Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 2

Back again with Part 2. We left Part 1 as we set sail for 3 days of island hopping on the catamaran between cricket matches. To kick us off, here's a shot of Inge enjoying the sailing with our ever watchful and rather hilarious skipper Jeff at the helm.



We worked our way up the east coast of Grenada passing some stunning and
rugged scenery along the way (in contrast to the long strips of beach along the
southern coast where we started)......



.....with Chris doing a great job of pointing out
the best scenery!



After a good morning of sailing it was time for lunch and Jeff picked a very ordinary
spot (deserted beach with crystal clear water) for us to stop and enjoy a bit of
swimming and snorkeling before climbing back on board for a beautiful lunch
(the beauty of it was that we didn't have to lift a finger!!).




After a quick post lunch dip, we then had another long haul in the afternoon
to get to Union Island where we moored overnight. Chris took over the
Skipper duties so Jeff could have a much needed nap, once we were out in
very open water and he couldn't possibly hit anything!



We arrived at Union Island just as the sun was setting which was
a nice way to finish our day's sailing before heading onto the island
for a few much needed ice cold Carib's (the local brew).



These are a few shots of Union Island as we headed off the next morning for one of the highlights of the trip (ok, the top highlights of a whole trip of highlights!) in Tobago Cays, a group of small islands (cays) with beautiful beaches, palm trees, crystal clear waters and loads of turtles to swim around with, as you will see in the upcoming shots.




The following shots are all of Tobago Cays and I hope they do it justice, as it truly
was stunning, as were the fine array of very expensive water craft moored in the area!







We also caught up with a few of our friends who Ben played footy with in
Sydney who had also hired a catamaran and were in Tobago Cays. The shots
below are of Worker, Sophia, Niamh, Bunny, Cash, et. al. on their cat.



Here's Worker and Sophia heading off for a bit of turtle spotting......
........perhaps they also saw this one?



Inge on our boat soaking up the serenity!



We all headed over to one of the beaches in the evening where one of the locals
whipped up a freshly caught BBQ Lobster dinner, as expertly modeled by Karl
below! The sunset at Tobago that evening was serene.



After a good night's rest we were off snorkeling on the Tobago reefs the next day - the
first shot shows Chris being surrounded by the fish (as he had a bottle of fish food in his
hand, not because he is some sort of Doctor Doolittle!). It wasn't quite the Great Barrier
Reef but there was some reasonably diverse marine life down there.







Next section - interesting creatures of the deep! First up, the electric polka dot fish.....
......then those nasty sea urchins (don't mistake this for a rock like Worker did!).......



........and finally, a Karl!



Here's some more fish if you're not sick of them by now!




Inge relaxes in between snorkeling expeditions, and presents the Jones blog
"Spot the Fish" competition!



Worker fully submerged - looking for pearls(?) and a final fish shot for you!



We then raced "Worker's crew" back to Grenada to see the match against NZ.



We arrived into Grenada after dusk and Ben was bored after a long day's sailing so decided to play around with his camera on the boat. The first shot is a long exposure of the moon which created an interesting shape from the movement of the boat. The next shot is of the lights along the shore with the long exposure creating a Jackson Pollock-esque piece, which is dedicated to George as I know how much he loves Jackson Pollock's "work"!!



Well, that about wraps it up for Part 2. In our final installment there's highlights from the drubbing we handed out to the Kiwis in the last Super 8 match and our sailing to beautiful Bequia where unfortunately we had to leave the boat and commence our journey back to London whilst the boys headed on to St Lucia and the semi-final against South Africa. Hopefully we'll have the last installment up in the next day or two.

Take care,

Ben & Inge

Cricket World Cup - Caribbean April 2007 - Part 1

A lot to get through from our April trip to the Caribbean for the Cricket World Cup so will do this in a few parts. Our brothers Chris and Karl had organised their 5 week tour for the cricket months ago including a couple of yacht charters. About a month before the trip Karl had a few withdrawals from his tour which left some space on the boat for us and some spare cricket tickets....how could we refuse the opportunity to see the sun again, relax on a boat for 10 days and see a bit of cricket (and our brothers) in between?? So off we went (thanks to a very understanding boss allowing Ben some time off during a very busy period). First was the 8 hour flight to Barbados followed by a four hour wait at the airport for our connection to Grenada where we joined the boys with one night in a hotel before we joined our chartered catamaran for the next 10 days.

First day in Grenada we did a tour of the island by taxi (read toyota van) including Annadale "Falls" where we had a refreshing swim and Chris and Karl took the opportunity to have one of their few showers for the trip as you can see in the photos below:





Ben also used the opportunity to practice some action photography as Chris and Karl took the leap
off the viewing area (while Inge, in fancy new pink hat, watched on!):





Here's the "professional" doing the jump into the very shallow water from the top of the cliff about
30m up - these islanders will do anything to make a few bucks! We also spent a nice afternoon at the
beach and swimming in the crystal clear water whilst watching some beach cricket, West Indian style
(where they were actually playing 11 a side and bowling 6 ball overs from opposite ends of the pitch!!).



Here is the taxi we got on our way somewhere - apparently
he didn't have any seats in because he had just been transporting
cricket gear for one of the World Cup teams and hadn't had a
chance to put them back in yet!



Next it was off to our first match (Australia v Sri Lanka Super 8 Match) at the new Grenada stadium which
looked a lot better that the old stand in the picture below which was ruined by the cyclone a few years back.




There were plenty of Husseys in the crowd but these girls decided they needed to advertise the fact,
just in case we weren't sure!!



Finally the cricket got underway with Shaun Tait wondering why he was in the Caribbean.....
.....and with figures like these, no wonder!!



At least Bracken was holding it together for us......
....and has been taking "thumbs up" lessons from McGrath!



The legend himself meanwhile was soaking it all up in his usual hands on hips style!



Before coming on to bowl another useful spell.



Tait also managed to get things back on track and picked up a few useful wickets.



And with Hogg in great "tongue out" form, the Sri Lankans never really got on top and posted a fairly
ordinary score given the scared little buggers rested Murali and Vaas who couldn't face being
destroyed by Hayden and Ponting!



So Inge resorted to her usual pose at the cricket when it doesn't meet her high standards -
out came a book!



The Auusies made a pretty good start of the run chase and Hayden and Ponting played some nice shots....



Prompting one yobbo on the hill to bare his arse, possibly asking that old Abba question
"can you see the buns, Fernando?" or should that have been hear the drums??!!
Jayasuriya was looking suitably worried.....



........as Ponting cruised to another fifty and soon the Aussies needed only 1 to win
with plenty of overs remaining....



......so Punter decided to finish it off in style with a massive six, giving the Aussies a convincing win
and the psychological edge over Sri Lanka going into the finals.



Chris lets us know how much we won by......while some other Aussie spectators celebrate at the
House of Lords - the first combined mechanic and bar I have seen so far in my travels! Well, as
they say, any port in a storm!



We then walked back to our boat around the harbour at St Georges



And here it is!



Actually, we did a little better than that - Karl had chartered
a fantastic catamaran with 4 double cabins with their own
ensuite and including skipper (Jeff) and our hostess for the week,
Dany. Here Inge asks why we didn't take the previous boat??!!



After a great day's cricket and some well earned rest overnight, it was time to get underway for 3 days of sailing before returning again to Grenada for our second match, the final Super 8 match against the Kiwis. So I will wrap this first part of the "Caribbean Series" up with a couple of pictures of the boat as we headed off towards Union Island.



Coming up in the next posts: Union Island, Tobago Cays with lots of underwater shots, Australia v NZ and beautiful Bequia Island, our final stop. Until then, enjoy!

Ben & Inge