Courtland Bay, Mount Irvine Bay, Store Bay

Some more beautiful bays!

Malcolm (Greg's brother) joined us from NY for 3 days.

It was really nice to have a visit, even nicer to spend time and catch up with some family. The big boys put the rubber duck together. It is easier to use it than Miaou our hard dinghy. They went surfing, snorkeling. The Sunday we had a short but very pleasant sail to reach Store Bay where a sailing week was organized. Greg was very tempted to race too! As Malcolm says : once a racer always a racer! There were no other catamarans so we could have been in a good position!

Bye bye TOBAGO and Hello Trinidad

We left Tobago the 11^th at 10pm. We had a great sail to 4am the next morning, doing 9-10 knots, then the wind died and we had to start the motors. The kids had a good night. Sailing at night allowed Clea to sleep without being sick.

We arrived at around 9am in Chaguaramas Bay.

We are doing a technical stop here to fix few things (like our wind indicator which broke before Ste Helena). There are around 7-8 marinas, lots of boats (few hundreds) and lots and lots of boat shops!

Trinidad is preparing for the big annual event the famous carnival. We went to see the kiddies carnival in Port-of-Spain on Saturday and we were amazed by the costumes the kids were wearing. There is a competition of the best outfit. The judges have a difficult time choosing. The youngest participant was only 13month-old ...and still in his pram!

We are hoping to discover more of Trinidad at the end of the week, especially the beaches where the turtles nest.

We should then head off to Grenada where our friends Teresa and Ewan will meet us for some new adventures!

Englishman's Bay

After 10 days, it was time to move again. What’s great with the boat is that we can change our “garden”, our view or even our neighbor as often as we want!

We anchored in a small bay, surrounded by rocks and rain forest. Ther was a pretty white beach ahead of us. That bay was Emmanuelle’s favorite. Greg took the boys snorkeling for 1 hours one morning (difficult after that to do any proper schooling!). Victor caught one yellow fish one evening, Not knowing what it was, we threw it back into the water ... to learn latter that it was a delicious fish. We now have a simple book giving us the basic information we need to know about the local fish. More heavy rains (it is supposed to be the dry season!) but then we found another use for Victor’s kayak: it became a great bath.

Charlotteville: 19 January to 1st February

The sea was rough and Clea was sick. But the landscapes were really beautiful. Very wild vegetation, lots of birds and even dolphins for a short while.

We arrived just after a rain squall in Charlotteville and anchored in Pirates Bay among 10 other boats. A French monohull arrived 2 days latter with a 7y-old boy called Arthur. He became very quickly Victor and Felix’s friend. We went for a braai on the beach one Saturday. The kids (even Clea joined them) spent 4 hours on the water doing some body surfing in short but strong waves.

We went for a walk in the rain forest, above the bay. It was really dense, green, humid ...and full of mosquitoes! We were looking for some branches to make a bow. We found one which became Clea’s fishing rode!

We had few days of heavy rain. It felt like being at home on a rainy Sunday with not much to do. We collect some rain water, for showers, to clean the deck and rinse the cushions from the cockpit.

Felix decided he wanted to do some business and have more pocket money. He then drew great pictures and went bravely to sale them in Charlotteville. The 1^st morning he came back with the equivalent of 3 euros and the motivation to draw some more!

At last, we used the hammock and enjoyed it a lot to read or take a nap. It is just under the boom so we can even have some shade there. The kids love it to read some of the books we borrowed at Charlotteville’s library.

We went swimming again everyday. Greg took the boys snorkeling often and they are becoming really good. Victor starts learning the fish names and soon will become a real expert (better than his mum!). Clea is also hooked on her mask and fins and is doing pretty well swimming with all of us.

One day we (the 5 of us and the other French crew we met earlier) went on a real expedition in the rain forest! It was presented like that. In fact, we walked 30 min to reach the Argyle Water falls. On the way, we encountered strong rains and we were completely wet. The boys had a swim in the falls. While we were waiting for our taxi to fetch us we tried to dry and had a good chat with the local guides from the falls. Clea even went to play with them one of their typical card games.

Then we went to Speyside to eat one of their specialty. As there is a strong Indian influence, Indian food is well spread. We all ate rotis – Clea tried to share hers with some stray dogs.