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?

My Birthday...

Day after the wedding on White Island was my birthday.  Ian brought over a gift - a Koala, 2 Oh Henry Chocolate Bars and the loan of a book "Caribbean" by James Michener for me to read.

We sailed to Union Island, where we stocked up on Fruit and Vege from Colorful Stalls.  Richard bought me a lovely Hibiscus clip.

Happy Island - the Island was handmade by a guy named Janti.  It is built on the edge of a reef at Union Island.  One problem they had at Union Island was the Conch Shells that were left on the beach by the fishermen, which was quite unsightly.  (Literally thousands and thousands of them).  Jonti solved this problem by taking the conch Shells and creating his own island, and building a bar.  You can snorkel during the day, or have a drink at the bar.  You can tie your dinghy up right outside.

We then sailed to Petite Martinique.

I had skype calls and loads of messages from my friends and family.  They all meant so much to me!  Thank you all.

In the evening, Ian cooked us a Roast Lamb with all the trimmings for dinner.  He also invited Eric and Lynne from Amarula (www.amarulasail.com).

What an awesome day, with my wonderful husband and our lovely new friend Ian.

Next day we up-anchored and headed to "Worlds End" - a reef system at Tobago Cays.
We could not believe our luck with the weather - we were able to stay at Worlds End for a couple of days.  We did lots of snorkelling - I went for my first dive in years.  The coral was really healthy and there was a lot to look at.

This is "Outsider" and "Our Rose" anchored at Worlds End.
(We can now say "we've been to the End of the World"