In a very last minute decision, Dad decided to fly down to Grenada to join us aboard Salt Whistle. He had always enjoyed reading books about sailing and spending time at sea, and now he would get to experience it first hand. Skeeter and I had spent the hurricane season in Grenada, just south of the usual hurricane zone, and were now beginning our passage north so we could find work and save up for another adventure. We decided that this would be a good opportunity for all of us to sail the seas together. The adventures were plentiful, so I am breaking this blog into a 4 part series.
Nautical Miles Sailed: 160
Countries visited:
Grenada (Prickly Bay, St. George’s, & Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou),
St. Vincent and the Grenadines (Frigate Island, Bequia),
St. Lucia (Marigot Bay, Rodney Bay)
GRENADA –
Wednesday, October 21st
–
Brian drove Dad to O’Hare airport in Chicago at 6am. He had layovers in New York & Miami, but
all flights went smoothly and were on time.
When he arrived to Maurice Bishop Airport in Grenada, Skeeter and I were
there waiting. Dad had a little bit of
trouble at customs, since he struggled to understand the West Indian accent,
but the customs officer finally gave up and just let him through.
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| Grenada's Maurice Bishop International Airport |
Dad walked out of the airport into the humid
night. We exchanged hugs and listened to
stories about his trip, then grabbed a taxi to Prickly Bay. We were impressed that he was able to pack light, with a little bit of guidance, fitting everything into a little backpack and duffel bag. Before heading out to the boat we stopped at Timbers,
a restaurant on the water next to Spice Island Boatyard, for a drink. Dad tried
a rum & coke, made with Grenadian rum, Skeeter had a local ginger ale, and
I had a golden apple juice.
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| Timbers Bar & Grill |
We climbed into our little 8ft. dinghy, turned on our
navigation lights since it was dark out except for the stars, and buzzed over
to Salt Whistle. We gave Dad an
orientation around the boat. We showed
him his bathroom (he’d have to share the toilet with our fur-baby, Momo), set up his
bed (a pull-out couch in the main salon), and sat outside for a little while
under the stars. I gave him a book about
Caribbean pirates to read and a headlamp, and we all went to bed.
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| Dad was a good sport about sharing the toilet with this guy! |
Thursday, October 22nd
–
In the morning, Dad got his first view of Prickly Bay and all of the surrounding boats. Arriving in the dark can be disorienting!
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| Aerial view of Prickly Bay, with Salt Whistle circled |
We dinghied over to Prickly Bay Marina and walked to the US
Embassy so Skeeter and I could pick up our new passports. The Grenada embassy was amazingly quick in
getting them renewed for us. It only
took 5 days!
Across the street from the
Embassy was a really nice house for sale.
Out of curiosity, we walked over to see what they were asking. The owner was a very friendly man, and he
showed us around the house. It had a
separate unit upstairs which could be rented out, and lots of breezy outdoor
sitting areas and balconies. The garden
was beautiful, bursting with color from all of the tropical flowers. He was asking almost $800k. Definitely not something we could afford, but
a beautiful place, in a good location, on a wonderful island.
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| Click here to see listing |
On the walk back to Prickly Bay we stopped by the little
beach and looked out at Salt Whistle and all of the other boats. We picked up our filled propane cylinder from
the marina, and then we headed back to our boat to drop it off.
Our stomachs told us that it was getting to
be lunch time. We dinghied over to the
Spice Island Marine side of the bay and walked toward St. George’s University
to Aziz’s We Ting restaurant. St. George’s University is Grenada’s international medical school. There are many students from all over the
world, including the United States, Canada, England, Europe, and other
Caribbean islands. Most students are
studying to become doctors or veterinarians, though there are some other
smaller programs as well. Not a bad idea: earn a degree in paradise.
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| St. George's University overlooks the Caribbean |
Skeeter and I had been to Aziz’s restaurant once before, and
were excited to have an opportunity to return.
Aziz is a really cool guy whose parents are from Syria and
Trinidad. He makes great burgers,
shwarma, and salads. Skeeter and Dad
ordered the Aziz burger, and I ordered the chicken salad. They were enormous and delicious, and cheap
for Grenada standards.
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| Ridiculously delicious gigantic portions |
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| Dad enjoying his locally brewed beer & gigantic burger |
After lunch we decided to paddleboard to beach. Dad had never paddleboarded before, so he
decided to kneel rather than stand. Skeeter
took the other paddleboard, and I swam, pulling and guiding Dad’s paddleboard
until he got the hang of it. The beach
was a farther swim than I thought, and I was pooped by the time we got
there. Dad was tired from all that
paddling, too.
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| Prickly Bay Beach |
We met a couple of
English women, one of which was a veterinary medicine professor at the
university. Her friend had never
paddleboarded before, so we let her give it a try. She struggled to go from kneeling to
standing, because trying to balance your very first time is a real challenge
and your legs tend to be shaky. Also at
the beach, Dad got his first lesson about sea life when he accidentally swam
into a rope and got stung by the hydroids living on it.
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| We love our Tower Inflatable Paddleboards |
On the way back to the boat we formed a paddleboard
train. Dad sat on the back of my
paddleboard while I paddled (we were the caboose), and we were tied to
Skeeter’s paddleboard (the engine). It
must have been quite a scene. It was a
challenge to stay balanced, and I had to remind Dad not to wiggle at all or we
would fall. We had a couple of close
calls, but somehow we managed to make it all the way back to the boat like this
without ending up in the water.
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| Boat showers require only 10 seconds of fresh water |
When we got back, we taught Dad how to take a “boat shower.” Water is a very valuable commodity when you
live on a boat, so we are very conservative with our water usage. We get wet in the ocean, climb aboard and
soap up, jump back in the ocean to rinse the soap off, and then use only a few
seconds of fresh water from the deck hose to rinse off the salt. Dad took to boat showers like a champ, and he
actually said he liked them. Tonight we
took our boat showers as the sun was setting, and we drip dried as we watched
the sun go down.
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| Sunset over Prickly Bay |
For dinner I made a Caribbean curry in the pressure
cooker. It had goat meat, curry &
spices, coconut milk, rice, pumpkin, peppers, okra, eggplant, green onion, and
carrots. We watched “The Secret Life of
Walter Mitty,” though Dad fell asleep part way through because he was tired
after so much walking, swimming, and paddleboarding.
Friday, October 23 -
Skeeter made us oatmeal for breakfast, because we knew we’d
need energy for our action packed day today.
We were going to hike to a waterfall!
We dinghied to Spice Island Marine and made the mistake of getting on a
local bus that wasn’t on the regular bus route.
We should have just walked a few blocks to get on a #1 bus on the
regular route, but the driver convinced us to get in. He drove went back to the parking lot by the
dinghy dock (where we just came from), and sat there for about 20 minutes. We would have surely gotten off if he didn’t
tell us every time we were about to give up on him “just one more minute.” He managed to fill all but 3 seats on the bus
with other boaters arriving at the dinghy dock, then, hallelujah, he started
driving. He honked at every single
person he saw walking and slowed down the bus to see if he could convince
anyone else to get on. Each bus is
privately owned, so the more passengers a driver gets, the more money he
makes. There is a bus and taxi
association on Grenada that regulates prices and routes.
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| Dad experiencing a local Grenadian bus |
He stopped at the gas station to fill up his tank, which
took another 15 minutes. Included in the
stop was a chat with his friends and a photo shoot with a man in motorcycle
racing gear, helmet and all, sponsored by the “Rubis” gas station we were at. By this time we had been sitting in that bus,
sweating, for 40 minutes. We should have
already arrived downtown by now, but we had only made it about a mile.
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| The gas station in Grenada |
We were finally fueled up and back on the
road. Our overly eager driver continued
stopping for every person he passed and going off route in hopes of picking up
more passengers. He even went off route
into the mall parking lot so he could give door-side service to a cute Danish
girl. This was the most torturous bus
ride ever. We finally arrived downtown. What normally would have taken us 20 minutes
took us an hour and a half! He could
have done the route four times if he would have stuck to the program!
After sitting on the bus so long we needed to find a
bathroom. There was one at the main bus
terminal, but we had to pay $1 EC (around $.40 US) each to use it. That’s pretty standard in Grenada. Public toilets are available, but you pay a
fee to cover the cost of toilet paper, water, and maintenance.
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| Downtown St. George's |
Downtown St. George’s was packed with people. It was almost shoulder to shoulder in the
streets. I’m not sure if it was because
it was a Friday, or because it was the start of a holiday weekend (Grenada’s
Thanksgiving).
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| The #2 bus to Mt. Carmel |
We packed into a #2 bus to Mt. Carmel, and the bus departed
as soon as we got on. Dad got to sit in
the front with the driver, next to the window, so he got the best view. The mountainous roads in Grenada are steep,
narrow, and windy, and often times it seems there isn’t enough room to pass
oncoming traffic. But somehow the drivers
make it work. Sometimes they pass so
close you couldn’t even fit a sheet of paper in between them. We passed plantations, small mountain
villages, a rum refinery, and scenic overlooks.
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| Beautiful views of the interior of Grenada |
There was a loud drunk man in the back of the bus who was shouting his
political views at the driver. There was a military coup in Grenada in 1983, which led to US involvement. Click here to learn more about the invasion of Grenada. Some Grenadians supported the rebels, while others did not. The drunk man and the driver had opposing views, and the driver tried to
drown out the drunk man's political preaching by turning up the music.
Everyone was telling the guy to be quiet, but he wouldn’t. I was surprised the driver didn’t make him
get off the bus. When the drunk guy did
finally get off, he grabbed Dad by the arm, said something incoherent, and
called him “the Venezuelan.” He paid the
driver and everyone on the bus was shouting to the driver not to give the man
his change.
A little further up the
driver let us out at the tiny village of Mt. Carmel, and yelled to a friend to
take us to the path to the waterfall. The guy’s name was Dexter, and we decided to let him guide
us to the waterfall and show us the different plants and trees along the
way. He showed us mango trees, papaya
(known as paw-paw in Grenada), golden apple trees, soursop trees, banana
plants, coconut trees, lilies, almond trees, and more.
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| Dexter, showing us some figs (banana's cousin) |
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| A papaya tree (locally known as paw-paw) |
He talked me into standing on a log with him
for a picture, but as soon as I stood on the log it began rolling down the
mountainside. Good thing I have quick
reflexes and jumped off in time! Down by
the river he got us some almonds and broke them open with a rock. It really made us appreciate how difficult it
is to get a single almond!
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| Dexter used a rock to crack open the almond |
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| Dexter giving Dad an almond |
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| We made it to the waterfall! |
The waterfall was tall, wide, and beautiful. We thanked Dexter for escorting us down there
and gave him a generous tip. There were
a lot of people down there, maybe because it was a holiday weekend (Grenada’s
Thanksgiving is on Monday). Some people
were cooking an “oil down,” a traditional Grenadian coconut curry stew, over a wood fire next
to the waterfall. The smoke was a bit
overwhelming, but it dissipated after the food was finished cooking.
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| Traditional Grenadian Oil Down |
The rocks were slippery, so we took our time
and were careful as we made our way toward the waterfall. We stood under the falling water and went for
a swim in the fresh water pools. We even
found a bar of soap, so we took advantage of the opportunity and cleaned
ourselves.
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| Dad & I at the Mt. Carmel Waterfall |
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| Skeeter & Dad after a nice swim in the waterfall pools |
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| A wild lily |
When we were leaving, one of the local guys claimed that we
had used his soap that he uses to do his laundry. And that Dad cleaned himself “all over.” I wasn’t sure if he was joking or not, but it was a good laugh. I
apologized and said I’d bring a new bar of soap next time we come. It’ll have to be next year!
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| Skeeter & I, hiking back up to town |
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| A banana flower and tree |
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| Skeeter & Dad taking a break during the hike up |
We hiked back up to the town of Mt. Carmel,
and Dexter had an avocado, some roasted corn on the cob, and a bag of golden
apples for us.
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| We made it back up to the town of Mt. Carmel |
We hopped on a #2 bus
back to the capital, St. George’s, and went to the Creole Shack, located
upstairs from a grocery store. The food
is served cafeteria style, and it’s local, delicious, and cheap.
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| Stewed pork, rice & peas, pumpkin & coleslaw |
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| Dad is ready to dig in! |
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| We love the Creole Shack! |
Afterwards, we had locally made nutmeg ice
cream from the grocery store below. And
once more, we hopped on the #1 bus back to Prickly Bay.
Saturday, October 24 -
We woke up at 5:45am so we could prepare the boat for our
sail to Carriacou. We had everything
secured, all ports and hatches closed, and were ready to raise the anchor and
head out. As soon as I put the engine
into gear I heard a horrible sound and immediately put it back into
neutral. We had been sitting in Prickly
Bay for 2 months now, and it seemed that our engine was out of alignment.
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| New engine means frequent alignment |
Because we have a new engine, the alignment
needs to be readjusted from time to time as it settles in and the rubber feet
on the engine mounts compress. The
slightest change in how the engine sits can cause the propeller shaft to wobble
when rotating, causing a terrible noise and eventually damage the transmission
and the engine.
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| The propeller shaft goes into the stuffing box |
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| And this hose makes alignment very difficult without x-ray vision |
Boaters learn to be flexible, to expect the unexpected, and
to fix all sorts of things yourself. We
knew that we couldn’t run the engine with improper alignment, so we decided to
change our plans. Skeeter warned me that
this could take all day.
Dad and I
headed to Grand Anse Beach to give Skeeter peace and quiet to work on fixing
the engine alignment. Dad drove the dinghy from the boat to the dock like a champ.
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| Dad driving the dinghy |
We hopped on a #1 bus to the Radisson Beach Resort, took a
shortcut through their property to the beach, and found a shady place
underneath an almond tree. We chose our
spot carefully, since there are some spots with lots and lots of ants, which
bite really hard and leave you very itchy for days.
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| Grande Anse Beach |
The sand was soft and the water was crystal
clear. It dropped off quickly, so you
didn’t have to go far to find water over your head. Dad was very happy swimming and bobbing
around here.
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| Dad enjoyed the crystalline waters of Grand Anse Beach |
Afterwards we sneaked into
the Radisson hotel to use their showers to get the salt off our skin, and
changed in their bathrooms.
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| The Radisson Beach Resort in Grenada |
By the time we got back, Skeeter was just finishing up. I made us some tuna sandwiches for lunch, and
then Skeeter jumped into the water to clean the growth off our anchor chain and
propeller.
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| Skeeter cleaning our anchor chain |
He got absolutely covered in
thousands of tiny shrimp, so I helped him get the nasty little buggers
off. They pinch really hard, so it was a
good thing Skeeter wore a rash guard in the water. If you don’t get them off, they will stink like
dead fish.
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| I'm brushing off as many shrimp as I can |
Even though we couldn’t make it all the way to Carriacou now
because it was too late, we decided to sail around to St. George’s. But the alignment was still off! We were discouraged, but Skeeter opened up
the floor again and went to work to get the alignment right. This time he succeeded, and we decided that
if we left immediately, we could still make it around to St. George’s.
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| We sailed past the airport as a plane was preparing for take-off |
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| Our sunset sail to St. George |
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| This was Dad's first sail with us on Salt Whistle |
We had a nice sunset sail, and managed to
anchor in the nick of time, just before the sky went completely dark. I made plantains and spaghetti for dinner,
and we relaxed and watched “Trading Places,” one of our favorite 80’s
movies. Dad really liked it too, and
managed to stay awake through the entire movie!
Sunday, October 25 -
We woke up at 5:30am to prepare the boat for our sail to
Carriacou, but just as we were ready to leave the sky became really dark. A big squall came over the mountains and hit
us hard. The winds began to howl and the
rain started coming down in sheets. We
had a mono hull to our port side, and a catamaran to our starboard side. The way the wind was whipping over the
mountains was causing the mono hulls to swing differently than the catamarans,
and we were being blown dangerously close to the catamaran.
I pulled up the swim ladder and started the
engine while Skeeter pulled our dinghy up alongside. The rain was pelting us in the face and we
were drenched in an instant. I put the
engine into gear and carefully maneuvered just enough to get us away from the
catamaran without putting us too close to the monohull. It was intense. Skeeter was up on the bow ready to take up
any slack on our anchor chain when necessary.
We didn’t want to raise our anchor and leave the anchorage during the
squall because there were numerous boats downwind from us and the visibility
was extremely limited.
After about 30 minutes the squall finally passed, we raised
our anchor, and headed out toward Carriacou.
But the stress was not yet over.
The alignment felt and sounded off again. We put up the mainsail and genoa, turned the
engine off, and once it cooled Skeeter went down below to work on it yet again,
this time while underway. After that
nasty squall the winds were so light they were practically nonexistent. We were moving along at only .5 – 1.5 knots
(we were in the lee of the island), so I tried to head further out from land to
catch some more wind. We were outside
the capital of St. George for 3 hours, making very little headway.
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| We're STILL in front of St. George's??? |
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| Sailing very slowly toward Carriacou |
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| It was so calm that even Momo was comfortable on deck |
When Skeeter got the alignment right we decided to motor
sail to make up for lost time. We wanted
to arrive to Carriacou before dark.
After that big squall, there was lots of debris in the water. There were tons of pieces of Styrofoam,
plastic bottles, coconuts, and worst of all, hundreds of gigantic logs. It was like the old video game “Frogger”,
except a whole lot more intense. Hitting
one of gigantic logs could put a hole in the boat or destroy our propeller. Skeeter was out on the bow on the lookout,
and I was at the helm steering around what seemed to be an entire forest of
trees. To add to the frustration, the
winds were very inconsistent in both direction and speed so we had to adjust
course and trim sails repeatedly.
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| The northwest coast of Grenada |
Once we got out of the lee of Grenada the winds got steadier
and the debris field was over. We were
able to shut off the motor and just sail again.
We picked up speed to around 5 knots.
Dad took a siesta when things got steadier, and we sailed past the still
active underwater volcano, Kick ‘em Jenny.
We passed the beautiful Ronde Island, which is currently for sale, and
the most expensive island in the world at an asking price of $100 million.
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| Dad is the siesta champion |
As soon as we passed Ronde Island we felt a
strong current, pushing us perpendicular to our intended path and slowing us
down to 2-3 knots. We restarted the
engine and motor sailed so we could be sure to arrive before dark.
Another exciting day! 😀 I enjoyed following you all in this latest one. All's well that ends well! 😀
ReplyDeleteLove you guys!
Mamacita
Xoxo 😃
We love you too! As much as we love Grenada, it was time to get a move on so we could get Dad to the airport in St. Lucia!
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