12:00.048N 061:44.545W
Whisper
Noel Dilly
Sun 23 Dec 2012 09:51
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"Hog Island - 19th December"
Today's activity was a short walk on Hog Island,
the only inhabitants apart from birds, are a few goats, which we didn't see and
Land Crabs. The crabs are fascinating and although they only come out at
night, we did see several small ones. They are an ancient species with
spiral snail shape shells. They live in holes in the earth in
wooded areas, the size of the hole varying according to the size of
the inhabitant. The thick shelter of the trees keeps them safe from the
larger birds, which are their only predators.
The evening was great fun, we went to a floating
musical event. We all took our dinghies round to the top end of Hog Island
into Clarke's Hall Bay, where a tug had towed in a small raft complete with
canopy, this was the stage for the Pan Band. Various other rafts, one with
benches and a bar on it, were tied alongside as was a beautiful old wooden
ketch. Dinghies of all sorts of shapes and sizes arrived and rafted up to
each other. Getting to the bar proved to be quite a challenge and
necessitated clambering from one dinghy to another. Fortunately we were
tied onto a large empty rib next to several others tied to a large raft, so
although not easy, the mission was successful. Some people had brought
their own drinks and nibbles which were shared amongst friends in neighbouring
dinghies. The music was fantastic, the band was a made up of a mixture of
boys and girls both young and more mature, playing an assortment of well known
lively tunes with the delightful Caribbean joyous musical sounds and enthusiasm
of these happy people. Sadly, it ended as the sun set, but with so many
small craft making their way back to their boats and with unseen reefs to be
negotiated, it was wise to do so. Not wanting to end the evening too soon
our group decided that Roger's Bar was the next stop and we headed back to our
bay and the beach for a beer before dinner back onboard. The consensus
from everyone was that the band and the evening had been a lot of fun and most
enjoyable.
"Hog Island - 20th December"
We met up with our group of friends for lunch at
Nimrod's Rum Bar at Woburn as Thursday is Roti day. A roti is a West
Indian type of giant chapati, filled with various ingredients, ours were filled
with chicken, potato, vegetables and spices and all wrapped into an enormous
parcel. It was very tasty and owing to its size, extremely filling.
We sat out in the garden amongst bushes covered in many different bright
coloured flowers, whilst brown and blue coloured chickens wandered
about hopeful of finding scraps to eat. The kitchen was a separate
building from the bar, not very large and built around a tree, which lent out
from the kitchen roof. I noticed two black birds feeding themselves on the
top of the fridge freezer in the kitchen. UK's food hygiene
department may not have approved but we did and thoroughly enjoyed our
feast.
"Hog Island - 21 December"
It was an extremely wet night, squall after squall
passing over, we wondered if we would be able to go on our planned Island
Trip. The problem being that we needed to take the dinghy round to Secret
Harbour for our pick up and if it was raining and windy making our way across
the reef and around the headland would be a very wet activity. We
woke up early and the sea was flat calm, encouraged we got the
dinghy and our things ready and had a leisurely breakfast. By the
time we needed to leave a dark sky was looming and half way round the
heavens opened and we were soon soaking wet. Cutty our mini bus driver and
guide was waiting for us and did not bat and eyelid at our bedraggled
appearance. We collected some other "yachties" from another marina and
were soon on our way, torrents of water gushing down the potholed
roads.
Despite the weather, we had a wonderful day, Cutty
is so knowledgeable about Grenada's many plants and spices, he simply pulled
over on the road pointing out the various fruits and spices, sometimes jumping
out to hand us crumpled leaves, so that we could smell them; or picking up and
peeling fruits so that we could taste them. He was wonderfully
informative. We stopped on a private plantation beside a hut where a man
was preparing spices and boxing them up to be sold as gifts. All within a
few yards Cutty had pointed out to us, ginger, cinnamon, avocado, nutmeg, yams,
sour sup, cloves, turmeric, vanilla pod, cocoa beans, cashew nuts and much
more.
The cocoa beans were fascinating, the pods were
either brown or red and once cracked open, there were the cocoa beans. The
beans in this state are white, moist, slippery and very enjoyable to suck.
Grenada exports its cocoa and is rated Number 1 in the world. We visited
the cocoa factory and were taken on a tour. The cocoa beans are received
from the farmer and put into huge vats where the beans are covered in
banana leaves and left to ferment naturally. They are periodically moved
from one vat to another to ensure that they all ferment at the same pace.
Once the fermentation is over they are laid out on enormous trays to dry
and turned manually with long handled wooden spades. The trays are slid
out from inside the warehouse on railway tracks during the day to dry in the hot
sun, but at night and if it is a wet day, they are pushed inside. The
beans turn black once dried and have a very strong taste of cocoa when
chewed. The dried cocoa beans are then taken into the main shed where they
are put into hessian sacks before being weighted and the sacks stitched up ready
to be exported all over the world. Whilst there, we had the opportunity to
try Cocoa Tea, this is made from grated dried cocoa beans rolled in a walnut
size ball. The ball is put into a kettle and brought to the boil, the ball
dissolves, molasses and cream are added and a hot chocolate is ready to be
enjoyed.
We also visited a Rum Distillery which dates back
to 1785. Nothing has been modernised and neither do they use
computers. The plantation grows all of its own sugar cane which is
harvested three times a year. The Victorian water driven conveyor belt and
sugar cane press squeezes the syrup out of the cane into a channel which runs
down into one of three enormous large circular concrete bowls. The hard
cane waste is piled up and used either to feed the furnaces heating the
distillery or composted down to fertilise the sugar cane fields, so there
is no waste and although the factory is not modernised it is
very 'green' by the recycling of the waste product. Once
the syrup is in the vats it is heated slowly to start the fermentation process,
this involves the syrup starting off in a cooler bowl and then being
spooned with a long handled wooden ladle into the next hotter bowl and then into
the hottest. After this process the syrup is hand pumped into large
fermentation barrels to cool and continue its fermentation. Once
fermentation is complete the syrup is released into the large copper kettles
where the heat from the furnaces below evaporates the alcohol into steam, which
travels along the pipes and cools. The cooling of the steam returns
it into an alcohol liquid and the rum is made. The waste in the kettle
filters from this process is turned into molasses. The rum then runs into
a large steel container which is kept under lock and key. At this point
the alcohol level is tested, if it has not reached the required level (75%
Proof), it is returned to the copper kettles to go through the process
again. Finally it is checked by the Customs & Excise department,
to confirm the concentration and quality and to collect the taxes due
before it is bottled. The bottling process is also done by hand, the only
modern part of this process is the cap fitting on the bottle, required by law
so that it is tamper proof!
Grenada also had several large nutmeg factories,
but sadly hurricane Ivan which hit the island in 2006, destroyed the
factories as well as most of the nutmeg trees which only have shallow roots and
could not withstand the strong winds. This was a sad loss to the islands
economy but Cutty was very happy to tell us that they planted more trees and now
in their fifth year they are fruiting, so the factories will be able to
start up once again.
We also learnt that cashew nuts are toxic when
picked and need to be baked to release the toxicity before they can be
eaten. Whilst we were at the rum distillery, Cutty took a shovel full of
hot embers from the furnace and put the cashew nuts amongst the embers to
roast. They smoked and hissed releasing the gases. Once cooled he
peeled them and we all had a small piece, they were very good indeed. From
all the fruits, vegetables and nuts we had been shown growing naturally on the
island, it is hard to envisage starving here.
"Hog Island - 22nd December"
A showery but warm day. We went
shopping, quite fun out here as it is more of an adventure by dinghy
and mini bus, than it is jumping into the car at home! Keeping the
shopping dry returning to the boat is somewhat of a challenge
though!
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