Grenada’s Carnival is a HUGE annual celebration here. The Carnival, also called “Spicemas” (a nod to its world-renowned spice production), is a big ball full of energy fueled by music, dance, colour and, of course, a bit of drinking. Ummm, maybe A LOT of drinking 😉. The centre of the action is near Port Louis, a 20-minute car ride from our anchorage. Every year, the main Spicemas events start officially late on the Sunday and go until the wee hours of the following Wednesday. People can choose to participate in just a few events but the very brave do them all. Brave? Yup! Spicemas is pure craziness. I cannot emphasize this enough. The main event of J’ouvert begins at 4am and ends at 9am. In addition to extremely mind-altering loud music and brightly costumed dancers, oil drenched Jab Jab (people dressed to represent the devil) are a key part of it. Oil? Yes, oil. Any kind of oil but mostly motor oil. There is lots of it to go around and throwing it on each other and anyone else in attendance is, well, how its done. But it starts at 4am, I mean, surely this is the most sober event? Nope. Just the opposite. Yikes! So, let’s say you survive J’ouvert. Next up is Traditional Mas. Hmmm, sounds like a low-key event. In the words of one of our fellow cruisers who attended J’ouvert and then Traditional mas (the main Sunday to Monday events) “Hard to believe this is the same day!...I’ve passed out, woke back up, taken 3 showers, went to a parade with the loudest music ever, and now about to hike to the beginning of the night parade that we are in.” Most of us older cruisers choose to attend the Tuesday afternoon event called Fancy Mas (also known as Pretty Mas). This is a parade down the street with beautifully costumed dancers and other performers. And, once again, it is loud. We were strongly advised, because of the noise, that it is not a place for a dog. And leaving Ocean on Wild Horses for 8 hours by herself was not an option. We had to decline attending. Our friends who participated said that it was an incredibly unique experience and unlike any other parade they have ever been to. Oh, and it was truly loud. Like, the loudest thing they have ever heard. And there you have it. We had made the right decision. Not good for Ocean. Not good for us. In hindsight, it was an incredibly right decision. Mid-day on Tuesday (when our friends, including Caretta, were attending Fancy Mas), an intense squall blew through our anchorage. 50+ knot winds, 5-foot seas, pelting sheets of rain. Wild Horses’ anchor held. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case for Caretta. The boat belonging to our boat buddies extraordinaire, Andrea and Barry, dragged towards the lee shore and, remember, they were not on board. Thankfully, their anchor re-caught just in time. Once it was safe to climb into dinghies, all hands were on deck. The captains from four nearby boats got into their dinghies (including Mike) and they were able to confirm that Caretta had not only NOT hit the nearby shoal but also that the depth around the boat was sufficient. Just in case another squall passed through before Barry and Andrea could return, the guys deployed Caretta’s second anchor which was already set up and waiting on the stern pulpit (brilliant move by Caretta). Whew! What else have we been up to? Well, we took part in our second Hash hike. This one was closer to our anchorage but way more difficult. Hearts were pumping! It was straight up a muddy mountain and then straight back down, albeit with a side trip through some of the captivating streets of Grand Mal. An awesome but challenging hash that left us wanting more. Now that Carnival is over, things are getting back to normal. We are looking forward to getting some needed boat work done and to maybe visiting another waterfall or taking in yet another Hash. Whatever we decide to do, it will likely involve our very merry group of boat buddies! Check out where we are today, and where we are going this winter, by clicking the links below.
The following post is Captain Mike’s take on things, as scribed by Victoria Before leaving Lake Ontario last year, I had expectations. I have wanted to live on a sailboat for as long as I can remember and the idea of sailing off to foreign lands, exploring the world, captivated me. Plus, I wanted to live an easy, stress-free sailing lifestyle, meeting interesting people, enjoying diverse foods and drinking in the beauty of far-off lands. Victoria, Ocean and I are almost a year into living on our boat and, to be honest, I had the dream a little wrong. Certainly, we accomplished what we set off to do (i.e. meeting interesting people, enjoying diverse foods and drinking in the beauty of far-off lands) but having an easy and stress-free lifestyle, well, not really. In small pockets, for sure, but the whole of what we have gone through this past year was more challenging than I imagined. You see, actually “sailing” Wild Horses hasn’t really happened all that much. I knew with navigating canals, the ICW and travelling east into the trade winds, I would have to motor but it surprised me how much the wind was directly on our nose even when we started south. And the challenge of Wild Horses, for me, is when she is a motor boat, rather than when she is a sailboat. The engine, now 21 years old, is the bane of my existence. I am always listening for odd sounds, bad sounds, mechanical failure sounds. In this trip alone, we have had two engine failures, the muffler sprung a leak twice (two different spots), the alternator blew up on two occasions. I just had another engine check and my alternator needs a real once over (it is running extremely hot and the cause is not yet known), the dripless is dripping and the engine throttle has started to slip. So, yes, even with all the well-known issues being fixed and the newly-learned issues pending a fix, I worry. I get chills down my spine thinking about motoring through a narrow cut or close to a lee shore. I am just waiting for the next thing to break. I have always tried to get ahead of developing boat issues through regular maintenance but what I am learning to deal with now are the things that break despite maintenance, including new equipment. Is this just the woes of Wild Horses? Not really. This is the lifestyle and I see other sailors experiencing the same “what’s broken now” daily angst. In fact, it happens so often that very seasoned sailors are quite chill about it. I am not there yet, but some day! I am confident in Wild Horses as a sailboat though. She handles strong winds well and rides the waves and ocean swell like a champ. Now that we are “south”, we can choose where and when we move the boat. We are not trying to “get somewhere” anymore so we intend to let the wind decide our destinations. The sails will be out and the motor off 😊. So, what are my biggest takeaways after almost a year of living aboard Wild Horses?
My final takeaway is for those planning their own journey. The mental aspect is real. You only get part of the story by talking to old salts, watching Youtubers or even chatting with friends who have done this trip. You can only understand how it will be for you until you do it. For me, the rewards haven’t always, every day, outweighed the problems. But, overall, my life is better for having embarked on this journey. I have so many full days, great relationships, and wonderful experiences. And hopefully by the time I am an old salt myself, I will figure out how to be chill about that boat engine 😊. Want to know more about where we are and where we are headed next? Click the buttons below!
It is now August and high time for us to start exploring more of the inland culture and vistas of Grenada. This week we piled into taxi after taxi after taxi with our boat buddies and, over the course of one week, visited two distilleries, a nutmeg factory, a chocolate factory, two waterfalls, the Grand Etang National Park and, yup, we even lost our Hash virginity (don’t worry Mom and Dad, it isn’t what you think 😉 !). Since we arrived in Grenada, we have heard of the weekly Hash and how incredibly popular it is for both cruisers and locals alike. The Hash House Harriers is an international group of runners and walkers. The group in Grenada started running “hashes” (or hikes) in 1985 and has been organizing them every Saturday since. The location of the Hash changes every week, as does its length and intensity but some things remain true. It always starts at about 4pm and its always a load of fun! Our Hash was held near the town of Telescope, on the eastern side of Grenada. The hike took us through the town, past active crop fields, up and down hills, along the seaside and eye to eye with goats, pigs, cows and stray dogs. Oh and, yes, at the end of the Hash, all newcomers to the Hash were assembled at the front of the crowd where it was publicly declared that we have now lost our Hash virginity. After being soundly doused by beer, we were handed our official “You have lost your Hash virginity certificates” to prove it! A few days later, on Monday, we completed a land circumnavigation of Grenada. Our friend Dale on Wahoo worked with one of the local taxi drivers to have a fantastic tour of the island for ten of us boat buddies. She even arranged for Ocean to come along for the fun! Our first stop at 0900 hours? A distillery, of course! The tour was great but it is how it ended that was the real eye-opener. We were offered several tastings of their straight rums as well as various flavoured rums including chocolate, mojito and coffee (which actually made the most sense given the time of day we were there!). Next on the agenda was a narrow and windy drive up to Concord Falls, one of many waterfalls in Grenada. The waterfall is stunning, standing about sixty-five feet tall, with cool, clear and fresh water filling the large swimming area below. Fresh, cool, clear water? Yes please! Refreshed from our swim at the waterfall, the taxi then took us to Grenville for an informative tour of the Grenada Co-operative Nutmeg Association Factory. Grenada is reputed for its nutmeg, producing more than 20% of the world’s nutmeg. If you live in North America and have bought nutmeg, cloves or cinnamon, chances are it came from this great island. Grenada is also known as the Caribbean Capital of Chocolate so you can guess where the taxi took us next. We enjoyed an interesting and tasty tour of the Diamond Chocolate Factory in Victoria, Grenada where they make Jouvay chocolate bars. Set in a small estate-like area, the factory seemed more like a homestead than an actual working factory. This homey atmosphere is very much part of their identity as, unlike the other chocolate factories on the island, Diamond farms the cocoa themselves and produces it on site within its stone farm walls. It is so delicious that everyone on our tour found themselves buying many chocolate bars to go! Before finishing off the day, we toured one more distillery. This time it was an eco-friendly distillery where everything from extracting the sugar to bottling is done by hand. Incredible! The tour was well-put together and, although tiring, it was an inspiring day to see Grenada from so many aspects – inland, coastline, small factories, large production sites, high atop the mountains, and, of course, the beauty of its terrain. And it is that beauty that had us on another taxi-driven tour a few days later. On Thursday, we had a two-part day that included a river and another waterfall. This time it was the Seven Sisters Waterfall in the Grand Etang Forest and Nature Reserve. There are seven waterfalls here, each a little higher up on the 1,910-foot mountain. The first two waterfalls are reached via a 40-minute hike along a fairly rough and challenging path. The last five waterfalls require a guide and some pretty well-sharpened mountaineering skills. Not for us! Instead, we spent our time lazily swimming in the pool of the second waterfall. It was an incredible experience to be in the glen-like atmosphere, with beautiful foliage and flowers surrounding us and the sun peaking through the canopy, while gliding through the cool, fresh pool from the waterfall. Serene. Mesmerizing. Incredible. How to follow up a wonderful morning at one of Grenada’s loveliest waterfalls? Well, with some river tubing of course! This was a fun trip down a fast-moving river. What a way to finish off a day! It has been a jam-packed week but we have learned lots about our “home away from home” and appreciate it even more. Enjoying "Sailing Wild Horses"? Click on the buttons below to see where we are today and where we plan to go next winter!
This week we had the opportunity to explore a bit more of Grenada and finally made it up to the city of St. George’s for their very busy Saturday farmer’s market and to check out the Grenada Fish Market. It is about a 2 hour walk from our anchorage to the city so, understandably, we took one of the “shopping taxis” for 15 EC (Eastern Caribbean dollars) or $7 CAD. A 25 minute taxi ride beats a 2 hour walk in any temperature, let alone 31 degrees Celsius heat (humidex of 39 degrees!). The taxi, really a mini van, packs in about 12 people so it is tight but comfortable. Plus, it is a great way to meet our fellow boaters from various anchorages. St. Georges city centre looks like a small city with lots of low-rise businesses and services but every street and alleyway were packed with sidewalk vendors. And this is in addition to the vendors with stalls within the actual farmer’s market itself. There was lots to see and buy! But our big focus was making it to the Fish Market, which is just off the Fisherman’s Wharf in St. George’s. Every Friday, the fishermen unload their catches here and, this being Saturday morning, we were hoping to still find some good buys. I was able to get some lovely tuna but our friends on Wahoo (Roy and Dale), were looking for Conch (pronounced “konk”) and there was none to be had anywhere in the market. No worries though, we were told that there might be some for sale across the street. Off we went and, yes! A few ladies sitting on the sidewalk had a cooler full of cleaned and bagged conch! Dale picked up a bag but I hesitated. What in the world would I do with conch? I had no idea how to prepare it or how to cook it. Dale to the rescue! She has lots of experience with conch and offered to host a “clean, prepare and cook” session on her boat. Awesome! Earlier this week, we also got to check out the campus of St. George’s University, which is home to the St. George’s University School of Medicine and the St. George’s University School of Veterinary Medicine, both highly accredited and world-renowned. In addition to wanting to see the schools, we needed to take Ocean to the Small Animal Clinic at the university to get her annual vaccinations and to have a vet look at her right eye, which had developed a bit of an infection. Arriving at the office, we were happy that it was air-conditioned and, more importantly, it was empty. They don’t take appointments in the summer so it is “first come, first served” but with no one else in the office, they saw Ocean right away. Two veterinary technicians took Ocean’s vitals and history. It certainly felt like VIP service. Afterwards, they took Ocean to the Veterinarian on duty, in the back exam rooms, while we waited patiently in the main lobby area. And there we waited. And waited. And, well, we waited some more. After an hour and a half, I was really feeling the cold from the air-conditioner. The level of the air-conditioning was appropriate for the uniformed staff and their furry clients but was a bit much for two sailors in shorts and who are now acclimatized to the Grenadian heat. I actually had to step outside to warm up! The Vet appeared with Ocean just after the 2 hour mark and gave us the low down on her bad eye. She definitely had an inflamed third eyelid (yes – dogs have three eyelids!) but the cause was not as definitive. Being part of the veterinary school, they had done every test and analysis known to man, likely with on-looking students. Nothing was overlooked or not considered. They had measured eye pressure, looked for scratches, ulcers, unusual dryness – the whole gambit! Nothing unusual was found so it was determined that sand or some other irritant was the culprit and prescribed her a heavy-duty eye medication. The total cost for the examination, tests, medications, her annual vaccinations plus some extra dog treats that we couldn’t resist? A mere $130 CAD. Wow! This is great news as we will need to return later in the year to get her exit health certificate before we leave Grenada and head to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. We also enjoyed lots of great times out and about in Grenada! Want to know where we are today and where we are headed next season? Click the buttons!
Oh my gosh, “island time”. This is a running joke, whether you live in the Caribbean, other islands, even in the United States or Canada. Everyone knows that “island time” means things are not running on a 9-5, bing-bang, “let’s-get- things-done” timeline. No, things get done when they get done, and sometimes, unfortunately, they don’t get done. Sigh. Sometimes “island time” is, well, tiresome. We have a long list of projects and tasks to get through in this off-season and we would like to get many of them started as soon as possible. The issue? Island time! We send off emails and texts about parts, services, or for information gathering and…no reply. Crickets. Even calling or dropping by in person doesn’t guarantee things move any faster. Well, this week we learned a great skill about working with “island time” and still getting stuff done. You have to shake the tree. Huh? I’ll explain. We are lucky in that the marina we are anchored nearby generously lets us not only use their dinghy dock but they also let us wander around their beautifully landscaped property. After a few shore walkabouts with Ocean, we realized that there were two very full mango trees along the pathway and, guess what? It is mango season! The mangos are too high to reach by hand so we needed help. We found the perfect stick (shaped like a hockey stick, no less) and were successful at trapping and knocking off several wonderfully ripe mangos. A few others were outside of the reach of the stick so Mike crawled up the trees a few feet to reach them. Still, lots of ready-to-eat mangos stayed safely perched high atop the trees. Oh well, we decided. We will just have to be happy with the low hanging fruit. This week we arrived back at the trees, hoping that a few more easily accessible mangos would be ripe and ready to be knocked off. We managed a puny harvest of two mangos. Oh. Then, along came a young gentleman from the marina, walking briskly towards us on his way to the other side of the marina. I am not sure how long he had watched our struggles but he didn’t hesitate. As we stood watching, he quickly climbed up the tree, much further up than Mike had attempted. And then what did he do? He started shaking the tree. Lots of loose mangos let go of their branches. Wow, this guy knows how to get his mangos! We collected the mangos for him but when he crawled down the tree, he waved us off. “Nope, they are for you” and then he started off again along the pathway to the other side of the marina. He was, for sure, your typical super-nice Grenadian. And we, for sure, just got a great lesson on getting things done in Grenada. Be patient, but if time goes on too long, you just might need to shake the tree a little 😉. This new-to-us philosophy has worked well this week for getting information from businesses (call, wait, text, wait, shake tree i.e. text again, call, call, text etc.) and, also our weekly bus services (text, wait, text, wait, shake tree i.e. text, call, etc.). Once we shake the tree a bit, we get a reply. Even the busier pop-up markets, where there are usually more people than product, benefit from a little shake, albeit in a different form. Instead of waiting until the produce is all unpacked, displayed and promptly gobbled up by the crowd, we help the vendor bring the product to their table, making sure we select a few of our preferred items from the stash before we leave to get more product from their car. Perfectly shaken. Besides shaking things up for ourselves 😉, we continue to have very full days. Most of the time we fit in some boat maintenance, an errand or two, walking or exploring with friends, and, of course, exercising Ocean. We somehow also find some quiet moments in the evening to share a sun downer with our ever-growing band of boat friends. These are very lovely days indeed.
Whew, we are getting acclimatized! On our travels on Wild Horses this year, we have come to expect one of two situations for getting our groceries and supplies when we get to new ports (usually in new countries). It is either (1) walkable and fairly easy, or (2) non walkable and requires more effort or doing without. The first situation is great. Who doesn’t love things to be easy? We just dinghy up to the beach or to the dinghy dock and make our way to the grocery store, marine store, or hardware store. Throw in a bakery and an electronics store and we are in heaven 😊. Getting fuel (gas, diesel) is also manageable by taking our jerry cans to a marina fuel dock. We usually get this kind of access when we are close to major cities. We tend to take advantage when things are this good because often we are faced with the second situation i.e. not much within walking distance. Actually, there is usually a small convenience-like grocery store available in most places, but the items on the shelves tend to be offered at a premium price. In those cases, we either do without (if it isn’t urgent) or we rent a car or grab a taxi (if it is urgent). We usually see this in out islands or in small villages. When we first arrived in the Grenadian islands, we made landfall in Tyrrell Bay, Carriacou (the small Grenadian island just north of the main island of Grenada). Tyrrell Bay is a small town but with a large cruising community. We could walk to get our basic needs met (a few grocery and marine stores, fuel dock and a few hardware-like stores) but did without for those things that were not readily accessible (actual hardware stores and fully stocked grocery and marine items). Then we arrived at the southern coast of the main island of Grenada, very close to the city of St. Georges. Our expectation was that we would be able to get everything we need here. They have lots of grocery stores, fish markets, pet stores, hardware stores, veterinarians, dentists. Really everything is here! But, none of it is walkable from most of the southern anchorages and a dinghy ride is nothing less than “extremely salty”. And renting a car? Yikes. That would be an exercise in fearlessness that we just don’t have in us. Left lane driving + narrow, winding and hilly roads + no discernable speed limit = Complete Terror as a passenger. I cannot imagine being the driver! Things here don’t exactly fit into our nice little categories of “easy access” or “no access”! So, where does that leave us? Well, Grenadian ingenuity has this figured out. There are “grocery buses” (aka mini vans) that run on regular schedules taking people to all the usual haunts – the IGA grocery store, Budget Marine, ACE hardware and a local wholesale warehouse, all for just 15 EC ($7 CAD) a person. If you have a specialty place you need to visit, then you can get a taxi (aka mini van) and pay 80 EC ($40 CAD). Even better, local entrepreneurs also come to us! They drive their minivans and cars along the remote roads into the secluded Secret Harbour Marina property, bringing with them fruit, fresh herbs, vegetables, breads, ice cream, propane and wine. Gas and diesel are also on site. Somehow, when you mix all of this together, well, we manage to get everything that we need albeit in a very unique way 😊. Of course, when we can walk, we do. This week we were told of a great “shortcut” into Prickly Bay, which is the next bay to the west of Secret Harbour. Prickly Bay is wonderful as it has a marine store, butcher shop, coffee shop and a few great restaurants. The “shortcut” is truly short, thankfully, as it is commonly over 30 degrees Celsius here and much of it is very hilly. Sweating is a national pastime! But the walk to Prickly Bay was worth it. We started through beautiful residential streets, passed a scenic public beach (where Ocean got to have a quick swim to cool off) and finally ended up at the West Indies Brewery, the local pub/brewery that serves up cold, flavourful micro-brews and delicious bites to eat. A great walk that ends with a beer – perfect! It has been a good first week here, figuring things out as we go and getting a few boat projects started. Our days are busy but we always leave time for exploring or hanging out with friends. We see several fun months ahead of us here! Click the link below to see where we are spending hurricane season this year!
Yesterday marked a huge milestone for the crew of Wild Horses. After more than twelve years of planning, researching and thinking about this trip, we arrived at the southern coast of Grenada, the furthest point south we intended to go in our first year as liveaboards in the Caribbean. There is a lot to celebrate with having dreamed, saved, designed and persevered over so many years. We have accomplished our first long duration travel goal aboard Wild Horses. Wow. Here is our journey in numbers:
That is straight data, but the experiences we have had are too numerous to count, including:
We are beyond happy and ready to start dreaming of what’s next 😊. But where are we now? We are in Mount Hartman Bay, which is a quiet and beautiful anchorage, midway along the southern coast of the island. It is less than a two-hour boat ride to the busy capital of St. George’s and even closer to many of the lovely anchorages littered along the southern coast. Over the next four months we intend to visit most, if not all, of them as well as sailing back to Carriacou to visit more anchorages there. In the meantime, we are learning the ropes of how things work here. Fuel is available only on certain days and between certain times. Same with propane. Most have a “leave it with us and pick up later” service which is new for us. Until now, we have just filled as we go. We are also learning where to get things repaired and installed, how to get deliveries, and where to buy the cheapest groceries, and when. Some of this info is available from the local marina, other info is provided via the Cruisers Net broadcast daily on the VHF. Face book cruising sites for Grenada and Carriacou are also full of info, although not entirely reliable at times (emotions and recency bias seem to plague Facebook). Finally, we learn a lot by just chatting with locals or with our fellow cruisers. Speaking of which, when we arrived in Mount Hartman Bay yesterday, along with our buddy boat Caretta, guess who was here to greet us? Two of our buddy boats from our journey from Georgetown, Bahamas to Luperon, Dominican Republic! Andre and Joane on “That’s It” met us in their dinghy as we entered the anchorage and Pam and Kim from “Kemana” waived warmly as we anchored to their port side. What a sight for sore eyes! All three boats had taken slightly different routes to Grenada and had different timing for getting here but here we are! All together (and with Caretta), it just seemed very right to be surrounded by so many good friends as we reached our sailing goal. 😊 Even though we are in Grenada, we will not be sitting still. Check out where we are today by clicking the button below.
Since the beginning of our journey, when we left Lake Ontario way back on September 9, 2022, our eyes have been on the prize of arriving in Grenada and staying put for awhile. Actually, we will be here, in Grenada, for many, many months as this will be our home until November, when hurricane season is over. To get here has been challenging and tiring with moving the boat day after day, usually for more than 8 or 9 hours, dealing with boat leaks, uncooperative weather, overnight sails, broken parts and dragging boats, among other “I-can’t-believe-this-is-really-happening” moments. Now, we are ready to relax and truly be on “island time”. We are ready to exhale. Staying put, however, doesn’t mean staying in one location. No, there is just too much to explore in Grenada and its outer islands including Carriacou (where we are now) and Petite Martinique. With lots of time and many months ahead of us, we decided to start small. We weighed anchor from our spot in Tyrrell Bay this past Monday and sailed 30 minutes around the corner to Sandy Island. Relaxation was immediate. The island is a sliver of paradise, with fine grain sand, palm trees and clear, baby blue water. Across from the island is the mainland of Carriacou with its shops, restaurants and bakeries. It is the best of both worlds. Look left and we are relishing in calm remoteness, look right and we can walk about town and grab a bite to eat. Lovely. Our days here have been about slow walks on the beach and a few swims to cool off. In the evenings, we have enjoyed the Paradise Beach Bar, a fun little restaurant across the bay. It is right at the water’s edge and has open air dining, beautifully appointed tables and delicious meals… but it is still wonderfully casual. No shoes here! To make things even easier, they provide a free water taxi to and from your boat to the restaurant. The highlight of our time at Sandy Island, for us, was an activity at the Paradise Beach Bar, called “Sip & Paint”. We took part on Wednesday June 28 and just…wow. What fun! The vibe was light and energetic with lots of cruisers in attendance. Kids, adults, boat owners, crew, artists, hacks (like us!). We all sat around a few picnic tables covered with a tarp. Paint cans of various colours were placed down the middle of the table as were paint brushes and lots of paper towel. In front of each boat group was a single piece of wood. Our mission? Design and paint our boat on the piece of wood. No rules beyond that. Just let your creative spirit reign. And the “sip” part? Well, we could choose to have a drink of our choice to inspire our artwork. Mike and I grabbed a couple of beers as did our boat buddies on Caretta and we were off to the races! An hour later we had a beautiful piece of art representing our dear Wild Horses! Oh, and lots of new friends were made! Everyone was keen to learn who everyone was (including Ocean), which boat we had wandered off of 😊 and, finally, where we had been and where we were going. Standard fare for cruising circles but it never gets boring to learn all the different stories of how people end up occupying the same longitude and latitude as you. After the session, the artwork sits and dries for a few days before being mounted on the restaurant walls or fences. We had a little walkabout and even saw the artwork from our buddy boats “That’s It” and “Kemana”, who had done the “Sip & Paint” before us. Truly fun! Yesterday we moved the boat from Sandy Island to just outside the town of Hillsborough. It is a busy place with lots of shops and traffic. Our draw here was that it has several bank machines and we were in desperate need of Eastern Caribbean dollars (the currency of Grenada). But, uh-oh, my bank card didn’t work at any of the machines. A quick call to my bank confirmed that the bank card was probably toast. The only solution was to mail a new one to our address on file. Uh-oh times two. Our address is in Canada. No worries, we did a quick switch-eroo and used a debit card from our other bank. Yup, before we left Canada we made sure to have banking redundancy for exactly this type of situation. Whew! Still, we do want to set things right with our primary debit cards so we will need to start looking into how to get our important mail (like bank and credit cards) while we are in Grenada. Something else to figure out! In the meantime, we continue to enjoy our time in Carriacou. We will spend tomorrow (Canada Day) at the Paradise Beach Bar. One of the cruisers at the “Sip & Paint” is a singer and is headlining there that day. It will be a fun way to celebrate Canada Day, our first one out of the country and our first celebrating with our American friends on Caretta. But the fun doesn’t stop there! On Tuesday we get to flip the script and celebrate July 4th with our friends! Canadian and American flags will be flying from both boats!! 😊 We are in Grenada but not sitting still! Check out the link below to see where we are right now.
Although Mother Nature doesn’t always follow the rules, there are “typical” patterns to weather that help sailors like us plan our journeys. A big one is that hurricane season starts on June 1 and goes until November 1. These were dates we kept our eye on as we made our way south from Lake Ontario to Grenada. Along the way, we also learned about the Cape Verde Hurricane Season which typically starts late July or early August and runs through early October. This is the time period where tropical waves develop off the coast of Africa and start heading west. Since they have a long way to go, they have a lot of time to build into monsters. Most major Atlantic hurricanes come from these waves and even the lesser Tropical Depressions and Tropical Storms have an origin off the coast of Africa. Knowing all of this, we chose not to have a hard and fast deadline of June 1 to be in Grenada, but we did want to make sure we were in striking distance should a troubling tropical wave system develop early, before the end of July. Well, that is exactly what happened this week. Just over a week ago, we were in northern Dominica. At that time, we received very early reports of a tropical wave that might make landfall in the Eastern Caribbean, although it was forecasted to more likely track north before reaching land. With a week to go, no one could predict with any certainty this system’s actual path or intensity. It was a guessing game. No rush, but we did want to be well positioned in case we had to make a run for Grenada. By Saturday, our pending tropical wave was now called “Invest92” and we kept our eyes peeled for any news on its path or intensity. So far, so good. On Sunday, we headed to the beautiful island of Martinique and anchored at the port of St. Pierre. This was the site of a volcano eruption in 1902 that killed 30,000 people and devastated the town itself. We walked around the town, and were wowed by the ruins, the history and the incredible way that this town had rebuilt itself. With news that Invest92 had developed into a Tropical Storm and that it could possibly make landfall in the Martinique area, we decided to not stay an extra night in St. Pierre. We had three good travel days ahead of us and we decided to take the prudent approach and sail to a southern anchorage on Martinique, the city of Fort de France. On our way there, we received reports that Bret was expected to grow in intensity and could very well become a category 1 hurricane. Bret’s landfall targets were estimated to be Martinique or St. Lucia, the very next island to the south of Martinique. As soon as our anchor was down in Fort De France, we dinghied over to our buddy boat Caretta. Both boats were of like mind. We didn’t want “surviving a hurricane” to be part of our sailing portfolio. The decision was made to leave the following morning for Grenada, a 130 nautical sail (24 hours of travel for our boats). We used the rest of the day to top up our diesel tanks, buy groceries and set up the boats for another overnight. We set off for Grenada at 0900 and enjoyed a solid eight hours of gorgeous sailing in 20-24 knot winds. Then, as we neared the southern coast of St. Lucia, the wind died to a miserable 5 knots. On went the motor and we continued along into the night, motor sailing with increasingly bouncy swells. Just after midnight, thunder and lightning started to dance around us and the rain came down with force. Squall after squall soaked us and made for an uncomfortable several hours. To add insult to injury, Caretta hailed us on the VHF just after 0400 hours. Their engine had died. Then the rain started again. Yeesh. We were low on energy and enthusiasm as daylight broke. What picked us up? Seeing the wonderful hills of Carriacou, just a few hours away. We arrived at 0800 with Caretta just behind us, using their dinghy as their alternate motor to enter the Tyrrell Bay anchorage. The rest of Wednesday was used to rest and reconnect. Our wonderful buddy boat Kamana had arrived in Tyrrell Bay just the day before! We got to chat and shop a bit before we all hunkered down for the high winds expected from Tropical Storm Bret. Indeed, Bret was now expected to go directly between Martinique and St. Lucia with sustained winds of 60 knots, just a few knots shy of a category 1 hurricane. All of the Eastern Caribbean would feel his effects, to lesser degrees outside of his centre. Were we worried? No, we were in a protected anchorage, have an excellent anchor and made sure we were well set for the strongest winds. We slept soundly. The next morning, it was a different story. Wild Horses remained well set but several of the boats in the anchorage started to drag anchor once the winds reached over 40+ knots, at 0815 hours. Unfortunately, one of them dragged into Wild Horses. For two hours we fended off the boat Nirvana. Her rudder had wrapped around our anchor chain and she was pinned against our hull, our rigging entangled and her dinghy sideways between our boats with its motor scratching its way around our hull. In the pouring rain, I tried to fend her off while Mike stayed at the helm, managing the boat direction. Nirvana was causing excessive strain on our anchor and we began dragging ourselves. Thankfully, our rocna anchor reset and held. Just a note about Ocean during this whole ordeal - her mindset was chill. She even reached out and gave Justin (the captain of Nirvana) a kiss as our boats were intermingled. Brilliant. As a last ditch effort, Mike strongly powered Wild Horses forward and bowthrusted to starboard. Yes! We were free of the boat. But we had been dragged backward enough that we threatened the boat behind us. We shortened our anchor chain, while the boat behind us lengthened his anchor chain and we could feel the ease of some space. We were finally in a position to take a deep breath. Once the wind lightened, we assessed the damage to Wild Horses. Our port navigation light was gone and we had some scratches along our bow but, incredibly, there was no other damage. I write this now, just a few hours later. The winds are light, and the sun is shining. Wild Horses is no longer in danger. We are exhausted but grateful. No one got hurt and Wild Horses’ damage was minimal (you should see the other guy – deep hull scratches, damaged dinghy + stainless, and his dinghy motor was lost). The owners of the other boat offered to pay for the damage, of course, but we declined. We learned a lot through this experience and a $50 light is a small price to pay. Enjoying Sailing Wild Horses and want to check in on where we are today? Click the Button below.
This has been a week that has put our stress levels to the test. It was a week of brisk winds and sporty seas. It was also a week where our engine conked out on us. Not once, but twice. Yeesh. But you need the whole story. Last weekend started quite lovely. We had arrived in Deshies, Guadeloupe on Tuesday and by Thursday we were ready to start heading down the coast. Our first anchorage was just off Pigeon Island in the Malendure Beach area. This was a pretty town that had a few great town amenities (bakery, grocery store, hardware store). We even got in some fun snorkeling off Pigeon Island. Both Caretta and Wild Horses took our dinghies to the island and set off snorkeling at the island. So many fish! Probably the most we have ever seen and it was a great time, even for Ocean who swam off the dinghy to cool off. On Saturday we were off again. The plan was two-fold. We would sail 2 hours south to a fuel dock at the southwest corner of Guadeloupe, fill up our diesel and gas cans and then weigh anchor and head the 4 hours to Les Saintes, a set of beautiful islands just south of the main island of Guadeloupe. All went according to plan except the wind was too much at the bow of our boat. Sigh. We would be motoring once again. But that didn’t hold true. No, just 3 nautical miles from our anchorage at Les Saintes, the engine propelling Wild Horses along suddenly stopped. Dead. Immediately, we threw out our Genoa head sail and then called our buddy boat Caretta to let them know. There was no emergency, I mean, we had lots of wind to fill our sail (good news). The only negative was that it was from the absolute wrong direction. To get to our anchorage, we would have to tack several times across the wind, adding hours to our day. In the meantime, Caretta continued to the anchorage to scope out our options for when Wild Horses arrived under sail. More good news was that there were mooring balls available in our preferred anchorage. Great! We just had to get there. No problem for Mike! He strategized a route so that our last tack would have us land immediately in front of the anchorage. Our buddy boats had already grabbed one of the moorings and dropped their dinghy. Then as we finished our last tack that had us arrive in the anchorage, we dropped our Genoa to slow us down. Barry attached his dinghy to our boat and we pulled in the mainsail. Barry’s dinghy was able to be our motor as Mike steered us alongside the mooring ball. I grabbed the ball and attached the lines. We were set. Whew, long day. The next morning, Barry arrived with his multi meter in hand and ready to fix whatever ailed our motor. It took him no more than an hour. The problem was a loose connection with the neutral safety switch which caused it to heat up and trip the breaker for the start on the engine. Wow. Barry, being a master electrician by trade, fixed the connection and another that looked shifty. We were ecstatic! That night we went out to dinner to celebrate. The food was delicious and Les Saintes is beautiful! On Sunday, the very next day, we all decided to go for a quick hike up Ilet de Cabrit, the small island we were anchored beside. Lots of trails, scenic views, ruins and goats to entertain us and we ended up hiking for almost 3 hours, some of which was straight up the mountain! Monday morning both Caretta and Wild Horses weighed anchor and we set off for Dominica. Our first island in the Windward Islands. It was also our first island that required a government veterinarian to inspect Ocean at the docks before she could go to land. Only, that never happened. I was granted the Pet Import Permit a few days prior and told to give them 24 hours notice of the date, time and port of our arrival so that the inspection could be arranged. I did just that but received no response on an inspection time. I contacted them another four times and, well, no response. What did we do? We arrived in Dominica, showed our passports, vessel registration and Pet Import Permit to Customs and Immigration and they said “have a nice day”. Ummm, okay. Ocean has been to shore multiple times with no issues. Yay! The very next day after we arrived, Barry came over to Wild Horses yet again. This time he was just wanting to upgrade the connectors he had put in place in Les Saintes. He also thought he would take a quick look at our tachometer which had quit working on our way to Dominica. Connectors changed, tach checked so all that was left was firing up the engine for a final test. Uh-oh. The engine started but then immediately stopped. Mike and Barry began testing wires and connectors and finally isolated the problem to the main wire connecting the engine to the battery. The wire, hidden under a hose, was almost severed completely through, likely due to all the side to side and front and back bouncing Wild Horses has been subjected to on our journey. Barry easily fixed the wire and we were back in business. The future of our engine looks rosy now that all the wires and connections have been replaced! On our first full day in Dominica, we decided to get a guide and take a tour up the Indian River, the mouth of which is very close to our anchorage. It was an amazing experience. Our guide, Albert, was extremely knowledgeable and pointed out various trees, flowers, ferns, land crabs (so many!!!), iguanas, hummingbirds and even the hut that was used in one of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. It was great to get some first-hand knowledge of Dominica and to see some of its incredible terrain. On Thursday we prepared to head south once again. We had a quick trip on shore to get some East Caribbean Dollars, fresh bread and a bag of eggs (that’s right! No cartons here!). This morning we arrived in Roseau, the capital of Dominica. We will see what adventures await us! Still headed to Grenada, we are working our way through the windward islands. Click the link below to see where we are today.
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AuthorVictoria is a hiker, dog-lover, blog writer and planner extraordinaire. Oh, yeah and she is kind of fond of living on a boat. Categories
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April 2024
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