Prickly Bay at last….and this post with photo’s (somehow version posted last night was missing most of the pics! – oops).After a 3 week break, school was back on the menu, and the boys were hating it, preferring to retreat into their audio books of Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. It is hot and humid and we are starting to dislike homework too. We had to pull out the behaviour chart again, now simplified, and try and get a routine going. Unfortunately due to the need for wifi for some work emails, the train was derailed: Marina= wifi = insatiable desire for online games. On the plus side marinas also equal showers.

Didn’t work any better than the beautiful colour printed charts I created at home!

Somehow these owl eyes appeared all over the boat and in the strangest of places

All the blogs that we read have talked about the south of Grenada being the place to be in the hurricane season. Today we turned left at the bottom of the Caribbean, to the southern bays of Grenada, and we were not disappointed. As we entered the flat, calm bay, teeming with boats, the first sight was about 6 kids swinging of the spinnaker pole (photos to follow), and a smiling parent on a paddle board, waving frantically!  We slowed down, and her first words were – do you have kids?  Well, what could I say but, yes, and how many would she like!  Turns out Lynette was an Aussie and wow, what an amazing welcome!

Kids galore!

Before long, we were anchored up, the inflatable kayaks pumped, and Max was off with 2 other boys.  Tom soon followed, and before I knew it I was aboard Itchy Feet, enjoying a cup of tea with new found friends!  Whilst the kids played in the water (total 5 kids boats, 10 kids), the parents gathered and we have now a great bunch of new friends, and a plan for tomorrow where Pete and the dads take all the kids to study volcanoes on the beach (sodium bicarb, food colouring, vinegar, water and sand), and the mums are sneaking out for a shopping trip and perhaps, a drink on the way home! Have I landed in heaven ?

To top it all off, sunset was amazing – and we all got to see the green flash ! although the photos did not catch it.  At the same time, the moon was rising in the east – and the view was magical.

Sunset, minutes after the green flash!

180 degree turn, view of the moon rising

I think we are going to enjoy our time here.  St George, the capital, is only a 20 minute bus ride away from this lovely bay.  We have spent this last weekend in a marina just opposite the main town, and  have already bumped into people we have meet previously on our trip.  Here’s the snaps of the lovely old town of St George and the entrance to the harbour.

Saturday night at the Grenada Yacht Club Music and Craft festival was fun, and we met Kika and Dan from Uma – fun to meet such an adventurous couple who are chronicling their boats story and journey via their vBlog – Sailing Uma.  Sadly, no photo’s from the night, we were too busy talking!

Now, for the serious bit. For months, people have been asking us what we were going to do about hurricane season. For the first few months of this question our plan was to ignore it. TS Harvey was good practice, but it made us keen to get as far south as possible. Especially as Hurricane Irma is definitely on the warpath, and she is poised to cause major destruction to some of the beautiful areas that we have previously visited.  We are hoping that the friends we have met along the way, (who are now in full hurricane prep mode) stay safe and any damage is minimal.  Below is the path Irma is taking, and it seems that a St Martin, Barbuda, St Barths, Antigua and Anguilla are all going to be hit badly.

Still, it may be our turn next.  Looming behind Irma is another storm with currently  a 60% chance of further development, heading our way.

It will be very annoying if we have to scoot further south, now that we’ve just met up with some lovely fellow yachties, so we will wait, and watch, and watch and wait.

Meanwhile, life is good…………………