Home for the "Windy Season"
01 July 2006 | St=2E Georges, Grenada
We arrived in Grenada on July 1. This will be our home base for the next 4 months, during the "Windy season" aka hurricane season. In the islands we refer to huricane season as the "windy season!" Grenada was hit by Hurricane Ivan (category 4) in 2004 and Hurricace Emily (category 1) in 2005. Most cruisers will spend the windy season in Trinidad or Grenada. We have chosen Grenada. Daisy is not allowed off the boat in Trinidad. We pulled intothe picturesque harbour of St George on July 1. Grenada is known as the Spice Island, it is moutainous and lush with 450 species of flowering plants and 150 species of birds. Nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon, vanilla, cocoa and almost every herb and fruit of the tropics fill the landscape. Grenada is the southernmost island of the Windwards, located 100 miles north of Venezuela and only 12 degress north of the equator! Grenada was sighted by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498. It was first occupied by the peaceful Arawak Indians and then the fierce Carib Indians drove them away. The English Traders attempted to establish a colony in 1609 but they failed due to Carib resistance. The French had better luck in 1650 and established a settlement on the island on the southeast coast. The Brits were determined to acquire Grenada because of its strategic location, consquently the island changed hands several times until 1783 when it was ceded to Britain under the Treaty of Versailes. Grenada gained full independence in 1974. You may recall the US intervention in Grenada in 1983. A coup in 1979 resulted in Cuba gaining interest in Grenada and sending experts to train Grenada securtiy forces. In 1983 there was the assasination of Grenada's leader, Maurice Biishop and an interanl struggle for power resulted and an attempt by a pro-Cuban fraction to seize power. The US saw Cuba's involvement as a camouflage to turn Greanda into a military base, enabling Cuba to control the two ends of the caribbean. The US intervened militarily to stop the coup. Today there are still Cuban and Russian airplanes on the defunct airstrip which you may climb on!