Atalanta

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Hash

Hash isn’t just something to eat. On July 6 and July 13 we participated in our first two hashes. Originated in 1938 in what is now Malaysia, the Hash House Harriers is now an international group of non-competitive running social clubs. Individuals known as hares lay trails marked by shredded paper and it is up to the rest of group, the hounds, to follow the trail which included false starts, shortcuts, dead ends, circles and splits. In Grenada, trails pass through all types of terrain including beaches, rainforests, village streets, and backyards and require participants to ford streams, scale steep hills, or slip & slide through mud. Members often describe their group as a “drinking club with a running problem” since beer is an integral part of every hash. At the conclusion of the run, a “on-after,” or “hash bash” is held with plenty of music and beer.

First time hashers, virgins, are asked upon concluding the race to pose for a photograph. While smiling for the camera, they are sprayed with beer by other hashers. Here's our initiation into HHH.

Another custom dictates that anyone racer with new shoes must drink a beer from them prior to beginning the race.

It's great fun, a good way to work up a sweat, allows to socialize with cruisers and locals, and enables us to see parts of the island that we would not otherwise see. We can't wait to see what challenges next Saturday's Hash offers!

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

Some of This Week's Activity in Pictures

Here are a few pics of this week's activities...... we need to slow down. Island time may be just a bit to fast.

Thanks for following our blog.

Richard and Kay

Street Food at the Fisherman's Birthday Celebration

Richard, Sophie, Ann, Tony and Jonas at the Fisherman's Birthday Celebration

Great Music at the Dingy Concert in Le Phar Blu, Grenada

Drumming Lessons in Secret Harbor

How Many Sailors Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

Picnic in Prickly Bay - 4th of July

Fisherman's Birthday Celebration

View while on the Hash (a community hike and party)

Dingy Concert

Jazz at the museum in St. George, Grenada

Picnic in Prickly Bay - 4th of July

Poetry at the Museum

Post Hash

Saturday, July 5, 2014

Celebrating the 4th of July, Grenada Style

4th of July BBQ in Prickly Bay, Grenada

Yesterday was July 4^th. While out of the USA, we nevertheless had a wonderful if non-traditional celebration. We announced on the morning sailor’s net that everyone was invited celebrate the 4^th on the beach for a potluck. A group of about 20 arrived with grills, food, song sheets, beer and rum punch. We had a wonderful day with folks from England, Sweden, Ireland, Australia and oh yes, the US. Afterward we bussed to St. George’s for a wonderful night of jazz and poetry at the museum community room. The musicians were talented; the poetry edgy and very interesting. Another great day in Grenada!

Today we will watch friends on two boats (one from Sweden and one from England) leave to explore other parts of Grenada’s beautiful coastline. We bid safe travels to Jonas, Sophie, Ann, and Tony. Our South African friends are already scattered about and we wish them fair winds and safe travels. This is all part of a cruising lifestyle of those that are onboard for years at a time. It is a transitory way to live and therefore those that you connect with move in and out of lives with reasonable frequency. We look forward to the next time we are all anchored in the same place at the same time.

We are continuing to work on boat projects although Atalanta has been behaving very well lately. A local sail loft, Turbulence, is sewing a new dodger and bimini for cockpit and the redesign will offer a more traditional appearance. The “greenhouse” afforded us hours of warmth and protection from the rain and Kay is a bit sorry to see it go. Richard never was fond of its size or shape so he is anxious to have the new one installed. We chose silver Sunbrella for the new material and it is quite attractive. We are also looking at modifications to the electrical system. When you live on board, the demands on your 12-volt battery system is extreme. Everything runs off house batteries including refrigeration, lights, etc. Recharging batteries is a daily activity. Currently (no pun intended) we do so with a generator and would like to add either solar or wind generation. We are researching to see which is more suitable.

It’s time to provision for the week and see about getting some fuel. That’s it for now from the Spice Island of Grenada. Thanks for following.

Richard and Kay

Richard, Sophie, Ann and Jonas
at the Fisherman's Birthday Celebration

Poetry in St. Georges, Grenada

Jazz at the Museam

Richard changing a light bulb 6 stories up

Riding the donut

A night of Great Music!!!!

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Prickly Bay

As we spend time in Grenada, we are adjusting to not having a next destination planned for the following day or week. Most here in Prickly Bay are just living here on board, in a community of others doing the same. People have different plans for when they will move. There are basically two groups of cruisers here. Those that plan on hauling, leaving their boats on the hard and traveling home and those that will stay on their boat for hurricane season. We are in the latter group.

As of this writing we have a few ideas as to what we would like to do once we leave Prickly Bay (in about a month). We don’t know which plan we will follow but here are our thoughts as of today.

Plan 1: Stay in the Grenada area and explore a few other anchorages on the southern coast. In addition, head back up the Grenadines to visit some of the Cays we didn’t see on the way down including Tobago Cays, Petit Martinique and others. Then return to Grenada.

Plan 2: Explore other anchorages in Grenada and then migrate down to Trinidad and Tobago (just north of the Venezuelan coast. From here we may head west toward Aruba and Bonaire. This would lead us toward Columbia, Panama and up the western Caribbean.

Plan 3: Explore other anchorages in Grenada and then migrate down to Trinidad and Tobago and then head south with a group leaving from Tobago going to Guyana. This group is planning to leave on September 2. If we were to do this we would likely then begin our journey back to the US via the eastern Caribbean.

Part of the joy of traveling as we are is that we have choices of how we want to go. It would take many years to fully explore the areas available to us and we will never be able to see all of the wonderful places there are to explore. Instead, we try to savor each day, meet new people, make new friends, and take care of each other.

Today, the winds are howling. We are safely anchored and staying on board should the boat need us. Hopefully, the winds will settle and the bay will calm. Until then…. Best always

Richard and Kay

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Thinking about eating, deciding where and what to eat, food provisioning and food preparation all seem to take up a large part of our daily routine. Traveling throughout the Caribbean brings us in touch with a variety of cultures and foods. Meat is a staple - fish, conch (lambi), chicken, lamb, salt fish and goat are readily available. Beef is in the supermarkets but it just doesn’t taste like what we’re used to.

Bar up the Indian River,
Dominica

Local lobster is spiny and has no claws. Rice is the preferred starch; rice and beans is served everywhere, but the French islands have delicious bread and pastries. Caribbean food is usually seasoned but is not spicy hot, although locally made hot sauces will make your nose burn and eyes water.

Cashew
(nut is on the top, no wonder they're so expensive)
Grenada

Tainos were the native settlers on most islands and they grew batata (a different kind of sweet potato), squash, peppers, corn, cassava and pineapple. When they arrived, Europeans introduced lime, mango, orange, tangerine, tamarind, guava, ginger, sugarcane, cocoa and Captain Bligh brought breadfruit as

Cutty picking native fruit
Grenada

an inexpensive way to feed slaves. After slavery was abolished, workers from India were brought to the plantations and curry is now popular in recipes throughout the islands. I have sampled ‘roti’ (curried meat and vegetables wrapped in a soft chickpea flatbread) and ‘doubles’ (two fried Indian flatbreads filled with curried chickpeas). Yum! I once ordered a chicken roti and found it made from chicken necks, bones and all. You need to order “boneless” if you don’t like chewing on the bones.

Tropical fruit is sold at stands everywhere and the ground is strewn with ripe fruit that dropped off the trees. Richard narrowly escaped being thunked on the head by a falling mango. I bought a soursop for $5EC at a roadside stand but when I cut it open, I was overwhelmed by its appearance and didn’t know how to deal with it. Our Grenadian guide, Cutty, says, “No one on Grenada goes to sleep hungry – fruit is so plentiful.” We have had passion fruit smoothies, banana fritters, and fried plantain.

Fresh Nutmeg

No discussion of Caribbean cuisine would be complete without mentioning things shaken & stirred. Every island seems to have a locally produced beer and a rum. The beer is the not cheap but the rum is. We have tried rum punch is as many different places as we can and no two make it exactly the same, but they all do pack a punch.

If you’d like to try a taste of the Caribbean, here’s a recipe for Skipper’s Rum Punch:

Mix the juice of 3 limes with ¼ cup Grenadine syrup, 1 cup of dark rum, and one liter of fruit juice (orange, pineapple and/or passion fruit. Serve with lots of ice and garnish with freshly grated nutmeg or cinnamon on top.

Thanks for following

Richard and Kay