Its been a while! My comms weren’t helped by sending my phone on a mission to the ocean floor and quite frankly I’ve been all out of chat for a while. Changing situations at home and within our cruising community here in Grenada have rocked us a little. Having your plans/goals or even life cut short by things out of your control seems so unfair. All the goings on have made us realise that truly the time is now and that tomorrow isn’t promised. Its time to bounce back from this survivors guilt and blog on….

Unlike in any other kind of sailing rainy days have curbed play here in Grenada! We’re anchored in Prickly Bay with wave access when the surf is on.  The good news is that the water monitor (Lily) is pretty pleased with how much rainwater she has got in the tank. Our plans to trickle back up to Carriacou, and the Grenadines for the rest of the hurricane season have been slightly delayed by crappy weather. Now we’re tinkering around and upping out battery bank in this down time.

Chris was recently away in Europe again and my Mum made a last minute decision to come and join the kids and I for a week! It flew by and we were all delighted to see her and show her our new home. As usual she came armed with plenty for the kids to do. Despite over 30 years experience as a science teacher, she admitted she’d rather teach a class of 32 kids over our 2 any day…. Nevertheless the kids loved the experiments, bread-making and art. Hopefully next time my Dad will join us too.

Definitely its time for some half-term fun next week and a week away from the dry books that Harry is working through. I was thinking about our previous life and thinking how bazaar that the time the kids spend on “school”  is about equal to how much time they used to spend in the car each day. Without the car journeys there is a whole lot of time for reading, lego, playing, fishing, surfing, skirfing and generally being kids without so much structure. It’s also so nice to have time to say yes a whole lot more. Yes we can play dominoes/cards/chess/life or whatever, yes we can paint at some ridiculous hour of the morning, yes we can get up at 2AM to watch the meteor shower. Yes you can actually have some attention! Don’t worry we haven’t suddenly become the Brady bunch!! I am beginning to worry a little less over the “normal life” things they are missing out on though.

Harry has been delighted that some “bigger” kids have been “knocking” for him and taking him for adventures in the bay in their sailing dinghy. Lily has been beside herself that she can’t go and to add insult to injury the surf has been too big for her too…oh the injustice of being 4! We did let her do some kitesurfing with Daddy and throw herself off at the Annandale waterfalls though.

Other news of the last few weeks is that I fell off the boat at night whilst Chris was away! I don’t suppose the glass of vino or 2 helped my cat like reflexes whilst trying to sort the tender out but everyone survived to tell the tale and Harry is now up-skilled in mayday etiquette and location recording. Feeling left out a few days later, Harry lunged off the dinghy and not quite onto the boat in decent sized swell. Obviously this was entirely my fault and I have not forgotten it, a scare that did everyone good I think!! In general both the kids are doing incredibly well at managing themselves around the tender and boat but its never a bad thing to be reminded of the need to respect our surroundings.

Roll on getting cruising again and back to the Grenadines!!

Wow has it really been 2 weeks since we arrived in the Caribbean cruisers hurricane hideout of Grenada??

In that time Chris left me flying solo and in charge of the boat baby for a week. In reality it was a soft start as he spent the 1st 2 days hanging out at Grenada airport with cancelled flights as hurricane Maria hurtled up the Caribbean.

The best part of this lush mountainous spice Island for Harry, has been the chance to catch up with Tom & the Garret family that we met in the BVIs. Lily also found a beautiful kindred spirit in Dasha (6), who’d just moved aboard from LA. Secret harbour provided a welcome sanctuary from swell and wind. The pool, volleyball courts and grounds were a great escape for the kids. Harry also went all swallows and amazons hanging out on an island with his buddies for a few hours.

School Draper organised a field trip around the Island with team Garret. The kids carried out some thorough research on what % cocoa they are prepared eat in their chocolate. The big hitter of the day was scaling the waterfalls. Pete did nearly fractured a few vertebrae sliding down the falls under heavy peer pressure of our guide. It was his own fault of course for not pushing off to miss the 4ft horizontal ledge at the bottom….A better H&S assessment needed for our next trip! However, everyone did come home with their shoes!

The local cruising community down in Secret a Harbour is very active. Everything going on can be heard on “The Net” each morning. For me, Janine & Pete were ace. Not sure I really made much headway with the rest of the cruising crowd down there this time, though I did make it out on a hike with the Grenada hashers in Etang national park. My local buddy JJ, swinging his cutlass, kept me entertained and safe from the odd sheer drop. Did I mention that I’m massively missing my running buddies??!!

We’ve also spent some time in Prickly Bay, just to the West. Some cheeky surf sessions a few hundred metres from the boat with perfect waves for the kids made everyone happy! The quiz at the Tiki bar really did up the academic anti- safe to say we weren’t much help this week.

Since Chris arrived back we snuck North to Carriacou. I’d just like to say I nailed my wind prediction that we’d have 35knts! A sneaky storm cell gave us an exhilarating ride, not so conducive to handwriting practice though. We spent 2 nights in Tyrells Bay, had some epic rotis from our bus lady and are looking forward to exploring more. We then nipped upto Union Island in the Grenadines. Despite some anxiety about Union, having read Noonsite, we received a super warm welcome as soon as we hit the shore at Anchorage Yacht Club. I swear you’d never go anywhere if you read every review on the Internet.

The anchorage really does look like the real idyllic deal. A massive ray greeted us as we dived the anchor and there are reefs and stunning islands a plenty. Whilst many places are closed until 1st Nov, the “snack shack” and fruit & veg sellers on the Main Street have us well sorted. The kids have also resisted any dognapping so far, but heaven help the mutts if they don’t have a collar…

This weekend has been a gem. Stoked to have finally got the kiting toys out of the bag in Union and at the stunning Tobago Cays. We explored random deserted islands, in search of whatever natural phenomena we could find and dined on lobster. Sunsets a plenty. Loving our home right now…

Misadventure
Kid stuff these last few weeks-
Molluscum contagiousum
Impetigo
(Time for a few showers???!)

I had hoped Chris would fill you in on his last week but he’s a tad busy and mildly stressed right now so you get my perspective again!

Chris and the kids seem to have a great time while I’ve been away. Harry has been at the Antigua Sailing Academy most days sailing, fishing, tug-o-wars and all day fun. The sailing academy is an amazing non profit facility and Elizabeth and her team have been so great with Harry. Chris and Lily seem to have been mission in it on boat work, buoyancy aidless swimming it would seem and perfecting her backflips. Sadly most of that boat work has now been pulled apart.

After a whistle stop tour of Europe attending the wedding of my Bermuda bestie Lorna in stunning Sorrento, I headed to Dorset still on Carribbean time. House sorting was the order as our container was back from Bermuda. A massive clear out and fitting our landlife into 1 room somehow happened. The clear out wasn’t big enough and the reality is what we have on the boat is enough. A clutter of possessions and memories doesn’t fulfil anyone, but it is useful to have the odd bed to sleep in! Seeing family and friends that mean the world to me did make me a happy lady. Those meetings with girls I’ve known forever are precious & seeing my parents, brother and is family was priceless.

The downside of a necessary trip was so much time away from the boat and my people! I returned only to wish we were further South. The reality of hurricane Irma is upon us. We are preparing as best we can. We’re staging some kind of sit in on the dock at Antigua slipway & hoping they will find space in the yard to haul us out this morning. Chris insists this is not the time for blogging!

Gabri (weirdly from Sorrento) gave up a day of his holiday to help us while his gorgeous wife Shana took the kids. We stripped the boat of sails, cushions, biminis, pulleys, sheets and basically anything which may blow around in a potential cat 4 storm. Chris pulled all the halyards up the mast and had a crack at getting the wind gear off. We’ve packed the inside of the boat imagining everything may be soaked and damaged from a broken window or similar. The advice of our insurance company (Pantaeneus) is that we re insured 100% on the hard but 85% in the mangroves. In many ways I feel we’d be safer tucked away in the mangroves. On the hard we ‘re going to be sitting ducks for flying objects and debris but there it is.

It was a beautiful day yesterday, calm and flat. Perfect conditions for swimming what felt like miles after an escapee flamingo! The kids had a great afternoon at the beach skim boarding with friends. Not your typical pre-hurricane conditions but then it’s a long way off yet.

Irma seems to be as decisive as me with PMT trying to decide what to wear. The models were conflicting but now they seem to be in agreement that the leeward islands (including Antigua) are under threat. From my understanding the high around Bermuda is stopping the normal northern curve of such storms away from this area. But here’s hoping it does head off away from us and our to sea in the coming days.

It’s funny but a threat to your material possessions, life savings and family is daunting but we did put ourselves in this position! We did choose to cruise the Carribbean in hurricane season. Believe it or not there are some positives, particularly if you like surfing! Other than that you realise how kind people are. They offer their help and open their homes – thanks Rachel, Shannon, Louis and many others you guys have all been diamonds. Realising how fragile our existence is does make you feel grateful and more alive and ready to drink rum!

As we prepare to haul the boat in the humid muggy pit that is currently our players keep home, all I hope is that we are safe and that we can continue living this extremely selfish dream. Do I wish we weren’t exposing our children to this danger? Yes, but I do want them to have all the experiences this journey is brings.

Let’s hope Irma heads north and we’ve all worried for nothing. “Prepare for the worst and hope for the best” as my Dad would say. We’ve controlled what is now controllable and when they turn the power out we’ll be ready for the hurricane party. Oh and there is a second storm in the wings too!

The last week has been spent in Antigua dodging tropical depressions & storms. Sadly that has meant no trip to Barbuda as we aired on the side of caution over the weekend. It also means that the boat isn’t in Guadelope and I flew to get my Paris connection. Ironically Tuesday would have been a glamour day for sailing across to Guadelope.

We’ve filled out week with some exploration of Antigua. We ventured to the “Florida of Antigua” in the form of Jolly Harbour. I wasn’t quite prepared for how different it is to Falmouth harbour! Not as rustic by far, more resorts and cruise ship heaven apparently.

Chris made the most of the unsettled weather and got out surfing with Harry at Turtle Bay and Rendezvous whilst Lily a I did some serious beach combing. Not the day for her to ride waves, but the little fashionista is very proud of her new necklace and earrings. She also gave us a heart attack by upping her diving anti and randomly pulling out a back dive in a swimming pool!! No idea where it came from and even Harry couldn’t follow suit.

We also made it to Jabberwocky beach for some kiting. Once you got past the few feet of sargasso it was a glamour spot to kite in. I kind of forgot no kite instructor was there to massage my ego and pick up my board, so I left the board upwind for a wee while! It’s all part of the process I’m sure.

Harry’s been doing laps of Falmouth harbour surfing behind the tender at every given opportunity. This is proving a useful bargaining tool for school work & no hour is too early it would seem…light is preferable. I particularly love his need to sing as he does it. Chris tells me singing was an oppie sailing must for him, so the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.

The kids were delighted to head to the flicks in St.John and watch the Nut Job 2. It was a big novelty after 2 months without TV. I was sadly nearly as excited by a trip to the Epicurean supermarket (in “normal” life I am not obsessed by food shopping I promise). However, I’d still rate the local food and fruit & veg stalls as the top draw on the Island.

Harry’s been trying his luck at fishing. He can pretty much recite all the fish (400) we shouldn’t eat in the Caribbean for risk of ciguatera: A rather mean food poisoning which is accompanied by neurological symptoms which can last weeks or even years. Generally purported by locals not to effect smaller reef fish, eating them is probably not worth the risk! At 7 Harry’s taken it upon himself to try to provide for the family- a bit much to take on, but you can’t tell him. On one fishing jaunt up the dock Lily joined him. She evidently got a bit peckish so got stuck into the bait of raw bacon!! Following misguided old wives tales that makes Chris & I feel psychologically better when we’ve eaten something dodgey we fed our 4 year old coke….have you seen what that stuff does to old coins & rusty tools? Surely it can sort out some raw bacon. *i have no evidence this works at all *

With more time on land the kids have been playing with their new friends and haring around on scooters & skateboards. There has been a lot of tolerance around the marina-hooray for the low season!

The question is will family Draper ever leave Antigua? We’ll be hopping South for sure from the 2nd September, but definitely haven’t ruled out a return. Harry has requested a geography field trip to explore the volcano on Monserrat and we’d love to fit that in too.

Misadventures
*Daddy diving services were required off the dock.

*They have some furry friends here

*Lily is a bait eating monster.

*Picking up AC parts and hull filters in UK, barnacles don’t seem to filter things too well.

Living in paradise was frustrating at the top end of the week. Arriving in Antigua for carnival was great idea in principal but we wanted to get some chandlery supplies, fix a few things, restock on food and get washing done in English Harbour. Buuuuttt everything was shut for 3 days. I admit it sounds ridiculous that this could actually be a real life issue, but everyone got a little antsy, stir crazy & forgot just how lucky they were! On the upside Lily can now bum wiggle with the best of them (clearly at 4 this is an important skill).

History lessons, meeting stow away cats and collecting new instruments was the order of the day in Nelsons dockyard. We met a lovely boat with Stan & Jenny in tow. Having sold them our kayaks, the kids proceeded to swim over and play with them for the first time! They were rewarded with instruments including a recorder or “Satan’s flute” as Jenny put it. Looks like music is an addition to the curriculum too….

All moods were lifted by the Haywards & the gallons of Carribbean gatorade (rose) we accidentally drank over the course of a few days. Anchoring in beautiful Carlisle Bay was spectacular & we had a pod of dolphins lead us in. The Hayward boys were equally as playful & perfect entertainment for the kids. What a stunning resort that place is. We are eternally grateful to Chris & Sarah. We topped off our meet up by stealing Sarah for the day & lunching at “Boom” while the kids swam in the pool there.

Escaping to Green Island was the perfect tonic for the family. A top spot for some kiting and generally living on the East Coast of Antigua near Non-Such Bay. We made it up there on 2nd attempt having called off in 30knts & some big sea a few days prior. The best find, aside from the hermit crabs, tortoise, racer snakes and deserted Island was a 10 year old child named Marlin & his friends Patrick, Henry & Arthur!! This was epic news for the Hazman. Whilst all other cruisers are generally South, we stumbled across a local family hanging out on their ex-RNLI boat for the weekend. This place & meeting changed our week and led us to more friends in Falmouth harbour. The boys skurfed, trainer kited, swam, fished, explored & shared tech knowledge.

Us olds were happy to dabble in some kiting & sit in the best bean bags in Antigua courtesy of “Lazybones”. Chris made a new friend too- the security guard at Bernasconi’s house. He took a trip 2 miles downwind to meet him as the breeze dropped & the rescue crew were pre-occupied with extra kids & beach exploration!

We’re now in Falmouth Harbour at Antigua Yacht Club Marina. The kids are rampaging the dock and fishing with their new friends. Harry has also spent 2 days in sailing camp to join said friends at the National Sailing Academy for amazing value. It’s a great non-profit set up that trains local kids to become instructors and beyond.

Antigua in the summer is a far cry from what the season looks to be. The great news for us is the locals have time & a lot of kindness for those passing through. Seeing Shannon Falcone, Chris sailing around to North Sound on the Falcon F4 with a great crew including Louis & Alex Sinclair was another highlight this week. He’s definitely missing the foiling & the smile hasn’t left. It’s a pretty cool boat and is an evolution of the original foiling gun boat.

Harry was particularly jealous of Louis’s fishing capabilities & proceeded to show off his new spear-Thanks Shannon.

As ever our “plans” are changing on a daily basis. It looks like Barbuda trip this week is on hold as the tropical depressions are lining up to the east between us & Cape Verde. We need to do a little hop to Guadelope for a planned airport drop by next Tuesday. I head home for a week to see my family, meet my not so new niece, sort out our house annnnddd hit up my stunning friends Lorna & Neil’s wedding in Italy! Busy week and going to miss my people like crazy, but spoke to my Mum today for the first time & I cannot wait to see her.

Team Draper have been drawn in by Antigua and we will be back very soon.

Misadventure

-More stuff needed fixing – yawn. Can’t even remember what.
-Harry cut his own leg with an axe when prepping a BBQ….when I say “cut” it was more of a scratch with blood…
-Lily still hasn’t realised she can’t free dive wearing a swim vest. Watching her get to legs overhead and pop back up is too funny….

Fille de Joie arrived in St Barts last week after a 3hour trip from St.maarten. We had 6 nights sleeping well on anchor in the harbour. Despite a minor faux pas when we first anchored in 40ft of water & I tried to grab the anchor chain as it jumped out the windlass all was well & I still have my hand. What was I thinking???!! Pleased we fitted the big anchor in the very early stages.

Upon checking in with customs we discovered we’d died & ended up in a French heaven. Full of beautiful people, stunning views, beaches, waves & food, St. Barths sucked us in for longer than the planned 36hrs.

Slightly cross that my 13year old self rebelled against my former French teacher Father & took German. All that comes to my mind when I try to speak is Italian. The kids enjoyed putting Madame Carde & Madame Lee’s work into practice & Harry’s little accent was very cool to hear.

St.Barths is stunning & just the kind of place that draws you in. The quaint streets of Gustavia with all the chic you’d expect from the French. There are way to many beautiful people for 1 place. The mild draw back is the price tag. Fortunately my accompanying social hand grenades made it impossible to even window shop. Though I did “run” around the town bright & early one morning just to gawp in a few windows. The things I now do for some alone time!

We met a fantastic couple & their daughter Hayley at “Le Plage” near the airport as we dodged the planes coming into land. We headed back to their stunning rented villa for dinner. I was inspired by the 102 marathons John had completed- this was not music to Chris’s ears!!! However, getting any exercise in is proving to be a challenge. Definitely a downside for me at the moment.

Taking our first sailing guests out was also an experience. I felt awful for 2 of our guests who were not appreciating the considerable waves. The 25-30knts with big swell on the way home from “Isle de Forchue” wasn’t the best for non sailors! However, the octopus whisperer did his thing again & I think that, swimming 100s of metres with turtles & stingray helped offset the seasickness! We were thrilled to meet such a great family.

Harry’s been getting his surf on at a local spot called Toiny. Bit of trespassing to access the beach & the exit was only possible after holding up a few bulldozers. Super cool to see our 7 year old paddling himself into 3-4ft open faces. He wasn’t that impressed by snapping his leash on a decent sized set & was pretty devastated that his beloved board “Stump” ended up on the rocks. But Daddy saved the day & even the board survived to surf another day. The surf has been perfect for Harry, he’s riding waves on reefs and generally seems to have very little fear. Some amazing time together with Daddy.

Glamour eats at Black Ginger, Bazbar, Tamarin, Quarter. Don’t think you can go far wrong anywhere in St. Barts though. The French just rock this eating thing-as our waistlines will attest!

We arrived in Antigua yesterday afternoon. The sea state was pretty bumpy but not enough to put Harry off his Harry Potter obsession. Not much brekkie to keep down as our spare gas tank seemed  to have a faulty regulator. Have no fear there was caffeine at 0430 though.

I’m pretty excited at the prospect of seeing Sarah Hayward & family from Bermuda. Possibly one of the funniest ladies on the planet & I’m sure she might share a glass or 2 of vino with me-yay!

Nearly forgot to mention there was potential for a tropical storm setting up in the Atlantic. We were planning to hide in English Harbour, if it was good enough for Nelson it’s good enough for us. Fortunately though it looks like it’s fizzled out.

Things we’ve learned in the 1st month:

-Homeschooling is do-able. Harry’s maths will be better than mine soon.

-Clean clothes & showers are overrated.

-Remora fish are epic if your boat bum needs a clean. I’m hoping they ll hang out with us for the foreseeable.

-Fridge tetras is an actual game. I’ve been known to weigh up access to ingredient vs actual taste value. Sod it sometimes it’s not worth it!

-We’re mastering the wedge, which is outwitting the seastate by fixing oneself into a corner of the galley or anywhere else whilst sailing.

-Never did I think I’d dream of owning a household appliance!! Hand held dyson I think you’d change our world.