Good by BVI!.....time to sail south and continue our Caribbean journey...

Time is flying so fast and 2 and a half monthes spend in British Virgin Islands are gone...Even though it  was  not enough.  We enjoyed  this sailing paradise so much  that in  some islands and bays if we could, we would spend minimum 2 weeks more.!..

But season of storms and hurricanes is already here and we do not feel prepared enough to spend it sailing here in the North ..Grain de Sable is a home for us and our cats- too important to put her on any risk.. Thats why we leave. To Bonaire and later CUracao. These islands are out of official hurricane belt where the possibilities of great storms are significaly smaller  than in any norhern caribbean . Also these islands are  dry, so for our Grain it will help a lot. After the last summer season spent in fresh water river in Suriname, lets say, this time we prefer to be in a drier place
( but thats doesnt mean we didnt enjoy Suriname- we loved it!)

This is also the reason why we are not sailing to Trinidad or Grenada, where most cruisers sail to hide from the hurricanes. They are very wet places as well..... And our Grain need to be hauled out and get dry..

We have 440 nm around to go , weather forecast looks good ( east , soutseast winds 10-20 kn)...adn if all Ok in 4 days we are in Bonaire. Enjoying another great island, beaituful waters, snorkeling and waiting for a visit of our friends-Mikel, Cristina and Amelie!

...It was a real pleasure to sail here in BVI,....and honestly, we feel quite sad leavig them,,,

But boats are made to sail, and we - to travel:)

So ..write you soon from BONAIRE!
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Time is flying!...
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Between discovering up and down the water worlds in BVI our days just flew away....We are in beginning of June ! Still, in BVi, but sad to say not for a long anymore...

Hurricane season has already started...and our amazing time in this incredible archipelago is finishing.  But what a time!!!....
We have sailed all over around, anchored in stunning anchorages and broke the record of times we dropped the anchor per day...If we would count all the times we changed the places and anchored here  it would probably be more times than in entire trip around the world with RagaineII:)..
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till now It would definitely be the islands number one for cruising on our list!... Yes, of course, there are pluses and minuses here, like in any other place in Caribbean....but generilising all-  this is the place!..... Maybe the local culture and people are less curious and communicative than in countries like Dominica , 
Grenada and Tobago, but the nature, landscape, bay, caves, rocks, white beaches, incredibly transparent water and AMAZING under water world is wining all that!

Lots of boats and especially unbelievable number of charter catamarans make most of the places crowdy, but the  great thing is that in afternoon most of the anchorages stays empty because charters boats leaves to some few famous places with beach bars and restaurants...And  then we can have this  privilege to enjoy peace and shining starts above alone .....
Sincerely....we love BVI,,,,,

Who knows , maybe next season we are back here again, because cruising 2 months a half it was still not enough..
Our Grain served us good and sailed us safely all around  here...During the time on BVI She had more people on   board than ever ( 18+ 2 coming tomorrow!!!) and made that all of them could enjoy their hollydays :)....And of course let us earn some money for being able to bring her to Curacao, do all necessary repairs...and by tickets to Europe to visit our families and friends.  
Our cats the same, got to be familiar with place, start sailing sleeping on main sail and discover that apart from mosquitoes and flies there are many birds flying around whom they can be ready to attack (unfortunately birds supposed to be more clever than they think and ever got too close to the cats).

And we the same,  got in love to the magic life below and spend more time snorkeling that walking around:)... Nowhere did we see so many Turtles, Sting Rays and Eagel rays as here! ... Morning swim before the breakfast it became our morning greeting to all water creatures swimming around the boat...

Our favorite spots here became Peter Island and Deadmans Bay, Virgin Gorda and the Baths, Guana islands and Monkey point and of course Trelly bay, place next to Airport which converted to our base where we picked up our guests and leave them. We discovered a perfect place to anchor and all the time were coming there used it. Close to the shore and most important with a free WiFi which we were able to use from one bar. This bay used to be incredible full, but to our surprise our spot was always free waiting us to use it:)...

Now that the high season is over bays are less crowded and the only boats we meet are charter ones-  mostly catamarans. Our Grain sometime looks like the last existing cruiser and monohul, shining blue and making big contrast to all white boats floating around.  Like a black sheep in a white sheeps crowd. We are starting to miss cruisers families and couples anchoring around . But this will be back next season:).. For sure. Even though,  we are still so  lucky  to get known a few but very nice sailors whom we hope we will meet again soon.
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First- how lucky we are to be here!... This is what we keep saying every time we arrive to new BVI island and jump to the crystal water !-. How lucky we are to be able to sail here with our own boat, to have plenty of time to enjoy any anchorage we like, to snorkel is amazingly clear waters and see stunning sunsets almost every day!...
This is the main thing we love about BVI- it makes us feel soooooooooooooooo good !!!
It reminds us natural park of Kimono in Indonesia...not people not culture and not the wildlife(I wish here were Komodo dragons too)...but all these dry and almost wild islands close to each other brings us back when we were sailing with my father and sy RagaineII in Indonesia. Super nice memories!

But now we are here in BVI, almost a month cruising and enjoying as much as we can. Each day there are new things we see and new things we learn.

So some of them let, s write here. Maybe for some one planning to sail here it can be helpful :

First- entry documents and rules.

BVI islands consist of more than 50 islands archipelago, where you can find nice anchorages almost in each islands you stop.  Knowing that we decided to stay here more time than anywhere before - almost 3 months! But for that there are some important things necessary to know when deciding in order to avoid any surprises.
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BVI immigration rules in respect of all non-British Virgin Islanders entering the Territory are- 30 days permit of staying in the Country. Visitors who wish to stay longer than that need to apply for an extension.. So did we.. When we got close to 30 day limit came to Road town and went for extensionn. It was easier than we thought. Some nice explanation about the reason why we want stay longer, 10 dollars each and another stamp in the passport allowing our visit to be legal till 26 of June. 

So this is the part of immigration. After comes customs and our boat. Grain the Sable same as we needed extension. And here again all simple. Just ”liitle” bit more expensive. After 30 days of staying in BVI we had to get temporary import for our Grain, which is valid for all year....and cost 200 dollars. That,s it. And that's what we have:)

But there is another way to extend your visit in BVI. Like in most of other countries when your legal time is finishing. Go out of the country and come back with new entry. So most of the cruisers do like this- clear out from BVI and sail to USVI (United States Virgin Islands)which are just 5 miles away. Make there an entry and exit and come back to BVI with another 30 days permit. Difficult part is that USVI belong to US and its need visa to get there. Cruisers than apply for ESTA- 90 days visa which you can apply online. And here comes the interesting part of that. To make the Visa valid is necessary first go to USVI by ferry(government require first entry make by official transport), stay few hours  or more.than back on ferry, check out and enter to BVI. Then take a boat and sail to USVI to make boat entry. Again check in, check out and back to BVI with another 30 days permit both for boat and the crew. You avoid to pay 200 dollars, visit USVI and continue sailing in BVI.

We knew that and had it as our preferred choice. But my passport is becoming totally full with no place for stamps(and for VISA!) ...so finally decided not to risk and choose little bit more expensive but less complicated way of extension.

Also, it could be an option sail back to Saint Martin and come back. Its cheaper, but...you have almost 24 hours sailing against wind...so not very attractive option:)

Anchorages and mooring buys.

It is a charter paradise, so you could  imagine, how many boats sail around. But surprisingly (maybe because we arrived at the end of the season) we found many places quite empty and during the nights is some bays we stayed totally alone.
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Most of the bays in the islands  have mooring buoys installed to protect corral and sea grass...What is nice....but...each of these buoys cost 30USD per night...What is not very nice (imagine paying 30USD every day. In a month you are almost 1000 dollars more poor!), but....if you a good in anchoring and dedicate some time to look for a good spot you can always find a place to drop anchor giving enough space for boats on mooring buoys if swinging.  We are here one month and till now we did not have to take a buoy. Charter boat likes to use them- it,s easy, no worries about anchor drag and so on...But for us taking a buoy is not just economically cruel choice..We prefer to use our old,  but trusted rocna anchor and stay just on our own risk (too many sad stories about the boats lost ashore after the mooring buoy rope broke)...

Taking a buoy could have just one good reason- they give you a bag of ice, many  litters of water and sometime showers on shore for free (after paying 30USD of course:)) It is not a critic. Actually it is really great how BVI protect their waters and corals. We just wanted to say that if you are the one who cares about $ don't worry because there are still plenty of place for dropping your anchor at sandy spot not damaging neither the corals nor your pocket:)

Provisioning.

This is another important thing to write about.  It is expensive place. No doubt. Except alcohol. What is not bad, no?  We knew that so tried to load our boat full of stuff in Saint Martin from Super U supermarket...But still. Things do not last so long so here we still  need to visit supermarkets and buy some food.  

​And here same as in any other place- longer you stay better you know the island and learn some tricks.  There are  few good supermarkets in capital- Road Town , Tortola where most of the cruisers stop just for a day for shopping.  You can pick a mooring buoy just for few hours ( if you do not spend a night you do not need to pay mooring price) and make tour to the markets.

​Forget good diary products, french cheeses and fresh meat because they are limited choice and crazy expensive!...And the bread! 4USD per bar! After a long time spent in french islands this is really hard part.  Luckily we have oven on board so home maid bread  is even better:) Most of the fruits and veggies are also too too much....so we had to limit ourselves with potatoes, onions, garlic, carrots, cabbages and bananas. What is not so bad. All the rest canned or frozen.  Typical “Caribbean”:)

If you come straight from Europe it can make difficult to get use, but after spending whole 7 months in tropics we are used to that. IF i had to choose- fresh tomato salad and stake of snorkeling with turtles almost every day?...We stay with turtles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Snorkeling.

Amazing!!!! ....In any island in any bay.  And you know why? Because water here is the clearest water we saw in all Caribbeans! 
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Visibility is so great that you can see the bottom even at 12 meter depth!. Really is something incredible!...But the life under is quite poor... Especially speaking about small fishes.  Comparing to southern Caribbean islands here is really epty. But what we see a lot and soooo beautiful are many rays, turtles, barracudas, big tarpons  and some sharks!...Because of so great visibility we can snorkel in deeper waters where bigger creatures appears:)

Caves, wrecks and underwater huge rocks makes snorkeling really interesting here also. And the treasures you can find at bottom:) People loose so many things and even do not try to find them! Better for us, because our collection is constantly growing!... Anchor, snorkeling glasses and tube, sun glasses, hats, ... Right from the bottom. Good for Ocean, good for us:)

Things to do ashore.
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OHHHH.........here all depends on your pocket:) Because main attraction lets say is going to restaurants or beach bars lets say. Thats what all the cruising guide reccomends and writes about. And that's what mostly cruisers (mainly charter boats) do, because there are really nice nice places to eat and interesting bars with good live music at night.

But also we found that many places has nice paths to walk, go up the hills , visit other remote bays, and of course great beaches . Most of the islands are so small that walking you can reach their other side easy. We like that.

SO these are the things we got to know about BVI till now. Enough for telling that these islands are one of our favorite places to cruise. And it's a place to visit by Boat

. That,s for sure!.....
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So we are sooooo lucky!!!!

So, finally we arrived to BVI-  our last destination before heading south to Curacao to hide ourselves and our Grain from hurricanes. And we are so happy that we reserved almost three monthes just for this place!!!!

In BVI here are more than 50 islands and all of them are so close , that in one day you can visit more than one. ...And the water.....WOW!!!!!!!!!!.AMAZING!!!SO transparent we didnt see yet in any place in Caribbeans!...We just have visited 4 places, but its enough to have  more than great impresion about it...

We were told by many cruisers we met how turistic and crowded and busy and expensive they are,,,,but after hundreds boats on anchor in Marigot bay in Saint Martin any place looks crowdy anymore::))))

...Expensive? yes....it is...but grenadines were as much or even more expensive so we got used to that::)

Also the high season is going to the end,,,,so better for us :)

Hope to write you more next days and of course...photos photos and photos...!
It,s  amazing , but we never get bored about this...same sea..same sun....but every corner has something unique...and hope for many years ahead we will continue enjoying that!.:)

Like now- this unique place-BVI:)


Rafa , Marta, gracias por aconsejar nos para venir aqui!!!!!!!!!!!:....Sois muy Grandes!!!

That's right. We are already one month here in Marigot Bay between hundreds and hundreds of sailing boats around. All types and all nationalities!
This island is a special place- wouldn, t say it's our favorite island, not at all(too much crowded, very dry and too many ugly building near the beach, especially in a dutch side), but it is very useful stop and I think many sailors would agree with me.

First of all it is still Europe, like Martinique, Guadeloupe and St. Bart, so you can stay as long as you want here. But half of this island is French and other half- Dutch, what makes it even more interesting. Going by boat from one side to other you need to check out and check in, but going by land or by dinghy -no:))Also it is really safe place, not just speaking about the crimes, but also for the good protection for sailing boats. It has a huge lagoon inside, where you can enter either through French side or Dutch side bridge.  Inside lagoon many sailors leave their boats for hurricane season. For the moment do not plan this option is not for us-even if it is so protected still it looks dangerous. Not because of you, or your boat but because it is so full and there are so many boats that in a hurricane strength winds any other dragging boat could be a real danger. But now, during the good season this lagoon is very practice.  No waves, good depthh and very good holding everywhere. It also connects both sides of the island which can be easy accessible just with the dinghy. There are many boat yards, many marinas, and even more chandlery shops and services around. Cruisers ¨Meka¨for fixing boats. And it is duty free islands too so everything, and not just alcohol and tobaccoo but also fuel and other stuff is tax free!

So if you need something for your boat when you are in Caribbean sea this is the island!:) For the hurricane season its safer in Trinidad or Grenada, but during the trade winds - this is the place!
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As for anchoring place we chose a French side, Mari got bay, outside lagoon. It is more quiet here, less super yachts and crazy fast dinghies and nice friendly town ashore. Water is much nicer and bottom is full of Sea stars!

Also, it is a good place for doing day sailing trips to other well protected bays. Like grande Case or Anse Marcel or to Tintamarre (super nice snorkeling- lots of Turtles and Sting Rays just next to the boat) island. 

Other shopping on the list was the life raft. Tried to have it serviced, but unfortunately it was too old(from 1996!) and we had to by new one. And here appeared our good friend Andreas from SY ¨Luna¨ who was looking for bigger one for his boat and agreed for much lower price sell us his 1 year old off shoree 6 person raft. So another great deal. 
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​And finally the anti fouling paints, primer and epoxy. We found a really good value boat paint shop in the entrance canal of french side where almost all the stuff was a half price comparing to the main shops. 

And of course alcohol- again duty free, what's means that 1 box of beer coast 10 euros, bottle of Rum 3,5 and wine. 3. These prices will triple in BVI so again. Dinghy ride to the shop and full loaded back to boat!

Now our boats is more heavy than ever, but it was important to take all the advantages of this island because later all that would cost crazy moneys.

​......and our cats! Finally, they have passports and now they are french:)... I don't know if they are happy to be french, but British Virgin Islands are quite strict with pets import- so better be legal and have all papers done.

​In two days we sail there and plan to stay there till middle of June. There are so many islands around so hope we will have time to visit them:) And if not next year will be:) Caribbean sea will continue under Grain, s keel!!!

Winter is over, carnival is over, and our full time cruising&relaxing time  too...We are in Saint Martin , anchored in Marigot Bay and receiving guests on board. Time to earn some money, because summer is comming and our boat need a work done (mostly on the hull). What means need to buy many things....many!!!! So we are going to dedicate all the three months for Airbnb service and make people comming on our Grain to enjoy as much as possible. 
March we are staying here in Saint Martin( the French part of the island. The other half in Dutch) and April and May we will be in British Virgin Islands cruising around many islands of this archipelago.
Hope winds will help us too, because this weeks here was blowing worse than when Christmas winds were blowing in Grenadines and move around is not very possible. So two anchors , lots of chain and rope and wait for calmer days, which we see that  are comming soon!!!!!:)........:) 

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Some pics from our last night shacking and rolling!.. Winds shifted to west and all "well protected bays" became a dance hall- huge swell was entering every bay and making live on boats impossible!!!! We are Ok, our old but very good anchor held perfectly and all is fine, but heard some boats in other islands around were not so lucky......
Looks that this nights is getting calmer and tomorrow to St. Barts!

Time to write some words again.. More than a month passed since the last time we published on our blog and no more updates since then..
But to be sincere everytime i plan to write i find it so dificult to decide how to start and which information to give- write more about islands we are visiting or tell more stories about our life on boat , our thoughts, our doubts, our joy?
 That is  not easy, but than  again- the most dificult is to start, anyting. But once i start words fly alone and the only thing i need is to stop in a right moment for not to write an endless novel...

Last time we wrote on our blog we were leaving Bequia and Grenadines and sailing up to Martinique to meet Egoi parents....This time we had one night sailing,  because we didn,t stop neither in St. Vincent nor in St. Lucia. The reason we didn,t stop in any of the bays on the way was the bad reputation of St. Vncent west coast.Last year there was one german sailor killed while on anchor in one of the bays... Not nice story and not nice name for all the island which definitely has so many amazing places to offer.
It is really sad how one incident can affect all island. But sailors community is really small and internet nowadays is very powerfull.  It will take time for St.vincent to get back the welcoming soul...
Hope more good stories will appear and cruisers be back visiting this island and enjoying so friendly people and interesting culture. So many sailors write just complains about that and that, about small roberies or incidents  which of course do happens when you travel abraod. But at the same time there are so many of good things happening,  no?


Anyway...

So after very relaxed sailing we arrived to Martinique. Here we had to pick Egoi parents who came to spent with us all 3 weeks and sail togather till Guadeloupe.  
Martinique belongs to France and ,yes, even if people are black, climate is tropical and pelicans are flying around,  believe you still feel you are in France. For good and for bad. But after spending 4 months cruising around caribbean islands and not seeing any big supermarket beeing back to Europe it means just for good:) You can,t imagine how happy you can feel when again you can have yougurts, cheese and of course good and cheap wine on boat! Now we understand why so many criuisers sail to Martinique even just for provisioning:)
We arrived to the southern part of Martinique Cul-de-Sac du Marin bay. Probably it was the first time when we saw so many boats on anchor in one place! Hundreds of all kind of sailing boats anchored at the end of the bay in from of a huge Le marin marina. Spectacular!

 And of course we had super news for our cats- Epoxy and Sikaflex.. We found a good food and good material for their toilet:) Carefour you are the best!
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​In a few day Egoi parents were already on board with lots of kisses, smile and happiness to see them here with us on our Grain!  Again boat is full of goat cheese, chorizo, good ham, "pipas"-sinflower seeds ( special request from Egoi:), rolling tabacco, pimiento rojo and anchovies!

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​Sailing along the lee coast of  MaritiniqUe the same- was perfect. Lots of winds and no waves at all! Sun all the time and stunning views of Pitons mountains and Pelee Volcano....
Than fast day sailing to Dominique and 2 kilos Barracuda for dinner! In January trades winds shifted more to east and southeast so sailing between the islands became much more pleasent-nothing to compare to crazy Christams Winds in December! (Remi , you would have loved this passage!)

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Year which brought our boat and us to these warm and tropic waters:)

Canary islands, Cape Verde, Suriname, Tobago, Grenada and Carriacou, and now the Grenadines and Bequia, where surounded by so  many sailing boats we celebrated New Year- alone but content to be on board  with our cats and Grain de Sable:)

Strange in the begining but happy at the end- no headache in the morning and fresh start of new day in new year:)

And lots of energy to write few  words about our sailing in Grenadines:)

But if to be honest, i  need to say that both days-Christmas and  New Year eves we were missing our family and friends a lot ...

So maybe next year..

This time four of us ( me, Egoi, Remis and  his son Andrew) Christmas Eve we met in incredibly beautiful place- Tobago Cays...Locals in the wild island ashore organized Christmas dinner so most of sailors from boats around gathered there to celebrate ...SO do we:) All togather in a big table with lobster, grilled fish, rice, fried banana, veggies , potatoes and of course Campari which we took from the boat.
Thank you, Remis!!!! It was really worth to come there...Imagine totally wild island beach full of tables covered with food and sailors sitting around and having great time....Something unreal...
Something so magic to remember ...

Just the winds were not as we would like to be.. .Really...so so windy! Since Remis arrival  in Grenada we had not any calm day...Winds were blowing constatly 20knots from north east direction and in the gusts frequently reahing 30!...This was something we didn,t expect...But now we know- these winds are called-"Christmas Winds"- a yearly phenomenon bringing sailors high winds and rough seas. They tend to appear during the months of Dicember and January,.. hope this year at least January will be better.

Remis came to enjoy relaxed sailing and what he got was a really hard sailing days with the wind on the nose and wavy sea ! 

We started in Grenada and little by little moved north towards St, Vincent, from where he and his son Andrew  had to fly to Martinique and after to Boston ....
Distance in miles looks really small, but with strong winds on the nose and west ward going current, believe, even a 10 miles passage can last long!..SO we waited few days ( while staying in Port Luis marina in Grenada- swimmig pool and showers- no complain:)) for  weather window and after sailed from Grenada to Carriacou. On the way visited underwater sculpture park  and spend the night at anchor at  Grand Mall bay. Next day with early start and quite calm sea( perfectly planned weather:)) reached Carriacou. 
There we had to wait till Remis son Andriew comes and after again sailed few miles hard to the wind till Union island- Clifton. Very windy anchorage and squalls till 35 knots....Little space  with too many boats near so the nights were little bit restless worrying not to be hitted by other boat in front draging ...Luckily our anchor (rocna) is really good and oversized for this size of our boat so we feel safe mostly all the time while on anchor. Also here with so many gusty winds we let much more meters of chain than normaly. But in all these crowded anchorages there is also a risk to get in trouble not because of you, but your neighbour ...
Anyway..
 The place itself was so unique!..Anchored on a leeward side of the island just with narrow  line of  reefs separating us from the Ocean..Incredible colour of water and reefs just in front! 
Ashore  we made check in to new country- st. Vncents and Grenadines...and after 2 nights left towards Mayeru...One of our favourite islands...

Anchored in Saline bay with a long beautiful beach in front where we met  sunset sitting on a sand and of course drinking Campari ....:))) Happy hour,  like Remis says:)

...Next day-Christmas Eve day and as we planned sailed to Tobago Cays..
Once more crazy wind and current and rolly anchorage in the Cays...But here, no matter how much is blowing this place always it will look stunning. 
Tobago Cays is a wild nature park where Caribbean Pirates where filmed and where normaly you can see lots of sea turtles while snorkeling...But we didnt..Too much wind and current between the islands...Only the sea stars they were everywhere down there!.....But we still  love this place!..

Next day we decide to move to Canoun..Weather forecast was showing increasing  wind and sea  so we were in a hurry to reach St, Vincent where we could all relax and spend  the last days of Remis and Andrew visit  in confortable Blue Lagoon marina. .In Canuan anchored in a beautiful wild and spacious bay....but next day with a sunrise left towards St , Vincent....11 hours to make 30 miles passage!...wind and current not helping at all...so with a furled mainsail....mizzen sail and baby jib and engine in blowing 25-30 knots and once reaching 40 knots from north east little by little made it!
Welcome to windy Christmas!.....At least it was  sunny and warm,,,blue colour and great views al the time!..This area of Caribbean sea is special! And the people, they are nice..relaxed , living on small islands where some of them had no electricity  till 2003!...We know that more north we will sail more civilized and crowded we will find everything, so once we are here lets enjoy everything...

Now we are in Bequia , still Grenadines, but once the wind will get little bit more from the east and lighter we are going to start sailing north again. First few days stop in St. Lucia and after- Martinique...
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Little by little......

You see this blue water?...So this is the biggest reason why we wanted to come to Caribbea sea:)...We did enjoy Suriname,,,,Tobago ( a loooot!!!!!) Grenada...but none of these islands had this colour....:)
And so since now we have this nice windward islands chain of Grenadine islands and there waters waiting to be explored...
In Grenada we received our new crew member- Remis, who flew from cold Boston to sail with us!!!

New bay new stories:)

Just put an anchor and the show started go on. There is a shallow not marked place in middle of the bay so if you do not check carefully charts or pilot books there is quite a big possibility to get stuck there. We new it so no problem. But one sailing yacht didnt and......  right in front of us they went aground. We saw all that because it happened quite close where we stay.  And of course we went to help.  Result, two hours of all kind of effort to take it out from the shallow, and it was out. But it needed a tug ....because the boat went hard hard to mud (that whats happens when you go fast inside any bay).
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​We are now  in Clarkes Caurt Bay, Grenada.

Came here because we wanted to check another boatyard for next hurricane season.  I mean the bay is not the most beautiful and atractive to choose, but because of a Clarkes Court marina we wanted to come here and check how it looks. One thing is when you read in internet about it, another is when you see it yourslef.
And so here we are. The boat yard looks safe and so on.,,but ...its not cheap. and don,t know..we diidnt like it too much. Also you need to pay quite a lot if you live on your boat while on dry.  So need continue checking . We will.

Meanwhile we enjoy this bay. Egoi was soooooo happy to find a bar where they put Tv and football match. So here we are now:) In a perfect bar for sailors watching Barcelona- Real Madrid match!.
if you are sailor you will understand why its perfect.:) And if not, we will explain:
perfect is that bar from where sitting and drinking a beer you can see your boat at anchor:)

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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!
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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....

If you want to live slow......start to  live on a boat in tropics!!!...
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Maybe its the heat, a culture or all togather, but here, even the most nervous person can discover his inner peace..
Yesterday we checked the calendar and could not believe that is almost a month since we left Europe and are back on boat. Time is flying, but we not:) And we start  to like it !

SO now we are in Tobago. island which  long time ago we  wanted to visit by  boat.  2009  we were here during the time when we were visiting Trinidad, Chaguaramas bay  by sy RagaineII.  We came to Tobago by ferry from Trinidad, Port of Spain with Egoi parents who came to visit us on Around the World trip. But now, we arrived here with our own boat!  And thats another story:)

When we lay  in the beach and watch Grain de Sable swinging  on anchor in front is still hard to believe we are here. And not in a hurry!...We can stay as much as we want!..Funny how dificult it can be to accept that you are in paradise and  you can have it all for you:)...Our brain need more time ...
MUCH MORE!!!!....
Even if we are slowlly entering caribbean rythme...still we are not stopping to make plans, prepare boat, paint, varnish, sew, clean and so on and so on..... 

And in Suriname it was even worse!!!.. Uff..CRAZY..

After a quite tiring flight (and some adventures in Amsterdam Airport- they didnt want to let us flight without return ticket or other ticket proving we will leave Suriname after) from Amsterdam to Paramaribo with a local Suriname airlines  we arrived to our boat. .It was dark already so we decided to sleep outside on deck because it was too late to start instaling all electricity and so on. First night on boat with sounds of jungle and of course mosquitos bites too:)
Than the next morning came...Time to inspect the boat and see what these five months did harm for her.
To be sincere we epxected worse situation...Ok. There were lot of  humidity inside and we had to clean all, but all all all inside, but apart from that all the rest was Ok. Thanks to Noel from waterland Marina who took care about Grain when we were out. Electricity worked without any problem, engine started without any extra effort too, all equipments turned on...Only in the mast we found a  few wasps nets and on the arc two small birds made a nest and laid some eggs there..
And the hull. River and its current left its mark..Almost all antifouling paint went out..

So since the first day we started to prepare our Grain for sailing. Working from sunrise till sunset- in the heat of 37 or who know how much. If we had to do it for someone else probably in the first few days we would quit the job. But when its your own boat ...suddenly you become a superman and become a working machine:)
Later after arriving to Caribbean Sea and jumping to blue water you feel like you won a prize and all hard job was worth the effort. We were very  happy to visit and discover Suriname, super country! ...But after some time we started missing clear water...snorkeling...and swimming without any fear of any Anaconda or Crocodile attacking you:)
Also we had a very good friend Juliet visiting us and wanted her to have a nice time sailing and enjoy togather some days on anchor in Tobago.
So after  almost two weeks of hard work preparing our  boat  finally we left towards Tobago. 

According pilot guide it supposed to be calm and relaxed trip with trade winds blowing from the east and current pushing us up toward Caribbean Sea. But .....ufff.....
What a trip we had!
First ...leaving the river. Wind and steep breaking  waves totally to the nose ...Luckily current was helping us all time ( again  Total Tide program was right) so we could made our way foward. But for taking the last boy in marked channel ( water here is very shallow and you have to follow strictly the buoys) we had nothing to do  but switch on engine if we did not wanted to finish aground . Wind was totally on the nose and there were no way to do it just by sail.  After the boyed channel we  could finally turn west and start heading towards Tobago.  But than a big black cloud came.
 A VERY BIG!!!!........and a thunder...So, genoa out  ... jib on...main sail reefed  and wait.. What will come?
A HUGE SQUAL AND TONS OF WATER!!!.Thats what came...Welcome to Tropics!...Black clouds here will be quite frequent. But worst of all is the waiting process, when suddenly wind calms, comes the dark ...and who knows what gonna happen. 
We will need to get use to that.

​After this cloud a fresh wind came and all next day we had nice 20 knots wind from the beam and 1 knot current helping us . We were making 6-8 knots all time, counting miles and planning time of arriwal. ANOTHER MISTAKE!....Never plan so early. The third  day another black cloud came...And a  very strong wind, which suddenly start blowing almost to the nose. And like this from 3 in the morning till 3 in the afternoon. We saw gusts reaching 50 knots sometimes!!!! And the current too. It changed direction and start slowing us...Lets say it was not the most relaxed passage at all. Grib files were showing 15 knots from the east all time, but what we got its just one more time shows that apart from global there is always a local weather to consider. Be prepared for all.

Poor Juliet:) It was not what one can imagine when decides to come to visit friends  living on boat  and sailing in exotic countries which they show on their photos:) At least the last day she could enjoy watching dozens of dolphins and fregatas around us getting close to the island ....And a turtle comming to say us hello after setting an achor. But as a first time sailor she managed all so well and made us super company! And  now has great adventure to remember. 
 It was really a pleasure to have you with us, Juliet!!

Its really great here!  Bay is big, so there are plenty of space to anchor. Its deep,13 meters where we are now,  so we had to put all chain and some meters of rope too, but bay is very well protected and holding is good.  Later we saw it was possible to anchor closer to town , but  we  got used to our place and decided do not move.
Vilage is very small but we like small places.  There are few little shops( better, like this less money to spend) for very basic needs and a great library where all cruisers go to get wifi. Our " second home" how we call it:) 
Bay is surrounded by jungle and in a short walk we could find lots of fruit trees. Pitty now is not the season for mangos...but oranges, bananas and papayas are already on our boat:) Also lots of cacao trees everywhere, but like we say we are still not so prepared to start roasting cacao seeds and make chocolate. But time will come...for sure:)

So days goes relaxed.. .Every day some small job on boa, .bath, snorkeling...hiking around and for now enjoying the moment.- Caribbean style:)
How long we will stay here yet no idea. Two weeks, month...more? 
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