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Jangles going in the water |
Jangles is once again in the water! We launched on Friday 28th
March. We unfortunately still couldn’t leave… as we put the boat in the water
we discovered that the starboard engine was not working, after we had checked and started it the day before, only to find out that the battery had died. So the next day we had
to go and buy a new battery. Saturday afternoon we started putting the genoa
back up and the sail tore along the seam. And naturally Monday was a public
holiday (one of the 20-something ones in Trinidad each year) so we were still
in Trinidad till Tuesday to repair our sail. So Sunday we motored to a small
bay called Turtle Bay for the evening. On Monday morning a pod of dolphins came
into the bay and stayed swimming around for hours. Travis and I put the kayak
in the water and started kayaking with the dolphins. They were jumping up next to
the kayak and swimming underneath it, it was so amazing! Travis dropped me back
at the boat and took my mom kayaking with the dolphins too. That afternoon we
motored back to Crews Inn with our sail ready to go in the next morning. Our victron
was also giving us trouble as well as our solar panels so we got those repaired
as well while we were there.
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Travis and I kayaking with dolphins |
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Mom and Travis |
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Scotland Bay |
Wednesday everything was done, the sails were up and we were
ready to go. My dad says if you own a boat you must use it, otherwise it costs you money in maintenance. We sailed to a little bay called Scotland Bay, where we had dinner
and slept for a few hours. Around midnight the anchor was lifted, the sails
were raised and we were off to Grenada…Finally! As we were leaving Trinidad we
had a pod of GIANT dolphins swim with our boat for a while and give us a show
by jumping out of the water. We sailed through the early hours of the morning
and around 7:30am, another pod of dolphins swam with our boat. As the sun came up, the rods went out. The first reel to run was a barracuda. We tossed him
back, and then the next rod ran. Travis reeled in his first fish aboard
Jangles. We couldn’t decide whether it was a kingfish or a Spanish mackerel
(ended up being a Spanish mackerel) so we threw it back too as Kingfish have
been known to carry a reef poison. Before we arrived in Grenada we had yet
another pod of small young dolphins swim and jump around our boat. We had been
so lucky! After 12 hours of sailing at an average speed of 7.1 knots, we
reached Grenada.
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Dolphins swimming by the bow |
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Travis with his first fish |
Travis and I snorkeled the sculpture gardens in Grenada that
afternoon as well as the next morning before we headed off to Sandy Island. The
sculpture garden is basically a whole bunch of sculptures that have been placed
around the bottom of a bay in Grenada; which you can snorkel or dive to see
them. Mom and dad opted to catch up with a friends son who has relocated to
Grenada and to watch South Africa play cricket in the semi-finals of the T20
against India, unfortunately for my cricket mad mom it was not to be South
Africa’s day once again.
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Travis and me on Sandy Island |
We arrived at Sandy Island around 8pm in the evening. It was
pitch black and we were expecting to find buoys to attach to but they all
seemed to have vanished in the year and a bit since we were last here. We
managed on our second attempt to get the anchor to hold in the sand, a little
stressful for us all but mostly for the Captain/dad. Once we were finally
anchored after we had had yummy pies that we had bought from a little bakery in
St Louis that is owned by a lovely South African couple we settled down for the
night. The following morning, Travis, my mom and I, took the dinghy onto the
island. It was a bit of a mission as the wind was howling, so we all arrived a
little soaked. We swam in the inland pool for a while and Travis and I
snorkeled off the beach but we went back to the boat soon as we saw my dad
trying to raise the anchor and move the boat as the anchor had started to drag.
Once we were all back on the boat we had lunch and then motored to Hillsborough
to check out.
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Dinner on PSV |
From Hillsborough we sailed a short hour and a half to get
to Petite St. Vincent, a topnotch private resort. We took the dinghy onto the
small island and went to the beach bar to make reservations for dinner. We
stayed at the bar for a while, had a drink and a few snacks before going back
to the boat to shower and change for dinner. The absent family was hugely
missed as the last time we were here the whole family was together. Josh
especially as he kept us entertained trying out all sort of cocktails on the
menu. The beach restaurant was relatively quiet and we got a nice table near
the ocean. We all filled up on good food and great company before making our
way back to Jangles. The next morning Travis and I kayaked to the private beach
and walked a while along it. We all agree that this is one of our favourite
places in the world, but we didn’t stay long as we had another destination to
get to.
Rebs mom says you have caught the bouquets at the last two
cousins’ weddings. Dad says he will be home soon with a big shotgun!! We have
just checked into Union Island and will spend the next few days in Tobago Cays
and Mustique.
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Union Island |