Grenada 12*00.919N, 61*44.543W

After a few spectacular days in the Tobago Keys, we had a great sail down to Grenada averaging 7.5 knots which is great for a boat as heavy as Exodo. We made our first stop at the island of Carriacou to check into Grenada and spent the night at Tyrell Bay on the south end so we could get an early start for the longer run across the water and down the coast of the main island of Grenada to St. Georges. After one night in the marina in St. Georges without a breeze, we were reminded of how many flies and mosquitoes love to greet the cruisers on land, so we filled out water tanks, stocked up on a few things for the fridge and headed out to find some of the southern anchorages we have heard so much about. So many of the cruisers we've met have spoken so highly of spending the hurricane season here that I may have built my own expectations too high. While the island is very, very beautiful and the people are extremely friendly and helpful, the anchorages themselves are really not what we expected. I think we expected to find more beaches, services and businesses at dingy range to the anchorages, but there is in fact very little with the exception of Prickly Bay, which is where we have our anchor set for now. Over the past 10 days, Ron has himself deeply embedded in priority #1 which is removing and resealing the the leaky hatches and fits in other small boat projects as time and weather permit.

Olivia helping Dad fix re-seal the hatches.

This is the second place we've been that offers a "cruisers net" which is a forum held over the vhf radio each morning to inform people of events, activities, things for sale, weather, security issues and anything else that might be of use to cruisers. The second day we were here, we heard a call over the net for volunteers for a children's literacy program in the area called Young Readers. I knew immediately that this was for us and I couldn't think of a better way to do something useful and meet some of the locals. For the past 2 weeks, we have been going up to Mt. Airy with a few of the other cruisers and helping the children to with their reading and some simple math and spelling. The kids range in age from 4-18 and after the work is done, there's a little time left to play some games and have a quick snack before heading back to the marina. Most of these kids just love the extra attention and love to be cuddled. Olivia and I paired up with a little girl named Shemina and she was a surprisingly good little reader for a six year old. She has 9 brothers and sisters - no wonder she loves a little extra lap time so much!

2 of the Young Readers, Whitney and Shemina with Olivia.


Jan, the founder and leader of the Young Readers Literacy Program reads to the kids.

2 nights ago, I had the opportunity to fulfill a long-time dream of watching the leatherback turtles lay their eggs on the beach - too bad it didn't quite happen...

Grenada's Levera Beach is one of the main beaches that these giant turtles come to each year. They will lay eggs about every 3 years, but in that year they may lay up to 4 nests of 150 eggs each. They come ashore at night, find a spot on the sand and use their huge flippers to dig a perfect hole. When they feel that they've dug deep enough, they will lower their back end into the hole and go into a deep trance like state as they lay the eggs. The eggs will incubate for approximately 50 days and when the next erupts, the babies will dig themselves out and instinctively waddle into the sea. Myself and 12 other cruisers took the 2 hour ride up to Levera Beach at the north end of the island and were briefed by one of the guides. To protect this habitat, this beach is closed to the public from May to September for nesting and hatching. People are only allowed there with guides, must use red lights only and no flash photography as bright lights will often scare the females and prevent them from nesting. We had to stay in a certain holding area on the beach until one of the researchers told us that they had spotted a nesting female or could see a nest erupting. The research team walks and scans the 3/4 mile stretch of beach every 30 minutes or so to look for any turtle activity. We waited and waited and waited and finally one of the researchers came over with a pail that had a bunch of hatchlings in it that were only about 30 minutes old. A nest had erupted, but because there was no moon that night (they will instinctively follow the moonlight into the sea) these particular babies were wandering aimlessly around the beach. We got to see them and then help shoo them into the sea. Unfortunately, we didn't get to experience a female coming ashore to nest, which was really disappointing, but we did get to sit in the dark on the beach until almost 1:00 am and experience the most star packed sky I've ever seen.

We are currently deciding on weather or not to stay here in Grenada for the remainder of hurricane season, or continue to Trinidad. There have been some reports of boats being boarded en route and some other security issues and we just aren't sure we want to take that chance. For the very most part, the entire Caribbean is just as safe, or safer than our own neighbourhoods at home, but some of the criminal activity from Venezuela has begun to migrate north into Trinidad. Olivia has made a few new friends here, although there aren't as many "boat kids" here as we had hoped. She loves that she gets to swim every day here and her swimming skills have improved exponentially. She has no fear and flings herself off the side of the boat at every opportunity and has a very keen sense of balance and boundaries on the boat.

Olivia and her local friend Inanna.

At times, I think all three of us miss life at home, friends, family and our comfortable routines, but we are still enjoying all the great new opportunities and adventures this journey has led us to. There are definitely trade offs for everything, but while we really miss the events that go on at home without us, we are busy making great memories and living in the moment every day. We can't respond to them all, but we really are thankful for the emails, blog comments and skype conversations - they really keep us feeling connected.

Pics to follow.