Current Location: yes, it's still Grenada Marine, Grenada
Days follow each other here each with a similar pattern. Up by seven am, usually Gill first, wee in the wee bucket, greet Carpe Diem on the next cradle, breakfast of cereal, freshly made mango chutney, fresh little bananas and yoghourt, a quick review of the day ahead and then into boat jobs. At four in the afternoon we stop and go for a swim in the Caribbean Sea (or is it the Atlantic on this corner of Grenada).Maybe to the bar for a beer as the sun goes down and then dinner on Petronella or Carpe Diem. Mondays are yoga and pizza days and Saturdays hash days. You see we aren't really on holiday here (or wherever we happen to be), it's just our life now and it's hard to imagine returning to a shore based existence.
Anyway, a couple of weeks ago we were invited out to a beach meal with a Grenadian family. We ate "oildown" a tradition meal out here. It includes all manner of exotic vegetables like bread fruit and calalou as well as saffron flavoured coconut milk, two types of bananas (plantain and ripe fig) and loads of other stuff all cooked up on a fire on the beach in a big cooking pot. It should have had pigs' ears in it too but they were omitted this time as we had several vegetarians with us. All in all a great afternoon.
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| Bananas, coconut oil, dried fish, calalou etc, etc |
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| Preparation |
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| Cooking |
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| Naishe |
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| The finished oildown |
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| Lunch on leaves plucked from a tree |
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| The Party |
In return the following weekend we and Carpe Diem cooked mahi-mahi for our hosts but first we had to prepare it. Jack knew how to so we spent an entertaining half hour on the workbench filleting it.
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| Skin |
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| Carefully ease knife along centre line |
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| Remove Fillet |
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| Prepare to eat |
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| Discard carcass |
Another place where our minds are spending time at present is out in the Atlantic. Our friends M-C (of osteopathy fame in Ulverston) and Dave were due to cross the Atlantic with the Arc, an annual sailing rally, when the owner of the boat they were sail to on fell and broke four ribs. We emailed all our sailing friends and indirectly they eventually found a different boat
Dona Flor to make the crossing on. At present they are just over halfway across as are friends from Turkey on another boat,
Azimuth. If you are interested you can follow them
here. We think of them experiencing the things we experienced earlier this year, and I for one, wish I was out there again in the big blue.
Last night we popped down to the bar to see the Friday night crowd. Jenny, the lady who owns the fantastic wooden house up in the mountains, was there excited that she was going to be crewing for Serge the Frenchman up to Martinique and then Andrew (the owner of the hobbit house, see previous posting) is going to fly her back to Grenada in his private plane. Also present was another Frenchman, Michel I think, who usually lives on his boat in the Amazon in French Guyana. At this time of the year though when the rivers are low, he sails up to Grenada for a few months. He occupies his time in the Amazon by fishing and gold panning.
Petronella is nearly ready to hit the water again but first we will return to the UK next week to spend some time with my Mum and Dad in their new apartment and to give brother Philip and his wife some time off from the arduous task of helping them through each day. Then to Uruguay for Christmas and New Year before working our way back here in January.
