Blog 16 Aug 2017 – 1 Sep 2017
The Adventure doesn’t stop here …
While having such an amazing time in Bequia Simon and I were feeling quite reluctant to sell Tudor Rose. We’d had some interest from an American medical student attending St Georges University Grenada but the boat was a little out of his price range. Still he had requested a viewing and asked us to sail down to him for the 1st Aug. Now the prospect of selling our home was actually becoming real the thought of having to let her go left a lump in my throat. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye, we had way too much unfinished business to deal with.
Ever since arriving in the Caribbean the intention was always to head north towards the USA with our hearts set on reaching New York City. Selling up would be an end to the adventure. Either we do it now or never, but how on earth could it be possible with a seasick baby.
Along the East Coast of America is the Atlantic Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) or ‘The Ditch’ as it is referred to. 1080 nautical miles running from Key West Florida to Norfolk, Virginia, around 350 miles from NY. A network of canals, inlets, bays and rivers just inside the coast and most of it protected from any ocean swell, preventing the rocking, rolling, and lurching movement that makes Daisy sick. If we could just get the boat and baby there without having to sail her 1500 miles from Grenada then exploring the United States would actually be achievable. Simon and I spent a long time researching and deliberating options trying to come up with a cunning plan and as the saying goes ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way!’
A trip back to England to visit loved ones was always on the cards and with direct flights from Grenada to Gatwick it was the perfect opportunity. Bringing Scrumpy back would be too expensive (& traumatic), but with lots of other cruisers settling 12 degrees south for hurricane season we were bound to find someone to look after him. Suddenly it all made perfect sense, Daisy and I could remain in the UK a little longer than Simon. He could return to the boat, collect the pup and sail straight up to America, leaving us to fly out and meet him there.
After a hundred phone calls to Virgin Atlantic and numerous hours searching online at flights it was all booked up and MIAMI, Florida the chosen Rendezvous point. The Big Apple here we fricking come………
Learning about the different cultures and food between each US state is going to be so much fun, but the priority now is to spend a few months in Grenada waiting for these cyclones to pass.
(Needless to say we never bothered rushing down for the boat viewing & the boat was no longer up for sale!)
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Bye Bye SVG, Hello Island of Spice
Union Island (St Vincent & Grenadines) / Carriacou (Grenada)
Looking forward to going home and extremely excited at the thought of discovering a new place we left Bequai with a spring in our step. The good vibes must have rubbed off on Daisy too, as she managed a 30mile motor sail to Chatham Bay, Union Island without being sick. During our 5 day stay Tropical Storm Harvey brought some rather uncomfortable weather turning the Tudor Rose into seesaw confining us to the back cabin bed for a full day. Daisy coped amazingly.
9 month old Baby Bean made her first ‘Boat friend’ 14-month-old Sijmon on Catamaran Nautik Dreams. Simon and I beamed with happiness watching her play with another baby. Hankering to meet other boat families and keen to get out of the high-risk hurricane belt the time came to leave St Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG). Luckily it was only an easy 6mile trip to Carriacou a small and stunning island part of Grenada. We enjoyed 10 days there with some other sea folk who prefer it to Grenada mainland as there’s less people making it a little quieter. A few mor
nings I went ‘noodling’ a water aerobic class with a ‘noodle’ float, which mainly consists of talking and not much exercise. The local dive shop also put on a free Lionfish BBQ on the premise that everyone brings a ‘pot luck’ side dish. Although beautiful creatures to look at they aren’t native to the Caribbean and are destroying the reefs at a rapid pace so the divers are helping to keep the population down, but knowing how to prepare them is vital as their spines are venomous but rarely deadly.
As soon as a good weather window presented it self the anchor was pulled up and Tudor Rose set off for the Island of Spice, Grenada. A 30 mile trip to the Capital St Georges sailing past the submerged volcano ‘Kick Em Jenny’. Taking a boat over one of these is dangerous as gas bubbles can cause ships to sink so imagine my reaction when I realised we were smack bang in the middle of it. Daisy had just started to feel unwell as we reached the start of exclusion zone, preoccupied with her we didn’t notice the course was taking our beloved home right over the mouth of the volcano. Luckily for us it wasn’t active so we all reached our final destination in one piece. Now let the socialising commence!
Boat Hobos 
Happy to learn you’re not parting from Tudor Rose, and good to know Saisy may be finding her sea legs too! Happy days….Michael
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The adventure continues 🤙🙋. Take a big bite out of the Big 🍎 Apple!
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