All about Grenada – well a bit of Spice anyway............

andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Wed 23 May 2012 01:47
All about Grenada – well a bit of Spice anyway............

We managed to get ourselves into the berth in the Grenada Yacht Club in
St. Georges after a bit of a battle with the wind and took ourselves off
the club office. Helpfully they said they were at lunch and that we should
chill and check in tomorrow. So then we headed off to the Customs and
Immigration offices. As it was a bit of a walk we took a taxi with Felix –
they were closed in the Marina and after a detour to the Botanical
Gardens, where they were also closed, headed back to the Yacht Club with
the intention of trying again the following day.

Regulations here state that you must clear into the country at the
earliest opportunity, hence our efforts, or you can incur some very stiff
penalties. Now as many followers of this blog will know things don’t
always go to plan, and they didn’t.

We had arranged with Felix to do a tour of Grenada the day after we
arrived as most places were closed and he could take us over to the marina
to clear in. He picked us up and we headed off to try to get to the
Customs and Immigration office in the Port Louis Marina in St. Georges.
However the route was closed as there was an International Triathalon in
progress, so we tried the Botanical Gardens once more, only to find they
were closed, again – we had missed them by an hour and it was only 10am.
Felix talked to a policeman and by going around the back roads and with
yet another policeman’s agreement, we managed to get to the Customs and
Immigration office, at last. In the end the clearance was completed in 20
minutes and Manchester City were on the verge of taking the Premiership
title – wow!

After the clearance we headed off up the west coast of Grenada, through
the centre and finally back to St. Georges. What we saw was a wonderful
country with fantastic natural resources with coconuts, mace, nutmeg,
cocoa, mangoes, more nutmeg, avocados, passion fruit , even more nutmeg,
etc. growing everywhere and much of it in the central jungle area
surrounding the extinct volcano – hopefully the pictures will provide a
flavour. We even managed to pick some mangoes for ourselves, and Felix was
determined to get us a nutmeg – it’s the central core of the mace fruit.
The island is very green and very colourful. It’s not surprising that the
island is known as the spice island. Felix did grand job telling us about
the island and its interesting history and took us to some wonderful
locations. We didn’t see everything as some places were closed as it was a
Sunday, and there were no cruise ships in, so a good reason to come back.
We were serenaded as Harrison Ford and Julia Roberts as we arrived at the
Annandale Falls – surely Susan should be Mona Lisa – anyway he was very
entertaining and a character to boot! The falls were ok – not as dramatic
as the Victoria Falls on Dominica though.

Monday saw us getting back to the business of getting the engine start
batteries replaced – the yacht club is a 15 minute walk from one of the
larger chandleries and after sorting out the paper work two replacement
batteries were with us by early afternoon. It was hot work lugging them
around and wiring them up but after they were installed the engine started
first time – hooray. Now we could relax a little and see some more of the
island. Tuesday and Wednesday saw us explore St. Georges and find our way
around. Thursday we left the yacht club and headed round the south western
tip of the island and the airport to Prickly Bay, where we anchored and
settled down to a few days of boat life.

There is a very active Cruisers Net here and there are quite a few
activities taking place either arranged by or for the cruising community –
the hashes (walks and runs), ladies only Mexican Train Dominoes, pot
lucks, happy hours – usually lasting at least two hours, often more, bars
advertising bands and specials, cruisers looking to trade or barter boaty
bits, film nights, bingo, trivia quiz nights, and a reading group
supported by the cruisers for children – lots really. We took the
opportunity to join a cookery class run at the nearby True Blue Resort,
usually way beyond our means. It was good fun and the dish, a Caribbean
Chicken Quesadillas, was imaginatively prepared by Omega and Esther, chefs
with the resort, and it tasted pretty good too. We also caught up with a
few folks from our last stay in Trinidad and who are also heading that way
soon. Susan spent one Saturday morning, with Bev from White Bird, with the
children’s reading group while Andrew did the grubby boaty bits!

Prickly Bay is currently pretty rolly and the boat is moving around quite
a lot and it’s a great test for the anchor. However in these conditions we
don’t tend to be away from the boat for too long. It’s fairly unusual and
due in part to the unusually wet and windy condition in these parts at
present – well it’s been this way for nearly a month in our experience –
and I’m sure Chris Doyle, who authors the leading cruisers guides for the
Caribbean Islands, and who is rolling around along with us, will make a
note in future editions. Unusual weather is once again following us
around!
We are looking for good winds to take us down to Trinidad and the end of
this season for us, so will provide another update once we are sorted and
know what we will be doing next, including the trip back to the UK, which
we are very much looking forward to! Interestingly we may have two or even
three sets of visitors next season which we are also very much looking
forward to, more of which in due course.

Our friends on Cobra Libra and Nakesa have made it to the Galapagos
Islands and will soon be on their way to the Marquesas – we wish them good
winds and calms seas – it’s a good 3000 miles! Andy and Lesley on Kodiak
are in Bayona on their way to Scotland from the Canaries – good sail, and
we are looking forward to catching up with Sue and Ron, from Silver Cloud,
in the summer, as well as Ju and Liz from Little Else, and maybe a few
others as well – looking forward to the UK visit!

Happy Anniversary Mum and Dad.

more in due course,


Andrew and Susan,
S/V Andromeda of Plymouth
From a very rolly Prickly Bay.............in Grenada


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