Over the course of this last 10 days we have enjoyed reuniting with many of our Grenada and Trinidad friends. There have been a number of dinners and cocktail hours aboard each of our boats. I have enjoyed being able to jump off the boat into clean water again. Mike’s foot is healing well. I hiked out to the Seven Sisters Falls again with Carl and Carrie of s/v Sanctuary to celebrate Carrie’s Birthday. I had brought a few bananas with me and we stopped again at Monkey Point where we had a couple of greenback monkey come right up to us for their treats. One even grabbed at Carries dress looking for more. We were joined by John and Patty from s/v Anhinga who I had not seen since Boqueron, Puerto Rico. We had a nice walk but only the girls braved the cool mountain water at the falls. When we returned I baked Carrie some of my famous BBQ Brownies for her special day! Mike, who was still not up to hiking, spent the day with Dave from s/v DaniellStorey and our newest friends Ronnie and Babbie on s/v Campechano. Ronnie, an avid fisherman, loves to take people out fishing on their beautiful 47 ft Catana Catamaran. He has a vast wealth of knowledge and can read the sea and the birds to know where to fish. They came home with some tuna and rainbow runner. Ronnie’s love is fishing and Babbie’s is her horses back in Puerto Rico where they live. We have enjoyed a number of wonderful meals together and look forward to meeting up with them as we travel north. They have also invited us to visit them in PR where I will have the opportunity to go horseback riding. We are not the only ones moving north. Ken and Katy of s/v Diana who we had met briefly in Grenada and got to know better in Trinidad also returned from there and anchored next to us in Hog Island. We have spent a number of fun evenings with them and they introduced us to some other St. Johnians, Josh and Lou on s/v Survivan. Josh and Lou operate a great day charter out of St. John and we were treated to a wonderful evening of laughter, singing and impromptu songwriting. I’m not sure the songs we came up with will hit the top 40 anytime soon though with titles such as “Falling Off my Nachos” and of course, that all time favorite “Giardia, the Beaver Disease”. OK, so there was a little rum involved that night! I know from the highlights I have shared that you might think our lives are just one big party but in reality there is always chores to do, laundry, grocery shopping, repairs, and etc. that make up the bulk of our days. We took the bus into St. George and finally met with Herve, our RayMarine Representative, to pick up the new motor for our Auto Helm. Michael has it installed and it appears to working well but on the same note we noticed that our back up compass needs to be repaired……It’s always something!
Tag: Hog Island
Grenada
July 3rd – July 9th
We have made it to Grenada. This will be where we will spend much of the hurricane season. We are anchored on the west side of Hog Island just off a little beach with a very rustic Tiki bar called Rogers’ Beach Bar. We have been here now for a week and have met a wonderful community of cruisers from all over the world. Grenada reminds me a little of Georgetown in the Bahamas. There are lots of creative individuals who offer a variety of classes from Watercolor to jewelry making. There are also plenty of activities such as: Potlucks, Movie Night, Book & DVD Swaps, Shopping Trips, Wine Tasting, and Island Tours, that are organized by and for the cruisers on a regular basis. There is a Cruisers Net that is broadcast on VHF Ch 68 M-Sat mornings at 7:30 am. It’s provides general information, weather reports, businesses announcements, addresses problems and questions, community events, and allows people to trade or sell their “Treasures of the Bilge”. Clarks Court Marina, near Hog Island, has quite a few amenities available to cruisers and also offers a number of opportunities for the cruising community to get together, however their costs are a bit on the high side. We attended a 4th of July BBQ there. We have been busy orienting ourselves with the local back roads, i.e. getting lost. We walked from Martins Marina in Hartman Bay over to Prickly Bay as the waves and currents were too rough to dingy over. We attempted to follow the verbal instructions given to us by the security guard, which ended with his saying “You can’t miss it!”, but as always we confused our lefts and rights and our little walk turned into a major hike. We covered a good 8 miles. Half of which I carried a 20lb alternator in my backpack that we were taking to the repair shop. But even getting lost has its advantages. We meandered through numerous neighborhoods. We met and talked with some delightful and kind people and as always made some new friends. As we were wandering through one of the less affluent neighborhoods, we passed a small roadside stand and were engulfed in a delicious aroma. It made us do a U turn as we were weak with hunger. (Dramatic Music Playing). The sign outside the stand proclaimed “ORIGINAL Jamaican Jerk Chicken”. We stepped up to the ramshackle counter and ordered up a portion to share. It is pretty obvious that they don’t get a lot of tourist foot traffic in the area we were in. The owner looked us over, paused… and said to us: “You know dis be Jerk Chicken?” We said yes we knew Jerk Chicken and YES that IS what we wanted. Our mouths and eyes watered as we enjoyed this wonderfully spicy, cooked to perfection delicacy. He then was kind enough to put us back on the right, albeit not often traveled, trail back to the Marina where we started from. The route he gave us took us through a Forest Preserve/ Dove Sanctuary. We made our way along a dirt road that wound through the hills and down to the bay where our adventure had begun. It was a lovely but brisk walk, Mike’s normal pace, as the mosquitoes are out in force right now, being the rainy season. (Note to self….always pack insect repellent for future short walks). It was a welcome relief to climb back aboard Mighty Mouse and soak our dogs over the side of the boat as we made our way back to DD.
Living the Dream 