The Final Story, Grenada

GRENADA, Journey's End:


This blog has been full of Sunset shots of every imaginable tint and hue. So maybe it's fitting that this be the parting shot in our 4 month adventure.

What an amazing, adventurous, relaxing, thrilling, challenging time it has been for all of us. We have seen so many wonderful, beautiful, spectacular sights, met so many kind and helpful people. We have challenged ourselves, acted frequently beyond our usual comfort zones, been forced into much greater self-reliance, and more importantly, inter-dependence on one another. We have learned gratitude, perspective, humility, confidence. We have learned that dreams come true, that goals are meant to be realized, and that many of the most meaningful achievements come only after long effort, sleepless nights, physical/mental/economic discomfort and persistence. We learned that the sun always comes up. We learned that God knows each of us, and will help us, many times in unseen or unrecognized ways, if we just ask (and importantly, whether we deserve it or not).

And so, here was our final Caribbean sunset on board One Life. This boat has been our home for the past 8 weeks. We've loved it, hated it, cussed it, blessed it, cleaned it, and made it dirty again many times. It has kept us safe, mostly comfortable, and carried us where we wanted to go.

Our last night all together, in St Georges Harbor, at some mediocre and nameless restaurant. What the food was lacking was recompensed by good and lively company,as we retold sailing stories, mostly accurate. Here are Babs, me, Capt Bryan, Peter G, Joan G, Kathy, and JF. Love em all!

Mates forever. Peter, Kyle W, Keenan G. What a pleasure it was to have them all aboard. Here playing on Grand Anse.

Another Carib lunch plate. I fell in love with these. Washed down with this unique local fruit juice made from the flowers called sorrel. Amazingly good.

Look! Another sunset. On the beach in front of COYABA on Grand Anse.

An evening meal with everyone at a wonderful Italian place near the Mall. Seemed very popular w/ all the tourists. Fantastic pizza, pasta and calzone! First in many weeks!

St. Georges harbor in Grenada was our final destination where we would turn in the boat. When we arrived we were surprised to see how modern it was. It actually had a "Foodland"! (Too bad that we didn't need to provision anymore!) We had trouble finding secure anchoring in the harbor. The depth was 7-14 feet, but the floor was mud/silt which was not good holding. Our anchor slipped just after returning from a 3 hour trip to a local beach! We arrived just in time to prevent ourselves from banging into another boat! A tender mercy indeed. Later we met up with our old captain, Brian, and moved the boat into a slip on the dock. We went out to dinner with everyone that night, including Babs, JR, and Brian. The next day we worked to clear out of the boat and check out with Brian. Then on by taxi to our wonderful hotel just down the road.

After leaving the boat, the Grants arranged for all of us to stay in a beautiful resort called "Coyaba" for two days before flying home. It was wonderful! It had a pool, lovely rooms, and a private beach. We will never forget what it felt like to actually bathe in warm water for as long as we wanted!!! It was also across from a mall that had a food court!!

Keith is right below the pool with its pool bar and restaurant.

After getting our rooms we decided to take a nice taxi bus and see the island of Grenada. Peter Grant had to leave a day before us, so we wanted to get in as much sight-seeing as possible. (On his flight back he had electronics stolen out of his checked luggage.)

This is a view of the city from the taxi. Weston is in front and notice that the driver is on the right and that they drive on the left.

This was one of many beautiful large homes that we saw on Grenada.

While exploring the island we came across this cove, which was used by pirates (to hang out and hide). It is now a place to store old boats and confiscated boats from drug busts.

On the windward side we drove past the old airport. Actually, for a segment, the old runway IS the highway. Here we saw evidence of the US invasion of Grenada some years ago. Two old shot-up Russian and Cuban prop airplanes sit by the sideof the runway. 85% of the Grenadian popluation is greatful for the US intervention that freed the island population from the attempted socialist revolution and resulting chaos and murderous rampaging that was occuring at the time, including jeopardizing the welfare of the many American medical students who study in the off-shore medical schools here. 19 American soldiers died in the intervention.

Our taxi driver took us to the island's famous organic Chocolate factory/farm, called Belmont Plantation. It was really interesting how they process cocoa seeds. They ferment them in bins to get off the creamy white fruit, then dry them outside in the sun. We also got to drink cocoa tea (below) which I love! The cocoa is mixed with nutmeg, mace, vanilla, bay leaf, and cinnamon, then rolled unto balls and boiled several hours, strained and mixed with milk and sugar.

YUMMMMM!!!!

This is the centuries-old farm bell that used to call the slaves to work during the slavery days on the Belmont Plantation here on Grenada. It is located next to the main building below.

This is part of the main building on the chocolate farm.

This is what a ripe cocoa pod looks like. The inside is white and creamy with purplish cocoa seeds.

We've learned NOT to bite the purple seeds in this cocoa pod. The white fruit is quite good though!

The cocoa seeds are fermented first in bins which are hand-rotated every 2 days, then laid out to dry in these open-air bins. Local women walk through them periodically to stir them up. The trays can be pushed in under each other and into a shed when it rains.

At the end the chocolate farm tour, we went into a museum. This photo is of one of the original desks with an old register that records the farm's growth and sale of cocoa.

We drove past this beautiful little "crater lake" high up in the mountains of Grenada, formed in the crater of a long extinct volcano. Grand Etang is too deep to measure. The locals fish out of the lake and catch very, very large fish. The taxi driver said that no one swims in the lake out of fear of its large inhabitants, plus it is prohibited since it supplies much of the drinking water.

We had the taxi driver take us to this waterfall called Annandale. It was getting a bit dark and was a little chilly by the time we got to the falls, but some of us took the plunge anyway.

Keith, Joan and the boys jumped in several times from the ledge.

This is higher than it looks and the water is fairly deep.

Peter also went in a couple of times. A local man offered to jump from a ledge about 50 feet above the water for $10, but we didn't take him up on it.

After leaving the falls a local boy showed us his armadillo called Kevin. We got to hold him and were surprised at how soft the armadillo was. It was kind of like a very large rat. He then hit us up for a "donation". I guess feeding Kevin doesn't come cheaply.

Posted by Keith and Kath

Tobago Cays, Union Island, Mopion Island, Petit St Vincent and Carriacou

Captain hard at work. Actually, this didn't happen often. I decided to see why everyone liked hanging out on the foredeck so much....NOW I understand!


What a lovely sight...blowing sails set against a warm, blue Caribbean sky. Aahhh. I can almost feel the sun baking me again.

After spending our next to last night of this trip on the boat, we wayed anchor and with very mixed emotions set sail on our last passage of the trip, a 20 mile sail from Carriacou to Grenada. After some initial motoring, we unfurled our sails for the last time. The winds were a little squirrley, not quite a broad reach, not quite a run, and real shifty, veering and backing every few moments. As we approached the northern shore of Grenada it was fun and slightly exciting to imagine what lay 5000 feet under our keel. There is a 1.5 km exclusion zone around the underwater volcano "Kick-em-Jenny". Last erupted 20+ years ago, but sure wouldn't want to be blithely sailing over the top if she ever decided to blow her top again.

CARRIACOU, March 29th



We anchored in Hillsborough, Carriacou and went ashore to check into customs and immigration. We decided to hire a local taxi driver to show us the island. After hiring our taxi driver, Geroge on the far right, we went to lunch at one of the local hotels. (Most places were closed because it was a Sunday.) You typically order a plate special, chicken, pork, goat, etc, served w/ salad, bananas, dascheen, potatoes and rice. Ummm! George then drove us up to the northern part of the island for general sight-seeing.



We passed the local cricket pitch while exploring the island with the taxi driver. (This photo does not show the game, I will put one in later that does.) Our customs officer was playing cricket, so we had to wait several hours for him to get done and later met him at his home to finish the legalities!

Our taxi driver took us to one of the high landmarks of the island at Hospital Point to see the hospital. It was recently refurbished after hurricane damage, a never-ending process in these islands, it seems. The nurses were dressed in pink and this one was taking out the trash. There were goats and dogs wandering all over the grounds (photo below). The men were in one ward, and the women in another. No private rooms; just a large male and female ward, single large rooms. But very clean and orderly.

This was the entrance to the hospital. It also served as an evacuation center during hurricanes.

This was the view from the hospital...makes you WANT to get sick just to stay in the hospital, doesn't it?

UNION ISLAND:

The morning of March 28 we motored just a few short miles from Tobago Cays to Union Island so we could check out of the Grenadines. Keith and I and Joan and Peter Grant anchored at Clifton Harbor on Union Island after much difficulty and several attempts to find good holding. We dragged anchor several times. The customs office was located at the airport, so we had to walk about 1/2 mile. Then some local grocery shopping, and away we went to tiny Mopion Island, and thence another mile to lovely Petit St Vinvent where we anchored for the night. Mopion Island is composed of just a few square meters of lovely white sand, rising no more than 2-3 feet above sea level, and supporting a small grass hut, which apparently gets blown away regularly and then rebuilt by the locals. It is ringed by a reef. We dinghied over (twice, the first time being aborted when we ran out of gas, and requiring Peter G and I to row, rtow, row our boat back to One Life to fill the petrol tank). Thus renewed ( and minus Kathy who had now had enough) we dinghied back over for an hour of swimming. Peter and I scuba'd, picking our way thru the reef. Water was somewhat cloudy, but saw a moray eel free swimming. It was really windy and cloudy, which moderated the enjoyment, but still picturesque and fun.

The boys played games or cards when they were not crewing. Here they are playing Speed Scrabble.

TOBAGO CAYS, March 26-27, 2009

After leaving Mustique we sailed to Tobago Cays and anchored for two nights. The water was a bit rough and we had a little rocking and rolling on the boat while cooking, but it was well worth the trouble. This marine park was very beautiful and full of colorful reefs, turtles, iguannas, barracuda, etc. Kathy took Weston out a couple of times on the kayak while the others snorkled in the rougher waters. (Kathy's note: The wind was a bit rough for kayaking and there was a coulple of times I didn't know if I had enough strength to make it to the island...so I tacked back and forth beating in and out of the wind until I made it. The hard work paid off when we looked down and saw 7 sea turtles swimming with us!)

Our boat is the multi-hull in the middle. Photo looking south from atop Baradel, Jamesby Beach in the background.

This shows the area from top of Baradel Island. Look at the color of that beautiful water and how far out the reef is breaking!

We explored this small beach on tiny Jamesby Island. The islands were windy, but very interesting.

This photo is of Joan and Peter. This area had some of the best coral and sea-life that we had seen so far on our trip, but the water was a bit rough for snorkeling and kayaking. We saw many hornbill turtles, baracuda, a small shark, sting rays, and many fish. Here Peter Williams saved a couple of overweight, and over-confident French people who had no business out boating, let alone swimming. He had to haul their fat butts out of the water. He was a lifesaver that day, I tell you. You should have seen him swimming out to help these floundering people. He was motivated, and he was moving!

This island had a lot of iguanas, but only Keith saw them. He was the only one who had brought shoes and the vegetation had sharp thorns!

We not only saw land turtles, we also saw a lot of sea turtles while snorkeling and kayaking!

We sailed on a lovely wing and wing sail formation on a run from Mustique, past the leeward side of Canouan, and then into Tobago Cays, one of our favorite spots of the entire trip. A lovely little group of 5 small islands, reef-ringed, and very popluar. Many boats here. Quite windy, because it is directly exposed to the winds arriving from Africa...that's a long fetch! Here we really felt we were in the Windwards. Met immediately by Walter, who had the deepest voice ( think Barry White on steroids) and the most gold teeth I have ever witnessed. He brought us baked goods, fruit, and hauled away our garbage. We anchored partially in the lee of Baradel Island, but there was still an awful lot of wind.

Posted by Kathy