Grenada 10th August 2011

Carnival; day 3

The Yum-Yum adventure have reached its first planned pitstop at the bottom of the Windward Islands.

Allmost two weeks have gone since we arrived in Grenada.

The island and the people here, both visitors and inhabitants, make this a good place to stay.

On the meteo we watch the tropical depressions que up and pass north of us.

Our insurance company calculate Grenada as safe enough to cover us, but the scars from hurricane Ivan's visit in 2004 are still very visible on the island.

So, we keep an open eye in direction of the US Hurricane Center.

We plan to visit Grenada a little more thoroughly than the other islands we have surfed past on our way down from St Martin. (Islands we definitely want to come back to later)

The south coast has many small, deep bays that offer sheltered anchorage and stunning views both over and under water.

This is also the cruiser's preferred meeting places of the season.

Checking out Swiss or Norwegian flagged boats is of cause compulsory, the other way round we also get Dutch visitors with news from our homeport Gravenhage. Or not.   
Combined with all other kinds of meetings, we find ourselves in midst of a pretty dynamic social world here.

And many crews are sort of heading for the Pacific like us.

We get a lot of good ideas, sailing routes and time schedules that might be incorporated in our cruising plans eventually.

Last week everybody were enjoying the local carneval.

Exept from some grumpy, red eyed sailors who eventually had enough of the constant thump-thump-thump-calypso shaking their boats around the clock.

It was amazing to see how the locals more or less constantly paraded after the heavily loaded PA/Disco trucks in fancy costumes, accompanied with lightstics from sunset to dawn.

On our walk the third day we stumbled over people sleeping more or less everywhere.

The guy in deep hiberniation upright on his feet, nose perfectly parked in the corner of a concrete bus-stop shack was a special sight.

Grenadines stands out from the crowd celebrating their carneval in August.

The event incorporates celebration of independence, and is fortuantely located on the calendar as a tourist magnet.

But then, Carneval is per definition the starting point of the Lent.

We feel a little uncertain when it comes to which «carne»(=meat) we are going to «val»(=stay away from) in the following weeks.

We'll find out soon enough.

Tor & Valentine

Dignified Colours

Greeen

Heavy rig

How did I end up here?

The Lime Rig

Liquid Circulation

Lonely Bird

Missus with tail

Conch