March 4, 2007 - March 10, 2007 - Prickly Bay, Grenada

Getting sun awnings made from the materials we liberated from customs in Bequia is our whole reason for being in Grenada. We figured that we better have the work done somewhere where we speak the language. We're not putting a lot of stock in Sten's high school Spanish or my jr. high French, and unfortunately for our communication skills, the Germans didn't colonize many tropical islands.

After a few days in St. George's Harbor we moved over to Prickly Bay to bring ourselves closer to two of the canvas shops listed in the cruising guide. After checking out the canvas shop in the marina, we decided to go hunt down the other guy. Our trek took us down the dusty highway,
and over the Love Canal,
but eventually we found Johnny. And what a find he is. The man is meticulous. Check out Mata'irea's new threads.
Look, Ma. Shade!

Even Lenore likes them.


She seems to feel more sheltered when the shade awnings are up and will even hang out in the cockpit during the daytime, something she hasn't done since Bermuda.

In the meantime, we've been working on various boat projects. Sten rebuilt two winches and the windlass, fixed the electrical connections for one and reinstalled another bilge pump, worked on our power system issues, worked on the canvas with Johnny, and got a haircut. I mounted our new paper towel roller, did laundry, provisioned, made some food for our upcoming passage, did more laundry, got the blog up to date, and did our taxes.

A few days ago, we got an email from another member of the SSCA who was anchored right in front of us and had recognized our boat name from the discussion board. We promptly dinked over and invited him to join us for some wine. He gave us all sorts of tips about the island and helped us unlock our SSB so that we can pick up the ham frequencies. But most important, he turned us onto the excellent pizza at the Prickly Bay Marina. Seriously, this is the best pizza we've had since we left Newport. We're headed back for more tonight. Thanks Russell!

We can't clear out of Grenada until Monday, so tomorrow we're going to do a little day hop to another harbor. Then, after four months of working our way south, we're going to take a right, and start heading west. We'll be posting blog updates from our SSB when we don't have an internet connection. Unfortunately, we can't send pictures over the SSB. So if you are checking in regularly, we'll let you know when we've updated prior posts with pictures.

In the meantime, Jay and John have been working on our website. So go check it out: www.matairea.com.