St. Georges, Grenada

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Grenada has a very interesting history, most recently with their transition to full independence in 1974. Grenada was under the rule of Sir Eric Gairy, a controversial figure who seemed to divide the country. This resulted in a a left-wing coup in 1979 by Maurice Bishop, who greatly admired Fidel Castro. Bishop tried to turn Grenada into a socialist state, improving medical care and education, but he did this at the cost of freedom. Anyone who opposed him was thrown in jail, an all indepedent newspapers were banned. His own ranks, second in command, Bernard Coard and his wife Phyllis and members of the army took Bishop prisoner. After a massive crowd freed him, an army group executed him along with half his cabinet. At this point (1983), the US, along with Grenada's easter Caribbean negihbors, launched a rescue mission and were welcomed with open arms. Twenty years later, Grenada is an independent county, democratic and productive. They are some of the nicest people we have met in the Caribbean.

St. Georges is built on a ridge, with the sea on one side and the Carenage on the other. It has many historic buildings that have been devasted with the storms and time. Many are now under reconstruction. We met up with Ken and Roberta on Second Wind here and toured the City of St. George on foot. It was a Sunday, so there was no one in the streets. There is a street called Church Street and their is a reason for that...every building is just about a church. The streets in St. George are very steep and windy - it is the Capital of Grenada a very busy and crowded. The old brik buildings are capped with antique fish scale tile roof - that long ago would arrive in as ballast of bricks and tiles. This is Government house in downtown. The next photos are panoramics of the Harbour.
This house was for sale - it would of made a very nice bed and breakfast - maybe. We found the building that housed the office of the Leader of the Opposition Do they oppose any Leader???? We had hoped they were in to discuss this - but they were out somewhere opposing someone. A view down the streets. We ended the tour with a visit to Fort George. on the hilltop at the west side of the Carenage. It is Grenada's oldest fort, established by the french in 1705. The national police now occupy most of the grounds - but took our own tour and found some interesting underground tunnels. The inner fort, just below the row of cannons, is the courtyard where Maurice Bishop was executed. You can see the bullet holes in the basketball poles made by the fireing squad.

That is all from Grenada. We will leave here around the 23rd - 24th of this month and head to Venezuela. We will stop and Los Testigos and Isla Margarita before making landfall in Puerta La Cruz, Venezuela. We will update when we have settled in. Until then - Cheers Mike and Kim

St. Davids, Grenada

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Hello all, we left Carriacou and sailed down the windward side of Grenada to St. Davids Point which is identified by this landmark. The Harbour is also called St. Davids. Many years ago, sailing ships would sail in to this harbour to load up on spices and produce bound for Europe. Although never the site of a town, it was an important harbour. It is deeply indented enough to be well protected, and the reefs at the entrance reduce any swells when the trades turn south of east. It is home to Grenada Marina, a very popular haul out facility for hurricane season. We stayed here about a week and explored a little bit of this part of the island. Adjoining Grenada Marine is the Bel Air Plantation, an upmarket resort and restaurant. The food here was incredibly good. We took a hike over the hill and found a few good bays with great beaches. We found a bat cave too. We hiked over a couple bays and walked back a long way inland. The inner island was very lush with vegetation and farms.






We think the building officials must not be on island - actually it looked very sturdy and had a great view. Once we saw the post office we decided not to have our mail sent here so we moved on to Prickly Bay to a better post office.that's all from St. Davids, Cheers Mike and Kim

Carriacou

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Hello all, Carriacou was a very beautiful laid back island. There is over a hundred rum shops and only one gasoline station. The local rum is Iron Jack and they say it fries your brain. From talking to some of the locals we think there is truth in it. It is a peaceful place though, you can see a pelican sitting on a bouy, with a seagull sitting on the pelicans head, both very content. It is 17 miles northeast of Grenada, a rural island with small villages and great beaches. The island has about 6000 people, lots of dogs, cats, goats, sheep and donkeys. The people here live by farming, fishing and seafaring and they are all very friendly. We arrived first in Hillsborough to check in with Customs, Immigration and Port Authority. We only stayed one night in that anchorage as the holding was very bad. The next morning we headed over to Tyrrel Bay on the southwest end of the island. It is a deep, protected bay with a sandy beach that fronts the village. Tyrrel Bay is very peaceful, only two boat vendors to speak of, one sold mangrove oyster and the other wines and champagne. This is Robert, he is the mangrove oyster guy. He will harvest the oysters from the mangrove that are in a narrow lagoon in the northern part of the bay. It is an islet that goes back quiet a ways. He will harvest them then bring them back to your boat and shuck them for you. They are very small - and cost about $1 US dollar apiece. Well, we wanted to try the oysters, but also wanted the experience of seeing them get harvested. So Michael struck up a deal with Robert that for $20 US dollars we would tow him to the oyster beds (as he just had oars on his boat) to watch and film him as he was harvesting them. Robert said sure and made a date for the next day. So we tow Robert to the mangrove and we have our cameras on and shooting. The process - Robert gets out of his boat and steps on to the mangrove - but "Wait" he says, "don't laugh but I have to take my shorts off." Okay we think this is part of it, we have often seen local fisherman shed their clothes before they dive in the water to check their nets or traps, so didn't think much of it. They don't want to get salt water on their clothes. Remember fresh water is a commodity on any island. So we keep filming, next think you know we turn around and yep completely naked. So Kim turns away not wanting to be too intrusive and Robert continues to harvest approximately 30 oysters. We then tow him back to the boat (after he put his clothes on) and he shucks them for us. We find out a lot about Robert while he is shucking the oysters. It turns out his real name is John Bedeau and he has a reputation on the island for being an adventurous entrepreneur. He once owned a 100 year old Carriacou sloop on which he sailed, but its gone now. His latest venture, he told us, was to harvest oysters and sail them up to St. Martin to sell them. He is also very fond of Iron Jack, so we took everything with a grain of salt.

We took a hike over to the hill to another bay, and found a beautiful beach. With a guest house and a little restaurant. The beach is called L'Esterre. The guest house is called Hope's Inn and is located on the north side of L'Esterre. We had lunch here and enjoyed the view and the waitresses son, who kept us entertained. There were quiet a few characters along the main road in the village along Tyrrel Bay. We met a woman, Venus, but she introduced herself to us as Sexy Venus on our first introduction. She had a fruit stand in front of her house and sold us some very good fruit. She lived in the house behind, but it was a very bad disrepair. She also said she owned the land the house was on, beachfront property. She told us the local people were not nice to her, we never got the story of why. We told her they must be jealous, because she owns that nice beachfront property. She had a litter of Kittens also. The momma cat was gone and she was taking care of the kittens. We brought her some tuna to feed them, and a bag of dog food - none of the stores carried cat food so we thought that was better than nothing. We also met Sally a former cruiser who had opened a restaurant in Tyrrel Bay. She did have a business in Grenada - but the hurricanes destroyed them, so she ended up in Tyrrel Bay. Her breakfasts were great, and she said if you don't see it on the menu just ask. Her kitchen in the her house and the seating was on here patio. It was great and the stories she had, definitely and old salt. She also told us that she had come here because of the peaceful atmosphere, but the local currents ran very deep - but we never got the hear those stories.
We found this guy on the beach who was teaching the local kids to sail. The kids were great, and were enjoying it. The liked to show off a bit, when they saw someone watching.
Thats all from Carriacou, Cheers Mike and Kim

Petite St. Vincent and Petite Martinique

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Petite St. Vincent is a private island with a very upscale resort (click HERE to see the resort website). We had wanted to vacation here about 4 years ago, but the prices were so high, we decided on a cruise instead. The place was founded back in the 50's by a couple of guys who retired from the Air Force and came to the Caribbean on their s/v Jacinta. They chartered and one of their clients thought it would be fun to buy a Caribbean island and built a resort on it. The man asked if the two men would build and manage it for him. They did and one of the guys Haze Richardson is still there managing the place. We think we got a glimpse of him while we were on the beach, but not sure. You cannot go anywhere on the island except a small portion of the beach. It was on this beach that Unplugged taught us to play Bocci Ball...you must have cocktails while playing this and remembering whose turn it is or what color you are is half the fun...then of course chasing the balls that slide into the ocean.

Petite Martinique was a little island not far from Petit St. Vincent. We were able to dinghy there. They had good prices on groceries and beer so we stocked up there. The island people live by boatbuilding, seafaring and fishing and in the old days, smuggling. We took a walk down the main street and saw lots of goats a few graveyards. The graveyards on the islands are very unique, they pop up all over the place. In front of grocery stores, right in the middle of a houses or wherever they can fit them. They make beautiful boats here and we were lucky enough to see one in the process. To finish up on the island we had conch fritters - very delicious :)

Till next time, Cheers Mike and Kim

Union Island

Hello all, and hello to Mary who works with Kim's sister Linda at the City of Reno. We met her yesterday on the phone call to Linda that we made using Skype. We can call from our boat (because we have free wireless connection in the bay were in) and it only costs $.02 a minute. It is a very slow connection so if you get a call from us, be patient and listen as there is a delayed reaction

So the adventure continues in Union Island in the Grenadines, we anchored at Frigate Island, just around the corner from the main town of Clifton. We were able to dinghy over there passing through a reef and going on the inside. We explored the island a bit, but mainly provisioned here for our visit to Petit St. Vincent and Petit Martinique. At Frigate Island construction started on a large development, including a 300-berth marina. the company went bankrupt, and the the project stopped. now the mainland is connected to Frigate Island, and there are unfinished docks throughout the bay. It's really a shame, we think the bay was probably very beautiful at one time. It seems that abandoned, bankrupt projects are common in the Caribbean and the sites are just left to rot.

We got our vegetables from a lady in Union. She had a recipe for everything and we finally found out how to eat Passion fruit.....you don't....you take the seeds out, mash it with some milk or water, add some sugar and then discard the seeds. We we told her we ate the seeds, she laughed, shook her head and said not good. We also got directions on how to better prepare soursop, cook the Caribbean pumpkin, plaintains and lots more. Some of the people we meet are just great.


We found the local hotsauce to be very spicy...and as the name implies..its some very potent stuff!! After provisioning in Clifton we headed out the Petite St. Vincent to check it out and meet up with Second Wind and Unplugged. Cheers Mike and Kim