Life Lately

so, if you follow us on instagram or twitter, you know that we have finally left Trinidad and returned to Grenada! 

we spent a total of 3 months in Chaguaramas and we got a lot of great work done on Melody. we arrived back in Grenada almost 2 weeks ago and immediately started work on our first job in the yacht charter industry. we are preparing a fleet of sail boats for the upcoming Caribbean charter season, for Sail Grenadines. this will keep us busy till end October.

after we finish up in Grenada we have another amazing opportunity that will take us to Central America until end August 2015 - more on that a little later ;)

here are a few iPhone photos of life lately... my camera is till busted :/

View fullsize

last bit of Trinidad's headland as we left the island to sail North to Grenada

View fullsize

St. David's Harbour with Melody riiiiight in the back

View fullsize

the beach bar where we set up our office for the first week

View fullsize

every lunch break we swim off the boat  - this day we had turtles visiting Melody :) Rufus only managed to capture my "kiss face" though...

View fullsize

no South African boat is complete with a proper CHARCOAL BRAAI (gas does NOT count). we got this awesome "vintage" Force 10 barbeque in Trinidad from a wonderful New Zealand couple. we are ready for National Braai Day tomorrow, also know as Heritage Day in South Africa ;)

Welcome Party

the last time we were in Trinidad we had an exceptionally bad experience. I won't go into details but when we finally were able to leave we swore we would never NEVER go back. 

never say never... because here we are again, 17 months later. thankfully this visit has been much better and it is mostly because of the friendly Power Boats team (the yard we are currently working in, on Melody) and most especially the great friends we have made with our fellow yachties.

we did a 16hr overnight passage from Grenada to Trinidad and as the sun rose we got our first glimpse of the island. to start the day off on the best note possible we also had a welcoming party, a large pod of dolphins, that escorted us into Scotland Bay, just before our final destination of Chaguaramas.

these guys were huge, some of the biggest and oldest I've seen, and very playful. they stayed with us for almost an hour and when I eventually dared to leave the bow seat and get my camera, that's when they really started having fun - spraying me almost every time I tried to take a picture. they jumped up to touch my outstretched feet and a few acrobatic performances for us off the starboard beam. it was a good start.

Grand Anse

Grand Anse is one of the best beaches we've visited in Grenada. we came upon it quite by accident while unintentionally walking half way across the island.

we were supposed to go grocery shopping at the 'big mall' and then join friends for dinner in Port Louis. we ended up walking most of the way from Prickly Bay, except for a 3min taxi ride, which we probably could have walked faster for the million times it stopped for passengers.

it was one of those "I wonder where that road leads to" or "I wonder what's around that next bend" and "it can't be THAT far to the next taxi stop?". well it can be THAT far to the next taxi stop and after a long sweaty day of walking our friends thankfully still allowed our smelly bodies onto their boat for, quite possibly, the best burgers we have had so far. ever. in our lives. (more on these awesome weirdos later - our friends, not the burgers).

Dragon Bay

it's been a while... my sincerest apologies. we've been in Trinidad, on the hard for well over a month and trust me, there is nothing more uninspiring than living in  a hot dusty boatyard where the water is so siff there's more oil and plastic than sealife and the mosquitos literally eat you alive 24/7.

having said that, we can sit and complain or we can make it nice for ourselves and we have decided to do the latter - it's all about your mindset! we've met some great new friends and we've been seriously productive boat wise - new additions, upgrades and repairs. we are feeling proud :)

before I start posting on Trinidad though, I want to cover our Grenada experience, which has been the best so far. the community is great and there is so much to do. the islanders are the friendliest we've met and there are many beautiful bays to visit.

our first overnight stay was in Dragon Bay, and where Rufus decided to whip out his fishing gear. Contrary to what he name promises, there were no dragons (sorry Game of Thrones fans) but there was an abundance of fish. although he didn't manage to catch one large enough to braai for dinner, he did have a LOT of bites on his chicken baited hook. the greedy little guys were just that, little, and so all of them were returned (very much alive and flapping) to their watery home.

even though we weren't successful on the food front we did discover that fish are very keen on fresh chicken and that served us well later on ;) 

contemplating deep things like 'should we braai or make ceviche'

whatcha lookin' at?

our sophisticated fishing gear

catch...

and release.

but first, a selfie.

refuelling the chicken guts

another one to release

smiley face

Ruf wins the 'best smile' contest as far as I'm concerned

Tobago Cays

Tobago Cays is a small group of islands in the Grenadines, famous for its (mostly) untouched beauty and my favourite: turtles and manta rays! It is a protected marine park so there are no human residents. The cays are surrounded by beautiful reefs and the islands themselves are home to large tortoises and iguanas.

We stayed one night and swam with the turtles as soon as we arrived. It's a special experience and I wouldn't have thought it but those little guys have quite a lot of personality. Some of them are very relaxed and not phased by us weirdo looking humans, all googled and finned up. Others are more grumpy and don't like to be disturbed while they're having dinner (most of them were eating while we were there). The rest are kind of playful and you can swim with them as they cruise around their little bay.

Unfortunately the bay was quite rolley and it wasn't comfortable to stay very long. We anchored in a protected channel for the night and were greeted by a family of manta rays, around the stern of the boat, as we prepared to motor on to Union Island the next morning. I've seen larger rays before, off Grand Cayman island, but never babies like the ones in this group. Too cute for words. Unfortunately I left the camera below so no shots of the rays. Next time!

entering the Cays

the water really is this colour and this clear

the locals are always ready to "help" and accept a cash "thank you" after

the Marine Park has strict rules about not getting too close to the turtles, even when they came towards us we moved away to maintain the right distance. can't say the same for the other disrespectful tourists. 

every couple needs and under water selfie ;)

unfortunately the focus of this dive was cut out of the shot (we dont have a screen on our go pro yet) but I was pointing a giant bright red starfish, the biggest we've ever seen. 

view no 1, from our anchorage for the night

anchorage view no 2

and one of my favorite views ;)