Constant Boat Work

“Living on a sailboat is doing boat work in exotic places”

Sad but true. After living aboard Sava for nearly 10 months, we are constantly doing boat work.

One step forward..

We have some good news, but I am afraid to celebrate too much for fear of jinxing us. We are embroiled in what feels like constant boat work but have some good news: the engine and auto pilot are still working!

And several steps back

Just because I haven’t posted recently about breakdowns doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I will recount the latest issues we’ve had with Sava.

Recent Boat Work

Windlass

We tried to anchor in a new spot a few weeks ago only to have the windlass fail again. We moved onto a mooring ball at a lovely marina with a great restaurant, Whisper Cove, while trying to fix the windlass.

Brian dismantled the windlass, unwound the entire anchor chain, and consulted professionals. They cleaned it and couldn’t find anything wrong.

When Brian reinstalled it, it worked better than ever. While we don’t know what was wrong with our windlass, it’s raising and dropping the anchor perfectly so we are happy.

STATUS: Working

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Grenada Highlights: Nature and Outdoors

Grenada is a naturally beautiful island with friendly people and fun culture. We’ve been exploring since our arrival on the Spice Island. Here are our Grenada highlights of nature and the great outdoors.

Grenada Highlights Map
Grenada Highlights Map

Sculpture Park

Underwater art installations in the ocean near St. George’s create beautiful artificial reefs and one of the island’s most popular destinations for snorkeling or scuba diving.

The Moliniere underwater sculpture park attracts fish and people to this unique site on Grenada’s west coast. I think this park is a must visit, for the beautiful otherworldly pieces by artist Jason deCaires Taylor and the plentiful ocean life. Taylor is an environmentalist and artist with work is in Bahamas and around the world. The award winning Grenada site includes more than 65 sculptures, notably a ring of children, “The Lost Correspondent” of a man at a desk, and  “Nutmeg Princess” fitting for Grenada as a nutmeg producer.

Moliniere Sculpture Park
One of many sculptures underwater at the sculpture park in Grenada
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Carnival in Grenada

Carnival is the biggest event of the year in Grenada. Over 4 days, locals and visitors drink, dance, parade and people-watch in the streets of St. George. 2019 Carnival in Grenada was exhilarating and it was exhausting!

Carnival, or Spicemas, is an annual festival following Emancipation Day in Grenada. A nationwide holiday, it is celebrated by everyone in the country, and is sometimes declared to be bigger than Christmas.

Grenada’s Carnival encompasses several different events during the long weekend, and we went to a few of them! Carnival events we attended and or participated in included Panorama, Jouvert (pronounced JuVAY), Monday Mas and Pretty Mas. Here’s a breakdown of the different events we attended at Carnival in Grenada.

Panorama

Steel drums are huge in Grenada, and the annual competition of the Steel Drum (or Pan) bands was a must-see for us this year! We were surprised how small the turnout and venue were for it on Saturday night at the stadium.

One of the steel drum, or Pan, bands at Panorama in Grenada’s Carnival

10 bands compete in Panorama, and some of the bands have more than 70 members and more drums than members! As a result, the Panorama competition goes on all night, and we stayed for a couple of hours. I loved the music, costumes and energy of the performers.

J’ouvert

Jouvert is the traditional early morning street party where you can get doused with motor oil and colorful paint. It sounds crazy, it is crazy, and it’s also the most fun time I had at Carnival!

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