Grenada 

St George harbour. This anchorage is just outside the main harbour and off of the beaches at

Grand Anse and Point Salines.

We spent these days familiarizing ourselves with the capitol. It is an interesting place full of narrow streets and old colonial buildings that bustle with activity and shops that are crammed full of anything and everything imaginable. The market is delightful as not only are the fruit and veg stalls present but there are stalls selling all types of spices and herbs with natural remedies for every ailment. The vendors are friendly and can be quite persistent to encourage a sale.

Our second anchorage in Grenada was Prickly Bay.

This again is a lovely anchorage set in a deep bay where there are 2 marinas, a large budget marine and other services available. Here we spent a couple of days having a look at what would be available should we return after our month in Bermuda.

The final anchorage was Clarks Court Bay/AKA/Worburn Bay,

where we anchored out for a few days before we went into the marina. This anchorage is very large and has plenty of options with several “marinas” available that offer bar, laundry, trash, shower facilities, to mention but a few.

The anchorage at Hog’s Island

is in a bay behind Clarks Court Bay and easy to get to as it’s just under a bridge from there you can go by dingy to the Secret Harbour anchorage. On Hog’s Bay Island there is a beach and what I assume is the cruiser’s bar run by a local. All again is very convenient and makes life comfortable and easy. There is a cruiser net every morning at 7:30 on channel 66. On it you can find out about shopping busses, organized outings, sports, eats, special events, what’s for sale, services of all types. Again it makes life very comfortable for the likes of us.

We went on the local “bus” our first day in Grenada as we had no Eastern Carribean cash for the Customs/immigration men. They sent us to an ATM in St George via the local bus, and we haven’t looked back since. It is a very cool service. The buses are just mini vans that have set routes. You flag one down, usually squeeze aboard and for 2.50EC ($1:00) you get where you need. It has become a game for me to see how many we get on the bus each time and my record is 20, yep 20 in a mini van!! Oh and everyone has bags too!!

We had a great shopping trip in the shopping bus. Shademan/AKA/Patrick came to Clarks Court Bay and pick up everyone that needed to go shopping. He stopped at the bank and then the grocery store followed by really anywhere we needed. The whole trip was 10EC per person for door-to-door service.

Another day we went with Cutty for a taxi tour.

This started at 8:30 and was for the entire day. We had an excellent time. Cutty stopped during the day to explain the uses, both medicinal and culinary, of many of the local shrubs, fruits, trees and vegetables.

He took us to the Annandale waterfalls

which were lovely but would be better on a day when there hadn’t previously been torrential rains as this makes the water muddy and none of us were willing to swim in brown water. We travelled through the

Grand Etang rain forest and visited with the monkeys.

We only saw them from a distance, as they were not feeling hungry for our offered bananas. At the chocolate plantation we were able to see the process of the coca beans from when they arrive with the farmer in the coca pods, are naturally heated in layers of banana leave, fermented, dried in racks to when they are bagged in hemp bags to go to produce chocolate. The coca fruit is deliciously sweet and the roasted beans taste amazingly like the dark chocolate we eat. Later we visited the factory to purchase the finished produce, which is pure organic chocolate.

We stopped at Dennis’s house; he is a gentleman who is responsible for the flowers that Grenada enters into the Chelsea Flower Show in London each year. Every year, except once, Dennis and Grenada have won the gold medal for their representation at the show. Dennis was also Grenada’s Foreign Minister. He has met the royal family numourous times and has many awards. His home is the original family property and where the flowers are grown and perfected, where spices are dried and produced for sale. His sister lives in Bermuda – Patricia Rattery.

A visit to the Belmont Estate and the River Antoine Rum distillery

was very interesting. It hasn’t changed its process of rum distillation since its inception, 200 odd years ago. We saw the sugar cane arrive and being put on the processing belt that leads to the crusher that was being driven by an ancient water wheel. The crushed juice was then running down a funnel into the plant where it was heated in vats of differing temperature by a fire that was made from the wood of old trees from the estate. Every part of the process was entirely natural and without wastage, every part of the cane was used.

Visiting a nutmeg factory

was equally interesting. Grenada was the leading exporter however since the 2005 hurricane Ivan it is now #2 producer of nutmeg. We saw the farmer delivering the nutmeg fruit/nuts, the weighing process, the shell cracker, the separated mace, the nutmegs drying on racks and the final produce bagged in hemp bags ready for export. Again the entire process uses absolutely no pesticides, additives or such as everything is naturally processed as it has been for the last few hundred years.

The scenery around Grenada is typical of all the “volcanic” islands as there are steep green slopes with the occasional waterfall, tall trees and ferns, vines and many beautiful flowers with butterflies and birds flitting and soaring by and above. “Really very beautiful” does not do credit to the scenery.

We had spent many hours getting the boat ready for our departure. Everything had to be cleaned, overhauled, greased, polished, sorted and organized from the bilges to the sails as we knew that returning with Ethan and Rhianna we would be busy, busy, busy! After six months of travel there was an accumulation of grim and salt that had to be removed. (Salt is so corrosive) However we stuck to our routine of having our evening swims and tried to fit in a walk here and there.