Commodore
January 8, 2021

Another PCR test

Phoebs and Rowan left at 7:30am by taxi to Nonsuch Bay for another Kite surfing lesson. They did not have the same Venezuelan instructor as last time, it was a hard act for the Swiss Italian to follow! But he got them up and all was a great success. I pootled around the town, browsing the few shops and swapping the leather belt I got from Rowan for Christmas for a bigger one!!

Our plan is to head to the Grenadines on Monday, by which time Phoebe will have been here 21 days and can join us in the Caricom bubble (a group of Caribbean islands that you can travel between without onerous quarantining). We have to have a negative PCR test within 3 days of arriving in the Grenadines. They then test us on arrival and when that test is returned negative(2-3 days) we are free to go. We filled out endless forms to book our test here ($200 each), and anticipated the same lengthy process as in Grenada. We had to get a taxi to the hospital in St John’s, the capital of the island, which is 45 minutes away. The traffic on the island is always slow and we were a few minutes late which was a bit stressy. However it was very organised and with a very chatty doc, the whole process took us about 15 minutes, a lot quicker than in Grenada. I feel very guilty writing the blog from our freedom on the water, when so many of you in the UK and S Africa are back in strict lockdowns, with the additional worry of the dramatic increase in infections. So much dire news at the moment, with the uncertainty of how Brexit will play out and the craziness of Trump. At least we met Americans today who are utterly ashamed of the man, unlike the Trump supporters we quarantined with in Grenada. Luke is at Mettingham sitting out lockdown there. Phoebs has had her flight cancelled and as she can’t do any appointments is going to work from the boat for a while which is great company for us. Han is in Botswana and we haven’t heard if they are back in lockdown.

We decided to do a provisioning shop at the big supermarket in St John’s as it will be the biggest shop we will come across in a while…. 2 day sail, and our quarantine.

We walked over to Falmouth bay for supper at a restaurant called 5 Sense, which was delicious. It was right on the water’s edge and the highlight was the mixologist who came over to make us personal cocktails, I had a granadilla rum mix with lime and a homemade orange cordial, that was really delicious. Phoebs had a cucumber/lime and mint concoction and Rowan a fruit rum punch with coconut, all a great success. They all come with a grating of nutmeg which seems to be the thing in the Caribbean, I think it is a great addition. We were all gobsmacked to find out the mixologist was a woman, we had all assumed she was a man!