Our Grand Adventure

15th August 2025

The Post Carnivale Blues

So, moving onto the boat was a challenge for sure, and I must say that so far things really haven’t gone as I expected…. I imagined that our time in Grenada would go something like this….

1. Arrive in Grenada, fix one or two things on boat.
2. Launch boat and head around to marina.
3. Install a few more things
4. Have training captain come by and teach us a few things maybe late July.
5. August onwards… day trips, overnight trips etc and exploring Grenada. Spending time on anchor.

I pictured needing an online workout subscription and loads of snorkelling and sitting around drinking rums every evening watching the sunset from a remote anchorage.

Boy was I wrong haha.

The reality has been more like….

• Arrive in Grenada – panic / stress – push to get absolute barebones working for launch. Delay launch. Delay launch. Delay launch. Sweating, scrubbing and swearing.
• Launch boat – panic / stress – push to get absolute barebones working for maiden voyage. Delay again. More sweating, scrubbing and swearing.
• Move to Marina – panic / stress – push to get boat ready to live onboard. Be ready for training captain. Delay training. Delay moving onboard. Move onboard with very little working. Delay training again. More sweating, scrubbing and swearing.
• Now, completely unable to move boat 🙁

We have been constantly surprised by the heat and how hard it makes it to do… well, anything really! It’s SO hot. We have also been surprised by the difficulty of getting parts and adjusting to a life without a car to get around. Our soft office-worker selves have been struggling! And the last surprise is the one we should have been least surprised by…. nothing on the boat works (or at least it feels that way!).

Carnival was a welcome break from thinking about all the issues; but now its over, we are both feeling, well… a bit trapped.

Trapped

Although the engine worked fine on the trip over to the marina, we decided to get it properly serviced by a mechanic before we went on any further trips. Mostly as the last owner didn’t keep any records and we had no idea when it was all last checked. And thank god we did – turns out the air intake filter was on the verge of collapsing in a pile of rust – this would have destroyed our engine (and our plans for this year). Not only that, the air intake coupler basically dissolved when we touched it. Oh my.

So, that’s fine, we can tidy that up and replace the parts. Right? Wrong. Being a Caterpillar engine (and not popular in Grenada) – turns out no one, and I mean no one, has a 5.5″ coupler or a large enough air filter. Commence import process….

So, no engine, means no going anywhere. We have had to cancel our training til we can get the parts in and sorted out. Waiting….

Deflated

While living in the marina, or on anchor, the dinghy is our car. We use it to go to the grocery store and to the chandlery. When it’s damn hot, we take the dinghy round to the beach in the afternoon to have a swim and cool off (you definitely do not want to swim in the marina).

Unfortunately… the dinghy is now… deflated. We have a tear… somewhere.

The guys at the marina provided some additional muscles and we have pulled it out to find the hole..

We will be using our shoe-barus for a while – walking to get repair gear and groceries. This is fine but definitely adds a layer of disappointment to the vibe at the moment. No beach swims is definitely a downer in the evening when we are stinking hot from working on the boat all day.

Anxiety & Sleeplessness

So something I have done for a long, long time is have extremely relevant nightmares about life and what’s currently causing me anxiety. Currently, the nightmare themes are:

• Boat sinking from hole created during all the repair work.
• Hurricane coming and us not being able to move and then sinking.
• Dying of gas inhalation in our sleep
• Boat sinking and dinghy not working
• Being trapped here for a whole year as the parts we need never arrive.

Picking up on the themes? Sometimes I think my subconscious thinks our logo should be more like this:

It’s all part of the experience!

So although this post is a bit of a downer. It pretty accurately reflects how we have been feeling. A lot of big life changes in a foreign country living aboard a vessel that we are not entirely trusting of! The culture shocks can be a bit real and the loneliness of missing family and friends is also present. There are a lot of things not working (that really should be) and we are constantly hot and sweaty!

Having said all that – we are both resolved to carry on, we don’t have much choice really; and we will use this enforced dock time to get everything up and running. I definitely don’t miss work, although I regularly miss the air con and my colleagues. We are also both very aware of what an amazing privilege this is to just spend time doing things for us even if it’s not what we pictured.

Here’s to the future- all the work now will pay dividends later; when we will be underway and sharing pictures of beaches and cocktails.

AND! It’s definitely not all bad. Here is the sunset and a little crab friend who visits each day.