12/4/23 - For the last few weeks, Andrew and I have been hanging out in Grenada with no major boat issues other than monitoring the charge held by the house batteries to see if they need to be replaced. At first, we were anchored off Grande Anse Beach outside of Port Louis Marina in St. George’s, where we caught up with good friends Edwin & Karen on s/v Frog’s Leap, while they made a pit stop to buy and install a new windvane. We enjoyed cocktails and the beautiful sunset together!
On Thanksgiving Day, we made plans to meet up with our Canadian friends, Mike & Alison on s/v Zola, at a French restaurant on Coconut Beach. When we got there, we didn’t find the French restaurant but we found our friends at a table in a lively Caribbean place. The food was good but clearly not French! Apparently, the French restaurant was around the corner on the beach.
On Nov 24th, we moved the boat around the southeast corner of the island to True Blue Bay, where we found a nice protected anchorage with no swell and only one other boat. We were a short dinghy ride from the very cute True Blue Bay Marina & Boutique Resort, complete with dock space for a boat or two, a few moorings, a nice restaurant & bar, bakery, pool, spa and a very rickety dock!
Everyday we came to shore, we walked like drunks on the shaky dock and tried not to entertain the naked couple sitting in the cockpit of their boat at the dock, as if there were nothing unusual going on. They tried to hide things with their computers, books or knitting, but they weren’t fooling us!
Andrew and I had a nice lunch and brunch at the resorts’ Dodgy Dock Restaurant, admiring Billy Ruff’n in the distance and always entertained by the birds trying to share our meal. On board, we entertained ourselves by using up all our data, primarily to watch the Eagles beat Buffalo, and then had to find a ride to the mall to re-up our hotspot.
We arranged an island tour with a taxi driver named Albert, whom we had met last spring. He took us to his favorite stops, where people he knew offered him free drinks and referrals for cab rides, I suppose! I enjoyed letting a guide feed the Mona monkey (only found in Grenada and the African country where they originated) on my shoulder and swimming in the waterfall at Annandale Falls.
Andrew and I both enjoyed the tour of the Rivers Rum Distillery, where they still make rum mostly the way it was made in the mid 1800’s, using the original sugar cane press and ladling the slurry by hand. The result is 150 proof ‘fire water’ that you are not allowed to take on an airplane… We bought two bottles!
We took Albert off his normal route to the western shore to visit Mt. Edgecomb Plantation, a boutique hotel & restaurant with an infinity pool and a fabulous view of the Caribbean Sea. The food was good, albeit the menu was limited and Albert was intent on telling us that we could have had much better food & selection with larger proportions for half the price, if we had gone for lunch where he normally takes his clients (and he’s probably right). Oh well, you never know if you don’t go (and the view alone was worth it)!
The next day, Andrew and I had a most excellent full body massage at the Spa at True Blue Bay, followed by a walk to St. George’s University campus, where I have decided to go to medical school (in my next life). On the way to the campus, I met a local artist, selling his paintings on the street and visited The Container Park, a fast food court on the waterfront, with every kind of meal a group of international students could possibly want. I returned to the boat with chicken & lamb schwarma from the best Lebanese restaurant in Grenada.
One day when Andrew preferred to keep himself occupied with a head (“bathroom” for you landlubbers) project, I took the opportunity to go snorkeling at the world famous Moliniere Underwater Sculpture Park, which apparently has 31 new statutes this year, joining the 75 already in place. It was pretty cool but unfortunately the only underwater evidence I have is a video on our Go Pro, which I am technologically unable to post here. Below is a picture of the boat we went in and a picture of some scuba divers we went with, which we thought were whales when they surfaced next to the boat.
On Dec 1st, we moved to another new (for us) anchorage at Calivigny Cut, off Clark’s Court Bay, on the southern end of the island, where we anchored next to our friends, Darell & Wendy on s/v Sirocco. The breeze there was awesome, with the wind generator and batteries fully supporting our power needs, and there was no swell, given we were in the lee of a reef.
We dinghied in to Whisper Cove Marina & restaurant for a lunch of pumpkin & ginger soup w/ fresh marlin salad and then over to the sailmaker’s loft and The Treasure Trove (boater’s candy shop) in Woburn Bay. The moonlit evenings were beautiful as was the lit up resort on the shore of the Cut.
One day, Andrew and I dinghied in to the other side of the cut where Phare Blue Bay Resort has a Santa Claus welcoming you to the marina, a restaurant, pool, coffee shop and the Meat & Meet Gourmet Food Store. We stocked up with $100 worth of pate, cheese, French bread and chicken tornanados. The next day, Wendy and I returned to enjoy a drink at the the pool and the Christmas Bazaar, offering beautiful fabrics, hand made jewelry and locally written books for sale. I couldn’t resist the book titled “White Spice”, particularly when I found out the author, D. E. Ambrose, went to Principia College in Elsah, Illinois, where both my parents graduated. Small world!
Currently, we are one week away from flying home for the holidays. We are in Prickly Bay, where we have access to more good restaurants, a brewery, half- price pizza night, a laundromat, a small grocery and a butcher. We will spend the time getting some service providers out to the boat to review boat projects and maintenance while we are away. In the meantime, the weather is 79-83 degrees, mostly sunny, occasional showers and always a steady breeze! Not a bad place to wait out the winter!!
