Sunday, June 24, 2018

Welcome to Grenada!!!

By Kathy

We are in Grenada!!! We still have a few posts about the Bahamas and they will be coming soon but we wanted to tell you a little about our new country.

Out with our Bahamas flag (which has seen better days) and in with our Grenada flag.

It is time to get your maps out and check out our new location. We are much further south than the Bahamas. Only 12 degrees from the equator!! The UV index is usually about a 12 here! We are now closer to South America than we are to North America! 

So why are we so far south?? 
We are getting ready for the 2018 hurricane season. If you asked us last August where we would be for hurricane season this year we would  have said you would probably find us in the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico. After Irma and Maria we thought we should probably come up with a new plan. Grenada is officially outside of the hurricane belt but we know we are not out of the woods so we have plans to haul SandStar out for the prime season of September and October. 

How did we go from the Bahamas all of the way down to Grenada??? 
That is a great question and one that tested our ability to make changes to plans pretty quickly. We had a great route planned to take the boat from the Bahamas to Luperon, DR  in early May and then from there make the trek down to Grenada. BUT the weather had different plans. May came around and we waited and waited and waited for a good window to leave. We were getting very windy and squally weather in what is normally a very calm month. We even hired a weather router to help us and he basically told us the weather was junk until probably sometime in June. We also found out when we did get our window it may be a very short one so we would need to do some long passages in some rough seas. Hmmmm.....let’s rethink this plan. Our goal for this adventure is to have fun and we wanted everyone to want to stay on the boat once it reached Grenada so we decided to have a crew take the boat south for us. We said good bye to the Bahamas and SandStar and flew to south Florida for a few days and stayed with Dan's parents and had hot showers (Yeah!!) and ate lots of our favorite foods. We were also able to do a little Amazon shopping  and a little refresh on clothes since everyone was out growing their small wardrobe. We really needed to buy tennis shoes for everyone since we have been barefoot or in flip flops for the last 9 months and we had read Grenada was full of hiking trails. While we were in Florida we were able to meet up with our friends from SV Gato Rison who we met in George Town. It was great for the kids to see we really can meet up with people after meeting them while cruising and that a "good-bye" is hopefully a "see you later". After a whirlwind stop in south Florida we flew to Grenada to meet the boat.

Picture says it all.... a big grocery store with a snack aisle! Haven't seen one in months.
We met up with our friends from SV Gato Rison. We met them in George Town. 

It was great for us to catch with Gato too! 

Flying to Grenada! 

We arrived in Grenada about a week before SandStar arrived so it gave us a chance to start understanding everyday life on land before we were seeing it from the water. We are definitely in a new place, with new people, new food, new landscape, new culture. It does take time to get use to your new surroundings and really try to understand how to live life here. Could we go to a resort and hang out on the beach?? Yes, we could and we might do that if we were on vacation but we have come to realize there is a big difference between cruising and vacation. With cruising, you will have your fun days and you will also have some work/chore days. We have been feeling the work side of things this week with cleaning up and fixing anything that broke on the boat from the passage south. One of the biggest things that happened was that the mainsail was damaged by bird spikes we had on the spreaders and we chafed both reef lines. In theory, the bird spikes were a great idea when we had so many birds in Florida making a mess on the boat. Over time some of the spikes bent and when the sail was up it caught some of the spikes. It looks like a small bear decided to climb horizontally across our sail. We have taken apart the boat and put it back together several times this week.  We also have access to a pretty good chandlery (boat supply store) here in Grenada so we are able to do a few projects  that we couldn’t do in the Bahamas. 


Looks like a small bear climbed across our sail. 


It took two guys to get the mailsail down. It is huge and heavy.  
Dan and Oscar trying to figure out what is going on with our water pump. 

This will be our home for a few months and we really want to have fun living around the locals and cruisers. Our first week was a bit of a shock to our system but this is part of the adventure – learning to live in new places. We didn’t feel as big of a change when we arrived in the Bahamas since it was located so close to the US and they are so connected to everything happening in the states.

What are some of the big differences?  

Fruits – YEAH!!! Lots of mangos, limes, passion fruits, and guavas. They also have some we have never heard of before but we are looking forward to trying them. 

Some of the local fruits. Some we know and others we have no idea what they are! 


Soup – There is a whole culture of soups on the island. We have really been enjoying some of the local soups. Our favorite so far is Callaloo soup. Callaloo is a green plant that grows on the island that is a super food when it is cooked. The locals say they eat it at least once a week for the health benefits. But don't try to eat the leaves without cooking them. It is said that it will feel like razor blades going down your throat. 


The Callaloo plant

Street Food – It took us about a week to finally stop on the side of the road and buy street food. Everyone is usually out selling food Thursday – Saturday. It can simply be a guy and a grill on the side of a mountain road. As you get further into town you will sometimes see bigger setups. It is usually bbq chicken or ribs. We did pass a guy grilling fresh corn and I am still kicking myself for not stopping. We passed by before we realized what he we selling and then it was too late to turn around (there is no turning around on the mountain roads). 

One of the larger street food vendor near the beach. It looks like one guy but there is actually three different vendors under the tent - bbq, juice, and soup.

Spices – This is the spice island!! Everything revolves around nutmeg. Nutmeg in your sundowners, ice cream, porridge, etc….I am now on the hunt for a nutmeg grinder at the store this weekend so we can add some to our coffee.  

Mountains – The elevation is up and down around the whole island. There is a rainforest is right in the center of the island. It is beautiful. You have to go over some hills and mountains to get to it. A lot different from Florida and the Bahamas. 


Lots of mountains! 

Driving – This is a white knuckle experience. We have a rental car for a couple of weeks and Dan has mastered driving on a road that is made for 1 ¾ cars. Not quite wide enough for 2 cars to pass with ease at a regular speed. All this is done driving on the left side of the road!! 


A two lane road in Grenada. 

Liming – Yes, that is a word here in Grenada and it is an actual activity. It means to sit back, relax, have a drink and hang out with friends. 

We did a little liming at the West Indies Brewery after a long day of boat projects.
Dan enjoying a local micro brew and Emma enjoying a local grapefruit soda! 

We have some good blogs coming your way about chocolate, rum, and hashing…. Stay tuned!! 

Wednesday, June 13, 2018

Rewind: The Exuma Cays - Staniel to Little Farmer's

By Kathy

Actual Date: March 13th – 17th

The water in the Bahamas is always amazing!! 

This is flashback post from our trip down the Exumas. We stopped at Staniel Cay, Black Point and Little Farmer’s Cay.

Staniel Cay
We arrived in the afternoon at Staniel Cay and we were greeted by about 20 mega yachts!! They were huge. A lot of them had big inflatable slides from the top with lots of water toys attached like boats and wave runners. We anchored just off of Big Majors (aka pig beach) so we saw our little curly tailed friends right away. People come from all around the world to see these pigs.

The pigs were huge and some has polka dots!
What??? Swimming pigs??

Dan and Emma are not getting too close!

Sam decides to take a chance with one of the smaller pigs. 

They are cool but the best thing about Staniel Cay was the Thunderball Grotto. It was a cave you could swim into and it was beautiful. Lots of fish and also very popular with the tour boats so we ran into lots of people. You want to time the tide so you are going in and out at slack tide so there is less current when you are enjoying the grotto. We loved the grotto so much we made sure snorkeled the grotto two days in a row.

There were a few ways to get into the grotto. We chose to go through an underwater hole. 

Jack going into the grotto! 


We had a tough time capturing a good picture of the grotto. It was so beautiful. 
Lots of fish in the grotto!

Sam surrounded by fish when he fed them some Vienna sausages!


We chose another hole to exit the grotto! 

Emma swimming out of the grotto.
Photo op outside of the grotto. 

We had pretty high hopes for Staniel Cay but it turned out a little different than we expected. The only thing to visit on the island was the yacht club and that was pretty busy with tour boats and not really our speed. There was also a lot of boat traffic from the water toys from the mega yachts so we only stayed two nights in Staniel Cay.


Black Point

Wow! What a difference in islands. We moved just south of Staniel Cay to the neighboring island of Black Point and we immediately loved the island. It was a true Bahamian out island. There were three restaurants, a laundromat, and a couple of very small grocery stores. When I say small I mean smaller than the convenience stores in the states. When we arrived the mail boat was a few days late so it was slim pickings in the stores and the restaurants had very limited menus.

We have arrived in Black Point! 
Awaiting our first meal at Lorraine's.
Love these handmade baskets. We now have two on our boat. 
This is the small grocery store!

The one thing we had read about Black Point from other cruisers was that you have to go see Mama. She has the best Bahamian bread in the islands. She is quite famous among the locals and cruisers. We figured out that she is Lorraine’s mama and to get the bread you visit her house which is located behind Lorraine’s Restaurant. When we went to buy bread we were greeted by Mama on her front porch and invited into her home. She has all of her bread lined up on her kitchen counter. We wanted to make some French toast with her bread but remember when I mentioned the mail boat being a few days late….well that meant that there were no eggs to be found in the stores and it has been about 3 weeks since our last visit to a grocery store so our supplies were limited. But Mama was kind enough to give us some of her fresh eggs for breakfast in the morning. We are happy to report that the bread lived up to its promise. It really is the best coconut bread in the Bahamas!!

We made it to Mama's house for some bread.

Peermon Rolle (aka Mama) and her wonderful bread. 


Black Point is very cruiser friendly. Since there were only three restaurants you learn where to go for happy hour pretty quickly. We found all of the cruisers and the locals returning from work on Staniel at Scorpios for some pretty strong rum punch. We talked to a lot of cruisers and the kids went to the playground and played with the local kids. Sam traded time with his matchbox car for a chance to ride a bike down the street.

Here is the local school. 


The next day was laundry day and this was laundry with a view! After carting all of our laundry from the boat, into the dinghy, out of the dinghy and up the hill we were able to get started. It was a mommy and daughter laundry day and Emma and I read our books, did some homework and ate some conch fritters while we waited. The view of the harbor was amazing.



Approaching the laundromat from the dinghy dock.


Emma hard at work!

This is pretty awesome!

Almost done! You can see the clean laundry next to me. 
Air drying at its best! 

We had already been to Lorraine’s and had amazing cracked conch and we had been to Scorpios for some yummy rum punch, now it was time to try the third restaurant on the island Deshamon’s. Deshamon’s is known for their pizza and we were ready for a pizza pie. But the catch was that you had to order the pizza early in the day so they could have the dough made and ready for you at night. We had tried to eat there the night before but because of the mail boat being late they did not have the ingredients (flour) for the pizza. We were so happy that the mail boat finally arrived that afternoon. The pizza was great and they even made Jack a special dairy free pizza with the last of the special mozzarella cheese we had on the boat.

Whooohoo! The mail boat arrived. It takes about 18- 24 hours to unload the mail boat. 
This is Lorraine's Restaurant. You can see Mamas's house behind it. 

Scorpios - home of the cruiser happy hour three days a week. 
Deshamon's Restaurant 

Jack is a happy camper with his special pizza. 


Now time for some decisions. There was some weather coming in so we wanted to make it down to George Town before the next front but Lorriane’s was known for their holiday parties and it happened to be St. Patrick’s Day. Big party planned that night at Lorriane’s. We were torn! But we ended up picking up anchor and starting our trek south to Little Farmer’s Cay which would be our last stop before George Town.

Little Farmer’s Cay

We had a beautiful sail down to Little Farmer's on some very calm water on the Exuma Bank (west side of the islands). Not a wave in sight! Everyone did some reading, school work and prepared leprechaun traps. 

Working on some school work. It is still a little chilly outside  in the wind. 



Leprechaun trap preparation.

The trap has been set! 
Sam getting help with his leprechaun letter. 

This was a very brief overnight stop for us. We were there for less than 24 hours but we accomplished a lot in our short period of time. What did we accomplish?? We were able to buy about 22lbs of Bahamian lobster!! Dan scouted out the local fish guy – Little Jeff and we bought a huge bag of lobster with HUGE tails! We were amazed. Lobster season was ending in a few weeks and we had a lot of company coming into George Town so we wanted to make sure we had plenty of lobster for everyone. To end our time in Little Farmer’s we ate at Ty’s beach restaurant for a St. Patty’s Day dinner of cracked conch.


We didn't get a chance to eat here but we heard it was really good. The sign itself was worth a picture! Read carefully. 


We found Little Jeff!

Dan deep in conversation with Little Jeff. 
Success!! 22 lbs of lobster. Sometimes lobster is easier to find than chicken. 
I really wasn't kidding when I said they were BIG lobsters!