Grenada - on land and under the sea

  Three weeks have passed and we are still in Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada and have become part of the Cruising Community here - and there really is a community!  There is a daily radio broadcast advising us of the local weather forecast and any possible developing tropical storms as well as a vast selection of social events from tai chi to cookery demonstrations,  local goods and services, and shopping busses which do the rounds of the chandleries and various hardware and food shops.  

Clarkes Court Bay - it was almost empty when we arrived 3 weeks ago, but has filled up considerably now with boats either passing the hurricane season here, or waiting for a weather window to head on to Trinidad.

Sunset - view across Clarkes Court Bay

There are several tiny Marinas in the bay - the nearest to us is Whisper Cove Marina which must be able to accommodate a maximum of 15 yachts.

The Whisper Cove Marina is in the background - not too sure what this passenger ferry was up to,  but it clearly wouldn't fit in this Marina!

The view out over Clarkes Court Bay from the very lovely Whisper Cove Marina.

The Bay itself is surrounded by mangroves, but there are banks of Conch shells piled up around it - Conch is widely eaten in the Caribbean and we have seen these huge mounds of shells many times.  It does make you worry about the survival of the Conch here as we certainly have not seen many living when diving or snorkelling.

Old Conch shells.

There are several small islands in the bay, and Hog Island in particular seems to have become a parking lot / graveyard for yachts.

This aluminium hull is at least 25 metres long - it's been totally stripped out and apparently was salvaged for its keel, which has been removed.  Sad to see so many boats turning a beautiful bay into a scrapyard.

Grenada, like most of the Caribbean islands we have visited has an excellent and very cheap local bus service.  As long as you don't mind being squashed into a people carrier that would make a Road Safety officer cry, the service is great and we have used it extensively to get round the island.

As long long as some part of you is on a seat, and the door shuts, the bus is good to go.

Roadside Partiotism - tyres painted in the colours of independence.

Grenada is famous for its chocolate, so we went to visit the home of Jouvay Chocolate - an ancient factory that fell on hard times, but was reborn in 2011 as a farmers cooperative.  Unfortunately the day we visited they were not producing chocolate but we did have a tour of the facility.

The old factory building - home of Jouvay Chocolate.

A Cocoa Pod

The beans are layered in banana leaves and fermented, before being sun dried.

The dried beans are sorted, and then pass through various processes to remove stones, leaves and other impurities.

A sac of beans ready for roasting, crushing and melting.

Some of the ancient machinery, still in use today.

And the end product - in very large bars here!

And in case you have worked up a thirst, chocolate flavoured beer is also available.

Shopping in Grenada is interesting - there are a few small American Style Malls.

Spice Island Mall - these signs are widely displayed.

The much more common style corner shop.

And one of the many road side stores.

No visit to Grenada is complete with out a tour of one of the Rum Distilleries.  We walked to the Clarkes Court Distillery, not very impressive from the outside, the factory initially opened in 1937 and produced sugar and rum until 1981 when the production of sugar was abandoned.

Molasses is now used to produce the rum, although the old sugar cane juice extraction machinery is still functional.

This used to be fuelled by the burning of sugarcane after the juice had been extracted.

Crushers for extracting the sugar cane juice.

The molasses mix is poured into large open topped vats where it quickly ferments.

Where the magic happens.

And this is what you end up with - the many types of Clarkes Court Rum ... Flavoured, matured and blended dark and white rum.

And the opportunity to try them all!

When we first arrived in Clarkes Court Bay, we were surprised by the colour of the water in the bay - it all became clear after a visit to the distillery.

The byproduct of rum production certainly explains the smell and colour of the water at the end of the bay.

View from the dinghy, Clarkes Court Bay.

Another activity we have been part of in Grenada is the HASH. Nothing to do with any narcotics, it is actually considers itself to be a 'drinking club with a running problem'. What it really means is that it is a wonderful opportunity to go on a walk (or run) organised by local Grenadians in some very 

wild terrain - you certainly get to see places you would not venture into otherwise, followed by beers and a BBQ.

The HASH - leaving the beaten path

Coming back out of the forest into civilisation.  We used to do HASH runs 35 years ago when we lived in Jordan - there we used flour to mark the trails, shredded paper is used here - it rains so often it doesn't stay around for long.

Just one of the hazards on the route.

There is some fantastic diving in Grenada - some great wreck dives as well as coral reefs, and an underwater sculpture park. We had seen the sculptures at the artists, Jason Taylor's, studio in Lanzarote, so it it was especially interesting to see them in situ underwater.

This installation is called Vicissitudes 

The Circle of Life.  You can see the corals and sponges growing on the statues.

The Lost Correspondent - alone with his typewriter.

There were several other sculptures in the park, and although we were diving you could also see them snorkelling.  

A Trunkfish - checking out the artworks?

This is just a taste of what Grenada has to offer, but I'll finish this blog with a photo of one of the more unusual events we have attended here ... A Dinghy Concert.  

Floating pontoons were towed out into the bay by a small tug, and a local live band performed to the crowds who turned up either by water taxi or in their own dinghys.  As is the norm for Grenada, the music was incredibly loud but great fun was had by all.  Thank you Mr Killer and the band Rebel One.

We plan to stay here for a few more weeks, or until forced to leave by the weather - and looking forward to discovering more about the lovely island of Grenada before heading on to Trinidad to take the boat out of the water for some essential maintenance.

 

Bequia to Union Island, via Tobago Cays

In the event of a claim arising from a 'Named Storm', our yacht insurance policy requires us to be south of Grenada by the 1st of June, the official start of the hurricane season.   We plan to head for Grenada, where we will keep a close eye on the weather and escape to Trinidad at the first hint of trouble.

Our plan was to head south to Bequia - a trip of about 70nm. Again we were not planning on stopping in St Vincent as it continues to have a reputation of very poor safety, but this time we decided to sail down the windward coast.  Probably not our best decision ... an interesting sail, quite taxing conditions in a large and confused sea - although it was nice to see the other side of the island, it meant we arrived a good hour after our fellow sailors on Aztec Dream and it absolute darkness.  It was not easy finding a spot to anchor amongst the various unlit buoys and yachts - luckily our friends on Rebell were able to guide us in by radio and torchlight. 

Having left St Lucia in extreme rain, we arrived in Bequia to find there was a drought.

Admiralty Bay.  Lots of trees had dropped their leaves, the hillside in the distance is quite brown.

It was lovely to be back in Bequia - on our last visit we had attended Mike and Taryn's wedding so it brought back some great memories.  

Bequia Street Signs, hand painted by experts.

An old Bequia whale boat being refurbished.

The boat is about 50 years old, and will eventually have a mast and sail as well as oars.  Although the killing of a couple of whales per year is still legal in Bequia for heritage reasons there are no plans to hunt with this one.

Although we wanted to visit Tobago Cays, we had heard of a recent armed robbery on a yacht there so had decided to make a quick lunch stop there and head on to Carriacou for the night.  When we arrived in Tobago Cays we found quite a number of yachts either on buoys or at anchor and were advised that the it was believed to have been an isolated incident involving a stolen fishing boat and the assailants had been caught.

Tobago Cays - the anchorage is protected by a reef, so the water is calm despite waves crashing in the distance.

The area is a marine reserve, and the snorkelling was wonderful.

Sting ray.

Sea stars

And lots of turtles.  They are totally un bothered by snorkellers

We spent a couple of nights in Tobago Cays which caused a problem with our paperwork as we had already checked out of St Vincent and the Grenadines with the intention of going straight to Grenada (the area stretches from St Vincent to Union Island). Customs officials in these waters do not take kindly to visitors ignoring their rules so we thought it best to go to Union Island to sort it out.

First impression of Union Island was not good - anchoring was not an option due to lack of space and we were met by a rather pushy 'boat boy' and guided to a mooring buoy of his choice.  He assured us it was strong and well maintained.  A quick snorkel showed otherwise - we use stronger line to secure our dinghy.  He took us to another buoy - same again.  We chose the next mooring which was serviceable but certainly not good but the need to sort out the Customs situation meant we had to take the risk.

The road to the customs and immigration office did not inspire.  After much discussion they eventually issued us with new exit paperwork and we set off to discover what the town had to offer.  

The high street, Clifton, Union Island.

The main square.

The highlight!  Jenny's Fruit Market.

Having exhausted the delights of Clifton, we headed back down the high street to the sea front where we did find a very nice bar  before heading back to the boat.

We left Union Island bright and early the next morning and had a very enjoyable sail past Sandy Island to Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou.

A rare occasion when the wind was just right for us to use both headsails - sailing past Sandy Island with Aztec Dream.  We stopped at Sandy Island in February and bought a lobster from a boat boy - the snorkelling was excellent, and we plan to return here at some stage after we have cleared customs.

We had heard good reports about the scuba diving in Carriacou, so arranged a dive at the Lumbadive centre in Tyrrel Bay.  It was brilliant - Richard, the Dive Instructor, had joked that we would get a refund if we didn't see at least 100 species of fish.  His income was secure after the first 10 minutes underwater.

A Balloonfish, resting in a sponge, and Spotted Moray Eel.

We did two dives with Lumbadive, and they were amongst the best we have done so far.

We couldn't spend long in Carriacou as we were planning to meet up with a group of fellow members of the Cruising Association in Grenada, but it's definitely on our list of places we'd like to revisit in November - after the hurricane season.

We made a brief stop in St Georges, Grenada to clear customs then headed to Clarkes Court Bay on the south of the island not only for the Cruising Association Social but also in case we need to make a quick dash to Trinidad for weather reasons.  Just in case anyone had the impression it's all plain sailing in the Carribean, the trip along the Grenada coast was horrible.

No chance of sailing as it was into a strong current, a strong headwind and a big sea!  

We hope to explore a bit of Grenada by land while we are here, this is a very well sheltered anchorage with good holding so should be a good place to leave the boat far a couple of day trips round the island.

Our next stop should be Trinidad - we need to have the boat lifted in order to sort out a problem with the hydraulic pump for our rudder, but first we need to have some parts sent out from the Ovni Agent in the UK.