Anchoring's a Drag, but the Dolphins are Cool !

Well I can honestly say that we are officially on Caribbean time. Our daily entertainment is listening to the cruisers net at 7:30 am, where other cruisers like us (albeit most are retired and live down here on their boat year round) volunteer their time each morning to give us an update or the goings on around Grenada, events happening, different organized tours, pot luck suppers, domino games, different items for sale and so on.
Through listening to this broadcast we signed up for a full day island tour, which took place last Thursday.

Fortunately for us Thursday turned out to be a rainy day (4 kids on a boat inside all day would have had us packing and coming home). Our tour guide Cuthbert (Cutty for short) was an amazing local man who has lived his whole life on the island. This man knew every plant, flower, tree and spice on the island. Grenada is called the spice island, and on this tour we found out exactly why. This island, which is only 21 km by 8 km, used to produce the second largest amount of nutmeg in the world, next to Indonesia. Hurricane Ivan changed all of this in 2004 when it destroyed over 95% of the nutmeg trees, the nutmeg trees are just starting to recover as it takes the new ones 7 years to produce again. Cutty would stop his taxi/bus/van about every 5-10 minutes to hop out and grab some leaves, a fruit or spice of some kind for us to sample.

Kiana was most amazed with the Cocoa pods that Cutty picked off of a tree, he cut this big red fruit looking item in half and in the middle were cocoa beans, covered with this white slimy looking stuff. He told us to take one and suck on it (but not to bite them as cocoa beans need to be boiled before eaten), well they were far from appetizing looking but trusting him we each took one, two of the boys spit theirs out but Kiana and I (chocolate is a girl’s best friend) loved them. They had a slightly slimy sour coating on them but you could definitely taste the chocolate in them.

On the next tour we went through a nutmeg processing plant where all of the farmers on the island bring their nutmegs in to sell. Before the hurricane in 2004, 149 people (49 men and 100 women) were employed in this plant, today there are only 7. They eventually hope to see production increase back to where it was, although Cutty doubts it ever will, he says that the younger generation is lazy and are not taking over the plantations that their parents and grandparents are getting to old to work in, the tourist industry on the island has a higher profit margin for them and is a lot less work.
Everything in the plant is still done by hand, a nutmeg, when still hanging on the tree is a yellow fruit about the size of a lime, when they are ripe the fruit will split open to reveal a red slimy product called mace and inside this mace is the nutmeg ‘seed’. Every part of this nutmeg fruit is used in some way, the yellow fruit is used for making jams and jellies of which we have purchased and eaten already, the mace is used as a preservative, for ice cream and candy products, and finally the nutmeg is used for baking and adding to eggnog and rum punch.
Which brings us to our next little tour inside of our big tour, the rum factory.

The River Rum factory is the last remaining factory on the island that totally uses sugar cane to produce its rum. Another industry where it is getting harder and harder for them to continue, as growing and working with sugar cane is hard work and the younger generation is not stepping up to take over. The kids were not too impressed with the smells that came from this tour. We were taken through each process that the sugar cane juice goes through from the juice extraction by a 200 year old water wheel producing the power for the juicer to the fermentation process where the juice ferments and naturally produces its own yeast to the end distillation (boiling) process which creates the rum. We were each given a taste at the end of the tour of the two types of rum that they produce 60 and 75%. The kids thought that this was the best part. No we didn’t let them have their own glass, but we did let them stick their fingers in and I think that cured them from ever drinking rum again.

We all gained a more open mind about trying the different local fruits and spices and as Kiana puts it, “just stuff it in and if you don’t like it you can just spit it out and never ever, ever eat it again!”

The kids (and adults) had an eye opener when Cutty took us through a local neighborhood where the houses were as small as a Canadian garden shed. I asked him if one family would occupy one house and he told me that these houses were called Janet Houses, after Hurricane Janet. Venezuela had sent these prefabricated houses over to Grenada for the locals to live in. Cutty said that he grew up in one and that there were 15 people living in his house, kids slept on the floor under the beds, on the beds, under the table and on the table, wherever there was space. I don’t think that the kids will ever complain about space again. After Hurricane Ivan similar houses were sent over again, but this time, unfortunately, not everyone who needed one received one. It was a political case of; if you knew the right people in the right places then you received one, as did other members of your family.
As you can see this day was definitely a science and social class at its best.

Saturday brought us another all day rainy day that we all hope can soon be forgotten. We got up to listen to the morning cruisers net and then decided that the kids and I would go in to do some laundry and internet surfing at Whisper Cove Marina while Kevin ran into town to pick up some supplies to fix the solar panels on the boat. At approx. 2:00 pm a very large system moved in that brought with it 50 knot winds and large waves. The kids and I were safe doing laundry, watching a movie and surfing the net, when we received a phone call at the Marina from a fellow cruiser telling us that our boat was dragging through the anchorage (this is not a good thing as we were right in the middle surrounded by many other boats that we could have hit). Thankfully a neighbor of ours, Phil, from Newfoundland, knew that you didn’t need a key to start our boat and quickly hopped aboard ‘One Life’ and reset her anchor. Feeling bad about our day, we quickly learned that there are some amazing people down here who have done and been through what we went through and who would do anything for their neighbor.

Being Caribbean time and all, our solar panels were finally ready to be installed, so we relocated to Prickly Bay where the welder could come aboard to do his work. What Kevin thought would be an hours job turned out to be a days event, we should have know that lunch break would take 2 hours. Needless to say Kevin decided to do the wiring himself, and I do have to say that he did an amazing job. He did have the whole boat taken apart and I was scared that there would be left over pieces when he was finished. We are now running on solar power but are still constantly yelling at kids to turn off lights, still in that adjustment phase I guess.

Yesterday we decided that it was time to raise the sails and move to a more swim and snorkel friendly area. We headed North and had an amazing sail up the island of Grenada, the weather was perfect with the winds at 15 knots and the sun shining. We even had an escort by 6 Bottlenose dolphins just off our starboard bow. They were absolutely amazing, swimming along side of us, it could not have been a more perfect sail.

Today we spent most of the day on Grand Anse Beach, a white sandy beach over 2 kms long where the kids found probably 20 starfish, nothing better than sand and waves to keep 4 kids busy. I think that we will be spending a lot of time here.

This week brings us a new adventure. Our first guests (Grandma and Grandpa on the farm) will be joining us on Thursday evening. We are all very excited for their arrival and look forward to entertaining them for a week or so. We thank everyone for sending their ‘comments’ and well wishes to our blog! We all sit around together to read what everyone has to say and hear what is going on back home. Keep them coming and all our love to everyone. Wish you were all here with us. (Kind of! - says Kevin)

Throwing off the bowlines and Sailing away from the safe harbor.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday were busy days for us. Friday night we signed ourselves up for a trip out to a small fishing town called Gouyave where every Friday night (called Fish Fry-day) they fry up their catches from the week for everyone to try out. We sampled many different local fish dishes along with different local fruit drinks and of course desserts/candies.

The kids were sampling everything until we reached the table that had these little fried fish that were still whole and people just popped them into their mouths and ate every piece of it. We asked about them and were told that they are cooked extra long so that the bones become soft and edible, the kids quickly became full.

They had a local school band entertaining with their steel pan band, I don’t think that I could ever hear enough of that music, it is so unique. (Well maybe if one of our kids was taking lessons I may think different) The only bad part of the evening was that I had to step in between two different Caribbean boys that became interested in our tall red headed beauty, we are going to have to keep an eye on her down here.

Saturday brought us taking a tour to the Seven Sisters waterfalls. We started out at 9:00 am on a rainy Saturday morning. Keith our tour guide was excellent, he knew the name of every plant and tree on the island, he is a local guy who was born and raised on Grenada and was very knowledgeable about the island. Half way to the falls Keith noticed a Mona Monkey sitting on a fence post, of course we stopped to take a closer look and have some pictures taken.

These monkeys were hunted by the locals until 2004 when Hurricane Ivan hit Grenada and since then the government has put a ban on hunting them since so many were killed in the hurricane and so many of their trees that they live in were destroyed.

They like to eat from your hand, this one in the picture is chewing on a chewy mint that another lady had just given him, I think that he would have much preferred a banana myself. In order to get to the waterfalls we had to hike a couple of miles through the rainforest. Like I said it was a rainy Saturday so the ground was very slippery and half way to the falls the rain came down like cats and dogs or should I say monkeys and snakes (we did learn that there are snakes but no poisonous creatures on this island, thank god) . Keith took out his machete and cut gigantic leaves for us to use as umbrellas but the rain was so strong that we were soaked anyways. We saw some incredible views and plants and trees, bamboo, nutmeg, guava, and many other island fruits and veggies, before reaching the waterfall which was also incredible.
Hiking in the Rocky Mountains to one of our waterfalls is a match to this except for the water temperature and the unbelievable foliage in the rainforest. Kevin happened to read an article Friday night about catching nasty bugs in the fresh water streams of the Caribbean (bugs that get into system and eat your internal organs and so on), so Saturday morning we (Kevin) mentioned this to the kids and told them that we were not going to let them swim in the fresh water pool of the waterfall, they were somewhat upset. Who do you think was the first one in the pool when we reached the waterfall…yup Kevin. Hopefully this is the first of many waterfalls that we will see on our adventures.

Sunday was another exciting day for us, it was finally the day to leave the “boring” marina. We were up early to clean the boat and get everything tucked away and ready to sail. At about 11:00 am we pulled away from the marina and headed out into the Atlantic Ocean for the kids first ocean sail. The wind was blowing at over 25 knots, not exactly what we wanted for their first time out (for those of you who are not sailors that is way too much wind, 15 knots would have been nice.) They all had a great time with Cole at the wheel for most of the trip and Tyler, Luke and Kiana sitting up front trying to get soaked, I am thankful for putting them into their summer sailing lessons as they knew what to expect, albeit much bigger waves and saltier water. We sailed out and around Hog Island and anchored in a bay behind the Island, where the kid’s friend Adam is also anchored. This has been a big step for us as we are now living the life that we came down here to live, no paying big bucks at the marina and the privacy and freedom to do what we please. It did not take the kids 2 minutes to put the kayaks into the water (we are also close enough so that they can swim, physical education class) and head into the beach by themselves for some playtime in the sand away from mom and dad. Now that is a nice break for all of us, far enough away so that we can’t hear them and close enough that we can still see them. We are still close enough to the marina so that when the welder is ready to install our solar panels we can simply pull back in for him to do this (which should happen on Tuesday….).

Luke & Tyler Having a Shower

The Forced Slow Down

Words of the week……adjustment & patience. Just imagine… 6 people and 13 hockey bags of stuff in a 42X21 foot area, we have stuff and people everywhere. Needless to say we have some adjusting to do with a lot of patience thrown in. Kevin has been on his own in China for 3 weeks and as one of the guys from work puts it “You are going to go insane in the first month.” (By the way, thanks to the guys from Kevin’s office who got together and purchased him a Speedo, sunglasses, and a book, I will be posting pictures) With excited kids under our heels, who have 100 other things to do other than schooling and trying to get 'tings' done on Caribbean time we are definitely having to make a few adjustments.

As the pictures show our kids have taken up a new and exciting past time… Ocean fishing. We have fishing rods made out of everything in sight; sticks, water bottles, hands… They have found that muscles picked off of the side of the pier works good as bait, but leftover chicken, although a little costly, is just as good and much easier.

Within no time, off the back of the boat, we had caught what we think to be a permit fish. We later learned that the locals catch these fish and simply throw them into a frying pan for a tasty treat.

On Tuesday morning we hired a guy to show us how to clean and wax the hulls of the boat.

Shawn and Tyler hit it off and Tyler is now enrolled in Shawn's Karate Kid training program (Wax on - Wax off).

In the afternoon, Dad had some work and waiting to do on the boat so the kids and I went to the beach just a dinghy ride away to spend the afternoon on Hogg Island.

It wasn’t long before the kids had made a friend, 9 year old Adam from Portugal who has lived his entire life aboard a sail boat.

Adam took Cole for a ride aboard his sail dinghy with Kiana chasing close behind almost keeping up with her long legs and flippers.

Some locals showed up to have a bar-b-que of Conch soup and a fish fry, they just happened to be frying the same fish that the kids were catching off the back of the boat, except it took them about 5 minutes to catch 10 of these fish right on the beach with nothing but some line, a hook and fresh conch for bait. Needless to say we are looking for Conch to use as bait.

We are currently staying at a Marina called Clarkes Court Bay Marina where the owner, Bob, is originally from Toronto. On different nights of the week they have theme get togethers at the Marina Bar (yes the kids are allowed in which they absolutely love) On Saturday night we joined in on the pot luck supper and Karaoke night and visited with lots of other boaters, it was fun. Tonight they are having hamburgers and fries for 10 EC a person which is $3.70 Canadian (math class at its best) and more importantly for Kevin a dollar off drinks.

The Adventure Begins !!

4 kids + 2 stressed parents + 10 hours in 4 airports + 11 hours in the air + 13 lost hockey bags + humidity that knocks you over = the beginning of our fun-filled adventure.

Our house was full with 13 packed hockey bags that contained everything from bathing suits to Christmas decorations to scuba gear and school books. It was a stressful couple of days with Kevin arriving home from China on Monday the 29th with a to-do list that was 3 pages long. We quickly learned to prioritize and realize that what didn’t get done could either be delegated to a family member or friend or simply be left undone, and that is o.k. Thanks goes out to all of those that put up with us those last few weeks, well lets make it the last whole year since we set the date for this adventure. Thanks to the family members who have taken over our property managing, house/pet sitting and my house cleaner/sister that came in at the last minute to help put everything in order, we love and already miss you all.

So on to the trip. Anna and Dustin drove us to the Edmonton International Airport at 10:30 pm on Thursday night where Grandma and Grandpa on the farm were waiting to bit us farewell. We had quite a few eyes on us with our four kids loaded down with their carry on backpacks that were stuffed with leftovers that would not fit into our 13 hockey bags. We checked our bags through to Grenada but were told that we would have to pick all of them up in Toronto to clear through U.S. customs. On a good day I am stressed going through customs, but with 13 bags of things that we need/want with us the stress level multiplied.

All of our airplane rides were uneventful and on time, with movies to watch and an unlimited amount of Halloween candy to keep everyone happy. Going through U.S. customs was another story. Luke, Tyler and Cole put their funds together to purchase a remote control boat to take with them, we decided to take it on as carry on as it is a bit fragile, U.S. officials decided that the remote control hand piece was the “wrong shape” and told us that we could not take it as carry on. So off goes Kevin 3 steps back out through customs to check the boat as luggage. Unfortunately we had not all gone through customs and they found some magnets (you know the expensive colorful ones that the kids make shapes with) in my bag that also could not be taken as carry on, so off I go, leaving our kids in the customs room to chase Kevin to put the magnets in with the remote control.
We finally cleared customs in Toronto only to realize that through all of this chaos we lost our 4 badminton rackets, which thankfully can be purchased at the local hardware store upon arrival.


We arrived at the Grenada airport at 9:30 pm local time only to discover that not one piece of our luggage arrived on the same plane as us, which we later realized was a blessing in disguise as it was a huge feat to load on the boat and put away. We simply took off pants and climbed up onto the beds and instantly fell into a deep sleep. The kid’s first impression of our boat (which everyone who is coming to see us will appreciate) was “Whoa it is huge, way bigger than I thought it would be…”

Our first day here, with no clothes/shorts to change into, we decided to go shopping.

Introduction - Planning the Adventure

Sometime in 2005 we had a crazy idea. We would take some time off to drop out of our normal life routine and sail the Eastern Caribbean with our 4 children, Kiana(13), Cole(11), Luke(9), and Tyler(9).

Over the following two years, Kendra and I learned to sail (no, we didn't know how to sail when we came up with the idea). Many people validated that yes our idea was the craziest that they had ever heard and that we were on the verge of being irresponsible, putting our family in such a risky situation. Others just kept silent! (But their body language was easy to read). Enough people did encourage us to pursue our dream and admitted that this was the type of idea that once you make the decision, if you do not follow through on the decision, it will haunt you for the rest of your lives.

With positive encouragement keeping us going, we began planning our trip. We spent many hours finding the right boat which turned out to be a 2002 Robertson & Caine Leopard 42 catamaran. We also spent countless hours formulating a plan for how our home lives, work lives, and business lives would be taken care of while we were gone. The kids began the 2007 school year home schooling and we will continue this throughout our trip.

In August, 2007 we took possession of our new sail boat ‘ONE LIFE’ on the island of Martinique. The day after taking possession, hurricane Dean passed over Martinique to give us a taste of the power of Mother Nature. Luckily, ‘ONE LIFE’’s life was not meant to end that day and survived with minor damage. Once the hurricane moved on and the seas calmed, Kendra and I sailed ‘ONE LIFE’ south to Grenada where she sat docked at Clarkes Court Bay Marina to wait out the hurricane season.

On November 2, 2007 we returned to Grenada and ‘ONE LIFE” as a family and our adventure began.

The Matwichuk Family
S/V ONE LIFE