Monique in Grenada (English)
02 December 2020
Dick van Geldere
After four months of care and arranging matters for my mother in the Netherlands, and after a long flight from Amsterdam, via London and Barbados, I finally fell back into Dick's arms, in Grenada. A bit illegal, because I am officially quarantined despite two negative Covid tests. The first ten days my only getaway is to the beach - walking and swimming, while keeping a good distance from everyone. "Every disadvantage has its advantage", said Cruijff, our most famous soccer player, and my advantage is that Dick has to do the shopping in those days! After ten days of isolation, I can get back to work, and six of the seven days we go to Grenada Marine to work on the boat.
We quickly get into a routine, where Dick sleeps in, I run on the beautiful endless beach of Grand Anse or seriously swim laps in warm, clear water.
Then with lunch and drinks in the cool-bag to the boat, where we work and sweat. It is sticky warm, and it is hard to work inside the boat. I'm mainly scrubbing and cleaning all the covers of the couches and beds, and endlessly scratching bird droppings from the boat, while Dick does the more intelligent work.
Grenada is a lovely island, green, mountainous, steep valleys and narrow, winding roads. The capital St George reminds me a lot of the capital of Sierra Leone, Freetown. An old center, steeply stuck to a slope, with old roads that are way too narrow, where only one-way traffic is possible. Our small rental car can barely climb some steep roads, and I leave those parts to Dick.
The Grenadians are very nice and friendly people. You are greeted everywhere, and during my daily walk to the beach I am sometimes greeted with a friendly "Here you are again, I already missed you yesterday"!
We live in a mini apartment, small, but with everything in it. It is a wonderful place to live, while we work on the boat for weeks.
There is also plenty of entertainment, with the other sailors that Dick has spent endless hours with on St Helena, and who are now also in Grenada. Movie nights, oven dishes prepared by Karl, the Irish sailor, birthday celebrations for the crew of the Valentina, including a children's party at the Bowling Alley! Sunday afternoons are often spent at the Aquarium restaurant, on a beautiful beach, with views along the coast towards Grand Anse and St George and with live music. What do you mean Corona, what do you mean lockdown. We very much realize that we are incredibly lucky to be on an island like Grenada. No new Corona cases, they only had about 30, until it was decided to allow international flights from the USA and Canada in again. Yes, and that quickly goes wrong. Almost every week a new case, someone who has broken the rules, always someone who has just arrived. The Canadian flights will therefore be stopped at the end of November.
Worse than Covid here is a Dengue epidemic in the Caribbean, with more deaths in St Vincent than by Covid. Less in Grenada, although a few of our sailing friends club also got sick.
Umnyama goes into the water in mid-November, we sail the first miles again and stay another week at my favorite beach Grand Anse. Then the anchor is raised and the first real full day is sailed to the island of Carriacou. More about that in the next blog.