take a card on the box and write that it is in the office, so just get there in November and pick it up.

Now, when I’m going to pick up the spare parts, they can not find the box and they are looking and looking. It turns out that they have repainted the office this autumn and then the box has been moved and can not be found. They will order new parts for me at no cost to me, the downside is that we have to wait for delivery before we can leave Grenada. This is something that cannot be planned and therefore it is important to have plenty of time when sailing to distant places.

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Lessons learned

Everyone who has worked on the boat these days has done a great job and been very professional and only invoiced what we agreed on in advance. The boat jobs were a little cheaper than at home in Sweden. However, storing the boat on land with tie-downs to 24 concrete blocks was much more expensive than corresponding storage in Sweden.

It was possible to leave the boat with the passive ventilation open and well cleaned inside, with no mold anywhere.

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Up next

In the next post, we will sail up to Carriacou and Sandy Island before we prepare to leave Grenada and do a new PCR test.