A Trip to De Market ....Dis was Great Fun

On Saturdays there is a market in St. George's and we decided to take advantage of the fact that we are closer to the city here at Prickly Bay than we will be when we move.  We had hoped to have left this anchorage by now; however when you are dealing with boats and getting them ready to cruise there can be any number of things that can delay you.  We think that we fried the new radio when Rob was doing the connections.  The good news is that the radio can be fixed, the bad news is that we had to buy a new one to use now.  We will fly the radio home and either use it at the cottage to see the information on the freighters or install it on Free Spirit and she will have a very impressive new high tech radio.  Such is the life of cruising...you either wait around and hope someone can fix what is broken or you buy a new one and chalk it up to experience and the cost of cruising. 

The market was a bustling place and most of the people shopping were locals.  There were all sorts of things that we are unfamiliar with; however everyone is helpful when it comes to discussing recipes and what to do with the assorted fruits and vegetables. 

The market is all along the waterfront and the boats that you see are local colourful fishing boats.  

The young man selling sweet bread did not have much of a hard sell with my captain.  His mother no doubt sends him out and tells him not to return until the baking has gone.  The bread was yummy. 

Between the waterfront market area and The Carenage you have to either climb over a very large hill or go through the Sendall tunnel that was built in 1894.  The other day Sandy and I had done lots of climbing so Rob and I decided to try the tunnel route....just room for a single file pedestrian and one way traffic.  

On The Carenage waterfront there is a statue called Christ of the Deep.  It is a replica of the original which lies underwater off Genoa, Italy.  The original 1954 work, was recast and presented as a gift from the people of Genoa, via the Costa Shipping Line, to the people of Grenada.  The figure is of Jesus  with arms outstretched in a gesture of blessing to mariners leaving port.  The inscription on the statue reads:

"To the people of Grenada in grateful remembrance of the fraternal Christian hospitality shown to the passengers and crew of the Italian liner Bianca C, destroyed by fire in this harbour on October 22, 1961. 

Was it not the Costa Line of cruise ship that went aground off of Italy last year?  I am not sure I would be booking a cruise with this company any time soon???

Once back to Celebrian it was time to unpack and bleach the fruits of our labours. Given that there are cockroaches and other small critters that lay eggs we are very careful when it comes to bringing things aboard.  All cardboard is removed immediately and left ashore or in the dinghy.  Cockroaches like to lay their eggs in the glue.  As for the fruits and veggies I give them little bath in a light solution of bleach and water and this will kill any likely guests. As we have said on many occasions nothing is easy on a boat and daily chores seem to eat up one's time.  We did however, enjoy a lovely dinner of tuna and a vegetable pack expertly BBQ'd by the captain.  I am building up my courage to try cooking the vegetable that we bought called christophene, a type of squash that is popular on the Caribbean islands.  

Today is Sunday February 24th and we have moved to Mount Hartman Bay next to Prickly.  You will be able to follow our progress by looking at the chart in the past blog entry.  We followed our friends John and Kathy on Katerina who moved here yesterday. This is one of their favourite anchorages and because there are no buses town from this anchorage it is a little less crowded than some of the others.  The anchorages are like living in a floating United Nation's village and we have met and seen boats from Sweden, Finland, France, Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Germany, Holland, England,Italy, as well as many other Caribbean islands, with very few American and Canadian boats. When I see how few Canadian and American boats are here in Grenada I realize what an accomplishment it was sailing here?!   

   

If you look close enough you will see two rainbows.

A Fun Day in De City of St. George's

I spent a great day with Sandy in St. George's getting an overview of this lovely Caribbean port.  Of course it would not be a tour without a stop at a Roti Restaurant with a Carib beer.  As most of you know I am not a beer drinker; however if I am hot and thirsty enough I can manage a few swigs!?!  Rotis are a Caribbean specialty made of pastry filled with local vegetables and a choice of meats if you wish.  Goat is popular with or without bones?!?  We ordered several to pick up later and take home for dinner.  The captain was delighted when I showed up with local fare for dinner...veggie not goat?  

St. George's is the capital of Grenada.  The population of the island is just over 100,000 with about 22,000 of those people living in the city.  It is said to be one of the prettiest cities in the Caribbean.  It certainly it is one of the hilliest I have seen and climbing through the streets is a good workout.
The Carenage is the name given to the waterfront of St. George's and the harbour is lined with local fishing boats as well as tourist boats.  There was lots to watch while sitting on the front deck of the Roti Shop.

Sandy said that most days there was at least one if not two cruise ships in port.  After Hurricane Ivan devastated most of St. George they built a new cruise ship dock away from The Carenage complete with a market.  We tried to stay away from that area of the city after the ship disgorges 3,000 passengers on shore.

In 2004 Sandy's daughter Jodi and her family were living in this apartment above a store right in downtown St. George's.  The hurricane removed their roof in 20 minutes and they scrambled to the next building that had a basement of sorts and spent close to a day huddled with many others.  It was over a week before Sandy heard from her.  After the hurricane she and Troy decided to build a new house out in the country where they are now.  Hurricane Ivan had been the worst hurricane since the 1950s.  There are still many buildings that have not been re-built since Ivan.  The architecture is quite lovely but if the money is not there the buildings can not be re-built.

The local people are very friendly and this lady wanted Sandy to take her name and write to her.  She was a custodian and on her way to work at the local primary school.

The fish boats come and go from The Carenage.

The anchorage outside of the city of St. George's where we anchored last year.  When Rob was in St. George's in the 1990s you could anchor in The Carenage but there are far too many cruising boats now to allow this any longer.

De Tings Te Do before De Boat Leave De Harbour

It is day three on the hook and we have been working hard at getting Celebrian seaworthy and ready to move to another bay on the south coast.  The wind has been 30 knots plus and gusty so we definitely did not want to pound in to 6-9 foot seas.  This is the view from Celebrian's cockpit as the sun rises in Prickly Bay.

The large map shows the whole of Grenada. I will have a better idea of the island once I go on a tour which I hope to do next week.  The other maps are taken from our cruising guide which shows all of the bays along the south coast.  It is no wonder that so many boats come here with so many wonderful deep bays to anchor in.  Most of the best anchorages are on the southern coast.  The trade winds blow consistently from the east with a little north thrown in once in awhile so these bays couldn't be better.  That being said we still get quite a swell in Prickly Bay and it took us a little while to get our sea legs.  Some of the other anchorages will be better protected; however there is bus access here as well as the marine store so people will put up with the motion.    

 
The captain has been working on the wiring and we now have a new depth sounder installed.  The previous depth sounder drowned in hurricane Irene.  We have said many times that we were very lucky that the only thing that we lost during that almost direct hit of Irene on Green Turtle Cay was our depth sounder.  This depth sounder we flew down from home and now is happily telling us our depth.  Of all the instruments on board the depth sounder is by far the most important piece of equipment.  Because of its importance we have depth available on our radar screen as well. In addition to the wiring for the sounder Rob has installed our new radio microphone which is mounted at the helmsman's station.  Our new radio has what is called AIS which allows us to see information about other vessels and in particular large ships.  We will not only get their position but we will see their name,course and speed.  If necessary we will be able to hail them and make sure that they are seeing us.  On many an overnight last winter we had large container ships unwilling to let us know if they could see us.  It is unnerving in the dark when you know that they are travelling at plus 20 knots and we are sailing at 5.

The admiral has been doing some stainless steel polishing and basically trying to stay out of the way of the captain....not an easy feat on a 36 foot vessel?!?  In fact he has been encouraging me to do things on my own so I have been doing a little kayaking and running errands at the same time.  Tomorrow I am heading over to Grand Anse to meet my friend Sandy and we are going to take the bus into St. George's and show me around.  This kills two birds of paradise with one shell....I get a feel for the capital city of Grenada and I get out of the captain's way.  

Bougainvillia is the national flower of Grenada and it is in bloom everywhere in many colours.