Lagniappe: Grenada Part I

Grenada Part I

7/2/2015 We left Carriacou and sailed to Grenada along the west side of the island. We had a squall come through just as we got to the southern end of Grenada. We had planned to sail between Porpoise rocks and the main part of the island but it is a bit narrow and in the squall, we opted to go outside of the rocks to allow more maneuvering room even though it meant a bit longer of a route. Tehani pulled into Prickly Bay due to the weather but we continued on with Mythago to Mt. Hartman Bay. The channel markers on the electronic and paper charts were only partially present with the outer marks all gone. Using the chartplotter, we were able to find our way into the channel and eventually spotted some of the channel markers to find our way in through the squall. It stopped raining in time for us to anchor. We found a spot pretty easily and got hooked in well. We discovered we were anchored near another boat from New Orleans, S/V Wahoo. Later that afternoon, we had Sherry and Dave over and celebrated our arrival in Grenada where we planned to stay for hurricane season.

Toasting our arrival in Grenada July 2, 2015

7/4/2015 We took down our old, battered flag and hoisted a new one in honor of Independence day. We were invited to S/V Caribbean Dream for happy hour to celebrate the 4th and met many new people. There is a huge house which was once a private residence and is now a resort that is high up on a cliff overlooking the harbor. It reportedly has no straight walls and is built into the hillside. Known locally as the Cave House, it has a fancy restaurant, pool and is often a venue for weddings.

Lagniappe sporting her new flag

Joanna, Dale, Rita, Jo and Harvey- happy hour on Caribbean Dream

Roy and Greg in Caribbean Dream's main salon

Mt. Hartman Estate, known locally as the Cave House overlooks the harbor

We received our new blades for the wind generator and installed those. We went to the dock for a day to take the generator down and figure out why it wasn't putting out power consistently. Greg and Paul took it apart and found the wire that had frayed and were able to repair it. We once again have a working wind generator! We also went to a cooking class that is offered at True Blue Marina every Thursday in cooking Grenadian style. Esther and Omega, the two chefs are hilarious and serve up a comedy routine with their cooking demonstration.

Paul and Greg checking the wiring on the wind generator

The culprit!

Putting it back together

Esther and Omega at the cooking class

Making a fish stew

It was delicious!

Cool bathroom at True Blue: you have to press the foot pedal to get water


Pretty bougainvilla on a fence on our walk back from Prickly Bay

7/14/2015 We took the local bus to Concord Falls for a hike with a group of other cruisers. The buses themselves are a cultural experience. The "bus"is a van that seats about 14 people. Some are in fairly good shape, others appear to be held together with duct tape and wire. Most have bald tires. We have heard stories of the sliding door falling off and axles breaking. Fares differ according to how far you are going but are very reasonable. The main bus terminal is in St. George's, the capital and we have to take the bus there to connect to another bus to get to the falls. Though the buses have a set route, they will often go off route a ways to take you where you want to go if other passengers on the bus don't mind. However, they don't have a timetable and you just have to wait at the terminal until they are full because the driver is not going to take a half empty van when he can make more with a full one. They are more like a taxi in the sense that they make money based on the fares they collect, not a set wage to drive the bus on a set route like in the states.

On our hike, we saw many plants that were either growing wild or had been planted for crops that are important to the local economy. Grenada is known for their cocoa, spices of all kinds, especially nutmeg and more recently for soursop which is being investigated in the US for medicinal uses.

The red pods are cocoa. They turn yellow when ripe.

Pineapples

The first falls at Concord

Gavin, Catherine, Sherry and Malcolm crossing the stream


Callaloo

Double falls

The second falls, Fontainblu

Local garden with cabbage

Thyme

7/16/2-15 Grenada is getting ready for Carnival which is officially August 10 and 11 this year. There are many events leading up to the actual carnival though. There is a panorama which is a competition among the pan (steel drum) bands, and a beauty contest. One of the pan bands which has a youth group invited us to their practice and gave us a tour of their costume making facilities. The kids in the band ranged from beginners to teens who were amazing. We also got to see the older band members play some too. We had barbecue or oil down after too. Oil down is the national dish. It is cooked in a big pot over an outdoor fire. It can have any kind of meat in it, most often chicken or pork or both and maybe some crab. It has "dumplings", breadfruit and lots of spices, especially curry.

Pan band beginning practice

Some of the costumes for this year's carnival

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The ladies who make the costumes are all volunteers

Band instructor showing us the pan and how the different notes are made by shaping the pan head

Oil down cooking

Oil down meal

Older pan band members getting into the music

Roy from Wahoo dancing with a local girl

Younger band member playing the bigger drums

Enjoying the music

The girls in the band

Devon, a local guy who has a cab/bus and has a few moorings and does all sorts of jobs for cruisers did an oil down for several of us in Mt. Hartman Bay. The oil down was actually on Calabash beach in Prickly Bay. He and his wife cooked for about 3 hours and made a delicious meal for us.

Our oil down cooking at Calabash beach

Devon and his wife and "the guys"

"The gals"at the oil down: Jo, Rita, Ellen, Liz Ann, Joanna and Gail (Devon's wife, Agnes in the background

7/18/2015 Greg went on a hike to Mt. Qua Qua in the Grand Etang National Park. Liz Ann didn't go because she had managed to get herself quite sunburned while sitting on the deck reading a book and couldn't handle sweating and the heat with the sunburn. It is much cooler up in the rainforest at Mt. Qua Qua and the area gets a lot of rain. It can make for a messy hike if its been raining lately. There are monkeys that live there and sometimes they come to the visitor's center where they figure they'll get some food.

Dirt stairs on the hike

Vista from Mt. Qua Qua

We took a walk through the Dove Sanctuary one day and went to the Jerk Chicken Shack. Their chicken is fantastic! For about $5US, you get a styrofoam box full of jerk chicken (cut up rather strangely) and some garlic bread. Then you sit in the rum shop next door and have your lunch and a beer. We've been there several times since.

The Jerk Chicken Shack

Greg getting lessons in jerk chicken cooking

7/30/2015We took a bus to the East side of the island and hiked to Mt. Carmel Falls. There were a couple of falls and a sort of waterslide area. Had a nice picnic afterwards.