A Lot To Do Before Heading West

Grenada

We arrived in the south of Grenada Island with a long list of things to do. The plan was to get the boat repaired (from being hit in Bequia), repaint the bottom with new anit-fouling paint, see the island, and Mary was heading home for a few days to work on taxes.

After meeting with the two best stainless welders on the island, it became clear that the damage to our pushpit could not be easily repaired. Oh well, we contacted the boat yard that built Berkeley East (in Taiwan) and they will build a new pushpit and ship it to Florida. So our plans needed to change again. First, we arranged for a temporary repair, so we could keep sailing. Then we will go to Ft Lauderdale on our way North to pick up and install the new pushpit.

With that out of the way, we anchored in Prickly Bay and headed off to see the island. We started out by catching the bus to St. George. The local buses are privately owned mini-vans painted in bright colors, that speed along the highway crammed full of passengers, playing loud music and stopping whenever someone pounds on the roof to get off. Each van has a copilot who opens the sliding door to let you in/out, holds your bags and collects the fares, before the van speeds off to ensure they stay ahead of the bus behind them so they don’t miss a fare.

St. George is Grenada’s capital and largest city. It is located on a lagoon and has a wharf used in the olden days to load ships full of the spices that Grenada is famous for exporting, especially nutmeg. The lagoon is lined with colorful shops and restaurants.

We had been to Grenada 20 years ago and while a lot had changed, it was generally the same island. Over the last 4 years, a great deal of work has been done to repair the island from the damage of hurricane Ivan. While you can still see evidence of the damage, most of the homes, government buildings and churches have been repaired. Everyone has a new roof, as the last one disappeared with Ivan.

The next evening we headed off to Guavye, a town on the North West coast that has a famous “fish fry” on Friday evenings. The taxi ride to Guavye wove along the western coast of the island, so we got a great tour of the beautiful coast line. The fish fry consist of small stands where locals are cooking up fresh sea food including, Mahi Mahi, Wahoo, Snapper, crab, octopus, local vegetables and breads. We ate our way through the stands trying everything we could until time ran out and we need to head back to Prickly Bay.

The next day we had “Cutty”, a local taxi driver who works with cruisers, provide a private taxi tour of the island. Grenada is a beautiful island and the people where friendly.

While we tend to do similar thing on most of the islands we visit (forts, waterfalls, markets, etc..) there where a few unique things in Grenada.

Larry jumping into the waterfall at Annandale – Well not so unique, although the locals jumped from the top of the cliff for tips.

Feeding the monkeys

Our guide brought some bananas so we could feed the wild monkeys. We stopped by the side of the road and the monkeys where all over us, trying to pull Mary’s shorts down and sitting on Larry’s head.

There are a few more monkey pictures in the Grenada gallery.

Old Rum Distillery

The taxi stopped at the oldest active rum distillery on the island. The Rivers Rum Distillery was built in the mid 1800s and still makes rum today the old fashion way with the use of a waterwheel to drive the equipment.

After our tour, the guide offered us some rum to taste. In Grenada you take a shot of rum and chase it with some water. Well this shot of rum caused our eyes to water and burned our throats. Mary did not finish all her rum in the first gulp, but in her haste to put out the fire she added water to the rum glass before finishing the rum. The tour guide politely said “honey, you are going to hell now”. I guess adding water to Rivers rum is punishable by a higher power.

The rum we tasted was 138 proof (69% alcohol). They have stronger rum, but they don’t give it to the tourists because you cannot take it on the airplane, as it is too flammable. We purchased a bottle of the rum to share with friends back home and to clean engine parts.

Planning the trip to Venezuela.

Our plan to cruise the offshore islands of Venezuela had of few challenges. First the island are mostly uninhabited and do not have customs or immigration. Secondly, we did not want to go to the mainland or Isla Margarita due to problems with piracy, so we ventured off to the VZ embassy to figure out how we could do this. In the end, they said we could get an “in transit” Visa to show the local Guardacosta if stopped. So after 10 bus trips to fill out paperwork, get passport pictures, pay fees to the local bank, etc.. we were very, very familiar with the local bus system, knew a few of the local SOCA songs by heart, were hearing impaired from the loud music on the buses and had a VZ Visa.

Each day, as we took the bus back and forth to the embassy, we passed by a nice beach. So one day we just got off the bus to see it. Grand Anse is a beautiful white sand beach with a number of small hotels on it. We walked along the beach and stopped at a local bar that was full of American medical students. We though we had it tough in San Diego, imagine going to school in the Caribbean!

Life on the hard

We had Berkeley East hauled out of the water at Spice Island Marine Services for the temporary repair to the pushpit and to get a new coat (actually 3 coats) of bottom paint. Another couple, that was living on their boat in the yard, cautioned us about staying on the boat as there where a lot of mosquitoes. Confident that we had screens on all the port holes and hatches, we decided to stay on the boat despite there warning.

We now better understand why it is called “life on the hard”. We thought the hard was related to the boat being on land, but it really is related to having to climb an 8-foot ladder to get on and off the boat, no power to run any of the systems (refrigeration and air conditioning), no water for showers, toilets, etc. and no fresh air because we were up against the mountains.

So after a few days, Mary flew home to take care of pressing “land business” .. the house, taxes, bubble baths, etc… while Larry lived on the hard and tried to repair the 150 pound washer/dryer with no luck.

After 5 days, we splashed Berkeley East (sailing lingo for putting the boat back in the water, hopefully very gently) and Larry had his first experience handling her on his own. With just one person on board maneuvering from the dock, dropping the anchor, picking up the anchor when the wind shifted and re-anchoring was a little tricky.

With Mary back we were anxious to see a little more of Grenada by sea, so we headed off to Hog island for the weekly cruisers BBQ.

We wanted to top up the diesel tanks before we left for three weeks in the offshore islands of Venezuela, so we went over to La Phare Bleu Marina for the night. BE hadn’t been at a dock in over two months, so it was exciting to squeeze her in between two 62-foot boats

All went well and this marina was so nice we ended up staying an extra day. We had a nice dinner aboard the Vastra Banken. She is a Swedish lightship that was restored, shipped over from Europe and converted into the marina office and an excellent restaurant. While there, we provisioned the boat as we didn’t expect to find any stores or restaurants while in Venezuela.

With new bottom paint, full diesel tanks and provisions we headed back to Prickly Bay to anchor out in preparation for our 2:00 am departure for Los Testigos.