Month: July 2019

July 23, 2019

As mentioned in an earlier post our boat is docked stern in sandwiched between two other boats. It gets quite tight and as the marina fills up it gets more interesting trying to fit boats in existing open slots. The catamaran that was on our port side departed and another, larger catamaran has arrived to take its place. Gary gets a kick put of watching the activity so much so that he generally grabs his drink, pulls up a chair and settles in for the entertainment whenever a new boat arrives.

We’ve been enjoying the diving each week and are on a schedule for two dives every Monday morning. On Wednesdays we generally play golf. Fridays are grocery/market day and once in awhile I’ll check out the seafood market in town.

One of our most recent dive trips took us to an underwater sculpture garden. It can be accessed either by snorkeling or diving so it’s a shallow dive but very interesting. Subject to surge and storms the sculptures move, get covered up, uncovered etc so it’s always evolving.

In between we clean the boat, work on the boat and laze around. We’ve been checking out the local restaurants, meeting new people and socializing with all the other boaters. Time is moving on rather quickly.

With the rainy season in full swing we’ve experienced a few big storms with thunder and lightening. The island just gets greener and lusher with more fruits and vegetables available each week at the local markets instead of relying on what is shipped in. Of course the golf course is really benefiting from the water. We’ve also picked up a couple additional golfers for our Wednesday game as our neighbors, Olive and Richard, enjoy a long walk too.

 

 

 

 

 

 

And here are some more dive pictures!

Grenada is an agricultural island and we’re loving it. I have been spoiled for mangos for all time as it is currently mango season and they are amazing fresh from the tree. Avocados are coming into season also so we’re enjoying those as well. The local market blossoms on Friday and Saturday in St George’s so fresh produce is readily available.

We took the bus over to Silver Sands the other evening for dinner at the Asiatic restaurant. It’s a gorgeous resort if a little pricey but perfect for a dinner out occasionally. You can’t beat the view and the service was impeccable.

A side note about the buses. They run every 10 minutes or so and consist of a driver and a “herder” on a mini bus that seats 16 total. The herder is in charge of opening and closing the side door for access and handles the money for fares.He also corrals anyone who even looks like they might need a bus sometimes having the bus go around the block to pick up people. When you get close to where you want to get off just knock on the metal somewhere on the bus and it will stop at the next bus stop. Cost for the local parish is 2.5 EC or about $1 US. If you want to go to the next parish the price goes up about 1 EC. It’s a great hop on/hop off system and very safe. If you are the only ones on the bus they will take you directly to your destination for the same price. Some buses are in better shape than others and they all play music, usually local and really loud. The exception was the other day when I  boarded to the sounds of Celine Dion and then the Shirelles. I did compliment the driver on his musical taste as I was exiting!

Friday we took our third island tour and finished up our island overview by going up the east coast to the north and then back down the west coast.

The east coast has some impressive views of the Atlantic as well as Grenville, one of the major towns on the island. To the north we toured River Antoine Rum Distillery which still distills rum utilizing a water wheel and equipment from the 1800’s. The only one in the entire Carribbean to still do this.

Because the process is extremely labor intensive they can only produce about 500 bottles a day and only have light rum. Dark rum has to age in barrels and they just don’t produce enough to do that. They do however produce a 75 proof rum and a 69 proof as well as rum punch in a bottle. You can’t take anything over 70 proof on an airplane out of here so the 69 is primarily for the tourists. Being on a boat we can take out whatever we want so we of course bought the higher proof as well as the bottled rum punch that is delicious.

The tour showed the cane being crushed and then the juice being funneled into holding areas where it is allowed to rest and then tested. The juice has to be between 16 and 18 percent sugar so once it is tested molasses is added if the sugar level is too low or it is diluted if the level is too high. It is then moved into huge open air concrete tanks to ferment before going to the cookers to distill down.

The end of the tour allowed us to do a taste test between the three different types of rum. You have to dilute the 75 proof rum with water in your mouth before swallowing or it will literally burn all the way and for quite awhile afterwards.

Then it was on to Grenada Chocolate Company where they process chocolate start to finish basically by hand. We didn’t get to see it actually being made as they take off Fridays but we toured the works and then bought way too many truffles to take back with us.

The northern most point for us was Sauteurs where our driver arranged for us to stop at a restaurant on the water for a delectable lunch of local foods. It was a buffet so we were able to try a large variety of foods all of which were wonderful. Except the breadfruit. The only preparation so far that has been edible for either of us was when I thinly sliced the raw fruit last week into chips and fried them. With plenty of salt they were very close to potato chips.

Sauteurs translates to “jumpers”. In 1651 the local Carib families elected to throw themselves off the 130ft high cliffs that line the coast there rather than surrender to the advancing French army. Leapers Hill was just above the restaurant where we had lunch.

We then took the long drive back down the west coast to St George’s. We now feel like we have a fairly good understanding of the island and history. There are a few places we still haven’t gotten to but we’ll be here for months yet so there’s no rush.