For anyone who knows my dog Chance, this won’t be a surprise, Chance had another mishap. It happened when we were meeting some other boaters at an uninhabited island. Chance caught himself on the hook of the sunshade when he was going to greet guests that dinghied up to our boat. The hook caught on the inside of his leg and pulled his skin away from his muscle. When it happened Chance howled in pain but there was no blood. The next morning when Mom and Dad took Caper and Chance to the beach, they did not know he had air pockets in his leg. He came out of the water with sea water in his leg and underbelly. He had filled like a balloon. We went two hours by boat back to Paradise Beach to get Chance to the animal hospital in Carriacou. There were three lady veterinarians that volunteer at the clinic, that took care of Chance. He had surgery to put in drains for the sea water and stitches to hold them in. He had to wear a cone on his head to make sure he did not pull the drains and stitches out. We also put a shirt on him to cover up his wounds. Chance has had 7 surgeries in 6 years. My dog Chance is a mess.

Once Chance was better and we could leave him alone, we went to the Japanese Steakhouse at Carib Sushi, which is a restaurant in Grenada. We invited Kent and Kathy to come with us. I ordered shrimp, vegetable fried rice and vegetables. Dad ordered chicken, vegetable fried rice and vegetables. Mom ordered steak, vegetable fried rice and vegetables. Kathy had shrimp and Kent had tuna. The chef came and cooked the food for us. He wanted me to touch the fire on his hand. I was hesitant but then I touched the fire. The presentation was so cool and fascinating. He did a lot of cool tricks, like he spelled I love you with the egg, rice and veggies. The food was delicious and it was a really fun experience. It was like Makotos (which is a Japanese Steakhouse in Boone, NC) and not like Makotos at the same time. It was like Makotos because they had a room where you order and eat sushi and a room where they make the food for you at your table. It is not like Makotos because the broth is made of seafood, not chicken. Another difference is that it is on an island in the Caribbean and not in a small town in the US.

When we arrived back at Port Louis Marina (we have some broken things that need to get fixed), I made some new friends. Addison Roberts (Dragonfly),  Grace and Cameron (Kraken),  Kat (Somni), and her best friend Kiera, Zoey and Tanner (Dorothy Rose.) I met Grace and Cameron on our first day back at the marina. I met Addison when she first came to the boat and we listened to Taylor Swift music. I met Kat, Kiera, Guila, Ariana, Zoey and Zoey’s big sister Ali at the pool. I joined a book club with Addison, Grace, Guila, Ariana, Kat and Zoey. I hung out with them on Addison’s boat and we played Charades. I also hung out with them on Tanner’s boat and watched my first Zombie Apocalypse movie. I went to Le Phare Bleu Marina for the teen activity and the movie Mulan but then I saw my friends there and decided to hang out with them instead. We played games, chilled and ate. I brought the snacks, of course. We had french fries and chips. We also raided the popcorn machine and went swimming. Some of us played BS, which is a card game. I also hung-out with Grace and Addison at night a couple of times. One night I had Grace and Addison over on our boat. It’s nice to have new friends even though I miss my old friends. I always have a fun time hanging out with them. I hope to be able to hang out with them some more. They are really nice people and I’m glad I met them.

Mom and I went to an Afternoon Tea; it was a girls only thing. Dad and Kevin (from Pisces) felt left out. It was a beautiful place. We had a tour of the gardens, drank blue tea and ate cakes. We even ate a victoria sponge. The Tower Estate is called the Downton Abbey of Grenada. They have one and a half acres of tropical gardens. Victoria gave us a tour of the gardens. She has been caring for the gardens for 32 years. It was really cool seeing the flowers in the garden and drinking blue tea. One of the flowers is called Butterfly Pea (picture below) and it is what they use to make the tea blue. I have not had formal tea since second grade. We used china cups and a china teapot. It was very formal. Our host, Isabel, told us that the estate was built in 1913. The husband built it for his wife but she did not want to live there. She left him. Isabel’s grandparents bought the house at an auction in the 1950’s and her family has lived there ever since. We went with a couple of women we knew from the marina and some we didn’t know. Renee from Texas Crewed organized it. It was an experience I will never forget.

On July 17 we were anchored in Prickly Bay which is on the south side of Grenada. We got to go to the St George’s University Club at Prickly Bay where there was a pool. In order for us to go and use the club we had to do a lot of talking since it was closed to the public because it’s usually for faculty and staff only.  They made an exception for us. It was worth it. We ate and drank there. I got a coke while everybody else got an adult beverage. I searched for the menu and the amenities on the internet. It was fun being at the university club pool. We had it all to ourselves. It was like having our own private resort. The staff were very friendly and humorous. They told us we had to check out by 4:30 but then they let us stay longer because we were such good company. They have been pretty lonely since the university is closed.

A few days later we went to Ronde Island, an uninhabited island, because we are making our way to Carriacou.  There are three inhabited islands we can be on now that we are checked into Grenada. They are Grenada, Carriacou and Petite Martinique. We spent four nights at Ronde. This island only has a few vacation homes on it, no one lives here full time. The island is for sale for $100 million! The most expensive island for sale in the world! We took the dogs to the beach and let them swim and play ball. They loved it. We went around the other side of the island to check out Palm Tree Beach. We decided not to beach the dinghy because the swells were big and it was not safe. One of the nights we had a beach barbecue with Patrick and Rita (Bella) as well as Shirley and David (Maeva).  Shirley is French Canadian and David is Portuguese but can also speak French. David does not speak a lot of English.  We are teaching him while he is trying to teach us some Portuguese. Maeva brought their grill over to the beach for the barbecue. We cooked hotdogs, pork chaps, sausage, fish and shrimp. Plus we had rice. When we were at the barbecue, Caper and Chance made a new friend named Zeus who is a Yorkshire Terrier who weighs 5 pounds. This was the first time we had done a beach barbecue from our boat. It was fun except for the bugs that came out at sunset and bothered us. We had to use a lot of bug spray.

We went on a tour of Carricou by taxi. We found out that Carricou had  grapes but they were not regular grapes- they were sea grapes but you can’t eat them until they are ripe and in season. The sea grapes grow by the sea so they have a salty taste. They are still poisonous for dogs except a great dane because a great dane is a huge dog, so the grapes are not as hard on their system. We saw the Princess Royal Hospital which was built up at the very top of the island to keep people with malaria isolated. We went to Indigo Well which is where the french would go to make indigo. The slaves would make indigo by taking the water from the well and using the indigo plants and making it into dye. They do not use this well to make indigo anymore.  We went to an old windmill, where the slaves from the 18-19 century would work. We went to a plantation, where they used to grow corn and peas. They have a corn festival on October 27th, where you get to try different varieties of corn. Carriacou is known for its boat building; they make boats and then race them in an event called a regatta. The islands  around Carriacou all have french names. We ate at a restaurant called Callalou which was by the beach. It reminded me of a restaurant we ate at in the Bahamas which was also by a beach. The restaurant is called Callalou because they serve Callalou. Dad did not like Callalou because it reminded him of when he had it in the oil down. Callalou is similar to spinach but it is actually a little bit sweeter than spinach. They also had cajun potatoes, which were really good and garlic shrimp.

Sea Grapes:

This is the view from the Princess Royal Hospital.
Our boat is in the far bay behind us.

We have been exploring more of Grenada!

Recently, we went to one of the restaurants/bars at the Spice Market at Grand Anse Beach called Beach Bum with Patrick and Rita (Bella), Kevin and Mary (Pisces), Stewart and Sandra (White Wings), Chris and Jan (Sapphire), David and Eilene (Raven), as well as Kent and Kathy (Wind Ensemble). The Spice Market didn’t really have anything because of the lack of tourists on Grenada. Everyone but me had the “Oil Down” which is the national dish of Grenada. I had french fries. The Oil Down has breadfruit, which is a species of flowering seeds that the British and French brought over during the Colonial Era. It is called a breadfruit because when you cook it it is like a simple fresh baked bread but has a potato-like taste. Oil Down also has a variety of meats, vegetables and spices. What is in the stew varies by area of Grenada and family recipe. The version we ate had saffron, salt fish, goat, pork, callaloo, coconut milk and breadfruit. It is called Oil Down because it has coconut oil in it. Most people liked it, but Dad not so much. He got a burger after trying it.

On Thursday we went to the West Indies Brewery. We went with a group of people from the marina. We went on a tour of the brewery and learned about the beer and cider making process. The cider making process is simple. They use apple juice concentrate and then put the yeast in to make it have alcohol since the apple juice concentrate already has sugar in it. The yeast eats the sugar and then once the process is done, they put it in the tank. They cheat with the other flavors by using special flavor packets like watermelon and pomegranate. The beer making process has five steps. The first step is they take malted barley and soak it in hot water to release the sugars. The second step is they boil the malt sugar with hops for seasoning. The third step is they cool the malt sugar and then add the yeast to begin fermentation. The fourth step is the yeast ferments the malt sugars and releases CO2 and Ethyl Alcohol. The fifth and final step is after the fermentation is complete, they bottle the beer with a little bit of added sugar to provide carbonation. Dad says the sixth step is to drink it.

I ran into my good friend Ben from Zenobia at the brewery. We hung out and played Harry Potter UNO, which is like UNO but with special rules. I also played Pool with Ben. He had to show me how to play because I haven’t played since I was at Grandad and Nana’s apartment in Charlotte two Christmas’ ago. I was a bit rusty at it. I did not try the beer or the cider, but I tried Ting and I really liked it.

4th of July! Yay!!

We celebrated the fourth of July by having a gathering at Grand Anse Beach with a group of people, some from the marina and some who were on anchor. Renee’ and Gene from Texas Crewed put together and brought their mini-cat which is basically a mini catamaran. Ben from Zenobia helped them put it together and sail it to the beach from the marina.  Ben’s Dad Johannes came to the beach as well. I went on the mini-cat once with Ben, Dad and Patrick from Bella. I went again with Ben, Mom and Mary from Pisces. It was fun going on the mini-cat.  I got to help with the lines. I helped roll up the jib. What was exciting about going on the mini-cat is that it went really fast.  It reminded me of being on a speed boat at Watauga Lake which is a lake in North Carolina.

We ate lunch at a restaurant called Umbrellas which is a bar and restaurant on the beach. There were food trucks as well, but I wanted to go to a restaurant with french fries and shade.

Our dog Caper celebrated his 8th birthday today (July 4th).
Happy Birthday Caper!

We arrived in Grenada! Yay!!

We sailed away from the US Virgin Islands, and after 72 hours at sea, we got to the dock at Port Louis Marina in Grenada. We had our temperature checked and then we moved to the quarantine anchorage. This is in St. George, which is the capital of Grenada. From here everyone is put in quarantine for two weeks. This means we could not take the dogs to the beach. We could not see anybody except Patrick and Rita on Bella whose boat was close to ours.

We could not go off the boat except to swim around the boat. Everyday was the same; we were all just sitting there waiting for our two weeks to be up. I was bored but we did schoolwork, swam close to the boat and watched Downton Abbey. This is a show that takes place in the late 18- early 19 hundreds. It is about the Crawleys who live in a giant estate in Yorkshire, England. We watched it season by season. We watched Downton Abbey every night because on July 1st they are taking it off air and we wanted to finish it.

When our two weeks of quarantine were over we went to the dock at Port Louis Marina to get checked for COVID. I got my finger pricked. I tested negative. I do not have COVID.

A few days later, we went on a tour of Grenada by taxi. We went with some of our old friends from Suntex Marina in FL and some new friends from this marina. We had 13 people in our group.

One of the first things we did was learn about nutmeg and how to use all of it’s parts. We smelled and learned about other spices too. We bought some of the spices in the spice shop.

We went to the rainforest reserve to try to find monkeys but didn’t see any. We then went to see the lake made by the volcano in Grand Etang Forest Reserve. This lake is where the whole island gets their water. We went to a waterfall called Annandale Waterfall where the boys jumped into the waterfall. We went to what used to be the airport but now it’s a park used for festivals. We went to a graveyard by a church and saw graves that are recent and some that date back to the early 1800’s. We were given history on the Mayflower (Christopher Columbus’ ship). The guide also showed us Leapers Hill. The Caribs jumped here and killed themselves instead of surrendering to the English settlers.

It was fun getting to explore new places, learn about the spices and the history of Grenada. It was also fun watching the boys jump off the waterfall.

A few more things I had to share that happened in May…

Caper and Chance (my dogs) kept hassling me to write about their new friends. When we were anchored for about a month at Brewer’s Bay in St. Thomas, Caper and Chance made new friends as well, their names were Rosco and Daisy. Rosco and Daisy live on Dreamcatcher, a catamaran. Caper and Chance met Rosco and Daisy one morning when they went for a swim on the beach and had a doggy play date. Caper went swimming, Chance chased a ball out in the water, and Daisy chased a stick out in the water. Rosco didn’t do anything in the water for a while – he just greeted everyone, asked for pets, and watched. Eventually, Rosco got in the water to get the stick, but he only went in a few feet.

It was great meeting Jake, Stephanie, Roscoe and Daisy! We look forward to seeing them in Grenada when they sail down in July.

We finally left St. Thomas and sailed to St. Croix!

We went to shore on St. Croix on May 29th to get some land time because it will be a long time before we are on land again. We are getting ready to sail to Grenada which will take 3 days nonstop. We went to a restaurant called Brew STX. It was the first time we got to sit down at a restaurant since COVID started.  I got french fries and they were yummy. The reason why sitting at a restaurant was such a big deal is because after we sail to Grenada, we have to stay on the boat in a two week quarantine.

{Watch out folks this blog is going to turn into an advertisement.} Come one, come all to the Barina to get Snacks, Beer, Wine, Coffee, Soda, Marine Supplies, Etc … 🙂

We went to a store that wasn’t just a Marina store, but a Bar too. We got marine supplies, beer, wine, soda and Cheetos. I got diet coke and Cheetos, Dad got beer and a speargun, and Mom got wine and a tank top. We went with our friends Patrick and Rita (from Bella). This is my dad’s favorite marine supply store ever!

Later that afternoon/evening, I hung out on the boat with the dogs while mom and dad went to a tiki bar and pizza place to meet with the other boaters who are also heading to Grenada the next morning.

We were only on St. Croix for one day, but really enjoyed it.
We can’t wait to come back!

In May we made new friends…

On May 6th I got to have a real treat for dinner because ever since the restaurants closed, Dad has been cooking dinner.  Dad’s cooking is really good, but it’s nice to have someone else cook our food.  Mimi and Fabio (from Endless Summer) came over to our boat and Fabio cooked Carbonara. Dad made focaccia and salad. Fabio is Italian, he is from Rome. Mimi is from San Francisco. Fabio and Mimi go every year to his mom’s house in Italy for the olive harvest. Mom and Dad warned me there might be meat in the pasta (prosciutto) and thought I would not like it, but the truth is I have not met a pasta or french fries I did not like. Pasta and french fries are my favorite foods. French fries are my first favorite and pasta is my second favorite. I enjoyed the carbonara so much, I had seconds. It was really exciting to have dinner cooked by a true Italian.

Mimi and Fabio cooked for me again a few nights later. This time he cooked saffron risotto and Mimi cooked tiramisu. Turns out, I was up most of the night because my body is not used to caffeine (in the tiramisu); I could hardly fall asleep. It was hard figuring out how to fall asleep since the melatonin I usually take did not work. I finally figured out a way to fall asleep. I read a book on my kindle and then I put a lavender scented eye wrap over my eyes. I woke up in the morning and I was tired.

A few dayes ago I had a new experience for me. I got to do something I have never done before. I got to go lobster hunting with Mimi, Makenzie, Ella and Mom. The lobster that we tried to find is called the Caribbean Spiny Lobster. The Caribbean Spiny Lobster hides in caves and crevices during the day. They come out at twilight and dinner hours to hunt for crabs and small snails. The lobster will eat most anything it finds. The lobster’s shell looks like a skeleton. The skeleton does not expand because the exoskeleton does not expand. The lobster goes through this process called molting creating another exoskeleton in the process. The lobster population is declining. Scientists do not know if the lobsters are vulnerable to extinction or not. The lobsters are vulnerable to over fishing. People usually catch them with gloved hands because if they do not wear gloves the spine will cut their hand or they catch them with baited fishing traps. Dad  tried to catch them with the speargun but he could not get any.

One of our last nights in St. Thomas, Mom, Dad, Patrick, Rita, Cara,(our friends from Bella), Mimi, Fabio (Endless Summer) and I went to Bob Apfel’s house for dinner and a hangout. Bob’s house is a restored sugar plantation on St Thomas which is where they would make sugar and rum in the late 1700s and early 1800s. Bob gave us a tour of the Fortuna Plantation. The plantation is like a very nice series of cabins with many kitchens, dens, and bedrooms. It would make a good bed and breakfast. One of the outdoor rooms was a screening room which is where we watched the movie called, Where the Boys Are. This movie came out in 1960. I liked the movie. For dinner dad made steaks and Fabio made pasta with peas and mushrooms and I had a side of carrots. It was delicious but there was so much of it, that I was full. I was so full that I almost fell asleep when Bob was reading and telling about the history of his house. A famous author named John Patrick once lived there. After dinner we hiked up to Bob’s friend Louie’s house. His house was originally owned by Eleanor Heckert whose 1968 novel, Muscovado, tells the history of Bob’s house. Robert Ludlum owned Louie’s house for a long time and wrote the Born Identity books while there. It was cool getting to see both houses and learning about the history of each house. Another thing that was fun was getting to meet Louie and meeting Louie’s dogs.

We are leaving the USVI this weekend and heading to Grenada!
Talk to you next time from Grenada!