After sending this to Sue Richards (the noonsite editor), she has asked me to post it here. Now we have been in Grenada for over a week and I would like to express my pleasure about how wonderful it is to be here and how lovely, hospitable and friendly the Grenadan people are!

It is surprising really that despite one’s best efforts to be well informed about one’s arrival in a new country, that one can be so ill informed ….. Of course I did not plan to arrive in Grenada on a Friday night before Christmas – that might be an ill advised plan you might say? – if it were a plan – which it was not. I was VERY well advised by the noonsite website that clearance at the weekend would involve extra costs (overtime fees for the staff involved) but I was NOT advised about the difficulty about making contact with the authorities to ascertain the precise procedures to which we were subject – OR that the health authority lady who sets up her office in the white gazebo tent in the Port Louis marina was the FIRST person with whom one must make contact (in these times of Covid) and that she works rather reduced and uncertain hours over the week-end. Fortunately we were cleared by her and permitted to proceed to the next step (Customs and Immigration) which was simple in comparison. The health lady had expressed her reluctance to be present at an early stage, and then expressed her displeasure at the fact that we did NOT bring printed out copies of our health declaration forms which I had filled out on-line. I explained that I had had no printer available. We needed to fill them out there in front of her (which was just as well since there may have been some errors in the on-line forms which I had submitted – names and addresses and passport numbers of all the crew). However I was glad to have completed all the necessary paperwork before departure – this must have given me some peace of mind that I had done all that was was possible to ease our way on our arrival about 18 days later on. I had read that one must book a mooring to moor the yacht on arrival – but it was NOT possible to book a mooring AND that on arrival one must anchor and await clearance instructions. What can one do with contradictory instructions? Make contact with the relevant authorities? VHF calls to Customs and Immigration drew no response on a Saturday morning – eventually a call to the port authority got the reply that Port Louis marina should be contacted – AND it turned out that that was where the Customs and Immigration office was located – AND after rushing ashore at lunchtime to check-in with him we were informed that the health authority lady had gone home already – she would be there at about 9am next day. We did not rush on Sunday morning – we got ashore about 10am and the Customs guy told us that we should expect the health lady at about 11am – we should go back to the boat (now on a mooring) and wait – I interpreted this loosely – and so we waited partly in the Victory bar (with wi-fi) and partly in the health authority gazebo tent. The health authority lady turned up at about 1240. In contrast to the Danish yatchsmen with whom I had spent some of this waiting time, and after some discussion about this matter with the lady, we did NOT have to present PCR Covid tests results since we had been at sea for some time, and merely had to present Clearance from the last port as evidence. No objection was raised about the mis-spelling of the port of registration in that document! David (who had sailed with us to Mindelo) had predicted that we would be visited by health staff wearing scrubs (hospital worker uniform) to test us. I am sure that if this were necessary we would have been waiting longer – but I had made some preparations in case such a visit were to happen.
Still after clearance on a Sunday we were free – but establishing normal communications in this time is not so easy. In Mindelo we could buy a local SIM card for Internet access in a supermarket without problems – not the case here. There are two offices in town here where they should be available. There was a VERY long and slow moving queue outside the one that I visited yesterday, and I concluded that my time might be better spent fixing things on the boat, so we now have a bilge pump float switch that works properly and some necessary stitching done to the sprayhood/cockpit cover. There is a good and well stocked chandlers here (Island Water World) with their own dinghy pontoon and I needed to present my documents to them to establish an account and therefore qualify for duty free prices.
It is no longer permitted to anchor in the large area outside St Georges lagoon known as the Grand Anse Marine Protected Area (GAMPA for short) since they are trying to encourage the growth of coral in this area and they have laid many moorings for yachts to use instead. The moorings operator and GAMPA do not seem to understand difficulties which visiting yachtsmen may face in booking and paying for their moorings. I have told him that I shall pay as soon as I can get online. I shall expect a 4th visit from this man today.
This morning (Tuesday 21st Dec) Joel and I did an early trip into town to wait in the queue outside the Cable & Wireless Flow shop in order to buy a SIM card. After 50 minutes of waiting we were finally being served at a desk and with the SIM card inserted into my phone when the lady (with very long and beautifully decorated fingernails) discovered that my phone would NOT pick up the Flow signal at all and that I should go next door to DigiCell. In contrast to the information I had received there the previous day I could buy a SIM card without waiting for too long but that I had to go next door to upgrade my plan to get a decent amount of data. After a short wait outside this 3rd office I was able to get in and get served – BUT it took the guy more than 10 minutes to download the DigiCell App using the shop’s wi-fi, so this did NOT bode well for the data speeds that I am to expect. After checking that things worked OK it was time to get out of the office and meet Joel at the dinghy in the Carenage and get back to Ramprasad.
We then did the 11 mile trip (including our first beat to windward for some time – motorsailing) to come here to Prickly Bay (where at least we are permitted to anchor) and it is more of a hub for yachting activity than St George. Relax at last and spend more time fixing things!
Sam Coles SY Ramprasad 26th December 2021