Grenada Carnival, St George’s, Grenada

After a lovely evening on Sunday the 13^th August and knowing that all was well with Stargazer (and the jobs list was under control – or at least had some momentum in it) we slept very well; that was until 0400 the following morning. An alarm went off, I quickly wakened – what was it? A smoke alarm? No, all was OK with them. The gas alarm? No, I’d removed it (purposely) last year. Another boat? Then the answer became apparent very quickly – it was the mate’s alarm clock. What on earth was going on? The mate, who (outside of being at sea) never gets fully going much before 1030, started to move about looking quite excited/animated. I remembered; it was the start of Grenada’s carnival. The first ‘event’ was a procession of people outside the marina gates. The event is supposed to signify the devil moving into the light and the end of slavery (that’s a simplistic view, but it’ll do for now). People walk down the road, dressed in all manner of things covering themselves with old engine oil and other ‘stuff’ to make them look darker than they are. Ah, I wondered, that’s where some of Stargazer’s old engine oil must be. Lucky for the person who’s got it as we change the oil very often – someone once joked ‘could they have the oil we take out for their boat’…

Are they wearing SG’s old engine oil??

Back to the carnival: as I was wandering around with a mug of tea in hand wondering why I was there at such an unearthly time, the mate was getting into the thick of it and taking photos. Luckily it gets light very quickly in Grenada so we were able to return to bed relatively quickly. It was a sight to see though, even though clearly many of the participants had been up all night and were quite drunk. In fact it was a bit of a job avoiding all the old engine oil!

Waking up after a two hour nap we both felt ready to begin the day. This was good news because the carnival continued. This time it was Monday afternoon and processions of skimpily clad ladies all paraded through the streets en route to the playing field in St George’s. The good news for us was that the end of the marina access road was one of the best viewing points so we didn’t have to go far. The mate may wish to delete my next comment, but I’ll put it in anyway – it is a rare time when it is possible to witness so much nearly naked female flesh and all with wife’s approval! What a good carnival this was turning out to be…

More rum please!

After a lovely afternoon, we went back to the boat and I’d hoped for a calmer evening. Not so! Another parade started about 2100. As with the afternoon parade the volume of the music was so loud that it made the hairs stand up on your arms (everything they do it the Caribbean is [too] loud). Luckily the mate realised that for this event one of the best viewing points was actually at the end of our own pontoon in PLM. Me – I fell asleep in the cockpit as I’d been carnivaled-out for one day.

The final day of the carnival was Tuesday and this time the parade was focussed on feathers. The mate absolutely loves all things to do with feathers and dancing, so I braced myself for a full day of carnival watching. It was, though, a pretty impressive spectacle and the day went very quickly. I must say that the organisation of the whole Carnival was very impressive. The dancers were very ‘professional’, the crowd was well behaved, the streets where cleaned almost as soon as any litter arrived and the main organisers had arranged refreshments and loos for all floats plus there were plenty of medics around, just in case. Very impressive organisation, well done Grenada!

The mate is nudging me to tell you more about the carnival…

Blimey, what a Carnival! The Grenadians really know how to throw a party. J’Ouvert was the opener and we arrived in the dark to see hordes of oiled up people with Viking helmets bouncing to the beat (and lighting aerosols for effect!). The spectacle carried on for a couple of hours after light (which we could hear from the boat!) but we headed back for a cat nap. The afternoon parade was more colourful and even louder. For the evening parade the dancers and participants had flashing LED Viking helmets, swords, arm bands, leg bands etc. so it was really easy to see (and hear!) them making their way along the road. Tuesday’s parade was all about the feathers and sparkles, truly amazing costumes and even louder music. It was such a wonderful celebration of dance, music, rum and sunshine, and such a lovely vibe. It didn’t matter what colour, age, or body size you were – everyone was welcome and involved :)  The organisation was amazing – each band (troupe) had their own massive sound system truck surrounded by and followed by dancers, then a bar truck so the dancers could dance over for a rum refill, then an air conditioned bus so the dancers could chill out if needed, then a catering truck to keep the dancers fed, and then a toilet truck for comfort breaks. All bases covered – fantastic!  Skip is also delighted that I have found some Grenadian soca music on YouTube…

My favourite costume – maybe next year I’ll join Lavish the Band…

Detail on my fave costume

Multitasking – dancing, eating on the wing and taking photos!

After the carnival, we’ve been dealing with our main jobs lists and working out where we can get more fans and new mattress toppers. Such things aren’t easy over here, but we’ve got some ideas and will be off on the buses next week to suss things out.

In the meantime, the weather has been hot. Properly hot. It’s one thing when forecasts give shade temperatures, it’s another thing when you are 12deg N and the sun is out. At such times temperature forecast go out of the window – it’s just HOT! Sadly, though, tropical wave after tropical wave is coming through and the heavens open to bring rain, think Wales or the Lake District in the UK – that sort of rain. Luckily though, with the heat it only takes about an hour for everything to dry up. The mate just gets frustrated as she dashed around and closes all the hatches each time there’s a shower, and then opens them all again once it has stopped. Well, I pointed out – we could leave them shut until it’s clear the weather has passed and just put the fans on. It’s not possible to reveal the response I got… [It is like being in a greenhouse! – Mate].

Another thing that we’ve been doing is visiting our South African friends on their large catamaran out on the moorings. One evening, the mate and I were on the top deck overlooking to setting sun drinking a rum when the mate revealed that she quite liked it (the catamaran, that is). I’ve asked the mate to attend boat appreciation lessons forthwith. To bring us up to date, on Friday 18^th we went over to the catamaran again, this time for a BBQ (or Braai as South Africans call it). We had a great evening, even the cats onboard the ‘cat’, ha ha, were being interactive (British shorthaired cats, especially males, aren’t renowned for this). However, being guests, we went with the flow and after beers came out, followed by rum, the BBQ itself started. This consisted of beautiful tuna steaks bought freshly from the fish market that day and various salads etc. and it was all delicious. After that our hosts got out wine – when that had all gone, they got out more rum! Now, the mate and I can take a drink or two, but we were having trouble keeping up with the South Africans. After they insisted that we all had a final rum before we called it day I made the mistake of looking at the time – it’s Sunday as I write and I think we’ve just about recovered. The moral for us is never accept a lift in someone else’s dinghy (which we did on this occasion), always take your own, then you can make your excuses and leave before the real ‘damage’ is done…