“I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving: To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it – but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.”- Oliver Wendel Holmes

 

February 9, 2013

Today, we have begun to sail north.  North.  Away from the Equator.  Away from South America.  Towards home.  Home is still a long way off, but philosophically, this turn is a game-changer.  We are no longer sailing away into the sea.  We are on our way back.  What a difference it has made in our mindsets.  Grenada was our southernmost destination.  We accomplished what we set out to do.  But it was symbolic and big to turn around, even with the many fascinating ports that lay ahead of us.

CARNIVAL!!!!!

Our next port of call was Carriacou, an island just north of Grenada that is part of that country.  Carnival season had been in full swing since we were in Dominica, but now it was time for the real Carnival celebrations and we had timed our itinerary to land in one of the few places that celebrate Carnival in April (Dominica, Carriacou, and Trinidad).  Other countries celebrate in August.

We pulled into the unprotected harbor of Hillsborough but Chris was feeling sick.  He had a fatigue that hit him like a ton of bricks and he couldn’t move for three days.  He would attempt to get up and eat something, but would only manage to drink a cup of tea and then collapse back in bed.  It was awful to watch him feel so sick and Chris missed the entire Carnival celebration.

Wendy and I went into town when we arrived in order to scope out the scene.  The town appeared to be a bit rougher than many of the islands we had visited.  The stores were a little on the down and out and the people didn’t strike us as open and welcoming at first.  The town was clearly getting ready for Carnival.  Every store had piles of giant speakers outside their doors.  Some had as many as nine speakers on each side of the road.  Wendy and I tried to look cool, but it was all we could do to not put our hands over our ears like a couple of old fogies.  The sound literally pushed against us as we walked by the speakers.  You know that Bose advertisement, with the guy sitting in front of his stereo, listening to the music as the sound pushes his hair backwards?  It was like that.

 

I don’t know why we were surprised, but we couldn’t find anyone or any signs to tell us what the schedule was for Carnival.  We knew it incorporated three days of various events, but we needed to know the times and locations and all that.  As our friend Dave says, “This is not possible.”  Most people gave vague answers, like “The jouvert starts at around 5am and then the parade starts.  Just follow the music and you’ll find it.”  FYI, the jouvert started in the middle of the night, after the Calypso contest ended.  And the parade didn’t start until 5pm the next day.  This kind of thing went on all three days.  We finally just started listening from our boats for the music to get louder and we would head in an hour after that.

Here are a few things we learned about Carnival, aside from the fact that having six children very much decreases your chances of getting into trouble:

 

Jouvert: also known as Jab Jab.  This is a party that starts early in the morning.  Everyone comes out in all kinds of outfits, from torn up clothing to creepy costumes.  Everyone covers themselves in paint from head to toe while dancing, singing, and drinking.  By the time we arrived, at the late hour of 7:45 am, there were as many people passed out on the ground as still standing.  It was quite a scene.  The drinking was a little over the top.  Many people had not gone home after the calypso contest the night before and were three sheets to the wind, as we sailors like to say.

One group of men, covered in tar-like shiny black paint were dressed in costumes that were scary and quite, um, provocative.  At one point, one of them came up to us (you know, our group of 6 children and 4 parents).  He was thrusting his hips at us and laughing .  When I looked down, he had a giant, fake “addition” sticking out of his fly.  Not wanting them to see, I turned to the kids and spun them around quicker than Vanna White with her letter tiles.  Cheeky Kate looked up at Craig and said, “I already saw it.”  We still laugh over that whole scene.  So Jab Jab = drinking, loud music, paint, and inappropriate costumes.  All before 7:30 in the morning.

 

Next time I’m marching with them!

Parade: We went back to the boats once we realized that Jab Jab was too much for the kids.  We weren’t sure when the parade started, but we didn’t want to miss it.  We had lunch and kept our eyes on the town, but it seemed pretty quiet.  Apparently, everyone had gone home to rest (pass out).  We went in at around 1pm and walked around, looking for a good spot to watch the parade.  We checked out some of the stores, spoke to a restaurant owner about how to make Oil Down (the national dish) and finally found a nice, shady spot at the turn in the road.

We saw children milling about in their parade costumes and, at a roadside food stand, we met a few women in full costume, complete with glitter, sparkles, and max. cleavage.  I totally wanted to be one of them.  We waited and waited and waited some more.  The kids were very patient and created a game using bottle caps that they found on the street.  I ignored the fact that we didn’t have access to soap and water for the next three hours and pretended that they wouldn’t be putting their hands in their mouths at any point.  See how much I’ve grown?  Finally the parade arrived.  Band after band of people marched by in all kinds of colorful costumes.  The music was great and everyone was happy and dancing in the streets.

We met a great family from Australia, on a boat called s/v Moana Roa.  They had just moved on their boat a few weeks earlier, so we had a great conversation with them about getting used to life on board and especially about those first tough weeks of boatschooling.  Their kids jumped in on the bottle cap game.  Apparently, it hasn’t taken them long to figure out how to make friends as a “cruising kid”.

Shakespeare Mas: This was perhaps my favorite part of Carnival.  All year long, the men of the island practice reciting Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.  At Shakespeare Mas, they dress up in colorful costumes with a stiff, protective cape.  They pair off in the middle of the street and begin to recite the play, each taking a part.  If someone misses a line, he gets beaten with sticks on the back of his “protective” cape.  I’m not sure who came up with this cute little game, but it was fun to watch.  The men played their parts with passion and gusto.  They took their beatings with pride, and when each pair finished, there was laughter, smiles and hugging between the two. (The children of the town had their own Shakespeare Mas, minus the beatings.  I didn’t make it over to watch them as I was enthralled by the grown-up version, but the others said it was very cute.)

Again, I will let the pictures do the talking.  If you are as fascinated by the joy and culture of Carnival as we were, I hope you will visit the website of s/v Anything Goes and check out Wendy’s story and pictures from Carnival (click on the Threekidsandaboat link in the left margin of our website).