Transformers...More than meets the eye!

Good morning! 

I wanted to take a moment to share what's been happening since arriving in Grenada...Let's jump right in! 

A few months ago I reserved a slip at Secret Harbor Marina here in Grenada. We arrived about a week ago and motored into our new marina! Shortly after we pulled on the dock we were told that there wasn't any working water or power which was a bit surprising, we were told differently when we booked. They weren't too friendly about it and we were going to have to continue running our generator for power on the dock...As well as run the Watermaker for water. That wasn't going to happen.

We decided to take matters into our own hands and we rented a car to drive around the island of Grenada in hopes of finding a better home for Calypso during hurricane season. 

We stumbled across Port Louis marina a couple of hours into our trip and found that it was perfect for us! In our opinion, it is the safest marina in Grenada and a bit cheaper than all the rest, how's that even possible?! 

There's a catch...You have to have a way to hook up to European power. Our boat runs off of 110 (American power). After running the numbers we realized that we would actually save money over the course of the next couple months staying at this awesome marina even if it meant purchasing a transformer that would convert the European power into the the power we need for Calypso. Plus having a transformer onboard would be good for when we sail in Europe! So this was needed anyway. 

We quickly got in touch with an electrician that was able to build us a transformer. Jeremiah claims to have zero electrical skills (even though I've seen him in action with electrical maintenance), he felt better having a trained professional build this type of equipment for the boat. 

The electrician built us a custom transformer, it's powerful. It takes the European power and converts it into all the power we need in order to run BOTH of our 30amp plugs. The total for the built was $3783.00EC which works out to about $1400.00 US, it took him about 3 days to get it done. Jeremiah removed the lid so you can see see the meat and potatoes in the photo above! Normally it just looks like a black box. 

Today we're sitting comfortably at Port Louis Marina where we plan to leave Calypso while we travel home to visit family and friends over the next couple weeks. She'll be in the care of a company that is stationed right here on the dock that watches over and cares for boats while their owners are gone. Bella will also stay in Grenada! She's being watched by new friends here on the dock. 

We'll be gone  for about 3 weeks, then the real fun begins...Boat work!! ;) We're doing a TON of work on Calypso to prepare her for our upcoming passage! More on that later. Where are we going next?? Stay tuned, it might not be what you think and its NOT in the Caribbean.

If you have any feedback on things to do, places to eat and items to see while in Grenada then please feel free to share!  Thank you for being a part of this adventure!

Love,

Brittany