November 17-19. After getting some provisions on Union Island, we sailed another hour north to The Tobago Cays and stayed there for two days (some of the best snorkeling ever). The sailing "season" is November-June so the weather has been getting milder--not as hot during the day as the summer months and down to 78F at night--a little chilly...
November 20. After The Tobago Cays, we sailed up to Bequia Island where we've been the last few days. Very lovely island. This is where we'll spend Thanksgiving. No turkey in sight so we'll probably feast on lobster or lamb with the friends we've made who are doing the same crazy sailing thing we're doing!
On our last weekend in Grenada, we (Rascal, Aloha and LaBella Vita) hired a local guy to show us around the island. This is spice island so we saw the source of cinnamon, nutmeg, cocoa, ginger, coffee, cashews, and rum (!) among others...a beautiful island with beautiful people... We stayed in Grenada for hurricane season and today we're beginning our trek up-island. We'll take our time but expect to be in Martinique by December 3rd. After that, who knows? (More photos to come!)
The year is 2000 and we have chartered a sailboat in Grenada. We spend the night in a local hotel down near the water. Our 10-year old (Alex) wakes up the next day covered in welts from mosquito bites. We later discover we are in MOSQUITO BAY. Sixteen years later we are in Grenada but can't find Mosquito Bay. It's not on the map or in the island guidebooks. Why? Did some marketing person convince the Chamber that "Mosquito Bay" was probably not a great selling point for tourists and visitors? Yes. Today you can stay in beautiful MOUNT HARTMAN BAY--and, even more practically, they seem to have their mosquitos under control!
November 10, 2016: Exactly one year ago at 1:00am yesterday we finished a grueling 9-day trip across the North Atlantic from Hampton, VA to Tortola, BVI on Rascal. Fred, Chris, Linda and me. Three of us had never been on an ocean-crossing before and didn't know what to expect. The people we met who did it the previous year said they motored most of the way because there was little wind. That wasn't what we experienced. It averaged 20-25 the entire trip and seas were often 8-10 feet. Good thing: along the way our diesel engine broke down and the halyard of our big genoa sail broke. We sailed the whole way with a small storm sail and our mainsail. Luckily, it was all we needed. We hobbled into Tortola and anchored one year ago today near Jost Van Dyke Island. A great adventure.
I was surprised to learn that there are a good number of retired couples (like us) who have escaped "normal" retirement to buy a boat and cruise the world year-round. But there are also younger couples with young kids doing the same. Their kids are home-schooled and getting a world-view not typically experienced by most. In Grenada right now, there are families from England, South Africa, Brazil, Australia, France, Sweden, Germany and the USA. There is even a "kid's net" that comes on the VHF radio once a week--run by kids, following the daily "cruiser's net"--where they welcome new arrivals, say goodby to kids leaving, plan social get-togethers on each others' boats or ashore. I suspect that in 10-15 years, these pretty sophisticated kids will be stepping in to save the world from itself...
In the interim, they have in common the English language, the joy of cruising--and candy. Last evening, on Halloween, they formed a flotilla of dinghys and went trick-or-treating from anchored vessel to anchored vessel here in Prickly Bay. ...brand new but wrong size, ready to sell at the Secret Harbor Cruiser's Garage Sale (Grenada)....surely someone will put it to good use? Sold!!!...(to this comedian....in exchange for a wind sleeve). 😎
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AuthorRick and Linda Grimes bought a sailboat and left the U S of A for the Caribbean in 2015. Archives
April 2018
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