Sisterly Visit to Grenada

I had been trying to talk my sis, Durlyn, into visiting us while we are here in Grenada for the hurricane season.  She spends six months in the Seattle area each summer and six months in the winter in Maui. (Poor thing!)  Finally, she is coming September 15th for a week but Bob, her husband decided he would stay at home in Seattle.  I guess some people just aren't comfortable on boats, especially during hurricane season!

We had held off doing tours and tourist type stuff, but with Duryln on the way we went into full planning mode.  Like all guests visiting the boat, Durlyn became a courier for items that arrived after we left Seattle, parts we needed for things that broke since we left Seattle, and endless other things you just can't get here in Grenada.

We moved our boat to Prickly Bay a few days earlier, where it would be more convenient to pick her up from the airport, and started preparing the boat for our guest.  I go into a deep cleaning mode and do a more complete cleaning of woodwork, floors, linens, etc. and stock up the pantry.  I always ask myself: why don't I do this all the time just for us?

Her flight was due in at 7:30 pm, so we dingied over to the dock and met up with Shademan, our reliable taxi driver who took us over to the airport.  We had a little wait for her flight to arrive. Finally passengers began exiting from Customs to the waiting area outside.  We were starting to get a little worried that she was held up at Customs and being interrogated for bringing in all our "stuff,"  but finally she appeared with a big smile of relief.

A hearty breakfast of  scrambled eggs and english muffins.

After a good night's sleep aboard and a leisurely morning breakfast we upped anchor and motored northwest up around the point to a new anchorage location closer to town at St. George's.  It takes awhile for guests to get their sea-legs so we recommended a little anti-seasick medication to help take off the edge.  Fortunately, the seas were calm, but not enough wind to sail but.  St. George is a beautiful spot with clear water,  great sunsets and is close to the action in town.

Later that afternoon we dingied two miles up to Moliniere Pt. to snorkel at Grenada's Underwater Sculpture Park that was created by Jason Decaires Taylor and made famous by photos in National Geographic. We tied up at a mooring buoy and started looking for the sculptures with a rough idea of where things were from a map online.  We found the famous circle of children holding hands, a mermaid, random nude women lying in state, but were unable to find the Christ statue, man on a bicycle, the desk, or the still life.  It was a little like trying to find a needle in a haystack.

"Vicissitudes"

Also, the visibility was not the best with the rainy squall that passed over us while we were snorkeling.  It would be wonderful to dive the park with a guide next time.

Next day we took an island tour with Cutty, a popular local Grenadian guide, to learn more about the flora and fauna and visit some sights around the island.  We started out at 9:00 am taking in some views and learning about some indigenous plants that grow abundantly on the island.  We also visited Annandale Falls, Grand Etang Forest Reserve for a hike and picnic, a nutmeg processing plant,  River Antoine Rum Distillery, the oldest rum factory still in production in the Caribbean, Grenada Chocolate Factory,  Sauteur's famous Carib Leap, and then back down the West coast returning to town around 5:30 pm.

Cutty dropped us off at BB Crabs a local seafood restaurant in St. George's just in time to catch the sunset.  Please see Walter's Tour de Grenada post for more details.

View of St. George's.

A very rare message for American's traveling to foreign lands.

Dinner at BB Crabs in St. George's. 

Gorgeous sunset from St. George's anchorage

Shopping was on the agenda the next morning, so Walter dropped us off at the Carenage and we headed up Young St. to Fabriks, a wonderful local batik clothing shop.  We explored the upstairs of the shop and learned how batik is made by waxing patterns onto the cloth and then dying with different colors.  Durlyn, being a quilter was very interested in batik process.

We couldn't resist buying some of the beautiful and colorful clothing.  Since Tikal's was across the street we looked around at some of their lovely art objects made by local artisans as well.  We later met up with Walter for lunch at the Grenada Yacht Club.

Relaxing on the deck of the Grenada Yacht Club while watching the America's Cup.

In the midst of Durlyn's visit, the America's Cup finals between the US and New Zealand were on each afternoon at 4:00 pm so we were always trying to find a good location to see the races on the big screen.  It was to say the least one of the most exciting weeks with NZ in the lead 8 to 1 to finally be tied up 8 to 8 a week later in a sudden death race for the championship. Unbelievable odds.  In the end we were pleased with the US victory but with only one American on the team and the rest Aussies and Brits we really couldn't take all the credit, could we? 

The next day we managed to get in a lovely walk along the two-mile Grand Anse Beach and took a nice long dip in the ocean to cool off afterwards.  Most days we either walked or did some noodling off the boat to cool off.  The current was so strong that at times we paddled laboriously but didn't make much forward progress and if we just relaxed and floated we would soon be heading out to sea.

We had heard about True Blue Resort's cooking class on the morning net and decided we would attend a class to learn a little about Grenadian style cooking.  Omega & Ester provided lots of laughs as they played out a little bicker & bantering with one another.  The menu was Vegetable Callaloo Soup which was actually very tasty.  More on that later.

Callaloo Soup with dumplings

The last day we headed for Merry Baker's for a wonderful cruisers lunch special 10ec ($4.40) burger on a fresh baked bun. A cruisers favorite.  To cap off the week Duryln graciously treated us to a wonderful dinner at the Port Louie Marina Restaurant.

Before we knew it, it was time for Durlyn to leave and head back to Seattle.  We had such a great time and hope next time she'll come for a little longer visit and bring along her hubby Bob.  Safe journey's sis, I am really going to miss you.

Getting ready to fly back to rainy Seattle.