How much would you pay for a Caribbean island?
Stream
Darrell Jackson and Sarah Barnes
Fri 30 May 2014 21:54
The sail from Carriacou to Grenada was less than 20nm across the channel separating the islands and so passage planning was relatively easy before we set off, but this passage had an interesting feature to consider and one to keep quiet from Sarah. As a pilot, Darrell is used to exclusion zones that light aircraft cannot fly over, such as nuclear power stations, prisons, gas flares, and military training areas, but these zones are not so common in the marine environment. The chart clearly shows an exclusion zone in the direct line of our intended route to Grenada and one he thought best to comply with. An active underwater volcano; Kicking Jenny's first recorded eruption was in 1939 when it spewed water and debris over 900 feet into the air and caused tsunamis in Grenada and the south Grenadines. Twelve smaller eruptions have occurred since and it's most recent was in Dec 2001 and the volcano peak now lies less than180 metres below the surface. Unfortunately, Sarah read the cruising guide before we departed and so was well aware of the potential problem and so made very sure that our course was outside the 1.5 km exclusion zone, although I'm not sure that would have been far enough away had it decided to erupt as we were passing!
Kicking Jenny is also the name given to a large rock about half way across the channel (There they go again - no imagination with names) which is known to kick up large seas, and it did. For 15 minutes or so we had a very big swell combining with 20 odd knots of wind against the tide to make for an uncomfortable period in what was otherwise a very pleasant, fast sail.
We arrived at our chosen bay, Dragon's Bay, after a five hour sail for the 28 nm and picked one of the Marine Park moorings which looked well maintained and only a couple of minutes by dinghy from the Sculpture park we wanted to visit. Apparently named Dragon's Bay due to the canons fired from the rocks to protect the ships anchored inside from either the British or the French, who ever was in control at that particular time.
In 1609, British tobacco planters tried to colonise Grenada, but were killed by the Caribs who had established communities around Grenada in the 1100's when they displaced the more peaceful Arawaks. In 1649, the French 'purchased' Grenada from the Caribs, for a few hatchets, some glass beads and a couple of bottles of brandy. Not a bad price!
However, the French had some problems with the Caribs on Grenada, who rebelled against their rule. The French killed most of the rebels, the remaining ones, rather than being captured by the French, leapt to their deaths from one of the northern cliffs, now a memorial marks the site on Leapers Hill!
Just as we had finished mooring in Dragon's Bay, the marine ranger appeared and asked us very pleasantly if we wouldn't mind keeping to their rules while we were in the park. He suggested that we used our holding tanks and didn't put any strong chemicals or rubbish into the water, no spear fishing and no collecting of living things. All of these were fine with us! We paid our $10 fee and everyone was happy.
Dragon's bay is a small pretty bay with a sandy beach. The hillsides are covered with trees and there are some very nice houses dotted about. The land that was once dense jungle has been cleared and is now part of a farming collective. They have developed the bay front into a very understated and pleasant area to enable people to easily access the sculpture park, with showers and other facilities. There is a bar on the beach which unfortunately holds karaoke sessions, which as often out here are attended mainly by people who can't sing, but do so until the early hours! Due to the swell it was also very rolley in the bay. But we still managed to get up early to go around the point into the underwater sculpture park before the hoards of tourists arrived.
Molinaire park has sixty five unique sculptures and was the brain child of Jason de Caires Taylor, an English artist who specialises in underwater sculptures. In 2006 he founded and created this first underwater sculpture park and it is now ranked as one of the top twenty five Wonders of the World by the National Geographic. It is constructed to be assimilated by the ocean and transformed from inert objects into living and breathing coral reefs, which seems to be working as it has helped the reefs recover from the hurricane damage. The sculptures are set on the sea floor in gullies between the coral and it was easy to snorkel around them. Luckily, we had a local guide, otherwise we would have missed some of them. The coral is growing on them and there were a huge amount of friendly, inquisitive fish on our visit.
After our swim we went ashore for a walk. This area is obviously fairly affluent, the Prime minister lives just above the beach, so we were assured by the locals that we would be very safe. Not that we felt anything else. As we wandered up the hill every one we met stopped for a chat, told us about the area and the islands history and was interested in us. We were made to feel very welcome. We then decided to get a bus into St George's, the capital, which was very easy as every bus that passed us was keen for us to get on board.
St George was very pleasant, not touristy apart from the cruise line terminal, which we avoided. The architecture dates back to colonial days and is often red brick around the old harbour, which had been ballast in the ships coming across for the spices. It was pleasant to walk around and through the Sendall tunnel, built in early 18th Century to connect the Carenage to the Esplanade. The market square was colourful, noisy and bustling, the centre of civic life. After some food it was back to Stream to listen to the delights of the karaoke which went on to the early hours.