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.