Grenada

We have now arrived in Grenada - the "end of the line" for Charlotte and me. Jimmy will continue south to Trinidad with my brother-in-law Alan, where the boat will be hauled for hurricane season.

Grenada is a lovely island, about 120 sq miles, lush, green and hilly with a population of about 100,000. It’s a very peaceful island, a few hotels, a relatively small amount of tourists. It’s a boat haven for hurricane season. Coming back to Grenada is like coming back to somewhere that we have lived – we are now very familiar with the island, and know a lot of people, both on land and other fellow cruisers. Due to the many cruisers, Grenada has a great cruisers network, with a lot of organized events and social gatherings (all advertised on the morning VHF radio cruisers net broadcast).

So pretty soon we have our social calendar organized.

We headed out to snorkel the sunken statues - amazing seeing different statues (including a man riding a bike and a man sitting at a computer desk!

One day we did an island day tour - swimming in waterfalls, having monkeys eat bananas on my head (and Charlotte petting the older tamer monkey "Lover Boy" - see pic below), visiting the rum factory (where nothing much has changed since the 1700s - they prefer to keep it that way rather than make a lot of people unemployed...), visiting the nutmeg factory that once employed many people - Grenada used to be the number 2 producer of nutmeg in the world - until hurricane Ivan in 2004, when they lost 90% of their nutmeg trees. And seeing the many spices growing along the roadside - Grenada is known as the "Spice Island".

One Saturday morning Charlotte and I went "to the country" to help out with a program set up to listen to children read and help them with maths. The standard was not very high but at least the children were coming along of their own accord to try and learn more (or was it for the social event?) About 25 children came from the villages around to a small wooden building. There were about 6 volunteers. Charlotte was even put to work with a 4 year old, reading to her and pointing out the words!

Saturday afternoon the airport was closed for a renaming party!! - not sure what message the people on the delayed incoming flights were given!

There are a lot more children in Grenada, and so Charlotte is now back to having play dates on other boats and on the beach. Boat children seem to mix well with children of all different ages - I think they are just happy to have other children around and can't be choosy.

Charlotte's 6th Birthday 25th May 2009

6 birthdays in 6 different countries: 1st birthday in London, 2nd in NY, 3rd in Martinique, 4th in Grenadines, 5th in Bermuda and now 6th in Grenada!

Hilary's recent visit from London and Jimmy's quick NY trip meant that there were plenty of presents to open. The pink camera was a hit - but the battery usage means we are searching for rechargeable batteries now!!

Charlotte had a birthday party on the beach with some friends that we had met and a nice cake we made that morning (no bakery with a Hanna Montana Cake!!). In the evening the 3 of us had a nice (early) dinner out - one of the high lights for Charlotte was cherries in the ice cream!!

Carriacou - 22nd-24th May 2009

A great short sail (about 2 hours) from Tobago Cays to Carriacou, an island north of, and part of Grenada. We stayed the night in an idyllic spot very aptly named “Sandy Island” (photo) just off Carriacou, before moving round to Tyrrel Bay the next day. Shopping in the capital of Hillsborough is “interesting” – bakery is in someone’s back yard, eggs sold in a plastic bag (don’t stand a chance in the dingy!), 5 different stops to buys 2 small bags of groceries. Remember we can only buy as much as we can carry back to the dingy….

Jimmy had seen an article in the cruising papers that the Carriacou Yacht club was collecting for the local school fund. We did a big sort out and gave away a lot of Charlotte’s books and toys to them. We were very proud of her also that she let her scooter go without any fuss – we were sure some of the kids on this small island would benefit a lot more from some of these things. Along the way and at the end of each year we do a clear out of Charlotte’s stuff and try to give it to people that need it (often restaurant, hotel or marina workers will take it back to their villages) In general a lot of the Caribbean is very poor and the children don’t have a lot.

Sunday 24th May we had a nice sail from Carriacou down to Grenada - about 4 hours, 30 miles with perfect conditions - apparent wind angle 90 degrees 15 knots which gave us some great speeds. We even managed to sail (rather than motor) most of the way down the leaward coast of Grenada. We anchored just outside the capital of St George's, and then headed off to Grand Anse beach to look for children for Charlotte's birthday party the next day....

Life on Board

Life on board continues with the daily routines, the biggest now being homeschooling for about 2-3 hours each morning. Over the years we have sorted out our respective “jobs” on board and now Charlotte is also starting to have her role - turning the engines on and off, turning the lights breakers on and off in the evening and morning, helping Jimmy with anchoring (using the remote to get anchor up and down), laying the table to name a few.

I’m sure a lot of you think we have been sitting here drinking Pina coladas under a palm tree …. (not quite…) I figured that the less exciting parts wouldn’t make for good reading but some people say we should let you know “the bits we don’t write about” – blocked toilets, sleepless nights in bad weather, dragging anchors in the middle of the night, wet dingy rides, …. Living aboard continues to have its fantastic sides and also, in comparison, it’s more difficult sides.

Fantastic sides – sunsets, great anchorages, beautiful places, ability to move around, meeting great people, magic sails (when the wind is in your favouor). The prevailing winds are from the east (trade winds). With the island chain running north to south, it makes the Eastern Caribbean a sailing paradise.

More difficult sides: time to do everyday chores – shopping, with no car takes on a different meaning! (only buy what you can carry!!) Our dingy is our car – dingy to shore! Next, to actually find out where to go for shopping (laundry, boat parts, mechanics, clearing in, restaurants bars etc). When things go wrong on a boat and it’s not as easy as calling out the local fix it man, you definitely need to be self sufficient. Managing your power and water needs – unlike a house, when turning on the water faucet or electric switches, we also have to be responsible for how we get it in the first place – filling up water tanks and keeping batteries well charged (running the generator, ensuring the solar panels are not shaded by the boom …). We also have a water maker and collect rain water. Whilst it’s nice to live with nature, it’s not always as convenient!! (and makes us appreciate little things a lot more when we move back into the apartment). And of course there is the ever present home schooling that takes up about 2-3 hours each morning.

Tobago Cays 21st-22nd May 2009

The Tobago Cays is a group of small deserted islands protected from the sea by Horseshoe Reef. Boat boys come round from neighboring inhabited islands, selling fresh bread in the morning, plus ice, lobsters and T shirts. When anchored in the Cays, you are not in the lea of any island (only reef), so if the winds are blowing, it’s very windy there!

This is where Charlotte had her 4th birthday party, two years ago, on the beach, on an island 50 yards long – on the way there she asked me if the children who had been at her party would be there again.

A lot of effort has been made recently to make Tobago Cays a Marina Park. Part of the anchorage, where the sea grass grows, is sectioned off as no anchoring, to attract the turtles back. Charlotte and I went snorkeling and saw 2 big sting rays and a few turtles including a mother and baby (see pictures), (not to mention all the normal smaller fish).
One stingray kept following us and Charlotte got a bit nervous, especially as we were only in about 4 feet of water and the stingray kept swimming right below us.

We are Sailing…. 21st May 2009

We picked up anchor and headed out of Bequia just after Mick and Sue on Breathless. Both heading in the same direction, we had a rare photo shoot where we took pictures of each other’s boats under sail.

It took us about 4 hours to get to Tobago Cays. All of the sailing through the Grenadines is relatively protected short sails (although not to the extent of the BVIs).

Bequia (17th-21st May 2009)

Bequia is another of our favourite islands. It is part of St Vincent and the Grenadines (a group of islands stretching over about 30 miles), about 2 miles by 4 miles, 7 square miles with a population of about 6,000, very peaceful, small, laid back, safe, hassle free, nice beaches with some nice restaurants. Not surprisingly a lot of cruisers spend time there and at this time of year, a lot of boats are passing through, heading south before hurricane season starts.

Again the nuances of shopping in a small town – the bakery doubles up as a shoe shop!? Also the local baker comes around in a dingy each morning with fresh bread, rolls and great banana bread. Small yellow barges (“daffodil marine”) come round to deliver fuel, water, ice etc and collect / deliver laundry. You can buy lobsters, fish, pineapple etc from the boat boys (who seem a lot more organized, friendlier and less forceful than some other islands).

While there Charlotte got another new pet (see prior log) – a baby Portuguese Man of War is not the regular child’s pet, but I guess Charlotte is not leading a regular child’s life…. We also went snorkeling (on a different day to catching the jelly fish) a short swim from the boat.

One day the fisherman decided that the fish were all in a spot close by to Sue and Mick’s boat Breathless and proceeded to throw all their nets out, just by their anchored boat. Needles to say, the winds turned, as did their boat and by the time they came back from ashore, nets were all caught up under the boat… The fisherman made peace with a bucket of tuna (they gave one to us and I made sushi that night). There were literally hundreds of small tuna which they loaded into a fishing boat and whisked off to sell in St Vincent (literally a “boat load”). Here I am eating some of the freshest tuna ever!

We had a nice 4 days in Bequia, and then it was time to start heading south…

Charlotte's new pet

On a boat Charlotte does not have the regular pets like a dog or a cat. Her new pet today is a baby Portuguese man of War jelly fish. Previous pets on board have included a lizard (found under the bed) and crabs. One crab died after Charlotte tried to experiment to see if it liked fresh water instead of sea water - a good science lesson!

We are currently in Bequia. Life on board continues the usual pattern of mornings taken up with home schooling, repairs, jobs and maintenance. Later on in the afternoon, its playtime - including cruising round the bay on our new 2 man Kayak.

St Lucia: 22nd April – 17th May 2009

We stayed in St Lucia for 3.5 weeks – the longest we had stopped anywhere. St Lucia is the largest of the English speaking Windward Islands, is mountainous and lush, with many beautiful white sand beaches. Tropical rain forest covers the steep slopes of the centre. It is 27 miles long, 14 miles wide, with a total area of 240 sq miles and a population of 160,000. This was where Jimmy celebrated his 60th birthday last year, when about 25 family/friends flew in.

We arrived into Rodney Bay, (north St Lucia) from Martinique, in time to clear into customs and immigration, get our favourite chicken rotis in the Caribbean, and have a swim in the marina pool. We soon bumped into people we knew. By May, most boats have either headed north already, to USA/Europe, or like us, heading south to Trinidad or Grenada before the start of hurricane season 1st June. May is always a month for meeting up with a lot of cruisers again. Islands like Antigua are very quiet by this time of year.

Soon our social calendar was getting busy: Thursday sunset cocktails on Mick and Sue’s boat Breathless, Friday, all off to Happy Hour at the Landings Hotel, Saturday everyone over to us for lunch and Sunday lunch at the Yacht club! Although we had met Mick and Sue over the years, this trip to St Lucia we got to spend quite a bit of time with them which we enjoyed.

On Tuesday Hilary flew in from London for a week. We rented a car and did a tour of the island on the way to and from the airport, (in the south of the island). We stopped at Ladera, a beautiful spot between the Pitons. Along part of the west coast is one of the most mountainous roads you could imagine.

Jimmy flew up to NY for 3 days, so we took the boat into the marina to make things easier.
On Friday, Hilary, Charlotte and I did a day trip on Endless Summer – the same boat that we had rented for Jimmy’s birthday week - a great trip sailing right down the coast and stopping for a 3 hour land trip –waterfalls, drive through sulphur volcano and the coco-plantation for lunch. On the way back a stop for swimming and snorkeling and also a walk through the picturesque Marigot. Hilary also got a chance to see Charlotte waterskiing behind the dingy – especially funny when she tried to show off to kids on another boat by going no handed (the skis are also attached to the rope) – she waved and then promptly fell flat on her face!

On Jimmy’s birthday, Mick and Sue kindly offered to have Charlotte over for a sleepover, so we had a nice, rare, dinner out for 2! Finding babysitters in the Caribbean is not easy.

We are usually in St Lucia when the Jazz festival is on. This year we made it to the Saturday and Sunday shows, that started at 2pm until about 10pm – a good day of entertainment in a lovely park type setting on Pigeon Island. Artists that we saw included James Ingram, Michael McDonald, Jeffrey Osbourne, Shaka Khan, Patty La Belle, (many I knew their songs rather than names ……..) and for us the highlight was Chicago – it was great seeing a group of aging men having a good time and exhibiting a lot of talent with their versatility in all the different instruments each could play, and switching who sung lead. I would not have thought of Chicago as “jazz” but with their 6 piece brass band, I changed my views. They surpassed our expectations and put on a great show. Even Charlotte enjoyed it!! The only shame was that they did not play my favourite hit “If you leave me now”.

We missed Friday night’s performance, where Amy Winehouse lived up to her reputation by falling over on stage, forgetting lines, appearing stoned, told the audience she was so bored, then to F*** off and finally left the stage before her act had finished! She later blamed it onto the rain but that hadn’t stopped all the other performers. She had been hanging out in St Lucia for a couple of months and gained the nickname “Amy Wino” with plenty of stories of all her antics flying around in the almost daily “Wino Report” – how she exposed herself in front of tourists, puked in the breakfast buffet, at least 2 trips to the hospital, including burning all her leg with pasta, walked around in the same dirty shorts for days on end etc etc… Such a shame to see so much talent wasted.

It’s also entertaining watching all the Martinique’s sailing down to the Jazz Festival on rental boats - the norm is for about 20 of them to rent a catamaran similar size to ours and then party all weekend – usually one person on the boat might knows a little about sailing…. Whilst entertaining to watch, it’s a nightmare for someone with their boat in bareboat charter to watch! This year Jimmy saw them tie a catamaran up to the small dingy dock!

Hilary commented on how a lot of people seemed to know us – I guess that’s one of the advantages of spending some time in the same place. The marina staff haven’t changed in years, so the dock guys always welcome us back. Even Shane at the fuel dock asked after my niece Claire (the long legged “blond”) from 4 years ago! I guess we tend to stand out a bit more than the regular cruising couples – not many 60 year olds with a 5 year old child!! Tom the fisherman, who we swopped a bottle of Bermuda rum for a tuna a few years ago, caught a massive marlin the day we arrived, hanging over both sides of his boat – we weren’t planning on swopping anything for that! Maggie, who worked at the marina, came over again and helped us give the boat a good clean and also braided our hair. The guy that owns/works at the roti restaurant welcomes us back, the Endless Summer crew remember us…..

After 3 weeks in Rodney Bay, we finally pulled up the anchor and headed down the coast where there are some lovely snorkeling bays. Charlotte and I saw lots including some sea snakes. We spent our last 2 nights on a mooring between the Pitons – one of our favourite anchorages and probably one of the top 10 most beautiful anchorages in the world.

Sunday 17th May, at 6am, we left St Lucia to do the 50 miles sail to Bequia. We had a good sail across the 30 mile passage between St Lucia and St Vincent – winds 15 knots on the beam. Only one squall, when we are reminded how quickly conditions can change – I was on watch, relaxing listening to my ipod, perfect sail – saw some darker skies off to the side and within about 5 minutes it looked more like a scene from The Perfect Storm, as the winds shot up to 35 knots, and we were soaked. Once we got to the lea side of St Vincent, as expected the winds dropped to almost nothing, due to the influence of the mountains. Sails down, motor on, down the coast. The last 8 mile stretch across the Bequia Channel, the wind was on the nose so we just continued to motor, no sailing.

St Vincent is not a good or popular stop due to crime – we read of many incidences of boats being boarded at gun point there. We arrived Bequia at 1.30pm. Mick and Sue had left the day before and they were there to welcome us onto the anchorage (a popular stop with over 50 boats).