The Grenadines

Prior to leaving Grenada in November, we were reunited with the crew of Pierina who had been off doing other things. The kids were excited to race north to the island of Carriacou (still technically Grenada) for some snorkelling and water fun.  We arrived on the eve of Simon's 12th birthday. His only birthday requests were to sail the dinghy, build model boats with his friends, and snorkel. We managed to do all three as we spent the day on Sandy Island.

While I stayed aboard with birthday preparations, John and the kids joined Pierina to start out the birthday palooza with a snorkel and a first attempt at using our new fishing spear. We purchased the spear to catch lion fish, which are an invasive species damaging reef life all throughout the Caribbean. Spear fishing is strictly forbidden for visitors, but if you are catching lion fish, no one seems to care. We were very careful not to damage any coral or harm other fish. The crew of Pierina took some amazing videos of the action.

Within a couple of hours, three lion fish were delivered to me on Nahanni V. As the spines on the fins are poisonous, it takes careful handling to clean them. It took us a few minutes of looking at them before we called Tim over to give us a filleting lesson.

Catch of the day

John cutting off the poisonous spines

Tim: Master Filleter

Simon trying it out

Wavey did her share of filletting

After an afternoon of sailing and hanging with his friends, we hosted Simon's birthday bash with pizza and of course, lion fish nibblies! They were delish.

Opening gifts--boat building materials. Yahoo!

Happy 12th!

Of course in our family, a birthday means at least one week of festivities, so the fun didn't stop for days.

Sleepovers and all day games of Monopoly!

Simon and Mac discussing whatever 12 year old boys talk about

Boat building

Shaping the hull

More boat-building

After formally checking out of Grenada, we set out to explore the Grenadines with Pierina. We sailed to the private island of Petit St.Vincent (PSV. ) Despite the fact the island is private, you are allowed to anchor off the island, but going ashore is restricted to one section of the beach. You also may have a drink at a bar called Goaty's. We were thrilled  when our first day there, Trismic appeared on the horizon and joined us. The six kids were completely blissed out to be all together again.  They spent one afternoon carving tunnels into a sand dune and digging holes that swallowed them up.

We all ventured ashore one evening to have sundowners at Goaty's. The bar was rustically chic, the sunset spectacular, and the pina coladas were, well, expensive. But decadent. So, to make it worth the price, we worked in a photo shoot.

Three perfect pina coladas

Cheers!

(We did eventually drink them after admiring them)

While on PSV, we hitched a ride on our friends' dinghies to visit a little sand island called Mopion. (In my other life, I am sure I have stared at this lovely little bit of paradise on my screen saver during cold winter months.) I didn't get any good pics of our time frolicking in the sea and sand, but Cindy got some great photos of the island and the kids.

Mopion Island (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Kids snorkelling on Mopion Island (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Sand play heaven (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Friends (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Friends (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Buddies (photo by Cindy Rogers)

Mermaids (photo by Cindy Rogers)

From Petit St. Vincent, we visited colourful Clifton on Union Island and hiked up to get a view of Mayreau and the Tobago Cays.

Pathway to Anchor Yacht Club

Shops

Fruit stands and the Snack Shack

Anchor Yacht Club

Taxi ?

View of Mayreau and Tobago Cays

Mac, Simon and Nathan enjoying the view

Sienna, Wavey and Millie: girls on the edge

Our time in Union Island was too short, but we did get an evening at the Anchor Yacht Club and some raucous games of ping pong.

Tim and Cindy battle it out. They are moving so fast, we can't see their faces!

Kids making new friends

We had been anticipating our visit to the Tobago Cays for its natural beauty and unspoiled islands. We anchored in clear water and spent our days snorkelling around three of the islands where we saw turtles and an abundance of fish and corals. There were beaches everywhere for the kids to play, dig and explore.

Kids hiking down trail on uninhabited Jamesby Island (photo shared by Trismic)

While in the Cays, there happened to be a full moon; what better reason to have a party! We celebrated this super moon evening with a grilled lobster dinner and a full moon cake.

Dinner on Trismic (photo shared by Trismic)

Kids' table (photo shared by Trismic)

The wind picked up while we were in the Tobago Cays, so we decided to tuck in at Mayreau for a few days.  Mayreau is a small island with a population of about 300. You can walk from one end of the island up the hill to the other in about 45 minutes, which is what we did several times during our visit. The people were friendly and fit from walking up and down these hills all day.

Homes in Mayreau

Three cruising families walking through Mayreau

Roman Catholic Church

Mac and Sienna braiding palm leaves on Salt Whistle Beach

Beach in Salt Whistle

The guys had a beer at Robert Righteous & de Youths

Salt Whistle Bay before the vendors come out

Post office where we mailed our Christmas cards

From Mayreau, we sailed to the island of Bequia. This island is truly a cruiser's paradise. You can get water delivered to your boat from a water barge, your laundry collected and returned to you the same day, and dine at a number of lovely restaurants. There was also a model boat shop where the owner sold model boats for a very dear price. Simon was in heaven.

On the main street

Taxi anyone?

Street scene

Bookstore

One of many little fruit markets

Tourist office

Not your typical Pizza Hut!

Walking along the waterfront (Nahanni V is in the distance)

Art gallery

Model boats sold by street vendors

Covered market

Bequia has a tradition of whaling...you see whale parts everywhere

Unfortunately, (for us) our friends on Trismic and Pierina only stayed a day to two in Bequia before heading off to Martinique.  Before they departed, we had a Christmas party on Pierina and the kids performed a recorder concert with music they had been practicing all along in the Grenadines. It was awesome performance especially since they learned some of the songs just days before!

Recorder concert on Pierina (photo stolen (oops) borrowed from Lynette Sealy)

We stayed on in Bequia for another week soaking up the vibe and enjoying the beach. 

We caught up on school (after all the socializing) and spent some time with the crew of Lotte, a German boat we met in Grenada with Sascha, Amrei and Thorben aboard. The kids enjoyed playing with 6-year-old Thorben on the beach, and learned that he was crazy about building boats too.

Sascha, Thorben and Amrei

Kids with cute, but camera-shy Thorben

Serious boat-building

One day, we walked to Old Hegg's Turtle Sanctuary with the crew of Lotte to see how they were protecting the Hawksbill turtle. Simon wrote an excellent account of our day:

We visited the Old Hegg's Turtle Sanctuary on the 15th of December, 2017. We got in the dinghy and left the boat at 9:30 am and headed off to meet our friends from a boat called Lotte, who were accompanying us to the Sanctuary.  From the dock, we started to walk up the boardwalk and then up the street. We walked for 90 minutes down the quiet countryside of Bequia.  At the entrance gate to the property, there were some friendly dogs that greeted us.  The Sanctuary was housed in an open building on the rugged windward coast of Bequia.  Inside, there were 27 tanks ranging from medium-sized swimming pools, to small concrete foot basin-sized tanks.  We met the tour guide and he started to show us around.

We learned from the guide that most of the baby turtles were about two months old. When there are new eggs, they wait until they hatch and then go and collect the new baby turtles from various beaches around the island.  Unfortunately, some people still illegally hunt the turtle and eat the eggs. The employees feed the turtles cooked and canned tuna, and a small reef fish locally known as "poor man's fish."  There were some turtles that would not have survived at birth due to its deformed shell or white shell colour.  Most turtles at Old Hegg's will be released at age 3 to 7 years depending on their state.  

We observed the people at Old Hegg's treating the turtles with gentian violet. In the wild, the turtles are not social animals so they fight regularly and the gentian violet helps with infections.

I found the Sanctuary to be a little bit sad at first, because it looked to me to be more of a zoo to look at turtles.  Then I found out that the purpose is mostly to increase the survival of the Hawksbill turtles, because very few turtles actually survive in the wild. So, it is more of a turtle breeding sanctuary than a zoo or tourist attraction.  Overall, I thought the Sanctuary was a very good place, and I would recommend it to anyone!

Baby turtles in their tank

Tanks of turtles

John observing the turtles

Babies being treated with gentian violet for injuries sustained in pool

Gentian violet

Observing the turtles in their small tanks

Another thing we did in Bequia,was to attend the weekly reading program held at the Fig Tree restaurant. Every Saturday, adult volunteers come to read with children of all ages and have a social time talking about books. John and I went to volunteer and the kids participated. It turned out to be a special morning, making new friends and learning more about Bequia.

Wavey and her friend presenting details about their book

Listening to presentations after the reading

Reading kids!

In between all of these exciting activities, John and I completed sewing sunshades for the large windows in our cockpit. So nice having more shade during the day.

The Grenadines was definitely one of our favourite places to cruise so far. A magical time, especially when exploring it with awesome and energetic friends!