WEEK 18 We welcome our first guests !

Tuesday August 5th 2014

Grenada .....it’s too good not to share !

We have just bid a fond farewell to our guests; my sister Dominique, nephew Thomas and niece Laura who have spent two weeks onboard.  We can honestly say that it has been a pleasure to share with them the beauty of this part of the Caribbean, and our appreciation of the place was definitely enhanced by their enthusiasm of it all.

It was nice to be able to show others what life on board a sailboat REALLY is like, in a way it must have taken away some of the romance from what they might have imagined our life was like, (reality bites!), but then pump toilets will do that for anyone ! In all seriousness though, our three honoured guests did very well! They adapted quickly to life onboard a sailing vessel, and were consistently enthusiastic from “Day One” all the way to “Day 14” ! They embraced the challenges, showed grace when the wind stole some of their clothes from the clothes line, they were easy going and “went with the flow” when weather kept us from doing an activity, and were always willing to lend a helpful hand, we could not ask for more!

Cousins !

We had a good time together; the weather was varied which gave them a chance to experience all sorts of conditions: some very strong winds and rain and some beautiful sunny days and starlight evenings.Oh, and even the dolphins cooperated!  Coming out to say hello in their own magical way on their first day of sailing (from Grenada to Carriacou.) 

I guess that the dolphins had received the memo!  Haha !  We spare no expense in pleasing our guests! Upon their arrival a “wish list” was devised by our guests...and we tried to deliver as best we could with some added, unexpected bonuses. 

Here were the highlights of our time together :

•  Getting lost on a deserted island for a while, check ✔️
• Seeing Dolphins, check ✔️  
• Beach Time, check ✔️    
• Snorkel pretty reefs, see colourful fish, check ✔️
• Swimming with sea turtles, check ✔️
•  Sailing to enchanted islands, check ✔️
•  Seeing Iguanas, tortoises and other land creatures, check,check and check ✔️
• Snorkelling the Underwater Sculpture Park, check ✔️
• Walking up to a Fort for a good view of a harbour, check ✔️
• Trying new foods & buying spices from the spice market, check ✔️
• Learning about “Dinghy Bum” (Wet bottoms) on Recess, check ✔️
• R n' R time, check ✔️
• Watching the sunrise in the stunning Tobago Cays, check ✔️
• Learning the hard way about how much the Grenadian locals like to party, by being kept up by the annoyingly loud and melody challenged “SOCA” music” until the wee hours of the morning, check ✔️
• Quality family time;Board games and watching episodes of "Sherlock" in the evenings check, ✔️
• Seeing the awesome kite surfers while enjoying a drink at Happy Island, check, ✔️
• Getting our "Gambling Fix" at crab race night ,(And they even winning some pocket money too!) check ✔️
• Getting their kitten/puppy fix by volunteering at  the local SPCA in Grenada, check ✔️
• Joining in the volleyball games with the sailing community, check ✔️

Laura, always the trooper, even broke her finger-Ouch-and kept right on playing! (They found out only after their return to Canada). We have been assured that Doe, Thomas and Laura had a very good time and we sure have enjoyed sharing our adventure with them !!

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   (Sandy Island near Carriacou)

Photo by Doe

Catching some rays on Grande Anse Beach, Grenada

Grande Anse Beach

Swimming with Turtles in Tobago Keys, Grenadine

Tobago Cays, are always breath taking!

View from Fort Matthew in Grenada

Shopping the market in Grenada

Thomas gets down with the puppies

Lightning Fast Hermit Crabs on Race Night!

Laura and her SPCA buddy

SPCA Visit

Prickly Bay Weekly VolleyBall Game

Water and Electricity, off the grid !

Before our guests arrived we had been a little bit concerned about conserving water and electricity and what adding 3 adults on board was going to do to our limited water supply...like I told our guests when they arrived : the concept of living off the grid (ie making our own electricity and water) is easy to understand but maybe not so easy to realize and adapt to in real life, especially coming from a country of abundance like Canada, but they surprised us, being very careful with their water and electricity use, consequently we did not run out of water! 

New foods to savour, new things discovered !

Meanwhile, the 4 of us have continued to enjoy to learn new things about the culture and food here in Grenada. For instance, we had a very neat dinner at a local restaurant one night were we were able to sample a huge variety of new foods !

Here are of some of the food we sampled: 

• Green banana salad (tasted like potato salad)
•  Okra (tastes like zucchini or cauliflower when boiled) 
• Christophine (delicious)  
• Fried Plantain (which we now regard as a great substitute to sweet potatoes)

We also tried dasheen, which I recently discovered is the equivalent of taro root from South East Asia, the leafs, locally called Callaloo, are used to make a delicious soup (which reminds me of spinach cream soup)  or in stir fries. 

Have I told you about Wax Apples and French Cashews?  These are just a few of the “apples” you can get in Grenada  you can also get Custard Apple, Mami Apple, Golden Apple, etc, these are not apples in the traditional sense, but they offer a wide range of tastes and textures. Matthews favourite are French Cashew (that some would describe as a bit too bitter for their taste) and Wax Apples which I think we described after our tour with Sea Cat in Dominica, where they were going by the other name “ Pomerac”.

Dasheen (Taro)

Callaloo Leafs

Yummy Chin-ups

French Cashews

On tour with our guests we also tried :  “Chin Ups”, like a Lychee, which grow on trees and that the local kids sell to raise funds for school supplies.

We also learned about “Noni” : a strange and unattractive looking (and smelling!)  fruit but if you put it in water, its juices flow out and are reputed to being very good at fighting cancer. Cutty told us that a few weeks ago, an american tourist told him she gave her dog the whole noni fruit to eat, and that a month or so later, his cancer was all gone !  I am told that you can buy “Noni Juice Extract” in the United States. I am sure that they came up with a catchier name than "Noni Juice" though.

We also learned about “Noni” : a strange and unattractive looking (and smelling!)  fruit but if you put it in water, its juices flow out and are reputed to being very good at fighting cancer. Cutty told us that a few weeks ago, an american tourist told him she gave her dog the whole noni fruit to eat, and that a month or so later, his cancer was all gone !  I am told that you can buy “Noni Juice Extract” in the United States. I am sure that they came up with a catchier name than "Noni Juice" though.

Noni

We also tried Sorrel, a traditional drink made with Hibiscus....very tasty and refreshing !

Sorrel

I was amazed to learn that “Loofas”  -Those neat little sponge-like bath scrubs you can buy in health food stores- come from a plant that looks like a cucumber. We were told that there are actually two types of Loofas, one from land and one from the sea. We had a chance to handle the land loofa, breaking open the ripe pod, which looks like a dried cucumber, and food a perfect loofa inside ! 

The Loofa

We also saw where cloves came from (from the flower in case you were wondering), and discovered “Yuku” a seed pod that once opened can be used for make up (nail polish, lipstick), OR, as a food colouring to help convince children to eat their rice, true story !

Yuku

Waterfalls, Daring Stunts and Elusive Monkeys.

While enjoying an after dinner drink on Happy Island in the Grenadines this second time round, we got a impromptu show from a couple of kite surfers who wizzed by us in the shallow waters around the island. At first I was not sure if it was the rum I was drinking, but it looked like one of these dare devils has done the impossible task of surfing through two  dinghies (parked inches apart) and then, I saw that I was, in fact, still sober and my eyes had not deceived me, which prompted cheering and clapping from everyone present, and this got the kite surfer really going, he started to entertain us by doing fly bys and charging towards us at crazy speeds, kicking up and flying above our heads just before hitting the wall ! Meghan and Matthew each got a high five from him.How cool is that?1

When we got back to Grenada, we and our guests joined our Rafiki friends to go discover some new waterfalls: Concord Falls and the Seven Sister Falls. Both were stunning and refreshing to swim under, I even had a bit of fun and jumped in, but only after seeing all  the other people come up safely (hehe) !  Meghan quickly followed suit but Matthew declined. He loves water, but not when he has to fall into it from up high! 

"Sisters in the mist"

Concord Falls

If the dolphins got the memo, the monkeys certainly seemed to have missed it, completely !  

I am going to have to have a chat with those cuties next time I see them, because we tried to get my family to meet them, on two separate occasions and they did not show up.  I think that the road construction nearby may have been a factor, or maybe it was the sight of this crazy tourist, hm...

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Photos by Ingrid, S/V Rafiki

Photo By Ingrid S/V Rafiki

Thanks Laura, it did not hurt one bit !  (I just made that face for show)

 Just in case people are wondering how the medical facilities are in Grenada, I can tell you that they are pretty good! A few days before our guests arrived, I went grocery shopping with a friend of mine, and I got into an altercation with the sidewalk, and the sidewalk won!  Who knew that grocery shopping was a full contact sport ?! Anyways, I am fine, Robin who was with me, kept his head and assessed my condition, got me in a taxi, and Ingrid met up with me and took me to the hospital, where an excellent doctor gave me a single stitch, on my brow line, and since the stitch had to be removed on the 7th day, Laura, who has medical training (as a Veterinary Assistant), did a great job, thus allowing us to keep our scheduled trip to the Grenadines as planned. 

Meg welcomes our guests at the airport

Meg's booming bracelet business

Tobago Keys

Dinner on the beach, Tobago Keys

The Origin of CHOCOLATE !

Doe tries sugar cane at the Rum distillery

Kids Playing cricket on Streets- Grenada

MC and Laura clean out a Calabash

MEG GETS UP ON WAKEBOARD !  WAY TO GO !

Coming up, Grenada may not have been hit by tropical storms or Hurricanes, but Carnival Fever is building up here, we can feel the a real increase in energy and anticipation all around us, soon we will feel the full force of it ! Stay tuned for more and thanks for reading !

 

Meghan On Amélie-July 2014

Ahoy again mateys! Again, I am very sorry that it took so long to get the blog done (by the way please apreciate it if you you have good working internet) but just in case you don't know, this is what I wrote 3 weeks ago so it is not the latest updates. Anyways, Amélie IV has travelled from Grenada to many of the Grenadines in the past 2 weeks and has seen some pretty cool things which I am sure you would all love to hear about.

Canada Day

We started off the month of July by celebrating Canada day! We announced it to everyone on the daily morning net (on the VHF radio) that all Canadian yachters were welcome to come to a potluck on the beautiful Grande Anse beach (Grenada)! It included Canadian music, lots of swimming, lots of yummy food, a few games of beach soccer and of course lots of red and white! To finish off the day, all the kids went to the weekly volleyball game in Secret Harbour. 

The Grenadines

Baby goat on Union Island

A few days after Canada Day, we sailed a bit up north to the beautiful Grenadines. I haven’t been to all of them yet but I have a feeling that they are going to be my favourite islands in the Caribbean! We didn’t spend as much time as we would have wished to in them but we were mostly just checking out what there was to see for when my aunt and cousins, our first guests come aboard because we would really like to take them there.  

Conch after cracking it open

School of fish snorkelling in Carriacou

There was one island in the Grenadines that really “opened up my eyes” and that was Mayreau. We took a short walk to find town and we were saying to each other while we were walking that we needed bread and somehow someone overheard us and told us to go to the house across from him. We knocked on the door but there was no answer so he came over and opened the door for us (he said it was his father-in-law’s house). He asked us where we were from and we said Canada. Apparently, he had done a research on Canada in high school and he started telling us all about how he had to know all the great lakes, the territories and the provinces. He then started talking about how later he had become a peacemaker for the Grenadines and he represented all his people and reported what they said. He also has received many letters from:  many famous people including Queen Elizabeth! He sold us the bread and then added that he was very interested in history books so if we had any we didn’t want, he would like that a lot. We said that we definitely had at least one then we walked away feeling in awe that we met such an interesting person! 

We walked a little bit more and then found a really cool looking bar where the whole restaurant was painted with the liberation colours (red, yellow and green) and there was the sound of drums coming from inside! We walked in and there were about 6 people playing instruments (mostly drums). We sat down and when you looked all around you, there were flags everywhere and there was not one corner of the restaurant that was not painted red, yellow or green! Comments of the restaurant were written all over the walls and in a small room at the back I could see a small camping bed which is where the store owner probably slept! The drummers played many songs which they probably just made up! It was not a very fancy restaurant and it didn’t look like they had a lot of money but when you looked at them, they had built a very nice community and they were very happy with their life! When we left the restaurant, I gave the owner Robert one of my Rainbow Loom bracelets (one of my liberation coloured ones) and I have never had someone more thankful for a bracelet than he was! When we got back on the boat, we (or at least I did) had a whole different perspective of how life can and should be lived even when you have almost nothing!

Finally, after months of talking about it, we made it to the beautiful Tobago Cays (another island in the Grenadines)! I had always been saying that I really wanted to go to the Bahamas but I don’t think I need to anymore because the water is beautiful enough for me here! It is crystal clear even in 20 feet of water and to just describe swimming in it, it really was just like swimming in the sky! 

The moment we got there, we had heard about the sea turtle watching area so we dingheyed right over to the beach next to the watching area. If you are ever looking for a good place to snorkel, Tobago Cays is the number 1 place to go (at least in my opinion)! Anyways, we were snorkelling at the turtle watching area and I was alone for some odd reason and I was thinking to myself: “Hey! Wouldn’t it be cool if I saw a turtle when I was all alone! It would a memory of a lifetime like when mom swam with a sea lion!”. So I kept snorkelling and then I found a box fish and then I looked to the side of it and there is a sea turtle right there grazing on some seagrass! I was so in awe that I just could not speak or move! Ok, obviously I couldn’t speak because I was underwater but I was so surprised I thought I was dreaming! It was so interesting to watch it eat because sometimes it would accidentally eat sand along with the seagrass and so it would spit the sand out! I would also follow it when it swam up to the surface and then I’d pop my head up just in time to see it’s too! Swimming with the turtle reminded me of when I was younger and I got to feed and pet squirrels because I felt like a princess and you can call me “kiddish” but I really felt like the Little Mermaid swimming with that turtle! While swimming back to the boat, me and my mom saw a ray and the moment it started digging about 6 box fish came around it and we saw that a couple of times so we think that they have a symbiotic relationship! 

We also explored one of the little islands (the Tobago Cays are really just a marine park surrounded by inhabited islands) which had a nice beach that especially Matthew, our “big fish” loved! My parents and I discovered (while Matthew swam in happiness!) a really nice view up the hill of the island. I was literally looking down at at least 10 different shades of blue in the water all scattered everywhere to make the beautiful water even more beautifu! If we had that kind of view on our boat, we would never have to worry about hitting reefs! Hopefully these pictures will give you a better idea and feeling of the magnificent Tobago Cays!

SPCA

After the Tobago Cays, we sailed back down to Grenada! On our first night, we decided to go see our friends on sailing vessel Rafiki to tell them we were back! The two girls (who are 10 and 12) said they had volunteered to work at the local SPCA (an animal rescue center) walking the puppies there! They then asked me if I wanted to come with them the next day to help them! As you can imagine saying no to this opportunity is definitely not an option in my world! When we got there the next day, they gave us a short walk through of the center which was quite small considering that I have only been to the SPCA of Calgary where each dog/cat/bunny has their own kennel but in this SPCA they only had dogs and cats and only had one 3 kennels so 2 small ones for the cats and 1 big one for the dogs. They still had all the necessary medicine and had a nice vet station. 

When we got to the dog kennel (which was outside) all the dogs and puppies were so excited to see us (as you can imagine) and it was hard to pick which one to walk because I knew they all wanted to! I wanted to walk one that looked like it wasn’t chosen very often so I almost chose a very sad looking pit bull named Blaze but later found out that he was a very aggressive dog that had been abused and shouldn't be walked by a volunteer. I ended up finding a really cute boy puppy in the corner who had the absolute cutest face! He was scared of me at first and did not want to come out of the kennel but he eventually did after a lot of my encouragement! The nickname I gave him was Mr. Handsome and he seemed quite satisfied with it! He was a very playful, energetic and fearless puppy! We took them to a park behind the SPCA and we had to go down quite a steep hill. I didn’t think he’d be able to do it but in the end, it was me that had more trouble doing it! Everyone who owns a puppy says they are a lot of work and I did not believe that until I took a puppy out for a walk! By the end, I felt like I had ran a marathon! I found it incredible how much energy he had and I might now think twice about ever getting a puppy! I did have the time of my life though rolling around in the grass with them! 

After we dropped the puppies back off, we got to hold little tiny kittens no bigger than my hand! They were quite scared at first being outside of their kennel but you rocked them for a little while (just like a baby) and they were calm! Here are some pictures of the adorable animals we played with!

I hope that gives you basically an idea of what we have done in the past few weeks but here are some extra pictures that don’t need a big explanation!

This is where he gets his nickname: Big Fish!

Just chilling!

Classic game of chess, which I lost…. AGAIN!

I believe I can fly!

Flying fish!

Well, this is about all I can say for now so farewell fellow shipmates! Until next time mateys!  

Las Perlas to Galápagos

March 5th-11th 2015

𝟘 ⁰. 𝟘𝟘'. 𝟘𝟘" 

Crossing the Equator, March 10 2015

We left Las Perlas Islands in Panama on March 5th, and arrived in San Cristobal, Galápagos on March 11, after having celebrated our crossing the equator the day before. We had pretty good winds for most of the crossing, until we arrived at the equator on March 10th, where, typically, the wind just died. 

We didn’t let the lack of wind dampen our spirits as we celebrated our crossing from the North to the Southern Hemisphere. We asked Neptune for permission to cross, Mark made a touching  toast and then we all had a quick dip, swimming on the line that divides our dear planet in two, it was a moment to cherish and celebrate ! The sun went down over the horizon, looking bigger than we had ever seen it before.

Our instruments show the moment we crossed.

From "slimy pollywogs" to "trusty shellbacks"! We become sons and daughters of Neptune

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The SV Amelie Crew at 0⁰ 00' 00''