Take Two

Next stop Bubbler took us to the chocolate factory / zoo. It was a brilliant little place. It was where the Cacao beans are laid out, dried and turned before being exported to other countries. The Cacao bean is one of Grenada largest exports



There were only a few animals there including some tortoises, goats, but best of all was a parrot that actually did speak. I could not believe it, perhaps im naïve and know nothing about parrots but I thought they would say a few ‘hello’ a few more words and that’s about it!! Well , this Polly was absolutely brilliant, he was reeling off sentencing ranging from Polly wants a cracker to far more obscene language to rude to say on here. As you can imagine this is where we all spent most of our time.

Next Bubbler took us to a famous site called ‘Leapers Lane’. This spot was where the Caribs jumped to their death rather than surrender when the French were invading their country. Poor buggers, they must have been bricking it so bad to jump from that height.



Finally the last stop was another set of waterfalls and I think we were all ready to go home.. apart from the fact it was past four pm and we had not eaten all day , I was starting to get butt cramp from being sat down for so long. The last waterfalls were great, they were only small but you could dive off and swim around.. they were fab…

Check these out

Tour of the Island – Take One

We decided to hire a tour guide / taxi driver on Easter Monday and have a day off from working on Quartermoon. Jesus it has been a real killer this week, all this work is making me crazy. We have been getting up at a normal hour and working at least 6 hours a day.. Ha ha, I know you are all thinking that’s quite lame and you all could do way more, but id like to see you do physical work in this heat… you sweat like a beast just getting out of bed in the morning.

Anyhow the trip worked out quite reasonable. The tour guide charged 50 EC and hour which are about 13 quid, but there were four of us altogther so a whole six hours cost less than 40 quid for the two of us and we got to see loads.

First of all Bubbler ( our taxi driver) took us to one of the waterfalls. It certainly was not as good as the one in Dominica…. But it will take a lot to top that, unless we go to Niagara Falls I suppose. Anyway it was raining quite heavily so none of us were that keen to jump in and Bubbler said we would be visiting a better waterfall towards the end of the day... so that was cool.



On our way back this local kid stopped the van and showed us the coolest thing ever.. it was a tattoo ( which is some sort of armadillo) The tatoo are eaten by the locals and are a delicacy over here. I cant imagine how they can taste good…they look so weird, but I wont knock it until ive tried it. I was quite jealous cos Sym got to touch it and I did not, I was too far away in the van and Bubbler drove off before I got chance. I was not that impressed to say the least. Anyway take a look at this...



Next Bubbler decided to take us off the beaten track and drive to a beach on the northern side on the island. As it was easter there was a massive party going on where thousands of locals had gathered together. The atmosphere was crazy there.. there were mega loud speakers all of the place banging out loud music,there was food stalls and beer stalls and the people were dancing and getting wasted everywhere and it was only mid day.



As we were driving through we got stopped by the police, who were stopping and searching all the vehicles for armed weapons before entering... we were all quite shocked.. how can a small island warrant so much security and policing ... and the weapons.. it was nuts. Anyway the police seemed nice enough, but i can imagine it could get quite out of hand towards the end of the evening.. thinking about it no different really to Cardiff at 2am on a saturday night( apart from the guns)!!!

Grenada - Spice Island

We are still anchored up in the lagoon of St Georges and have been for a couple of weeks now. We plan to leave tomorrow and head south of the Island to some of the other anchorages (ones with beautiful clean water and some of them are marked with diver’s sites!) We are really getting excited now cos our family are coming to visit us in less than a month in Tobago, so we will be sailing there in a couple of weeks. Can’t wait, it s been over a year since we last saw the Archers (I will once again have the chance to show off my brown body to all the whiteys)



The past couple of weeks have been really good: we are so close to the town, right next to the chandlery and the supermarket, so it’s been so easy for us to pop over and buy whatever we need so its been a good place to start some work on Quartermoon.We have both spent the last week working and partying with Lauri and Aninna





We have spent time sanding and varnishing ( what has felt like a million times) which is bloody horrible in the heat ( but hey it needed to be done) The kitchen looks amazing now and all our hard work has paid off it looks brand spanking new!!

Quartermoon For Sale

Yes that’s right – Quartermoon is up for sale. For some time we have been deciding whether or not to put Quartermoon up on the market. We still want to carry on our circumnavigation and will still be travelling, but as usual (for us anyway) our plans have changed. Although we love Quartermoon to pieces, she is a wicked boat and has got us everywhere safely (touch wood) we are thinking of changing back to a catamaran. We have decided that Sym is going to put his expertise together and build our second boat – a 47 foot catamaran. We have a few designers in mind but we are toying with the idea between Owen Easton and Bob Obram.

So that’s it really, she is on the market and we hope to sell her as soon as possible. The plans are to sell her here where we will carry on our usual travelling until she is sold…then once we have received the money we while buy a cheaper , smaller boat to cross the pacific next year where we will build the boat in Australia.

But you never know we could end up in South America building a new boat, or may not sell Quartermmoon for a few years. We’ll see. All we know for sure is we love this life and don’t want it to stop… we carry on our normal travels until she is sold and then make our final decisions from there.

Anyway here are a few pics of Quartermoon and if anyone is interested please contact us.

Good Bye Wolverine!!

God there is loads of updating for me to do. The last couple of weeks I have been really slack, but lots of news for me to share.

After the Grenadines we sailed down to St Georges in Grenada, which was again a wicked sail – apart from the fact that Wolves was shitting it all the way. We dropped the hook in the lagoon area of St Georges. This is probably the calmest anchorage so far, but the downside is the bottom is mud and the water is absolutely gross. Not far from the standards of Gosport Marina. Usually we dive in first , but not this time( which im quite glad about because the next day I saw a dead bloody pigeon floating next to our boat( it was not one of the lovely plump pigeons either – it looked like our London Pigeons, deformed with no feet.)



We meet up with Alissa again and have a few drinks on the boat, where Annina decides to cook the best Mexican food ever. It was delicious.

We had decided some time ago that we need to get rid of Wolverine - get rid sounds a bit harsh but we needed to find him a new home, because it so cruel taking him sailing when he gets scared,. He would be so much happier in a house.

To cut a long story short this German couple motored up alongside Quartermoon when they saw out cats, and Rosi the wife instantly fell in love with Wolverine. We said we were looking for a good home for him, not expecting anything to happen really!! Just chatting. They already have a maine coon at their home in Germany.

Later that evening the German couple were knocking on the boat , saying they would love to have him and were willing to fly him home to their house in Germany. They were doing one last sail to Isla De Margarita off the Venezulan coast, leaving their boat there and then flying back to Germany. They explained how much they love cats and had lots of land so he can run around!! A much better home, but we were so sad.



It all happened so fast and the same time the following day he was all packed and on their boat. I cried for two whole days and felt sick. I know to all you readers you must think im crazy and nuts but I felt like he was part of the family, and it was very heart breaking, especially when we took him aboard and he tried to jump back in our tender and they jumped back into his bag.

Anyway bye wolverine, we will miss you, and shackles will to xxxx

Wolverine a few weeks old!!




Wolverine having his first bath after falling in the ocean in Gosport Marina



As you can see he was not very happy...



A few months old: we did not realise that the Maine Coon breed of cats can grow up to about 9 kg.We nearly had a heart attack - considering he slept on Syms pillow every night!!



Brighton Marina before we left.

Morpion Island

The Smallest Island ever....











The following morning we motored five mintus and anchored up on Morpion island for the day. The small island was completed protected by a barrier reef with the tiniest entrance – just big enough to swim through.
It was paradise. The reef was great and we saw a ray aswell as a lobster( in reaching distance) we could so easily have caught him, but were not willing to take the risk cos it’s a nature reserve - if caught we would have been fined 5000 quid.
We spend the afternoon swimming and running around the island – the best birthday ever!