Grenada in June

The soggy south. One tropical wave after another: 20-25k sustained wind with higher gusts, high humidity, and LOTS of rain - sometimes it is just a tease and spits for just long enough to close everything up. We are up and down a lot, opening and closing hatches and canvas. Didn't keep us from going out though. One day we picked up laundry (nowhere to do it ourselves here) and covered it in garbage bags. The laundry stayed dry but we didn't!

In between trop waves, we have had a lovely breeze through the boat and sunny, HOT days. We are enjoying Clarke's Court Bay. LOTS of social activity! One night we joined a group going in for "curry night" at a local British restaurant that does roast beast and Yorkshire pudding on Sundays. The day before, the same group had a beach BBQ potluck so we met lots of new people. We took a group taxi that takes cruisers to a bank, Budget Marine, Ace Hardware, Grocery and Big Box store and met more people. We went on an island tour to a nutmeg plantation and processing center, cacao plantation and processing, rum distillery, hike to a waterfall, and 2-1 pizza nights, happy hour steel drum band and listening to a band called Barracuda. WHEW! Roberta went with a group to hike a couple of beaches and ended up walking 8-9 miles. On Father's Day we went out to Grover Island on a barge to watch sailboat races and snorkel.

The south coast of Grenada is a series of bays, many of which are linked by dinghy routes through the reefs and behind small islands. So we all anchor in our favorite bay, and stay in touch via an early morning VHF radio network and hailing channel. Celilo is anchored near one of the marinas that has a lot going on, so we see people going by, and they sometimes stop to chat. Michael watched F-1 on their big screen TV, and they have a really great BBQ cheeseburger-and-fries night once a week. There is a French bakery and meat market (where they process their local meats into delicious sausages, etc.) attached to a pub, and we like to go there for their sausage, bread and a relaxing atmosphere where they play classical music or jazz to get away from the loud thumpety-thump blaring across the bay from car radios, local bars, and some homes.

In between all this are the usual boat chores - foraging for groceries, changing currency, laundry, fueling up, changing oil, constant cleaning, etc. But it is nice to be stopped for a couple of weeks, mostly relaxing, and enjoying the sunny/rainy weather!

We have been included in a couple of different groups of long-time friends who have sailed together a few years, made to feel very welcome and have thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Most of these groups are planning to cross to Trinidad on the next weather window, so there should be a fleet of us out there!

Grenada itself has some of the friendliest people we have met so far. Everyone has a smile, will chat, has something nice to say. Cutty, our island tour driver knew most of the local plants and fruits, and whenever he saw an interesting one, would pull over, run to the tree or bush, cut a sample and share it - explaining what it was, how it is used, how to eat them, etc.

We won't have enough time here to do everything offered, everything we want to do, but will be back in the fall to take in what we missed. Grenada is great!