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

Still In Grenada...

Doing provisioning is always interesting!... Usually it entails catching a local bus (van that holds as many people as possible, they stop anywhere to collect you as you are walking down the road).  However, we had "big" provisioning to do, so along with Ian & Wendy and Brett & Teresa and Mark, we hired a van.  Brett and Teresa are expecting guests, so their provisioning was pretty big.  We would load the van, then head back to the dinghy dock, unload to the dinghy, then the boats and do it all over again.  Brett had only just left the dinghy dock and his outboard stopped.  There was that much onboard, that the fuel line had been disrupted... so we towed him back

Some of the sunsets are gorgeous

While having lunch yesterday, we looked out and saw a yacht come around the point and it appeared to have a sail problem.  We kept an eye on it, and found that they had gone straight onto the reef.  We called Mark (Sea Life) who along with Coastguard came out to help.  Fortunately the yacht was pulled off the reef, without serious damage.

Hashing...

I forgot to add in our last update - last Saturday we went on our first Hash...  and to our naughty minded friends, no it is not what you think!

We were collected by "Shademan" in his van.  The van is a bit of a beaten up Toyota (or similar)... you know the kind.  Well, what we didnt realise, was that you can fit 18 people and 2 dogs in one.  We now know what "canned people" look like.

We ended up at the highest point in Grenada, where we were dropped off.  There was probably 100 or so people there.  We then "hashed" for the next hour or so, ending with well deserved cold beers at the end.

Hashing is Cross Country Harriers.

Tobago and Beyond

After Jono left, we headed made our way Castara Bay and caught up with Porridge and Janelle (www.castararetreats.com).  They showed us around their beautiful Retreat and then we had a lovely night of drinks and dinner with them and 4 of their guests.  We then invited them all out on Our Rose the next day, along with Shaq - Porridge and Janelles son.

We headed to another bay and they snorkelled - I had baked early in the morning, so had Homemade Pie, Salad and Muffins for lunch.  We had a lovely day with them all.

Heading up to Charlotteville we were joined again by pods of dolphins 

(no matter how often we see them, they are still a wonder and soooo beautiful!)

We cleared out of Charlotteville on Wednesday, and left for Grenada at 5pm, sailing overnight and arriving in Grenada at 9am the next morning.

Yesterday, we finally had our "Chafe Guard" installed.  This is a fitting that was sent by Southern Spars in South Africa, which will sort out of Main Halyard chaffing.

We are so grateful to Brett and Teresa (Seismic Wave), Mark (Sea Life) and Jonathan (Chez Nous) who helped us.  We had a matter of inches to spare each side of Our Rose.  Richard did an awesome job helming us in and not a scratch was had!

Plans Made To Change...

We cleared out of Grenada - next destination Guyana.  We headed up to Union Island, which would then give us a better wind angle.  We got up at 6am and headed off.  At 11pm our Main came down in a huge rush.  The Main Halyard had broken (AGAIN!).  So, we veered off and are now at Tobago.

Richard spent a couple of hours up the mast getting the main halyard back up and also trying to work out why the halyard is getting compromised.  We have emailed the "mast" company and will now email the boat builder to try to get a resolution to this.  Our main halyard breaking twice in less than 6000 nm, when we have not been using the main often is not good!

This weekend it is Trinidad/Tobago Independence day Celebrations - 51 years of independence.  The day started with a parade of all the Forces and Clubs

 With the day finishing with a Fireworks Display

Carnival Grenada...

For most part, I will let the pictures tell the story, with a brief explanation before each event.

Carnival is an event that is over a 3 day period, with NON-STOP partying!  

We begun on Saturday evening with "Panorama" the finals of the Pan Band competitions.  We got back to Our Rose just after 2.00am

Monday morning begun with J'Ouvert - we were up at 4.30am for the 5.00am start.

Most of the very loud bands and Rum partying had continued through Sunday and to Monday morning.

J'Ouvert (with the Jab Jabs) are recognising slavery days.  

This would have to have been one of the most extraordinary things we have ever been to.  There were "Oil" Stations driving around, where the people could "Oil" their bodies (using dark engine oil)

They covered themselves with the oil and had on either masks/and or chains or various props.  On a much smaller scale, colored paint was also used.

Massive Sound systems on trucks

How cool is this guy - looking after babies ears!

We finished the morning session at about 11am.  Went back to Our Rose for a rest, then headed back for the afternoon - "Pageant Mas".  They keep a very strict seperation between the Jab Jabs in the morning and the Pageant Mas, which started at 15:00

 A few beers were had during the late afternoon.  We then went back to Our Rose again for another rest before the evening "Light Night Mas", starting at 20:30

Literally tens of thousands of people were involved - we estimated at least 10% of the population were involved in the actual Carnival, not as spectators like us.

It then finished the next day with "Parade of the Bands"