Back on the boat (and awake)

First a quick rundown of our last day in NJ. Morning started with some paperwork followed by breakfast with Anne and John. We departed their company around 9 and headed off to K-Mart to pick up some light clothes for Helen.

Next stop was Helen’s old school where she was able to briefly say hello to many, but not all, of her old friends and colleagues. There was just not enough time to catch up with all. While she was doing this I was off to the bank, the sports store for fishing gear, BestBuy for a spare camera battery and an Asian food store for some Wasabi.

Picking Helen up from school we headed south to Sam to take him clothes shopping. Later we met up with Ben and went out for a final meal together. We said goodbye to Sam first as he was off to college and spent another hour or so with Ben at Jess’s apartment. We said our goodbyes to Ben before heading off to JFK.

The trip to JFK was smooth so we arrived with hours to spare. Often, the trip to that airport can be a nightmare so time needs to be built into the trip to cover jams but this time it was superfluous.

While waiting at the airport, Air Jamaica had a little thing going as they were celebrating the 10^th anniversary of their route from Grenada to JFK. We received some free cake and juice, substantially more nourishment than we received on the plane coming up here.

We slept uncomfortably on and off and arrive around 6 in the morning here. Having waited forever to clear customs we were sent through the goods to declare line as we had loads of parts for the boat on which we had to pay duty. Had we known to ask for permission in Carriacou when we first checked into Grenadan waters we could have got away with a 2.5% duty. As it was, we had to pay 5% of our estimated value of goods (which was far less than they were worth). That being done we caught a taxi to Prickly Bay Marina where Jim was waiting to take us to Dignity which he’d already opened up to air.

First thing on the boat (after blogging to say we had arrived) was to get some additional sleep. Upon waking we had to clean the mould off the fridge and unpack. I also fixed the watermaker with the replacement salinity probe which worked fine. I’ve also set up the new power inverter temporarily with the new wireless hub to try things out. It seems to work but the local internet seems swamped. I could be wrong about this so we’ll need to test things further.

I have been asked what the total goodie list was. Here it is as best I can remember:

• EPIRB (for our travels west)
• Pure Sine Wave Invertor (to power the wireless internet setup without issues caused by transients)
• Portable inverter and battery for quick recharges of phones, etc.
• Wireless Hub (to replace the dead one)
• Netbook (so we can surf together)
• Camera & spare battery (for better picture taking)
• Outdoor speakers (to replace blown existing ones)
• More writable DVDs
• 12V LED Xmas lights (for next Xmas)
• New L-Ion battery for spare GPS
• Replacement salinity probe for watermaker
• A bunch of SD memory cards and USB sticks for sharing movies, etc & storing music for player
• Reading books
• Pressure switch for deck wash pump
• Weighing machine batteries
• Total Dissolved Solids meter to test purity of water
• A couple of computer mice
• Headphones
• More interior LED replacements including some brighter ones
• Choke knob for dinghy outboard
• Fishing tackle
• Clothing

The boat is fine after our absence bar some mould that grew in the fridge. This afternoon we’ll move her to the dock ready for the upgrade that should go in tomorrow morning. Once we’re on the dock we’ll recharge everything.

Right now Helen has gone back to sleep. The heat is back compared to NJ which turned quite chilly on the last day. In a day or two I’ll expect we’ll be back in our groove.