Cruising at Last

Our cruising schedule got changed this year, because Life interfered.  Last June, we decided to move back to the United States from Switzerland.  We had done some house-hunting in the area near Annapolis, Maryland, and found a house we liked and could afford there.  Annapolis is one of the major sailing destinations in the world, has a moderate climate, and happens to be only 45 minutes from where our daughter and her husband live.  It was hard to leave Switzerland after nearly 11 years, especially to leave behind good friends.  We are planning an extended visit back to Switzerland in the coming summer.

We chose to delay the actual move until October. That allowed us time to make all of the many arrangements, and to dispose of all the things (mainly electrical) that couldn’t make the journey with us.  It also allowed Gretchen to nearly finish the golf season at our club in Küssnacht am Rigi.

Well, moving in, getting unpacked, finding doctors, etc. took us a while.  We also wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving and Christmas with our families for a change, so we postponed the start of our cruising season until January.  That let us experience some weather that we hadn’t dealt with in may years!

On arrival in Grenada, we started our usual chore list, getting Callisto ready for the season.  The second day, we had a bit of a crisis.  Our inverter/charger, basically the core of our boat’s electrical system, quit working suddenly.  We got very good troubleshooting help from Xantrex technical support, but the problem was with internal circuit boards.  There is neither expertise nor spare parts in the southern Caribbean for a repair, so after almost 10 years of good service, it was time for a replacement.  Luckily, one of the local chandleries had a suitable unit in stock.  It had been sitting on the shelf for over a year, and was therefore not the latest and greatest model, but workable.  Removing the old unit and installing the new one was tedious, but not difficult.  It did eat up more than two days of preparation time.

Over the summer we had engaged a local metal-working shop to build us a set of davits.  These are metal arms that can lift our dinghy and outboard motor out of the water along the back of the boat.  It should be a great convenience.  We took the opportunity to re-work the support for our solar panels and bimini.  The bimini is a piece of canvas that protects us from sun and rain on the back of the boat.

Our original support system had been built by two different shops, each while we were 4000 miles away, and can best be described as a “forest” of stainless.  Our new system is much cleaner, much sturdier, and permits a nearly uninterrupted view of the seas.  We like it.

However, we needed new canvas to fit the new frame, and that means waiting for the canvas shop.  In addition, a blade from our wind generator somehow got broken while we were away, and that also has meant waiting for a replacement part to arrive.  All in all, more time in Grenada than usual, despite our late start to the season.  If all goes well, we hope to finally head north on Friday, next stop Carriacou.