The competition for the best Independence Day Program was won for the second year in a row by the Harvey Vale School. We learned that most of the decorations, costumes and colorful tee shirts the students wore that day have been donated by "Kayaks" (Natives of Carriacou) who live in the USA and other countries abroad.

If you have noticed that the name Tyrrel is spelled differently, don’t worry. We argued incessantly, and unnecessarily, over the correct spelling. Would you believe that it is spelled both ways, Tyrrel and Tyrell, on nautical charts, maps, government and tourist publications. Once we even found it spelled Tyrrell. Guess it doesn’t really matter so we stopped arguing about it!

Most Saturday nights included visits to Lucky’s with old and new friends. The chips (french fries) are the best we’ve found, and the BBQ is great whether it’s chicken or pork. Lucky is one very busy lady as she runs her business alone.

Almost forgot to tell you about the upside down jellyfish we saw in the mangrove lagoon. If you look them up on the web, you’ll see how different they are from the jellyfish up north. They lie on the bottom looking like brown and white lace doilies, and when they manage to turnover briefly, they look more like the design on a sand dollar.

One special new friend is Venus who lives on the corner of the road that goes up the hill to the school. The first time we saw her she working on her produce stand. Her kitten was playing along the fence, and we had to stop and look because the kitten looked just like our cat, Twinkie, orange and white stripes with the "M" in the middle of the forehead. Venus told us the kitten’s name was Kadu.

The next time we saw Venus she was pretty down. She had given a "friend" some money to buy something for her in Grenada, and after a week, he had not returned with either the money or the product. Well, we all know that with friends like that who needs enemies! We commiserated with her, and that was the beginning of a growing friendship. Venus had lived in Toronto for eight years, and we had a good conversation about various goodies that are basically unknown in the West Indies. She rolled her eyes and licked her lips when Kathleen mentioned deviled eggs! So a couple days later Kathleen made some and took a few to Venus. What a treat for her! In return she gave us four Creole fowl eggs from her own Creole fowl. The hens are smaller than the ones we’re used to seeing, and so were the eggs. The taste was slightly different, a little sweeter perhaps, if that can describe the taste of an egg.

Whenever we walk by Venus’ corner, we stop to say hello, and purchase some of her oranges or limes (fresh off her trees), apples or pears (which are imported). And we exchange little treats as well. Whenever and wherever she sees us, she calls, "Hello, my darlings!" What a sweetheart!

Carnival in Carriacou coincided with Mardi Gras time, the weekend before Ash Wednesday. We thought it would be interesting to take in some of the activities, having no way of knowing just what it would be like. We have come to understand that GMT means not Greenwich Mean Time, but Grenada Maybe Time...the venues planned were held, or not held, on GMT. We purchased advance tickets (inexpensive fortunately) for a show of bands for Saturday night. The ticket said it started at 8:30pm. We kept checking the tennis court where it was to be held until 11pm when we finally decided to go home. Apparently the band had not shown up and there was no way of knowing when, or if, it would. Oh, well, we enjoyed Carnival in Grenada last year, and since Carriacou has such a small population, it is difficult to get things going sometimes. We opted instead to go to the Shakespeare Mas on Tuesday. That was also supposed to take place at the tennis court, followed by a parade. Actually, the Mas took place on Main Street (more later), and the parade wasn’t to be until after 5pm when the afternoon heat had cooled off. The parade never happened, only one group showed up so it was cancelled.

Today Shakespeare Mas competitors pair off face to face; one recites while the other listens. Missed lines are rewarded with a stroke from a rod, but colorful, heavily padded and masked headdresses offer protection and the flowing paper

lined capes add theatrical loud noises when the stick hits its mark. This event is unique to Carriacou, but as a local gentleman explained to us, a hundred years ago they really used whips, and it could get pretty violent! What is truly awe inspiring about the costumes which are indeed colorful (see the picture) is the combination of Nike athletic shoes, Chicago Bulls and NY Yankee caps, and dungarees under the eyelet embroidery trimmed skirts. A sight to behold!

When we were here last June, the floating bar, Angel’s Rest, was closed. It was reopened a few weeks ago by Brad and Alana, a young Canadian couple, working with Sherwin who owns the bar and the Lambi Queen Restaurant on the beach. Brad and Alana work for competing cruise lines; he does stage lighting for productions, and she works with children on cruises - keeping them busy while their parents play, too. They’re having a grand time hosting and tending the bar six nights a week for three or four hours. The bar will remain open for the season, the end of May, when B&A go back to their "real" jobs. Tough life, eh? While here, they live on their sailboat.

Some pictures are included to show you that we don’t just relax and drink sundowners. Roland emptied out the dinghy one day, scrubbing the slime and getting the sand out. That’s one of the hazards of taking the dinghy to the beach, we invariably have some sand between our toes which ends up in the dinghy! Unfortunately, it won’t stay clean for long. That same day Kathleen did some laundry, hanging it out to dry on the foredeck from the mast to the genoa. The wind was blowing between 15 and 20 knots so lots of clothes pins were needed. Who wants to have to chase tee shirts across the bay if they should escape?

One immense project has almost been completed. We finally have an operating water maker. Yippee, wahoo!!! We’ll still collect rain water if it rains hard enough, but we won’t have to pay for water to lug those heavy jugs back to the boat via the dinghy. Installing the watermaker really was a project that took some time...a drain hose had to be connected to the transom to pump out rejected water until it starts getting the salt out. That meant that Roland had to drill a hole in the transom (stern end of the boat) and run a piece of hose to a through-hull fitting far above the water line. Next, hoses had to be connected to the two filters, one with a basket to catch anything like seaweed and one with a paper filter to catch smaller particles. The biggest problem is that the space this all goes into is extremely awkward to work in. We got it all working, but it was producing about a gallon per hour when it is supposed to make about three and a half gallons per hour. So Roland with his bag of extra spare parts was able to attach larger diameter hoses in the important places to see if we could increase the speed of production. We were doing better, and made almost 15 gallons that we transferred from jugs to the water tank. That was when Murphy showed up again! Suddenly the water pump quit. Oh, boy, we were so close! Roland took the pump apart and found a broken drive shaft. Now what do we do?

Would you believe that there is a sheet metal fabricating shop in the anchorage? It sits on a floating base, moored of course, owned and operated by a transplanted French man. For a very reasonable price, $15US, the man weld-repaired the part. We reassembled the pump, and back it went into the water maker. Still, not working properly. Took part of the assembly apart again, and Roland was inspired (after Kathleen prayed all afternoon!) to make an adjustment on a small hose barb (what Roland discovered was that the tip end of a hose barb, likely not the original protruded deeply enough to preclude a poppet valve from closing properly). That did the trick, and we were soon making almost four gallons per hour. We had also run the hose some thirty feet from the stern berth to the forward locker in the salon, under our bed, through the head, through the bilge, well, you get the picture. The line appears to have a kink or pinch in it somewhere that will have to be removed before the water will run properly from one end to the other. Whew! All this has taken place over the last week or so because everything takes more time than we think it will, and we had other things to do in between, too!

One of those other things was collecting some of our mail. There were supposed to be four packages and so far only two have arrived. The others will probably be here in a week or two! Someone at the mail forwarding service mistakenly added Trinidad to the address. At least the important stuff, like first class mail, arrived. Thanks for all the Christmas pictures of the kids!

We’re leaving for the Grenadines soon. Really!

Okay, we made the leap...ten miles to the north, a short trip of three hours including picking up the anchor, SAILING (without the engine), and anchoring at Frigate Rock on the south side of Union Island. Checking in with Customs and Immigration at the airport was a piece of cake. After that we had lunch with Dan and Jaime, S/V Nereia, bought some nice fresh produce at the market in the park at Clifton, and mailed all the March birthday cards to the States. After a couple of days there in Ashton Harbor, we sailed west around the point a couple of miles to Chatham Bay, a lovely anchorage with a beach, some snorkeling, fresh fish, etc., delivered to the boat by the boat boys. Last Sunday we hiked up the hill to the top overlooking the bay. This is a desert island because of the limited rainfall, and the cacti are beautiful and prolific. We took lots of pictures of them for our own album. Hot and thirsty after the hike (where we saw dozens of goats along the way), we treated ourselves to a couple of cold beers at Jerry’s Palm Leaf Bar on the beach!

Kathleen was unexpectedly busy one afternoon after two of the boat boys visited selling fresh fish, conch and lobster. We should have taken pictures of the conch to put on the web site, but you probably would all be totally grossed out. At least they got them out of the shells. Kathleen cleaned them up, and cooked them thoroughly before making conch chowder. She also cleaned and dressed two red snappers, and steamed a small lobster that was added to the chowder. By supper time, she was worn out! We plan on cleaning up the shells to make conch horns to blow at sunset like they do in the Florida Keys.

This next week we plan on taking a self-guided tour of the small village of Ashton, but with two public holidays next week, we’ll have to pick a good day. After that, we’ll probably go up to Mayreau, Canouan and the Tobago Cays. But, plans often can and do change! You’ll just have to wait until next month to find out if they did!

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