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Prickly Bay
on Grenada
Written at: Prickly Bay, Grenada
June 10, 2006
Hi Folks,
Success with the wind generator - it works! Dwight from Stephanie Lynn, and
Robin from Ngoma helped us come alongside the dock at Prickly Bay Marina after
working hours, and assisted in mounting the Air X wind generator on the stern
pole 12 feet above deck level. Judy had a big Cheshire grin on her face after
hooking up the electrical connections when it started to pump out electricity,
charging our batteries.
We are still here in Prickly Bay. Eileen Quinn, a Canadian cruising folk singer,
has a song about "Tar Pit Harbour" which sucks down your anchor, so you stay
stuck in one place for long periods of time. Prickly Bay, St. George's Lagoon,
and Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou can be like that. We will stay in the bays on the
south coast of Grenada for a few more weeks before heading down to Trinidad.
Weather is hot and sunny, with a few rain showers each night, just enough to
make us get up and close the hatches. Life is comfortable and lazy. We get up
about 0730 to listen to the Cruisers' Net, then have a leisurely breakfast over
several cups of coffee for me, and a one litre thermos mug of tea for Judy,
until about 0900 when we will then get more active to do things on board or go
ashore for groceries, etc. I love going in for a night swim and wash before bed.
It is a most pleasurable experience to be lolling around in the water looking up
at the darkened silhouette of Veleda, with stars or moon above her. Since we
moved closer to the marina after mounting our wind generator, the WiFi is coming
in more reliably, and we are able to send and receive E-mail as well as surf the
net, including reading local papers on line from Canada. We have started a
collection of DVD movies (We can buy them used from DVD rental stores for about
$10.00 Canadian) which we can then exchange with other cruisers for a wider
variety of entertainment.
Rough life!
All the best,
Aubrey
Prickly Bay
on Grenada
We left St. George's mid afternoon on May 2, motoring 8 miles around the sandy
beaches of Grande Anse, past True Blue Bay, to anchor in front of Prickly Bay
Marina (11 59.90N, 061 45.61W). We anchored this close to the marina to have
access to WiFi although it has proved unreliable. For this reason a few of the
boats at anchor, including Veleda, are investing in a WiFi booster system for
our boats to be able to pick up WiFi signals at greater distances. I will
describe its efficiency when we have it installed.
Prickly Bay is well sheltered, has good holding, and is accessible by dinghy to
not only Prickly Bay Marina, which is undergoing a major expansion, but a bit
further into the bay to Spice Island Marina and a large Budget Marine (duty
free) chandlery. There is a minibus service into St. George's from here as well.
Spice Island Marina is a full service boatyard with haulout facilities,
electronic, mechanical, sails and other repair shops, as well as a large hard
standing storage area for boats. I notice that their boat storage uses steel
cradles, with tie down straps across the bow and sterns of the vessels pegged
into the ground to withstand hurricane winds. Prickly Bay Marina is a smaller
operation (at present) with friendly staff, a beach bar and restaurant, internet
and WiFi access, a mini-market, taxi stand, and Enza Marine, a small mechanical,
electrical and refrigeration service. In addition there is the Customs and
Immigration office to be able to clear in or out of the country from here. The
Cruisers' Net on VHF channel 68 at 0730 each morning covers St. George's,
Prickly Bay, and the other south coast bays, and provides valuable information
on local resources and cruisers' needs.
We renewed acquaintances with Dwight Brooker and his wife Stephanie on Stephanie
Lynn, a 51 foot Endeavour sloop anchored nearby. We last saw Dwight when we were
in Montserrat a month or so ago. Dwight is an ex Canadian Navy sailor with a
diving and technical background, and we have had a good time with him regaling
ourselves with shared naval and other Canadian interests.
We had made our travel arrangements back to Canada from Trinidad, but were
unable to communicate with any of the marinas there to reserve a spot. Several
people warned us that the marinas might be filled up. Dwight suggested we leave
Veleda alongside Stephanie Lynn, and he would look after her for us. We
accepted.
Judy still wanted to get a wind generator operational, and since the old one was
unrepairable, we bought a new Air-X from Budget Marine. Now the problem was how
to mount it on the stern pole we had for the earlier one? (We gave away the old
one by advertising it on the Cruisers' Net, to a singlehander who could use it
for spare parts.) A nice looking American trawler, Cheshire Too, had a large aft
deck that would be ideal to stand on with Veleda alongside to access the top of
the wind generator pole. The skipper, Fred was quite agreeable to us coming
alongside to do the mounting. Thanks Fred!
However, after it was mounted and hooked up, it didn't work! Maybe there was not
enough wind? Next day we weighed anchor and went out into open water in 20 knot
plus winds. It still did not spin up. We double-checked the electrical
connections, but still no success. We told Budget Marine about it, and they
suggested one of their electrical technicians check it out, and if not working,
they would take it back. OK, - when? We waited for two days, and they didn't
show up. The last day before we were to leave for Canada we were told they would
be there in the morning. No show! Then they would be there by 1600. No show! At
1715 they showed up, and checked out the wiring. It was done properly, but the
generator would not work. We imposed on Fred again to go alongside to remove the
generator and the techs took it back to their shop to repair or replace it.
Thanks again Fred.
We then went alongside Stephanie Lynn where we left Veleda, and next morning
Dwight took us ashore to catch an early plane to Port of Spain in Trinidad.
Unfortunately we could not make easy connections for our flight to Toronto, and
had to wait in Trinidad from 0915 to 1730. So we caught a taxi into downtown
Port of Spain, to wander around for a few hours.
It is a small city with some sterile new office towers, a few wide boulevards,
no scenic waterfront, and dingy crowded bustling side streets with all kinds of
stores, small shopping malls, open air fish, chicken, vegetable and fruit
markets (not the most sanitary looking) and small crude drinking and eating
establishments, the food and drink served from behind barred wickets. We had a
couple of rotis (curried meats and vegetables wrapped in a soft wheat flour
tortilla-like shell) at an East Indian outlet. Trinidad is characteristic of
many Caribbean islands in that after slavery was abolished, the blacks did not
want to work the land and many people from India were brought over as indentured
labourers, facing rather appalling conditions from the 1840's until the early
1900's. In Trinidad over 140,000 East Indians, both Moslem and Hindu, were
brought over. Thus many of the establishments today, especially restaurants,
clothing stores, and book stores, are operated by their descendants,
There was no tourist office, no museums we could identify, and no movie theaters
that we could relax in for the afternoon. The Trinidad national football
(soccer) team the SOCA Warriors were playing their final game that afternoon,
having already clinched a spot in the FIFA World Cup being held in Germany, the
smallest country to ever be represented in this international event. Every
street corner had sellers hawking the blood red and ebony black colours of the
team with Trinidad flags, tee shirts, headbands, and tank tops. The topic of the
day was, "Where are you going to listen to or watch the game?" The people were
really excited about the team's success. However, it was a hot humid day and we
returned early afternoon to the airport to wait another four hours, but in air
conditioned comfort until check in.
It was a "red-eye" flight, going to Caracas in Venezuela to refuel before the
long flight to arrive in Toronto at 0505. We were met at the airport by Doug
Caldwell who has sailed with us and insists on picking us up and delivering us
to the airport whenever we return to Toronto. Thanks Doug! I feel strange in
referring to Toronto as "home" as we have been away for 8 years now, and Veleda
is our home, wherever she is. Cruisers from around the world are our neighbours
and friends. However, it is nice to return to Canada to see family and old
friends, and to get caught up on Canadian events and politics. (Edmonton Oilers
won the Western conference hockey league, but are down two to nothing in the
best of seven in the finals for the Stanley Cup.) Go Oilers!!!
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