A theft – and a move to Grenada 19/07/2021

Yesterday morning I suddenly noticed that my dinghy was missing. It had been stolen sometime on Saturday night. Being anchored in a very quiet area, just off Hillsborough in Carriacou, I had not locked it to the boat. It was simply tied on – and the rope was cut. 

Oh well, things happen – my thoughts turned to what I was going to do under these new circumstances. I rapidly decided I would head down to Grenada, into a marina – that would be the best place to get a replacement. I called Port Louis Marina in St George’s, the capital – yes, they had a space for a 40 foot yacht.

It was an easy sail down, about 35 nautical miles. Did it in about 6 hours, arriving at about 1730. It’s a lovely marina, situated inside the lagoon. Large – takes about 160 yachts. A lot of lovely boats here – many parked for the hurricane season, their owners heading back to North America or Europe for a while. Very good facilities – a good restaurant and a swimming pool, laundry services etc. 

This morning I walked to the local branch of Island Water World, a large chandlery with stores across the Caribbean. I got what I needed: a new dinghy, with an aluminium bottom and transom and very rigid inflatable sides – a very definite upgrade from the one I’d lost. A small, 3.5 horse power outboard engine – Nissan, so appears to be decent. Wonderful service from these folks… they inflated the dinghy, then transported it by a small truck to the marina, where I helped three of them carry it and the engine to the boat. All that was a relief – everything sorted out! Got a good discount by paying cash, in US dollars. 

Wandering through life, the thing that is really galling is when you spend a lot of money and get bad service… in this case, I spent the money and at least got wonderful service in return. Makes you feel happy – the world is working as it should.

Grenada is a lovely island. Sailing down the west coast yesterday I got a good view of the mountains, most of the time with clouds perched on top of them. Everything wonderfully green – forest everywhere. The people seem very decent and very friendly… it was wondrously hot today – temperature of 30, but feels like 37. Very humid. Evening, with a good breeze, is very welcome.

So all is working out well. I seem to have become a lot more philosophical: setbacks happen, but ultimately they don’t amount to much. No point bemoaning your bad luck, just deal with your changed circumstances and all is once again right with the world. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?