December 2008: Land Ho! Grenada at Last!
The sun was just rising and we beheld a beautiful sight - mountains. “Land Ho” Ade shouted, and there she was, the large and lovely island of Grenada. We entered St Georges Harbor, scooted in the well buoyed channel, hoping to find that anchoring was still possible in the lagoon. We knew that the Port Louis Marina development would eventually take it over as they had somehow wrangled a way to buy it all. Junior, Port Louis’ dock master hopped in his runabout and ran out to Voyager and made us both a deal we couldn’t refuse- a bargain priced opportunity to tie up alongside the sparsely populated brand new docks and just in perfect time to get ready for a Thanksgiving celebration. Junior is a hard man to say no to. He is powerfully built with yards of long braids (not dreads) extremely clean cut, and with a killer smile. Before we knew it we were all aboard V planning a week’s worth of activities with various relatives of his and enjoying celebratory champagne as we had finally stopped going east and were now ready for our northward journey up the Caribbean chain of islands, which we assume will be a bit easier going!
St Georges, Grenada is just fantastic to see, colorful 19th century buildings, forts and churches built up steep and lush green hills that look out across the sea and down on the beautiful harbor. The Carenage is the other lobe of the harbor and is lined with all sorts of commercial boats, small cargo ships that unload right onto the cobblestone streets, fishing boats and small brightly painted skiffs. No matter what time of day I was out and about, I would see crowds of beautiful school-aged children dressed smartly in their uniforms quickly walking, talking and laughing on their way to or from classes or lunch. They speak the Queens English here, quite easy to understand and communicate with - but quite impossible to understand when they are talking to each other… and everyone says “Ya Mon” (yes) and “Irie” (kind of life is good), “lime, mon” (chill out dude) and the easy to understand, “every tin’s gonna be awl-rite”.
On a perfect early morning walk with camera in hand, I saw that, on closer inspection, many of the buildings were in ruin, and most I learned, from Hurricane Ivan who came ashore unexpectedly in September 2004. Ninety percent of the homes on the island were damaged and the islands vegetation devastated. Many islanders live on a subsistence level, which until that point had been a veritable Garden of Eden; fruits and vegetables, spices, fish all in abundance provided food for the people and for export. Four years later, much of the landscape has recovered, and most individual homes have been repaired, but few of the churches and buildings. I think they want to do more of a restoration, which eliminates the possibility of quick demolition. Some of these buildings had also been damaged during the American rescue mission of 1985. I will not call it an invasion and most Grenadians still thank us for our help getting rid of Maurice Bishop’s Cuban Communist friends, who were taking over all branches of the government, and threatening to turn it into another Cuba, which is not at all what the majority of the islanders wanted.
Provisioning is fantastic as there is Food Fair/Foodland and other good Supermarkets along the waterfront (Lagoon Rd) and also in the “suburban” Spiceland Mall area and the resort areas towards Grande Anse. (which I of course remember as Grand Arse, as in mine). Crazy inexpensive van/busses ($1.50EC) make getting around from St. Georges and the anchorages very easy. The money is also quite easy as they use the EC, or Eastern Caribbean dollar, fixed at $2.67 to the USD, and this currency is good in almost every island country (except the French islands of Martinique and Guadeloupe who use the Euro) all the way to Anguilla. ATM’s are everywhere. The marina will take your laundry even if you are anchored out. The small marinas in the southern anchorages around popular Prickly Bay also have laundry facilities, but it’s more hit or miss, i.e., maybe it’s working or maybe “not working so good today”.
Grenada has some wonderful restaurants, but downtown St George’s was pretty limited the week we were there, more often than not, they were closed or empty when we wanted to go and with provisioning so easy, we found that our best meals were on board. Do try BB’s Crabback on the waterfront for said crabback or other fresh catch, it’s quite good, he has a quirky dinghy dock, but if you keep your eye on your dink you can keep from it ramming underneath the restaurant, its fine.
This Thanksgiving was truly a feast and we all had so much to be grateful for. We started the day off with a brunch onboard WS, and Les & Rose hosted the turkey and trimmings meal that early evening. What fun to be able to make traditional dishes with a Caribbean twist…we’d been hording for weeks, not knowing that we could buy anything we wanted once we got to Grenada… Rose had a turkey from Panama she’d been saving and dealing with in her freezer all this time. Dottie had Pumpkin bread for everyone and her famous cranberry chutney; I managed to find a leek so I could make my Pumpkin soup according to my recipe and not have to improvise. Boney, Junior’s uncle, and former policeman, took us on a great island tour that ran from the SW to the NE, and introduced us to the plethora of plant life on Grenada. We toured River Rum Distillery, the Grenada Chocolate Company, parks and beautiful waterfalls, made pals with Lover Bay, his “pet” monkey, ate lunch at a delightful “locals” restaurant near Grenville and he still got us back safe and sound (not easy on those roads with aggressive bus/taxi drivers) by sunset.
We left a day ahead of the others as we had canvas work done and need to get around the “corner” of Pt. Saline, for installation. While there were only a few other cruising boats in St. Georges, there are dozens and dozen’s in the Prickly Bay/True Blue area. We dropped the hook and took a nice long walk around to familiarize ourselves with the area, have a drink at the well advertised Dodgy Dock, and check out the True Blue Marina. It’s nice, but didn’t really have the “vibe” we were looking for, funny some places feel like home and others just don’t click. We saw that Musetta was indeed tucked in safe and sound there, for them it must have felt like heaven. We met
Stephanie and Jeff in Cartagena and they have had nothing but trouble since they left that secure port. Made our troubles seem small indeed. They have decided to stay put for awhile - no wonder!
While Prickly Bay is nice, we opted to move over to the popular Hog Island/Calvigny Island area. We found a great spot near Clarks Cove, and Whisper Cove - easy dink ride to both and free internet to boot! The new Le Phare Bleu Marina and Resort complex is where Dave & Jane have their canvas shop. While there we realized that the gourmet restaurant housed in the old lighthouse ship, Vastra Banken, had opened the previous week. We made dinner reservations for the next day - and it was one of the best meals we’ve ever had. Chef Mark Bankthorpe, of the cookbook “Tastes of Spice” has created a fantastic menu, and wonderful atmosphere. Magnifique!
Sublime evenings like that are followed by a humbling 5-hour for one load of laundry ordeal. I went ashore to the French hippie run Whisper Cove to do a quick load of laundry as I’d been told the dryer at Clarke’s was kaput. There is one washing machine, one dryer and it sits outside next to the bar/restaurant/reception/patio/everything area. This machine had a mind of its own and was a bit of a nightmare as it accepted my wash, started off fine, but washed for over three hours and wouldn’t let me open it up to retrieve my now tired, soapy and heavy with water items. There was no sink to rinse them out, so I’d be stuck with a mess anyway. So I stayed, kept ordering waters, doing emails and tried to act nonchalant as a couple argued non-stop in rapid French using frenzied hand gestures just next to me, and then realized that I was absent-mindedly scratching my legs, not paying attention to the fact that I was being eaten alive. Argg. A radio call to Ade brought bug spray and company for what looked like was going to be an overnight ordeal. Thankfully, the dryer was much faster, only 2 hours to complete its cycle. Ah the glamour of the Yaaachting life! If it were fresh water we were floating in, a rock on the shoreline would have been much faster and better.
There’s a great cruising community in Grenada and it can be quite social. We were able to get out to Clarks Court for their Burger and a Movie Night, and over to Woburn for the Lasagna Thursday nights and socialize with fantastic people who have spent years cruising these waters. I can see spending a nice winter here, Grenada has it all for the cruiser, including a community.
Grenada and Carriacou (locals pronounce it Carrie-cou) and Petite Martinique make up the nation of Grenada. We passed by Petite Martinique, but did not stop, preferring Tyrrel Bay on Carriacou and were delighted with it. Very friendly people enjoying gearing up for the Christmas holidays. We walked everywhere, picked up a local girl, I should say, she picked us up and proceeded to identify every leaf and plant as well as the local inhabitants, who she would greet with big kisses and hugs. No one walks she told us, so it was a very big deal, and actually a very long walk, to have her escort us from the anchorage to the town of Hillsborough for marketing. Town consists of several streets of markets, shops with just about everything, churches and bars. Back in Tyrrel Bay, we decided on an evening ashore and enjoyed Lobster Pizza for dinner, and the music of an almost all girl steel drum band playing Christmas carols. It’s not just the music that is so great, it is watching the locals dance and sing and play along. All ages, all sizes, all manners of sobriety (probably stoned is more like it) just hanging out on the dirt road that separates the outdoor establishment and the beach. Some come inside for a drink, but often the real party is on the road. Dogs, cats, chickens, lizards and mossies complete the assemblage. Nice kick off to the holiday season. Two very tall Nordic looking Canadian Peace Corp workers edged two local girls off their drum sets and played a few sets - they must have been here for a long time as they were GOOD.
It was all good. We really feel a connection with Grenada and its people. If there is a way, I imagine this is a place where we could spend a season…or two.
