One of my favorite things about living in a floating home on the water is that I can see so many different parts of the world all from the comfort of my own home.
I can travel around at my own free will, changing my scenery whenever I please. Outside my window I see palm trees, white sand beaches and sleepy little towns. I snorkel along the coral reefs just a few feet from my home and I explore the beauty and history on land in each new place I visit. The only thing in control of where I go is the weather.
If you’ve ever traveled through the Caribbean, you know that Hurricane Season consumes the months of July through November. The warning systems in place for weather have evolved considerably, though a Hurricane or Tropical Storm can change courses within a matter of hours. It’s critical to check the weather reports several times a day during these months to keep an eye on developing weather patterns.
There are several designated Hurricane Holes throughout the Caribbean but the safest place to stay out of the Hurricane Zone all together is to be below 12-degrees North Latitude. Last year Peter and I joined a few hundred other cruising sailboats and spent the season in Grenada, a country historically hit by very few Hurricanes. Grenada is also close enough to Trinidad which almost never gets hit by a Hurricane so in the event that a Hurricane is ever headed for Grenada, we would most likely have enough time to bee-line it down to Trinidad until the storm passes.
Summer in Grenada is hot and teeming with mosquitoes, but incredibly lush and beautiful. While hiding out from the Hurricanes and trying to escape the heat and bugs, we managed to stay busy with all kinds of exploring on land as well as diving around the shorelines. Here are a few of my favorite photos from once upon a time when I lived in a tiny floating home in Grenada:
Outside my window, the beauty of Grenada has captured a very special place in my heart and my memories.
If you could take your tiny house anywhere, what would you see outside your window?
By Jody Pountain for the [Tiny House Blog]
Right now, it would be warm, sandy beaches. Close, in Texas and California, but heading back to cold and snow too soon!
Robyn, Warm sandy beaches are my favorite too 🙂 Enjoy the coast in CA while you can and I hope you will have fun in the snow anyway!
I am so glad you mentioned the heat and mosquitos, otherwise I would be eaten by jealousy. Heat and skeeters pretty much spells h-e-double-hockey-stick to me. I wondered how people dealt with the hurricane season so thanks for answering that question so beautifully and allowing us the vicarious pleasure of a trip to the Caribbean.
Alice, I see a lot of beautiful places but I have to work hard to be here. Whether it’s mosquitos, stifling heat, crazy squalls or critical boat parts breaking, there’s always an exhausting flipside to all the postcard photos 😉 I’m glad you enjoyed this little peek into life on a boat in the Caribbean!
“If you could take your tiny house anywhere, what would you see outside your window?”
Oz.
Now that’s a place I would love to see, Sparrow!
Your photographs are wonderful! You certainly have a good eye for composition, etc.
I enjoyed them thoroughly.
Thank you so much CathyAnn! I truly appreciate the compliment 🙂
What do the people of Grenada do for a living? I’ve heard there are salt water mosquitoes, also. Did you experience any of these? Nice pictures. I used to live in Hawaii, and the undergrowth in Grenada is visibly much denser than even in the Hawaiian watersheds. What are some of the high points you visited on land there? Any pics?
If I could have anything outside my window, it would be an ocean. Most of my relatives were islanders, too.
Hi Lisa,
Grenadians work in all the businesses that support a typical population, but many are focused on the boating and tourism industries. We met many locals with all different backgrounds.
I’ve never heard of saltwater mosquitos but I’m not surprised they exist! In Grenada there are a lot of mangroves and wet areas where the mosquitos love to breed. There were two main kinds, ones that come out at night, and striped ones that would be out all day. Chikungunya is a disease similar to Dengue Fever that about 40% of the population contracted from mosquitos while we were there last summer. Peter and I were lucky and didn’t get it.
We explored on land quite a bit. Definitely check out all the blog posts I published on my website with the tag “Grenada”. You can find them all here: http://www.wherethecoconutsgrow.com/tag/grenada – There are a lot more photos and stories there 🙂
I’m with you about the ocean… it feels like home to me.
Thanks for the beautiful post and pictures! My husband and I spent our honeymoon in Grenada. We were there in November so there weren’t too many bugs and the temperature was perfect! This post brought back a lot of memories. It’s a really beautiful place.
Hi … I sure do enjoy seeing all your beautiful Caribbean photos and “daydreaming” of living this lifestyle. Whenever you dock at a new place, is it free? Or do you have to pay any type of docking fees?