… is suiting us very nicely. It’s new(ish) and when finished will be really rather thooper-dooper deluxe, if things continue as they’ve started. We like it here very much as it is, however: it’s quiet and clean and pretty and we have a section to ourselves that would normally be for far larger boats and several of ‘em.  The staff have been excellent, too – efficient and charming and refreshingly unofficious.  So far, so very, very good …

Coming into the Marina Friday morning, early (before the customary gusts started in earnest), we were greeted by Ed and Sue off Angel Louise.  Ed waiting at the pontoon to catch our lines. They’d been tipped off about our imminent arrival by some new (to us) mutual friends, Ken and Judith, from Badgers Sett,  whom we recently met at Tyrrel Bay.  Ken had told Ed and Sue that we would be washing up some time soonish in the marina and to look out for us.  A lovely surprise since we knew nothing about it – and we’re lucky and not ungrateful to find ourselves in such good company.  But then the welcome we’ve received from other cruisers, here in the Windward Islands, has been wonderfully warm from the get-go.

I didn’t think I’d say this so soon – but it’s nice to be only a step away from land  and amenities for a change. And to find things you want to buy! We have a long shopping list of this ‘n that and those, and it looks like Grenada will be able to oblige us – for most things, anyway. Hey, even having a garbage collection just a short stroll from the boat is a little “oooh, nice!” moment.  A welcome break from a slightly humming sack sitting lumpily in the dinghy getting hummier with every passing hour no matter how tightly wrapped,  nor how many bags used. Funny how the little conveniences, like quick easy garbage disposal, can bring such a disproportionate sense of pleasure – albeit fleeting.  Not that we don’t love the days and nights moored out in some quiet bay or off an uninhabited island, you understand, without the frills of such convenience as easy garbage disposal, but every yang needs a dash of yin to keep it sweet. If our yang is swinging off the hook or buoy in a quiet spot with nary a shop to be seen, then our yin is a dip into the capitalist material pool and live like a lubber for a spell. It’s all good.

Our yin moment even included hiring a car for three days. We need to visit a fairly wide number of retail outlets and specialists fast, to get the repairs ball rolling effectively – so decided a set of hired wheels was the best way to go. Forgetting, of course, that tomorrow is Sunday and nothing will be open anyway. All very D’oh!

Ahhhh … but perhaps not quite so D’oh after all:   today we made a cracking start on the shopping list, and tomorrow being an enforced day of retail rest,  we can instead use the car to get to know Grenada rather better.  After all, we’re going to be here for some time to come.   A little sightseeing and reconnaisance time wouldn’t go amiss. So, tonight, it’s recharge the camera batteries time and tomorrow we’ll see if we can capture some of Grenada’s landscape and sights.  Then come Monday, and it’s back into the serious business of wifi aerial hunting, outboard sourcing, etc, etc.

The only downside to the marina are the bugs. We’re used to bug-free bliss swinging off the hook, but being so near the land we’re getting eaten alive tonight – and that’s after using mozzie repellant. I’d forgotten how fetchingly pink and lumpy and dementedly itchy those  little buggers left you. But then what’s a little mozzie yin to all the conveniences offered by Port Louis Marina yang?

(Scratch … !)