Hi All

Welcome to Crazy Adventure Travels for 2014. For those who don’t know John started his adventures this year by flying into the Canary Islands and sailing on Sweet Chariot across the Atlantic … about four weeks as they had to go into the Verde island to offload the owners wife who wasn’t well. The rest of the story is a tail for John to tell.

As for me, I flew into Miami and had three days there. It was a bit tricky as I didn’t have any communication with John while he was at sea and just had to guess when he would arrive in Barbados.

A lot of you will know that I kept saying …. I don’t want to fly back into Barbados, I want to fly somewhere else and meet John there. Well guess what … I flew into Barbados and fortunately didn’t regret it for a second. We had a great couple of days. We stayed in the same place as last year and it was gorgeous … how quickly you forget.

We had two days and nights and met up with Jo … a lovely lady who runs the sail loft for Doyles … it is huge with 45 staff.

As it turned out John arrived in Barbados the day before me and went straight to the Yacht Club (right next to our hotel) and the first person he spoke to was Prince Edward … yep The Prince Edward … as in the Windsor type of Prince Edward who was over for the Royalty Regatta. Trust him. He also had several dozen rums with Jo and other people he had met from last year.

Anyway, as I said we went to Jo’s loft and out for a night at a great Mexican Restaurant owned by one of the local sailors. Jo was great and offered to store our big bags for us … but in the end we left them at the hotel … which this year felt like going home.

We flew to Grenada last Tuesday and stayed there until today when we caught the ferry to Carriacou … which is the second largest of the three Grenadian islands. We loved Grenada right from the start … the people are really friendly … we found them way warmer than the Bajans. They also seem to be better off … or they maybe just have more pride in their country, themselves and their houses. It seems a richer island because of this.

On Grenada we found a fabulous restaurant right on the beach (which was 400 m from our little hotel) called Umbrellas. Great staff, great food, great view. The vegetation along the coast of Grenada is very similar to Bowen … terminalia trees right on the beach.

(John doing it tough on the first day on Grenada at Umbrellas!)
We met a great British father and son team at Umbrellas on the first day … Rob and Dom, who we doing a recky re buying a property there … just an excuse to get away I reckon! As it turned out they were staying at the same hotel as us …. so the next night we shared a bottle of rum outside our little room. The next day we went exploring with them and found a marina that was hosting a regatta. Of course John found a boat to go out on straight away, so I headed up the coast with Rob and Dom and had a great afternoon. We got lost about four times … absolutely no signs and a useless map. Combined with the locals’ terrible driving skills … it was a bit hectic but fun. We found a great little resort (via a dirt road) called Brunos where we had a coffee and visited their little petting zoo.

All in all we loved Grenada … John sailed the next day and I went exploring on my own … lots of walking.

Today we arrived on Carriacou …

This place is soooooo laid back … we grabbed a room above the bank … via the Captain of the ferry that we met a couple of nights ago … our host Leslie Anne is delightful. She recommended the Laurina 2 restaurant … Jerk Centre?!?!?!?? where we had lunch and then an afternoon nap. God, we are getting old … my excuse was the ferry ride which was a bit bumpy … kept my eyes firmly on the horizon for the last hour and survived. Then we caught a bus half way around the island … a bus consists of a mini van jam packed with locals … we had 17 on ours … great fun … we had a great snorkel at Paradise Beach followed by a local rum. Then decided to walk back to the hotel … luckily one of the locals picked us up and drove us home … it became decidedly dark very quickly! Finding some where for dinner was a challenge … we just followed the music and ended up on the beach for fish, salad and rum and soda … oh, followed by homemade nutmeg ice-cream. You could say we are in heaven!