Sailing into the Venezuelan Sun-day

After the usual manic boat prep to clear out in Prickly Bay and a hilarious conversation with the Customs officer over becoming a patron for Grenada in the Chelsea Flower Show, we had our tanks full and were setting off into the afternoon sun saying farewell to our most favourite place to date with a lot of mixed feelings in our hearts. We had experienced so much fun, beauty and happiness there and it was honestly an effort to pack up, move on and get back out of our comfort zone.

The plan was to sail across to La Blanquilla, on to Los Roques and then hit Bonaire about 2 weeks later. We had heard a whole bunch of mixed stories about the safety of the waters between the islands and so made sure we had taken full precautions.

• Machete & Axe
• Air Horn
• Molotov Cocktail
• Flares
• Blinding spot light
• Radio silence & no nav lights
• .. oh and a Jarvis on constant red alert (this means very jumpy) - which I personally feel was the best precaution out of everything

We had fantastic winds and current pushing us along much faster than we had expected and reached La Blanquilla island incident free about 12 hours ahead of schedule. This unfortunately meant at night. We tried to find a place to anchor but the charts for the area were not even close (20m on the charts and 2m in reality) and on an island that has no lights or buoys this was nearing impossible. We thought about waiting around until first light but at 6 hours away we decided just to push on until we hit Los Roques.

It only took 3 days all up from Grenada and we sailed into the beautiful cays early on Sunday morning to be welcomed with a glorious sunrise glinting of the clear ocean – when you are very tired from a long night watch believe me this is even more a beautiful sight than normal.

Now for the challenge – clearing in.

Facts: My spanish is not the best. If you get the wrong kind of permit here it is VERY expensive. It's a sunday. There are 4 offices to go to, in a certain order.

Reality: Actually better than I had imagined. It took two attempts – round one we went to the wrong office twice and then found the person wasn't there that cleared in yachts and were told to come back that evening. The guy we ended up speaking with was friendly, funny and very understanding – we bagged a two day visa permit at NO COST and then just needed to toodle off to the other offices. We were met with a lot more hostility as we progressed but 2 hours later – cha ching – we are done.

Beautiful random Venezuelan islands for a few days?? Yes please!

Tia and Jarvis, over and out!

Carnival Time

Madness! That is all that can describe a carnival here in Grenada. It starts weeks in advance with parties roaring until the early morning, building up, learning all the songs and then it hits.

Sunday night the part starts at half past midnight and then at 5:30am it is the parade of the 10,000 Jab Jabs or what is called J'ouvert. What are Jab Jabs you ask? Good questions. Something that has evolved from the idea of a devil but what basically involves thousands of people smeared in engine oil and paint wearing horns, pulling chains and having fish in their mouths. The parade winds its way though town in an infusion of Soca music and Rum (even at 5:30am) and as the sun rises they just party harder.

Bring on the Oil!!!

Jarvis, Chris and Lynn

Chris and Sharron trying to avoid getting oily!

... and this is only half way through!

The mass amount of people partying

Horns, chains, buckets... you name it. anything goes!

It was so much fun and wonderful to see a carnival where people don't get stupidly drunk, fall around and destroy things. Just have fun, include each other and celebrate!

We partied until 11:00am, came home, slept and got geared up for the next round that evening which was the parade of the bands however very sadly our bus didn't turn up. No matter, we entered one final pool competition where Jarvis kicked butt and got through to the final, and talked and laughed with all of our friends at Clarkes Court Marina.

The next day it continued for us, however the locals hadn't even stopped - honestly, the most stamina i have ever seen from people partying. Anyways, Tuesday brought around the Pretty Mas, which is the parade of the pageant queens. The most beautiful costumes of colour and feathers representing everything that makes up Grenada. The parade moves through the centre of the capital, St George, and at the pre-set out 'Judging stops' each group dance in full Caribbean hip shaking fashion to the winning Soca and Calypso band music to show why they should be crowned best Pageant band.

Some of the beautiful costumes

So much variety in the parade

We stayed into the late evening bumping into friends, eating amazing bbq pork prepared on the roadside and of course drinking some local rum and had the most amazing night. The atmosphere of everyone on such a high, that feeling that today everything is perfect just spread throughout the city.

I know we have put our date for leaving Grenada back a little bit by staying for Carnival but it was so, so worth it.

Today we have been prepping the boat and doing the usual mad rush through town to provision, get boat bits and pieces and say goodbye to people. Tonight we are going to move around the corner to Prickly bay ready to re-fuel and get water in the morning before we clear out and head off.
We are going to hop along the Venezuelan islands before hitting Bonnaire in about 2 weeks time so until then....

Tia and Jarvis, over and out!

7 days...

Grenada is, in a word - amazing! I can completely see why people from all over the world choose to settle here and make a life for themselves and why cruisers in particular drop there anchor in the south of the island, blink and realise it's 6 months later and they are still here.

For us, we realised yesterday that we have been here for a month. One whole month out of our year long adventure in an island that is only 131 square miles large. The reason however is simple.

This island combines the most beautiful scenery and weather with a fantastic social scene. Wonderful anchorages and marinas and kind, generous people. Breathtaking hikes, activities galore, cheap food and beer and, most importantly - safe harbour (in most cases) from the hurricane season.

In the time we have been here we haven't even scratched the surface of this island and yet, sadly, we have now got to leave in (weather dependant) 7 days and head off towards the ABC islands. Don't get me wrong, we are SO excited to see our next place but it is at times like this when we yet again realise that 1 year is not enough.

We shall be staying with just enough time to experience carnival on Monday-Tuesday, stock up the boat, fix the last remaining niggles and then be on our way. But what an amazing time we have had being here.

Here are a few little notes on what we have been up to....

• Hash runs - our first try of these was brutal. Second one was brilliant and hopefully this Saturday we will get to do a fancy dress hash
• Hiking through the Grand Etang forest and to the waterfalls
• Numerous social activities with the outstanding cruising community here - can we include Pool tournaments, Volly ball, birthday parties, duck races
• Crab Racing - Sadly Jarvis crab was not on form
• Seeing the sites - chocolate factories, rum distillery's, old nutmeg plants, volcanic lake creators, museums. 
• Meeting some of the loveliest people who will be life long friends

 

 

Pool Tournament

Brilliant 2-4-1 Pizza night at Le Phare Bleu with THE BEST cocktails.. ummmm

Freshly stripped goat skin we saw mid-through a hash run.. humm?!

Jarvis jumping off the Seven Sisters falls

Now we have 7 days left. I guess at least when you know you only have a certain amount of time somewhere you will sure make the most of it!

Tia and Jarvis, over and out!

And just when it was all working....

I really miss hearing the old saying "If it's not broke don't fix it" and having it be true. At the moment on our little house it seems that pre-empting things that are going to break is the only way to save ourselves an awful lot of time and money.

More out of curiosity than any problem we checked to see how our trusty new Altenator was doing. It turns out that it's not the best being too hot to touch after a few minutes of it running. Further investigations have clocked that there is a small power leak coming from the regulator... even when all the power is off, hummm. So we have got a new blower fan, ducting and are on the look out for a new reulator to top it off.

We are taking no chances! Just because it's not broke YET, we are still going to fix it!

On a happy note we have a new boat of the marina (Bay). This beautiful old schooner from Hog Island which is currently competing in the Carriacou Regatta, fingers crossed for them.

Schooner @ Hog Island

We broke up our mass maintenence yesterday by going to our second Hash run up in St Andrews. A beautiful track and, smartly, we chose to do the walkers trail this time and jog that instead. This meant it only took us an hour and a half, we got to have fantastic chats with new, awesome people all the way round and were still exhauted by the end but at that happy point where you can still knock back the beers after!

Here are a few photos of the people we met and the great party last night!!

'Cyber-Flash' and his wife. Bidding for the International Hash in Brussells

Horst & Gabby from sv Fair Isle

Post Race happiness!

Party going on into the night. Carib! - The Reason we hash! :)

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out

The Kindness of Strangers

Don't Worry - be Happy!

Travelling around exploring new places all the time quite often leaves you at the mercy of others. Needing to know how to get somewhere, where is the best place to buy something or when a certain activity is on means that you are always in conversation with people you have never met and that you quite often base a lot of trust on what they have to say. 

Sometimes this can be quite un-nerving and sometime it can be exceptionally rewarding - one of those times for us was yesterday.

In need of doing a shop we were up bright and early and made our way down to the main intersection leaving the Marina. It's a pretty long walk to the supermarket from that point still and sadly 9 times out of 10 you do need to walk as the strip of road is not a main bus route. We started on our way only to be stopped buy a guy asking if we needed a taxi, the gut reaction kicked in. Taxi = Expensive, so 'No thanks' and we walked on. Yet the guy drove along side us and with a great smile on his face said: "Ah I'm only jokin' wid you - hop in, no charge. Where you heading?"

A stranger offering lift? Now that brings back all kinds lessons drummed into you as kid about strangers but it was a long walk and hey, if we ended up having to give the guy a few dollars it was no bother. We jumped in and so began our time with 'Sugar-Ray'.

Happy and friendly we chatted back and forth about what we were doing that day -shopping and finding a hairdresser- and then he enquired where we were from and proceeded to tell us how he had lived in London for 6 yrs to save up and buy his local business.. "I will show you" he says, and off we zoom, still a little uncomfortable, to Ray's Tyre shop. He shows us around, introduces us as his new friends and then he drives us over to the Shopping Centre. It's money time, or so we think but,  "I'll wait for you guys here if you like and then we can go to the Barber's - i know a great guy". 

Humm what to do - this guy has been nothing buy kind and helpful but yet all our instincts are telling us to break away somehow, that this will not end well. It's at that point where we both realised how un-trusting we are, how security and safty aware we had become doing this trip. With so much unknown and so many story of attacks, kidnappings etc we had let all the hype get to us and become so un-trusting of everyone. It sucked so after a quick shop and a new energy we jumped back in the car and it was onwards to the Barber. 

As we drove we all talked of live and love of travels and adventures and leant all about 'Sugar-Ray'. He had had some major accidents in his life (a car crash let to 12 broken bones, cracked skull and ruptured stomach), leaving him un-able to move his knee and heavily scarred; but to him that meant he was the luckiest person alive. So in turn he wanted to make other have the best life possible and, luckily for us, that meant showing a young travelling couple the 'real' Grenada. We met his local barber and his pastor before he then insisted on taking us back to his house to show us around and share a beer. We tried local blood sausage (sadly still gross), met his neighbours and chatted out on his balcony for ages until... "Mon i gotta go. I have work in an hour".

He still insited on dropping us all the way home and even invited us to dinner next week. On the way back we quickly stopped off at his girlfriends work as our last stop. Gorgeous and obviously in love with him but "Shhh" he says, "My wife would not like it". I guess even the kindest people have flaws.

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out!

Island Explorers

We have now been in Grenada for a week and a half and yesterday decided that it was time enough that we put on our explorer hats and found out all the beauty that the island had to offer.

We decided the best way would be to get a hire car and go for a day out in the north of the island. We picked up our car at Maitland Rentals in Grand Anse bay bright and early piled in our camping gear for the night and headed north. First stop on the agenda was the Dougleston Estate, an old spice plantation, to see how the famous Nutmeg and Mace are produced. However as you can see, it didn't appear to be in quite the working order that the tourist map would have you believe...

The old Mill Wheel @ Dougleton Estate

Yet with vines and rusty old machines to investigate we had a whale of a time and enjoyed being able to walk around all the old buildings with no one around. From here we hopped back in the car and headed east to drive through the island. At first it went all good; however then the roads became extremely steep and gravel based and then new 'roads' appeared out of nowhere that were not on the map and completely threw us off. Luckily for us it only took a moments stop and a puzzled look before someone would come to our rescue and point us back in the right direction. It has to be said; the people in Grenada are some of the nicest and friendliest in the world.

'Walking the coco' as it is called

Onwards to the Belmont Estate to check out the Chocolate Factory, num num, and a real working plantation. They grow such a variety of fruits, herbs and other products there as well as the abundance of coco, and we met a super happy local guy who told us all about the same original old fashioned process they use to make the Chocolate. They still sort and turn the coco beans on trays in the sun by walking through them and I even got to have a go.

A few bar of chocolate later and it was onwards to the Rivers Rum distillery. It was a big disappointment. Run down and badly managed. Although it was interesting to see a still working distillery the place was dirty and the rum was dripped in its bottles through an old grimy drainpipe. Unsurprisingly the rum tasted very unpleasant and made you do the *cringe* face. Not sure if the thought of the sewage around the plant was a factor in that? Hummm

Jarvis checking out the distiller

Grenville street market

We passed through the lovely harbour town of Grenville and had a great lunch with all the locals at a food kitchen watching the waves crash onto the rocks and then spent the afternoon around the huge volcanic crater of Lake Antoine before heading to the most northern tip of Bathway Beach to find a place to set up our tent for the night.

Now in theory the place was perfect and very sheltered, but the wind was gusting and getting our tent to stay pitched in the sand was a challenge. We got as far as the final peg before we saw a group of guys with huge machetes slowly pacing up and down the beach at about 10:00pm, spotting us and then heading our way. I don't think either of us have ever moved so fast, not since the hash anyways, and quickly grabbed everything, jumped in the card and zoomed off into the night before we had even shut the boot. I don't know that they were going to do anything more than say hi - but alone, at night, in the middle of nowhere and seeing men with knifes??? Well i don't think I'll take any chances.

Ironically we had the best drive back down to Clarks Court bay Marina, singing to music and trying to make the final litre of petrol we had in the car last  ~ there was an awful lot of coasting involved ~ and ended up safely tucked up in our beds by Midnight. Great adventures had all round.. the only sucky part was that one day to explore was not nearly enough.

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out!

Run (in the) Forest, Run!

Our first major group activity here in Grenada began on Saturday. Every week during the summer there is an organised 'Hash' run. For those of you who don't know what one is (I sure didn't when i heard about it), check out this Wikipedia description :-Hash House Harriers

In short, 'Hashing' is trail running that is big on the social scene but I personally think that makes it sound way too easy. We knew the background, we had read other accounts of it, seen a few photos and so decided that we had to give it a try.

At 2:15pm we hopped on an organised mini-bus that drove us up to Grand Etang forest in the centre of the Island. We arrived to a mass crowd of people from every age, culture and nationality huddling around a guy dressed in his 'Bastille day' colours starting to explain about the race.

He gave us a few things to note:-
1)Follow the paper, it marks the trail
2)There are false trails - be prepared!

3)There are ropes for some descents
4)Help each other it's all for fun!

So, in the blazing sunshine we signed up to the Hashing 'Virgins' list and on the GO horn, we were outta there.

Before the race.. looking happy and eager

Now luckily for us it hadn't rained that day but unlucky for us that didn't seem to make a difference to the mud. Piles of people sliding and wriggling their way down an epic mud bank started the trail and separated the pack.We managed to get out into the middle somewhere and proceeded to spend 2 hours jumping boulders, leaping across streams and swinging from branches.. oh and some running in there as well :)

Sliding/Climbing down the slopes

Halfway through we had an awesome surprise at finding ourselves in front of the Seven Sisters waterfall but sadly we had no time to stop and take the dip we were craving, it was onwards and (much to my disappointment) upwards. ALOT of upwards!

Seven Sisters Waterfall

Finally when the light started to fade and we had made our way around a large patch of Razor grass (it's EVIL and shredded my legs)  we hit the tarmac and ran up the final stretch to the finish line.

Utterly unimpressed at another hill!

When the final straggler had arrived the announcer called upon the 'Virgins' to come and get their certificate.

Please take some happiness in this little excerpt of it:-

Please let it be known that Antonia, having done it with all of us. At times rough, sometimes wet, sometimes hard, sometimes fast, grunting, groaning, completed this ordeal and is henceforth not to be considered a virgin in the Grenada Hash Harriers.

Our final hurrah on accepting our certificates was to be showered by all the 'experts' with bottles of beer and then to carry on with the party!

Celebrating with the crew from ZeroToCruising and Unicorn

 It was brutal and exhausting and exceptionally muddy, but will we be doing it next week? You betcha!

Tia and Jarvis, Over and Out!