Life on anchor continues.. More at anchor than sailing.. but thats how our  life on boat goes here....We sail.. of course.. from point A to B.. .but the majority of time we swing on anchor in some bay. Till we get bored or feel that we saw enough there.. Or till  some time schedule is pushing or we have some friend or famyly coming.  
This time in less than two weeks to Grenada  is coming  my famyly and our friend Remis from Boston!. He and his son! ...We will sail through Grenadines till Martinique and for sure we will have a super super time! But till then we are staying here in Grenada ..again and again enjoying as much as we can this slooowwwwwww life:) 

 Our Grain de Sable continue st David bay. We started exploring the island by land and when finally decided its time to go , came windy and  rainy days ( like now its raining too) so we prefered to stay here till all will stabilize again. Weather is little bit  strange here...rains a lot and wind comes  from east and south east mostly.  Many squalls and many days with grey like in the north of Europe sky. At least its hot...water and air..so thats nice. ...But we are still waiting those constant "alisios" winds and clear skys.. And our solar panels and wind generator too- need more sun and constant wind to charge fully all bateries and have a pleasure to run the fridge constatly. Now we are  disconecting it every night and switching on again in the morning to have at least at midday cold beer to drink:)

Also the water is not very transparent now ...Probably its because of all rain and derbis from the rivers..So we can  hardly sea anything while snorkeling. Maybe later in other bays the visibility will be better.... 

But all these negative parts has their good sides.. Because of the rain we sail less and stay more on a boat and continue doing all those small jobs we have on list.  LIttle by little our floating house is becoming more and more cozy. At least for us:)    
Some rainy days  we spent hiking  in the island- visited the crater lake on the highest mountain of Grenada, saw mono monkeys, walked to neighbourhood beaches around, visited the capital St Georges few times and of course went to supermarkets...
Here in the bay  there is no any vilage near..so no shop...nothing..just one bar with fish and chips and beer in Grenada Marina. That means that everytime we need something there is nothing to do but to take the bus and go to town.  And if the weather is not nice and we dont feel like leaving our boat alone at anchor for a long time the only thing we can do is to  improvise in the galley:)

And this is the topic we always finish speaking about when meet with  other sailors....FOOD!..Where to find "that and that", how to keep fresh "that and that"..what to do with "that and that"......I think in the life on land if you are not a super cheff.. hardly speak 30 percent of what we discuss here..
But i like that..Somehow this life without easy access to the shops makes us more creatives and also gives the possibility to discover new tastes and learn many tricks..For examle do you know how some sailors make famous greek dish tsasiki ? When there is no natural greek yogurt and cucumber in all island?.....So..they mix small triangles cheese( quesitos) with powder milk , water and lemon juice- thats GREEK YOGURT:)...peel green papaya , cut it in small pieces ( THATS "CUCUMBER") add salt,  oil and garlic and mix all!..And thats "tzaziki"!... Probably the taste is not bad  but yeah...call it tzaziki maybe would be too much, no?...Anyway...here you have a new dish...what you can eat with fried sweet potato...fried green banana...or just with bread. 
There are more tricks i am learning...but maybe to put them all here in blog i would need to create a new page of -CREATIVE GALLEY?
not yet maybe...
 i still need  to practise....cooking has never been mine big passion as i could spend all life eating just salads:)......but never say never...

Safely arrived to Grenada!
​
It was not easy to leave Tobago, but it was raining too much the last days and was showing rain all the comming week too so it was the right time to leave.

77 miles...night sailing with light winds..NO RAIN!!!!!!....and day 17 of November we entered St David Bay in the south east of Grenada. 
ANd once again we made a right choise! Beautiful bay!!!!!....More-...is a wild bay with just a Grenada marina on shore and a small walking distance till the main road where the buses go to the capital St.George.

Very remote...calm place.....Friendly people..free wifi on shore....free SHOWERS!!!!!....small cozy bar with cheap beer...dinghy dock...free fresh water on shore...and washing machine for 3 euros( finally my hands will rest :)))
And with really a nice and well protected boat yard on land.....This is one thing we want to check in south of Grenada. - all boat yards...prices and conditions... Now we are in Caribbean sea.....so one day ( around july ) we will need to decide where to hide from next hurricane season (2017).ALso we need to houl out our boat ...so maybe Grenada could be that place.

But ok.we have lots of time:)

...and sooooooooooooooooooo many islands to visit before!

Still in same bay of Tobago...This time not because of "some problems",  but because WE WANT. Nobody was locking us here. We could have gone to other bay many days ago, but as you see-we didnt:) We are still in Charlotteville enjoying this amazing bay. We feel here so confortable, safe and relaxed that is really difficult to put an anchor and leave. 

Actually  it happens  when we stay longer than usually in some place.. We become friends with locals and  sailors around, than dinner on one boat, breakfast on another , drinks on ours and so on. Also we start exploring all surroundings and discover  special spots where lime trees grows for a rum drink, or find a place where wild bananas grow and we finish having 50 or more small bananas which in 2 days become ripen and we have to eat them almost all at once:)

 We enter to daily routine which creates feeling more of a  real life in one place than traveling..

Days goes and  goes and we get use to live slow. For example normal day on anchor looks something like this: 
it starts with the sun rise ( no alarm clock..nothing..we wake up alone!) wake up,  than  quick jump to water and morning swim...(that is one of the best things you have living on boat!!!)..than coffee preparation and  breakfast and after we start doing some small works on boat (the list in endless!) which can take hour, two or three. and than again to water and if the water is clear and there are no jelly fishes around in the water  (some days who knows why but all bay is full of small jelly fishes ) we go snorkeling and Egoi tries to catch some fish for lunch. Than lunch and after of course siesta time. Later short dinghy ride to the beach, some swim, yoga or play beach padlle game and before dark back to boat thinking what to make for dinner. And after all - glass of rum and movie time! 

Other days we go for long walks- to the highest point of the mountain around or next bay or next village. In the need of sightseeing or searching for fruits. Its so green and wild here that we love these walks. Sometimes we go two of us alone and sometimes in a company of our friends Helma and Bob from neigbour boat ,Sunny Spray,  from Holland. Locals never go more than 50 meters by foot so  we are always alone on road...I think they take us as crazy when they see us four walking from one vilagge to other by foot. Specially when it rains like crazy and we, beeing totally wet  still need  5 kilometers to make...

Believe it really rains here!  Since the last week. We thought that the rainy season is finishing, but it seems that we are wrong. Luckily our boat is dry because we managed to reseal all windows just before the rainy days came. So now inside is dry, just the maraton of opening and closing hatches its starting to bore us. You cant imagine how many times a day we need to close and open all windows on boat!....
.At least one thing is good-  rain lets us  colect lots of fresh water for showers and all. In beginning we were sleeping with all windows open and than at night when its started to rain one would wake up and  rush to close all them....But the last days we sleep with all closed and even if its hot as in sauna inside we prefer sleep swetting but relaxed than worrying to didnt hear rain comming and make all baot wet. Thats the life on boat:)..

Once a week we try to catch a local transport and go to Scarborough (The Capital of the island)-for shopping. Like most of the people do when they work all week , no?...So do we.  It takes almost and hour or more to get there but thats Ok cause we have time:) Scarborough has two 'normal' supermarkets  where you can find not all but at least more than here in Charlotteville. Prices are quite high, but in Caribbean islands this is to what everyone needs to get use. Forget fresh dairy products and fruits like apples, pears, some vegetables like salads and tomatoes because they are crazy expensive.. And the meat...This is like delicatessen here. ALl is frozen and even than its very very limited. And the same with wine. Cheapest wine bottle can cost around 7 euros and believe its really not  even a good wine...Better do not try and stay with Local Rum and local beer.  Good that we still have some bottles of wine from Spain left, but when they,ll finish we will need to wait till Martinque. This is the island where mostly all boats sails to stock. And so we will. For sure:) But not just for shopping:)

Till than there are still many island on the way to see. First of all it will be Grenada, but we are waiting till the hurricane season oficially will end(end of this month) to leave. Till than we will still stay in Tobago and once we are ready  we.ll try some more bays to see.  This island has all you need for cruising life-people are friendly, its very safe and you have good health centers in each town if you need some help.

I,m talking about that because i had my both ears blocked and more than two weeks strugling trying to hear . But finally i gave up and went for doctor. And i was really surprised when they attended me without any problems and cured me:) And all for free! I just had to write my name and my date of birth. Thats all. Amazing...No one asked mine nationality...nothing! Just listened to my problem and fixed it...Incredible:) So simple and human....

p.s. I,m forgetting something! . There is one curious thing I discovered about Tobago. To tell the true the sailors couple from Russia told us about that.
Do you know that in seventeen century Tobago was a colony of Latvia?????????...
To be more correct -a colony of Courland which was a vassal state of LIthuanian-Polish union.
 
But for more exact information I leave you here a text from Wikipedia:

"History

Great Courland Bay Monument
Courland had a population of only 200,000, mostly of Latvian, German and Scandinavian ancestry, and was itself a vassal of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth at that time. Under Duke Jacob Kettler (ruled 1642-1682), a Baltic German, it established one of the largest merchant fleets in Europe, with its main harbours in Windau (today's Ventspils), and Libau (today's Liepāja). During his travels to Western Europe, Duke Jacob became an eager proponent of mercantilism. Metalworking and shipbuilding became much more developed. Trading relations were established not only with nearby countries, but also with England, France, the Netherlands, Portugal and others.

The Duchy's ships started undertaking trade voyages to the West Indies at least as early as 1637, when a Couronian ship attempted to found a colony on Tobago with 212 settlers. An earlier European settlement on the island, a Dutch colony, formed in 1628, had been wiped out a few months earlier by Spain. The first Couronian colony met a similar end, whilst a second attempt was essentially blockaded by Spain and strangled in infancy by 1639. In 1642 two ships under Captain Caroon with about 300 settlers attempted to settle on the north coast near Courland Bay"


                                 You live and you learn...
or better
                               You travel and you learn....