Getting Settled in Grenada

Whisper Cove marina and Clarks Court Bay

I know, it’s been a while since I have blogged, all has been quiet on the western (East Caribbean) front. We have been easing ourselves back into Grenada – it is as green and beautiful as ever. We have been hanging out and catching up with old friends, making new friends and enjoying the beautiful island that Grenada is. We are gently re-acclimatising ourselves with island time. Much has changed in the two and half years we have been away and yet it is the same place we love. Bars and restaurants have changed hands, new businesses have opened, others have expanded, some have closed. Most notable to us is the new boat yard at Clarks Court Bay where the Clarks Court Bay Marina used to be – a huge gash cut into the side of the verdant hill is now filled with boats standing on land – good business I’m sure for the island. De Big Fish bar and restaurant - a favourite hangout for many years in Prickly Bay is now Timbers. There’s a new brewery and a food Container Park near the True Blue University that sells cheap food on Friday nights.

The new Clarks Court Bay Boat Yard

But we have chosen to anchor around in Clarks Court Bay so much of this inaccessible to us. Here we are surrounded by green hills, it is breezy and peaceful and less developed then the south western corner of the island.

Our little spot in Clarks Court Bay

On calmer days we can dinghy over to Mount Hartman Bay and Secret Harbour marina and walk over to the Lance Aux Pines side of Prickly Bay. I spend a bit of time in the pretty Whisper Cove marina, using their WiFi, doing laundry, picking up the weekly shopping bus to the supermarket.

View from Secret Harbour Marina of Mount Hartman

Lance Aux Pines and Prickly Bay

Enjoying the colouful walks between the bays

Grenada is just so colourful at the moment

Hog Island

I managed to persuade Sim to do a hash - a great way to see parts of this gorgeous Island you wouldn't otherwise get to see. It's primarily for runners but they do a walking trail too. They are self proclaimed drinkers with a running problem! They are held every Saturday in various parts of the island and start around 4pm. This one was fairly close in the Westerhall area. I made the mistake of wearing fairly new pair of trainers and got caught. The consequence? Drinking warm beer out of your shoe! We followed the white paper trails through stunning countryside and finished in just under an hour with a beer at the party after.

Get caught with new shoes? - Have to drink warm beer out of them!

Walking through the gorgeous counrtyside

Locals, expats and tourists alike come together to walk the trails. Although it was a little hilly for once Sim and I are were not last!

Plenty of goats and mango trees as we followed the white paper trails

Lapping It Up At Lance Aux Epines & La Sagesse

The cottage at Lance Aux Epines

We have spent the last week chillin’ with Mum and Dad at Lance Aux Epines cottages in Prickly Bay.  Enjoying swimming and walking on the lovely beach and taking advantage of the super fast internet (well to us anyway) and backing up all our photos to cloud storage.

 

One of my favourite beaches

We have had some wonderful meals out at The Junction Bar just a short walk past the Red Crab in Prickly Bay.  They have the most scrummy burgers.  We visited BB Crab-backs in St Georges over looking the Careenage, The Dodgy Dock at True Blue Bay Resort and the beautiful Beach House who had the best sticky toffee pudding. 

Beautiful water lilies in the grounds of Lance Aux Epines

Amid all this epicurean delight we have also been dealing with our steering problem and the troublesome sheared nipple. Not being able to source one on the island, at great expense for a tiny weeny object we shipped in two with the always efficient ezone company.  Having got the new part all the way from the USA all we had to do was extract the broken old one.  Easier said than done.  But after much perseverance and eventually taking the whole steering system apart we finally managed to tap in a new thread and achieve a seal with the new part. Luckily we were on a mooring for all this time as heavy rain and strong winds blew through.  Not a great time to be without steerage. 

The troublesome hydraulic steering unit

Now the system is bleed and everything is back together again.  Mum and Dad in the meantime have moved to LaSagesse on the southeast corner of Grenada.  A charming little hotel that refers to itself as a nature center but what they really mean is they are at one with the elements.  No noisy air conditioning units. Just the crashing of the waves on a lee shore and the sound of the wind as it blows unhindered through the palm trees.  It is remote but lovely.  The main attraction is the wild and windswept beach; Mum and Dad like it here a lot.  We joined them yesterday for a day on the secluded beach, swimming and walking and just hanging out. 

The lovely beach at La sagessa

 The weather unfortunately has been horrendous. Days with black skies, wind and squalls.  Still yesterday it managed to stay mostly dry until the early evening when we were sat having the most delicious dinner in the restaurant (they serve most amazing frozen chocolate mousse you will every taste) when the elements let rip across the open venue.  It seems the seasons weather is starting to change, the overwhelming hot and balmy days are coming to an end.  I am certainly looking forward to the cooler trade winds of the winter season.

Quick there be a squall coming!!

Wandering Star left to brave the elements alone

The lovely La Sagesse

La Sagesse

Mum And Dad Join Us For A Jolly

Prickly Bay from Lance Aux Epines Beach

My Mum and Dad arrived last Tuesday.  Although they are staying at the lovely Lance Aux Epines cottages on the beach at Prickly Bay, we took them out for a sail and a spot of fishing over the weekend.  Sadly we did not catch anything as we trolled the line back and forth.  The winds were light but we had decided only to use the headsail and engine as the protective sun bimini needs to come down in order for the mainsheet to be attached to the main.  A feature we don’t like but there you go.  We wanted sun protection for Ma and Pa.  We trolled the line back and forth, then two miles north of St Georges – as squalls and clouds gathered around us, the engine decides to die and we get air in the system.  The way it is set up at the moment it is not an easy fix at sea.  Because of an odd on shore breeze we quickly hosted the mainsail and then coasted along at 2kts with the current, hoping to make it into St Georges before the tides changed and the wind pushed us the wrong way.  We anchored for the 2^nd time this year very successfully under sail.  Sim went about changing fuel filters and bleeding the system.  All was well again.  We had a BBQ that night and hoped to glimpse the partial eclipse of the moon.  Sadly it was too discrete to see.  What we did get to witness was a moon bow – like a rainbow only the light is from the beaming full moon rather than the sun. Unfortunately no photos but it was pretty cool. 

Mum and Dad being taken for a ride

The next day we moved up to the snorkel park at Molliniere Point. Here Dad and I snorkeled on the underwater sculptures that encourage marine growth.  We didn’t stay for long as a big squall came in.  The sky clouded over and the calm seas turned into breaking waves.  Wandering Star was pitching on her mooring, we were keen to get underway as these mooring buoys are notorious for breaking free.  We were only a couple of hundred feet away from a rocky shore.

Viscisitudes

Now we are safely back in Prickly Bay on a (maintained) mooring that someone has very kindly let us use while we try to figure out how out how to repair a bleed nipple that we (I) broke off the steering gear while we were bleeding the system!  Ooops  

The calm before the storm

Bright Coral

Sunday Burger day at Lance Aux Epines cottages

Lance Aux Epines Beach

St Georges anchorage

Squally day

Its Not Always Paradise In Paradise

Lance Aux Epines beach, Prickly Bay

Recently there have been a couple of incidents that have taken the paradise out of paradise.  A fairly brutal attack on cruisers having dinner at anchor; a boat broken into here in Prickly Bay and sadly a few other unsavory events that puts a dark cloud over our otherwise sunny days.

While this rightly occupies the cruising community at this time and questions are being asked about how we can make this watery world of ours safer, Sim and I plod on.  The work on Wandering Star continues.  Toilet modifications; chart table stripped and re varnished; side opening ports pried open and new seals put in; deck shower replaced (again), new fans installed.  We are not a million miles behind the schedule we set ourselves.

We've had fun nights out meeting new people or catching up with old friends. The monthly boat jumble had us buying and selling and still coming home with pennies in our pockets.  

Prickly Bay

Prickly Bay has turned into a rolly washing machine ride and as the days wear on this constant motion becomes weary. Nina and I have met for walks, though not as regularly as we should.  While the community reels from a few rotten apples in an otherwise friendly island, we have had only good experiences; meeting with young locals on the beach who share their coconuts with us happily chatting, wanting nothing in return.

Ashante and Randy

Nina

Blue Moons, Dinghy Drifts and Hashes

Prickly Bay

The last couple of weeks have been spent back around in Prickly Bay; enjoying nights out at the Tiki Bar in Prickly Bay marina, but not the hangovers the following day. Slowly but surely jobs get ticked of the list.  Sim has finally managed to fix the wind generator and it now whirls away (when there is wind) to an incredible hum, so much so that when the wind is up we have to turn it off at night so we can sleep.  It resonates through the boat and not only do we have to listen to its droning; we feel it vibrate through our bodies too.  So we are almost back to square one and thinking about removing it completely in place of more solar panels. Ho hum…

Blue Moon - Prickly Bay

Dinghy drift, Prickly Bay

In the meantime we celebrated the Blue Moon (August 20^th), not the more recent definition of two moons in one month but the third moon in a four moon season by joining a dinghy drift to watch the moon rise.  At 7pm we grouped together, attaching our dinghies to each other and drifting through Prickly Bay anchorage, annoying other boats as we passed by.

Everyone gathers at the beach for the start of the hash

The Hash starts and finishes at BBC beach.

Over the weekend we joined our first Hash this season.  And no, that’s not participating in extracurricular drugs but a group of walkers, hikers and runners who meet up once a week to follow paper trails on energetic walks and runs.  They happen all over the island and are a great way to get to see Grenada.  I am not always keen on the longer bus journeys to the other end of the island but this one was in Morne Rouge, starting at BBC beach and just a short public bus journey and a long walk away.  Needless to say Sim and I were both a mess by the time we arrived at the start. Sims knees hurt and my shoes had given me blisters. But we persevered taking in some fabulous views along the way and finished the long walkers trail with more hills then you can shake a walking stick at along with the other stragglers,  just as it was getting dark.  But we enjoyed ourselves in a warped kind of way and the party afterwards on one of the most gorgeous beaches in Grenada helped to ease our pains. We were not looking forward to the walk home but luckily managed to catch a ride from a couple in a posh SUV who dropped us back right by the dinghy dock.

Views of Prickly Bay

BBC or Pink Gin Beach as it is also known

At the top of one of the many hills

 More Views

And more views - St Georges

 Sim - not in the mood for chit chat!

Horray! The end of the Hash!