All the way from New Zealand

Well my parents, John and Gail have arrived from New Zealand to spend some time aboard and enjoy the nice warm waters of the Caribbean. We are planning on going up the island chain from Grenada to the US Virgin Islands over the next month. Don’t they look so happy to be here, after the long trip here. Welcome aboard Mum and Dad.

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Back in Grenada

Well we have returned to Grenada and a nice clean boat thanks to Leslie who came over and aired her out and watched her while we were gone. Its so nice to be back in our own space again. Shes looking very bare as we had to remove all the canopy, sails, toys etc while we were away, in case of a hurricane. Luckily there was nothing weatherwise so all is good on our return.
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We now have a few jobs to get her ready so we can set sail for this upcoming season. P1030135a.

 

Our new teak table can finally be used.

It arrived the day before we were leaving on out trip. It looks awesome.

 

Great friends in Prickly Bay

Well we have met some great friends over the past few months in Prickly Bay, before leaving for our holiday and again on return.

We met Outsider, Wendy and Ian up the chain who have been so helpful and are an awesome couple who have been sailing for years. They are heading back to the Pacific and we hope that one day we will meet up with them again. Maybe when they go through the Panama Canal?P1030912a

Our Rose, Jen and Richard, kiwis who have a Maverick like ourselves are heading North and are currently planning on going to the Med for next hurricane season. We hope to see them up the chain as we have so much fun with them.  P1020872a

Mark from Sealife, who is also an Australian is a genuine guy who is so easy going and friendly and has circumnavigated already so a wealth of information. This season he is heading to St Martin for the season.

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Canadians Donna and Jack from Kathrian took us all out recently for a night of fun dancing.  Jack Donna

Tulu, Chris and Sarah had just got back from Britain. They are heading to the Pacific.We all enjoyed a night out to all say goodbye, enjoy fairwinds and calm seas this season. Its really neat all the people you meet cruisin’.P1030902a

Busy week / weekend in Grenada

I have kept myself busy once again, while Brett has done odd jobs around the boat. I went to Grenada cooking class and this week the chefs were kitted out in the Grenadian colours because they were being televised. Once again it was quite entertaining. $EC12 is a bargain as you get the receipes and get to eat at the end of the class. P1020970a

I went to the final summer session of the Mt Airy Readers program, where the kids had a spelling and reading competition followed by a small party. The kids were all so patient sitting while the other kids participated.     P1020973aP1020974a

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This is Keisha who was my friend for the morning. She drew me some very colorful pictures while waiting patiently for the party.

All of the children who competed received a certificate and there were prizes for various placings. The kids were so proud and happy to receive their certificates, which was nice to see. P1030025a

This is Cassie and her uncle. I worked with Cassie last week on her reading skills so was happy to see she did well.

As you do we had quite a few social gatherings with friends in the bay and then Richard and Jen from Our Rose invited us to go around to one of the bays for a long weekend for some hobbie cat racing. Maverick’s on tour. Our Rose below….

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On the South Coast of Grenada there are a lot of bays so it was nice to get out and see them and go touring by sea again. There were some pretty interesting looking homes about.

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Hobbie cat racing at the Le Phare Bleu Yachtclub was a blast, with 20 teams competing over the day. Our friends from Prickly Bay came over to support which was awesome. Jen and I teamed up and did very well for complete beginners. Jen ran the sheets while I worked the rudder. We ended up going out twice as we won our first race, much better than the boys! Alas we did not win our next race. Competition was tough. We were very happy with our day.

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Richard and Brett went solo but must have had tougher competition as they were out after their first races so at the end they had a race against each other with Richard winning. Excellent time.  P1030082aP1030077a

The weekend ended at the Whisper Cove Marina for Jam night, where some cruisers get together and play music.

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Off to Grenada Marina as the parts are in for our alternators. At last!

Naniki Caribbean Jazz Safari

Canadians Donna & Jack from S/V Kathrian organized an outing to the Naniki Caribbean Jazz festival for Sunday evening. Bob and Judy from Adastra and Jen & Richard also came.P1020910a

It was held in the gardens at the Mt Cinnamon Resort. Not a huge number of people were there, which was a shame. It was nice to lay on the grass and enjoy the music from the various artists. A little rain shower did not dampen our spirits, we were all organized and happy that it didn’t last long. It was nice just sitting back and relaxing.

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There were 2 Jazz bands, the Sean Thomas quartet and C4 from Barbados

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They also had a couple of vocalists; Jenny J from Grenada and Shontelle from Barbados. Another good night out in Grenada. 

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Fishermans Birthday Celebration

June 29th, in the fishing town of Gouyave is the Annual Fisherman’s Birthday, a celebration honoring St Peter  – Patron Saint of Fishermen. As part of the day’s events the fishermen’s boats are blessed for the upcoming fishing season followed by boat races and ending with a street party in the evening. A lot of people come into town to enjoy the music and festivities.  We decided the evening party sounded like fun so joined a few cruisers,  including Jen and Richard from Our Rose and Ian and Wendy from Outsider, and off we went to enjoy the evenings celebrations.

There were some food tents set up, serving all sorts of dishes. We tried a number of dishes including oildown (below), a traditional Grenadian curry dish, which was very tasty.

P1020870aThe party was along the main street which was packed full of people dancing and enjoying each others We had a lot of fun limin’with friends and the locals.P1020887aP1020877a

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A great night in Gouyave.

Mt Airy Young Readers Program

I volunteered to help out last Saturday morning at the Mt Airy Young readers program; a program for children in the area who would like a little extra help with their reading, writing and math. Jean Pascal supports and hosts the program out of her garage, which is set up like a small classroom, which extends out into her courtyard depending on the number of kids who turn up. P1020846a

The program relies on volunteers to come along and help assist in working with the children aged between 4 and 17 years. The cruising community helps the volunteer program out by donating books, stationery and time to helping Jean and her husband support these kids.

A great program for everyone involved. I worked with a young 4 year old who unfortunately had lost his mother recently and just needed a little attention. I will be going along to help out again this coming weekend as it really is a amazing program where Jean relies on help from any and all volunteers.

Fellow Maverick: Our Rose

So who should we spot going through the anchorage yesterday; another Maverick; Kiwi’s Jen and Richard from S/V Our Rose. We knew they would be in the area and sure enough we spotted them. P1020847aP1020852a

 

We packed a few beers and went over and introduced ourselves as we’d only met via email. 

It was nice to see some of the changes that have been made to the Maverick as they have the newest Maverick delivered and had not long crossed the Atlantic so had lots of stories to share of their trip.

Fish Fry-day

Every Friday night in the town of Gouyave on the West Coast Shademan takes a group of cruisers up to the town for Fish Fry-day, limes with his friends and then returns you back to your boats, when you are ready. We decided to go up with Wendy and Ian and had a blast starting out as you do at one of the local bars for some pre dinner drinks. P1020828a

Various stalls are set up around a couple of the streets selling all sorts of fryed food from breadfruit to fish-n-bake to seafood kebabs. P1020826aP1020829a

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The chefs are all extremely friendly and very proud of what they are serving.

The steel pan band was out to entertain everyone that came out; they were good. People were dancing in the streets and limin’ while listening to the band.

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I met the local policeman who was watching all the traffic that came into town. He must have been hot in his uniform!

Great evening out.