Winds of Change are Swift – Columbus, Ohio USA, Tuesday July2, 2024

And just like that, our lives are changed by hurricane Beryl.  It hit Carriacou Island, Grenada as the earliest and strongest hurricane ever.  It was a strong Category 4 nearly a 5 with 150 MPH wind speeds and devastated the majority of the island.  Our boat Mariposa, is in Tyrell Bay which sustained a direct hit.  The few photos we have been able to find online show she has likely been de-masted at best and a complete loss at worst.  My heart is broken.

We wandered around much of yesterday wondering “what if” and today as dawn starts to highlight the after affects of the storm it has turned into “now what?”  The good news is the loss of life has been only a few people however the reality is 90% of the homes have been complete destroyed. We are very lucky in the grand view of everything. Mariposa is insured and not completely destroyed. We were also not on the island when the storm hit.  We did not plan to go back to Grenada so soon but now we need to go down and work through the damage assessment, salvage what we can and deal with the many insurance hurdles likely to come.

Mariposa RIP. The most amazing thing is the people there who just lost their house, their parents house, their businesses, everything still have a smile and are grateful to be alive. A lesson can be learned by all of us on this one.

So now as our plans change again, we are storing the RV in Ohio, then driving down to my parents in Jekyll Island, Georgia. I will visit with my parents, while Ron heads to Grenada to secure mariposa and take photos for insurance. We have been lucky, the cruiser community has been amazing. The boat next to us was also de-masted, except he only has liability insurance and isn’t sure if he can even fix his. Another boat who shot the video for us was a total loss and has no insurance at all. They have to start over with a yound family who had sold everything. Very sad stories we have heard but everyone was so willing to help any way they could and we are so lucky. It our turn to go down and help them.