Union Island - Grenada

After our time spent in the beautiful Tobago Cays, we decided to head back to Union Island after the weather started to pick up. With winds reaching 30 knots and rain squalls moving in, the little bay was packed with boats. We had a few near misses as other boats put their anchors down next to ours.

We were delayed in Union for a few days as we waited for the weather to clear up. Finally, on Thursday, we picked up our anchor and sailed to Petite St. Vincent. This beautiful little island is a private resort that allows boats to anchor off of its main beach and allows 'yachties' to go to their restaurants and use part of their beach. That afternoon we got there, my parents went for a drink at the Goatie's beach bar whilst I went for a run along the beach. It was a stunning run with not a single person in sight! As the sun began to lower, I arrived back at the beach bar and we headed back to our sweet Jangles to get ready for dinner. As it was my birthday the next day, we decided to celebrate it whilst we were on this quaint little island. We had delicious starters of crab, spring rolls and banana chips whilst we had drinks at the bar before moving to our wooden table for the main course. Once our bellies were at the brink of bursting, we called it a night.

Birthday dinner

I woke up to 4 family members bursting into my small cabin singing happy birthday. The year of being 17 has officially begun. After eating breakfast, opening presents and having a slice of chocolate cake (my mother had attempted to make red velvet cupcakes but got distracted whilst she was mixing ingredients and forgot to add the vital egg, so these rock hard, sunken in things came out of the oven. . .hence the chocolate cake) the day began. It was a relaxed day that consisted of snorkelling around the island and then sailing, screecher and all, down to Sandy Island. Wine and butternut salad was how the glorious day ended, making it a birthday to remember.

Good morning

We left Sandy Island early Saturday morning and docked midday in Port Louis, Grenada. We went into   the marina to give Jangles a scrub, to check into customs and immigration, and to do some grocery shopping. We spent the night in the marina and had dinner at the marina restaurant. We left to anchor in the bay the following day.

Dinner

On Tuesday, we picked up anchor and motored to the spot where the underwater sculpture park was just off Moliniere Point in Dragon Bay. We attached to a buoy and got all the snorkelling gear ready, then took the dinghy around the corner. We got in the water and were greeted by magnificent sculptures, 2-6 metres below us. There were sculptures of ladies lying on the floor, a women on her knees praying, a man at his desk, a circle of people holding hands and Christ of the deep. Joshua even had enough cheek to feel up one of the lady statues lying down! We also saw many fish, including some large scorpion fish and an eel.

Bench

Christ of the deep.

We had originally planned to head down to Tobago on Wednesday to spend a few days with a friend we recently made in St. Lucia, Robert. Unfortunately, we've had to keep our eye on the weather had yesterday there was a 20% chance of a cyclone developing and today, that has increased to 30%. These are only predictions but they are in the direction we are meant to be sailing in. We are sitting tight for the moment and constantly checking to see if anything changes. . .but until then we have an island to explore!

Barbados - Tobago Cays

Barbados has one of the most beautiful long white sandy beaches, which I took advantage of for my runs. I got Joshua to join me for a run . . . needless to say he hasn’t run since!

Orchard garden

We hired a car and took a day to explore the island. We drove to a café that was supposed to be there (it said it was on the map), turns out nobody had ever heard of it and we never found it. So we found another place to eat breakfast. We then drove to the airport to go and see the Concord experience (turns out its closed on Mondays). So after an unsuccessful morning, we went to the Orchard Garden in the middle of the island and went through all of the orchard houses. The flowers were absolutely amazing, it wasn’t in season so not all the orchards were in bloom, but the few we did se were so worth it. We drove to the other side of the island to see the wild surfing beaches that nobody was meant to swim in. After sunset drinks, we drove back to where our boat was anchored and had the most amazing dinner at a restaurant called Fusion.

Sitting in the garden

We decided to tackle the island again the next day. We drove to the airport to fetch our passports with our newly issued 10-year American visas. After that we went to the Concord experience. My dad was like a little kid in a candy shop. The Concord was an amazing aeroplane, which could reach London in half the time a regular commercial aeroplane would take. We were given the history and were even allowed onto the plane. It was a great experience for all and highly recommended! After that, we decided to go see a movie as my mom wanted to do some shopping at the deli.

Concord experience

We left on Wednesday to sail to Union Island. We spent hours changing sails as the wind changed with us. Finally, we sailed a while with the Spinnaker up. The beautiful green and yellow sail was almost grateful to be released again. We arrived, once again, at some ungodly hour of the morning, anchoring safely in the bay.

Flying the spinnaker

We did inventory of the alcohol on the boat and figured out we are a booze cruise for sure! Thursday afternoon, my brother and I went to Happy Island. We had sundowners on the little bar in the middle of the water. It was a great end to a beautiful day.

Booze cruise

Happy Island

We left on Friday for Tobago Cays and had a fantastic weekend swimming with turtles, rays, nurse sharks and lots of fish. Below is a video to share our time in this beautiful place:

Tobago Cays

Barbados

Playing roller coaster

The sail to Barbados was not the most comfortable of sails. For Joshua’s first sail, it felt as if we were in a washing machine. The two metre swells wouldn’t make up their minds about which direction they were going. The wind was not on our side either, so we ended up motor sailing the whole way. Despite the conditions, Joshua got his sea legs pretty quickly and never even fed the fishes once . . .we were all very impressed. Josh and I went to lie on the trampolines at the front and as a wave hit, water shot through the trampolines, drenching us both. We also sat on the front seats and our stomachs went up and down as the boat moved with the waves . . .it was as if we were on a rollercoaster. We spent an hour laughing and getting soaked by seawater. My dad bought a new rod and reel whilst he was in Australia and this thing is for a serious fisherman. The reel is so big you would think we were going to get caught by fish instead of the other way around. We did catch one fish on the sail, a small Dorado, which we decided to let go (even against my protests that we could get at least two decent sized fillets out of it). We arrived in Barbados in the early hours of the following morning. We were told that we had to go into the deep water marina to check in, in the morning. The marina was made for cruise ships and oil tankers, so we attempted to attach Jangles to a dock that was higher than the boat at some ungodly hour of the morning. We eventually got attached (with the help of one very tall brother) and settled in for the night.

the dock taller than Jangles

dorado

Once we checked in, we gave Jangles a very good scrub as she was crusted with salt from the previous days sail. We then motored around the corner to Carlisle Bay, where we anchored.

The next morning, my brother and I went for a run on the long white sandy beach we were anchored before. After that we went to the island to look around town. A cruise ship had just docked so the place was crawling with people from all over the world. My brother, sister and I walked to a small park where we picked up a geocache. It was my brothers first geocache, which was very exciting.

Art village

On Thursday we had to go to the American embassy to get our American visas. We spent three hours sitting and waiting in queues, eventually finding out that our applications had been approved and that we were looking at about a weeks wait before we could reclaim our passports. After a very taxing morning, we were grateful to step back onto the boat. That night was a dinner at the Boatyard, a restaurant on the beach, and then early to bed.

dinner

Saturday we took a taxi to the mall to go and see a movie. We watched the movie Brave, which ended up being pretty decent. My dad wasn’t too keen to watch it as it was an animated film, but in the end I think he enjoyed it. We went for a quick bite at the Boatyard again and my brother and I decided we wanted to jump on the water trampoline. As we didn’t have swimming costumes, we stripped to our undies (no one could see us as it was dark) and jumped off the pier into the pitch black water. Now, I wasn’t sure what came over me as I have always refused to swim at night time because I get freaked out by the black water but here I was . . . and I was swimming as fast as humanly possible to get to that trampoline! My brother and I had a great time jumping and climbing over inflatable mini mountains. We swam back to the pier as we saw my parents and my sister making their way back to the dinghy. It was back to the boat and straight into a warm shower.

taxi to the mall

traffic

Sunday morning, my mother, my father and I went to church. We found a New Testament church and we really enjoyed it. It was loud and kind of like the churches you hear about in the old days, the “Hallelujah, Praise Jesus!” church. When praise and worship began, the room filled with voices singing their hearts out, we didn’t even need any music. It was such an amazing feeling being there. After church it was back to the boat for some more schoolwork.

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Spheres of Thought

New Arrival

We were all very excited as we found out we were going to have a new arrival on board. A new person to scrub the decks and cook in the galley. A new crew member to wake at 3 am to be on coffee and tea duty. A new crew member to carry the bags and scrub the heads. We waited patiently for my brother to arrive, the week went ever so slowly as we bobbed up and down outside Rodney Bay. To pass the time, schoolwork was done and we even took Jangles into the marina to give her a quick scrub before the new arrival.

Scrubbing Jangles

Beautiful sunset

The day had finally arrived for us to see my brother! We hired a car and took a drive to the airport on the south of the island. After an hour and a half of driving through the beautiful St. Lucian countryside, we arrived at the little airport. My heart was racing as I stood excitedly, waiting for my brother to come out of those double doors. Eventually, there he emerged. . .with no bags. My sister and I ran to embrace him. Five months was too long to go without seeing my brother. He needed to get some information about what port we were anchored in and he then went back inside and emerged once again, luggage in hand. On the drive back to the boat, we stopped at a small pub and gave Josh his first rum and coke on St. Lucia. He was also pleasantly surprised when he tried banana chips and actually liked them! As we drove back to the marina, we played music and sang very off key at the top of our lungs the whole way. People in cars were smiling and giving us thumbs up as we danced and sang. We went for dinner at the marina before heading back to the boat. We sat and ate pizza and laughed as the sun was setting. We continued to laugh as five of us squished into the dinghy and headed back to the boat. Once we all got on the boat, the day started to hit us and it was off to bed pretty early.

On our way to the airport

                                          

He arrived!

Pub

On the party boat

We awoke early on Sunday morning, just after 6 am as we had planned a tour for the day for Josh to see the island. We got on a bus just after 8 am and drove to fetch a few more people. It seemed to be a popular honeymoon destination as every couple we picked up were in St. Lucia for their honeymoon. After a short 15 minute drive to Castries, we departed the bus and got onto Carnival 2, the party catamaran. We sailed down to Soufriere and then took another bus to the botanical gardens. We went on a tour around the garden, finding out information about every flower and plant that inhabited that tranquil place. We also got to see the Diamond Waterfall before getting back in the bus to go to the restaurant for lunch. Lunch was all local foods: mac and cheese, dasheen balls, chicken, fish, rice etc. We then went to the sulphur springs and enjoyed the delicious smell of sulphur in the air as we learnt all about the history of the volcano. It was almost 2 by the time we were done, so our bus went back to the party boat. We motored to a black sand beach, where we anchored for people to snorkel and swim if they so desired. We all jumped in the water to swim, to cool off from the hot sun. Joshua bought a very pretty shell which he spent the rest of the afternoon blowing like a horn just to annoy me. . .sigh, we definitely know he has arrived. After we swam, the booze cruise began. Rum was being served with anything and everything they could find, coke and fruit juice seemed to be the two favoured additives. The music got louder as we sailed back to Castries, all the honeymoon couples wouldn't dance, so the Jangles family, all five of us, we danced with the crew until we eventually reached our final destination. It was then back on the bus and back to the marina for us. We got take away noodles from Starfish and had dinner on the boat whilst the sun set. Joshua was fast asleep by 6pm as is jetlag had finally had the best of him. We all decided on an early night as our sails would be raised at 3am the next morning to head to Barbados.

                                         

sulphur springs

Dancing on the boat

Marigot Bay - Rebecca's 16th Birthday!

Lunch at Doolittle's

On Sunday we went to Doolittle’s restaurant in Marigot Bay. The restaurant has this name because it was where the original Dr Doolittle movie was filmed. After lunch, Rebecca and I went to go try out the tree swing on the little beach and naturally Rebecca swung the wrong way around the tree on her first go and cut her toe on a rock. All the local boys were sitting by the tree laughing at us on the inside as we attempted this rope swing. We both gave it two tries then decided maybe we should just stick to swimming in the water. So Rebecca and I swam back to the boat, only to see a new boat full of French boys had anchored next to us. They were cheering Rebecca on and clapping as she jumped off the bow of the boat into the water. Once my mom came back to the boat, they cheered her on as she jumped too. My sister and my mom were swimming at the front of the boat and my mom started walking on the bridle lines. “I haven’t been drinking Mr. Officer, “she claimed as she wobbled down the anchor bridle line, eventually splashing into the water.

On Monday we went to shore for breakfast, only to figure out as we were going that our dinghy was having a problem. Once we had started the engine kept on cutting off and we constantly had to restart it. After restarting it more than once, we finally got to shore. After breakfast and a bit of Wimbledon for my parents, we went back to the boat with a dinghy that kept on cutting off. My dad spent the afternoon servicing the dinghy and found out he needed a part from Yamaha that St. Lucia did not have. So our dinghy will stay like this until we get to Barbados to get the part. In the afternoon, my dad, my sister and I put on our snorkeling gear and snorkeled all along the side of the land around the corner. We saw quite a few fish, the highlights being squid and a moray eel.

On Tuesday my dad was fixing something else on the boat . . .he was adjusting the rigging so that the shrouds would not be so loose as we sailed. I went for a run that started with a massive uphill, followed by a massive downhill and then another massive up hill . . .needless to say my run didn’t last very long.

Wednesday brought along new surprises as the generator raw water impeller failed for the third time, Rebecca’s toilet pump broke due to the fact that Rebecca over uses toilet paper and we found out we had no more gas in our gas bottle for cooking . . .the joys of having a boat! My dad spent the morning fixing the generator and the toilet pump, but the gas bottle would have to wait until we got to Rodney Bay as that’s the only place we can get gas from. Later on in the afternoon, we packed our bags and hopped into the dinghy and were taken to the Discovery hotel in Marigot Bay. We were spending two nights there for Rebecca’s 16^th birthday. We went to the rooms and unpacked and then got dressed up for dinner. We got onto a ferry to a restaurant on the other side of the bay called the Rainforest Hideaway. It was Jazz night so they had local jazz artists playing throughout the night. It was a great spot and a great evening.

Hotel Discovery

Dinner

Thursday morning was the big day. . .Rebecca’s 16^th birthday. We went for breakfast at the hotel restaurant and she opened her presents at the table. The staff sang to her as they gave her a free glass of champagne and orange juice with her breakfast. The rest of the day was spent relaxing by the swimming pool and in the room. Rebecca was so glad to have live television again and found herself watching quite a bit of Spongebob during the day. We got dressed up again for dinner that night and went to the hotel restaurant for dinner. We found out the restaurant was closed but they had made an exception for us as there was one table set up with candles and flowers just for the birthday girl. The dinner was absolutely delicious and they made Rebecca a special cake for dessert. After that we went back to the room and watched movies until we needed to close our eyes.

Getting hair done

Happy Birthday!

Friday morning, Rebecca and I went for a massage at the hotel spa to finalize her birthday and to make it special. They put Rebecca and I in the same room, and she fell asleep half way through her massage and snored so loudly you could swear she was chopping down trees. After that we packed our bags and hopped back into our dinghy with the shady engine and headed back to Jangles. Friday afternoon, we lifted anchor and motored to anchor outside Rodney Bay awaiting the impending arrival of my brother. 

Rodney Bay - Marigot Bay, St. Lucia

 Seeming’s though we missed jump up on Friday night due to two tired crew members (not mentioning any names. . .), we decided to go to a party at Point Seraphin on Saturday evening. We arrived just after 9pm and there was hardly any one there. . .but by 10pm, the local artists had started and people were piling in. We stayed until 11:40pm, dancing and listening to the hottest artists in St. Lucia.

Off to the party

Saturday was partying, so Sunday was schoolwork. Rebecca and I spent the whole day getting a great deal of schoolwork done and dusted.

On Wednesday morning there was great excitement on the boat as my dad was arriving home. We all woke up early to give Jangles a nice scrub so she was all clean and shiny again. I stayed on the boat to finish up my set of PACE tests as my mom and sister drove to the airport to fetch my dad. They arrived back at the boat just after 4pm. I ran outside and hugged my dad, we had all missed Mr. Captain. My mom and sister were all smiling as we got back onto the boat. We took my dad out for dinner at our favourite spot, the Starfish restaurant. We all caught up over dinner and then took a very jetlagged Mr. Captain back to bed.

Sunset on kayak trip

I woke up on Friday morning not feeling great at all. So Rebecca, as the trooper she is, went alone to training with Rodja. As for me, I drugged up and went back to bed. By the early evening, I was feeling much better and decided to go for a light paddle on the kayak and then a slow jog along the beach, it was beautiful as I got back just as the sun was setting. We all headed to the nice long hot showers we were allowed to take on shore and got ready for dinner and the Jump Up. After a quick dinner at Starfish, we took a taxi to the street party. My dad spotted the lady he sat next to on the aeroplane so him and my mom went to sit with them whilst Rebecca and I went to check out the dance scene. As usual, all the tourists were standing around watching two locals dance all by themselves. Eventually Rebecca and I joined them and after a while, everybody started to dance with us. We left pretty early, just after 11pm, as I was starting to feel sick again from all the smoke hanging around from the cigars and cigarettes that were being passed around. Once in bed, I slept like a baby.

Dancing at the Jump Up

Santa's treats

Saturday morning was finally time to leave Rodney Bay. We cleared out of the office and said goodbye to our friend, Fiona, who works at the Ocean Club in the marina. As we left the dock, my spirit soared as we were finally on the move again. The genoa went up and we sailed down to Marigot Bay. It was a short sail, only 9 nautical miles, but it felt so good to sail again! Once we were anchored in the bay, we had lunch. Over lunch I showed my parents a video of the Tough Mudder race some friends of ours are doing today in Vancouver. We looked around grateful for the blue water and sunny sky. As we were finishing lunch, we heard cheerful singing coming towards us. Shortly after, we were greeted my Santa himself in a little yellow kayak. He was bringing us presents by giving us all tasters of his delicious mangoes and bananas! We ended up being very spoilt on christmas as we left with bundles of mangoes,  bananas, starfruits, cucumbers, peppers, and limes. We spent the afternoon lying on the couch watching NCIS. As evening came around, we all got ready to go to Doolittle's for dinner. We called the water taxi to come fetch us but no reply. . .we kept trying. . . .Eventually we decided to go take the dinghy down and go ourselves but just as we took the cover off, heaven forbid, it started pouring with rain. Eventually we decided that it was time to call it, peanut butter sandwiches for dinner and we would do Doolittles tomorrow evening.

Santa with his goodies

Click on the link below to see a video of our day trip to the botanical gardens and diamond waterfall.

St. Lucia - botanical gardens and diamond waterfall