An American Thanksgiving in Grenada

 Thursday was our 5th Thanksgiving away from our home port of Milwaukee.  We've been in 4 different countries in those 5 years and have celebrated with friends from our cruising family.  We've spent Thanksgiving in Beaufort, N.C., Puerto Rico, Grenada (2 times) and last year we were sailing from Bequia to St. Lucia.  With the exception of last year when we were sailing, we've always enjoyed a traditional feast.  Last year was probably tuna salad!  

Kim and Ricky at De Big Fish hosted a cruisers pot luck at their restaurant.  The restaurant sits in the north corner of Prickly Bay and is a favorite of the yachties. 

It's also where we leave our dinghy when we go shopping so it's a great place for a cold beer after the hot walk to town.  For the Thanksgiving dinner, De Big Fish staff cooked a turkey and two hams and the cruisers brought all the side dishes and desserts.

John (S/V Silver Seas) carving the ham.

Everyone rushed to get in line for the food.  There were more than 20 side dishes and almost as many desserts.  Everything was delicious.

More then 40 people from all around the world gathered for the celebration.

The captain eagerly awaiting the turkey and ham.  He even snitched a piece of ham while John was carving but because I failed to get a picture he denies it!

Lloyd and Val (S/V Puddle Jumper) who are from Toronto, Canada.

Colin and Sandy (S/V Papillon), our South African but more recently from New Zealand and Australia friends.

Yani (S/V Magus)

Colin decided he wasn't going to let that last scoop of potatoes with blue cheese go to waste.

 Many thanks to our friends at De Big Fish for giving us a memorable Thanksgiving.

You are the best!

A Hashing We Will Go!

Long-time followers of this blog know that Jim and I did a bit of hashing during our first season in Grenada.  We still have the scars to prove it!  After several hashes, one of which I considered good, I gave it up. 

I developed rules related to hashing.

Rule #1:  Never, ever do another hash.

Rule #2:  if wavering, see rule #1.

So  it was a great surprise when I decided that I wanted to hash last weekend.

(Someone grab some smelling salts and get my friend Renee up off of the floor)

Of course, it rained hard during the day.  It always seems to rain hard to insure a nice, muddy trail.  This was a moonlight hash and those have to be easy to so that no one gets lost in the rain forest or falls off of a cliff in the dark.  Even better, this one was starting at the Tiki Bar, right here in Prickly Bay.  Very convenient!  Was destiny calling me?  The sky looked ominous when we headed out around 5:30 p.m.  I don't think we'll see that full moon tonight.

A nice surprise at the Tiki Bar.  This is Lincus who we met hashing 2 years ago.

The walkers route turned out to be just what I was hoping for, a nice hike on the roads above Prickly Bay.  Yes, it did rain on us but the temperatures were cool and comfortable.  The walk was about 4 miles with a few steep hills to insure a good workout.

Back at the Tiki Bar, wet but feeling good.

The 3 for 10EC Caribs (about $1.25 U.S. each) never tasted better!

Will I do another one?  You'll have to wait until the next full-moon to see.

What We've Been Up To

The boat repairs from our lightening strike are progressing.  Some of it has been easy, others a little more difficult.  The anemometer (wind direction/speed) that we had is no longer available so we purchased a different model.  Of course they are never the same shape or size so now Jim is trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.  The VHF radio we want is ordered and should arrive in a few weeks.  And so on, and so on.... 

Here are just a few of the fried instruments we took off and replaced.

Owen from Enza Marine did the repairs at the top of the mast.  He spent most of the day in the bosun's chair...

... but remained ever cheerful. 

Remember, when you think you've got it bad, there is always someone who has it worse.  This small, uninhabited boat just sunk one day.  It is owned by a Grenadian and kept on a mooring in Prickly Bay.  We don't know how the leak happened but one day it was floating and the next day..... glug!  Divers attempted to re-float it with an airbag.  They had it part way up when the airbag ruptured and the boat sank again.  It kind of puts our repairs in perspective, doesn't it.

October 13th was our 31st wedding anniversary and we decided to treat ourselves to lunch at BB's Crabback.  That's a painting of chef BB in the corner of the photo with the restaurant behind.

The restaurant is very casual with a great view across the Carenage toward Grand Anse Beach, Port Louis Marina and St. George's.  The food is anything but ordinary!

For starters we had the signature dish  Crab backs (left) and spicy Salt fish Fritters.

Our main course was a spicy, chicken dish, curried goat (easily the best we've ever tasted) and a side of pumpkin fritters.  When BB learned we were celebrating our anniversary he treated us to ice cream served with a passion fruit and rum sauce.  Delicious!

We don't treat ourselves to fine-dining very often opting instead for the less expensive, local cuisine like rotis or chicken served with rice and peas and provision ( a sample of starches such as breadfruit, pumpkin, squash, dasheen, etc).  I'm sure we'll treat ourselves to BB's Crabback again.

The thing that has been frustrating about our 2 months in Grenada is that Jim and I have been sick about half of that time.  The day before Natalie came to visit I came down with a flu bug.  Luckily it only lasted 48 hours and I was feeling good when she arrived.  Unfortunately, I gave it to Jim who was sick for her first 2 days here.  Then several weeks later we both became very sick.  We thought we might have Dengue Fever, a mosquito-born illness that has been showing up throughout the Caribbean.  We had flu-like symptoms; high fever, head and body-aches but then we developed very bad coughs.  Maybe we had bronchitis, we still don't know.  We wondered if the neighboring boats could hear us coughing and we thought about hanging up our quarantine flag to warn everyone to stay away!  We ran a fever for a week and it took another week for us to get our energy back.  We were miserable.  Friends checked on us and picked up groceries when we needed something.  Then after recovering for a couple of weeks I caught a cold!  I don't think I've had a cold since I left the States 4 years ago!  Guess my immune system was not fully recovered.  And in the spirit of sharing, I've now given the cold to Jim.  That's 3 illnesses in 2 months times 2 people.  Sheesh!  So the blog has suffered along with our social life but we have managed to get in a few outings between illnesses. 

 Our Sunday routine this year has been to join Matt and Karen (S/V Where II) at the Sandbar on Calabash Beach for a game of Bocce Ball.  It's the Aussie's vs the Americans!

 You have to love a sport that you can play with a rum punch in your hand.

 The crew of another Aussie boat S/V Orchid joined us for a game.  That's Alexander, Nicholas, Matthew and Rachel.

 Matt and Jim buying refreshments from the happy crew at the Sandbar.  That's P on the right who makes a great rum punch and supplies me with the Packer scores.

Another Sunday, another match.  Karen and Matt talking with Christine and Guy (S/V Princess of Tides).

On Friday nights, the town of Gouyave holds a fish festival.  They block off two streets and vendors cook fresh fish and lobster as well as a wide variety of side dishes.  It's always fun and great eating.  We headed out with the Orchid family and Colin and Sandy (S/V Papillon).  It did rain on us but it couldn't dampen the fun.

At one point we asked someone to take a photo of our group.  We ended up with a great shot of our shoes!  Ooops, guess I forgot to tell you about the red-eye delay with that camera.  Next shot and he cut Rachel out of the picture.

We finally ended up with this picture of the happy, although wet crew.

Here's one of the vendors cooking over a grill that is made out of an old wheel rim.  We are always amazed at the ingenuity.  This is a big batch of lambi (conch) chowder.  The chowder wasn't quite ready when we took this picture and Jim forgot to go back later.  Guess we'll have to go back again.

Hurricane Tomas

There is good news and bad news.  First the bad news.  Tomas is officially a hurricane.  The good news is that it is moving north of Grenada but that can hardly be considered good news for the islands of St. Vincent and St. Lucia as it passes between the islands.  Hopefully it won't grow in intensity and will move through quickly with little damage.  The winds at the center of the storm are currently 75 mph and the eye of the storm is currently 112 miles from St. George's, Grenada.

 Here in Grenada Prickley Bay is calm and the wind, when there is any, is coming from the northwest.  Forecasts are for it to keep changing directions until it blows from the NE tonight and E-SE tomorrow.  We are expecting about 20-25 knots of wind.  The government told workers to stay home today due to the tropical storm.  They were anticipating heavy rain and the resulting flooding and we still may have some of that overnight.  But overall we got lucky.  Mother Nature decided to give us treats, not tricks this Halloween. 

Tropical Storm Tomas

Here's what Prickley Bay looked like just before sunset today.  More clouds were developing but the sun broke through and lit up the shoreline and the boats at anchor.

 The tropical wave to the east of Grenada has been upgraded to Tropical Storm Tomas and could reach hurricane strength.  We are expecting tropical storm strength winds in Grenada currently predicted to reach 55 knots.

 We decided to stay in Prickley Bay.  Our anchor is well set, we let out extra chain and we've tied down anything that might move on the deck.  Nothing to do now but wait and watch the weather reports.  Will Tomas gather strength quickly and hit us hard?  Will Tomas veer farther north and skirt the north edge of Grenada?  We'll just have to wait it out.  Tropical storm warnings have been issued from Trinidad to Dominica.

A comment was left on our last blog posting regarding my comment that we were getting this weather with only 2 days left in hurricane season.  The comment pointed out that hurricane season technically goes through November.  That's true.  It also technically starts in June but here in the southern Caribbean cruisers consider hurricane season to be July through October.  Most insurance companies will only require their policy holders to be south of 12 degrees north latitude until November 1st.  Many cruisers already started heading north in the past week or so.  I hope they have all found a safe harbor to tuck themselves in to.

Tropical Storm Tomas

Projected path of Tomas

Storm Watch in Grenada

With only 2 days left in hurricane season we are on a storm watch in Grenada.  A very large tropical wave to the east of us is showing a 80% chance of developing into a tropical storm in the next 48 hours.  The tropical wave is the large, red circle at the bottom of the following image.

 There is a large amount of rain showing in the satelite image. 

Wind is forcast to be 25-30 knots on Saturday.

 Of the 4 projections, one has the storm passing directly over Grenada.  The others show it passing to the north.

This is not the biggest storm we've ever been through but it certainly has the potential to grow and drop a lot of rain as it passes.  We're keeping a close eye on this one.  This morning we are off to the supermarket to stock up for the weekend as we won't be going anywhere for a few days!

Reminiscing with Songbird

How about doing some reminiscing with us?

Our friends Pat and Carol on the S/V Songbird put together a CD with photos and a video of some of the great times we've spent together.  We sailed together for several months back in 2008 when we were all making our first trip through the islands.  Many of the photos were taken then when we hiked on Saba and celebrated my birthday on St. Lucia.  Last year we spent the holidays in Antigua and then hooked up again in St. Martin in June.  We sailed from St. Martin to St. Lucia together.  We have soooo much fun!

So sit back and relax and enjoy a recap of the adventures of Songbird and Merengue.  First there is a slide show of some of Pat and Carol's photos.  Second, there is a video of Merengue under sail between Bequia and Canouan in the Grenadines back in 2008.  Don't forget to turn up the volume as Pat even set them to music.