JP and Susan headed down to Grenada to put Raconteur back in the water on 20 January, and splashed maybe a week or so later. They spent another couple of weeks fixing various and sundry things that had gone awry in the 20 months or so we had been away from her - pretty much most of the major systems (solar, engine, macerator(s), and so on) needed some serious attention. No surprise there. They decided to hang around Grenada to make it easier for Leigh to visit (direct flights from Miami to St. Georges); Leigh arrived for a ten day visit on 15 February. She was asked on all of her flights whether or not she had been in China, as the COVID-19 virus had been raging there, and a first case (or so it appeared at the time) had come to Washington state from there in January. It was a great visit, although a plan to possibly sail north to Carriacou and maybe even the Grenadines was abandoned because the weather was a bit sporty. It was a great visit, however; nice combination of meals on board and meals at Secret Harbour after we moved around from Prickly to Mount Hartmann. We even made a pilgrimage to Roger's Beach Bar on Sunday the 23rd (see photo of JP and Susan there), which we hadn't done in a long while.
Leigh left for Miami/Fort Lauderdale on the 24th, and spent a night and most of day at home before heading back to Dayton for the rest of the week, ahead of a planned trip to DC and on to some unpacking at Sachem Head Road in Guilford. JP and Susan took Raconteur north, stopping in Carriacou for a few days and then on to St. Lucia to meet up with our Swiss friends Rene and Ginette, whose season normally starts in November and ends in early/mid April after an extended visit in the French islands. Plan was for Raconteur to make her way also to the French islands once Rene and Ginette were off, and then for a late April haul out before a planned month long trip to Europe for Roger, the client and a river cruise with two of Susan's sisters and their husbands. Leigh has a lot of work to do through the end of May and into the summer...and I let my voice fall.
By the 11th of March, the proverbial stuff had hit the fan, and the world was on its way to a lockdown in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Leigh stayed in CT after consultation with husband and with client; Raconteur and her onboard crew debated what to do almost every day. Rodney Bay in St. Lucia is not a bad place to be "stuck", at least until hurricane season, but it's not "home port" and not somewhere we would want to leave her. So, on maybe the 20th very early, they set sail for what they hoped would be a clear in back to Grenada at Tyrell Bay on Carriacou, an 18? hour sail. By the time they got there, on Saturday night the 21st, Grenada had closed Tyrell as a port of entry. They anchored far out in the bay, exhausted, and then left early on the 22nd for Grenada. By the time they were an hour or two out, Grenada had closed its border, point. But Customs and Immigration told them to come to the quarantine dock at Port Louis, and Port Louis allowed them to do that. A bunch of other boats were coming at the same time. For a while it didn't look like they would be able to clear in, but for reasons we still don't know, they were cleared in on Monday afternoon the 23rd.
There followed almost two weeks of back and forth over whether to try to leave, and if so, how. Grenada, working with the Canadian consul, allowed a number of Air Canada flights to Toronto, but since the US/Canada border was also closed, that meant there had to be some kind of transit (including an overnight at the airport); also it would have meant leaving Raconteur without a clear plan for haul-out. In the end, the US Embassy arranged two flights (on Silver/Seabourne) from GND to SJU, and I was able to book a room on premises of the airport in San Juan, and an ongoing flight next day to Hartford (that was flying SOME of the time). They had been able to contact Island Dreams, and Mark will haul her out when the yard re-opens. We booked the second flight of the day, and then at 0920 the Embassy called to say they would not be flying that one, and that they had to go immediately to Maurice Bishop. They found their driver, took one last look around, and made it to the airport and on to the flight. They were able to spend the night at the hotel, and to get dinner (and rum) and miraculously the Jet Blue flight did indeed fly on Tuesday the 7th. Leigh picked them up at BDL, and all is well (the two weeks will be up in two days).
It seems very strange that Raconteur is just floating in her berth at Port Louis without us; Grenada has managed to contain their COVID-19 cases to 14, all traced to the original traveler, and no one has died. Connecticut stood at 17,750 cases and 1,086 deaths as of last night. We are feeling very blessed to be together, at the house, and able to work and do projects. The pandemic lockdown has caused a Great-Depression level of economic meltdown, and the end is nowhere in sight, despite lots of pressure to re-open the economy. No vaccine, not enough testing, not yet peaked in many places...complicated calculus even with the best of leadership (and we have instead the worst). Cruisers are mostly making the best of it, but the disruptions to that way of life are intense, and the fears about the hurricane season (and the inability to move or to insure) are growing.
Posting some happier photos, and looking forward to a return...someday.
