Gorgeous frangipani flowers ....

Every turn of the road had fabulous views and then we came to this old estate with cows and bulls grazing under coconut plams...

Holiday season? Yes, instead or doing work we snorkel or hike...One of our best hikes was to the Atlantic side of Bequia, to a place called Industry. The beaches are fabulous with black and whitish sand and the view of neighbouring island breathtaking...especially seen through the palm trees!

Merry Christmas! Ein Frohes Weihnachten! Joyeux Noel!

Yesterday we went to a concert given by "The Steel Kings"...a steel pan orchestra composed of 30 kids from Bequia! The concert took place "under the big almond tree", there was popcorn, roasted almonds, and a great ambiance as locals and visitors enjoyed the Xmas music played by these talented children...under the direction of Elvis, a great pan player and teacher. Tomorrow, we'll celebrate Christmas german way...with other german cruisers on board s/v Via Vitae, Segelklub Bracke! Pictures will follow...To all of you who have read our blog, we wish a Merry Christmas and great holidays!

Comme en temoigne cette belle creche avec tigre et chameau (qui est surement plus belle la nuit quand illuminee), nous voila presque a Noel...hier soir, nous avons assiste a un concert de steel pans joue par les enfants de Bequia sous le tres majestueux amandier de la place du village. Il y avait beaucoup de febrilite dans l'air, ils ont joue "nos" airs de Noel comme Jingle Bells, Silent Night, et Felix Navidad...il y avait du popcorn, des amandes grillees, des hot dogs...Tout y est sauf la neige! Bien que ce soit difficile pour nous, gens du nord, de rentrer dans l'atmosphere des fetes sous les palmiers, nous feterons quand meme la Noel demain, avec 3 autres couples d'allemands: ici, c'est le jambon qui est le mets traditionnel...nous prendrons des photos! A vous tous qui avez suivi nos peripeties sur ce blog, nous souhaitons de belle Fetes et un joyeux Noel!

This year, Christmas will be celebrated in Bequia! After a fast sail (6+ knots) from Union Island, we arrived in Bequia, once more! There are several boats anchored already...We had music and carols already blasting from land...we'll see what the celebrations will be this week. Stay tune...

Great news..Uwe is coming for a third visit this year...on december 30th, just in time for the big fireworks!

A last walk to Hillsborough Carriacou!
This morning we went back into town to check out at Immigration and Customs and to do our last groceries shopping. Because we are not going to be able to make it to Martinique before Christmas, we had to stack up on wine, gin, flour, cheese etc... as resources in Bequia (St Vincent and The Grenadines) are more limited and more expensive. By the time we get to Martinique, we will be starving for French goods and spirits!

Again today, we enjoyed our beautiful walk. This time in 96 degrees humidity and about 30C.
On our way back, Norbert, our favorite bus driver, confirmed that the distance from Tyrrel Bay to Hillsborough is about 3.8 miles long! He said and that he respected our desire to stretch our legs rather than taking his bus to town.

We will miss the nice people of Carriacou but we look forward to be moving on to our Christmas destination (Bequia) where we will meet with our German friend Uwe. We understand that he has to follow a long and complex travel path to meet with us in Bequia...

Christmas Winds!

The last week or so, the Christmas Winds picked up, blowing hard from the ENE. According the the forecast, we may have a break (thanks due to some strong winter storm in North America and Canada) in the wind strenght, and some shift towards ESE.

If this is the case, we will move North towards Bequia in order to spent Christmas there.

While waiting, we use the time to work on the boat. We just finished the wood in the cockpit (applied 4 layers of Cetol) and will do some varnishing inside - so that we will look pretty for Christmas!

We had a nice evening with Peter on Aquataurus - he was passing through on his way to Grenada to pick up his new dinghy. Initially, we had thought of going with him to do our Christmas shopping there, but he needs more time than we could afford away from the boat.

This morning we walked, once again, to Hillsborough, did our vegetable and wine shopping at the local fruit vendors and grocery stores. It was an enjoyable hike, followed by a cooling swimm. We never tire from the beautiful vistas and also from witnessing the local life, like these children playing around a majestuous mango tree...


At the end of the afternoon, we went with german friends (s/y Bagalut - Germany) to a Halleluja, a boat cafe, to "support the local economy" for a beer (3 for 10EC, hard to beat!). We were quite a group there, with several canadian boaters, german and dutch sailors, and many locals just having a good time ..Denise, the owner, was delighted to have so much business!

Taking a walk in Carriacou!









After being back in the water, the wood in the cockpit needed some TLC! And people wonder what we do all day!???


We had an early start with the varnishing this morning - only to be challenged by some dark clouds which decided to spoil our fun and dump some rain onto the freshly painted wood. We'll see how it comes out.

As we felt like escaping the fumes, and the restriction of the freshly varnished cockpit, we decided to take a walk from the Tyrell Bay anchorage into the town of Hillsborough. Something like 3 to 4 miles or so, along a winding road.


One of our first challenges was to inform all passing mini-buses that we did not need a ride, we were walking! Yes! Walking! No thanks, we will walk, thanks anyway. Yes ... we will walk .... After a couple of passes by the same buses it became clear that we were indeed walking all the way to Hillsborough!




Actually, it was a nice walk (nevermind, it was almost noon and about 32C - our preferred time of the day (and temperature)) to be out for a hike! Indeed, no matter how we structure our day, we end up at noon time on the road!

But walking enables you to see so much more, meet people, chat with them, study buildings, plants and landscape. Here we visited Rastaman Bennet Frank in Brunswick along the road. He runs a plant nursery ... and specializes also in bicycle rental, jewelry, clothing and balusters. We had fun talking to him and to visit his home. He had a booklet with all the cabinet members of the late Maurice Bishop government (1982). We could say that Bennet, like most Grenadians we met, had a strong sense of loss of identity with the death of Maurice Bishop.

If you ever come this way, see him!

Eventually we made it to Hillsborough and enjoyed an excellent roti (beef!) at Ann's Eating Delight and walked over to a beach bar run by Cuthbert Snagg, a place we had visited last october with Karen and Lindsay..once again, it was the perfect spot to enjoy a cold Carib beer with our feet in the sand.

...on the way back, heavily loaded with food items, we took the bus with Norbert - he was glad to have business. Not much going on man at this time of the day!

Well, we had to go back to work - another coat of varnish and to update the blog. It is late afternoon, almost time for a "sundowner"!

Ya man, see ya .....

Life on the hard is hard! Carriacou, Tyrrel Bay Haul Out Marina!

Ok, we had to haul out again, 2 months after we left Ottley Hall, St Vincent. We noticed some rust spots in odd locations above the waterline and were also concerned about some rumbling sounds which we attributed to the shaft bearing.

Fortunately we had bought a replacement bearing in Grenada at Island Waterworld.

The facilities here in Carriacou look very adventurous but were certainly frequented by many cruisers. In addition there were a number of top notch mechanics available in case we needed their help.

Indeed, we did!

After 2 days of working on the shaft coupling to remove the safety pin, we had to ask for assistance by Joerg, who in turn spent another 7 hours to grind out this bloody pin!

But then we managed to drop the rudder, remove the shaft, replace the bearing and reassemble the whole system again.

At the same time, Philip the welder cut out a section around our stern to replace it with new metal.

Today, Monday, and after 5 days, we finally launched and left the mosquitoes behind, left the young bulls behind, the cats, the dogs, the chickens and the parrots....nevermind the very rustical washrooms and once again we can use our boat and its facilities again.

Needless to say, we had a major cleaning today. The greasy sandy soil of the yard had left the deck of the boat black and spotty...

We enjoyed the marina staff very much, and appreciated their support and sense of humour. ..we might come back again if the washrooms see some improvement!

We are back again in the cruising mode...tomorrow is shopping for food.

This was such a great hike, with breath taking views, magnificent flowers (heliconia), huge bamboos swinging in the wind and finally, Mona monkeys!!! (Not the one with the striped shirt...that's a canadian mammal!)

After the hike with Carole and Daniel to the Seven Sisters Fall, we regretted not to have taken a picture of our muddy feet and legs...Heiner and I had to look for another opportunity to get dirty! And we did...

We traveled, by bus again, to the Grand Etang National Park with the idea in mind to walk around the Grand Etang ...we had to ask a guide where the path is ...she gave us some general info but forgot to mention that the best maintained trail was the one for going to Mount Qua Qua, a much more rigorous one. And guess what: that's the one we took. Lucky mistake as the view were just breathtaking ..and the mud as plentiful as on our previous hike!

Next step is to determine what nuts are good or not: they are plonged in water basins and the "floaters" or bad ones are set aside! After they dried, they will be sorted by size and shipped throughout the worlds...yes, one worker of the plant is applying red paint to the jute bags to mark their final destinations! Gouyave ius where it happens!!!! Fascinating...we already have been enjoying nutmeg syrop on our pancakes and are including the spices in several of our dishes!!!!

Ainsi se termine la petite histoire de la noix de muscade: une simple petite noix qui fait l'economie d'un pays, le gagne-pain d'une famille, la prosperite d'une communaute. Les arbres les plus vieux sont ceux qui produisent le plus de noix: une tres grande proportion de ces arbres ont ete decimes par l'ouragan Ivan et cela va prendre au moins 10 ans avant que cette generation soit aussi productive...il y a bien des noix qui proviennent d'Indonesie mais on nous assure, ici, que c'est la noix de Grenade qui est la plus savoureuse! pensez y la prochaine fois que vous raperez cette petite noix dans votre mets prefere!

After a long drying period, the shells must be broken: first step is now done with a wooden mill that cracks the shells..women used to crack the shells with a small wooden hammer! What a job...now these workers "only" separate the broken shells from the nuts manually. They must process 700lbs of nuts a day to earn their 30 EC (12 Can $)...very boring and arduous work.

We had an interesting visit of the nutmeg processing plant in Gouyave: after hurricane Ivan destructed up to 80% of the nutmeg plantations on the island, this is now the only plant actually processing the nuts brought by farmers from all over Grenada. Frank was our guide; he had helped us earlier to find a neat little restaurant in town. He was very good at describing all steps of processing. First we were shown huge racks where nuts with envelope were left to dry. One such nut can be kept for 10 years...without the envelope (like the ones we buy at our stores) the nutmeg is good for up to only 3 years. Here in the pan are three kinds of mace (the envelopes of the nutmeg): depending on the degree of dryness, they will be used for cooking, food preservation or in cosmetics.

There is a small town on the west coast of Grenada called Gouyave reknown for two things: its Friday's fish fry and its Nutmeg Processing plant (seen here in the picture). The day of our visit, the town was kind of depressed because of the road blockage ...in an effort to widen this very busy road, workers had detonated explosives and caused more damages than good (it appears that the contract for this job had been given to a firm whose prices were cheaper than all others bidders!!!) : as a result, rocks began falling on the road and it became unpassable! All traffic had to go through the interior (much longer) and on the way back, we had to walk, in the mud again, in order to catch the bus to St George!!! Adventures!!!!!!!

After underwater adventures, we went on land expeditions... Taking Bus #5, we drove to the interior of the island, passing Grand Etang national park and reached the starting point of an hour long walk through the rainforest before reaching the Seven Sisters Falls (altitude 1990 feet). The driving was fun and the hiking was even more fun: we fulfilles our children's dream of playing in the mud!!! We were dirty.........good that we had sticks to help us stay upright because it could have been a very very dirty hike.

Apres une couple de jours a jouer dans l'eau, nous avons pris le bus vers les Seven Sisters Falls, a l'interieur du pays. C'etait fascinant de grimper dans les montagnes en bus - surtout avec leur style de conduite! - mais ce fut encore plus amusant de monter les sentiers tres boueux avant d'arriver aux chutes! Quand Carole et moi avons vu les chutes # 1 et 2, on a tout de suite eu envie d'y nager! Daniel et Heiner ont ete plus aventureux et ont gravi un sentier de bouette pour voir les 6 et 7....

Carole and Marleyne were looking forward to swimm in the first fresh water pool of the first falls...while Daniel and Heiner were more adventurous and decided to hike even further to the last falls...

Grenada has some interesting snorkeling spots to offer...we went back to an area already visited, namely Dragon Point and Molinieres Point ...and next day to Happy Hill bay in order to look at the Flamingo reef...we were amazed at the diversity of fishes, the clarity of water with cliffs offering beautiful views of corals and sponges ... one amazing thing was to snorkel amidst a bank of thousands silvery fishes...sorry no pictures! (If our friend Karen had been with us, we would have pictures!!!!).

Nous avons fait de la plongée en apnée dans des baies de la côte ouest de la Grenade. Nous sommes retournés a Dragon Point et à Molinieres Point qui, avec ses sculptures sous l’eau offre un spectacle un peu morbide mais intéressant..mais ce sont les poissons et les coraux et éponges de toutes sortes qui nous ont fascinés! Et, nous avons été ébahis de nager au milieu d’un banc de poissons, des milliers de poissons argentés (sardines?) qui ont envahi la baie de Happy Hill...

When friends are visiting, the weather is great! We had a great sail from Hog Island to St Georges...Carole and Daniel enjoyed the warmth and the gentle breeze! It had been a while since they sailed in the Caribbean but they felt right at home!!! We anchored at Ross Point close to St Georges harbour so we could shop for food and drinks. We all enjoyed our Gin and Tonic as sundowner!

On avait hate que nos amis arrivent ..afin de nous reposer!

Et ils arriverent...1 heure plus tot que prevu!!! Malgre l'epuisement des 24 heures de "voyagerie", ils nous ont accompagne a St George pour aller au marche du samedi!! En revenant, nous avons pris une bonne Carib en fut a la marina Whisper Cove...

Carole and Daniel arrived early on Liat's flight from Trinidad...we were late by an hour to pick them up at the Whisper Cove Marina of Woburn. They acquainted themselves with the new marina managers...and welcomed us at 8am!

Despite their fatigue, they were keen on coming with us to St George to go to the Saturday market and buy fish...When we came back, we were so thirsty..and had a draft beer on the marina's patio!

A walk up the hilly streets of St George reveals the damages inflicted by hurricanes such as Ivan, 5 years ago already. Churches such as the St. Andrew Presbyterian Kirk (referred to as Scots Kirk built in 1831) and other habitations, even the house of Parlement were just anihilated... it will take a long time to reconstruct these buildings. And what about the nutmeg plantations that were destroyed up to 80%...

Fort Georges still stands, however, and we liked its volcanic rocks surrounded by Bougainvillae bushes...Fort George played an important role in the crisis of 1983 when the leftist leader Maurice Bishop and several of his ministers were executed within its walls...Six days later, the United States military invaded the island.

November 11th already...Stores have begun to play Christmas music since last week...good thing that the "reggae" sound tones its down a bit...way to early for us! Besides, we don't think of Xmas when it's 30C and sunny...

Time passes quickly...we thought that we could do some sightseeing BEFORE our next set of friends gets here but no, maintenance work oblige...we have not done anything very touristy. We went to St Georges with the minibus from Woburn..it's a nice ride and we love walking around St Georges Carenage, walking up Young street, buy a vegetarian roti at the "D Roti Shop" and go shopping for fish and veggies.

After a nice couple of meals with fresh tuna, we had marlin last weekend. We are not raw fish lovers so we have to come up with different recipes: blackened or in a coconut milk sauce with plantains or okras...we love every version of fresh fish.

Now that we have moved to Prickly Bay, we took the bus for a tour to St Georges on Saturday, market day. We loved the activity, the smells, the noises...market days are the best.

For their last day in Grenada, we decided to make a little trip to the Atlantic side of the island and a visit to the River Antoine Rum Distillery! Grenville is the second most important town in Grenada and is very very different from St George's. We were the only white tourists there and enjoyed the Grenadians kindness and hospitality. We bought food on the street -pastries at the backery, soup with turkey and local vegetables and then rotis. The conch or lambi roti was extra-ordinary! The fish was good too but lambi was our preferred one.