Goodbyes...

When the sun goes down, for a brief moment on a cloudless evening, you get a "green flash" across the horizon.  If you blink, you will miss it - however it is a phenomena that occurs.

We went to a "Green Flash" party at a popular beach bar called Umbrellas.  Some of the photos are not appropriate for the blog!.. however a couple are...

We asked a couple of local ladies to give us dance lessons - People here can really move.  They swing their hips in a really provocative manner perfectly to the beat of the local music.

This is me trying to "move" like the locals...

Mark (Sealife) and Teresa (Seismic Wave) up close with the local police and Richard Liming...

 We had such a fun night!

Sunday Lunch at a Restaurant on the Beach - a time to enjoy each others company before sailing off in different directions...

We have had sooooo much fun with... (left around the table)... Mark - Sealife, Richard, 

Teresa & Brett - Seismic Wave, Ian and Wendy - Outsider, Sarah (Me) and Chris - Tulu.

Last week, Ian and Wendy sailed away from Grenada, heading to A,B'C's on their journey back through to the Pacific.  They have given us so much advice and been such good friends, it was with a tear in the eye that we said goodbye...

We finally left Grenada and sailed back up to Carriacou, where we met up with Kathy & Peter.  

We had met Kathy in Trinidad, with her sister Kay (who did some great canvas work for us) and husband Colin, who had taken us to their home on an island off Trinidad mainland.

Kathy & Peter took us to their beautiful "treehouse" home...  Their view is spectacular.

We had a really lovely time with them, Peter, being a sailor for many years, 

giving us lots of great advice also.

We cleared out of customs/immigration - headed to Petite Martinique, where we filled up with fuel then cleared into Union Island at the bottom of the Grenadines.  We then headed to Tobago Cays, where we snorkelled and swam with the turtles.

We sailed from there to Mayreau - Seismic Wave were there with their lovely guests from Canada, who invited us over for dinner.  Crayfish and Steak - yum!

Great painting on a wall in Mayreau.

Today we left Mayreau and motored (wind straight on the nose) for an hour to Canouan Island.  As soon as we arrived, we were offered these life crayfish - cost $30NZ for both.

While typing the blog, this guy strolled by, so thought he deserved a mention

Carricou Regatta

From Worlds End we had a lovely downwind sail to Carricou.

We had decided to enter the Carricou Regatta - a 3 day sailing race.  First day two handed.  2nd and 3rd days you could have a full crew.  Ian and Wendys boat "Outsider" is much faster than Our Rose, so we raced on their boat, with Richard and Ian doing all the work for the 2 handed race.

For the other two days, we had Lynne and Eric (www.amarulasail.com) crew with us and one day we also had Luxor, a lovely local guy.

The photo on the left shows Richard and Luxor winching as hard as they can, with Eric on the helm.

Above are some yachts we are passing at a reef near a top mark.  The photo to the right shows they wash we were leaving behind the boat, from the speed we were getting.
We ended up winning - 2 bags, 2 bottles of rum, a Gill dive watch and flags etc.  Aside from that we had an awesome time

They also had local races with local boats.  This was held on one of our "off" days.  

The boats were gorgeous.  

There are lots of stalls and rum bars everywhere!... and of course lots of loud music.  

The music is that loud that it vibrates right into the core of your body. 

There is also a DJ or 2 and lots of really large speakers. 
 There are also usually lots of these set up, so they all complete with the music.

After celebrating each race day and it being very hot, we found our beer supplies needed replenishing and Petite Martinique has well priced beer.  This is what the trays of beer were delivered to the dinghy dock in!  Lucky we have lots of bilges where things like beer and wine can be stored!

 There are some lovely shingle houses - Richard thought the one on the left would be an interesting do up?!?  The photo on the right shows how lovely they look when restored.

We then headed back to White Island, where the wedding had been held.  

Our initial plan had been to have a BBQ there, however this was when the wedding appeared.  

I used our lovely table cloth that Chris and Michael had given us 

and Richard and Ian had a beer or so while the BBQ was getting ready.

As the sun was setting, we stoked the fire back up and on dusk we headed back to the boats.

What a beautiful setting.

What do you think this piece of driftwood looks like?

Tiki Touring...

Brett and Teresa (www.seismicwave.ca) continued on with us, and we enjoyed Whisper Cover, where we listened to a "jam" session of musicians.  We then continued to St Georges, where they have a dinghy dock directly across the road from the Supermarket - they really try to make life easy for cruisers.  After restocking, we headed to the Underwater Sculpture Park, anchored and then snorkelled (www.grenadaunderwatersculpture.com).

We then headed back to Prickly Bay, another Tropical Wave weather system coming through.  This is where we said "See You" to Brett and Teresa, who flew to Panama.

We had met Ian and Wendy from Outsider (Australians).  Wendy headed back to Australia for 6 weeks, so Ian decided to join us and we up-anchored and headed to Ronde Island.  

We had boat boys come and sell us two Conch (Lambi), which Ian negotiated the price - 4 cold beers.  We left Ronde and sailed to Saline Island - Carricou.  We went ashore and walked to the top of the island.  

We were attacked by Cactus and Monster Mosquitos on the way back down.  After  WELL EARNED cold beer, Ian showed us how to clean the Conch.

Conch Salad for dinner - YUM!

Next morning we motored to White Islands.  Oh My - soooo gorgeous.

Bombay Sapphire Clear Water.  White Sand Beach.  Uninhabited Island.  We did lots of snorkelling.  Richard went diving.  Another night of delicious seafood for dinner.

A local boat came over to the island and begun building a structure.  Ian asked them what it was they were building.  "Its an archway for my wedding" was the reply.  "Would you and your friends like to join us for my wedding, this afternoon at 14:30?"

The guests (about 150 or more) were all brought over in very colorful local boats.

These lovely girls were happy to have their picture taken.

The bride arrived on one of the boats, then after the ceremony the bride and groom joined everyone for a great time.

There was huge generator with large speakers and a DJ.  Great music!  

Rum Punch, Beer, BBQ Chicken, Pealla, three wedding cakes etc etc

Just before dark, everyone was ferried back over to the mainland by the colorful local boats - Ian in his dinghy and us in ours, all helped get locals back.

What a magical experience!