Deh Island Tour

The cruisers have a connection with a local tour operator that runs an around island tour.  I signed Sandy and her friend Kathy and myself up for a tour and left the captain back at the boat to get our water maker up and running.  Every year Sir Anthony Water Maker the Third is temperamental and usually it takes some fine tuning and a few new plumbing parts to get him up and running smoothly.  Since the forward pull man has to be taken apart and the mattress and Freddy the foam  be placed in the salon it is rather chaotic, thus the captain's desire to have the last mate off of the boat. It took little convincing and since Rob has done the tour it seemed like a good thing to do.

Grenada is about 120 square miles and since it is a volcanic island it has some mountainous areas.  We climbed and climbed up through the rainforest into some very pretty valleys and hills.  The views were great of St. George's and the western side of the island.

Grenada is known as the spice island and in particular nutmeg.  Our driver Justin made a stop at a little garden and shop that sold spices.  He showed us all of the different plants and vegetables that are grown on the island and explained the various uses.  I bought some ginger (both ground and fresh) to try in a drink mix.  It is supposed to be good for digestion and motion sickness.  We hope not to need too much sea sickness medicine this year but it is always best to be prepared.

Up at 1,950 feet is Grand Etang National Park where we were able to view crater lake.  Justin told us that there were 52 rivers on the island and those rivers were a god send after hurricane Ivan.  Some areas of the island were without electricity for many months and the people living in those communities had to collect water and use the fresh water rivers for bathing.  Listening to him talk about the hurricane was very sobering; although at the same time he talked about how everyone joined together to help each other which was very positive.

We stopped at Annandale Waterfall which is a cascade of water 10 m high in a very pretty garden setting.  Naturally I took the opportunity to go for a dip in fresh water.  It was quite wonderful to cool off and experience a waterfall.  The locals jump off of the cliff in hopes of tips from the tourists.  

Justin honked his horn and grunted calls for the Mona monkeys in the park.  They have learned that when they hear the calls there are bananas to be had....and the heads of tourists to sit on!?!?  Not the least bit afraid of people these monkeys were brought to Grenada from African in the days of the slave trade.  Their numbers are down after the hurricane and it now rarer to see them.

From Grand Etang we visited a Nutmeg Factory in Grenville, the second largest city to St. George's and located on the east coast.  Back before Ivan Grenada was the top producer of nutmegs in the world with Indonesia as the other competitor.  After two consecutive hurricanes the nutmeg production is only 50 per cent of what it was before Ivan.  Nutmeg trees take upwards to 10 years to be productive so the recovery is slow.  The processing plant that we visited used to be a bee hive of activity but now there is only one factory out of 3 doing actual production.  The whole nutmeg is used for something...the outer soft fruit is used to make jams, jellies and syrups...the red scale lace over the inner seed is the spice mace and the inner seed is the nutmeg itself which is used as flavouring for baking and beverages.

Grenada is also famous for growing cocoa beans and making a wonderful organic chocolate.  I had no idea how labour intensive making cocoa was until we toured The Belmont Estate where they grow and process cocoa beans.  The white sticky beans out of the shell take many weeks of drying and fermenting before they begin to smell like cocoa.  They need to be dried in the sun and turned over every hour on the hour.  The women used to shuffle in the beans called "walking the beans" to keep them aerated. The ladies on the tour had a chance to try out the process. They now use long rakes to move the beans but it still has to be done on a continuous basis.  After the tour we had a chance to try both the chocolate and the cocoa....both equally delicious.  A chocolate bar has now gone in to Celebrian's sin bin....a place to go looking for comfort food.

We had lunch in Grenville at a local restaurant where I picked up a vegetable roti for Rob for dinner.  I must say I really quite like rotis....a dish made of flatbread that is stuffed with a mixture of curried vegetables, fish, chicken or goat.  It is tasty and very filling and a by product of the East Indian influence.

A visit to Grenada would not be complete without a tour of a rum distillery.  We visited The River Antoine Rum Distillery which was constructed in 1785and has been running continuously since that time.  The machinery and the processes of rum production employed by the estate go back to the 18th century to a period of colonial rule and to a time of slavery.  The huge waterwheel, some 8 m high, is powered by water channelled from the river along an aqueduct and over large wooden paddles.  The wheel in turn drives the machinery, which includes a huge crusher used to extract cane juice.

The cane juice is filtered through wicker mats and then ladled by hand along a succession of enormous copper bowls which are heated by fire below. This is where the cane develops its sugar concentration. Once this has happened, the juice is channeled into large tanks where fermentation takes place and finally after about a week it is superheated and distilled in these large tanks with ovens underneath.  The bottling is a very manual process.  The rum is decanted into large plastic drink coolers and then hand- poured into bottles.  They produce about 80,000 bottles a year!?!?

Of course we had to have a rum tasting...straight at 150 proof and in a rum punch form.  Gratefully there was a water
chaser available!!!  This rum was definitely not a sipping variety at 75 per cent alchol.  Evidently the airlines won't let you fly with anything 70 per  alcohol or more so The River Antoine includes a 69 per cent rum as well.  I think you could pour this rum directly into the airline tanks if necessary?!?

It had been quite a day....monkeys on my head, walking the beans, swimming in a water falls, eating chocolate and drinking rum if you can call it that!?!?
The good news is that when I returned to Celebrian the captain was all smiles and Sir Anthony was ready to turn salt water into drinking water once again....our own on board distillery.

Free enterprise is alive and well in Grenada....Mark's rum punch was a popular purchase!?!

Some  homes have outdoor ovens built into the cliff side.  It makes sense in a country where the temperatures seldom go down lower than 25 all year round and 24 hours a day.

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.

De Big Mess....Before De Even Bigger Mess

After the provisions have been stowed away it is time for the captain to tear apart the quarter berth and work on the starting battery.  This necessitates filling the salon with everything that is stored there as well as taking out the mattress.   The good thing is that once this is done we can re-pack the quarter berth storage facility and re-think the things that we need to have handy.
We plan on leaving the dock tomorrow as our house bank of batteries are looking much better today.  We will head east along the southern coast of Grenada and find a nice place to anchor where we can do some more work on the boat.  Once again I remind everyone of the definition of cruising....fixing things in exotic places.  The captain has some major wiring to do for our new radio which will create de bigger mess and involve lifting the salon table and the sole (floor) of the cabin.  Then of course it will be time to service Sir Anthony Watermaker the Third and that involves taking the berth all apart and living with its mattress in the salon.  Ya gotta love de cruisng way of life to live like dis!?!

Even the galley gets filled with assorted boat things....none of which are food.
Tonight we are meeting Sandy, a friend of ours from Bayfield and her family for a BBQ at Bananas Restaurant.  We actually shared the ride to Toronto with her and flew down on the same flight.  Her daughter Jodie married a Grenadian and she and Troy have been living here for about 12 years with their two daughters. They met in Ontario but Troy always wanted to come back to Grenada to live.  As much as we like the warm weather both Rob and I would not want to live here all year round.  We do love Canada and our dual life works really well right now. 
Troy had never been on a sailboat like Celebrian until the other day in the boat yard.  Today he is looking forward to seeing her in the water at the dock and hopefully looking better than she does in these pictures? 

Rob, Troy, Sandy, Jodie and Zara enjoy sundowners in Celebrian's cockpit.  Everyone enjoyed seeing her floating and looking much improved.

This picture shows the boat yard at Spice Island Marine Services.  At the present time the yard is about half full and they can accommodate up to about 130 yachts up to 80 feet.   Of course this is their busy season launching cruising boats.  During the hurricane season from July through to October things slow down; however there is plenty of work being done on boats to keep the employees busy.  The pink building in the background is Cool Running, the apartment where we stayed for the first five nights.

Celebrian is tied to the dock enjoying her all expense paid battery charging weekend.  Notice the boat to the left of the picture.  It is about 80 feet long and has been in the same place for over 8 months.  Not only has it been on the hard there but the yard crew has been working on her.  Can you imagine how much the bill will be for that boat?  We pay about $600.00 a month to store Celebrian and we do all the work!?!?

In the background is Prickly Bay which is on the south coast of Grenada.  We anchored out there last spring before we hauled out.   There  seems to be quite a good sized fleet of boats anchored here.  We will head east and see how busy the anchorages are?

Back in the Water Again

No matter how many times we have done this it is always exciting to see Celebrian picked up and taken to the water.  In The Bahamas it was all done with the travel lift; however here at Spice Island Marine Services the boats are stored so close together that a hydraulic trailer has to come and pick up the boat and take it to the travel lift.  Celebrian, being somewhat on the smaller side was shoe horned in beside a rather large boat and it took some fancy driving to pull her out of her spot.  The travel lift here can lift 70 ton so Celebrian was a light weight at her 12 ton;although she did get 200 feet of new anchor chain from the captain for Valentine's Day.   The old chain was literally disintegrating from the years of salt water.  I love to swim in salt water; however living in a salt water environment is hard on everything.

We are tied up to the launch well dock at Spice Island Marine Services for the weekend so that the captain can make love to the batteries until Monday morning.  Even though the batteries were new last winter storing them in the tropics takes its toll.  Only one cell is poor so we should be in good shape by Monday.  Friends had their whole battery bank dry out so we are feeling fortunate.
Last year we spent some time sailing with John and Kathy on Katerina.   I had kept them up to date with our travel plans and they surprised us with a visit yesterday.  They stored Katerina here at Spice Island and have been sailing since early January; although John was down in December doing some work on the boat.
This weekend will be very busy as we do our major provisioning.  We were happy to hear that the grocery stores deliver free if you are at the boatyard and purchasing a significant amount.  Grocery prices here are a little breathtaking....my $3.50 romaine heads are $10.00 ....we are eating regular head lettuce.  Once we are established we will have to check out the local markets.  Grenada is most famous for its spices and nutmeg and mace in particular.

We have just returned from two major provisioning trips.  This is approximately $700.00 worth of mainly bulk goods from CKs.  Gratefully they deliver so that was incentive enough to shop there.  Our second grocery shop was at the IGA Valumart where we handed over another $160.00 and took a cab back to the boat yard.  The good thing is that we don't have to row everything in the dinghy since we are tied up to the dock until Monday morning.  We are tired, hot and a little grumpy; however this too shall pass once we find a place to store everything.

Before the hydraulic trailer came for Celebrian  we had to hoist Goldberry up to the davits.  This picture shows that my fitness classes this winter are truly paying off. 

A Happy Crew Sees Celebrian Again

A happy captain sees his big girl again.

The admiral was happy when she saw her apartment accommodation.   As a rule we have stayed on  on the boat in the yard ; however it is so hot here that it is a luxury after working  all day to come back to an air conditioned room.  It isn't fancy as we even have to heat our water for dishes on a propane stove but it is much less chaotic than trying to live and work on the boat on the hard. 

Speaking of working on the boat here is the captain giving Goldberry a face lift.

It would seem that the admiral always gets the cleaning jobs. 

The Spice Island Marine Services boat yard is a very busy yard with about 130 boats.  Celebrian is probably the smallest yacht in the yard and when I am cleaning her I am glad of that fact.

I just love seeing the children in their school uniforms.  Of course they love having their picture taken.

Life is definitely different when you live in Grenada.  The girls in green are out canvassing for their upcoming election for president.  The goats escaped and were out looking for greener pastures.