With our need to quickly get south of the hurricane belt we left St. Lucia in the early evening for the small island of Bequia which is part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Conditions were ideal for sailing and we had a favorable current which pushed us past Martinique in the dark and brought us into Bequia (pronounced Beck-we), where we grabbed a mooring ball and checked into customs. The harbor in Bequia is large and protected and a fuel barge is available for diesel and water needs. The island is low and there is not much to see ashore but there were several decent restaurants and I managed to catch the Euro Cup finals while we lingered for a couple of days waiting for good weather for our next leg. Bequia seems like a good place to spend a day or two on a charter but it has little of interest to attract the long term cruiser. 
Our next stop about 40 miles away was Carriacou which is actually a part of Grenada. We stopped here to check in with customs in Hillsborough Bay which was wide open and quite rolly, so Jan stayed aboard the boat while I went ashore. After the trip to customs and immigration we picked up the anchor and went around to Tyrell Bay where a bunch of cruising boats were anchored. While protected, there was nothing ashore to hold us and the restaurants and groceries were quite limited in number and variety. We left the next day and headed the final 40 miles or so to Grenada in beautiful light tradewinds.
Coming onto our waypoint for St.  George's harbor, we saw a beautiful multicolored town spread out on the hillside ahead of us just as you see in a picture postcard. We hailed the Grenada Yacht Club and took a slip for a few nights to explore the town. Taking a slip involves simultaneously grabbing and slipping a long line through a mooring ball while pulling up to a dock, throwing lines to the dockmaster and then pulling on both ends until the boat is positioned. Not an easy task for two people in a center cockpit boat...but we won't go into any embarrassing details! <grin> Nevertheless, no damage was done! 
Up close, the town of St. George is not as pretty as from ashore but you can get just about anything you need in town. This is one of the oldest towns in the entire Caribbean and the streets downtown are cobblestone with lots of old buildings to see. Buses (about 50 cents a ride)  can take you anywhere and you never have to wait for more than a couple of minutes for one of these to come along as competition for your business is fierce. While they have set routes, a couple of bucks extra is usually enough to insure a route deviation! Taxi's are also available but at much higher rates. A couple of miles from town is Grand Anse where lovely white sand beaches front the tourist hotels and where much of the new development in Grenada has taken place. Here we can find American style supermarkets, DVD rentals, nice restaurants and even a Kentucky Fried Chicken which is really great when you get tired of island food and cooking aboard.
Most visiting boats end up in one of the south shore harbors as they are large and protected places to hang out with other cruisers. We ended up traveling the 10 miles or so to Martin's Marina on Mt. Hartman Bay where we decided to take a slip for a month so we would have access to air conditioning. We hadn't really planned on this but the heat and humidity down here is so incredible that you must take shelter. Martin's is a former Moorings Charter base but it was sold a few years ago and is showing signs of dis-repair. Nevertheless, the choices are limited here so we decided to try it for a month. While we don't regret the choice, we did find ourselves a bit isolated due to the location.
Happily we made good friends with the Sid and Jen on their Gulfstar 60 "Antares" and "Always Sunday" also showed up followed by "Cialia" a couple of weeks ago so we have a good core group of friends to pass the long hurricane season with.
Around the end of July I noticed the bilge pump going on too frequently and discovered that a weld on our seas water manifold had cracked. When I went to close the sea-cock the handle broke off so we had some water coming into the boat with no way to shut it off. (Nothing serious...but it could be if left unattended or if the bilge pump failed). We called over to Spice Island Marine and they told us to head on over the  next morning. We were hauled out promptly and I asked Freddie the yard manager if he could give us a bottom paint job quickly. He said he could have us in the water in 3 days with both the leak fixed and the bottom painted so we said to go ahead. We took a small apartment there for the three days and it was a real joy to have all the land based amenities for a while. Funny...in the States...people leave apartments to go on boats for vacation. We felt the same way going to an apartment!
Anyway, Freddie was true to his word and the work was done in a high quality manner and right on time. Really surprising since we had heard so much about "island time". We can highly recommend the Spice Island Marina! Back at the Marina, in early August we weathered tropical storm Earl which was the first TS in 35 years here. Winds were only 45 knots but that was plenty even with a couple of days to prepare. We couldn't believe it when four boats came into the harbor and anchored less than an hour before the storm hit....some people sure take chances! With that behind us in just a few hours we hired a guy to do our outside Teak in Cetol as the coats we put on last August had burned up in the hot, Grenada sun. Ashleigh did a great job for $12 an hour and Camaraderie is looking good again!
After our month was up at Martin's we moved back to the Grenada Yacht Club (got the last available spot!) and  have been quite happy here closer to  the action. Daughter Noelle, boyfriend Johnny and my brother Gordon all came in for a visit. Noelle and Johnny helped us move the boat from Martin's to GYC and we had a nice sail in the process...Having extra hands on board for the docking process sure helps too! We explored the shops and hit the beaches and even went for a visit to the medical school here where the tour included the cadaver dissection class. Once Gordon arrived we took advantage of the facilities of the very nice Grand Hotel here and also went on a wonderful tour of the island in an open jeep. We all jumped in to the Annadale waterfall and enjoyed the cool mountain water. The rain forest was spectacular and we also saw the Grand Etang lake which is actually the top of a volcano and went for a swim in the sulfur springs. We also visited a plantation for lunch and Jan collected a lifetime supply of nutmeg. (This is the nutmeg capital of the world.) Jan fixed up a great roast beef and Yorkshire pudding which was a big hit and we also had some nice meals around town. On their last day here we took a speedboat out for a snorkeling trip to an offshore reef. While not anywhere close to the Bahama reefs in beauty we did manage to see some nice stuff and a menacing looking large moray eel. It was sad to see everyone go so soon but we hope to do it again in the BVI's this Xmas season.
And so we settle in for the last couple of months of hurricane season with hurricane Francis kicking things up several hundred miles to our north. We have a list of boat chores to complete and I'm sure the time will go quickly, but 4 months is a long time to spend on any one island. We've decided not to go further south to Trinidad since there is not much there to see...it is a place to get work done or store a boat according to cruisers we've met that have visited there. Also, crime is a concern lately there. I should say that that is NOT a concern here in Grenada and we feel quite safe getting around. We've really enjoyed to very friendly and polite people here who genuinely like Americans. Many feel we saved their country in 1983 with the Reagan invasion to throw out the communist dictator. Between the good cruiser community, first rate service, supplies and provisioning and genuinely friendly, welcoming people, (and air conditioning!).... Grenada is a great place to set the hook for a while!  //GB