Answers Blog
Blue Sky's Voyage
George & Michael
Tue 2 Oct 2007 12:33
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Hello Friends
"12:00.6N 61:46.3W"
It's October and the news you've all been
waiting for. Well, perhaps that's a slight exaggeration, but some of the
Quiz contestants must at least be mildly curious.
Blue Sky is hauled out for the week at Spice
Island Marine in Grenada, so we have no sailing, just Quiz answers to deal with,
so without further delay...
THE ANSWERS
Well, the good news is that ALL questions
were answered correctly - Hooray !!
The bad news - but not all by any single
contestant - Aarrgghhhh !!! but see below...
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Question 1
Where was this pic taken ? (no points for on
board Blue Sky !! - we're talking geography here.) Some of the data is
misleading, so do your research carefully...
The blog of 12 December 2006 would be
helpful . It is 1st question and just less than 9 months from Quiz date... The
10,000 mile mark for Blue Sky was a few hundred miles east of Guadeloupe, but
"Atlantic" would do. The misleading info. was the depth - probably just one of
the minke whales passing under the depth sounder. Almost everyone got this
correct.
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Question 2
Identify this bird which is perched on our
pulpit (and has an unfortunate habit of poo-ing over the bow).
When I set the question I didn't realise
this - but the actual photo is on the blog of 8 April 2007. It's a Booby -
ubiquitous in the islands and fantastic flyers and fishers. Too easy - everyone
correct!
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Question 3
Where was this photo taken and what makes it
unusual ?
This one needed a bit more care ... it's a
picture of a volcanic flow covering up the old Blackburne Airport runway in
Montserrat. You can see the end of the runway in the centre of the pic and the
grey stuff is all volcanic ash. I guess it's unusual as you don't see many
airports covered by volcanic ash. There is a pic of the volcano on the blog of
2nd May. Bonus marks were given for the name of airport and identification of
the volcanic flow.
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Question 4
At the risk of being repetitive, where is
this photo? We need the actual island here.
Blog of 23 May 2007 - Ile a Cabrit in
Les Saintes, Guadeloupe. Obviously.
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Question 5
Another identification pic - where is this
and and what movie made this location famous? (Oops, we're giving clues
already.)
George thought this question was impossibly
difficult... There is a photo in the blog of 23 June which shows the similar
weird trees, and identifies it as the Indian River in Dominica. Admittedly the
photo comparison needs a bit of lateral thinking. We've only mentioned one movie
in the blogs - Pirates of the Caribbean of course. This was used in "Dead Man's
Chest" as the location for Tia Dalma's shack - the Fortune Teller. A little bit
of Googling on things like "pirates of the caribbean locations" would get you
the answer if you didn't figure it out from the blogs. About half the
contestants figured this out, so I guess it wasn't too difficult.
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Question Six
What seed / nut / fruit is this ? What is
the story of its presence here in the Caribbean ?
The second part of the question was the clue
- it's breadfruit - imported from the Pacific by Captain Bligh (then only
Lieutenant) to cultivate in the Caribbean as food for the slaves. You must have
seen the Mutiny on the Bounty films. Check the Wikipedia entry which has a
picture very similar to the one below. Easy peasy question with lots of great
detail in some answers.
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Question 7
What is this ?
A close-up of the top of the rudder and the
hull of Blue Sky - upside down to make it interesting. Another easy
one.
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Question 8
Where is this ?
Antigua of course, English Harbour
foreground and Falmouth Harbour behind - as per the bigger picture with Pom and
Barbara in the blog of 1st February 2007. 100% correct answers.
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Question 9
Please identify this bird and explain in
what characteristic is it the most extreme.
This is of course the Magnificent Frigate
Bird - anyone noting that it is a male (female has white breast) would have
got a bonus. There are some pictures in the blog of 1st February after we
visited the colony. It has the largest ratio of wingspan (up to 2.3 metres) to
body weight of any bird. Unusually for a seabird, it does not secrete oil to
waterproof its feathers and if it falls in the sea it cannot take off again and
dies. There are many stories in the Caribbean where people have seen frigate
birds stuck in the sea and where two other birds have plucked the bird up from
the water to save it. Our Barbuda Guide had personally seen this, so amazing -
but true. Mainly correct answers.
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Question 10
What the heck is this ?
A Banana Flower/Pod - you see these all over
the Canaries as well as the Caribbean. We had to hide the leaves and fruit of
course... Another easy one.
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Question 11
Please identify this ... er...
thing.
It's a cocoa pod of course - fortunately you
were all paying attention in school geography lessons.
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Question 12
And what on earth is this odd thing which
looks a bit like a weird mushroom, but isn't ?
Nutmeg ! - the red bit is the mace and the
nutmeg dark within. You know we're in Grenada which is known as the Spice Isle
and is famous for nutmeg. Pretty much any Grenada tourist site will have a
picture of this.
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Question 13
This is not an avocado, but what is it and
what is it normally used for ? (a couple of possible answers on the usage, which
is a clue in itself !)
Oh the anguish this one caused !! Well we
gave you a good clue. If we're asking what it's normally used
for then presumably you don't eat it. Maybe it is a gourd of some sort
??? Google "caribbean gourd" and you get the word "Calabash" coming up all over
the page. Used for bowls to eat from when cut in half and for liquid containers
if just the top is cut off and the disgusting smelling pulp removed. Only
two correct answers.
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Question 14
Please identify this fruit. (OK so we've
told you it's a fruit to make it easy...)
Sweetsop or Sugar Apple - Google "caribbean
fruit" and look at the pics on the second answer (like the cashew nut
answer). Not in the Blog and maybe a bit more tricky without 2 minutes
research... but you all did that and got it right.
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Question 15
Please identify this tree / bush / shrub /
herb ?
Come on, we're in Grenada - it's a nutmeg
tree of course ! Though only two realised this (and a mango tree is completely
different Hannah !)
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Question 16
A nice easy identification to finish off the
pictures .... any ideas ?
Admittedly I did take the colour negative of
the photo, but surely you've seen banana leaves before? Perhaps Ben hasn't, but
everyone else had.
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Question 17
"I want to come sailing with George and
Michael in the Caribbean because..........."
We particularly liked:
I want to
come sailing with George and Michael in the Caribbean because I think it would
be cool to play 'it' on a boat and Michael you are still 'it'! (Lauren Kraven, aged 11 has had an ongoing game of "IT" - like tag
- with Michael for some years now...)
I want to
come sailing with George and Michael in the Caribbean because...having spent
quite a long time working out the above answers, I think I need to get out more,
I also have a new hobby of aerial photography - using a kite, and I can't think
of a better location to practice this, oh yes and finally, Monique reminds me
that since neither of us knows anything at all about boats, we would be the
perfect crew.
Well,
shall we say, if Carlsberg did sailing holidays they would probably be staged in
the Caribbean on Blue Sky with culinary support from George... "they would be
probably the best sailing holidays in the world..." rules of the competition
permitting I would also get Duffin along, to provide probably the best crewmate
as well as the opportunities to reminise about duck-billed
platipi.
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So the winner is ... well both Lauren and
Nigel got only one question wrong (though different questions) and six bonus
marks, so they tie for first place and we've decided that Both get a free flight
out here to come sailing with us.
Arthur/Barny and Hannah both got two
questions wrong and five bonus marks, so they get a case of champagne or the
equivalent value to help with their flights out here.
We'll be in touch by email with the winners
and indeed all those who took part. We hope you had some fun!
Best Wishes
George & Michael
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