Grenada Sailing Week!

January 31st- February 5th is sailing week here in Grenada. Even before I had heard that this is what was going on, I knew something was up because of all the extra awesome boats that have been sailing by our house on a regular basis for the past day or so. Such a cool part of living right on the ocean!

There have been sailing festivities and races almost every day in honor of sailing week and we saw some of the set up begin for the larger weekend activities while at the beach on Friday. Lots of tents, boats, and hustle 'n bustle! There was just an overall feeling of excitement in the air and you could tell that it was going to be a weekend filled with fun on the beach. 

Since Nick did crew throughout high school, I knew this was up his ally and I hated to see him miss out all together so I gently pushed him into taking a study break for a couple hours to head down and check out the boats! We are only here for a few more months so this isn't something we will get to see again, and I am SO glad we went! Unfortunately, just as soon as I started to walk to the catch the bus, clouds began rolling in super fast, and before I even made it to cover at the bus stop the rain began to fall. Thinking it would be a typical Grenada rain and only last a short while, we proceeded to head to the beach where we eventually came to accept that the rain was not going anywhere. The races continued though and at the end of the day the rain made for a little extra excitement. There were several different food vendors there as well, so we got fish patties and some other local foods to snack on for lunch!

At one point, a boat flipped over and we watched as they struggled to turn it back over before a rescue boat went out to help pull them in.  In a scary change of events, one of the men sailing on the boat got tangled up in one of the boat's ropes and was pulled under water. All of a sudden many other sailors and bystanders were rushing into the water to try and assist- one man even went running into the water with his huge machete prepared to cut him loose. Nick and his friend Minh almost had to break out some Dr. skills and perform CPR but thankfully, once on shore the man began spitting up water and although seemed disoriented, it appeared he was going to be fine.

All in all, it was a fun day and one of the many times that we stop and think to ourselves "wow we really live here!?" It's not every day 2 Michiganders like ourselves can stroll down to the ocean and watch hundreds of boats race and fill the horizon- it was pretty darn cool!