Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Our tradition before we went cruising was to celebrate with a breakfast of corned beef hash and eggs at one of our favorite Irish Pubs before heading off to Milwaukee's St. Patrick's Day parade.  (Ahhhh, men in kilts!)  We were always home well before the crazy's went out for the evening.  Celebrating St. Patrick's Day with fun and frivolity seems to be more of a North American concept.  In Ireland it is a religious holiday.  Here in the Caribbean it is rarely observed.  This photo is one that Jim took in 2010 when we celebrated at Molly Malone's in St. Thomas.  Our favorite Grenadian hang-out, de Big Fish is holding a party tonight so we'll get to drink Guiness and green Carib, eat Irish influenced food and listen to some good music.  Whatever your plans are, have a great day.

Slainte!

Dinghy Concert

Last week was the South Grenada Regatta, a long weekend of racing and partying

 out of Le Phare Bleu Marina.  To kick-off the event, the resort/marina held a dinghy concert in Clark's Court Bay.  

A large barge or pontoon was anchored in the bay with a tug-boat rafted up to it.  The pontoon held the bar and seating for the audience.  The aft deck of the tug-boat was the stage for the band.

 A water-taxi ride out to the concert for those of us who couldn't come by dinghy.  We are anchored in Prickly Bay, several miles to the west so we came by land and then by sea.

You gotta love a floating bar!  Two cold Caribs please.

 The band was from Switzerland and is called "the Rocking Pontoons" when they play at the regatta.

The wind was cranking and the sea was rolling so the band was aptly named.

 Dinghies rafted up to the barge to listen and do a little dinghy dancing.

 Those of us on the pontoon had a little more room, seats and oh yes, did I mention the bar?

 A couple of days later and we were back to catch an afternoon of racing and then stay for the regatta party in the evening.  Unfortunately the races ended several hours early (when does that ever happen in the Caribbean!) so we arrived too late and had to settle for drinks at the marina, dinner and an evening listening and dancing to the Rocking Pontoons.  Not a hardship but it would have been fun to see some of the racing.

Guess we'll have to drown our sorrows in a blue drink from the Westerhall Rum tasting.

Here's a video of the event that Tom on S/V Farhaven shot of the band singing 

"Stuck in Grenada With You."

"Shandy's to the left of me, Carib's to the right here I am, stuck in Grenada with you...."

In the News

Check out the February issue of Caribbean Compass Magazine.

There's a great article on page 21 written by our friend Hope (S/V Starshine) and featuring Jim's photography.  For those of you who can't get the printed version, you can read it on-line at www.caribbeancompass.com.

It's been fun clicking on various websites and seeing ads for Cafe Press that are featuring some of the items that are available with Jim's photography.  This ad appeared on the Windfinder weather site and shows Jim's calendar and shark coffee mug.  Jim was very happy to see that his stuff was positioned ABOVE the Kardashians!

And for our last news item, our friend Renee (formerly of the S/V Jacumba and now residing in St. Kitt's) has a book coming out soon called "A Sail of Two Idiots."  She asked Jim if he had any photos that might work for the cover and a picture of a group of us holding a pirate flag was in contention.  The only problem was that Jim took the picture and therefore, he wasn't in it.  Problem solved.  Look closely at the flag.  Jim fails to see why it didn't make the cut.  Book editors have no sense of humor!

By the way, you can pre-order "A Sail of Two Idiots" at www.amazon.com. 

 Grenada celebrated 38 years of Independence on February 7th
and we were there for the festivities at the National Stadium.

Here's our group, all dressed in red, green and gold, the national colors of Grenada.

The colorful homes on the hill-side above the stadium.

The National Stadium, host to world-class cricket and cultural events.

The festivities started with the children dancing around may-poles and then moved on to historic native Indian dancers and moko jumbie stilt walkers.

The main portion of the show was the parade of all branches of Grenada's military and service organizations.

The Venezuelan government sent a contingent of soldiers and paratroopers.

The Governor General and Prime Minister presided over the festivities.

The Grenadians are very patriotic and for days leading up to the celebration you saw them wearing the national colors. The stands were a sea of vibrant red, green and gold!

Jim (green shirt) and Tom (red shirt and hat) enjoying a beer and some conversation.

Leslie and Wendy enjoying the day!

This is the first time that we have been in Grenada at this time of the year so Independence Day, the Work Boat Regatta and many other events are all firsts for us.  We are enjoying them all and hope to bring you many more in the weeks to come.

 Last weekend, February 4-5, 2012 was the annual Work Boat Regatta on Grand Anse Beach.

Part of the Grenada Sailing Festival, this regatta showcases the traditional boats that have been built in these islands for generations.

 We arrived early to stake out a spot in the shade and watched the vendors setting up for the day.

 We really enjoyed walking the beach for an up-close look at these beauties.

What is a boat without a name?

These boats are built by hand and without plans.  The booms are bamboo.

 A little duct tape will take care of that torn sail, hopefully!

Stepping the mast.

 The starts were amazing. The boat is pushed into the surf and held in place while the rudder is attached.

One crew member has to wait on shore. At the sound of the race horn, he sprints into the water and jumps aboard followed quickly by the rest of the crew.  The race is on!

 Capsizing occurred frequently and with the high wind conditions some boats weren't able to recover quickly.

They ended up swamped and had to be pulled to shore.

The many faces of the regatta.

A broken boom.

 There was also an Optimist class for the young sailors.

It's been a long day of rigging the boat and sailing 4 races.

Tomorrow is another day.