Our superhero

I have been fortunate to have received the opportunities given to me in life. I have traveled and seen much of the world, more so than most people my age would have seen. I have learnt though, that it is not where you go in life, but who goes with you. A spectacular moment is somewhat less magnificent if you don’t have a person to share it with. I am grateful that, this past year spent sailing, every spectacular moment has seen my family besides me.

The Jangles family

This blog post, however, is not going to based mainly upon the journeys of Jangles but upon a very brave family member across the ocean. Our cousin, Dylan, has Tourette's Syndrome. He has lived with it his whole life, progressively getting worse as he grew older. Now, only fifteen years old, he is going under a major operation to try and help with his Tourettes. On the 25^th of October in Brisbane, Australia, my brave little cousin underwent brain surgery. This consisted of placing wires from the brain to two pacemakers, one located on either side of his stomach. This is meant to create waves to his brain to prevent ticks from occurring. With lots of prayer and hope, Dylan is busy recovering in the hospital from his surgery, which we were told went without a flaw. His ticks will not go away instantly but within a few months, they should begin to disappear. Our prayers and our thoughts are with Dylan and the entire Hartley family. . . your life has been a journey with ups and downs, but it has led you here, it has led you to this. Our hearts are filled with joy as we wait to see Dylan’s full recovery, and as we see your lives all change forever. Dylan, you are our superhero.

Dylan before the operation with his family

Dylan after his operation

As for the Jangles crew, we have finally left Trinidad and are now in Grenada. Below is a video about our time here so far

October in Trinidad

We spent the morning grocery shopping, which turned into quite an eventful morning with a few hours spent at the hairdresser. Alex went to get her hair dyed back to its normal colour as the bleach blonde she had was causing more damage to her hair than it was worth. As a result, we now have a beautiful brunette on board. We went to Sails for dinner that night and enjoyed some good food whilst running into a few old friends.

Off to dinner

 My mom had arrived back in Trinidad after we had seen the movie 'Taken 2' and she was very upset that we didn't wait for her. . . so off to Movietown it was! My dad went with her my sister to watch it, whilst Alex, Josh and I went to go and watch an animated movie about monsters called 'Hotel Transylvania.' Needless to say, we were in stitches we laughed so much throughout the movie. I'm not giving anything away but for those who have watched it or who will watch, I know you will understand when I say. . . scream cheese. 

The Jangles crew

 We decided to take Alex out for a little test sail to a place in Trinidad called Chacachacare. The old abandoned leper colony. On the way there, my dad threw the danbuoy overboard and shouted man overboard. . . surprise man overboard test! So I ran to point whilst my brother took over controls of the boat. There was no wind so luckily no sails had to be put down in this practice. . . but I have a feeling it won't be the last one. We were one of the only boats in Chacachacare, so we settled into a nice spot for the night. As night took over, little lights began flashing on the mountainside. Now given that this is an ABANDONED leper colony. . . imaginations began to run wild on board. One passenger on board, won't mention any names (Alex) has the biggest imagination of all and has clearly watched to much Walking Dead as she spoke of zombies on the island. What we didn't know (but found out the next morning) all of our talk had gotten my dads imagination running. He slept with an arsenal next to his bed, he had the flare gun, a wooden batton and a torch next him the whole night. He was apparently going over all the possible points of entry throughout the boat. . . and we thought we were the ones with the imaginations. . . haha. We motored back to Chaguaramas and moored at the Crews Inn dock.

Josh lying in the rain at Chacachacare

Alex, Josh, Rebecca and I took the car for a few hours. I showed them the bamboo cathedral (a natural arch created by growing bamboo) and then we went to Movietown. We had seen little glass ovals with jellyfish inside them that had been created by bubbles. The jellyfish glows in the dark so we went to go and get one for the boat. We all went to watch 'Here Comes the Boom' which, was another comedy but a good hearted feeling one. 

On Sunday, we had our first bad encounter with the weather. The outskirts of Tropical Storm Raphael hit Trinidad. We were attached to the end of a floating dock at the Crews Inn Marina. Waves came through which made the whole dock move up and down, taking the boats with it. One of the docks next to us, the cable snapped and half the dock came loose. The monohull next to us was rocking so much that we were on constant watch that it didn't hit our boat. One of the lines on the monohull snapped and the owners were no where to be found so we luckily attached it back to the dock with one of our lines before it hit us. A video of what it was like is attached below. The weather lasted an hour or so and then began to calm down. A cruiser (who we were convinced was a bit under the weather) came onto the radio. He proclaimed that he had been reading online and there was seismic activity going on and that if it created a new island we should all go and claim it in the name of the Cruisers! A while after that a song was being played over the radio. . . don't worry about a thing, cause every little thing's gonna be alright. . . by the same cruiser! Needless to say by this time we were all in stitches and found this guy hilarious! He came on and off the radio for a while and even said if anyone had any cuts he wants to stitch them up but the requirement is that they brought a bottle of rum among! It was a very eventful afternoon to say the least.

Monday evening I went to the pool for a swim. As I swam about something caught my eye. . . a little flashing light in the bush. I watched for a while and then the flash came again! I soon realized it was but a little piece of magic. I watched the firefly and then saw another one. . . and all of a sudden there were lots of them! I marvelled at these mystical creatures. . . little sparks of hope planting magic and wishes in the eye of the beholder. I thought of people who capture fireflies and keep them in a jar. . . but I thought it would be best to wish upon them as you would a star. I watched them float through the sky and disappear into the night, holding onto the lingering presence of them as little bits of magic had been sparked within me.

You are probably all wondering what we are still doing in Trinidad. . . . Well here's the list: the autopilot failed, the rudders are out of alignment, the vhf radio isn't working, the saildrives on the engine need to be sorted out, contaminated diesel caused the generator to fail and has caused sediment build up in all of the engine filters, so a cleaning process needs to go into action to decontaminate the diesel as well as all the filters need to be replaced. Oh the life os a sailor. . . at this point we are hoping to leave by Thursday but i'm not placing my money on it. . . .

Full Boat

So it’s been back in the land of Trini. . . where doubles have been ever so abundant in the mornings. We spent a week fixing up the boat and getting her back on the water. Anchored outside of Peaks, she looks as good as ever floating back on the water. She bobs up and down, eager to lift her sails again. But alas, not just yet. . .

The newest member to arrive aboard Jangles. . . the newest slave crew. . . is Alexandra Pennicot (my brother’s ever so lovely girlfriend). So now up to 4 girls to 2 men.  . . to the men on board, we salute you. Alex arrived early in the morning, and with the excitement of seeing my brother, the jetlag stayed away for a bit. We went straight to West Mall to get my brother a haircut and a shave as Alex’s first words to him were, “You look scary.” My brother looked like a completely different person once he was done. . . they will definitely I.D him now! Josh tried to keep Alex up as long as possible to help with jetlag, but that battle was soon lost.

Waiting at the airport

All the luggage!

We woke them both up eventually for dinnertime. We all went through the showers and got ready to head to Crews Inn for dinner.

Alex and Josh

Alex and I

Alex was getting used to the motion of the ocean now, and didn’t need to take a seasick pill in the mornings anymore. Excitement was flowing as Friday was nearing closer. My mother and sister would arrive back from South Africa on Friday night. To pass the time, we went to Movietown to see the new movie, Taken 2. We had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays before going to the movie. Just as we finished dinner we looked at our watches and saw that it was movie time! The cinema was packed with people, as it was the first day opening of the movie. We managed to squeeze into our seats as the film started rolling. It was a great movie! For those of you who have seen Taken one, usually the sequels aren’t nearly as good as the first, but this movie kept up the reputation that the first one built.

Ruby Tuesdays

Thursday night, we were invited by a South African couple, whom we had met in Antigua, to a cruisers barbecue. There were four South African boats that went. I found out that the one couple there, was moored next to our boat in Knysna two years ago. . . what a small world!! After dinner, Alex, Josh and I took a stroll back to the boat for some more ‘The Walking Dead.’

Friday morning was cleaning day. We all got assigned tasks and got to it. I washed walls, Joshua polished wood and Alex helped with everything else. After what felt like hours slaving over a cloth and bucket of soapy water, the boat was clean enough for the arrival of my mother and sister. My dad went to the airport to fetch them up, so Alex and I got cooking. We made brownies as well as cooked the lasagnas’ and made salad for dinner. We were sitting and watching another episode of “The Walking Dead,” when my brother said they are here. We looked outside and saw people walking down the dock with a LOT of luggage. . . you would think four people were arriving instead of two. It was great to see my mom and sister again and we all caught up over dinner. After dinner, my mom started pulling out presents for everyone (I felt like a little kid at Christmas as I kept on being handed present after present.) All of my friends in South Africa had sent things for me, and my other mother (my mother’s best friend) sent me a big bag of presents too! We got showered with all of these South African treats, and even a packet of my favourite chips: sweet chilli doritoes!! Once the hype had settles down, two very jetlagged passengers decided to call it a night. The rest of us followed suit shortly after.

We had a rude awakening around 2 am as we heard a massive thud as the sugarscoops bashed into the pier. The swell had pushed us into the dock. Fortunately no damage was done. After some adjustments were made to the mooring ropes my mom and I went back to bed but my dad sat outside for a while, making sure we weren’t going to hit again.

We took Alex to the wheelhouse on Saturday night for Shark n Bake. She loved it. . . who wouldn't? It has a different taste but it is very nice, gotta try it someday!

At the wheelhouse

Two lovebirds

Jesse with his sister and nephew

On Sunday we were kindly invited by our friend Jesse to go to Maracas Beach with him and his family. We left the boat at 7am and met up with him in town. After a long windy road up a lush green mountainous area, we stopped at a place to buy some “Trini treats.” We bought some pineapple chow (pineapple chunks with garlic, salt, pepper, local spice, cilantra) as well as some peanut brittle, coconut sweets and various other items. We continued on this long road, until a beach appeared to our left. We stopped at various shops asking for paper plates, and third time lucky! We went to a little bay and all jumped straight into the ocean! The cool water was much needed after the Trini heat. We swam for ages before our stomachs started grumbling. We had chicken roti for lunch, which Jesse’s mom had kindly began cooking for us all since 3 am that morning! It was very delicious; I especially loved the chana (chickpeas and potato in a curry spice). We sat and ate as we watched everyone playing beach cricket, with Jesse, my dad, Josh and even Rebecca joining in. We had a great day with Jesse and his family; we were so blessed to have been invited to that. Thanks for a great day Jesse and family!

Beach

Dad, Jesse, me, Rebecca

So we’re a full boat now. . . 6 passengers. Let’s see where we go next. . .