The Carriacou Hash Weekend
29 September 2013 | Hillsborough, Carriacou (Grenada)
Lynn
Every year, the Grenada Hash House Harriers take things “on the road” to one of Grenada’s sister islands, Carriacou. This weekend is seen as a “Hash Holiday” and it is a big event on the Hashing social calendar. Of course, this is for a very good reason! I'm just trying to figure out why we haven't done it before.
This year, when ‘Silverheels III’ was in Carriacou back in June, I contacted Mike “Softwood” Cowan about who was going to be the “hare” for the C-cou Hash. He replied that nobody had volunteered, so I volunteered to check out and set the trail for the main Hash. I knew that I had the time, and I love setting trails for the Hash. “Softwood” happily accepted, and a telephone conference, with both of us staring at Google Earth, gave us the general parameters of where we were starting and finishing. The rest us up to me to discover. No problem.
(“Softwood” is Mike’s “Hash Name”, usually done for doing something memorable, stupid, or both… mine is “Two Shits”, and that is another story. “Hares” set hash trails)
Fast forward to September. The big weekend is fast approaching. Since Ken and I were going to be arriving slightly earlier than most, and we were going up in our own boat, we volunteered to take up the special Hash possessions. This includes the banner (which I rescued back in June when I found it languishing in a bus on C-cou), the Dotty Potty, the toilet seat for the “Hash Sh*t of the Week”, 2 crates of beer, two wooden signs, and the first aid kit. Previous to this, I had spent about 4 hours in total scraping and brushing the growth from our anchor rode. We had gone over the boat’s engine and other things to make sure that the essential systems were in good operating order. We filled the water tanks (water is not always easy to come by in C-cou) and got the groceries done. We were ready to go.
Wednesday we headed out of Clarkes Court Bay and went up the East coast of Grenada, a route we hadn’t taken before. It was fine, except the autopilot wouldn’t engage. Okay, so we were going to have to hand steer the approximately 40 nautical miles north, a nuisance but not a deal breaker by any means. (It ends up the wheel component had a crack in it that also allowed the belt to disengage; Ken’s since epoxied it, but we aren’t sure how long that will hold, if at all). Otherwise, the trip up was pleasant and uneventful, with rain in front of us and behind, but nothing but blue sky around us. We dropped the hook in Hillsborough, glad that Customs and Immigration weren’t an issue this time around. The dinghy was put back together, and we relaxed for the rest of the day. We had the added pleasure of watching the pelicans that hang around some kind of bait fish net (or something of the sort), and the occasional frigate bird. Local fishermen were also seine net fishing not too far from our boat.
Thursday, Softwood and Jackie, his wife, arrived on the island hopping ferry. I met with them, and we went to the local radio station “VIBES”. Mike and I did two radio interviews, one live, one recorded, for the Hash. There was also a promo made for the Hash weekend, and to me it sounded like an ad for a Monster Truck Event. However, so did the ad for the Walk to End Women’s cancer.
Friday dawned bright and clear. Softwood and I took the three big bags of finely shredded paper that we use to mark the trails, and struck off to “set the trails”. Our starting point was a cemetery that Ken and I had discovered on the Windward side of the island, right on the beach. The Hashers were going to go from that point, over the island, and end up on the Leeward side at the Hillsborough beach. We spent about 5 hours laying the paper and checking a few things out. What we also realized is that there were a large number of stinging nettles on the path. These can be a nuisance for some, but for many Grenadians, it is a more harsh reaction. It was decided that I would take my machete BACK to the trail and do some “gardening”. You can only imagine the locals’ facial expressions when they see a white woman wielding a machete that some referred to as a “bone breaker”. Most farmers use a slimmer machete for their work, but mine is a bush whacking type of machete, perfect for hacking one’s way through the growth. It was also suitable for killing nettles. By the time I was done, I was much more sensitized to them, and more appreciative of the reactions some get to them. I needed antihistamine to bring the swelling down in my hand. They actually still itch at times, three days later. I missed a “mini-hash” that was conducted through Hillsborough to drum up local interest. The BBQ chicken was good, the curried goat much too salty for my liking.
Saturday, we went back out to hack some more path for the runner’s route. The pricker trees were pretty aggressive in some areas, and there were more nettles to be dealt with. After putting a safety rope up on one part of the path, we were done. The Hash trail was ready.
At 2:30 we started loading up the busses to get the Hashers to the start point, where we were also doing a beach clean up. By 3:50, to the cry of “ON ON!” we were off on the trails. I swept the runner’s trail, making sure no stragglers got lost, and once we met the walker’s trail, I was free to go at my pace.
After the Hash was the regular shenanigans, but we had a local string band playing as well. They had guitars, a fiddle, percussion, and played folk tunes and had a bluegrass feel to it. They were nothing like a string band I would think of, and we loved their music. This actually is giving us incentive to be in Carriacou for the Maroon and String band Festival in late April.
This morning it was breakfast on the beach and another mini-Hash. The bakes and saltfish were nice, and the Hash was hilarious! The hare set many false trails, which caused the runners to run in all directions, while the slower walkers found the correct trails and got us going again. I must have passed Ken about 5 times due to all of the mistakes and wrong turns. It was very well done, and a good laugh.
Now everyone is making their way back to Grenada (with a few cruisers going elsewhere). We did have other cruisers come up for the Hash, too, and we all had a good time. I already have ideas for next year’s trails… Ken and I are heading back down tomorrow, hopefully with a functional autopilot.