Gorgeous Grenada
16 December 2007 | Grenada
Jane
We are currently at anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada.
Last weekend we spent at Chacachacare Island, which is an hour West of Chaguaramas. We were there with some other boats we have become friends with, and on the Sunday Jane enjoyed knee tubing and water ski-ing with Franco off Empathy. The snorkeling was very good with a lot of fish and even a Turtle. It was great to be away from the hussle and bussle of Chag (as it has become affectionately called).
We had a small window of opportunity to leave Trinidad on Wednesday; otherwise we would have been stuck there for 7-10 days as the weather was
deteriorating. Mind you the weather was not the best ......
Ta-B really showed us what an amazing boat she is. We left at 5.30 pm and decided to be extra cautious so put 3 reefs in the main, a very wise decision we were to find out. For the first few hours the wind was a lovely Easterly of approx. 20 knots, however it soon shifted to a North East and we were going North (always the case). I took the first watch enjoying the roller coaster, as the waves were pretty bumpy and about 3 meters, while Russ slept. After 4 hours at midnight Russ came on watch and the wind rose to 30 gusting 32 and the seas we think 3 meters (could not see it was overcast without a moon, pitch black). Ta-b was so comfortable I was amazed I slept!! I was hoping for a wonderful sunrise when I came up on watch 4 hours later, but it was warm rain and more wind. The long and short of it is that the trip took 22 hours, a bit longer than normal, but we enjoyed every minute of it and have fallen in love with our new home even more.
Grenada is gorgeous. The people are sooo friendly and helpful. There is a local net at 7.30 each morning (like Trinidad) where cruisers check in, weather is shared, social activities given, boat gear bartered and maintenance problems often solved. We also listen to Eric on the Ham radio at 6.30 am, we luckily got to know him in Trinidad, he covers the weather for the whole of the Caribbean.
St. Georges the main town has a lot of character; we spent the day there yesterday. Last night we went with a group of boaties to Gouyave where the locals have Fish Fry every Friday. It is the main fishing village on the island where they have several streets lined with stalls selling fish cooked in every way possible to eat, with rum stalls (bars) in between. It was a lot of fun going from stall to stall sampling their wares. Russ ended up drinking rum and angostura bitters with the local cop and fireman .... They wanted us to come back next week, so that they could make us a special dinner at the fire station!
We are planning to go to True Blue Bay Marina tomorrow, so that we can get the boat cleaned up and ready for when the kids arrive on Monday. Please see picture gallery on right for new photos.