Packet Party

It looked like a mini Island Packet rendezvous in Grenada over the Christmas holiday. 

Here are the crew from IP-460 Cutter Loose, IP-37 Dragon's Toy, IP-37 Starshine and IP-27 Merengue at the Boxing Day Cruiser's Pot-Luck and music jam at De Big Fish Restaurant.

Maybe IP stands for "Island Party"!

Party-on Packeteers!

A Cruisers' Christmas

 

How do Cruisers spend Christmas?

Usually we gather for a pot luck on some one's boat.  A big boat!

For Christmas Eve this year we decided to do something a little different and held a lobster barbecue on the beach.

 



Hope on S/V Starshine placed an order with some of the local fisherman who brought us about 60 lbs of lobster tails.  That's Hope with a lap full of lobster as she and Phyllis prep the tails.  Everyone brought a starter or side-dish to complete the feast.

 

Who's that cruising across Prickly Bay?  I told you Santa loves the Caribbean.

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas.

 

All I Want For Christmas.......

..... Is A Boat That Floats!

We finally made it!  We launched Merengue on December 23rd.

With weeks of work and repairs behind us we are looking forward to life on the water again.

This is Merengue being transferred from the boatyard to the travel lift,

and from the travel lift to the bay.

And we're home again in Prickly Bay, Grenada.  From our house to yours

Merry Christmas!

Caribbean Rum and Beer Festival

Last year we arrived in Grenada 1 day after the Rum and Beer Festival.

We missed it by 1 Day!

Jim was not going to let that happen this year!

In addition to the rum tasting there were culinary students preparing food with rum.
There was rum cake, rum balls, coconut shrimp with beer and chicken and beef  flambe with rum.

Jim makes it a point to taste new rums where ever we travel and we had already tasted most of the rums at the festival but it was still fun.

Here I am pretending that I don't know anything about El Dorado Rum so I can get a sample of the El Dorado 15 year old.  Smoooooooth!  We highly recommend it!

Grenada produces a number of good rums.
Another good reason to visit!

Nimrod's

Over in Woburn, a small village on the south coast of Grenada, is Nimrod's Rum Shop.

Nimrod's was made famous (at least among cruisers) in the book

 "An Embarrassment of Mangoes". 

Nimrod's is a typical rum shop, a place where the locals gather to have a beer or rum and to Lime.

Think of it as your favorite neighborhood bar. 

Wendy, Phyllis, Steve and Hope enjoying a cold one.

If you be limin' then you know this is good advice.

Definition: Limin' - to relax, take it easy while you hang out with friends.

We be limin' mon!

More words of wisdom or just a warning?

The aroma of curry was just too irresistible so we moved down to the patio to wait for 

Mrs. Nimrod's chicken roti......... 

........and to enjoy the view of the neighborhood.

I think all neighborhood bars should have a view like this!

Grenada Again

We're home, back in Grenada.

Back to blue sky and water, green hills and white sand.

Back to warm breeze and warm temperatures.

It feels good.  It feels right.

Detour to North Carolina

Here's a few more beautiful fall pictures, this time from North Carolina.

It is 7 years since we first visited here.  We were in our first year of cruising, motoring down the Intracoastal Waterway and we were taken in by the scenery and friendly people.

Hiking has been a pleasure, both in the state parks and on the walking trails near our friend Reed's home.

Just a few hours from Durham and we were on the Atlantic beaches.

Gorgeous stretches of white sand as far as you can see.

We came across a kite festival at Wrightsville Beach.

Just look at the size of these kites in comparison to the people on the ground!

A beautiful sight on a perfect fall day at the beach!

Tomorrow it's back to beautiful Grenada.

We have a few weeks of boat projects to finish up before launching Merengue.

Can't wait to be back on the water!

If a leaf falls in the woods and no one is around .....

..... is it still frickin' cold!

After a wonderful summer and fall in northern Wisconsin, it's time to head south.

We closed up the cottage for the winter and will head back to Grenada in a few weeks after visiting with family and friends.

 These photos show the beauty that is northern Wisconsin in the fall.

Northern Wildlife

Here's a few of Jim's photographs from our boat ride around the lake yesterday.

Eagle and Common Loon sightings are a daily occurrence but one we never get tired of.

If you've never heard the call of a loon, echoing over a lake, you are missing something.

It is both eerie and beautiful. 

Another reason we love northern Wisconsin in the summertime.

At the Lake

To regular followers of this blog, our apologies for the absence of new posts.

We use this blog to tell you about the cruising life and show you the Caribbean islands we visit. 

This summer we are back in the States, spending the summer at a cabin in northern Wisconsin.

 

 We still wake up to views of the water and beautiful green shoreline.

We still get to do our favorite things.

A cabin at the lake for the summer. 

It's my personal heaven!

We'll be back aboard Merengue in beautiful Grenada later in the fall.

See you then!



On the Hard - Part 2

 

 Merengue has been on the hard for a month and the projects continue.

Here is the new, plastic fuel tank we had fabricated in Maine and shipped to Grenada.



 

Fuel tank in place and ready to have the hoses attached.

 

 

Prepping the teak for Cetol is a long, tedious job.

 

 

We think it's worth the effort when the teak shines like this again.

We've been staying in an apartment and thought we'd give you a tour of our accommodations.

There are many apartment complexes in the south of Grenada and the residents are primarily students at St. George's University.  We are staying at the Grenada Gold Apartments which is only a half mile from the boat yard.  The apartments are really nice and the staff is great.

 



 Our apartment is on the third floor and opens on to this large deck which we usually have all to ourselves.  It's a great place to have dinner and enjoy the breeze.

 

Seating area with flat screen TV to the right and kitchen to the left.

 

The bedroom has lots of windows and a door that opens on to a small deck.

 

 "Mutt" is the resident watchdog and our new best friend.

It might have something to do with the dog treats we give him.

"Tom" is the resident cat who jumps up on the windowsill to say hi.

He wasn't too fond of eating dog treats (how did he know they were for dogs?) but loved the pizza crust I gave him.

 

 We've been working very hard so we decided to take an afternoon off and walk to a beach that we hadn't been to before.  The beach is Morne Rouge, home of the beautiful La Luna Resort.

 

This would be a beautiful location for you to stay if you came to visit us. (hint, hint!)