All clear

Tropical Storm Bret has come and gone and we are safe and dry.

Bret took the most southern route predicted and passed below Trinidad and Tobago. There were some strong winds all the way up to where we were in Canouan, part of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but we were never in danger.

The storm's a'comin'

And we're a'runnin'

Invest 92L is the system we are watching. Invest is short for Investigation and it designated a weather feature that the Hurricane Center is watching. The numbers run from 90 to 99 and then start again. The L stands for atLantic.

92L is not a named storm but could develop into one and it is headed to Grenada.

The colors on the chart above for Tuesday are new colors to us. The highest number is 61 knots.  Pretty as it is, it is a color I would rather not see!

Preparation for a passage

Note: This is out of sequence.  This post was written in January before our passage to Sint Maarten 
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Our first night passage, our first passage over three hours, our first passage out of sight of land and we need to get ready for it. We are fortunate enough to have veteran cruisers Mike and Robin on Mermaid helping us and crossing with us. They have 15 years of cruising under their belts, have made many passages and are a wealth of knowledge for us.

Here is an annotated list of what we were preparing :

Picture Story in Carriacou

A picture story of a hike in Carriacou, Grenada

What are these strange things on my feet? Where are my toes? We spend most of our days barefoot, sandals when we go to town, and these full foot enclosures only come out for hikes.

Grenada is our Ithaka

Grenada has been our goal for many months now. We launched Rhapsody in November with the general plan of heading to Grenada for the hurricane season.  We have been reading about Grenada as a place that many people leave their boats during hurricane season, sometimes staying with their boats and sometimes flying to other places to return during the next cruising season. A large part of the reason that people do this is insurance. Many insurance companies have rules about where you have to be during hurricane season.  In the Caribbean there is a "hurricane box", the area in which you are not covered by insurance.  

Laundry wars

There are some things about living on a boat that are just not simple. Laundry is high on that list. Back in my former life laundry was once a week, throw it in the washer,  go do something else, come back in a while, throw it in the dryer. It was in my house, I could do laundry as a passing thing, pass by the washer- is it done? Move it on. Laundry is not so simple now.

Shopping on small islands can be a challenge!

I enter the small dark building. There is one room, about 400 sq. feet. The lighting is very dim and the ceiling is low. There are two sets of shelves going one direction, and another two sets perpendicular to these. The shelving units are about 4 feet high with three shelves on each. There are a few shelves along two of the walls, and a cooler on a third wall. The cashier is sitting behind a counter along the fourth wall, by the door. This is a typical "Supermarket" that we have been encountering for the last two months, ever since we left Martinique.