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June 17th in St Georges

June 17th 2020

Position: We are in the quarantine anchorage in Grenada with Anchor down

Boat: Boat Is good and we are swinging wildly as the winds are strong here outside St Georges

wind Winds when coming in Yesterday were very good however we had to slow down because we were going too fast and I am a fraidy cat who didnt want to arrive and anchor at night without a working engine
John was more confident but acceeded too keep me happy and come in in daylight so we put all sails except the 3rd reef away and reduced speed to 3 knots to get our timing right only thing with that was the waves rolled us a lot. So anyone who would have been sea sick would have had it bad with the swaying and rolling sometimes over the 45 degrees mark. But having done the preparation we got here to the anchorage are in great time with the sun blinding us as as it rose over the anchorage. We sailed past the area so we could see what spaces were available and then tacked back to come in closer
Once we chose the spot we were going to drop the anchor at we put the engine into reverse dropped sails and reversed around the boats and wow we drew the crowds coming out of their boats to watch the two old fellows reversing their 41.9 ft boat around and between the boats to get to the perfect spot. People were waving and smiling at the spectacle and I am sure we will be the talk of the town.

People: we are both ok and happy because Alistair and Ingrid went shopping for us and brought treasures to the quarantine tent and last night i was able to cook up a storm with stirfry on rice and it was delicious
John had asked Alistair to get beers and he obliged so between us we drank six beers each and celebrated ariving in style

Boat Speed: Still and calm
Wind: very strong from NE
Distance We completed the 2030 Miles now we have to sort out the 14 days Quarantine so we can move a step closer to our boats again

Comments:
Sorry there was no update yesterday but it was a very busy day

I have told you about the anchoring fun we had but I must add it went well and I am glad we did it yesterday and not today in this strong wind it would have been much more difficult

So just before we were in the zone we had been instructed to call in on the VHF radio and tell the officials that we were about to arrive so we did and they were really surprised it had taken us so short but i will say this they were very professional
THey gave us time to settle in and then gave us instructions to come to the jetty and be tested for immediate symptoms and get a temporary card to allow us into the quarantine area. After bathing in the sea and having coffee and breakfast we did just that and we called Alistair but didnt get him ( he was waiting for us on the dock with a SIM card and the food and water and cokes and beers and and)
When we had our cards we waited for Alistair but the officials were getting very uneasy because they had already helped us by allowing us to come into the harbour in our dingy and not on the boat because of out engine problems and with us hanging around it was making them agitated
The one Lady eventually came up and asked us to move to another dock so we were far away from the people moving around because we are suspected of being contaminated even after 14 days of serious quarantine on the sea and social distancing of 200 miles away from land

So when We saw alistair he John and I chatted for a while ad then the Health officials told us that visiting tome was over and we must go back to our cell on the boat so we did. It was very interesting to see how professionally the teams were set up while we were waiting but what was funny was that the teams were under their tents and a few were in blue space suits and a few wernt so if you were in blue space suits Are you safer than those without too many questions being loaded from there

Anyway I came back to the boat and set up the router we were lent but blew it up so we had to make another plan and now i am using an old phone on Tethering and luckily its working

This morning John was back in the engine room and loosening the bolts of the water pump and Gearbox and the wind has been howling all morning so now we are contacting the various mechanics and we will take them in so they can be repaired
Now we have to send messages to our controllers asking permission for the mechanics to collect the parts at the quarantine area so we can get spares and the rest and try to get the boat in one piece by the end if the 14 dayss

Well its time to go to shore with the parts so enough for today

Kevin

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