N12.00'001 W 61.45.85W - Current Position - Prickly Bay, Grenada
We are currently anchored in Prickly Bay on the south side of Grenada. It has been a busy summer thus far. We had a great visit back home and I also flew a fair bit. Probably more flying in the 6 weeks we were there than I had in the last 4 years; over 80 hours. I had "fun" just flying and it was great to be out there. I am scheduled to fly for 3 days in October as well when I return for a week for my clinic.
We both celebrated our birthdays while home. Laurie turned (censored) and I hit the big 60. I am now eligible for CCP and get to attend senior specials at certain stores. (I would rather be 40 again) I did apply for my CCP back in April and only after we returned to the boat in July that Service Canada mails me a letter saying I need to prove my birthdate as their records do not match what I submitted. June 14, 1955. "Please send in a notarized copy of your birth certificate or Passport." What??? It seems that the federal government passport office knows my birthdate but Service Canada does not? So, $80 USD later; the cost of seeing a lawyer in Grenada, I mailed my photo copies back to them...in Timmins.
We flew back home (to the boat) on July 13. The boat was in fine shape. The electrician finished up the electrical install and we headed over to Spice Island Marine where we hauled the boat on Monday July 20. We had the water line raised about 3 inches all around to inhibit the marine growth along the paint since the boat sinks so far once Laurie brings her cases of beer on board. (we also can hold 200 gallons of water and 180 gallons of fuel) We did a complete bottom anti fouling paint, a job that needs to be done roughly once year. We decided to change bottom paints this year to something a little stronger, Island 44 Plus it is called. It seems to be working great, no growth at all after 3 weeks! We finished up the work and were back in the water by Friday morning; ahead of schedule!
We had rented a car for a couple of weeks while we hauled so we took the opportunity to explore Grenada. Driving in the left for the second time BUT it was much easier in Dominica! On certain curves; there are a lot of them, you must be sure you are coming around on YOUR side of the "very narrow" road. Now I see why the cars here have a small mirror on the front left fender pointing down at you tires....so you can put your wheels a couple of inched off the curb or ditch! Driving here is fairly relaxed; for the locals who think nothing of stopping on the wrong side of the road to unload or stop in the middle to have a chat with someone while 8 or 10 cars sit behind. No one gets upset; everyone (mostly) is on "island time". Just take it in stride, something you do not see back home! If you pulled that in Toronto someone would probably shoot you.
We find Grenada is quite beautiful but differs from Dominica. There are fewer place to pull off the road to sightsee and most of the natural attractions such as water falls, are not clearly marked and are on private property. (read: $$$) In Dominica we paid for a National Park pass for a week for $20 which covered the whole island; but this is Grenada. We did visit the Grenada Chocolate Factory and got some free samples. No dairy milk here. You can buy your chocolate sweetened or not and with varying degrees of cocoa in them up to 100%. I didn't try the 100% but back at the pool we were talking with a young Italian girl who was visiting said it tasted like "dirt". Too strong I guess. The ones we had were great. Looking at the old machinery and methods they used were quite interesting. There were also four girls in a tiny room at the back where they were cutting the chocolate into bar size squares and then wrapping each bar by hand! No automation here!
We continued to the north shore of the island to sight see. There are beautiful long beaches but it was much too rough to attempt to go in for fear of being swept away. The beaches here come in several colors though, white sand (coral) beaches of St. Georges (south west side of the island), and to grey where it is a mix of coral and volcanic sand as well as black beaches were the sand is, well, black. We did go back to a beach about a 15 minute drive away from us on a couple of occasions, Sagesse Beach. It was shallow a ways out and is frequented mostly by the locals on the weekends. It was enjoyable. We pulled a couple of old lawn chairs we have out and spent the day.
Speaking of Volcanoes, "Kick 'em Jenny", an underwater volcano started rumbling a week after we returned. Some of the locals got a little nervous but it settled down. You can check out the volcanoes' website here:

http://volcano.si.edu/volcano.cfm?vn=360160

One day the local cruisers net announced that someone was holding a free seminar on sailing through to the ABC Islands, Columbia and through the Panama Canal. We dinghied over to attend. Walking in we heard Steve from "Ancestral Salute", a fellow Salty Dawg call out to us. We hadn't seen Steve or Spinnaker (his dog) since the BVI's. We caught up on each other's stories, did the seminar and then when leaving exchanged phone numbers. The funny thing is, our phone numbers are only one digit off from each other! Our Grenada number is 421-4224 and his is 421-4225. Weird. At least I can remember his number!
We are currently back in Prickly Bay anchored out while we are "finally" getting the sunshades and awning work done. We have the awning on the forward coach roof above our bed on now. It is about 5 degrees cooler in there during the day now and we have the much added bonus of being able to leave our hatch "open" during the rain squalls which happen almost daily now. It is "rainy season". Which brings to mind one other thing; when we left to go to Thunder Bay on June 01 this place was arid. Hardly any leaves on the trees and few flowers. Upon our return everything is green and flowers are everywhere! What a difference in only 6 weeks.
Later today we will be heading back to La Phare Bleu for a few days to attend a "dinghy concert". What is a dinghy concert? Well, it seems they take a band out on an anchored tug boat and put up a bar and extra seating on an old barge and everyone takes their dinghy there to listen to the music while tied up to the barge. I have seen photos of previous concerts and there is upwards of 70 dinghies tied up. We will stay there while they finish up sewing the side awnings. (the sail maker is on the boat as I write this making patterns under Laurie's supervision) They will get them made up next week (hopefully) and we will need to return for them to do the final fitting. Once that is done we are heading north to the Tobago Cays while watching the weather. There is a possibility of a wave that is just departing Africa today might form a tropical Lo by next weekend. We will monitor that, as we always do. Our weather guy is giving it a 30% chance of formation but believes it may pass north of the Caribbean.