Fun In The Sun...

There is some amazing Architecture here - this house has the swimming pool at the front (where the "lighthouse" tower is.  The house itself has grass growing on the roof, 

with the main gutter "sliding" down the side, being a feature

This property is on a privately owned island.  

 This boat, tied at the jetty must go like....  It has 4 x 350hp motors!

There was Hobbie Cat racing scheduled for Sunday at Le Phare Bleu.

With Brett and Teresa, we went to see if we could test their Hobbie Cats.

Brett and Richard were competing individually on Sunday, so they went for a test spin on Saturday.

 When registration came about, the question was asked "why don't Teresa and You compete".  

Never having sailed a Hobbie  before, we said "Why Not"

So we registered as a team.  Here we are - Teresa on the Helm and Me on the Sheets

 We could not believe it when we won our first race! and we got to race again.

Spice Island...

Last week was our 14th wedding anniversary.  

We went to "Dodgy Dock" for dinner and they gave us this card.  

It says:  2 Hearts, 2 Minds, In Time did Find - 1 Love, One Aim, 2 Paths the same.

Time flies... we have been together 18 years now and what a awesome journey we are having!

We went to a "cooking class".  These ladies have an awesome sense of humour - 

We were sipping Rum Punch listening to their banter, then finished by tasting all the food.

Now we know why Grenada is called "The Spice Island".  

They grow Cashew Nuts,

Among many other things they grow Turmeric, Bay, Cloves, Cinnamon, Nutmeg - these photos are just a sample of the huge industry Nutmeg and Mace is...  

 Hurricane Ivan in 2004 devastated 90% of the Nutmeg Trees

(as was 90% of the roofs of the buildings here destroyed) 

They also grow Cocoa here - at the processing plant this was the sign on the door

You can also still see the feeling of the people after the invasion from the Americans in 1983

 This beautiful coloured tree is a Eucalyptus

 They have three "legal" Rum distilleries on the island.  This one is the oldest, dating back to 1786.  It is still run in much the same way, using a water wheel

The Sugar cane moves up this conveyor

  and the "husks" from the sugar cane is then sent on this rail trolley

  to be used for burning to heat the sugarcane

 The distilling process is then in these large chambers.

I again went to the Readers Programme - it was the last day for 2 months as the children now are on summer holidays.  It is amazing seeing the interaction of the kids here, the elder ones look after the younger ones - they are amazingly polite

Fishermans Birthday... AND Naniki Jazz...

The annual fishermans birthday is held over an hour away.  

18 of us,two van loads were collected at 17.30 and off we went.

It a huge street party, with lots of really loud music, lots of rum and lots of fun!  The Grenadians sure know how to party... (we were Liming again!)

 Yes, it is Theresa and Jen after the odd Rum or two!

We had a great night with Theresa and Brett.

Sunday Evening was the Naniki Jazz Safari.  Held at Mt Cinnamon Resort.
It was a lovely location, we had cocktails at a "Beach Bar" first.
The music was held on the grounds of the resort.
Sipping Rum (yet again) and eating Ribs, Chicken and Tuna Kebabs while listening to the sounds.

Extra Help...

Saturday morning we helped at a program for children who require extra help with their reading, writing, math.  It is run by a lady who supports and hosts the program out of her garage, which is set up like a classroom.

The program relies on volunteers to come and assist with the children, aged from 4 to 17 or so.

 Richard was assigned two boys, who were very bright and were having extra reading.

These three were my young boys.  Aged 4 and 5.  Very eager.  Two of them I helped with spelling and numbers, the other I helped by showing him how to hold a pencil and write his name - he had lost his Mum to cancer very recently, and seemed to really enjoy female attention, ending up lying with his head in my lap.

Their attention span was only so much, so I showed them how to make paper planes and we went outside flying those to give them a little break.

After working "one on one", we all sat and Jean tested the older children on their spelling for their upcoming spelling bee.

At the end, they are given juice and cookies.

It is a great program and awesome to see children wanting to learn and improve.

Hello Grenada...

After clearing Immigration and Customs, it was time to go shopping...

the only thing on the shopping list - dive gear!

We cant believe how hard it is to find a selection of dive gear since we arrived!  

We have surfed the web, we have been to the stores,

and again, here in Grenada it is not the selection we were hoping for.  

Richard needs the dive gear NOW!

Theresa suggested we put a radio message on the morning Net, 

so we did, how lucky are we... 

We had an immediate response from some cruisers who were selling all their gear 

as they had sold their boat.  He was a dive instructor also, and had been teaching.  

We are now very happy owners of 4 BCD's, 3 complete Reg sets, 

Computers, Compasses, Fins, Masks - you name it we have it - plus lots of spares...

Mr Robinson was a very happy man!

Theresa and Brett invited us over for some sundowners, 

it was really lovely to be so welcomed.  

It was also fantastic to see "Seismic Wave"... 

we felt we already knew her from when she was "My Catlyn" 

and the photos we had followed on their blog

Goodbye Trinidad...

Isnt it funny how some signs are a bit strange: 

If it’s a café why cant you eat or drink?

This is some of the hand signals you need to learn for your drivers licence in Trinidad

Why is a 150tonne travel lift lifting a tiny tender (looked funny)

A Beautiful Pelican - Saturday morning we headed to Immigration, then Customs – it was time to leave.  Our final land stop was “duty free”, then we finally lifted anchor and we were off...

 the first start of our journey “on our own”…

We headed to Scotland Bay, where we arrived early afternoon.  

3.00am the next morning we were up and ready to go.  Our destination Grenada.  

A lovely full moon meant that our visibility was pretty good, we headed out from the headland, we had a Easterly which meant the wind was very close to the nose.  

Richard put up the main and let out the jib – motors off, we were away! 

We had been watching other vessels moving about, 

however about an hour out there was a boat coming directly at us on our port side.  

We blasted our horn 5 times (what are your intentions), no change of course, 

we again blasted 5 times – 

we had already started up the engines and we immediately changed course drastically. 

The vessel – a pirogue – passed across our bow within feet.  Wow, it was pretty scary.  

There had been quite a bit of talk about “pirates” off the Venezuela Coast (approx 20km away).  

Well, it turned out that it was probably just a person that had gone to sleep or just simply didn’t care.

Our sail to Grenada was as close to the wind as you can get – we arrived mid afternoon.  Within a couple of minutes of dropping anchor we had a dinghy come up behind us – “hello, hello” it was Brett and Theresa from Seismic Wave to say HI, with a cold beer in hand – what a lovely welcome!

Lovely Day...

We decided to alter our helmseat.  We then needed to have some extra upholstering on it, which was when we met Kay (the upholsterer).  She also made us hatch and winch covers, doing a fabulous job - we would highly recommend Kay for any canvas or upholstery work

Kay and her husband Colin very kindly asked us over to their place for lunch.  The live on an island not far from where we are moored, so on Wednesday (a public holiday here) 

Kay, Colin and Kays twin sister Kathy came and collected us from Our Rose.  

What a lovely day we had with them.  

We went to a gorgeous spot, where we anchored 

and went swimming.

We passed some lovely properties set right on the water...

After a beer in their Jacuzzi, Kay cooked us NZ Lamb for lunch - yum.

Their property is lovely - they have planted lots of fruit trees, bourganvillea, Trees etc etc.

After lunch, we played pool, drinking cognac - what a great end to a fabulous day

Thank you, Thank you, Thank you - you made our Trinidad visit very special!

Back In The Water...

First thing Monday morning, Don came and lifted us up onto the special catamaran trailer, so that we could finish the final touches of our Anti-Fouling

 We have been working around the rain all week, however Monday morning stayed clear for the guys to finish the buffing on the gelcoat, then mid afternoon we were again heading back to the water...

Liming...

It would be remiss of me not to mention something about "Liming"...

Liming is the national pastime here in Trinidad - they have it down to an art - Liming is hanging around chatting - or "the art of doing nothing".  Liming sometimes involves food and drink (often quite a few drinks, whiskey and Rum are very popular here).  The exchange of tall stories ad jokes - PROVIDING the activity has no explicit purpose other then hanging around.

Liming in Trinidad is acknowledged as a form of performing art!

Steel Pan

Saturday morning up very early to watch the All Blacks thrash France!  30 - 0 "Go the All Blacks!"

When we were in St Helena, we had tied onto a mooring with too much rope.  The rope had scraped a little of the anti-fouling off the bottom, so we decided that due to us being out of the water we would repair this.  Well, this turned into us sanding and re-antifouling the complete bottom again - we were both covered in "black" sanding and anti-fouling by the end of it.  Now we know why they wear the painting suits!

Last night we went to listen to Steel Pan Bands.  There were 5 of them.  The hosting band showed us their trophy room - these are just some of the trophies, certificates they have won since 1940's...

The room was full, both sides with trophies.

The steel pan bands compete each year.  The music they create is extraordinary, the energy and fun they all have is wonderful.