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Pageant & Monday Night Mas

by steve, on August 11th, 2009 (Bees Knees, Grenada, Video, Where II)

What a long day it was yesterday. We walked to the national stadium in time for the listed 1pm start of pageant. Due to earlier rain everything was delayed and things didn’t kick off until nearly 3pm. Once it started it was a bit confused as I think things were out of sequence to accommodate bands that hadn’t yet arrived. The first five bands were what’s called ‘Short Knee’ bands. It is very traditional but from our perspective, once you’d seen one you’d seen them all. The costumes were all very similar. They would come on stage and all stomp around accompanied by a chant to the same rhythm as all the others. For a while we wondered if they would all be like this.

Next came a sort of in between act where the band was made up of several groups. Each group had a theme. A story about vampires and slayers was narrated while each group came onto the stage. In the end it was just more stomping around but with more variety and some falling over and dying.

Then it went into the fancy costume parade proper. The bands had gone to a great deal of effort with their costumes. Each band was again made up of different sections. The band would have an overall them with each section would have a sub-theme. The sections would have the same costume, sometimes having a single participant with a very elaborate costume. Each section would have a different colour too. At the end they would all come onto the stage together in a riot of colour.

The music they would dance to was the usual thumping carnival music with the usual jumping and cavorting that comes with it.

One of the bands had had a few cruisers help out and join in. Matt and Karen from Where II took part. Matt played the ultimate tourist by bringing his video camera on stage with him.

We left after the last band played but before the results of the competition were announced so we have no idea who won the costume competition. Our favourite was “Journey to the Temple of the Sun” which had an Inca theme. We will get to see all the costumes again this afternoon coupled with the steel bands for the final street parade.

We went back to the boat for a quick bite to eat and to get ready for the night mas. This time we put on our ‘Digicel’ teeshirts and carried our red light sabers to join Jim and several hundred other revelers behind the Digicel truck. As a result of the Pageant delays the night mas start was delayed from 6:30 to 8:30. We turned up just after 7 to enjoy the build up. Part of our Digicel gear included a flask into which we could have as much rum and coke as we wanted poured in throughout the night.

Once the procession started we made our way very slowly around the lagoon and into the Caranage. We danced along with all the rest and both of us from time to time were ‘ground’ by strangers. I’m not sure of the right term for this but it reminds me very much of what Bonobos get up to and it’s very groinal. We enjoyed ourselves while adrenalin kept the fatigue at bay. Around midnight Helen began to fade so we left Jim to the crowd and made our back to the boat falling asleep instantly.

Despite the long day and lots of rum last night we’re in surprisingly good form this morning and looking forward to the final procession this afternoon when everything comes together. Given the experience so far this will hardly fail to please.

The one downside of all of yesterday was to learn that one of the other cruising boats anchored near us was burgled last night while they were ashore. Just shows that there are thorns in this bed of roses in paradise and we do need to take care.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3l9vVbyMKQo[/youtube]

Category: Bees Knees, Grenada, Video, Where II | Here is my comment

Jab Jab

by steve, on August 10th, 2009 (Bees Knees, Grenada)

Jeuve began with Jab Jab this morning at 5:30am. That’s not really true. It started about 10pm last night with music throughout the night with the start of the Jab Jab parade at 5:30am this morning. Jab Jab is a reference to the devil. Many are covered from head to toe in molasses or, more usually, used engine oil. Paint, many colours of it, is more usual.

We awoke at 4:45am, grabbed a coffee then headed off to the lagoon to catch the ‘beginning’ of the parade. The parade was the usual trucks with stacks of speakers followed by crowds of followers. It hadn’t started moving along the street when we arrived so we walked towards where the trucks were gathering.

In the dark the atmosphere was a little devilish but overall jovial. It was hard to avoid the paint as some was being thrown around and, more directly, folks in the street carrying cups of paint would smear it on us. It didn’t take long before we began to collect our own daubs.

We soon ran into Jim and walked down the road together back again to the start. We saw the tail end of the parade and the street behind in a mess. The parade was a judged competition so we made our way forward to where the judging was to take place as we figured that’s where the crowds would be most enthusiastic. I eventually concluded they weren’t really holding back at all and everyone was just enjoying themselves.

We watched all the lorries pass us by again and once the tail end had again passed we headed back to the dinghy.

We motored around to the Caranage to see how the procession was going. It was still in full swing snaking all the way around the bay.

Then it was back to the boat to clean up. We stripped off and jumped into the water to try and get rid of most of the paint. Then it was into the shower for more soaping and scrubbing. We still look a little pink and rosy on the cheeks despite our efforts.

Now we’ll rest up a bit before heading back into town. We want to see the pageant competition in the national stadium which starts at 1pm. We don’t have tickets for this so we hope to pick them up at the door or on the way. More later. For now, here are some pics of Jab Jab.

Category: Bees Knees, Grenada | One reader has left a comment, here is mine

Panorama

by steve, on August 9th, 2009 (Bees Knees, Grenada, Where II)

Most of yesterday was a well deserved rest. I left the boat in the morning to join Jim on a quest to buy Carnival gear and tickets for the evening Panorama. We met Jim later in the evening to go for a local Chinese meal before heading over to the national stadium for Panorama – the steel band competition.

As we were early we snagged seats right up the front with a great view. Matt and Karen from Where II showed up later and sat with us for the show which started around 8pm. The stage was already set with the first steel band. The evening kicked off with a local singer followed by the bands performance in front of the crowd and a panel of judges. In between each act would be a filler act – usually a dance group (the same one) – which was mildly entertaining. While the filler act played the previous band’s instruments were rolled off the stage and the next band’s gear rolled on.

The bands themselves were quite incredible. The larger ones were more of an orchestra with around 80 players and 160 instruments. Their performance was not just musical as part of the entertainment was just watching the energy of their movement and dancing as they played.

We felt the third band, New Dimension, was by far the best and they eventually went on to win. Their composition took them through quiet and loud segments, crescendos and more. Unbelievably, on at least two occasions the pace and volume kicked up giving a real rush to the audience eliciting cheers. Never seen steel bands like this.

The show finished around 1am. A bus and a dinghy ride got us back to the boat before 2am. I checked my amps used and voltage on the batteries of course before crashing to sleep. Great night out.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera.  If I can cadge some pics off other cruisers I’ll post them here later.

Tonight is Dimanche Gras – a calypso competition. Not yet sure if we’ll do this one. Carnival proper starts tomorrow morning at 5am. Info on Grenada Carnival can be found at www.spicemasgrenada.com.

Category: Bees Knees, Grenada, Where II | Here is my comment

1320Ah

by steve, on August 8th, 2009 (Bees Knees, Grenada)

Another marathon day. I started work on the batteries at 6:30 in the morning and finally finished connecting everything up at 6 in the evening. I also included using the old solar panel cables to double up the connection from the batteries up to the control panel to improve efficiency there. I also changed three lugs down in the drive battery areas which needed tools on the boat to do. There are a few things still left to do. I need to put in some cable ties to stop some of the cables flapping around. We also need to build a box for the last two batteries. The ties I’ll probably do today but the box can wait. We need a rest.

During the day I had to go to Island Water World – the nearby marine store – for some additional parts. Even though the previous day they didn’t have the lugs I needed I asked again as I needed another seven. Turned out they had a box load all the time. All that walking around, drilling and filing the previous day was unnecessary. Oh well.

I had a horrible sinking feeling towards the end of the project. Everything powered up ok, it seemed, but when I changed to “Mode 3” which is supposed to fire up the generator, nothing happened. I checked everything I could. No lights were on the motherboard that controls the system. I had a horrible feeling I had screwed something up. Then I remember I had turned off the breakers to the drive batteries when working on them and hadn’t turned them back on. I turned them on and all was ok. Phew.

In the evening we had Jim round for curry. While he was here, Ricardo and his wife Jay turned up to collect the tools he’d lent me and collect the batteries I was giving up in the deal. They stayed awhile and, as he was an avid fisherman, we learned a few local tips. It seems mechanics is in their family. Ricardo is giving his two year old son a 2kW generator on the basis his father gave him one at the same age. That’s the first time I’ve heard of two year olds with their own generator AND it being a family tradition.

Dinner and company was great. Must rest today because we’ll be up late tonight watching the steel band competition.

Oh. And 1320Ah is now the total capacity of our house bank. It’s an insane amount. It just means we have the ability to absorb several battery failures without being adversely impacted. The down side is that it takes forever to fully charge them. I need to fully charge the system to reset the battery monitor. We didn’t succeed last night so we’ll try again this morning while doing another wash.

Category: Bees Knees, Grenada | Here is my comment

Last Day in Trini, First Day in Grenada

by steve, on August 7th, 2009 (At Sea, Bees Knees, Grenada, Trinidad, Whiskers)

Needless to say, during our last day in Trini the humidity was again 100% and it rained, heavily at times. I had until 9:30 in the morning to drop off the rental car so I used it to pop round the stores a few more times. We needed some more starborg so I went there. They said they would be able to make some up by about 1 and that they would call. They never did.

The day passed by prepping the boat in between showeres and we said our goodbyes to friends. At 3pm we did some final food shopping, cleared out then bought and loaded up our wine and rum. On the way back to the boat we passed by Whiskers to our goodbyes to them. Au revoirs really. They’re on their way to NZ by next November too so we’re likely to catch up at some point.

Shortly after 4pm we were off. There was no wind in Chaguaramas to speak of so we motored to the channel. It seemed Dignity was performing better than before. This could be wish fulfillment but it’s possible the system was working better overall with the new batteries.

Once through the channel the wind still wasn’t up enough to effectively sail so we motored in a north easterly direction to get us up wind while we could.

Around 6pm we had enough wind to sail so we cut the motor. About this time the waters cleared enough to put on the water maker. We were pretty low so we had hours of running to fill up. Sleep eluded us for a but but eventually we settled into a rhythm. Helen slept from 9 to 11 while I slept from 11 to 2. During Helen’s shift the winds really picked up and we flew along making 7 to 8 knots, sometimes more. By the time it was my shift from 2 to 5 the winds gradually died to the point when about 5am I turned on the motor as we were not making good progress and a squall was bearing down on us.

We then motor sailed the remaining distance to Prickly Bay arriving just in time for the morning net. On the net we were reminded that due to Swine Flu restrictions we could only check in at St Georges (which we knew) but that we had to take the boat there too (which we didn’t). I guess this stands to reason as if we had swine flu they didn’t want us on the bus. As this was our third time checking into Grenada with the restrictions we knew the symptoms we were supposed to sign off on and knew we didn’t have them. Nevertheless we felt it improper to take the bus so we soon weighed anchor and we back to motoring around Point Saline to St Georges.

Once there we anchored pretty much in the same place as before. In the thin sand we know to be there the manson anchor set more firmly than our delta ever did. Not knocking the delta as it works most of the time but it seems the manson outperforms it. We then dinghied into the yacht club to clear in. We bumped into Jim from Bees Knees who is still doing his summer projects there and said a brief hello. We then popped over to Island Water World to see if they would cut cables and put on lugs if we bought lugs there. They said they would. That meant we were on for the house battery conversion. I’m keen to get this done before carnival. That way we can leave the boat for extended periods without worrying about the batteries.

Back on the boat I turned off the power and reconfigured the existing bank down to two 12V batteries liberating some cable which should yield enough pieces to make the set of connectors need for the first set of new batteries.

Back in Island Water World I discovered they did not have the right sized lugs. The ones for the cables I had had holes too big. I therefore took the bus to Southern Electric in the Prickly Bay area. Here I met Ricardo – the guy I set up the possible battery swap for tools. Together we looked for lugs in their store but they didn’t have the right kind either. He pointed out that he had the right tools to drill bigger holes into lugs, if I could find them, that fit the cables but had holes too small.

Next stop was ACE hardware. I was let out the back entrance of Southern Electric to save me a walk of nearly a mile. This involved climbing down a wall and jumping a ditch. All those hash walks had prepared me for this. ACE didn’t have the right lugs either so my final hope was Budget Marine. They turned out to have lugs that fit the cables with holes that were too small. Rip off prices of course but what could I do. I collected what I thought I needed (I now think I may be short) and trudged back to Southern Electric. Ricardo was glad to help. He drill out the holes while I filed off the rough edges of twenty lugs. I was then also able to borrow the hydraulic crimping tool and fancy cable cutter I needed. Out the back door again to get to the highway it was back on the bus and back to the boat.

On the boat I started by making the cables I needed for the first set of five batteries to go in the first box. With the day now coming to an end I figured despite the fatigue setting in from the crossing I had just enough time to get the first set of batteries in. I had to move the inverter to get access and remove the remaining batteries. Now without power I had to get the new box in, the five new batteries in and get them cabled up before we lost daylight. I just managed it in time. Juice was flowing. I reconfigured the charging system for the adjusted capacity and fired up the charger for 10 minutes to test. All was ok. Off with the charger and on with the cross charger to top up the batteries for overnight and that was that.

Dinner, wine and rest finished off the day.

We have a lot more to do today. The remaining seven batteries need to be installed. I need to remove the first set of five to install battery straps I forgot to put on last night. While I have the tools I need to change three more cable ends from the drive banks so I have lugs with the correct sized holes in them. These were cables attached to the boat so we couldn’t do them down in Trini. I don’t have the lugs for these cables so this will involve another run to the stores. I also want to use the crimper to put on the lugs for the doubling up of the cable runs from the batteries to the control board. A lot to do. Then, and only then, can we relax for carnival.

Category: At Sea, Bees Knees, Grenada, Trinidad, Whiskers | Here is my comment
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