Grenada - Island Tour

We decided this year we would both go on an island tour. Last year I went on one with Randy and Aleitha while Griff stayed behind to organize the boat work. So decision made we contacted Cutty, the cruisers’ favourite taxi driver and tour guide and off we went. There were 11 cruisers that went on the tour – Teri and Jan on KIVA, Rik and Annette and guest on KOOLAU, Lew and Lyn with 2 guests on SILVER WING and us. We set out at 0845 and didn’t return until 1730.

We started the tour driving along the centre of the island, south to north. The road gave us a good view of St. Georges and our anchorage. Along the way Cutty told us about the various buildings that we were seeing and the damage they received during hurricane Ivan in 2004. We were aware of the churches, but he also mentioned the schools and prison. One interesting fact he mentioned was that most of the houses that were badly damaged still had recognizable bathrooms – toilets, sinks etc intact but not working. A lot of reconstruction has been done since Ivan, but there are still a lot of buildings that look the same as they did after the hurricane except for the plant growth that is taking over. It was also interesting that a lot of the rebuilding was done through Canadian funding or expertise. The first school to be rebuilt and reopened was done by Canadians.

Our first stop was by the side of the road to learn about some Grenadian plants. Cutty showed us Grenadian saffron (turmeric), cocoa pods, nutmegs/mace, callilou, and papayas.

Next stop was at Anandale Falls. Here most of the group went in swimming. Some of the more adventurous, read Griff, jumped into the pool at the bottom of the falls. Not quite as adventurous as some of the locals who were jumping from the top of the cliff into the pool. There was an older fellow there who was doing his laundry in the stream that ran out of the pool. Cutty said that it is quite common for people to do their laundry in the waterfalls.

Griff at Annandale Falls

After that refreshing stop we went on to Grand Etang Lake, a crater lake that provides the southern part of the island with fresh water. The attraction at the lake is the monkeys. As we were driving towards the lake Cutty was busy beeping his horn. By the time we arrived at the parking lot there were two monkeys sitting on the railing waiting for us. Cutty got out the bananas and we fed the monkeys, had them taking candies out of pockets or sitting on shoulders looking for bananas.

Next stop – Carlton Cocoa Station. This is where farmers bring their cocoa beans in for initial processing. The beans are stripped from the pods, placed in bins and covered with banana leaves where they ferment for 1 week (they are turned every day). After fermentation they are moved to the drying racks. The drying process is done by the sun and takes about a week depending on the weather. In case of rain the drying racks can either be rolled inside or covers rolled over the larger racks. The beans are mixed and turned every hour – this is done by a woman shuffling through the beans. Once the beans are dried they are put in the polisher to shine them and then packed for shipment. Most of the beans from this station will be shipped to Holland. Seeing this part of the cocoa process could almost turn one off chocolate – certainly nothing sterile or even clean about it.

Next stop – lunch and a tour of the River Antoine Rum Factory. This factory has been in operation since 1785 and still produces rum the traditional way from sugar cane. They produce the power required to crush the cane by a water wheel which since it is the rainy season was operating full tilt. The cane syrup goes into boiling kettles where it is reduced in volume and then into fermenting vats. From there it passes through the distilling process. The resulting rum must be at least 80% alcohol before they will bottle it. They produce approximately 2000 bottles of rum per week and it is for sale only in Grenada. They bottle 3 strengths of rum – 75%, 69% and a rum punch. Only the 69% and rum punch can be taken out of the country by plane unless you are leaving by boat then you can take the 75%. Again, as with the cocoa process, seeing rum made in the traditional way could turn you off rum. All the kettles and vats are open to the air and the only sterilization would be the distillation process where the fermented syrup is heated and turned into steam and then distilled.

Throughout the day Cutty was telling us about the nutmegs. BI (Before Ivan) Grenada was the second biggest producer of nutmeg in the world (they are now 3rd behind India). Ivan destroyed almost 90% of the nutmeg trees. We stopped at a Nutmeg Station, similar to the cocoa station except for nutmegs, to see how it operated. BI they processed 6 million pounds of nutmeg per year, now they process 600,000 pounds (10% of previous production). BI the station had 100 people working there now there are 12. It brought home how much devastation a hurricane does and not just to the physical aspects of an area. Homes and buildings are destroyed, but livelihoods are also lost. It takes a minimum of 4 – 5 years before a nutmeg tree will start producing and 8 – 10 years before it would be starting its prime production. A nutmeg tree produces fruit all year, not seasonally like our fruit trees, and can live for up to 100 years.

The last stop of the day was at La Sagesse Nature Centre. This is an estate that was owned by an Englishman who stopped access to La Sagesse Beach. The locals rebelled, tied him to an almond tree and forced him to provide access to the beach. This happened in the 70’s. The estate has changed hands, but the beach access remains. Finally back to the yacht club, into our dinghy and out to the boat. A very tiring, but satisfying day.

Semi-Blah Blog

The reason I called this the “Semi-Blah” blog is not because we are feeling the blahs but rather that the content may cover stuff that we covered before and it has no exciting high waves, big winds type of sailing in it. One of our readers told us that her prodigy wished we would write more about the “exciting” parts of sailing rather than expressing how we are feeling about what we are doing. I guess when I was in “other days, other ways” I might have felt the same but times change so what you get is what you get.

By the way, Cheryl and I were wondering whether we needed to put pictures in the blog any more – we question if they are looked at. The reason for this is that a few blogs ago Cheryl put a picture in of her and I that we thought might spark the odd comment, particularly anyone who has known me for a goodly length of time (hint hint - my kids, my siblings) I got an urge to make a change and at the same time was wondering what I looked like under my facial hair. Keep in mind that I have now had my beard constantly since1992 (I had it periodically for lots of years/times before that) and I realized that I have had a mustache since 1972 (37 years, wow I don’t even feel that old). Anyway, off it came and eureka!!! There was a face under there which Cheryl insisted in putting on the blog. I guess either it didn’t look any different or no one saw it or MAYBE nobody cared (just kidding). Incidentally I have my “pirate” face back now so rest easy if we will be meeting while we are back in Canada this summer.

I think our last blog left us in Prickly Bay after sailing down the windward side of Grenada. We decided since we were owed a few days on a mooring ball from last year we would use the ball for a few days. They charge (very little) money for the balls in Prickly Bay but we noticed this year that hardly anyone was using them. By coincidence we picked up the same ball that we have picked up every time we have moored in the Bay – I think it is 4 times now. Maybe we should put our name on it!

After settling in things just naturally fell into place. We feel quite at home in Grenada so there is not the worry about what can we get done where and how do we get there and what can we do while we are here etc etc. We had stopped in Prickly Bay first because we wanted to set things up for when we put the boat up and come back to Canada. We now have most of the work organized – quotes received, haul-out set, parts ordered. Only one job left to organize and the fellow for that is off island for a couple of weeks. That in place we then had to find a place to stay. The boat is being hauled out on August 7th, however, we don’t leave until August 13th. We could stay on the boat in the boatyard, but that would not be a pleasant experience even for a short time. We tried the place we stayed at last year, but August 10th is the beginning of the fall university session and Wendy did not have any room available. We contacted another place we found on the internet. It was an interesting experience. The owners were away in Calgary for medical needs, their son-in-law was looking after the place while they were away. He is from Calgary and works in the oil/gas industry. Small world isn’t it? We decided not to stay there although the price was right it was about a 20 minute walk from the boatyard. We finally found a place across the street from the boatyard and booked for the five days in August. We should also be able to stay there when we come back in October.

After getting all that organizing done we decided to move out of Prickly Bay. We moved to the west side of Grenada and anchored between St. Georges, the capital, and Grand Anse Beach. It is a quiet anchorage and actually quite central to everything we need. A short dingy ride and 5-10 minute walk gets us to 2 -3 different grocery stores. We are also within walking distance of the bus to downtown or the boatyard. We could actually walk from here instead of taking a bus. It would be about a 30 minute walk to either place from here. I commented to Griff yesterday that the distance between places seems to be getting shorter the more often we walk it.

Last night we had Tito and Roberta from Alleluia over for supper. We had met them last year when Griff and Tito worked on the dinghies together in the boatyard and then again in Trinidad in August. They have been sailing in the islands since 2002 spending their time between Trinidad for the hurricane season and then as far north as Martinique during the cruising season. However this is going to be their last year this far south. The next cruising season (starts November 1st) they are going to head up island and end up in Puerto Rico which is where they are from originally. Because they have spent so much time here they have lots of information to share on where and how to get things done.

One other way to get that sort of information is on the Grenada Cruisers Net. This is a net similar to the Coconut Net we are controllers for. What it does though is keep cruisers aware of what is happening on the island. One aspect of the net is called ‘Treasures of the Bilge’. That is for cruisers to offer anything they may have that they want to buy, sell or trade. We mentioned we had a working SSB radio (our old one) and a fellow came back and offered to build a new, wooden cockpit table. We had priced having one made and the quote was $1600US. That we couldn’t afford. When Ted suggested the barter we jumped at it. He said he should have it finished within a week. That will be nice. The table will be bigger than the one we have now and of course wood instead of painted.

We will stay at this anchorage until the table is ready then it’s off again. We may go north to a bay that has good snorkeling or to one of the other bays on the south end of the island that we haven’t visited yet. Where ever the spirit leads us.

Sailing the WINDWARD Side

So, what is it about the WINDWARD side that rates capitals. I'm not sure. We have sailed down the islands and then down the islands again and hadn't sailed on the windward side and the thing is, no one else does either. At first glance it only makes sense to do it. One of the most frustrating things about sailing down the Leeward and Windward islands is, you start off from whichever anchorage you happen to be in and the first thing you have to do usually is get clear of the island. The prevailing winds down here are always from the east. They may be southeast or northeast or straight east, depending on the time of year, but they are always from the east. This means of course that if you sail down the leeward (west) side of the island, the wind from the east is blocked. On some islands that don't rise too high out of the sea there is less affect but most of the time there are mountains (not like the Rockies but still...)

So people leave their anchorage, try to sail but usually motor sail until they are clear of the island and then between islands there is a mad rush of wind and seas and whoopee - you're sailing. Of course even between islands the winds are affected so don't necessarily appear on the sails from the direction that the weather people say the wind should be coming from and that can be fun too. On the positive side, the seas are also affected by the islands so it is usually calmer and less rolly. Of course I am getting sidetracked - are you surprised? Where was I??

Okay, then why not always sail on the windward side where the islands don't get in the way. Truthfully I am not sure but I have some thoughts - as I usually do. When I think about where the winds and seas are coming from - Europe and Africa - it seems to me that this gives them a lot of time and space to build up power and strength and "peskiness". Of course while this is true, it doesn't necessarily mean that is a problem. That is what weather forecasting and weather information is about. But that is still a long distance to build up power etc etc.

The other thing is that of course there are very very few anchorages or safe havens on the windward side because there is usually no protection from all of the wind and seas. So - if something happens that you need to find shelter i.e. boat problems, unexpected weather etc, then you are SOL.

Whatever - I have rambled enough, on to our journey. We left Tyrell Bay about 7:00 am with winds about 18-20 knots almost directly from the east. Since we were heading pretty well south that put us on a beam reach - wind directly from the side and a great way to sail. The seas were about 3-5 ft, also from the east. Although that meant we were in the trough, this isn't usually a problem if the period (time between wave peaks) is long. For us it was about 12-14 seconds, which is great. The seas did increase later to about 7-9 feet but again because of the period it was not a big deal.

We had been experiencing quite a few squalls when we were in Tyrell Bay but the skies were clear and stayed that way. It was funny how one can get used to something and not even realize it. In this case, it was seeing the islands on our starboard side. If we had travelled up island before of course this would have not have been the case but since we had done the Curacao-Antigua trip last year to get back to the Leewards this was something new.

As you are likely aware, we have a mainsail, a foresail and a staysail (going down in order of size). We use the first two regularly and when wind conditions are a little low we bring up the staysail. Yesterday we didn't need our third sail as we were merrily beating along at 8-8.5 kts, almost upright and with little affect from the swell. WHAT A SAIL - it kind of guarantees that when we have another chance we will certainly do it. Grenada and St Vincent both come to mind as good islands to do that on. Of course going north, you have to be a little more cognizant of the wind and sea as there is more chance that you will be heading into them.

The only down side - if it could be called a down side - was that when we turned the corner on the southeast corner of Grenada the wind ended up directly behind us which meant we ended up putting our foresail completely out and taking in the foresail since when the main is all out it blocks the wind for the foresail. We could have done it the other way around and left the foresail up but truthfully I didn't think of it and although Cheryl did, she made the unfounded assumption that I knew what I was doing. It didn't really matter because we were still able to keep it over 6 kts until we reached the opening for Prickly Bay.

So, here we are once again in Grenada. We both really like it here and we have things to do so we will keep ourselves occupied for a while. I tend to get antsy when we are too long in one place so we may try other anchorages if that happens. Since we choose not to go north (hurricane season has started), if the travel itch become overpowering we can always head for Tobago or even for Los Tostigos but we will play this all by feel. We put Mystic Journey up for antifouling and some other minor work on 7 August and then fly out for Canada on the 13th so I am sure we will keep ourselves meaningfully occupied until then. We will keep you posted.

PS from Cheryl
Griff forgot to mention the fishing on the trip down. Having bought a new lure in Clifton, Union Island to replace one he lost, he decided to try fishing again. We were sailing along and he said 'I think I got a bite!' I looked out over the stern and sure enough he had got a bite except it was a brown booby that kept diving at the lure that must have been just below the surface. This kept happening for a while until Griff felt the line go slack. When he pulled it in sure enough the lure and leader were gone. You know Griff - so attach another lure and try again. Almost immediately he had a fish on the line. You could see it come to the surface, long and silvery. The brown booby also saw it and started diving on it. As he was bringing it in I saw the fish do a jump and a bit of a tail flip and it was gone. That was the end of fishing for the day.

Carriacou - revisited

Well, Cheryl got us to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. We seem lately to be getting into anchorages that have a layer of sand over a hard bottom or a layer of sand with weed cover, both the type of anchorage that requires great diligence to "conquer". Tyrell Bay didn't disappoint us. Although we seemed to set our anchor, when we dove the anchor we could see that the hook had not really dug deeply into the bottom, rather that it had gone under the roots of the weed bed. Rather than try to find a more sandy spot we decided to let lots of rode (chain) out and let it do the work it is supposed to. As it turned out, it was more than adequate in spite of some very blustery (and high wind) squalls that passed through. We didn't seem to have this trouble last year as we visited all the islands as newbies. Maybe ignorance is indeed bliss!!

Carriacou belongs to Grenada and has two main towns, Hillsborough and Tyrell Bay. It is very laid back and the people are quite friendly. Doyle's book quotes a man who says "People does like it here, we move nice wid dem as we does wid each other - no corruptions or hatreds, all is one". It is said - and I know it is true about the gas stations - that it is an island with over one hundred rum shops and only one gas station. The signs over the liquor shops are cute - we are licensed to sell spiritual/spirituous/intoxicated/intoxicating (take your pick) liquors.

We had gotten some really great baguettes from a store in Hillsborough when we had stopped there overnight so as a way to explore we decided we would walk back there from Tyrell Bay and get some more. The entire trip took us about 5 hours plus an hour spent in Hillsborough. There were lots of ups and downs on the trip there as we took the road route. Typical island vegetation but we could see that the rainy season was just starting as there were lots of dry spots and yellowish leaves. On the way back we decided (on the advice of the lady with the great baguettes) to take the beach route and this was much more enjoyable. We were able to walk over halfway back along the beach, with a brief trip along a forest/jungle path when the beach access was cut off. By the time we got back to the boat it was swim and rest time and we both slept well that night.

The next day was mostly filled with many spells of torrential downpour and we were just as happy to take the day as a "do a little boat work and lots of reading day".

On the day prior to our long expedition we had walked up a road that we had noticed the last time we had been on Carriacou with Randy and Aleitha but had not explored. This one led up to a school and then off into the interior. Since it was quite warm on land because of no breeze, we chose to take a smaller side road that was supposed to take us to Cassada Bay. Where it finally took us was into the mangrove forest on a dirt road that looked like it had been plowed very roughly once upon a time and then abandoned. At one point we came across a bunch of buildings that looked like they might have once been a resort but was now being used as a farm. There were goats (there are always goats) some cows and some horses. We decided that it probably belonged to someone and was in use so we decided to skip that. Nothing exciting on this day's journey but we got good exercise and enjoyed exploring, as we always do. Cheryl here - not exciting but interesting - on that relatively short walk we saw four graveyards. We spent some time walking through the biggest of the four. What I found interesting was that we saw no headstones for children. Most of the headstones were for elderly people. Since this was an older graveyard and some graves were from the early 1900's, I would have thought childhood mortality would have been higher.

Last island exploration took place on Sunday. We thought since we had gone in one direction on the main road and had also explored the only significant side road off the main road, that we would head in the other direction. I won't stretch this one out. Good exercise, lots of goats, some sheep this time and at the end of the road, pig pens that obviously were not subjected to regular cleaning. Since it had rained so much one particular day and we had had showers almost every other day after that, the roads were quite muddy so we didn't get to the absolute end but it was fun. Always good to get back to the boat and swim and laze though. We had decided to leave on Monday so when we got back we couldn't immediately jump in and cool off. We first did the "get ready for sail' chores that need to be done and raise sweat (in Cheryl's case cause a "glow") like take the dinghy motor off and raise the dinghy etc etc. Then swim, laze, watch Mash, SG1 and an episode of NCIS - we traded for the 4th year of NCIS recently. No actually we didn't watch NCIS - we played crib so we could inscribe our crib board - a tale for another time.

Stay tuned. As soon as I can get to it after we post this, we will post our "Sail Down the WINDWARD Side of Grenada" blog.

Holidays and Customs

Well we decided June 1st would be a great day to move from Union Island. It was after the weekend so we wouldn't have to go to the airport to check out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG), therefore no overtime. Not so!!! We should have realized something was amiss when Erika's Marine Services and the Customs office at the dock weren't open. Sure enough after we walked to the airport and filled in the clearing out papers, the customs agent informed us that we had to pay $65EC overtime charges. Apparently June 1st is a public holiday in St. Vincent and the Grenadines. This was not mentioned in the guidebooks. After paying it and clearing out with Immigration (another $20EC) we headed back to the boat and then were on our way.

We headed for Petite Martinique (PM), about 3nm away. PM belongs to Grenada, but it is recognized that it would be inconvenient for cruisers to clear in at Carriacou and then go back to PM so it is possible to stay at PM without being cleared in. This also applies to Petite St. Vincent which belongs to SVG. It is a private island next to PM that has a resort on it. There is also a tiny sand 'island' at the end of the reef on PSV that looks like the typical deserted island.

Mopian

We did not stay at PM. When we were about 1nm away we could hear the thump, thump, thump of bass and as we got closer to the island the bar music became quite loud. We have been spoiled as far as having quiet anchorages. The last time was in Rodney Bay, St. Lucia. We decide to head to Carriacou and clear in - another 3 nm. At least we were able to sail with light winds. We should have bit the bullet and stayed at PM with the music.

Petite Martinique

Grenada also had a public holiday - Whit Monday. This meant overtime charges at Immigration ($20EC) and Customs was closed. We had to check in at Hillsborough, the captial, but were planning on moving to Tyrell Bay, a nicer bay to anchor in. Because Customs was closed we chose to spend the night in Hillsborough Harbour - very rolly and the anchor alarm kept sounding because we were swinging with the current. Griff finally got up and spent the night watching the GPS to make sure we were just swinging and not dragging. Nice guy that he is he let me sleep rather than sharing watches. His reasoning is that he wouldn't sleep anyway. I managed to get some sleep. Next morning we went into Customs, bought a few groceries and headed over to Tyrell Bay. We anchored next to Don and Heather on ASSEANCE, another Canadian boat, and settled in.

We spent one day re-familiarizing ourselves with the area as far as where things were and getting the WiFi organized. It will be great to have access to email again. I can't believe how much more out of touch I feel when we can't easily access email.

Now we are organized and ready to start exploring the island.