Camp Grenada

 Today is our last day on the island of Grenada.  They say time flies when you're having fun, but still it's hard to believe that it has been almost 3 months since we first got here.
Before we came our friends told us about 'Camp Grenada' with endless activities, a strong community and hurricane-safe anchorages, it sounded too good to be true, and the fact that we were robbed the very first night we got here made us very skeptic about just how real those promises were.
But guess what? it was all true.

Following Perry we set our base at the cruiser-friendly Prickly Bay. Ever since our boat was broken in to we have been sleeping with the hand held radio in our room, standing by on channel  68, and thus, every morning at 7:30 our day would start with the VHF announcing:"good morning Grenada, good morning cruisers, The Grenada cruisers net is starting in 2 minutes on channel 66" and so, every morning, kind of like in ground hog day, we would listen to Cruisers just like us, who volunteer to run the cruisers net, 6 days a week, and provide every possible piece of information you can possibly need, from local weather, to cruisers social activities, to help with parts and services you might need or want to sell or trade, and finally a slot for local businesses (ones with access to VHF radio) with a chance to blow their own horn.

Cruisers social activities anyone?
In Prickly bay alone you have to choose from the following activities, all provided by volunteer fellow cruisers, who want to make their stay here in Grenada a better one:
Mondays and Thursdays 8:30: Yoga with a smile provided by Pier-Ives from S/V umido at the very same time, Gabi from S/V cool change is teaching Yoga to kids 16 and younger.  seeing Gur and Arbel practicing Yoga poses and challenging each other to extreme combinations is simply priceless! ("while doing a tree pose, touch your toes and make a candle. Can you do this Gur?")
Tuesdays and fridays 8:30: Tai Chi, again by Umido
On Sundays and Wednesdays 2pm: Grenedian train Dominos winner gets the fame of being announced last week's champion on the morning net
Then there's chess twice a week at 3pm, volleyball you can play and shopping buses that will be happy to oblige you, and take you anywhere you want to go.
Every Saturday there's a HASH, a hike/run followed by beer consumption, a great experience where locals and guests explore different parts of the island.

Book Club
of course morning are dedicated to school work and then in the afternoon the kids want to get together at the pool or on the beach, either way they coordinate their rendezvous in the sweetest VHF calls you would ever hear...
On Friday morning the kids had a book club.where they would discuss books they have read,  read poems, play games and learn about different countries.
I was amazed to see how serious the kids take the activities at the book club. here are some shots:

One book club sessio was dedicated to geography and every kid presented a country

All pieces were then connected into two big global balls

Every family brought a tipical dish to share - what a feast!
I am so moving on board 4 coconuts as soon as I get a chance

Learning Kapuera from Regina and Helena

Tomorrow is a long day, as we plan to start our journey north. and so I think I will stop now.
I will post more Grenada stories later.
The last few days were filled with goodbyes and left me very sad and yet very happy and feeling really blessed. The friends we have made here, and the memories will stay with us long after we say goodbye.

Thank you Camp Grenada, and thank you to all our new friends who made this Hurricane season such a special one
fair winds, where ever you might head - we hope to see you soon
Darya and the Del-Max crew

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Happy Birthday Arbel!!!

October 13th was Arbel's birthday. My sweet baby boy just turned 4 and is definitely not a baby anymore!
His birthday was to be celebrated while our boat was 'on the hard', that means the boat is out of the water, in the boat yard while we lived for 2 weeks in an apartment we rented not far from the yard. Being away from the bay and the water for so long, made planning a birthday party somewhat of a complicated task, but yet again, the day was saved by fellow cruisers. It turned out that Helena from our Brazilian friend boat Matilda was celebrating her birthday 2 days before Arbel, and her mother, the much-more-organized Regina, already had almost everything arranged for a party on the 12th. As we shared the same guest list, Helena was kind enough to share the day with Arbel and thus we had a double birthday party.
The chosen venue was the lance aux Epine beach, where everyone can just land their dingy and join the party.
Friends from about 10 boats showed up for the party, and grown ups and adults alike had a blast!
I was so grateful to be able to celebrate yet another birthday so far away from home, and yet feel so surrounded by loving friends, that it made it feel just like home.

Happy birthday dear boy! you amaze me every single day!

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Shana Tova

The month of September brings with it a lot of new beginnings, one of which is the Jewish new year. 

For those who are confused: the Jewish calendar has 12 months (usually), just like the regular calendar, but is going by the moon. That means that a new month begins with a new moon, and the middle of the month will always be accompanied by a full moon. The first month of the Jewish calendar is Tishrey and it has 3 major holidays: 

- Rosh HaShana - the Jewish new year

- Yom Kippur - 10 days after Rosh Hashana, a holiday in which we fast for 25 hours, reflect on the  year we've had, and ask for forgiveness from anyone we've hurt, or for any bad deed we have done. You're not supposed to drive on Yom Kipur, and in Israel it is the most special day of the year, when nobody is driving, roads and highway are filled with pedestrians and bike riders. It is the most peaceful day. 

- Sukot - 15 days after Rosh Hashana is the holiday of Sukot (pop quiz: what is the shape of the moon every year in Sukot?) 

Weather you know us personally, or have just been following our blog, I'm sure by now you've realized we're Jewish. 

Jewish cruisers, it turns out, are a rare commodity, and since cruisers make close to a hundred percent of our world we were left to celebrate the holidays alone. Or so we thought...

Shortly after we've arrive to prickly bay we went to visit friends who stayed on land while their boat was out of the water. On the way to their apartment we passed  a sign that pointed up a hill to  "Chabad of Grenada". Chabad can be described as a Jewish mission. With over 2000 centers all around the world, they help serve as a Jewish home wherever there are Jews. We made a mental note to check it out, and of course, forgot all about it five minutes later...

A month later, on a Friday about 4 weeks ago, we went to provision and in the store I saw a tall guy with a baby on his arms, a yalmuka on his head and a beard. I said to Oren that I'm going to say hi to the Chabad guy. He asked why do I think it's the Chabad guy? I said I was pretty sure he looked like a rabbi, and if he was, I'm sure he is the only rabbi in Grenada. He had to be Chabad. 

And so I went and said hi and we started a conversation in English, until the kids joined me, and we realized we both speak Hebrew, and (this one is for you, Rozio)

Turns out that until he was five he lived in Tel Aviv basically in the same neighborhood I grew up in... Small world... We quickly learned that he and his wife came to Grenada less then a year ago to start the first ever Chabad here.  We also learned there are about 500 Jewish students at St. George's university! Well of course there are, There's a med school here...

Finally, as it was a Friday, we were invited to a Shabat dinner that evening. And so Baruch, Chaya and little Mandi came into our life and our hearts. 

That Friday was the day of Mika's Frozen show, and after a great meal, the Rabbi asked Her to perform one of the songs. Without hesitation she stood up and sang Let It Go to a crowd of about 50 people. She did Great! We had a great time and were surprised to enter what feels like a parallel universe. Spending so much time in the cruisers community we finally met the young students. The majority of which are med students with a few exceptions being vet students. They were intrigued by our life style and posed questions like: what do you do all day? Do you cook on the boat?! And where do you sleep? It was interesting to look at ourselves through their eyes. 

Our kids fell in love with Mandi and we promised to come for Shabat again. 

Which we did. And then came Rosh Hashana. Rabbi Baruch told us they were expecting about a hundred guests for dinner! 

Chaya has been preparing for a while, baking the Challahs and cakes, and cooking what ever could be prepared ahead of time. But so many things had to be done right before the meal, we've decided we have to help. In the last three days before Rosh Hashana we came over to their house and had a great time getting into the spirit of the holiday. Mika and Gur were busy wrapping the individual honey cake Chaya made for each guest, we helped setup and decorate the tables and I was in charge of the traditional symbols of the holiday that come from Oren's Iraqi side of the family, like the Karra, the Salka and the Lubia. The Ashkenazi version of the symbols include the Rimon, the apple with honey and the fish head. 

While helping we got to play and enjoy Mandi. Such a sweet baby! 

The meal was great. We really enjoyed being able to celebrate the new year with so many others!

At the end of the meal, Mika was aske to sing again, and this time came prepared with Bashana Habaaa, a song about the new year, and was joined by many voices. It was beautiful!

Our next visit to Chabad was yesterday for the last prayers of Yom Kipur and the breaking the fast meal. This year both Oren and I fasted, and we even rowed the dinghy to avoid running the engine :)

Mika was asked to sing yet again, and since it was no longer Shabat, this time we even have a picture! 

 Today the Rozmarin family came to visit us on our boat. Rabbi Baruch enjoyed driving the dinghy, while Chaya and I tried to fish. We had a great time! Just being able to chat in Hebrew with another woman is something I realize now I've really missed. 

Tomorrow we are going 'on the hard' our boat is coming out of the water and we're going to renew the bottom paint and do some other maintenance tasks. 

Wish us luck! We will spend the next week on land in an apartment we've rented. It will feel strange no doubt, but I'm sure I will enjoy an endless supply of fresh water...

I want to sign off wishing you a happy new Jewish year. May you make new friends and enjoy old friends, may fair winds be always with you. 

And as we say in Hebrew: Shana Tova!

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Dod Yuval!

Dod is hebrew for uncle. there you go. who said you don't learn new things every day...
Dod Yuval is Oren's brother, who lives in Haifa, Israel. On one of their phone calls, Oren asked Yuval if there's any chance he'll hop a flight and come visit us down in Grenada. Knowing we're going to be in Grenada for a while we've said that to a few people before, but Yuval was the first one to say, 'why not?'...
And so it was! Dod Yuval came down all the way from Israel to visit us for a whole week! he was only liveaboard guest so far, and we have prepared the boat for him, shifting kids around and hoping he will feel comfortable in our little home.
The kids were so excited towards his visit and kept counting the days to his arrival.
When he arrived we were still anchored in Prickly Bay, and had plans to show him all there is to see on the island.
One of the gifts he brought with him was a floating Origami book, the very next morning we tried building a catamaran and yes! it floated!

Most cruisers take a tour of the island upon arrival, but we waited with us for Yuval and 2 days after he got here took a grand tour of the island, getting to see all parts of the island, waterfalls, a rum factory, the chocolate farm, a spice farm and rest of this beautiful island.

The next day we sailed the boat up to St, Georges anchorage and visited the busy city. Yuval has been taking sailing lessons lately and was put to work raising sails and helping our with the boat.

The next day we went to Grenada's underwater sculpture park,  spotted with submerged sculptured about 15feet under the water you snorkel around looking for the surprising sculptures. we really liked it!

The only picture I took before my battery died...

Yuval's visit went by so quickly and it was time to head back to our anchorage in Prickly bay where he was to take off for his flight the next day. on the way back we tried fishing and this time got a big Baracuda! in this side of the world you can actually eat the baracuda, and it was turned into a great curry dinner!

By catching and eating the fish we have offered Yuval our entire repertuare and he was ready to get back to civilization, packed with a lot of suveniers and good memories from his visit in Grenada.

Mika summed the visit up nicely  in her journal (in Hebrew...)

Thank you for coming Yuval! it was fun!

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Boarded....

After Johan and Vicky left we headed straight down to Grenada.
All our friends were already there, Endless Pleaseure and Perry who have been there for over a month and Lucky 7 and Bendecida who got there 10 days earlier.
They all told us how great it was in Camp
Grenada.

For us Grenada was the promised land. Safely south enough to be out of the Huricane zone it became the final destination of the season for oh so manny cruisers and was planned to be our final destination of the trip. We arrived the day before Gur's birthday, on august 13th and when we saw the coastline clearing in front of us we all felt excited like never before in the trip. WE Made it! We though and took pictures of our promised land. 

When we were close enough to the enchorage of st. George we radioed our friends on Bendecida we invited us over to celebrate the reunion. 

Perry were kind enough to offer to host Gur's birthday party the next evening were we were to reunite with all four boats. We were loving Grenada!

That night we fell asleep happy until at 4:30 Arbel woke us for a water refill. I went to check on him and saw our boat door open. Our boat is always closed at night with a padlock holding it closed and yet the boat was open. I instinctively calle Oren and first checked that the kids were safe. 

It was clear that we were boarded. Someone has been inside our home. The question was what did he take with him...

We found a laptop and our iPhones were missing. Oren recalled hearing something and looking out the window to see a local fishing boat rowing away with 2 men inside. He thought it strange that fishermen were not using their engines but was really worried about our anchor dragging and went to sleep once he was sure we state at the same spot. 

2 hours later we joined the cruisers net, a daily VHF transmission where cruisers update each other on daily events. 

We learned that 4 boats were boarded that same night. All had electronics stolen from them. 

Needless to say we felt violated and our initial happiness of finally arriving to grenada turned into a suspicious anger. 

Our day was spent with the coast guard and police investigators but before that we had a kid who just turned 6!!!!

Gur got his gifts in the morning and in the afternoon in a historic reunion we celebrated with Perry Bendecida, Lucky 7 and endless pleasure!!!! It was a gret ending to an otherwise bad day. 

I love you my sweet Gur!

Thank you so much Perry for hosting! 

This was birthday number 3 we celebrated with Bendecida and Lucky 7!

By the way. Till this day we still didn't get the police report.

Stay safe, lock your doors, and keep your radio on...
Darya

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I AM the BLOG!

Hello hello,
I have a great back log (or back blog...) of posts I've been meaning to write and didn't.
I think the next post will explain why (teaser, yes, why not). Turns out that I do find the chronological order of events important so I'll start from where we left off.

Back to August,
Remember John and Vicky? our friends from Boston who came to visit us in Viequese in January. The original plan back then  was to have them stay on land and we were to pick them out on 'daily charters' taking them around. We didn't plan on wracking our boat, and ended up staying with them on land. It was still a lot of fun.
Well John and Vicky did it again! they have decided to come meet us again in the beginning of August, and we've set the destination at Union Island. Union Island is one of the Grenadines of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and a good base for visits to other small islands in the area.
We were real excited to have our first guests (except for The Malatrasis of course). The plan was for them to stay in a nice place on land, and for us to meet them each morning and sail around. same plan as in January, only this time we actually had a floating boat! never underestimate that!

The reunion was great! the kids and us were really happy to see them again.
John, who used to work with Oren, told us people back home kept asking him if he reads this blog, his negative answer was followed by a statement "I don't need to read the blog, I come here to see with my own eyes! I AM the blog!!!" well, for a week there, you were right!

John "I AM the blog" 

Vicky Getting a ride to the beach

We had a great time with them, and tried to show them as much of the Grenadines as we could. it rained almost every day, but we got enough sun shine and great weather too.

Part of the itenerary was a trip to the Tobago keys where John and I got to snorkel with a lot of turtles. Such a great experience!

John went in the water before it did and the rough weather prevented me from finding him (it was pouring rain and there were high waves). But I really wanted a picture with a turtle... So there. I give you my dirt ever selfy with a turtle ;)

John and Vicky  have been engaged for almost 3 years, and we talked a lot about actually tying the knot, and were very very very very happy and excited to hear that a month later the have spontaneously went ahead and did it!! Mazal Tov!!

Gur's birthday was teo days after they were supposed to leave and not to miss it, they have decided to take us out to dinner and celebrate an early birthday.
Birthday boy was happy as they get, with Pizza and cake you just can't go wrong :)
Happy early birthday my child!

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Frozen – The Musical!

A few weeks ago, Mika and Catherine from the S/V Bendecida came up with the idea to rehearse some of the songs from the excellent Disney movie “Frozen”. That idea expanded to include a few other kids, and very quickly became a bay-wide event with kids from neighboring boat taking place. Darya volunteered to help produce and the kids started working on a script, costumes, and songs. The Premiere was announced on the Net for anyone interested to come and watch.

For those of you who have not been living on a boat in Grenada – the Net is a “morning briefing” using a predefined VHF radio channel (number 66). Every morning, the weather is announced, as well as any social activities, special offerings to the cruising community, and general information and help regarding anything from shopping buses to engine parts. This goes on every morning at 7.30 and is a backbone of what we have come to call “Camp Grenada”. I guess it is the equivalent of listening to the morning show in the morning rush hour traffic on the way to work…

The Cast

Back to the production – The production was a great success! It was great seeing how well the kids got along and initiated this play out of thin air within a very short amount of time.

Olaf, Anna, and Elsa in Act I

As an Encore, Darya and the other moms decided to put on their own version of “Do you want to build a snowman” named “Do you want to build a burger”.

Listening to the words just now, I realize how meaningless and surreal they must seem to anyone that has not been spending time in Prickly Bay, Grenada. So for the sake of clarity, I hereby provide you with a partial urban marine dictionary to “Camp Grenada”. This should give some better insight into the day-to-day life down here. It is tough, but someone’s gotta do it...

• Build-a-burger – Every Friday, the bakery at the Port Louis marina offers discounted burgers where you get a fresh baked bun, pick your toppings, get your burger, and munch away. The line often stretches way back and it has become a weekly get-together event.
• Shopping buses – Organized buses go out from various bays to take you grocery shopping.
• “Darren at the Bar” – The owner of the Tiki Bar at Prickly bay, which has become a community center for activities ranging from Domino’s, Chess, Yoga, Live music, and more.
• “Back to 68” – The VHF has replaced the use of the conventional home phone. A special channel (68) is designated to hail other neighboring boats, and conversations then usually Switch to a different channel (i.e. "Okay, Switch").

Cool rainbow in the bay. Just for the heck of it.

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