Finally getting a second to catch everyone up...a little bit

Welcome to Grenada!! Yes, it has been a while since I have written an update. For that, I apologize. However, I have a lot of stories to share. It feels as though we have been running full speed since we left the Bahamas. So, I think I will give you an update on where we are now and what is going on in our world at this point in time. I will then jump back in time to share more of our adventures in getting here.

I am, currently, sitting in a lovely Airbnb in Lower Woburn, St. George's, Grenada. The pups and I have a lovely view of the countryside and of a nearby bay. Dave is at the boat which is sitting on land at a marina.  We have been traveling on Away to Me for about 16 months, and she was in need of some TLC. One of the key tasks that we are having done is having the bottom of the boat cleaned, sanded, and repainted. Obviously, this cannot be done while the boat is in the water. We will tell you more about that in a later post. While the boat is out of the water (on the hard) we (Dave) are also taking care of some other maintenance items like servicing our engines and sail drives. Hopefully, she will be back in the water by August 4.

Meanwhile, since the boat wasn't in the water, I decided to fly home to visit with friends and family. My dad's 93 birthday was on July 16th, and I wanted to be there to celebrate with him. I spent 10 days in Georgia and had a lovely time. I stayed at my sister's house where I was able to give her a little help with some yard work. I played some pickleball with her and another sister and we all made time for playing cards and sharing a few meals with our dad. It was a low-key week and I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with everyone.  

I flew back to Grenada on July 25th, and it was really nice to be back with Dave and the pups. Now we can start to figure out what's next and settle into cruising life again here in Grenada. I have to say that it feels good to know that we will mostly be in one place for a while. The push from the Bahamas felt exhausting. Don't misunderstand. We thoroughly enjoyed our time in the places we stopped along the way. However, we were constantly looking for a weather window that would allow us to continue pushing east, and hoping that we wouldn't find ourselves in the path of an early-season storm. We failed at that last bit.

Honestly, I have a whole new appreciation for the trade winds. Yes, I learned about them in school, but until you have needed to go directly into them for weeks at a time you really can't understand how constant they really are. Having said that, though our visits were short, we learned that we want to revisit and spend more time in all of the places we stopped: Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and USVIs. Of course, we would like to explore the BVIs and the islands of the eastern Caribbean (my sense of geography continues to improve with our travels). Unfortunately, we had to skip every island between the USVIs and Grenada as we were trying to stay ahead of the storm that ultimately became Tropical Storm Bert...but that is a story for next time.