So after the fun of Christmas, we spent boxing day visiting the turtle sanctuary, where the girls actually touched the turtles. SEE PHOTOS. Then we made a mad dash to Tobago Keys with Jim and Graine before they left. At Tabago Keys we had one of our best quotes yet from Sienna who said "the sea looks a funny colour"and she was right as the water was a classic tropical colour and quite un like Chichester harbour.From the Keys we took Jim and Graine back to Bequia to catch their ferry, or actually to miss it. It was Sunday and Jim bought his tickets and the girls all said their fond farewells and tried not to shed a tear. Five minutes later they reappeared with the news that the 10.15 ferry wasn't going today!! So everybody jumped aboard wind Belle and we had the anchor up before you could say Captain Jim and we raced off the St. Vincent to catch their flight.We made the flight and then the Belle team made their sad way back to Bequia waving at every passing plane.For New Year we headed for Salt Whistle Bay to join up with Sun Set Sam. When we went here with the Peters some years before it rained for 10 days, this time it was very sunny. We also had the opportunity to re live our experiences of French & Italian charter boats anchoring techniques, which seems to be : 1. look for the space nobody else would consider. 2. Anchor as close as possible to live aboard boat, If they are in that spot it must be good holding.3. put out as little scope as possible. 4. If it looks close put fenders outs. 5. light cigarettes.6. turn funny foreign music up very loud. 7. All men to wear very tiny white speedos. So those are the basic rules. The only bonus is that sometimes the women all take their tops off, but knowing my luck that will include a few grannys. Any way once in Salt whistle bay we had new years eve on the beach, and then at about three am got rammed from behind by the Italian, anchored next door. Needless to say they were all awake and just watched it happen. lots of gesticulation in the best possible sign language resulted in them putting out a stern anchor and more fenders.
After new years we went to union Island and Palm Island with not much excitement, then we went to Chatham Bay, which was brilliant. A very dodgy local guy came out in a half inflated rubber dinghy and said here was Mr Shark Attack, and he was doing a BBQ that evening on the beach, we all signed up and had a great evening eating local meat, and lobster under the stars cooked by Rastafarian's. our only lights were bottles of Diesel with rags in. We all gave ourselves locally inspired names: Jonny is Shark slayer, Imy is Poisoness Puff Fish, Sophie is Sophie Sting Ray. Tallulah is Shark bate, Sienna is Singing Star Fish! (If you think we have been living alone for too long and gone slightly mad you may be right!) In addition to great BBQ we had amazing snorkeling, with literally Millions of fish. This was followed by diving for Sand Dollars which the Stanley girls taught us about in the BVI's a few years ago,.Sadly at this point we had to say good bye to Sunset Sam as they we heading up North and we were going South. No sooner had we said good bye than we saw three Aussie girls, Sophia, Mimi And Evie (Sillar and parents Don and Jenny from Manley)on the next door boat. We ended up sailing with them for the next two days, going over to the lovely Island of Petite St Vincent.
We then carried on to Grenada, Sienna had the honour of being flag raiser for this new country. We went to the totally overrated Tyrrel Bay. We went ashore for a pizza, but the dock was a little wobbly and Sienna ended up tumbling in shortly followed by Sophie who could have won an Oscar for dramatics as she dived in to the 2 ft of water to pull Sienna out. Only problem was that Sophie was swimming around the bottom, while Sienna was bobbing around on the surface in her life jacket. Well at least the whole restaurant didn't see, well actually they did. But full marks to Sophie for quick reactions.
From Tyrrell we went to Grenada. We arrived in St Davids to have our boat hauled, but were told they couldn't do anything till Monday (we weren't surprised as the phrase for doing anything here is "Just now" and someone told us quite accurately that is just like Manyana but without the urgency!. We took a bus into town. Now you are probably thinking of 2 things, one Sophie doesn't do public transport and two a big red thing called a bus, that never arrives when you need one. In Grenada and most of the Caribbean, a bus is a mini van which may have four wheels, but certainly has a lunatic driving it and reggae music blaring at full volume. I used all my strength to brace brace brace as we went around every corner, generally on the wrong side of the road. It turns out that the minibus drivers are self employed, so the more trips they do the more money they make. Once we got to town we went into the market and a sweet old lady got out a huge machete and chopped a coconut in half so we could drink its milk.On the way back we were about to get into a so called bus but it was clearly full. The driver squeezed all five of us in. Then one of the biggest mummas I have ever seen said she wanted to get into the full mini bus, surely not, but with a lot of heaving and squeezing she was in, almost on my lap but thank god not. Then a couple of milk crates came in for the last two people to sit on. Seat belts,car chairs, European Union eat your heart out. Everybody on the bus was very friendly either singing to the music or asking when we were going to try for a boy, or about living on a boat. And that really seemed to sum up Grenada. Great friendly people, that defeated all the stereo types.
Then met other cruisers who warned us that the yard we were about to have our work done in was slow and unreliable, Sophie and my hearts sank. We went off for the weekend to Hog island which is a great place, with nothing except a very calm anchorage inside a very frothy reef. In the anchorage there is a small beach with a home built shack that is Rogers Bar. To say completely laid back does injustice to the pace at rogers bar. Each afternoon people seem to gather on the beach by the bar with their kids. So there was a gang of South Africans, Norwegians, English, dutch and local Grenadians from the age of 2 to 14 all playing together on the beach. The South Africans told us that in SA drinks can be served at 5pm which was great news as we could all get a beer from roger one hour earlier than usual. We met a couple who had been cruising for 6 years and had built their own 55ft beautiful looking Cat, Wild Vanilla that looked a little like a gun boat with curves. It turns out that they had actually owned a boat yard in South Africa and had built my friend peter Johnstones first two gun boat cats.
We also met up with several Norwegian boats that had done the arc with children and had great fun with them. Finally we met up with our friends from Sweden on Tabasco, they were also having their boat taken out of the water at a near by yard. We agreed to meet up on the beach. And despite our children not speaking to each other because of language their three boys and our three girls had a great time collecting mountains of sea weed, which the bar man promptly asked if he could have for his garden.
We finally got hauled out of the water but being the Pudney's decided to stay in a luxury hotel using the money granny Valarie had given us for Christmas. We had a great bungalow with its own Kitchen. the only problem was it had a Jacuzzi bath but didn't have enough water to fill it. We hired a car and went up country to a chocolate plantation and had a full explanation of all the stages from picking of the pods to shuffling the beans with our Feet( we actually did it), through to making the actual chocolate, which ended up in a bar of local chocolate that was 71% cocco, compared with a European average of 10%. It was delicious. At the chocolate place we also saw a monkey which came and gave Sienna a big hug much to her surprise, it also chased Jonny, and grabbed a star fruit from his hand which he was saving for the kids. On our way back from the cocoa plantation we stopped to look at one of the waterfalls on the island. It was amazing, a local guy walked us down a narrow path into the rainforest where we came upon this amazing waterfall. It must have been nearly 100ft high. The girls all thought they were explorers, Sienna called herself "Dora" and Tallulah wearing her sarong looked like Jane. The girls were straight in and under the waterfall, climbing over the rocks. Imy stripped off to her knickers and swam in the rather murky water, so did Sienna and so Jonny had to join them. Sophie stood on the rocks and took the photos (someone had to!) The waterfall was definitely a highlight of our Grenadan experience.
To our surprise the boat yard were very good as long as I went around each of the departments and chased up the work. it turned out our engine problem was a bent drive shaft which we had from our repairs in Toulon.On Thursday we went back in the water and set off via Prickly Bay (to say a very tearful good bye to our Swedish friends on Tabasco. Sienna seemed to be most tearful and was very sad to say goodbye to August aged 5 who wouldn't give her a kiss). Her first little crush I think (first of many I'm sure!)
Now we are back in Bequia after two days of hard sailing up wind over 30 miles a day in 20-25 knots of wind. The problem is not the wind but the short steep waves as avg depth is less than 10 meters.
After new years we went to union Island and Palm Island with not much excitement, then we went to Chatham Bay, which was brilliant. A very dodgy local guy came out in a half inflated rubber dinghy and said here was Mr Shark Attack, and he was doing a BBQ that evening on the beach, we all signed up and had a great evening eating local meat, and lobster under the stars cooked by Rastafarian's. our only lights were bottles of Diesel with rags in. We all gave ourselves locally inspired names: Jonny is Shark slayer, Imy is Poisoness Puff Fish, Sophie is Sophie Sting Ray. Tallulah is Shark bate, Sienna is Singing Star Fish! (If you think we have been living alone for too long and gone slightly mad you may be right!) In addition to great BBQ we had amazing snorkeling, with literally Millions of fish. This was followed by diving for Sand Dollars which the Stanley girls taught us about in the BVI's a few years ago,.Sadly at this point we had to say good bye to Sunset Sam as they we heading up North and we were going South. No sooner had we said good bye than we saw three Aussie girls, Sophia, Mimi And Evie (Sillar and parents Don and Jenny from Manley)on the next door boat. We ended up sailing with them for the next two days, going over to the lovely Island of Petite St Vincent.
We then carried on to Grenada, Sienna had the honour of being flag raiser for this new country. We went to the totally overrated Tyrrel Bay. We went ashore for a pizza, but the dock was a little wobbly and Sienna ended up tumbling in shortly followed by Sophie who could have won an Oscar for dramatics as she dived in to the 2 ft of water to pull Sienna out. Only problem was that Sophie was swimming around the bottom, while Sienna was bobbing around on the surface in her life jacket. Well at least the whole restaurant didn't see, well actually they did. But full marks to Sophie for quick reactions.
From Tyrrell we went to Grenada. We arrived in St Davids to have our boat hauled, but were told they couldn't do anything till Monday (we weren't surprised as the phrase for doing anything here is "Just now" and someone told us quite accurately that is just like Manyana but without the urgency!. We took a bus into town. Now you are probably thinking of 2 things, one Sophie doesn't do public transport and two a big red thing called a bus, that never arrives when you need one. In Grenada and most of the Caribbean, a bus is a mini van which may have four wheels, but certainly has a lunatic driving it and reggae music blaring at full volume. I used all my strength to brace brace brace as we went around every corner, generally on the wrong side of the road. It turns out that the minibus drivers are self employed, so the more trips they do the more money they make. Once we got to town we went into the market and a sweet old lady got out a huge machete and chopped a coconut in half so we could drink its milk.On the way back we were about to get into a so called bus but it was clearly full. The driver squeezed all five of us in. Then one of the biggest mummas I have ever seen said she wanted to get into the full mini bus, surely not, but with a lot of heaving and squeezing she was in, almost on my lap but thank god not. Then a couple of milk crates came in for the last two people to sit on. Seat belts,car chairs, European Union eat your heart out. Everybody on the bus was very friendly either singing to the music or asking when we were going to try for a boy, or about living on a boat. And that really seemed to sum up Grenada. Great friendly people, that defeated all the stereo types.
Then met other cruisers who warned us that the yard we were about to have our work done in was slow and unreliable, Sophie and my hearts sank. We went off for the weekend to Hog island which is a great place, with nothing except a very calm anchorage inside a very frothy reef. In the anchorage there is a small beach with a home built shack that is Rogers Bar. To say completely laid back does injustice to the pace at rogers bar. Each afternoon people seem to gather on the beach by the bar with their kids. So there was a gang of South Africans, Norwegians, English, dutch and local Grenadians from the age of 2 to 14 all playing together on the beach. The South Africans told us that in SA drinks can be served at 5pm which was great news as we could all get a beer from roger one hour earlier than usual. We met a couple who had been cruising for 6 years and had built their own 55ft beautiful looking Cat, Wild Vanilla that looked a little like a gun boat with curves. It turns out that they had actually owned a boat yard in South Africa and had built my friend peter Johnstones first two gun boat cats.
We also met up with several Norwegian boats that had done the arc with children and had great fun with them. Finally we met up with our friends from Sweden on Tabasco, they were also having their boat taken out of the water at a near by yard. We agreed to meet up on the beach. And despite our children not speaking to each other because of language their three boys and our three girls had a great time collecting mountains of sea weed, which the bar man promptly asked if he could have for his garden.
We finally got hauled out of the water but being the Pudney's decided to stay in a luxury hotel using the money granny Valarie had given us for Christmas. We had a great bungalow with its own Kitchen. the only problem was it had a Jacuzzi bath but didn't have enough water to fill it. We hired a car and went up country to a chocolate plantation and had a full explanation of all the stages from picking of the pods to shuffling the beans with our Feet( we actually did it), through to making the actual chocolate, which ended up in a bar of local chocolate that was 71% cocco, compared with a European average of 10%. It was delicious. At the chocolate place we also saw a monkey which came and gave Sienna a big hug much to her surprise, it also chased Jonny, and grabbed a star fruit from his hand which he was saving for the kids. On our way back from the cocoa plantation we stopped to look at one of the waterfalls on the island. It was amazing, a local guy walked us down a narrow path into the rainforest where we came upon this amazing waterfall. It must have been nearly 100ft high. The girls all thought they were explorers, Sienna called herself "Dora" and Tallulah wearing her sarong looked like Jane. The girls were straight in and under the waterfall, climbing over the rocks. Imy stripped off to her knickers and swam in the rather murky water, so did Sienna and so Jonny had to join them. Sophie stood on the rocks and took the photos (someone had to!) The waterfall was definitely a highlight of our Grenadan experience.
To our surprise the boat yard were very good as long as I went around each of the departments and chased up the work. it turned out our engine problem was a bent drive shaft which we had from our repairs in Toulon.On Thursday we went back in the water and set off via Prickly Bay (to say a very tearful good bye to our Swedish friends on Tabasco. Sienna seemed to be most tearful and was very sad to say goodbye to August aged 5 who wouldn't give her a kiss). Her first little crush I think (first of many I'm sure!)
Now we are back in Bequia after two days of hard sailing up wind over 30 miles a day in 20-25 knots of wind. The problem is not the wind but the short steep waves as avg depth is less than 10 meters.
