It's Carnival Time!!

Its carnival time here in Grenada which basically translates to two public holidays (Mon & Tues), street parties, light parades, flotillas, costumes, engine oil, paint and loud music.  We have taken part in the past....getting up at 4am to join Jouvay, getting covered in engine oil and paint, joining the light parades and ogling the girls in ‘pretty mas’ and their elaborate costumes. I was going to tell you this year we choose not to take part. But we did, right at the last minute, we joined a small group and went into St Georges to enjoy my favourite part - pretty mas parade. As usual it was running hours late and it chucked it down right towards the end. But we had fun and were glad we made the effort to go.

I’m sure most of you have heard the news of the attack last weekend on two fellow cruisers here in the Hog Island/Clarks Court Bay area. There is no need for me to rehash the event that can be read about here. It was an awful experience for the two involved and we can only be grateful that they are safe now and wish them lots of love and strength as they put their life back together.  The cruising community united to offer support and have raised over USD$6500 in less than a week to help with repairs to their boat that was put aground.  The two suspects involved have been caught and the community and especially the two cruisers can breathe a sigh of relief hopefully. If you want to make a donation to the cruisers involved you can here.

The previous week has been filled with boat jumbles, hashes, drinks, rescues and rainbows: We have been out kayaking, exploring the coastline of our local area. The weather has been hot and humid with plenty of liquid sunshine producing lots of pretty rainbows. We sold a few items at the boat jumble the previous Sunday and used the EC$$ to buy a few beers that afternoon at Rogers Beach bar but not before we helped in the rescue of a boat that had gone hard aground trying to get around the shallow corner of Hog Island and Secret Harbour. 

Rogers Beach Bar - Hog Island

Sim has worked, we’ve caught up with friends, I’ve noodled, we’ve drunk beer, Sim helped rescue another boat that had gone adrift, I hashed in the pretty SW corner of Grenada called Hope Pastures, which took us through a cocoa plantation, plenty of hills, plenty of mud, lots of bugs and a beach. I thoroughly enjoyed it. All the while Sim chilled on the boat with his new found hobby, watching the sports on the internet; especially good now the Olympics are on.

Kayaking around the anchorage and up close and personal with wrecks in the northern corner of Hog Island

Rainy days = rainbows!

Rainy days also equal hot humid days where not much gets done!

The start of the hash - this week I went with Sharon and Paul.

Through rivers and muddy trails.

Plenty of killer hills!! but at least the views are rewarding. 

The hash took us through a plantation.

The Frangipani worm at Mount Hartman - nothing to do with hash I just wanted to add them - can you believe this colourful caterpiller turns into a big brown moth!