It’s been a long time since our last blog, largely because we have had the longest period of time off Viridian since we started out in May 2017.
You may recall at the start of the lockdowns in March 2020, we had been scheduled to return to the UK for Greg to get his hip replaced on 2nd April, but everything was cancelled and we ended up in lockdown in Martinique instead.
Well, the good old NHS has caught up a bit and Greg moved up the waiting list to get his operation at the start of July - so Viridian has been tucked up, out of the water, tied down on the hard in Spice Island Marine in Grenada for the last few months.
Before Viridian was lifted, Greg was Home Alone in Prickly Bay for a month so he took the opportunity to refresh his diving skills and did several interesting dives with the local school. They visited the Underwater Sculpture Park and dived on a couple of wrecks off St George’s.
Greg also bought us a barbecue which I had been asking for over the last 4 years, but it appears that faced with cooking on the hob, the urge to get one was suddenly critical.
There is post operative period of about 12 weeks before long-haul flights are advisable, so we have only recently returned to Grenada and are now back on board. Luckily the lay period has coincided with hurricane season, so we wouldn’t have been travelling much in any case.
The new hip is titanium, which seems to set off the Xray machines at the airport. It’s a pretty impressive scar. I said to Greg, ‘I think it’s much cooler to pretend to have survived a shark attack than a hip op, so if we become grandparents at some point, you can impress them with it!’
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| The herd of elephant sculptures in St James's Park |
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| Sean and Greg enjoying a beer at The Windmill on Clapham Common |
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| Day out in London with Sue Johne |
Ed and Miranda have both moved home so it was great to see them in their new environments and to go out for dinner together as a family.
I got back in time to pick some dock leaves and get up to Yorkshire with Miranda in time to enter the annual dock pudding competition which had been thankfully delayed. Much to the annoyance of my family and northern friends the ‘southern’ docks won yet again, but I was not allowed to take the trophy back to the boat, so it is with my mum for safe keeping.
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| Adding my secret, winning ingredient to my dock pudding |
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| The southern docks win again!!!! |
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| My mum Betty taught me to cook dock pudding.....but she didn't win! |
Our trip coincided with my nephew Will’s wedding to the beautiful Leanne Doherty, so Miranda and I went to Leanne’s hen do in Liverpool and then Ed, Miranda and I went to Rathmullan in Eire to the wedding for 4 days. Greg was only just out of hospital, so we left him on his own to struggle with getting his socks on.
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| Great to bump into Shane and Tim Spall in Liverpool where Tim was filming |
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| The hen do involved learning to dance like Beyoncé |
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| The girls loving Liverpool night life! |
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| Miranda arriving for the wedding at Rathmullan church |
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| Waiting for the bride to arrive |
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| Ed and grandma demonstrating their moves on the dance floor |
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| The beautiful couple - Will and Leanne in a stunning venue |
There was a second wedding celebration at my brother’s house for guests that weren’t allowed to the Irish wedding due to numbers under the COVID restrictions, so we went up to Yorkshire and raised a few more glasses to Will and Leanne.
By the middle of August, after doing all of his exercises and physio, Greg was recovering well and so he jumped at the chance to help friends Phil and Penny with their 46 foot new catamaran Obsidian, in the Ionian. His doc said he could fly short haul, so off we went. Greg handed Obsidian back all in one piece in mid-September; so imagine our shock to discover that 4 weeks later she had been run on to the rocks and sunk by the subsequent Skipper - sadly she couldn’t be salvaged. What a waste!
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| Phil and Greg at a great fish restaurant - Seven Islands in Ligia |
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| Celebrating my birthday with Miranda in Kuoni - one of our favourite places |
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| Miranda swimming underneath Obsidian |
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| Dinner with Maggie and Richard from SY Hejira. Great to catch up again in Greece |
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| Sadly Obsidian is no more |
Back from Greece, we then began saying our goodbyes and seeing as many people as we could before we left to return to the Caribbean. We spent a fab day on The Princess Matilda with Tim and Shane and had a great night out in Marlow for Phil’s 50th birthday bash.
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| On The Princess Matilda with Tim and Shane |
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| Great to see the old Maidenhead crew for Phil's 50th birthday bash in Marlow |
We managed another trip to Yorkshire to see my mum, before we returned to the boat and Greg took the opportunity to test his new hip on some more challenging hill walks which made us remember and miss our lovely dog.
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| Yorkshire is beautiful when the sun is shining |
During our weeks in the UK, I also managed to get my book finished which I started writing when we were crossing the Atlantic over a year ago. It’s amazing how much time it takes to get the editing and formatting right, the photos for the recipes and double checking everything before it gets anywhere near ready to go public. Anyway, for those of you not yet aware, Shit, Bugger, Dam is now available as an Ebook. Its about the provisioning and cooking on our Atlantic crossing including the recipes and tips and hints which are probably useful for anyone involved in or interested in live aboard sailing.
I dedicated the book to my mum, who I have to say seemed less thrilled than I thought she should be when she saw the title and realised I had named it after her favourite swear words. My mum is a lovely, kind person and at 90 she looks like a sweet old lady who helps people and goes to church. However, in the kitchen, if things don’t go to plan, she can scare the pants off you and does swear even though she doesn’t want to admit it, - never mind publicise it.
But all the sailors I know like the title, because let’s face it things go wrong quite frequently at sea, necessitating some stress reducing expletives. Cooking down below in the galley in rolling seas for 20 days was a challenging experience, so shit, bugger, and damn were at the milder end of things as you can see in my book.
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| Pete and Libby downloaded their copy immediately! Thanks guys. |
Buy SHIT, BUGGER, DAMN from Apple
Buy SHIT, BUGGER, DAMN from Google
We are now back in Grenada and aboard Viridian, after doing 48 hours quarantine at True Blue Bay resort. It turned out we had to stay there for a few extra days because it was bank holiday and the yard couldn’t re-launch us. It wasn’t too tough to be honest!
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| The pool outside our patio |
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| The rooms are very spacious at True Blue |
We were very nervous and interested to see how the yard was going to get us back into the water, given that we were parked deep in a litter of boats. But Johnny the yard manager has an amazing piece of hydraulic kit that reminds me of a transformer toy. He coolly operates it with a remote control handset, lifting and lowering the boat as he moves it through small gaps. Mesmerising.
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| The clever hydraulic kit |
As expected, there are things that worked when we left Viridian on the hard, but now don’t work when we are back on board 4 months later. Greg has finally stopped assuming there is some vengeful God purposely torturing him. We now know this is typical and we have resigned ourselves to the situation which happens to all boats when moving parts are not moved for a few months in this very harsh, salty, hot environment.
So, in the last 10 days since we got back on board, we have found ourselves getting the fresh water pump replaced, the gas supply fixed, the dinghy outboard motor serviced, the toilet pipes cleared and the fridge/freezer looked at. Not having cold beer and white wine in these temperatures is a right bummer. Sadly, the fridge is too old and cannot be fixed, so we are now in the market for a new fridge freezer and probable partial kitchen re-fit. We are heading to Martinique in December to get this done – hopefully we won’t be at war with France by then.
The good news is that while we were away, we had a new bimini and spray hood made with some lovely new side and back shades that attach and can roll up. When we got on board we were shocked to find they had made them out of solid material instead of mesh. It was like being in a little dark cave – no idea how we were supposed to see where we were going. However, that has now been remedied and the gauze has been inserted. They are transformational. I can’t believe I have been suffering for the past 4 years in blazing sun, not to mention the arguments and grumpiness it has caused.
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| One of the solid side screens |
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| Now with mesh inserts- much better |
Now we are happy and excitedly waiting for the arrival of our friends Ella and Rutger who fly in later this week from Frankfurt – our first guests other than our children since we arrived in the Caribbean. Let’s hope we are moving towards greater freedom and normality.
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| Sunset from The Sand Bar in Prickly Bay - certainly recommended! |
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