Grenada

It takes a few weeks of getting used to, but once you get into it island hopping isn't too bad. Obviously the endless palm-fringed beaches can get a bit wearing, and lugging your stuff from one paradise to the next kind of gets you down a bit, especially if, like me, you've made the rookie error of thinking you needed to bring a jumper with you. Needlessly carrying that around everyday was just starting to get me down when we got to Grenada and even that burden was lifted from my shoulders for a while.

Having spent a day in Carriacou seeing the sight we arrived in Grenada island and made what can only be described as a speculative phonecall to my friend's uncle's wife's sister who proceeded to put us up for a week in her stunning house overlooking a beautiful bay, feed us, show us the island and even organise our social engagements. Hospitality personified, thanks again Kathy.

Also whilst in Grenada we took a tour of an old plantation which, until hurricane Ivan, produced vast quantities of nutmeg, but is now most remarkable for its waterfalls. Zorba was keen to spend some time in the secluded pool of Honeymoon falls, but I persuaded him instead to jump off the highest of the Seven Sisters. I didn't quite nail the landing, but scored plenty of points for artistic merit.

Hard as it was to tear ourselves away from the lap of luxury, we had heard there was some kind of carnival in the offing in Trinidad and thought it would be remiss not to take a look. Our carefully worded ad at the yacht club quickly brought a response and we went to meet our prospective skipper. Captain Tim was somewhat perturbed to discover we had perhaps exaggerated our sailing experience a little; we were perturbed that he was shitfaced and suffering from extreme short-term memory loss and that he was shitfaced and suffering from extreme short-term memory loss. But we all still needed to get to Trinidad so, soon after the conclusion of happy hour, we were on our way.

When next you find yourself in a similar situation I recommend blagging that you know what you're doing and volunteering for one of the night watches. Then, while the others sleep, sit back, put your ipod on and look at the stars. Depeche Mode's Enjoy the Silence is particularly apt, but almost any tune will be improved by the situation.

Perhaps fortunately given our lack of seamanship the only close encounters we had on the voyage were with a couple of dolphins and a pleasantly incident free twenty hours later we arrived in Trinidad, but that's another story.

Photos at: http://don-simon.smugmug.com/Travel/720011