November started off as the goodbye month for our crew. After waving to Liz in the airport, we returned to Nahanni V to prepare for another goodbye to our friends on Drakkar.
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| Drakkar |
Since meeting in St. Kitts six months ago, we have been leap-frogging with Drakkar down island to Grenada. It was bittersweet news that Max, Shannon, Amelia and Boston had sold their boat and were making preparations to return to land life in New Zealand after almost two years of cruising the Med and the Caribbean (see their awesome blog). We were fortunate to share a few more days with them before they set a course for a new adventure.
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| Max's Birthday party |
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| Dinner at the Container Park with the old and new crew of Drakkar |
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| Wavey, Simon, Boston and Amelia |
After the former crew of Drakkar moved off their boat, they stayed at a lovely resort where we visited them for a few more play dates and a last Afternoonsie before they departed. There were some sad faces and tears as we hugged goodbye to this amazing family. We can't wait to visit them in New Zealand someday!
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| Poolside at the True Blue Resort |
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| At the cool beach side pool |
For most of November, school became more intense with some longer days and catching up on projects. Wavey started a unit on Ancient Civilizations and Simon learned about some darker days in Canadian history as he studied the Residential School System in Canada and the Internment of Japanese Canadians in the Second World War. Wavey experimented with stable (and not so stable) bridge structures and Simon and John had fun with experiments involving electricity and the occasional fire. Both kids started some multi-media art projects and we resumed music in preparation for Christmas.
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| Getting back to work |
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| Suspension bridge collapse! |
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| This one is more stable. |
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| Electricity 101 |
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| Documenting the findings |
As we prepared to leave Grenada to explore the Grenadines, we made several trips to the well-stocked and familiar grocery stores. I think I cleared the shelves of gluten-free flours and products I was not sure I would find elsewhere. The kids were fantastic pack horses in schlepping bag upon bag onto the bus, into the dinghy and up onto the boat. This counts as Phys-Ed for sure.
While we shopped, we chuckled at some of the signs we saw.
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| C'mon...really? |
On our last trip (when we were just two), I somehow found time to bake bread, fry up fresh corn tortillas, make yogurt, and spend hours making meals. In Grenada, I got finally got back to cooking and baking more, which was a challenge some days when the cabin temp was 33 C. I experimented with some gluten-free pizza recipes which gave me a fix after watching others eating delicious restaurant pizza.
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| Pizza night! |
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| My T-Fal frying pans make great pizza pans! |
My repertoire of creations increased after John's Mom Lois kindly brought me a new hand blender (my old one fizzled out when I loaned it to a boat with 220 volt) which opened up tons of new possibilities for using ripe bananas in morning smoothies, making hummus and creaming soups. I also started making bread again.
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| Gluten free bread |
Our last excursion on Grenada was to visit the Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park located just north of St. George's. We picked up a mooring for the night and snorkelled for two days at this park. We had heard that many of the man-made sculptures has fallen into disrepair, but it was still pretty incredible and eerie at the same time. Simon got some interesting pics on his underwater camera.
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| Wavey and the mermaid |
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| Pelicans awaiting a meal |
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| Dense schools of fish |
We left Grenada and headed north for the Grenadines, eager for new adventures and meeting up with old friends...
