Rejoining the crew in Grenada

On April 3rd, I flew back from Philadelphia (having flown home to be with my brother and sister following our mothers’ passing) to rejoin Andrew and our guests, who were sailing the boat to Port Louis Marina, Grenada. After waking up in Devon, Pa. at 2am, I was back on the boat twelve hours later. That evening, we went out to dinner with Jeff & Kathys’ friend, Chris and her business partner, Lilo. We enjoyed delicious fish sticks & tuna on the beach as the sun set over Grand Anse Bay.

The next day we sailed to Prickly Bay, which was packed with moored boats and little room for anchoring. No one answered our radio call, so we picked up a mooring off of the marina and took the dinghy in to see if we could stay. The folks (that we eventually found) in the marina couldn’t have been nicer. They suggested we move to a two screw mooring because of the weight of our boat (over 0 tons) and luckily they had one available for a few days. The Prickly Bay Marina is not big but they have a lot of nice amenities like a laundry, a boucher that sells meats, cheeses, wines and bakery products as well as a small grocery that had everything a sailor would want including homemade dinners for the freezer! 

Prickly Bay is a quick 15 minute cab ride to St. George’s, the capital of Grenada and easy walking distance to a half dozen nice restaurants. The next day, we taxied to the Craft Center in town to visit Chris and Lilo’s shop, Art Fabrik. They make clothing and artworks out of their fabulous batik designs. Since it is all handmade, they only had a few children’s dresses (my soft spot with granddaughters) but Lilo came down from the workshop upstairs with two “hot off the press” that were the perfect colors. I found a third dress for the baby, a top for myself and some colorful napkins that I had to have. It was very difficult to stop! 

After the shopping spree, we went next door to The House of Chocolate, where we had hot chocolates, coffees or ice cream and another shopping bonanza. A local drum teacher that Chris and Lilo knew dropped in and they encouraged him to play on one of the bongos set around for customers to sit on. The entire store was moving to his groove, while enjoying their chocolate delicacies.

To work off the sweets, Andrew, Jeff, Kathy and I walked up to Fort George for the best view of the colorful town and back down through the market, where we learned what nutmeg looks like in it’s original fruit. Before catching a taxi back, we stopped at Nutmeg’s, over looking the harbor, for their famous rum punch but they only had two left, so some of us had to make do with Ting’s. 

Next stop was The West Indies Beer Co. Brewery, within walking distance (if you didn’t have too much to drink) of the marina. It’s a really fun place! Owned by Marc, an Englishman who has been in Grenada for years before starting the brewery 10 years ago. It’s grown into this fabulous converted warehouse with dozens of steel vessels, a shiny motorcycle parked in front of them and comfy couches, stools and tables. I especially loved the beer taps for faucets in the ladies room! The best part is that they have dozens of ciders made from local fruits (mango, pomegranate and melon, for example) and excellent beers. We had a split of each, every one of them being better than the last!!

We stumbled back to the marina and took the dinghy out to the boat for a swim, showers and naps, after which, we went out for Jeff and Kathy’s last night on board, to eat fish and ribs at The Sandbar, a short dinghy ride from the boat. The next day, after a swim off Calabash Beach and lunch at the Marina Tiki Bar, Jeff & Kathy left for the airport and Andrew and I went back to the boat to think about where our next adventure might be.