Christmas in Tortola

So I understand that there has been a lack of a post for quite some time now. . . My excuse is that it is the holidays! (Basically a holiday from our holiday for the Jangles crew!) So first of all, Merry Christmas and a happy new year to everybody! I hope you had a great holiday spent with family and friends. I know that I surely had a fantastic Christmas.

At the beginning of the year, we befriended a man by the name of Robert in St. Lucia. We met his beautiful wife, Agi (Agnes) when they invited us to stay in their villa in Tobago. We have become good friends and they invited us to spend Christmas with them in a villa in Tortola. So after lots of misinterpretation over whether we could fly to Tortola due to my mothers lovely green and gold passport (South African), we found ourselves at the airport on the Thursday evening before Christmas, waiting for our flight. Our flight ended up being an hour late and the people at the airport had no information about it! The board at the airport said that our flight had already departed when it hadn’t even arrived yet! Anyway, it got there eventually and before we knew it, we were being lead out onto the tarmac to board a small island hopper. It was the smallest aeroplane I had ever been on, seating maybe 40 people at maximum. It was literally and up and a down as the flight was a total of 30 minutes. Robert fetched us from the airport and we drove the hour to Villa Ariana on the island of Tortola. Agi met us at the front door and we spent the next few hours catching up.

The villa was stunning. Alex and Josh had a downstairs room that had a massive map of the Caribbean covering an entire wall. Mom and dad had the upstairs room with the Jacuzzi bathtub. Rebecca and I got the studio apartment outside with the outdoor shower and Robert and Agi took the separate cottage across the pool. Each room had a balcony looking over the ocean and in the center was the swimming pool, also with a spectacular view over the ocean. The kitchen was to die for and many a storm was cooked up in it during our stay. We took a drive to Soper’s Hole Marina to go and do some food shopping and to look at a few boats. Robert was interested in one of the boats so he managed to get a tour whilst the girls were shopping. We had drinks and snacks at Pusser’s bar before heading back to the villa to have a delicious dinner of grilled lobster.

View from the villa pool

Half of the villa

Lobster dinner

Map wall

The next day, we went back to the marina to go and see another boat. We had drinks and snacks again at Pusser’s bar before going back to the villa. We went out that night for dinner at a restaurant called Banana Keits that looked out over the ocean, you could see all of the lights twinkling just on the shoreline and over the land. We had a delicious dinner, and decided to stop at Bomba’s Beach Shack for a final drink on the way home. This was a very famous place for their full moon parties, and looking at all the photographs covering the walls it really was a full moon party (if you know what I mean). The roof was covered in woman’s underwear because their policy was that if you gave them your panties then you got a free drink, needless to say we all paid for our drinks that night.

Bomba beach shack

The next day the sun was shining bright so I found myself lying in the sun by the swimming pool for a while. Agi and Rebecca spent the morning baking a cake and baking cookies just to get into the festive spirit. That afternoon I went for a run into town, to the beach and then back to the villa. The dirt road was great to run on and my muscles felt good as they were stretched. That night we had a quiet dinner at home of chicken wraps.

Baking ladies!

Before I knew it, it was the day of Christmas Eve already. It was a busy morning as Alex and I took a taxi to go and swim with dolphins and the rest of the gang went for a dive. Alex and I had such a great time and it was so good swimming with dolphins. They are beautiful, friendly creatures that love to play. We got back to the villa and had a bit of time before everyone else arrived back so we tanned by the pool for a bit. We managed to make a reservation for dinner at the Sugar Mill Hotel for Christmas Eve. We all dressed up for the occasion and went for what turned out to be the most delicious dinner! Everyone enjoyed their meals thoroughly! I had a delicious quail with a honey mustard sauce served with wild rice, talk about tantalizing the taste buds! Rebecca tried to get their Christmas tree as we didn’t have our own but her attempts were shot down. But who needs a Christmas tree when you have friends and family in your company.

All the girls

Our Christmas tree at the restaurant

Then it was Christmas. So clearly the Mayans were wrong because we weren’t supposed to make it to this day; I just hope that Santa sent their children presents as it must of come to a shock to them when they woke up on the 22^nd. We were certainly blessed with gifts. Alex got a gorgeous pair of zebra striped high heels (which I almost fell over when I tried them on). I got a lovely dress, a new bikini and a warm shirt to fair the winter in South Africa! It was a great morning, which got even better when we had our delicious Christmas lunch/dinner. We had a feast of beer chicken with assorted vegetables and roast potatoes. We had a great day filled with chatter and laughter and lifted spirits.

Chilling in the lounge for christmas

Lunch/diner table

Christmas lunch/dinner

The next morning was a sad one as we were all departing Tortola to our new destinations. We said farewell and a final thank you to Robert and Agi at the airport. We flew back to St. Maarten where Jangles awaited us as they departed on the ferry to Virgin Gorda. They almost didn’t let my mother back into St. Maarten due to her South African passport but luckily we had boat papers and letters with us! We eventually went through to find out that everybody on our flight was without luggage as the plane was too full so they left every ones bags in Tortola! We were still in too good spirits to let this get us down so we went back to the boat only to pick up our luggage the next day. So to Robert and Agi, thank you so much for inviting us to spend Christmas with you both. We all had such an amazing time and have memories we will never forget! We hope to see you both soon…

Dominica - Antigua

I do apologize for the lack of a blog post recently, I have just been enjoying myself too much to sit down and write. So here’s what’s been happening on the Jangles boat:

Bubbles at champagne beach

We spent a few days in Dominica; which has been labeled one of our favourite islands. This island was formed by the creation of eleven volcanoes of which seven are still active. Almost the entire island is covered in lush green rainforests where waterfalls and streams abound. It is a truly spectacular island. We spent two days attached to a buoy in Rosseau Bay. The first day, we ruled out an island tour due to the massive cruise ship that had appeared overnight, meaning that the island would be overrun with tourists. So we opted for a tour the second day; which was definitely the right decision. Our first stop on our tour was to Champagne Beach. We all got into our costumes and walked with our snorkeling gear to the end of the beach. It is known as Champagne beach due to the little bubbles that rise from the seabed due to volcanic activity. We floated through the little bubbles; revealing a whole new world full of life below the sea. We saw many fish, some including: massive parrotfish, blowfish, trumpet fish, spotted eels and even a tiny rusty orange seahorse! We emerged after an hour and a half having spent longer at Champagne Beach than we intended too.

Jangles crew with Jangles lifejackets

 After tea, coffee and cake, we headed to Titou Gorge; made famous by the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. We walked the ten minutes to the gorge, and then put on our life jackets. Our tour guide said we had to have life jackets as someone had drowned in the gorge recently. So our Jangles life jackets were put to use for the first time. Our guide told us that the water was not cold, only ‘refreshing’ but guaranteed the only word running through my mind once I got in was cold! We swam into this dark gorge in a single file. It was raining up ahead so big drops were splashing down all around us and one drop that splashed in front of me contained a red ant. Now this drop naturally splashed into my eye and the red ant bit me on the corner of my eye; leaving it burning and swelling. But this bad luck of fortune could not of stopped my enjoyment of this beautiful gorge. We swam about 5 minutes to the end of the gorge where this very powerful waterfall gushed down. We each took turns swimming against the waterfall and trying to touch the furthest rock so we could see we reached the end of the gorge. Once everyone touched the rock, we slowly swam back to the entrance; where another group was arriving. From the gorge, we went to lunch at the Rainforest café near the Trafalgar Falls. The food was good but nobody was overly impressed by it. They did have one very strong rum punch though. Again, it was a ten minute walk to Trafalgar Falls. Now Trafalgar Falls are twin waterfalls that the locals call the mama and the papa waterfalls. The papa waterfall being the taller of the two, was a hot water waterfall. The mama waterfall was a cold water fall. All the tourists stood at a balcony overlooking the two waterfalls; we ventured further to actually go and swim in the pools below the waterfalls. We had one French tourist who was yelling at us (In French of course) because we went passed a sign that said ‘proceed at your own risk’. Needless to say we continued walking and climbed over rocks to get to the cold water pool as the hot one was just too hot for us at that moment in time. Alex, Rebecca and I swam in the mama pool. After Trafalgar Falls we had time for one more stop – the Sulphur spring. We were shown the original source of the spring where it was too hot for human contact, so we went to one of the three sulphur spas. This spa had three bathtubs filled with warm water and more dripping down. Needless to say, this is where the four girls stayed whilst the men went exploring around. We went back to the taxi and arrived back to the boat after a very long day of exploring.

Going into the gorge

Trafalgar Falls

Sulphur bathtubs

We sailed up to Portsmouth; occasionally running around to reef sails as gusts of up to 33 knots of wind came through. We arrived late afternoon and attached to a buoy. The next day we arranged to go up Indian River to a small pub. Our boat had to be rowed up the river as it was illegal to use the boats  engine in the protected area. This is all a protected nature reserves and it would destroy the mangroves. Indian River is also another famous spot from the second Pirates of the Caribbean movie. It was about a 45 minute row to the pub, where the river becomes too narrow and shallow to continue by boat. The little pub offered passion fruit rum punch, lime rum punch, coconut rum punch and their special blend known as dynamite. We each picked a flavour and then once we couldn’t stand the mosquito bites anymore, we hopped back into the boat and rowed back down the Indian River. Great fun was had on the way back where some of us took turns in attempting a hand at rowing the boat, we all agreed that Jerome our tour guy was certainly the best.

Going down Indian River

 The next morning, we sailed to Antigua. It was my parent’s 26^th wedding anniversary, which we celebrated with a bottle of champagne and fish (the only one that we had managed to catch, thank goodness there are some fish in the ocean, we were beginning to wonder!) once we had arrived in Antigua. The dock was covered in super yachts of various shapes and sizes as they were having a week of charters; a yearly event in Antigua. Most of the super yachts cost around 200 – 250 thousand US for a week of chartering. Given the amount of super yachts I would imagine that there will be many events happening over the next week. . .

Fish for dinner

St. Lucia - Dominica

After two weeks spent moored at Rodney Bay in St. Lucia, our saildrives were finally fixed. We also managed to fix an oil leak we had in the port engine that was caused from a pitted drive shaft. Besides being attached to the dock, we did quite a few things in St. Lucia.

The swimming pool in the marina was paid regular visits by each member on board, as well as the Ocean Club besides it for their Internet. Joshua was the most frequent visitor as he enjoyed their fast Internet as it meant computer games for him!

View of petite piton

One of the days, we finally convinced Alex and Josh to climb one of the Pitons. So we hired a car and my mother, Alex, Josh and I took a day’s trip to the lower end of the island. We began climbing in the heat of the day, around 12:30pm. I had climbed the piton before, earlier on in the year; so I knew what I was in for . . . Josh and Alex on the other hand . . . well they knew nothing. I was shocked when our two guides pitched up in a pair of slipslops. One of the guides turned around with my mother at half way, but the rest of us pushed on. My brother had signed a contract with my dad that if he didn’t make it to the top, then he would be assigned boat chores for a week, on the other hand, if my brother made it to the top, he would receive a surprise that was suitable in his eyes. We made it to the top, with a lot of groans coming from them, but we made it. We were sweating waterfalls the whole way and here is our guide (laughing at us on the inside I’m sure) who was in slipslops and hadn’t even broken a sweat at all; nor had I seen him take a sip of water from his water bottle either. It took us four hours to reach the top and come back down again. The minute we reached the car, Joshua lay down and spread himself across the ground. As we piled back into the car and started our long drive back, we saw our guide sprinting down the road in his flip-flops! We were shocked . . . here we were, absolutely exhausted and there he was running! We drove back, only arriving back in the marina at night.

Alex, Josh and I at the top

Three mornings were spent game fishing. On the first morning, we went out for four hours. One of the rods went off, which held an estimated 220-pound marlin that threw the lure. The rod went off again 10 minutes later and I ran to sit on the chair. They gave me the rod and I started fighting. My arms burned but I wasn’t giving my rod to anybody else! After 15 minutes of fighting, a 60-pound Sailfish was pulled on board. I ran to stand behind it and held its slimy sail out whilst the camera was flashing. I said goodbye to my fish as it was put back into the blue water, swimming away to safety. That night, three excited girls and a not so excited boy, headed to the movies to watch the premiere of Breaking Dawn part 2. It was a major disappointment as half of the dialogue was missed due to screaming fans and all of the screams Edward and Jacob got. I was ready to run out of the cinema at the end of the movie. I decided to wait until it came out on DVD and then I may understand what actually happens in the movie.

My sailfish

The fishing crew
The next morning, Alex, Josh and my mom went out fishing. This time, Alex was the lucky one who fought for 30 minutes until she reeled a 120-pound Marlin on board. Josh offered to help her reel in her prize if her arms got tired but she was also not letting anyone touch her rod!!! Once the cameras flashed, she said goodbye to her fish, ecstatic for her catch.

Alex and her marlin

The third fishing day, happened to be Joshua’s 20^th birthday. He hadn’t caught his fish yet, so he went out with my dad and Alex to fish on his birthday. Joshua caught a 40-pound long-billed spearfish (a mixture between the Sailfish and the Marlin, apparently a rarity). Josh was happy to have caught his fish. We left the marina that afternoon and anchored outside, ready to sail to Dominica early on Saturday morning.

20th birthday

They gave josh a fishing t-shirt!

Josh's long-billed spearfish

We departed St. Lucia at 4 am and sailed to Dominica. On the way, we saw a pod of 4 sperm whales and picked up a black tuna on one of the fishing lines. The wind was finally in a good direction for us to put up the sails! We sailed with the screecher and the main sail all the way past Martinique, averaging around 9 knots. We then sailed all the way to Dominica with the main sail and the genoa before putting them away and motoring to Roseau Bay. As we were attaching to a buoy, we saw a few more sperm whales near the bay. It was a great sailing day and will be a great few days to come of exploring a new island!

St. Lucia

Life is full of choices. Some would say that things happen because of a thing called ‘fate’ or ‘destiny’ but the reality is that it comes down to the choices we make. Who we choose our friends to be, who we choose our partners to be, where we choose to live, where we choose to go next, or simply how we choose to live our lives . . . these are all choices we make.

Our choices affect everything. One choice creates a chain reaction to a million more choices. All we do, all day long, is make choices. Turn left instead of right. Stop instead of speed up. Go here instead of there. Choice after choice after choice . . . .

Sometimes we make the wrong choices. This is simple human nature. We cannot see the outcome of our choices, we simply choose what we think is the right choice at the moment, and maybe even at that time it is the right choice . . . but down the line that choice takes a turn for the worst. We learn and choose differently next time.

Sometimes . . . sometimes we make the right choice. I believe that this year spent cruising around the Caribbean was the right choice. It has brought us all closer together as a family unit and we have many great memories to take away from it.

Alex b-day

After Alex’s birthday celebration of breakfast in bed with the traditional cake, candles and presents we toured the little island of Canouan. It is postcard perfect with a resort that covers almost half of the island that caters for those that have a rather large bank balance. A birthday dinner at Tamarind Resort finished off a lovely birthday day.  Our next port of call was Bequia. We were flying along at 10.2 knots with all three sails up when we had a big hit on the one road. Josh had to hang on for dear life while dad and jess rushed to lower some sails to slow the boat up so that Josh cold try and get the fish onboard. Josh spent a good while fighting the fish, eventually pulling the fish on board. We found, attached to the lure, a massive barracuda. The teeth on this thing could easily shred your fingers off! It must of weighed at least 15kg; we quickly snapped a picture and threw him back over board. Barracuda is good eating fish but the bigger they are the higher chance they have of carrying reef poison, so we thought better safe than sorry!

Josh's barracuda

We spent the day in Bequia. Dorris’s food shop was amazing, we managed to find fresh milk, eggs and decent veggies! After provisioning there, we looked around a few shops and had an afternoon drink at the local pub. We booked for jump up that night (very different from jump up in St. Lucia). This Jump up was a formal buffet dinner with beautiful live steelpan music playing in the background. We enjoyed our evening immensely. After our meals, we were all stuffed and could only think of one thing. . . bed!

The next morning, we sailed to St. Lucia. This would have to be our most difficult sail so far. Dad decided that the wind angle wasn’t enough on the leeward side of St Vincent for us to be able to sail to St Lucia, so we opted to go between Bequia and St Vincent and then get the right angle to the wind to sail to St Lucia.  It was a beautiful blue clear morning with winds at about 15 knots but unfortunately the sea didn’t seem to know this. We spent a few rough hours with incredibly choppy seas with about two meter swells coming from every direction. Alex got to test our sick station on the back step and she spent a few hours there. Mom was inside trying to guess what she needed to catch next as things were flying off shelves. Josh emerged from his cabin and joined Alex on the back step to ensure that he didn’t test the sick bay. Reb’s amazingly sleep through most of the crashing about. Fortunately the seas calmed down and then we had a fantastic few hours sailing to the bottom end of St Lucia. Just as we were sailing past the magnificent Pitons (which the locals call the gateway to Heaven), we were lucky enough to sight two sperm whales! We followed them for about an hour as they shot water out of their blowholes and flashed their noses to us a few times. It was such an exciting afternoon. We anchored in Marigot Bay just before sunset, and had dinner at the famous Doolittles restaurant. 

The following day, we headed up to Rodney Bay and came across Talisman anchored outside. We parked right next to them and were straight in the water catching up with everyone again. Lee helped us go into the marina and we tied up alongside the dock as we were having trouble with both of our sail drives. Once in, Lee stayed for dinner and drinks and we spent the evening catching up with an old friend.

A charter catamaran moored across from us, and we befriended the captain, Josh, of Love Boat. He was also having the same trouble with his sail drives as we were. Another two boats we spoke to also had the same issues. The sail drive cones were not engaging properly, allowing unreliable engine use. We ordered the parts to fix them up, which had to come all the way from the States, and they will be installed on Monday. We helped Josh from Love Boat with his sail drives just in time for him to head off on a 10 day charter to Antigua. We also had a lovely surprise of Allan and Maritte from Alleycat knocking on our hulls one afternoon! Talisman came back in the marina on Thursday, we had a great dinner with them at the Ocean club on Friday night before their departure on Saturday morning.

Jangles and Talisman

Josh

On Saturday we hired a guide, Spencer, to take us around the island for a tour as Alex had never been to St Lucia before. We left the marina just after 9am and began our trip to Soufriere (which means sulphur in the air). We saw a man standing on the side of the road holding a large boa constrictor around his neck. Josh and Rebecca both held it for pictures and Alex nearly screamed as they brought it near her! We continued on to the sulphur springs, which are in the crater of a large volcano, stopping occasionally at stalls on the side of the road or to take a picture of a spectacular view. Alex, Josh, my mom and my dad did the tour of the volcano (Rebecca and I sat out as we had done it a few times before) and then it was off to the mud baths! My dad and sister sat out on the mud baths while the rest of us got covered in mud, baked dry and then rinsed off in water that was 38 degrees celcius! Needless to say we came out of the water a little pink and not too sweet smelling!  Spencer took us to a quiet spot for a local lunch of shrimp, chicken, vegetables, rice and salad. It was a delicious meal, washed down with fresh home -made orange juice. We left with a bag of oranges from their back garden. On the way back to the marina, we stopped to watch fisherman pull in their ropes onto the beach. It was fascinating as they take out all the big fish and then they shake the nets and send hundreds of glimmering little silver sardines into the air that the locals can collect and take for themselves. They salt and dry these fish, which can last for years like that. Salt fish is one of the staples foods of the locals, which they eat with breadfruit! We arrived back at the marina in the late afternoon, all exhausted from touring this beautiful island.

Rebecca

Sulphur springs

Mud people

Spencer, Rebecca, Josh, local guy, Alex

Mrs. Captain's post: Grenada - Cancouan

Good morning, my name is Lesley, I like to think of myself as Mrs. Captain, General Manager in charge of guest relations, food and beverage but in reality I am chief cook and bottle washer, commonly know as mom.

Jess has decided (with some suggestion from Uncle David) that someone else should take a shot at writing the blog, to bring someone else’s perspective to our lives.

Jess is still the reigning queen of waterfall jumps as she has jumped from the highest distance namely 13 meters at Annandale waterfall in Grenada. Jess has earned Josh’s respect for this but insisted that he would jump it twice to show that he can beat his sister, fortunately for him we did not go back and left from Grenada for Sandy Island, Carriacou. I can say all this without fear of reprisal from Josh, as he doesn’t actually read our blog.

We had a lovely day motoring as unfortunately the wind was still coming directly onto the nose, so no sailing was possible. Everyone was hopeful that fish would be on the menu for supper but alas only one lonely barracuda was caught. Our latest rookie sailor Alex got to do the honors of reeling in her first fish. Josh kindly helped and gave Alex the line to hold up to show her fish off for the mandatory photo. The barracuda naturally disapproved and proceeded to give a big wiggle dangling from the line, Alex got such a fright that she waved the fishing rod around and gave Josh a great big thump on his head, we all of course thought it was very funny.

Alex's first fish

Alex and Josh

We picked up a buoy and were all tied up after dark at Sandy Island.  Great fun was had with Josh catching a Garfish by hand off the back of the boat. We were all up rather early and got ready to swim and dingy ride over to Sandy Island. The girls were all in the water but saw some little jelly fish so no swimming to the beach was happening.  Josh caught a jellyfish in a cup to prove to dad that they weren’t imagining things. A lazy hour or so was spent on the island floating in the little inland pool. Some spa treatment for sailor’s feet was undertaken with pink sea sand and pieces of coral. Some more snorkeling was undertaken at the edge of the natural coral wall that was created by hurricane Lenny.

All the girls on Sandy Island

Ian and I went to a local little beach bar called Off the Hook for drinks and to check out the spot as we were going there for supper for a beach braai. Curtis the owner and his lovely girlfriend Lesley made us most welcome. We met a lovely German couple who were off the cruise ship, they were doing a 62 day cruise from where the ship left from Hamburg and all the way back. Another American couple Debbie and Bob have been cruising for just over four years and are very friendly with the locals and were involved in helping the sailing club refurbish their little wooden boats. A very entertaining afternoon was had. Supper on the beach of fresh rainbow runner and chicken was a huge and tasty success.

Jangles

beach dinner

Rain called a halt to our planned tour of Carricaou so mid morning we decided to check out at Customs. Needless to say we got the timing wrong and they were closed for lunch. Josh, Alex, Ian and myself caught a local bus (we know them as taxis) to Tyrell bay for lunch and to see if our friends Sylvie and Peter from the boat Jambalaya were back from the UK.  Very unsuccessful trip, restaurant was closed and couldn’t find Jambalaya. The bus trip back was very entertaining as we dropped off lunch for someone, picked up someone’s shopping, dropped of diesel canisters at the petrol station, dropped off money and stopped at the local fish market and picked up some smelly fish in a blue bucket that was put under our seat. We did see an old man in an Aussie tee shirt. Everything in town seems to happen on the bus.

Checked out and headed off to Petite Martinique to get some fuel as Grenada were out of diesel. We had to hang around the fuel dock for about half an hour as the captain was shopping for beers (apparently the best place to buy wine and beers). Our docking against the fuel dock proved to be a very scary experience one that we will not repeat. The swell constantly kept pushing us up against the dock and we had all the fenders alongside to ensure no damage was done. Jess and I were on the dock trying to push Jangles away each time she was rammed up against the dock. After 30 gallons of fuel Ian decided that it was enough and we beat a hasty retreat for Petite St Vincent.

This has to be one of our favorite spots in the lower end of the Caribbean. It is a privately owned little island and luckily for us it had just reopened after closing for the hurricane season. As we smoothly motored in to drop anchor Alex was treated to her first sighting of naked French people showering off the back of their boat. This is a fairly common occurrence; which has to be seen to be believed. Josh and Jess took a fairly long swim to one of the buoys to mark the start of Jess training for Midmar Mile Dam swim in February next year (in South Africa). Josh sprinted the last ten meters to the boat and had a cramp for the rest of the day. Drinks and starters were had at the Goat Shed beach bar and dinner was had sitting at the wonderful beach restaurant.

Swimming in Petite St. Vincent

After an early morning swim and snorkel we pulled up anchor and headed for Union Island to go and check into the St Vincent group of Islands.  A very exciting anchoring exercise was had as we managed to drop the anchor just in front of some coral and it dragged back into the coral breaking off a massive boulder size of coral that weighted the anchor down.  With a lot of backwards and forwards maneuvering of the boat and with Josh in the water tugging and pulling he managed to dislodge the coral and we were able to drop anchor and head to town. Most of the little shops in town were still closed as the cruising season is just starting up again.  Got some lovely fresh baguettes and fresh veggies and fruit, hoped to show Alex the avos the size of rugby balls we had been telling her about but alas not to be found. We used the same guy to taxi us to and from shore that sold us some very dodge diesel the last time we were in Union Island, resulting in us having to flush the diesel tanks and buying some very fancy liquid that eats the bacteria and oil out of diesel. Ian is very impressed by this stuff and by the professional approach of the company (in Trinidad) that sorted our problem out. We unfortunately did not get any discount on water taxi fees to shore.

We took a leisurely afternoon motor to Tobago Cays. This has to be one of the most beautiful little groups of islands in the world. It is a marine park so no fishing or diving is allowed. Great fun was had after dinner hand fishing off the back of the boat. Josh rigged up this hand line as there were tons of fish at the back of the boat. They managed to catch and release 11 Slender Mojarra’s before they decided to call it quits for the night. 

Tobago Cays sunset

We moved to a different spot the next morning and then the fun began, loads of snorkeling with turtles, rays, trunk fish, trumpet fish, cow fish, squid, lobsters, eels and giant sea stars to name a few. Alex used a stinger swimsuit, as she wasn’t convinced that all the jellyfish in the water are harmless. There are extraordinary amounts of little clear jellyfish in the water thankfully without stings. Rebecca loves to hold them in her hands, as they are soft and squishy.  This is the first time that we have seen so many jellyfish in this area so we assume it has something to do with the change of currents do to the different seasons. There were a few trunkfish that seemed to like a spot under our boat and they come really close for a good look at you. Alex and Josh found it rather freaky.

Trunk fish

Green turtle

After a short afternoon siesta we moved back around to where we had anchored the night before to partake in a late afternoon lobster beach barbeque provided by Romeo. We got to see the stingrays up close as they were surfing into the beach to eat the innards of the crayfish and fish that were being cleaned for dinner. A really good question was asked to which none of us knew the answer, does a stingrays spiky tail grow back if it shoots it out for some reason, if anyone knows the answer we would love for you to share it with us, otherwise its off to trusty Google we go!! What a feast we had. The evening finished off with a wonderful cup of Ian’s coffee (yup no surprises there, we do have a coffee machine on board) sitting on the emergency life raft at the back of the boat looking up at myriads of stars, the milky way and the odd shooting star, how easy is it to just let the world go by.

Lobster beach braai

Our last day at Tobago Cays was spent pretty much the same way except for a moment of great hilarity when Josh and Alex on their first morning snorkel saw a large barracuda  (over a meter in length) swimming towards them, they almost walked the water to get back to the boat and climbed up without even using the stairs, we think Josh headed back in front of Alex. They were both horrified when Ian and I both jumped in straight away, in our pj’s to go and get a closer look and a few photos.

After a leisurely two - hour sail, yup the Genoa was up; we arrived in the pretty Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreaux.  Ian decided to stay on the boat and polish the stainless steel, the rest of Jangles crew took the “fifteen minute walk into town” to go and explore and get some lunch. What the locals failed to mention is that the walk is solidly uphill the whole way.   Much wheezing later, mostly by me, we made it to the top, to a view of the whole of the Tobago Cay’s and the St Vincent’s that took your breath away. The village has this beautiful old stone church where we were able to spend some quiet minutes reflecting on and giving thanks for all the wonders we see and the privilege’s we have in our lives, especially the miracle of Dylan’s successful operation.

Mayreau Catholic church

We found Denis’s hideaway restaurant and had a wonderful local lunch. Rebecca was so happy there was a pool and even more so when they said she could have a dip. There are only three hundred people that live on Mayreaux, with no bank and a ferry trip if they wish to shop for more than just the most basic of necessities, imagine a life that uncluttered.

A quick afternoon dash saw us arrive at Canouan, which means “land of the turtle”. Afternoon drinks were had at the resort on the island called Tamarind as well as a little inter-net time for the desperate few. Most importantly we had to investigate the resort for we are in need of a special dinner for tomorrow the 6^th of November, we have a birthday, Happy Happy birthday dearest Alex. We pray for a truly special day for you and for all of heaven’s treasures and God blessing and favor for your life. We are so glad to be able to share this day with you…….

Harmless jellyfish