Current location: 12°42’N, 61°19’W – Canouan (part of St. Vincent & the Grenadines)
“The purpose of life is to live it, to taste it, to experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experiences.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
Give me the short version…
It’s been way too long since our last update in July. What’s been going on? The very short version is that since Jason’s last post in July after Hurricane Beryl we’ve put Wild Rose on the hard in Grenada, flew back to the States for a few months, and now we’re back cruising full-time in the Caribbean.
Visiting family, lots of camping & driving around the beautiful U.S.A.
The main reason we returned to the US was to visit family & it was WONDERFUL! Spending time with Jason’s family in Michigan & Chicago & then with my parents on the West coast was such a treat. Cruising is absolutely wonderful, but the one thing we both miss is being able to see our families, in person, more often. We love you.
The other reasons for returning to the US were Dr. appointments (we crammed all appointments into 4 days in Ohio), a canoe trip to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota with our friends Sean & Nicole, and to see more national and state parks while camping along the way. Our country is absolutely AMAZING and it was really fun to have the time to really explore several off-the-beaten-path places. Over the course of 2 ½ months…
- Drove approx 8000 miles: From Virginia to Nevada & lots of back & forth in between.
- Camped in 8 States: Iowa, Colorado, Utah, South Dakota, Minnesota (Boundary Waters), Missouri, Oklahoma, New Mexico (If interested… we’re hammock campers & discovered the free app, The Dyrt, which will show you camp sites anywhere across the country—we particularly liked that you can search for established and dispersed (free) campsites.)
- Most notable parks/landmarks visited: Bryce Canyon in Utah (Hoodoo mecca), Zion National Park in Utah, Hoover Dam, Superior National Forest / Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota
What a wonderful time being back in the States and we’re looking forward to returning again next summer and seeing more family and friends.
Getting Wild Rose ship-shape
When we returned to Grenada and while the boat was still in the boat yard, we did several things to get Wild Rose back in tip-top shape for our second cruising season. Like what? Lots of fun, super sweaty things in the 100 degree, 100% humidity like:
- Polishing the topsides (outside of the boat) and under the boat
- Cleaning & painting the saildrives
- Painting the bottom with a fresh coat of anti-fouling
- Turning the anchor chain around, re-marking it at 25-foot intervals, and adding 300 feet of rope to our 250 feet of chain – we’re ready for deeper anchorages!
What’s the plan for season #2 in the Eastern Caribbean?
The main plan is to have no plan. We’re going to take our time as we move up the islands of the Eastern Caribbean. Some things we want to do more of include: scuba diving, snorkeling, catching lion fish and lobsters, using our surfboards and paddle board, and have fun! Our first season felt a bit rushed so now we’re slowly hopping from island to island and enjoying cruising with old and new friends, exploring anchorages we haven’t been to and supporting hard-hit islands as much as we can that were devastated by Hurricane Beryl and are slowly rebuilding. We may go as far north as the Virgin Islands this season, but we’ll see. We’ll for sure get back up to St. Martin.
Some recent highlights including sailing from Grenada up to Ronde Island which is just north of Grenada. What’s there? Nothing. And it was fantastic. We went scuba diving with our friends for lion fish—and Jason did a great job of spearing them and putting them in the ‘keeper’ without getting stung. We’d never been there before and we’d go back again. Another recent highlight was coming back to Carriacou (part of Grenada & the island that took the brunt of Beryl) and snorkeling the new underwater sculpture park.
We’re currently in Canouan, where we checked into St. Vincent & the Grenadines (SVG), enjoying some time for a surf/swell-catching session here in the bay and to work on a few projects – Jason’s installing new fans above our bed!! Then we’ll likely move up to Bequia where we’ll stay for Thanksgiving. We’ll be in SVG for at least a month and then likely move up to Martinque for some French baguettes.
Happy (early)Thanksgiving!
