another road trip, but up the west side

Saturday Oct 1, found us boarding a tour bus with Ed & Cheryl Carter for a trip us the west side of the island.  As before, it was absolutely gorgeous.  We hugged the coast going through many small towns that a pretty much like all 3rd world small towns, too narrow streets, too much traffic and too many people aimlessly wandering down the street, oblivious of traffic.

nothing wrong with her neck, it's alive (brought to mind several old jokes!)

took this just to show the sweet potato patch in the background.  The girl drank the coconut milk & then split the nut  to get to eat the meat.

Concord Falls

secondary fall

cute little fishing village beach

part of rum factory 

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Grenada lawn mowers

catholic church from mid 1700's

petroglyphs over at least two years old

he almost got the color right

We also went to a chocolate factory, rum factory and back to the same volcano crater lake.  Cutty would stop every mile or two to collect another herb or fruit and tell us all the good/bad qualities.  When we got back I was telling customs & immigration about it and the immigration lady gave me some herbs to make tea with. I googled it and I think if I drink it every day I will live forever.  It was Santa Maria bush and makes a wonderful tea, so I told a few people I liked it and tomorrow I am getting lemon grass, moringo leaves, big thyme, rosemarie and bay leaves delivered by the locals that work here at the marina.  Each person touted the qualities of their favorite herb and wanted me to drink it. On my way to infinity  or least longevity!

Wednesday, 9/28/16  raining, waiting for more from invest 97L, a tropical depression that was predicted to hit Grenada as a hurricane, and the whole purpose for us to spend so much time here was to avoid hurricanes!  It is going about 50 miles north so we are on the "good" side but will still get plenty of rain.  The only reason I'm writing this is utter boredom, Sally is washing all the windows for the same reason.  We spent a day buttoning up the boat for the high winds and waves and now will spend a half day unbuttoning, a lot of the buttoning was neglected chores that should have been done long ago.  12 years ago Ivan ripped Grenada a new one and now everyone overreacted, cancelled schools and closed businesses and boarded everything up.

St.George's from the marina restaurant 

The mega yacht (350') built for Steve Jobs came in to the marina yesterday to wait out the storm.  It has enough stainless on the bow to wrap my entire hull.  The boat looks like an office building on the water, one of the crew said it is the most hitek boat on the water.  Jobs died before completion.

Sally went on a hash, several hundred people clambering up a slick mountain for no apparent reason other than calming ones masochistic cravings.  I had to put up with her complaining and moaning for two days, now she is thinking about doing one this weekend but even more difficult.  Goes to showya!  I plan to do just like I did on the other one, relax under the air conditioner.

Hash sign up

The rain slacked off enough for use to walk up the hill behind the marina and have some gorgeous views of the island.

Port Louis Marina,  Encore is the closest boat to the tree in the middle, by the red roof

city of St George's from the top

survived bombing during the US invasion.  It is over 10' in diameter

Grenada's national flower, Bougainvillea

Searching for tea time but ended with happy hour

I climbed the hill behind the marina, a luxury hotel once stood there till the airborne got here.  Nothing but scenery, grass and a few bushes remain.  The intent was for me to find some bush tea leaves.  When I picked a few of unknown variety a couple came up getting their exercise.  I asked them what I had picked which brought a little laughter from them.  I forgot what it was but it was not for tea.  They proceeded to show me the tree of life which is used for tea on the anniversary of someones death to celebrate life.  And then they identified all the rest of the plants and their uses, so I invited my new friends Denise & Nigel to the boat for a cold presidente.  We had a great visit and look forward to their return.  If I experience much more of the Grenadian culture I will qualify for citizenship.  Denise is a nurse from England who spends her annual vacations here and Nigel is from St George's and serves on the Grenada Olympic Committee.

St George's Bay with 3 tall ships

Denise & Nigel

monday 19 sept ROAD TRIP

Today we went on a Cutty tour of ½ the island with three other couples & a single guy.  We mostly drove the backroads and visited the drivers home wine making facility/home.  In addition to wine he had many fruit trees which he showed us each variety, tasting most.  Some of these were unknown to us till now and most were edible.  We went to a chocolate factory which made Sally happy till we left.  From there we drove to a rum factory to make me happy.  This distillery lays claim that the process (and most of the equipment) had not been changed since the early 1800's.  This was true firewater without much water and illegal to be carried on an airplane since it is classed as explosive (80-85%).  They got us to taste a sample at the end and it is almost like ever clear or moonshine, just made from molasses instead of corn and will burn all the way down.

water wheel power

  They still use the water wheel to power the crusher and burn the dry stalks to distill it.  Then we were to a waterfall hidden back in the woods and several of our group swam in the pool beneath the falls.

 Then on up the mountain/volcano to the crater which contained a huge lake. (it is supposed to be active)

 It was all downhill from there to St George's & the boat.  On the way down we saw a "thank you" wall!


We were worn out from a wonderful tour & experience.

St. George's from ahigh

Sally's back

Monday Sept 12, Sally arrived Grenada at 7pm so Ed & Cheryl and Carl & Carrie joined me in the cab to pick her up at the airport.  They have an outdoor bar in the waiting area (cab stand) so we were pretty well lit by the 45 min wait for her to get through customs.  We went to the marina bar and had wood fired pizza and what Grenada calls carrot cake and ice cream (more like sweet potato pie).  It looked like the bar heard she was back and decorated for the occasion.

hail, hail, the gangs all here!

The next couple of days were spent going to the police station on the hill for a weapons permit, going to the grocery by bus (mini vans), and Sally doing water aerobics.

Morning aerobics

One of the trees closest to our boat has a couple of mibone wasp nests in it that are very interesting to me.   They are built like a hornets next but smaller than a volley ball.  Mibone wasps are critical to the pollination of fruits in Grenada.  The tree has multicolored leaves that are similar to confederate rose.

Tree the wasp nests are in, leaves were much more vibrant a month ago

nest under construction, wasps are about ½" long and reportedly very fierce

completed nest  with guards at the entry  the two nests are about 30' apart but in same tree

The police station is on a hill about 500 high and almost vertical, with steps for the first ¾ and then steep paved path.  On the way down we walked the streets.  There is an old fort over looking the bay and has one of the best views anywhere.

St George's bay

The town of St. George's

cruise ship dock

Port St. Louis Marina, Encore is behind the red roof buildings

fooling around the streets of Grenada

Ed and Cheryl Carter, whom we met in Marathon 3 or 4 years ago on our first try to get down here, are three boats down from Encore so I am practicing my skills of being a third wheel on a two wheel cart, will be glad when Sally gets here.   They are being very gracious by inviting me everywhere they go.

we stopped for lunch when I could walk no further

It is beginning to try their patience though, cause I think I caught a cold on the airplane coming down and have a hard time keeping up on strenuous walks up the hills.  It seems like everyone and his brother has a minivan  and equip it as a people carrier.

the main bus terminal with conductors out trying to snare riders

the truck and our cap were doing over 30 mph & neither braked only honked there horns but we made it!

We haven't gone 3 or 4 minutes without one coming by honking his horn to see if we want a ride.  It cost   about 50 cents to go anywhere that bus goes.  Today we walked the downtown area of St. Georges, went to the Saturday open air market,

toward the end of one row of market the building is fresh fish market

one  vendor

found a Catholic Church built in 1728,

Catholic church

found out my legs won't take me to the top of the hill without stopping.

view from  midway to the  top

We got up and pulled anchor at first light leaving the harbor along with a couple of dozen fishermen hurrying to be the first on the good spot.  How do they find a spot in the ocean in a row boat?  And how would they know if it was good?
We motored down Dominica till we got to the southern tip and the wind changed to our usual, on the nose and 15+ knots with waves to match.  Seeing the southern part for the first time reminds us to hurry back so we can explore what we haven't seen.

village in southern Dominica

 We sailed and then motor sailed to Martinique, passed up a good anchorage and Fort de France, did not have enough light for our alternate so we decided to do an overnight on to St. Lucia.

just another sunset on the ocean

 It was ass buster with some of the roughest weather and seas of the trip.  By the time we got to Rodney Bay at 0200 hrs. we were both hallucinating from fatigue, seeing all kinds of ships that were not there.  It was extremely hard to trust the chart plotter when my mind and Sally were both telling me we were about to ram a large military ship.  Turned out to be a cliff on the island where no lights could tell us what was there but the dark area was in the shape of a ship.  The rest of the island was lit up like a christmas tree, so it was very discerning.  We went in, did not even think of looking for a mooring ball and dropped the anchor as soon as we were out of the wind.  Daylight brought the realization that  I could not have made it to the marina even if I weren't so tired.  It was a very tricky entry for night time.  An "entrepanuer" in a homemade raft with what looked like a pig sty build on had every conceivable fruit and vegetable for sale inside.  He stopped at all cruising boats twice daily

show me the produce

We stayed a couple of days to rest up and headed south once again.  We pulled into a small bay in St Vincent called Chateaubelair which was a very quaint village that was really disinterested in us.The locals went out in row boats with 6 to 8 men in each boat sitting on a pile of nets.  Two of the fishermen from each boat donned snorkels and swam off in different directions.  If a snorkeler spotted a school of tuna the rest were row in a circle around the school letting out the net as they went.  The nets were hauled in mostly full of young tuna about 10 lbs each.  

waiting on divers signal

The best part of this bay was soon after daylight a man walked his pig up the beach to an area for the pig to graze during the day and at dusk would walk the pig home.  At least the man was employed, even if by a pig!

well . . . someone has gotta do it

last night in St Vincent

From there we headed south for an overnighter to Grenada, bypassing all the Grenadines.  We were able to tie up to a temporary slip till the next day when we were told to med moor.  I told them no way was I backing our sailboat between two million dollar sailboats, so they took an inflatable and guided me in while I was trying to back in.  Now, that is my kind of bow or stern thruster!  We hurried to secure the boat and flew back to the good ole USA for Sally to get treated for grandkiditis.  When we get back we will see Grenada and then meander through the islands we missed.