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.