Week 45 October 20 to 27 2014

 

Murphy’s Law – we now have our new solar panels and for most of the week, bar Tuesday, we have had cloudy and rainy days!

Tuesday we decided to do some exploring so we caught a bus from St George and went to Grand Etang Lake. We had been told that you could walk around the lake in about an hour. We were also told about the very friendly little grey monkeys that would greet you when you arrived at the entrance to Grand Etang Lake and they would even sit on your head – it was a good idea to take some bananas. Unfortunately or fortunately whichever way you look at it, there were no monkeys to greet us, so we ate the bananas instead.

Grand Etang Lake is a crater lake. We walked around the lake – it was very muddy and at times rather unpleasant with all the flies and mozzies.

Grenada is referred to as the “Isle of Spice” and wherever you go around the island, there are many

spice gardens.

Information taken from “To the Windward Islands, 2013- 2014 Sailors Guide, by Chris Doyle, 16th edition”.

“Grenada has had a lively past especially as recent as 1974, with the transition to full independence. Most Grenadians thought that this was not the right time for independence as many wanted to wait awhile longer.

Instead of jubilant celebrations, the island went on strike in protest but independence was forced on Grenada, under the rule of Sir Eric Gairy who was a flamboyant and at times a controversial figure. He had a very divisive effect on the population. The result was a left wing coup in 1979 by Maurice Bishop who greatly admired Fidel Castro. He tried to turn Grenada into a socialist state. He improved medical and education but at the expense of freedom. Anyone who opposed him was thrown in jail and all independent newspapers were banned.

Mud mud everywhere

Second in command, Bernard Coard and his wife Phyllis opposed Bishop and together with members from the army took Bishop prisoner. This was in 1983. After a massive crowd freed him, an army group executed him along with half of his cabinet ministers. The US, along with Grenada’s eastern Caribbean neighbours (the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) launched a rescue mission which was welcomed by many Grenadians. Grenada has been extremely peaceful since and is flourishing. It is still developing into a big yachting destination with its many haul out facilities.”

Wednesday we decided to go into town to do some provisioning before heading SE to Prickly Bay to take refuge with the predicted Tropical Wave that was going to hit us later that evening and stay with us until Friday.

By Wednesday lunch time we had lifted our anchor from St George’s Bay and were heading to Prickly Bay. We had a good sail, although a bit frustrating as there was a rather strong current against us. We were heading in the direction of Tobago, then when we thought we could tack and head straight into Prickly Bay, we actually ended almost in the same place where we had originally started.  Eventually when we were about 1nmile from the entrance we decided to switch the engine on and motor into the very crowded and popular Prickly Bay anchorage. We eventually found a place to anchor.

Grenada has a cruisers net which is run 6 days a week (Monday – Saturday). There are many social engagements as many cruisers spend the entire hurricane season (July – November) in one of the anchorages in Grenada. We have met quite a few cruisers who have been anchored in Prickly Bay since July and will be leaving Grenada in the next few weeks to head either north or west.



Prickly Bay Anchorage as the Tropical Wave
was passing over us.

As predicted the Tropical Wave passed over us on Wednesday night, whole day Thursday but by mid-morning Friday it had passed. Unfortunately we knew that there was the possibility for another one to be passing over us starting some time on Sunday evening. This was causing a few issues with the planned children’s Halloween parties in the various anchorages.

Thursday was spent couped up on the boat, with the anchor watch on full so we could keep track of our anchor and respond if required. You can take as many precautions as possible but like most things in life, one can never guarantee how others will react. We had a huge Cat anchor right in front of us – at one point we thought he may have anchored over our anchor – anyway Mel decided to let out some more chain so that we could fall back a bit more and if we did swing, which we did, we would be far away from the Cat.

Friday morning we went to the main shopping centre at Grand Anse to get some provisions (we eat lots of fruit and the markets were closed because of the public holiday).  The rest of the day and night was spent, like most of our time so far in Prickly Bay, bouncing up and down with the awful swell.

Saturday we decided to attend the Hash House Harriers run/walk through the Westerhall Estate Rum Factory and its surroundings so at 2.30pm we caught the bus organised for this event from the Prickly Bay Marina.

It was the Grenada Hash House Harriers’ 850^th run and there was a huge turnout of at least 300 people of all shapes, sizes, ages and fitness levels.

Mel and Ivo came in the top 10 of the runners, while Maya met up with some of the children she had recently met and went off into the distance, Mira tried to find her after a while and I enjoyed myself chatting to quite a few of the locals who were walk/jogging  at my pace. We all had great fun!

We were back at the marina by 6.45pm in time to watch some of the talent show, put on by the

students from the University of St George (Medical University).

Sunday was spent on the yacht catching up with some domestic chores with a walk to the next harbour – Mt Hartman Bay, in the afternoon.

As you can see not much to report on but yet still quite an eventful week.  I am keen to find a quiet, calm anchorage as I feel we have been bouncing up and down since we arrived in Grenada two weeks ago. The anchorage in St George’s Bay had a swell from the after effects of Hurricane Gonzales and now Prickly Bay is having a southerly swell caused from the tropical wave. I don’t sleep very well when I am bouncing up and down like on a Bouncing castle. Not sure what our plans are at the moment other than possibly moving to Mt Hartman Bay … who knows….so until next time… have a great week and take care.

Love

Captain Mel and Admiral Caryn/xx

Another view of Grand Etang Lake



Our shoes after our walk around the lake