Blog update: Caribbean catch-up part 1
OK, so I’m nearly a year behind with the blog. Only the usual excuses I’m afraid – boat maintenance, boat school, work, partying, laundry, writing articles for publication, getting things dirty, cleaning things, breaking things, mending things, unpacking and repacking lockers, food shopping, cooking, melting in the heat and humidity, meeting up with old friends, making new friends, exploring new places, playing music, not writing the blog... Our year at a glance Our vital statistics for 2012 are as follows. After leaving Las Palmas in Gran Canaria on 31 December 2012, we visited 25 ports and anchorages in 6 countries: • The Gambia • Trinidad and Tobago • St Vincent and the Grenadines (Bequia, Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union) • Grenada and Carriacou • St Lucia • France (Martinique) We travelled: • 4,836 nautical miles • at an average speed of 4.72 knots • and we spent 64 days actually at sea. In total we have now travelled 12,716 nautical miles since we left Aberystwyth in 2007. After arriving in the Caribbean at Tobago at the end of March 2012, we spent April and May recovering before moving north to Bequia to meet up with Terry (LIBERTINE) whom we first met in Greece in 2009. We worked our way back south to Trinidad during June, visiting the Windward Islands of Mayreau, Tobago Cays, Union, Carriacou and Grenada briefly on the way. We spent the hurricane season (beginning of July to beginning of November) in Trinidad and Tobago, ricocheting between the two islands and melting in the tropical heat and humidity as we did some major bouts of boat maintenance and recovered in between.
The CAPE Caribbean Tour 2012. Writing a full account of what we have been up to will delay this missive even more, so here’s a brief account (more photos than blog) of where we’ve been and what we’ve been up to over the past year. Tobago
Celebrating our arrival in the Caribbean with Carib and pizza.
Stuck at anchor in Scarborough while waiting for the heat exchanger to be repaired.
Our first swim in Caribbean waters was at Bacolet Beach, a short walk from Scarborough.
Our first taste of fresh coconut milk from a green coconut.
Checking out the cannons at Fort King George, Scarborough.
Getting up close and personal with the local wildlife.
Goat racing at the Annual Goat and Crab Racing at Buccoo at Easter.
The winner of the crab race giving an interview to the press.
Fruit cocktails to celebrate Bethany’s 14th birthday (belatedly) at Store Bay. Bethany, Bryn and David gained their PADI Advanced Open Water Diver qualification. Bequia Admiralty Bay in Bequia was pretty, but had an ‘end-of-season’ feel about it. We banished the end-of-season blues by catching up briefly with HEYMEDE and AQUAMARIJN.
The bone biologist in me was delighted to find a whale bone bar and bar stools (from the days of ancient whaling of course)!
Learning about Green and Hawksbill turtles at the Old Hegg Turtle Sanctuary.
Turtle hatchlings. Mayreau and Tobago Cays
Double trouble.
Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau.
CAPE in Saltwhistle Bay, Mayreau.
We sailed Terry’s Walker Bay and went swimming with turtles at Tobago Cays.
Sniffing our way through turquoise (shallow!) water in Tobago Cays.
Singin’ the blues with Terry. Union
No comment!
Jammin’ with the locals at Pleasure’s Bar in Chatham Bay, Union.
Chatham Bay, Union.
Sunset over Chatham Bay, Union. Trinidad
Coral Cove Marina, Chaguaramas, Trinidad.
A nerve-wracking and expensive journey to the gel coat and back – with Homer and Mark.
The Olympic-sized pool at Coral Cove (with Emil and Pele from the Danish boat MOANA).
Iguana begging for roti scraps at the (best ever) Roti Hut in Powerboats, Chaguaramas.
Noodling with Willie and the girls at Coral Cove (Photo courtesy of LIAHONA).
The local wildlife.
The Bamboo forest (complete with howler monkeys howling in the background).
Gorge scrambling in the Guanapo Gorge with Snakeman and Jesse James (photo courtesy of LOS LOBOS).
Some of the Coral Cove girls (Photo courtesy of LIAHONA).
Some of the Coral Cove guys (Photo courtesy of LIAHONA).
Taste of Trinidad 1. In addition to getting a great tour of the island and hearing all about its fauna, flora, geology, history and culture from Jesse, we also got to sample 64 different foods grown or traditionally produced in Trinidad, including: 1. Saltfish cod bulghol 2. Smoked herring 3. Coconut bake (bread) 4. Fried bake 5. Steamed veggies (carrots, christophene, cauliflower, sweet pepper, cabbage, onion, garlic...) 6. Sorrel juice drink 7. Doubles (channa, hot sauce, sweet sauce, flat bread) 8. Curried, fried bodi beans 9. Sada roti 10. Tomato choka 11. Cow-heel soup 12. Callaloo (dasheen leaf soup) 13. BBQ’d pickled pigtail 14. Buttered cassava 15. Corn soup 16. Mango chow (spicy and sour) 17. Chicken pilau 18. Dhal with white rice 19. Stew pork 20. Boiled plantain 21. Chennet (fruit) 22. Pomarac (‘Trinidadian apple’) 23. Silk fig (tiny ‘banana’) 24. Chiquito (different tiny ‘banana’) 25. Sahina (deep-fried dasheen leaf) 26. Kitchari (dhal risotto) 27. Deep-fried biagani (aubergine) 28. Alloo pie (potato pie) 29. Shark 30. Curried crab 31. Shut up buss (roti/flat bread) 32. Dhal pori roti (roti with dhal filling) 33. Chicken curry 34. Chicken gizzard curry 35. Goat curry 36. Beef curry 37. Biagani choka (smoky roasted aubergine puree) 38. Fried okra 39. Peanut punch (milkshake) 40. Mauby juice 41. Dumplings 42. Watermelon 43. Roast corn 44. Polouri (dhal dumplings) with hot mango chutney 45. Cheese pie 46. Coconut tart 47. Coconut ballerina 48. Barfi (Indian fudge) 49. Gulab jamoon (sweet Indian pastry) 50. Curried duck 51. Curried pumpkin 52. Kurma (Indian Diwali sweets) 53. Spicy channa (roasted chickpeas) 54. Coconut water 55. Green coconut flesh 56. Cocoa beans 57. Black sugar cane 58. Geera pork (with cumin seeds) 59. Chicken foot souse (cold, pickled soup swimming with whole chicken feet) 60. Pig’s foot souse (yep, you guessed correctly) 61. BBQ chicken 62. Pineapple chow (with garlic, hot pepper, shado beni, salt and pepper) 63. Starfruit 64. Ice cream
Bryn, Jesse and BBQ’d pigtail.
Manzanilla beach. To be continued... |
