Beatitude had been tied to the quay at Port Louis Marina for exactly one month, two weeks of which we were in the states. On Friday, it was time to move on, at least for a little while. We chose Friday to leave based on the forecasted wind and wave information. To reach St. David’s Harbour would require rounding the southwest tip of Grenada and working our way northeastwardly for approximately 10 miles to the entrance of the bay. These ten miles would be heading into the trade winds and accompanying ocean waves.

Friday’s forecast called for less than 3-foot waves and about 13 knots of wind. It turned out to be one of the most relaxing three hours on the water you could imagine. We both sat out on the bow for much of the trip enjoying the clear blue skies and bright sunshine. Our fishing lines were in the water for the trip, but garnered no attention from the local inhabitants of the sea.

We ran mostly using only the port-side engine. The starboard has a serious sail-drive oil leak, which was the motivating factor to head to St. David’s Harbour in the first place. Grenada Marine dominates the bay with its boatyard crowded with vessels, some under repair, others placed on the hard for hurricane season. We came to have our seals replaced in our sail drives. The plan is to haul Beatitude out of the water on Monday and hopefully to splash her once again on Friday.

The entrance to St. David’s Harbour involves making our way between a relatively narrow, 200-foot opening between coral reefs which line both sides of the opening. On the overwhelming majority of days, the waves are breaking over the reef on both sides, but with the day’s benign conditions, the water’s surface was calm. We picked up one of the moorings using our new procedure of Cindy at the helm and me on the bow. After checking into Grenada Marine to make sure our scheduled boat work was still proceeding according to plan, we relaxed for a quiet evening aboard. Rainshowers passed through every few minutes with some accompanying thunder. It’s been a long time since we experienced thunder or lightning on Beatitude, probably in Annapolis last summer.

On Saturday morning, Cindy gave me a haircut out on the bow. We’ve been following the Daily Office’s Morning, Noon, and Evening Prayers since we’ve returned aboard. Since we’ve had wifi, we’ve been using the Trinity Mission Audio Daily Office, which is very helpful. We had a delicious brunch before setting out around the harbour on our 2-person kayak. We carefully climbed aboard from the bottom steps of our starboard hull so that neither of us ended up in the water. The sun shined brightly and the breezes blew steadily as we paddled from shore to shore, exploring as we went. We stopped for a few moments on a small beach in front of a now-defunct restaurant. Upon returning to Beatitude we relaxed in the water off of Beatitude for a while. Since we were in the water, we cleaned the bottom steps and the swim ladder before drying off for the rest of the day. Later in the afternoon, we sat out on the bow, soaking in the beauty of God’s great creation. It was a great day!