What a beautiful island Grenada is, it’s part of a three island chain, in the Windward Islands located in the the Caribbean Sea. We have had lovely days walking to St Georges purchasing fresh fruit and veggies from little stalls on the side of the road, we discovered that where we are anchored in Grand Mal its only a 20 minute walk to the produce market, (you do have to climb a fairly steep hill though). There are about 50 stalls all selling their home grown fruit and veggies, mangos and melons are in season, avocados are just getting ripe, there are tiny limes sold in a bag of 10 for $2 EC. Grapefruit and lemons are also quite common but no oranges. They sell cauliflower and butternut pumpkins as well as sweet potatoes and a couple of root vegetables, we recognize taro but there are some other long dirty root vegetables we haven’t seen before. The homegrown lettuce and tomatoes are divine. The local fishing boats stop on their return to offer us freshly caught tuna. Craig picked up a big bag of Mahi Mahi while out walking one day. So food is very fresh and plentiful.
We also bought local cinnamon sticks off the street, little bags of ground turmeric, cinnamon and ginger were purchased from the small local supermarket at the top of the hill in Grand Mal, this shop is where the locals shop and we were delighted to find New Zealand butter and cheeses at the same price as the IGA.
There is chicken and pork in the bigger supermarkets but very little beef and the lamb was way out of our budget.
Just like any of these small islands the supermarket shelves can be quite bare just before the container ship arrives bringing all new supplies. I picked up a box of 100 Dilma tea bags, the first time I’ve seen Dilmar anywhere including Canada and the USA (there is Lipton tea every where)but anyone who knows me knows I love my Dilmar tea. So of course I grabbed it, it was much more expensive than the other brands, I’d tried the cheaper tea bags coming from Trinidad but they are tasteless. I even picked up the last box on the shelf the next time I was in that supermarket so I’m set for my morning cuppa for a while. Things like breakfast cereal, peanut butter, dry biscuits, cheese, potato chips, soft drinks are all quite expensive. The soft drink cans cost more than the alcohol.
Gina Lee, Timmies Run, Breakaweigh and ourselves all took a day trip bus tour, the 8 of us had a ball, being driven in a 12 seater mini bus, we visited the Annandale waterfall only a small waterfall and easily accessible.
The River Sallee “Boiling Springs” has hot bubbling volcanic springs, that you can see in the murky green holes of water, there was no grass growing around them, it was all a bit bare and yuk looking, but the girl who gave us a little talk said she has a dip most nights before she goes home, and from what I’ve read the locals will make a day excursion and bathe in the mud and there are masseurs on-site, there was also a little shack selling food and beer. The walk along the track to the spring was beautiful and the bougainvillea surrounding the bridge entrance softened the barren landscape.
Kick em Jenny is an undersea active volcano located about 8km to the North of Grenada and we were onshore directly opposite it. That’s what is feeding the bubbling springs.
The volcano is underwater rising from the seabed and there is a 1.5km exclusion zone around it, it is currently flagged as yellow meaning the volcano is restless, Green is minimum activity, it then goes to Yellow, Orange indicates further activity, lastly Red is eruption or imminent eruption.
The gases released change the density of the water and boats in that water will just sink hence the exclusion zone. The exclusion zone is extended to 5km when she is really active.
Oh yes and If you abandon your sinking boat and jump in the water you will just sink too.
Due to the coronavirus the chocolate factory and the rum factory we were hoping to visit were both still closed, surely they will reopen soon so we can support these tourist dependent businesses.
It was lovely to go inland and see the villages, smell the tropical forests and experience the view from the mountain tops the van pulled over at a farm and this stick thin wiry old man showed us his cocoa trees we tried the whitish sticky coating surrounding the cocoa beans it was delicious like a tart chocolate taste, he climbed his mango tree and gifted us each a mango, there were breadfruit and papaya trees, passion fruit vines, coconut and banana trees all with abundant fruit. The bay tree was too tall to reach the leaves, it didn’t look like our bay trees it’ll be interesting to see if it’s the same flavor. He also climbed a tree and gave Craig a big handful of leaves he said these are good for you “tree of life” I did google the leaves when we got home, it seems you can make a tea from the leaves and it’s a bit of a cure all magic plant. Craig also managed to persuade him to sell us a bag of kaffir lime leaves for $5 Eu, Craig uses them in Thai chicken curry.
Our last stop was Grand Etang Lake a crater lake located in an extinct volcano, the lake is supposedly linked to Kick em Jenny.
This thought is because when Kick Em Jenny was observed bubbling, so too were the waters in Grand Etang Lake. The lake covers 36 acres and is part of a national park, it also holds the bulk of the island’s water supply.
Grenadians are super friendly although it’s hard to show your smile behind a face mask !! Occasionally we do encounter a local who is not so happy to see us but not very often.
On our day trip we passed the outskirts of the town Dunfermline in the parish of St Andrews, I was born in Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland so I’m very curious to visit Dunfermline here but unfortunately the driver took us past the abandoned airport instead. BUT as we were passing through St Andrews we did see a sign hanging outside a shop “Archibald Distributors” so there might be a connection, when the internet first gave us access to ancestry information I remember reading that the Archibald’s originated in Dunfermline and for the first couple of centuries did not move very far from Fife, obviously now they are spread all over the world but this Dunfermline would have been named maybe in the 1700’s. We will save Dunfermline for a day trip when we are on our own.
When we arrived in Grand Mal Craig was rather excited to see a boat called Millennial Falcon anchored in the harbour and when we had our Canada Day pot luck dinner Khiara and Adam joined our group on the balcony at the (pink) fisherman’s club.
We had decided to do a pot luck early dinner on the beach - Tosh from the club invited us to have our gathering on the deck, which was much more civilized.
There was the usual crowd, Timmies Yellowbird and Breakaweigh all being Canucks, us and Gina Lee were the honorary Canadians and we were joined by a few other boats including the two Australians on Millennial Falcon.
It was so nice to listen to the Aussie accents although Khiara’s accent has a lovely English lilt to it. We all seemed to hit it off and even after everyone else had departed the beach the four of us stood for another half hour or so chatting.
I would highly recommend checking out their YouTube chanel “Sailing Millennial Falcon” they have been cruising around for a couple of years, spending time sailing and working on fixing up their 42 foot Tatyana. They are super entertaining and exactly like their videos in real life.
https://youtu.be/ZZm30uKKjjk. (Episode 100)
Craig was a bit starstruck at first, he has been following them on YouTube since they started way back in 2018 but it didn’t take him long to get over his shyness.
We had Khiara and Adam over for dinner a couple of nights later, I don’t know if they realise how special they are Craig made them dim sims (Chinese dumplings) he doesn’t usually share them with anyone, including me.
It’s July 7th 2020, Exactly 12 months ago today was the day we departed Wiarton marina to start this epic journey, we cant believe it’s only been 12 months, we have travelled about 10,000 nautical miles and visited 7 countries, Canada, USA, Bahamas, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, US Virgin Islands and now Grenada, we have met so many lovely and interesting people, ate and drank the local delicacies including the local rums and beers and overall have had a fantastic experience.
Covid 19 has changed everything, but even so we would probably be here in Grenada hiding out for Hurricane Season we will just have to wait to see what happens after November.
Later that week we decided to head back to Mon Rouge, we liked the beach there and it is walking distance to the best supermarket on the island, we are going to do a big provision and then head over to the small island of Carriacou, there will be supermarkets there but we’re not sure of the size or how well stocked or expensive they will be, the island being just a little bit more remote.
After a few nice beach days and a couple of trips to Spiceland Mall it was time to up the anchor - we had another stop in Grand Mal as we passed it anyway, we need to get our propane tank refilled, and that’s where the facility is, plus it will be nice to see our friends again.
Of course we did catch up, we met at the pink bar, our friends on Breakaweigh have had one of their forestays break and Timmies and Gina Lee are going to stay close by to give them a hand fixing it.
Tuesday 14th July 2020
This morning Craig had to go back to the propane place to pick up our tank then we had a quick walk up the hill to pick up some last minute fruit and veg, we upped the anchor around 11am, picked up Fruit Bat on the way and managed to sail the 30 or so nautical miles to Ronde Island, it’s not very far, we gave the Kick em Jenny exclusion zone a really wide berth just to be safe.....
Early afternoon we pulled into a beautiful little cove with crystal clear water and a black sand beach. Fruit Bat had arrived before us, Sam is an amazing swimmer and she was already out in the water checking on Fruit Bats anchor so she helped us by swimming/snorkeling around and guiding us to a sandy spot away from any coral or turtle grass. It was a huge help.
The first time we anchored back in Grand Mal we had to have 3 attempts to find good holding, it took us an hour !! before we felt comfortable with the way the anchor was laying. Craig had to swim over with his snorkel on and dive down to check on it all 3 times. The bottom can be sand over rock so it looks ok but it’s an awful feeling having the anchor jump along instead of digging into the sand.
Millennial Falcon had departed later in the day and so arrived in the dark, Craig and Scott went out in the dinghies to help them find a sandy spot to drop their anchor, Sam then cooked us all dinner a great improvised Mexican bean dish complete with wraps grated cheese and salsa.
Our first night was super rolly and uncomfortable, so the next morning we upped the anchor and moved a little bit closer to shore, tucking in where the swell didn’t wrap around and cause the boat to tip from side to side, sometimes tipping over quite far. The new spot was perfect, we could watch the birds- frigates, boobies and grey pelicans do their thing and there was definitely less movement, so a much more comfortable next nights sleep.
Craig, Fruitbat & Millennial Falcon took the dingy around the corner and had a beautiful snorkel along the reefs surrounding the island, there is a glimpse of Craig in the Millennial Falcon episode from that day and me too on the beach at sunset. We had a fire just the six of us, sipping beers watching the sun go down, the perfect way to end a glorious day but we didn’t stay on the beach long, Craig was exhausted from his day snorkeling.
A few days later our little group sailed into Carriacou to meet up with Yellowbird who had pulled out of the water a week earlier to do some work. Yellowbird is a steel boat, Jack and Kyra had bumped her into a sunken boat in Nassau and wanted to repair the damage plus there were a few rusty spots showing through the paintwork and like all our boats she was due for new anti foul on her bottom.
They were also planning to grind out the rust and repaint their top deck too.
It was great to see Jack and Kyra again and we spent a couple of afternoons onshore sitting around chatting drinking the local beer, Carib at $5 EC it’s a bargain although the bottles are tiny compared to the Dominican Republic’s El Presidenti our other favorite was the the rum punch, that’s made from the local “Jack Iron” a 100% proof rum then flavored with a type of KoolAide and topped with grated nutmeg. The little bar we frequented sold plastic cups of it for $5 EC, they only needed to put a thimbleful of rum in it, it’s that strong.
We also enjoyed the local staple - chicken roti, we preferred the boneless one, happy to pay the extra $3 EC so we didn’t have to pick out chicken bones. They are a chicken and potato curry folded up in a homemade roti bread, delicious.
The local nutmeg ice cream has quickly become a favorite treat too.
Hurricane Gonzalo was heading our way and suddenly we had to decide on a hurricane plan we had vaguely talked about what we would do when the time came, not dreaming we would have to decide so soon.
We had to make a decision, we had only a rough idea of where to go, do we find a hurricane hole to hide out in, do we go into a marina or should we get hauled out ?
It all came to a head when the weather forecast showed developing irregularities forming off the coast of Africa on a direct path to Grenada.
There is a hurricane hole right next to the marina, here in Carriacou, a winding waterway through the mangroves that opens out to a circular pond with room for maybe 30 boats to hide.
We had been for an exploratory dingy ride through the mangroves when we first arrived in Tyrell Bay, just to have a look, there were maybe 6 boats there, 3 with Q flags up, apparently this was an alternate place to quarantine for incoming boats, and we had thought at the time, this looks ok this could be our hurricane plan.
We discussed maneuvering Adriana stern to the land throwing out a couple of anchors then using ropes to secure us into the mangrove trees. The problem with that plan would be the other boats around us, they could drag anchor or break free and be blown onto us so we were not convinced.
The forecasters were telling us Gonzalo was a tropical storm that may or may not turn into a hurricane, there are different weather models that Craig looks at NOAA, Windy, the European model, to name 3, some of them rely on airplane radar to give a precise picture of what’s happening but at the moment as there are so few planes flying around the world this weather predictor is not as precise as it used to be. The forecasters were finding it difficult to get a good clear indication of the strength and path of this storm.
We started to hear about Gonzalo on the Tuesday with expected landfall predicted for Saturday we wanted to wait to see what was going to happen.
On the Thursday morning along with Millennial Falcon we took another dingy ride through the mangroves, they were full to busting, with way more than 30 boats, when we went through there was a huge catamaran grinding through the mud right in the middle of the entrance, and boats were streaming into the hurricane hole. (Lesson learnt better to look over cautious and go in as soon as there is even a whisper of a hurricane than to wait a couple of days and miss out on a spot)
“shit what are we going to do now” we thought.
Craig had been in to the Tyrell Bay Marina and requested a haul out in September but had discussed we would haul out earlier if there was a hurricane forecast. “It’s ok” says Craig “we can take that option now” we call them only to find there has been a “slight” misunderstanding and now they are full and we can’t go in there.
Meanwhile Millennial Falcon had booked into the smaller a boatyard across the bay, Carriacou Marine Ltd so we followed them there in our dingy, going straight to the office to see what our chances were of hauling out.
The forecast was still vague but even if it didn’t reach hurricane level it would still be a tropical storm with torrential rain and storm surge predicted.
What made us panic was watching the local boat service maneuvering all the unattended boats into the mangroves and then seeing the local fishing boats go in there too, there were a couple of really big ones that just gunned their engines and pushed themselves way way into the scrub. If the locals were taking precautions then we most definitely should be too.
At the Carriacou Marine Ltd office they lady was rushing around yelling at everyone in such a panic we almost didn’t ask her if they had room for us, but then what would we do. Luckily they had “one spot left” yay we were literally the last boat brought into the yard.
We were literally the last boat left in Tyrell Bay maybe only a few totally abandoned boats were still there in the end.
Adam and Khiara dinghied over on Friday morning to help us get into the dock, it’s always great to have help with the lines if you watch Sailing Millennial Falcons 100th episode you’ll see Craig onboard helping them with their lines.
It’s fascinating watching the lift hoist these 20 odd ton boats out of the water and maneuver them on land, Adriana was set down and the guys placed stands around her hull to keep her steady. A long ladder was tied securely on the stern so we could climb in and out.
There are no swimming pools here it is a working boat yard. But I must say the most sheltered place to be in a storm.
Tropical Storm Gonzalo went through Grenada and Carriacou on the Saturday morning, the wind had howled and we had had plenty of torrential rain on the Friday night but the Saturday was nothing, we could hear the wind howling way over our heads but we were very secure in our cradle in our little boatyard and hardly even felt a breeze. It was a welcome anti climax. It missed us and dissipated as it neared Trinidad.
Now we are out of the water we may as well do some work on Adriana and we have decided to stay here for at least this week while the next forecasted hurricane goes past, yes it’s that soon, one after the other.
Luckily Hurricane/ Tropical Storm Isasas is taking a path further north and won’t come close to Grenada but it does hit and damage Luperon where we had stayed then it hit Bahamas and the East Coast of USA even hitting Eastern Canada.
That’s why we are down this far south the storm fronts peel off the African coast and 99% of the time they aim higher than here, fingers crossed anyway.
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