Wednesday, August 15, 2012

Grenada Carnival

Port Louis Marina, St Georges, Grenada

No sooner are we returned from the UK and we are plunged into Grenada Carnival.  The marina is basically on the route so you can either sit on board listening to incredibly loud Soca at 3am or go out and join in!

Carnival starts on Monday morning with J’Ouvert, a 5am start to find the streets filled with people. 

018The history is that the Jab Jab demons that own the night are gradually pushed back to where they belong by the sunlight and the people. 

The reality is a 50:50 split between people covered in old motor oil and people covered in brightly coloured paint. 

Sadly like everywhere else in the world corporate marketing types have got involved so yellow paint for the Carib Beer float, red for Digicel etc.  That said it’s lots of fun.

After a well earned rest we are back on the streets for the Pretty Mas, the traditional carnival parade all colours, feathers, sequins and dancing – a spectacular sight and best summed up in photos.

The best thing being the complete lack of body image issues, no matter your age, colour, BMI get out there whack on an outrageous costume and shake what you’ve got.

IMG_4278Another rest before the final leg of a long day, Night Mas.  We had joined up with the Carib Beer float.  So we walked the 3 miles into town behind a booming sound truck, chipping and whining, waving our light sabres and drinking free beer.

The trips to the beer truck to get refills were either painless (no queue) or like a scene from a famine in Africa as 100 people hang off a slowly moving truck banging cups on the sides and begging for beer from the overworked and stressed “relief” workers.

At 2am we called it a day missing the final 2 miles into the national stadium and generally being useless cruiser woosies rather than hardened Carnival party goers!

Friday, August 10, 2012

Back From UK and Canada

Port Louis Marina, Grenada
After a few weeks of boat chores we parked Matsu in Port Louis marina to keep her safe and most importantly insured for hurricanes and I caught the Virgin flight to the UK for 4 weeks with family and friends there, Linda had a short stay on the boat, weeks in Canada for Anouck and Jimmy’s wedding, back to Matsu for a week and then 2 weeks in the UK with me arriving just in time for the Olympics, we even got to go and see Canada beat Team GB in women’s soccer at Coventry stadium much to Linda's delight.
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As usual the trips home were lots of fun and with nowhere near enough time to catch up with all our friends – to those we saw we wish we could have seen more of you and those we missed altogether, sorry we didn’t make it and we promise to do better on our next trip!
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We are now back on board and gearing up for Carnival in Grenada.
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