Our position is now 12.00.31N 61.44.31W

 

Having left our lunch stop in Grenville we drove back south to the Rivers Rum Factory. This rum producer has been in existence since 1750, and is still in use as it was all those years ago. There is virtually no modernizing of this machinery, apart from a stainless steel, instead of mild steel drum that crushes the sugar cane and a thermostat that better controls the heating in the distillery.

 

The water wheel that you can see in the photo is driven by water, water from the river one mile away, running through the small aqueduct above the wheel. This time of year, the dry season, the sluice gates are closed  for some hours during the day to avoid wasting any water, so production is cut. The water turns the water wheel at quite a speed, which in turn drives the crushing unit you can see in the next photo. All the sugar cane used is grown on the same plantation,  its put on a conveyer belt driven by the same mechanism, pushed through this giant mangle type crusher. The extracted juice runs down a channel into the copper vats you can see inside. These vats are called 'coppers', underneath which is a wood fire that burns all the time the juice is being produced. The fuel for this fire is the leftover cane from the crusher.

This boiled juice is then put into large vats for fermentation, which takes about 8 days. This fermented juice, a kind of wine, is then sent on to the distillery. The distillery consists of large copper kettles that has a wood bonfire underneath, it heats the wine to a temperature just short of water boiling temp. i.e. about 95 degrees C. This is the boiling point of alcohol, so the steam given off is almost pure rum flavoured alcohol. The steam enters another copper chamber where it is cooled and the steam condenses into liquid. The result is or should be a rum of a minimum of 75%. That's not 75% proof, that's 75% alcohol, it can sometimes be up as high as 84%. This brand of white Rivers rum, is not allowed to be exported because of its flammability. So Rivers make a specially diluted version by adding distilled water to reduce its alcohol content to a maximum 69%.  

 

Now the part we were all waiting for, at the end of the tour we were taken to the sampling area, to taste and savor the two varieties. We tried the stronger local version first, Jesus Christ! it was like drinking battery acid, we've sampled some strong rums, in fact we have a couple of bottles aboard Chaser ll, they are powerful to the extent you only have half a measure, but the flavour is still good, or as good as it gets for 3 euros a bottle. Consequently nobody went to the store to buy a souvenir, not even for a joke would I buy this one. All the way home our throats felt they'd had a wire bottle washer stuffed down them with a salt and dettol lubricant. It was no wonder they had a no smoking sign up.

 

Back now at the southern end of the Island, we stopped at a beautiful beach for a swim, or a paddle in the blue waters. Cuddy picked a loofer, to scrub your back with, yes picked it. We all thought they came from the ocean like sponges, but they grow on trees, another bit of learning. They are a longer cucumber looking thing hanging from the trees, but a darkish brown covering. Apparently when they first become ripe, you eat them a bit like a cucumber, but if they're not picked, they dry on the trees. When the skin becomes brown, pull it off the branch and peel the dry crackly skin off to reveal a loofer, it has seeds inside that you can you shake out, then it's ready for scrubbing.

 

The day nearly over, cuddy said do we fancy a beer at his local liming spot, when you go for a drink at your local you go to 'lime' . So we all squeezed into this little rum shack and had a couple of cold ones at 3EC$ each. Then finally the drive back to Prickly Bay marina, our drop off point. We said goodbye to all and jumped aboard Digby, and motored back home to Chaser ll.

 

It was a long day, 0900hr start and 1900hr finish, but well worth it, the tour price was 20US$ each, about 16€, and we thoroughly recommend it. For the record the tour is from Inga of Homeward Bound, call her on Channel 16.