The Scarlet Ibis

Currently Slow-Mocean and crew are in the Manamo River in the Orinoco Delta Region of Venezuela.  This is turning out to be the greatest trip we have ever taken.  Too many sights and experiences for my feeble mind to put into writing but I will try and write about a few.

The Scarlet Ibis is a beautiful bird reminding me of the white crane you see in Japanese art with the black wing tips.  This bird has at least one striking difference and that is its scarlet red plumage.  The bird seems to forage under the mangroves and along the beaches and low water estuaries.  They remind one of Pink Flamingos only smaller and a much deeper red.  One of the first species of birds we saw as we were entering the river mouth in Perdinales was the Scarlet Ibis as they foraged along the river banks and sat perched in low lying limbs.  Further up the river they flew ahead of the boat and perched high in the trees until we approached then they moved on again and waited as we caught up. 

Ibis Island is a small river island perhaps a half a mile long and eighth wide.  It is a forested island covered in thick branching trees.  It is at the south end of the island we were told we should anchor the boat and view the Ibis.  We anchored about 200 yds south of the island and due to current and water depth etc, I felt like playing it safe so we did not get overly close to shore, this time.  As dusk approached many Ibis could be seen perched high in the trees surrounding the island and a few were landing at the southern tip as we had hoped.  Truly a great place to watch this bird.  Then as the light began to fade birds started flying in from every direction in classic V formations much like Canadian Geese.  They would head straight into the island and land, five, ten, fifteen at a time.  It was great to watch and as we watched it seemed that a thousand birds were perched on the island.  The inevitable happened as the mosquitoes moved in for dinner and started moving us inside.  As we turned to run in, thinking the show was basically over, we noted a huge wave of birds in the distance headed directly for the island.  Amazing I thought.  I had never seen that many birds flying together at one time.  Not even starlings in a grain field had these numbers.  I looked around and the sky was filled in every direction with birds coming to roost and they looked like waves on the ocean as the lines of birds undulated and glided ever closer. 

As the evening wore on we watched the green trees transform into what appeared to be trees bearing giant red fruit.  As more and more birds arrived the trees started to resemble the red flamboyant trees in the island s and as the sun descended the island was nearly one shade of red.  Because we have such cheap and useless cameras we of course have nothing but grainy, poorly lighted and absolutely dreadful pictures.  So sad our good friend Trish decided she would not accompany us.  Her 200mm SLR would have had a hay-day. 

In the morning we awoke before the sun was up and we quietly went on deck to listen as the morning quiet was transformed into a cacophony of sounds when the Ibis started to wake up.  As with the night before a few birds here and a few birds there started flying off to points unknown.  Then as the sky lit a bit more formations of birds emerged and flew into the distance.  In the distance a motor was heard and a Warao Indian came rushing past the island to get a better look at us, and the great flock arose and dispersed into the morning sky. 

Pictures to follow, once we get enough bandwidth to send some, but to be honest they are not so good.

Festival of Lights

Were a little late on this post as the festivities have been over for a couple weeks now. We were fortunate to be taken to a Divali celebration here in Trinidad.


I don't imagine many people equate Trinidad with India or Hinduism or for that matter many people probably don't know what Divali is. I will not enlighten you here, I'm sure. All I have been able to gather is that it celebrates the return of Lord Raama from his battle against the evil Ravana.

On his return the people lit small clay lanterns along his path so that he would be able to find his way home. The lines of lanterns are called Divali and it is now called the festival of lights. If your a Hindu or listen to too many Cat Stevens albums and you wish to take issue with my interpretations please don't bother. The point of all this is that the people here in Trinidad are not only of African decent as many would imagine, but also of East Indian decent. It is because of this population that Divali is a big deal here.

We were taken to the town of Felicity which I was told consist of 90% Hindu and 10% Christians. We entered a local temple and were welcomed by the caretaker who presented us with a quick story of Divali over a squawky PA system, which when combined with his accent sounded like the teacher in a peanuts cartoon.

There was a beautiful young lady who danced to a couple of songs and then a trio of drummers came in and did a bit of drumming. They were all quite good. To be fair the caretaker was a very nice man as well and we had a great conversation after the mike was turned off.

Our host and tour guide, Jesse James had a traditional meal set up for us and it was served on Large leaves. The food was vegetarian and because it was a religious holiday we were asked to not eat any meat or consume alcohol that day. Most of the Hindus we met had been fasting for over a month. Luckily I love Indian food and can't get enough roti so this meal which would locally be called a bus-up-shut was just perfect despite the glaring lack of meat on my leaf.


Once we finished we were told to take a walk around the neighborhood. Not something one would consider doing at night in this country, or any unfamiliar town.

We were treated to some of the nicest people one could hope to meet. As we walked people were in front of their homes dressed up in their "Sunday best" lighting the Divali lamps.

Fortunately the wind was minimal and there was no rain. The lamps are fashioned from clay.

The lamps were often placed on the ground or on the wall in front of the homes.

Bamboo was also split and woven into different shapes with the lamps or other lights affixed. A simple two rail fence fashioned from bamboo was also common. The lamps are filled with coconut oil because it creates less smoke. With this many lamps burning, smoke would have been a concern.

Fireworks were also present as was the use of what we used to call spud guns. These were made from large bamboo logs and filled with diesel. They work like a cannon and apparently send quite a few people to the emergency room every year. As we walked along people would be quick to greet us and start conversation. They also will give sweets to the guests who come by.

The sweets consisted of hand made treat bags which contained a dough like sugar cookie dough and perhaps some pieces of fruit. Nothing fancy and nothing store bought.

You know this was one of the best holiday celebrations I have ever witnessed. It combined aspects of Thanksgiving, Halloween, Christmas and Independence day all in one. With the exception of the local cell phone company lighting up a block or two with posters in the background there was no commercialism and the spirit of friendship was abundant.

I wish there were more holidays like this one. It was beautiful, peaceful, and left everyone I saw that night with a huge smile. Perhaps because they didn't have a ton of new credit card debt.

Greetings from Trini

Had a great sail down to Trinidad and found a YSATT mooring to keep us tethered to the anchorage.  So far Sunny has kept me busy hauling around her bags of shopping goodies.  We took a nice tour to the Divali celebration and hope to get some pics posted soon.  We are preparing to head further south to the Orinoco Delta and visit the Warewoa <sp> Indians and check out a rain forest river delta with howler monkeys and great flocks of brilliant birds. 

Stay tuned

Moving on

The time has come to stop hiding from the hurricanes. Grenada has proved to be a wonderful place to spend the summer. It has been hot but the summer trades, great bays and the people of Grenada have made it a real pleasure. Not to jinx the season here but the weather has been much calmer than we could have hoped for. We were only in contact with three lows since June and none of them were tropical. Meaning we got some wind and a bit of rain but nowhere near the intensity of a cold front on the US east Coast. We were fortunate to meet many great and interesting people. The dark side of cruising is of course that we all go in separate directions and staying with your buddies usually proves too onerous a job. The wind blows differently on each boat. For us the wind seems to be pushing us to Trinidad which is about 80 miles due south. We intend to do an overnight passage so as to arrive in Trinidad no sooner than 0800. Customs is notoriously snotty in Trinidad and they probably get trained by the US Customs which we have found to be the most inhospitable agents so far. With luck we won't hit any oil rigs or encounter any pirates. Yes they do exist. We hope to do some shopping and meet some old friends who summered in Tinidad instead of Grenada. Hopefully we will find someone who would like to try the Orinoco River. Stay tuned we hope to have some fun this year and hope to dramatically improve on our photography skills.

As we prepare to weigh anchor we would like to say thanks for a great summer Grenada. You are a true Caribbean jewel.

Sunny and the ladies out on a lunch date.

Sunny and the ladies keeping hydrated?


Sunny and Jane sharing a lunch at the beach.


Chili float. Hal of "s/v Main Bris" invited all to join him for a dinghy float. Hal provided the chili and the guests provided the toppings. MMMM

Getting educated: Helped tutor kids who needed extra help in school. Not sure who learned the most here. Some really great kids.

Sunny had her hands full tutoring this young girl. She may have met her match.

Be the Captain

Please take a moment to answer the poll at the bottom of the page. You can help guide us through our next stage of the trip. We are a bit undecided as to where we should go. We could go north to Puerto Rico and get some some rum, mail and parts for the boat. We can head South to the offshore islands of Venezuela and see the sights along with carnival in Trinidad. We can head East to the islands of Antigua, Barbuda, Barbados, Marie Gallant, and St. Barts which we missed on the way down. Finally, we can head West and try to make Cartegana, Columbia for Christmas and sail to the San Blas Islands.

Refreshment

Since it was raining we decided to spend a day exploring the island. The mud is amazing and after you slide down a hill with 5 lbs of it on each foot a waterfall is a refreshing pit stop.



We arrived at Mt. Carmel Waterfall on the East coast of Grenada a few miles south of the town of Grenville. Who can resist standing under a waterfall and being pounded by thousands of gallons of cool water.



After a refreshing shower and some time cleaning our shoes we headed off to Grenville and toured the fish market. The Japanese have built a number of these on the islands in the Caribbean and they are very well done. The fish are kept in proper cold rooms and ice is readily available to keep them fresh in the hot weather.




Next we headed north the Rivers Rum Distillery. Rivers has been in business since 1785 and they claim that they have never stopped production.



Not much has changed in the last 200 odd years. They still raise their own cane and everything is done by hand.


The only machine is the Juicer which consists of an old steel water wheel connected to a crushing machine.



All the juice (I suspect that the gear lube also would be considered a juice in this heat) from the cane is drained under the machine and is transferred by a pipe to the cooking room.



In the cooking room the cane juice is reduced by boiling from one kettle to the next until it is concentrated enough to cook in its own juices and start fermentation.



The fermentation takes place in these large concrete walled tanks. I was expecting stainless or copper but I guess it would spoil the end product.



The Rivers Rum Distillery is proud of its history and the fact that it hasn't modernized it's process. When asked if they aged any of the rum in barrels they said that the demand was much too great to be bothered with aging it. They simply distill it in these grand old kettles and condensers and transfer it to underground tanks where it is ladled out and bottled by hand using funnels.



The next part of the tour was the moment we had all been waiting for, tasting. They had three versions of their rum to choose from. A spice rum made with allspice, a regular 70 proof white and the best of all; the over proof, 150 proof rum. The spice rum was actually kind of good and Sunny decided to purchase one.



I tried the over proof and to be honest I think I would have rather drunk brake fluid. Like the oak barrels that Jack Daniels is aged in you can really taste the subtle hints of aggregate and fly ash in the concrete of the tanks. Something grabbed my larynx on the way down and tied it in a knot.



If you ever find yourself in Grenada and want to try something a bit different, this is the place to go. Despite the harsh taste of the rum it is interesting to watch people make rum as it was made hundreds of years ago and to see a real water wheel in action.



There is something so special about the place that despite the fact your throat may stop working your smile won't.

Oil Down

We were invited to an Oil Down Saturday. I had no idea what that was so we decided it was a must to attend. Basically, you have to think of a bunch of guys cooking in the back yard on a weekend. It's that sort of event. The Oil Down itself is a type of dish which is made of local ingredients and cooked in a pot over open fire till done.


The guys in charge of this event were Cuddy and Justin. Two local taxi operators who showed us how to prepare the food. Here Cuddy explains how to clean and prepare breadfruit. It is similar in taste and texture to potato when cooked.



The Breadfruit is layered on the bottom then topped with a layer of meat.




This was mostly chicken, turkey and salted pig tails. They were marinated in cooking peppers, salt, shadow benny and onion.




Another layer of Bread fruit and assorted pieces of pumpkin, yam, and green papaya followed by yet another layer of marinated meat.



This was topped with more breadfruit plus green banana, carrots, a layer of callaloo which is the leafy top of dasheen.


Dasheen is another starchy root. With a 50:1 starch to protein ratio here I guess it wasn't required. The seasoning was a sprig of fresh allspice, ketchup, mustard, and several bottles of both red and green cooking sauce.




While all of this is going on, everyone gets a turn grating coconut and turmeric in a large bowl. This plus the inevitable blood flowing from everyone's fingers makes up the cooking liquid.



Water is added then the gratings are squeezed dry. The liquid is then poured into the pot until it is visible.




Once the liquid boils dumplings are added and then it is time to sit back and have something cold to drink as we wait for the oil down to occur.



Oil down is when the liquid is no longer visible hence the oil has gone down.



Once oil down happens the pot is cooked and it is time to serve it up to 50 hungry people. Along with the myriad of desserts and appetizers the cruisers brought to share there is certainly nobody going to bed hungry.

Taste of Summer

Nothing says summer like fresh roasted corn. We found some corn being cooked over real charcoal and it smelled great!

Unfortunately, corn comes in lots of different varieties and feed corn is an acquired taste it seems.