Summer 2018 in Canada

Sunset Amherstburg Ontario

The flight from Grenada to Toronto had some good tail wind so we arrived early. With our early arrival and quick trip through customs and immigration we were able to get an earlier shuttle to London. Robert Q Airbus was very accommodating! Once in London, my Dad picked us up and we had a nice visit with him for a couple days. We got to catch up with our friend Cezanne over a great bottle of wine and a lovely rack of lamb. We picked up Motorme and headed down to Amherstburg and Willowood campground. Dirk and Colleen kindly brought our Jeep out to the campground. While I was visiting Courtney, I got a text from Randy to pick up mouse traps on the way home – oh oh! 

A few traps and some electronic sound thingys made short work of the mice. They were gone the next day – although we were vigilantly on the lookout for quit some time after. Randy check that they hadn’t made nests or any damage. Nothing – we think they only got in the last day when it was outside – thank goodness! 

Welcome to your 60s

We spent the rest of May and most of June at Willowood visiting friends and catching up with mail etc. We were able to see quite a few at my surprise 60th birthday party! I was so surprised and it was tons of fun. Thank you to all the co conspirators! 

Wayne came home for my birthday!

The end of June saw us on the road again. Up to Northern Ontario. Elliot Lake for Uranium Days – family and school friends, campfires and good times.

Eliott Lake Campground

Shae & Paul with us at the Street Dance

Street Dance

Blind River and our friends Mugger and Nancy on Lake Debourn.

Randy’s birthday at Lake Debourn

Randy and Mugger helped Dirk get his beautiful Bayfield from Gore Bay on Manitoulin Island to LaSalle .

Shae & Paul – Shea’s birthday

Randy’s brick at the memorial wall

The memorial wall

We traveled on to Thessalon to visit with the Beemers at Pinecrest Campground – one of the prettiest beaches on Lake Huron. My sister Cheryl and her husband Mark came in their boat for a few days to the marina in Thessalon . It was fun showing them around Randy’s home territory. 

Thessalon Marina

St Maarten to Grenada

Oh so much catching up to do! 

We ordered new sails while we were in St Martin 2 to 4 weeks, they said. After lots of measuring, questions back and forth, an email to the North American ProFurl representative and almost 8 weeks later we got the sails and sailed off. 

That said, we had a ton of fun while we waited. 

New sails in St Maarten

I Lunched  with ladies; We checked out the restaurants and other businesses that reopened after recovering from Irma – Island Strong! We enjoyed many of the Heineken Regatta hoopla! Made new friends and ate great food. Susan and Bella came to visit. So, we got out and about a little more. We went zip lining – well, Susan and I did. Randy and Bella stayed at the bottom and kept an eye on things. We explored the old fort and the French side of the island. 

We had the boat cleaned and buffed up. New sails deserve a shiney boat, don’t ya think?

We had little parties to say goodbye to new friends and watched more sunsets. 

Finally, the sails arrived! They are beautiful! 

And off we go! Tick tock, tick tock -the clock has been ticking while we waited for these beauties. We have flights booked out of Grenada in 4 weeks. Plenty of time as long as the weather cooperates. 

We’re ready to go – but I can’t find my usual motion sickness pills. All I can find is a package of Stugeron.  When we first started sailing I asked my Dr for Stugeron and he gave me a prescription for betahistine. I assumed it was the Canadian version. It made the motion sickness so much worse!! oh oh! A friend gave me a sleeve of her Stugeron, because we’d check that the active ingredient was cynazine not betahistine. I was still nervous to try it. But, it was my only choice- that or nothing. 

I took one and off we sailed St Kitts. The weather was a breezy and the water a bit bumpy and I felt great!

Sun setting off St Kitts

So great that when we got to the lea of the island I went below to get out supper. I was fine! So fine, I volunteer to take the helm if Randy wanted to sleep so we could keep going( another 8 hours) to Guadalupe instead of stopping in Nevis. Randy slept. I comfortably ran the boat. Woot woot! 

Randy woke up well rested well before dawn so, we decided to keep going to Les Saints ( another 4 hours). We sailed 27 hour and no sea sickness! 

Les Saints

A quick stop in Les Saints to rest then some pretty sporty rides and quick over night stops to Dominica, St Anne’s Martinique. We stopped in Rodney Bay St Lucia and visited with our friends Paul and Deb for a couple days, then a quick hour ride to Marigot  Bay also in St Lucia.

Pool time – Marigot

Our absolute favourite Indian restaurant is here! We stayed and enjoyed the pool that is part of the resort. Caught up with our friends Sam and Neil on Barefoot Travels, made some new friends who thought perhaps that Randy was Sammy Hagar, and generally relaxed. 

Sunset in Marigot Bay

Enough relaxing! Time is still tickin’! We traveled from Marigot to Bequia. We love Bequia but only stayed the night then on to Grenada. 

Lobster in Bequia

In Grenada we spent a few days at Le Phar Bleu before we went to Clarks Court to have Moorahme pulled out of the water and put up on stands for hurricane season.

Lining up for Jerk Chicken

Pullin’ Out

We got a big warm welcome from Matt and the staff at North Yacht Shop. So good to see them all again. Once Moorahme was out of the water, we had three days of hot, hard work to do but we were  able to get a lovely air conditioned room right at the marina. The marina also has a nice restaurant. 

Chillin’ after a long hot day

Work done time to fly home.