As I am finishing up writing this blog update, we are 1 day from flying out of Grenada on the first leg of our journey back to Texas!  Our plans are to spend one night in Miami and fly to DFW on June 1st.

As always, I am looking forward to getting home, but I will look back fondly on our 2023 season on Nancy Lu! 

Let me just pick up where I left off in my last blog update and give a quick recap (which took me days to put together) of our time from then until this update.

Soon after we sailed back to Bequia from Cumberland Bay, St. Vincent, I cut up those mangos, feeling thankful that I could do so after the injury to my wrist on the way down from the volcano’s summit in St. Vincent!  I still count it a blessing that I woke up feeling fine the next day after that epic hike!  Into the freezer the mangos went!

We got right back into the holiday groove of Bequia with all things social, including

a bit of volunteering at Mrs. Cheryl Johnson’s Saturday Reading Club, and

Sunday afternoon Mexican Train Dominoes at The Open Deck restaurant, which usually progressed into Sunday evening dinner with old and new friends.

Speaking of new friends, we met Dan and Lori on S/V BeBe for the first time here in the Caribbean at our first Sunday afternoon dominoes session.  We were all at Baylor University together back in the 80s, but never met there!  A few years ago, Lori and I became aware of each other and our similar lifestyles through a mutual Baylor friend, Debi Herschelman Palmquist.  Lori and I were introduced to each other by her at a Baylor homecoming that we both attended.  I remembered being told about Lori, but I couldn’t remember if we had actually met, but since then, Lori and I have been corresponding through Facebook Messenger. We finally crossed paths in Bequia this year!  After lunch together one day, we got a picture holding up our bear paws for a “Sic ‘Em Bears” pose.  The heel of my hand was healing nicely!

More holiday fun in Bequia:

One evening, a bunch of us rafted up for an hors d’oeuvre-potluck-dinghy drift. (We actually did this before we left for St. Vincent, but I forgot to put it in the last blog…)

We had a girls day at the Plantation House.

Evenings at the Plantation House were especially popular because of their yummy happy hour nibbles!

We enjoyed spending time on other cruisers’ boats for sundowners or jam sessions thanks to hospitable people like Bill and Maureen on Kalunamoo!

One afternoon, some of us got together on Princess Margaret Beach for what the South Africans call a Braai.  It’s basically a BBQ potluck.

There are so many delightful restaurants, each one with it’s own special flair and attractions!  At the Fig Tree, we enjoyed  brunch and dancing to the violin covers of popular songs!  Elizabeth from S/V Pelican and I couldn’t stay seated when the violinist started playing “September” by the band Earth, Wind, and Fire!

A couple of Mac’s Pizza’s best patrons are Heinz and Margrit.  It’s always a pleasure to enjoy a meal anywhere with them, and the staff enjoy them, too, especially Margrit!

We appreciated our first visit to the Bequia Heritage Museum, organized by Lynn on S/V Roxy, so much that we decided to join a later trip organized by Lori on S/V BeBe! Lunch afterwards was at Provisions.

After hearing again about the freshwater wells all over the island, I went to find the original town well still in use, today.

Time on any island wouldn’t be complete without hiking.  On Bequia, hikes are just another social event!  We depended on Mark from S/V Roxy to invite us on his early morning treks!

The most rewarding hike on Bequia is to Peggy’s Rock where Ma Peggy used to go for whale sightings because of the panoramic view it provides.  Looking north, Admiralty Bay and St. Vincent, beyond, can be seen.  Sweeping the gaze southward, open ocean and then Friendship Bay come into view!

I thought it would be funny to complete the day’s Wordle at my usual time, but from an unusual place:  atop Peggy’s Rock.  I sent my results along with a picture to our family group text.  It’s not that I couldn’t wait to do Wordle;  I just thought my family would get a kick out of receiving a picture of me doing my Wordle in an unlikely setting!

That’s not how Dan and Mark saw it!

Although the trudge up to Peggy’s Rock is not what I would categorize as an “epic hike”, the steep uphill climb over boulders can lead to some huffing and puffing on the ascent and ricocheting off small trees to help control the descent!

Before we left Bequia, Mark and I went for one last snorkel at Devil’s Table.

Choosing a slightly different swimming path revealed an Elkhorn Coral farm. Interesting!

It’s always exciting to see the Bequia Youth Sailors racing around the anchorage on Saturdays.

We relished our last Bequia sunset for this season on April 30th.  The next morning, we headed south with Lori and Dan to enjoy a few different islands before we made our way to our ultimate destination, Grenada.

First stop:  Tobago Cays!

After experiencing Tobago Cays for a few days above and below sea level and on and off our boats, we set sail for Mayreau.

One of the main attractions of Mayreau for us was the Mayreau Beach Club which we visited a few times, one of those times, for a lovely early birthday dinner for Lori and me.  I share my birth date with her a year apart!

After having Dan and Lori over to Nancy Lu for lunch one day, we explored the tiny island on foot a little bit.  Dan and Lori led us to the Catholic church where they planned to attend on Sunday.  There was a great view of the Tobago Cays out back.

Across the way from the Catholic church, we discovered property of a protestant organization with which all of us were quite familiar.  With a little internet research, I learned that kids from St. Vincent and the Grenadines attend camp here!

Our exploring ended with a nice view of Nancy Lu in the harbor and a visit to the market for some fresh produce.

Our underwater exploring in Mayreau was disappointing.  We had been told that we would see lots of colors like greens and blues.  Well, we saw one green and one blue, but not much else.  There’s always the possibility that we didn’t look in the right place.

Mark and I were glad that we decided to attend church with Dan and Lori on Sunday.  Lori and I received a special birthday blessing and song, and we all received a visitor’s blessing and song.  I welled up with these words of the song:  “We love you no matter what you do because we see the risen Christ in you!”

The morning after a gorgeous sunset in Mayreau,

we sailed with BeBe on to Canouan, an island reported to be a place “billionaires go to get away from millionaires”.  The private jet on the runway suggested that this report may be true.  We were there to check out of the Grenadines so we could be on our way back to Grenada.  We spent one last day with our new friends who now seemed like old friends.

The next day was my BIRTHDAY and I spent it sailing to one of my favorite places, Sandy Island, Carriacou where we arrived just in time to drop the hook and catch the water taxi to Paradise Beach Club for the birthday festivities Mark had planned…

“Sip and Paint” AND…

a beautiful and delicious dinner!  I felt celebrated and special!

The very next morning, we sailed “home” to our spot in Prickly Bay.

Ahhhhh!  It felt good to be back in sweet Grenada!

After about a month away, some plants and trees were in bloom that hadn’t been when we left!  Having “lived” part-time in Grenada for a few years, now, I knew to look for one certain beautiful tree on my walk to the yoga studio.  I was not disappointed!

As always, Mother’s Day follows right on the heels of my birthday (if not on the same day!).  This year, we celebrated my gift of motherhood starting with a nice lunch at the University Beach Club and ending with a wonderful evening hearing one of my favorite musical artists, Sabrina Francis, give a spectacular concert at Le Phare Bleu Marina village and resort!

 

Earlier, all the kids (and grandkids) called and I was able to FaceTime my mother, Nancy Rae (the Nancy of Nancy Lu), so my celebration was complete!

We continued to enjoy our membership to the University Club with a few afternoon swims.

We had lunch at True Blue Resort one day during Grenada Chocolate Festival, and I…

did not walk back to the boat empty handed.  My first thought was to bring both the painting and the cocoa pod carvings home to Texas, but the painting looks so good on Nancy Lu, I think she’s going to stay!

While we were still in the water, work began on the last blog update of the season and other jobs to get us ready to leave Nancy Lu including…

motoring to Prickly Bay Marina, filling up with diesel, and motoring back to our mooring (in between downpours),

taking down the headsail on a low-wind morning,

and lifting the dinghy motor off the dinghy for storage (making sure the whole process was thoroughly, photographically documented for posterity, hahaha), and hoisting the dinghy on the davits for the last time (apparently, thoroughly documenting that task was neglected, hahaha).

I didn’t neglect getting one last shot of our beautiful home away from home at the golden hour…

before we said goodbye to our mooring the next morning, and

headed for our 2023 end-of-the-season week of life on the hard with all the extensive punch list of jobs that entails, some of which are

lowering and stowing the dinghy,

pickling the watermaker

polishing all the stainless,

days of laundry,

making patterns for new carpets,

and putting up Nancy Lu’s brand new boat cover.  Those are just the things I managed to photograph!

Living on Nancy Lu on the hard is really not bad.  The heat had gotten sweltering during the afternoon hours while we were on the water.  Thanks to our window unit that we set up in the companion way (door), we stay nice and cool when we’re in the boat yard!  Climbing over it to get in is a sacrifice we’re willing to make!

The only really bothersome inconvenience is the bathroom situation when it comes to #2, if you know what I mean.  Sorry, if that’s TMI! 

We took a break from our day-to-day life’s work and end-of-the-season jobs on the hard to go on our last hash of the season–Grenada Hash #1245 (a rainy one). 

We wanted to experience, for one last time this season, the beautiful Grenada interior and say good bye to it and Patrick who always gets us there and back safely and happily.  As I sat in the front seat with him, I told him that I would miss hearing him every morning on the cruiser’s net cheerfully signing off with the words, “Stay safe, stay dry, keep smilin’; it’s just another BEAUTIFUL day in Grenada, Shademan out!” 

So I guess I’ll sign off with, “Stay safe, stay dry, keep smilin’; it’s just another BEAUTIFUL sailing season on Nancy Lu come to a close!