Position 11:59.9N 61:45.6W

Back in Grenada

Well, as usual, we have found time just slips by between blogs without us really noticing.  We had a very pleasant few days in Bequia on the way through, somewhere we like a lot.  Very yacht friendly and pretty.  Much fewer boats here now as people are making for their chosen hurricane season destination, lots of businesses have a lean time in June before the summer holidays start, so it was very quiet.

View over Admiralty Bay, Bequia (Adonde is in the cactus).

Waiting for the “green flash”.

We had a couple of nice day sails down here, despite having to cross the channel between Carriacou and Grenada, which can be a bit bouncy.  Fortunately it wasn't.  There's a semi active volcano in the middle, which you are supposed to give a wide berth but it looked friendly enough when we went past.  We decided not to pootle in the rest of the Grenadines as you can have too much of a good thing and we wanted to meet with others in Grenada before we all disperse again. So we find ourselves anchored in Prickly Bay, which at the moment is serving as a hub for people making for Trinidad, Venezuela, ABC Islands, hauling their boats and flying home or just hanging out here for the summer.  As yet our plans are still fluid (usual cruising scenario) so we'll keep you posted.  It's been fun seeing people again we have met along the way, and exchanging ideas on what to do for the summer (a traditional Happy Hour activity). Grenada feels a bit like our base camp - we really like it, it's a very friendly island with good places to keep the boat.

There are lots of things going on as when two or more yachties join together jollies are usually organised.  Mostly these revolve around excessive drinking and, if you're lucky, something like a barbeque, but I went on one yesterday that was particularly fabby - turtle watching.  Since March it has been the season in the Islands for Leather Back turtles to come ashore and lay their eggs.  We haven't been in the right place at the right time until now, so I bit the bullet as far as the 4 hour round trip on winding roads in a mini bus was concerned, and it was well worth it to see these incredible animals up close.  With impeccable timing, as we arrived at the windy Atlantic coast beach, the guide informed us there was a turtle there already doing the business.  The first thing you think is wow - it's huge!  This thing was 800lbs and it’s shell was 6ft long and 4ft wide.  Then you're impressed with the sheer effort for it to climb out of the surf after swimming thousands of miles, dig a deep hole with her back flippers, lay the eggs, fill the hole back in, disguise it as just another piece of sand, then find her way back to the sea, all in the dark!  And they do this several times in one season.  It all took over an hour and another one was lumbering up the beach straight after, so the researchers are kept busy all night monitoring the laying, counting eggs, tagging and measuring the turtles, marking the nests etc, etc. The turtle patrol people were very informative and didn't mind us all just standing there gawping whilst they did their work.  It was nice to hear they had already had double the number from last year so their efforts were worthwhile.  They even let us stroke it, which felt odd; it actually is soft on the outside like leather, not a hard shell.  Sadly, it was too dark to take any photos, as there was no moonlight and you couldn’t use a flash in case it put the turtles off, so you'll have to take my word that it was (and I usually hate this _expression_) “awesome!” (Editors note: in my humble opinion the word “awesome” should be reserved for events that truly are awe inspiring (as no doubt the turtle was), and not, as has become the case, to describe a tasty pizza, for instance. It may be a lovely pizza, it may be the finest pizza you’ve ever tasted, but it’s not awesome, it's just a bloody pizza you idiot!! Grumble over, back to the story). So as a consolation, and on a continuing nature theme, here are some photos of other (ex) ocean dwellers.

This one put up a good fight but ultimately made a delicious dinner for six.  Another fine catch for Mr B, biggest tuna so far.

This one put up no fight whatsoever and made absolutely no dinner at all, but looked cute.  Smallest catch so far (Jo from Malarkey is holding down the tail so it doesn’t blow away!).

And on a completely different theme, last week we met up with a guy called Morris who works at Metropolis (the motorcycle business Neil used to co-own and where I worked too) who's originally from here and who, we thought, was out for a holiday.  Turned out he was actually getting married!  He and Debbie were kind enough to invite us to their beach wedding at the Rex Grenadian Hotel.  It was a lovely spot, complete with steel band and champagne laid on.  Everybody was very welcoming, and they didn't seem to mind that we weren't suited and booted - though we did make an effort, in fact I had to blag a frock from another yachtie (thanks Vicky) and Neil even put on long trousers!

Here’s Morris and Debbie looking very relieved (and also looking like they’re holding a cheque from Littlewoods pools):

“Here comes the Bride” Grenadian style.