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Touring Grenada
Written at: Hog Island, Grenada
Aug. 8, 2006
Hi Folks,
We’re still enjoying it here in paradise. Here at Hog Island, I cannot access
WiFi but will take my laptop over to Clark’s Court Bay Marina this afternoon to
send this and down load any messages waiting for me from their internet site.
A couple of weeks ago I got a very short haircut to the extent I look like a
skin head. Oh well, it will grow out. I’m not sure if I want to take a picture
of me with it or not. However that reminds me, I would like to see some pictures
of you, and or your boats for a "Rogues Gallery" of my address list. Many of you
I have not personally met and others have not seen for many years. If you are
able to send attachments, please send me a picture of you with your family, your
boat, your home, your dog, whatever so I can put a face and person to the names
on my address list.
We have been fortunate this year with only three hurricanes, and Chris just
finishing. One of the theories accounting for the reduced hurricane threat this
year is that the rain coming across the Atlantic is salted with Sahara sand,
some how reducing the cyclonic developments. We can testify to the sand in that
our water tanks have a small layer of sand in them from the rain catcher water
we have trapped.
All the best,
Aubrey
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Log #40t Touring Grenada
Hog Island, Grenada
Aug. 7, 2006
We have been in Grenada for four months now, but have not done much touring, as
we enjoy life aboard here, gunkholing through the southern anchorages (hopefully
to be described in my next log), getting caught up on maintenance projects,
enjoying the social life, and just lazing around. We toured St. George’s on May
Day as described in a previous Log #40O. A few
weeks later we rented a car for the day with Angus and Ruth from a British
boat,"Do It".
 To
rent a car in Grenada one needs to have a Grenada driver’s licence, which I
obtained for the small fee of $25.00 EC at a local police station behind the
Spiceland Mall. I had used it for another driving excursion we took out to St.
David’s Bay a few days earlier, where we hiked around the beaches and over the
peninsula, only to find the Waters’ Edge bar/restaurant closed for a wedding
reception. It was an exquisite location for the wedding, with a flower bedecked
bower out on a short spit of land, and the guest chairs lined up looking out to
sea (see attached picture). The resort itself has attractive cabins set back
into the hillside foliage from an earlier plantation settlement. Idyllic! We had
left the cars at La Sagesse, another former plantation complete with remains of
a windmill tower, now converted to a nature centre and resort with a half mile
of pristine deserted beach.
Driving over here is on the left hand side of the road, as in England and all
the other Caribbean formerly British colonies in the Windward and Leeward
Islands. Judy was my navigator and prompter, her assignment to keep saying,
"Stay Left, Stay Left!" It takes some getting used to, especially on the narrow
winding poorly maintained roads.
The day we rented the car to tour the island started off well, with a visit to
the Westerhall Rum factory. Westerhall Classic is my favourite rum over here,
but their other brands are good as well. The factory had a pleasant park area
with the rusting remains of steel cauldrons, boilers, and a large derelict
waterwheel, artifacts of the bygone era when they made rum right from sugarcane
to finished product. However, now there are no boilers, no sugarcane, no
distillery. They basically get raw rum from Trinidad in large plastic
containers, and simply mix it with whatever flavouring they are producing with
each batch, then bottle and label it accordingly. We were able to taste the
different brands, and could buy the rums cheaper than in the local stores (when
we were in Porto, Portugal, we found buying port more expensive at the factory
than in local stores). With a few free samples and a half dozen bottles each, we
set off for our next site, the Laura Spice Gardens.
 This
spice factory had a very good tour of the gardens, with a knowledgeable guide
showing us the dozens of spice plants and trees along a nutmeg husk pathway.
Grenada is often referred to as the Spice Island, and the nutmeg fruit is
featured on the national flag. All of the fruit is used; for jams, mace, and the
nutmeg nut. The inner husks are used as garden mulch or to cover surfaces or
walkways. At each plant the guide would explain its uses, and peel off a trace
of bark, leaf, seed or flower for us to smell or taste. It was a divine
experience to sample these spices, and imagine them in various foods. Our mouths
were watering with each different plant. I wanted a book of all these spices and
herbs with their uses and origins, but alas they had none left. The island’s
spice industries, especially the nutmeg plantations, were badly damaged by the
two hurricanes over the past two years, and it is still recovering.
However, we changed our itinerary and rather than going up the east side of the
island we went back towards St. George’s to go up the west coast road.
Unfortunately the road maps (virtually no road signs anywhere) are not reliable
and even though we tried to go around St. George’s, we wound up going through
the crowded, hilly, narrow, busy, streets through the centre of town, a
horrendous experience for me using a right hand drive car. We made it without
hitting anyone or crunching any fenders, and set off up to Gouyave to the nutmeg
factory. Gouyave is a fishing town that was badly damaged by the hurricanes. It
is sad to see the abandoned churches, their bell towers and nearby cemeteries in
ruins. The nutmeg factory is a large warehouse to process the fruit. We saw the
large drying racks, sorting tables, and the various grades of mace and nutmeg, a
large and impressive industry for the town.
On across the island we went to the Chocolate Factory, an interesting cottage
industry using only solar power to convert the cocoa pods and beans into
delicious chocolate bars and chocolate tea (hot chocolate). Then over we went to
River Antoine, another rum factory, this one using all the traditional methods
of crushing raw sugar cane with the use of a large water wheel, into juice,
distilling this through boilers using wood fires fueled with the crushed stalks,
and making the various rums. I found their rums a bit sharp for my taste. It is
part of a larger estate using local materials and labour. On our way back across
the island we stopped at Grande Etang, a mountain lake and conservation centre.
The lake... was a lake, and we didn’t feel like hiking around it, but enjoyed
the Mona monkey we petted and fed at the roadside stop by the park entrance. We
may yet take a local bus up there to hike the trails of that mountainous
conservation area.
On our way back, we stopped at the Grenada Yacht Club, overlooking the lagoon in
St. George’s for an Indian supper, the specialty of the night, as well as free
WiFi access. Coming back to Mount Hartman Bay to the marina in the dark was
another white knuckle ride as the lights were blinding on the unlit winding
roads. I was greatly relieved when we safely arrived at the marina where we left
the car for pick-up next morning.
We have gone to several Saturday morning markets in downtown St. George’s. There
is a wide diversity of foods, spices, fish and meats. However, the vegetables
look dried out, and many of the fruits over ripe. The fish and meat markets are
very questionable in hygiene, and unless there early in the morning, the choices
are limited. More than once I have gone to the markets and wound up going to a
Foodland or IGA grocery store for more reliable frozen meats and vegetables. I
am surprised that in such a tropical fertile country there is not a better
selection of fresh vegetables and fruits more readily available in either the
markets or the grocery stores.
The Fisherman’s Birthday
This festival is celebrated in several of the towns, including Gouyave and
Woburn, the small community where we leave our dinghy from Hog Island. Any
religious aspect is minimal, and it is a good time to have sailboat races for
the local fishing boats and an excuse for a street party, with loud
Caribbean-beat music, barbecue food stands, trinkets sold by local artisans,
beach volleyball, rum and Carib beer. The local fishing sailboats are wooden
home made efforts, with long keels (not deep and no centre board), bamboo masts
and gaffs, and painted in solid colours of green, black, yellow orange and red.
With no deep keel, the three or four man crew (we have never seen a woman in a
fishing boat) have to balance the boat against the gusting winds. The start is
from the beach, and the crews race into the boats, shove off and hoist or set
the sails to take off from the shallows for a two or three mile course.
Every Friday up in Gouyave, there is a fish fry run by the local street vendors.
Hog Island
We finally took a hike around uninhabited Hog Island, our favourite anchorage.
There are trails throughout the island, across and up to the summits of the two
hills. We wandered across the island and up the hill in front of "The Swamp"
where Veleda is at anchor. We had a good view across the island and the eastern
and western entrances, with their accompanying shoal areas . Overlooking "The
Swamp" we could see a couple of the boats that have been left there by their
owners for months or years, moored into the mangroves stern to, with two or
three stern lines and two or three bow anchors securing them in this well
sheltered hurricane hole . The Swamp is not really a swamp, but a mangrove
fringed shallow bay. We are anchored in 20 feet of water 100 yards from the
mangroves. Finding a deserted beach on the far side, we went for a skinny dip to
cool off, and did some beach combing.
We asked other boaters to bring some of their old flags and yacht club pennants
to Roger’s Sunday afternoon barbecue, to decorate his rustic beach bar. It was
blown down with the hurricanes and repaired by him and a few boaters over the
last two years. A couple of corners are supported and decorated some of metal
pieces of helicopter flanges with bullet holes in them, a left-over from the
American invasion of Grenada in 1984. Across from where we are anchored on the
mainland are three rusting hulks of Cuban fishing boats from that same era.
Roger does a good job of keeping the sandy beach raked clean every day for kids
to play and boaters to bring their dinghies over for repairs and maintenance.
Apparently the beach extended far wider than it is now and at one time was large
enough for a beach volleyball court. However, the hurricanes eroded and
displaced much of the sand, still leaving a nice beach strip, but not wide
enough for volleyball.
A couple of months ago one of our cockpit cushions was blown overboard, and was
no where to be found next morning. We skirted the far shore, and even over to
Mount Hartman Bay, the adjacent bay downwind. No sign of it. However later in
the day we were on the beach working on Wave Dancer, and saw our cushion cover
drying on Roger’s wooden wire-spool table. It had drifted past his bar, and he
recovered it, waiting for whomever it belonged to to recognize it when they came
over. Thanks Roger!
His Sunday afternoon barbecues are an enjoyable chance to meet the other boats
at anchor, and to enjoy his chicken, ribs or fish meals at an economical $15 or
$20 EC ($6.50 to $8.00 Canadian), and beer and rum punches for $4 to$5 EC ($1.50
to $1.90 Canadian) Periodically I have bought just a couple of chicken legs (and
thighs) to take back to Veleda for a snack or next day’s lunch.
We enjoy it here. It is one of the best anchorages we have ever found. But I am
getting wanderlust again, and would be happy to head down to Trinidad and
Venezuela for a couple of months, even though we have heard stories of polluted
anchorages and boat thefts. After Carnival next week we will hopefully set sail
for Trinidad, or Tobago if the conditions are right. My next log will be about
Carnival, and hopefully preparations for departure south.
Next log
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