Guyana

September 12, 2015

Departed Prickly Bay, Grenada after much catching up with old cruising buddies, such as the intrepid Gavroches.

Destination: Guyana, South America!

Crew: John, Lucy, Ruth, Adam, me and newest addition Luca a traveler from Italy. 

Sailing in company with Sasquatch!

4 nights later we arrive in Roed-en-Rut, Guyana.

The passage was fine, easy sailing really, well, it was more motor sailing upwind than just sailing. With exception to a very grumpy Adam and a scare when we thought we had run out of fuel, oh, and when the container ship was on a collision course with us and failed to respond to our VHF hails, the passage was uneventful. Though we did get to see this beautiful water spout as we waited to enter the Esquibo River in Guyana.

So, it is now September 19^th and we are in Bartika having just spend a wonderful morning with Bhagwandas, from Delta 2 Tours, shooting the Moorison rapids and hiking to the Moorison falls, seeing the quarrying industry, first Dutch settlement, prison an lots of lovely jungle! It was such a fabulous morning.

Large insects abound

Waiting on the dock to head to town to clear in

Drinking the rainfall as we head up river to Barika

Luca and Adam taking us up the river. Luca is a lovely Italian we met in Grenada who was looking for more sailing experience and willing to travel with our zoo down and back to the Caribbean. He has certainly made life very easy for us.

The jail where the inmates are aloud to go out and grow their own food in the jungle and even sell the food they grow to prison guards or other inmates and staff. They seemed to have a lot of freedom at this jail. 

Adam thinking about how fast we are going.

The first Dutch fort in Guyana

Here we go through the rapids!

John needed a good scrub:)

Coming back to the boat

Our martin friends

After our tour with Delta 2 Tours we headed up river with Sasquatch and two other boats who had arrived before us, Almost There and Dea Latis, to anchor off of the Resort Bagnara. A nice quiet place with lots of shade and a bar with occasional wifi. `We have been trying to organize a trip to the Kakatu Falls, but it is just too expensive for the 4 and a half of us. The itinerary sounds fine, take off from the hotel two hours to the see the falls, take us to a second falls and through in lunch and a little hike with a guide, but we are living on the boat, this is not our only holiday of the year so we had to miss it out. 

The ability to access other parts of Guyana has been very disappointing. We were able to take the bus to Georgetown, which was fun, but we could not access the interior of the country without being on a tour of some kind, which always ups the cost.


Purportedly the tallest wooden structure in the world. Still a pretty wooden church.


The inside was quite spectacular


Queen Victoria made her mark here


Their government house

So, enough relaxing on the river, it is time to head down river to Suriname, with a short stop at Fort Island.

Sunset as we head to Suriname

Canada

O’ Can-a-da! Our home in native land… The Frankiss’s have arrived! It has been nearly 5 summers since our last visit, but we are back, with one addition, Adam, and we are ready for a good time.

So, first stop Muskoka, Port Sydney, Ontario, chez la maison Jim and Steph Lawrence for a reunion with some of our friends from Kuwait. But since most of you are really interested in our sailing exploits this post is mostly pictures. Enjoy.

 Babies meeting and old friends catching up.

Making Maple Syrup and Cooking Hotdogs

Lumberjack John

The Lumberjacks!

Look What We Found, Dark Horse Whisky, Oooo!

Getting ready to go down the natural slide at the Port Sydney damn.

Adam is right at home!

 Michele and Ruth catching up

Voyageurs off to camp for two nights with the Lawrence's.

As you can see John was well indoctrinated into Canadian culture, we just need to work on the “Aye”and perhaps find a bear for him to wrestle and then I think he will be ready.

From Ontario we made our way to beautiful Quebec City.

And then on to St. George, New Brunswick to stay at my mother’s family cabin, where we were reunited with my father and were able to catch up with the ever hospitable Uncle Bobbie, Donna, Frank and Nancy there. I have many fond memories of summer days spent there with cousins.

On our way to St. George with a stop at the Grande Chutes in New Brunswick

Oh, and the Potato Museum was a must stop. It being the birth place of the McCain French Fry and continues to be the company's headquarters in Canada.

From New Brunswick we hopped on down to Nova Scotia where we awaited the arrival of Grandma, John’s mother, and his sister Wendy.

While we were awaiting family arrivals we were very lucky to attend my friend Cass and Agap's wedding. It was a beautiful evening ceremony at the Royal Yacht Squadron in Halifax. 

Once they arrived there was no stopping us. First to Peggy’s Cove, then to Lunenburgh, then we were off to Milford House near Annapolis Royal, for a few days of tranquility, canoeing and catching up with cousins. Time just flew. It hardly felt like Maureen and Wendy had arrived when they were packing their things to leave. We were so very lucky to be able to have such a lovely visit with them.

Peggy's Cove. I take great comfort in the over cast skies. It means home.

Grandma has arrived!

The boys in Lunenburgh

A feast of mussels and clams and lobster. Yum, cold water seafood!

Then it was time for us to make our way back to Toronto and for Dad to get himself ready for his departure to Bangkok to be with my mom, who has just started a new job there. But before we said goodbye the girls had to have a ride on Poppop's motorcycle!

It is always hard to say goodbye to people, especially when you are not sure when you will be seeing them again. I was just so pleased that we had all had such a lovely time together, both family and friends. We all really enjoyed being in Canada, and were pleasantly surprised at the grooviness of Halifax. Hopefully we will be able to sail up the east coast next year, but only time will tell 

Dolphin

Dolphins! I see Dolphins! Quick, come see, they’re right here! Intensity and excitement are just bursting out of Ruth as she tries to include us in her discovery. She is jumping up and down and running as quietly as she can on the deck to tell us. We have learnt that most dolphins don’t like it when you shriek that they are there. They like you waving and smiling and laughing or clapping, but not yelling to announce their presence.

The short presence of the dolphin pod marks the end of our first season on the boat. We are arriving at St. George’s, Grenada, to put the boat to bed for a few weeks, as we are travelling to Canada to visit family and friends. In the past few days we have been very lucky to catch up with some of the other cruising families we have met along the way. We are so very lucky to have been able to meet so many wonderful families, it has truly enriched our cruising experience.

 But before we talk about boat prep and goings on in St. George, Grenada, let’s look back at what we were up to while we continued to wait for my passport to arrive in Martinique.

As you can see from our previous post we were in Martinique for quite awhile with friends, but eventually we were the only kid boat left in the anchorage so guess what we did?

We got the bikes out and went for our first family cycle since we left the Canaries. The bikes and trailer have faired very well considering they have been in such a salty humid climate for so long. It took some doing to get the trailer wheels back on the trailer but with a lot of WD40 and John ingenuity we had two functioning tandems and trailer on land ready for our first excursion.

For our first trip we went into town and on the way back we stopped at a restored sugar cane mill.

This mill is different from others we have seen because they used mules and horses to turn a series of gears that crushed the cane.

Our next excursion took us up over the hills and along the southern coast to the beach. It was hot coming back on the late afternoon, but well worth it. So nice to exercise those legs!

We celebrated John’s birthday in style with a strawberry and cream sponge cake and champagne on June 30^th. And what birthday would not be complete without trying to figure out how to pull new reefing lines through the boom. 

We tried plugging up all the holes in the boom and using a vacuum to suck the line threw as suggested by someone on their blog (didn’t work). Then John tried using a spare piece of rigging wire, which did the trick. New reefing lines are in and ready to be used.

Finally on July 2^nd, my passport was delivered to DHL and we were able to pick it up and get ourselves out of Martinique. Really a lovely place, but after 6 weeks there it was time to get going. Canada was calling.

We sailed from St. Anne Martinique directly to Bequia, where we were pleased to catch up with Day Star, Day Dreamer, Traveller and Proud Mary. But we didn’t stay long before we were off to Mayeau and Tobago Cays.

We were really looking forward to the Tobago Cays, they are described as a turtle sanctuary, a place of crystal clear waters and coral reefs, with millions of stars lighting the night sky. It sounded like the beautiful isolation we were looking for. `However, it became clear that there are many cruisers who seek out isolated sanctuaries as there were over 30 boat crammed into a little space. But, while the anchorage was not as deserted as we were hoping, the reef was incredible! 

Imagine, you have just taken your dinghy out toward the edge of the barrier reef. You find a nice spot to anchor in soft sand. You can see waves breaking over the reef, you get your fins and snorkel on and hop right in, the anticipation of what is waiting for you is making you move quickly. Once in the water you paddle around and get your bearings, there are some lovely coral heads, box fish, sergeant majors, parrot fish and blue tangs. But now it is time for the challenge. You are going to swim out over, well under/through, the breaking waves beyond the barrier reef to have a look at the drop off. You have to time this carefully, if you don’t you could get beaten up by the waves and knocked against coral. So you wait and watch, much like a surfer waiting for the big wave, though we are waiting for the calm. Finally there seems to be a calm, quickly you pull and fin yourself over the top of the coral. You go as quickly and lightly as you can, clearing your snorkel when you get swamped trying to stay calm as it is not far to go. Just one more push and the bubbles clear and there is calm. The waves are not crashing over the top of you, you are in a nice rolling sea and the wall of coral and fish just drops down into the depth in front of you. Beauty, tranquility, awesome!

While we were out off the reef John saw an Atlantic Snubbed Nosed Shark and I was very privileged to see two Eagle Rays! It was extremely exhilarating.

From Tobago Cays we sailed directly for St. George, Grenada. Which brings us back to where we started.

So, the boat is tied up all necessary small jobs are done.  We have had Gavroche and Sasquatch over to play and swim. We have been on a walk around St. George and saw the fort where communism rose and fell in Grenada so many years ago. We have said good bye to our dear friends Trish and Mike whom have put their catamaran up for sale and have returned to Australia.

And now it is time for us to head on our way to Canada. I cannot wait!