Hello Everyone
Sorry for the long delay in sending our next instalment, we have been busy enjoying ourselves, and soon we will be setting sail to our next destination - Bonaire!
Since our last blog, we booked a bus ride with 4 other boats (Spruce, Blue Moon, Christina Pearl and Secret Smile) for a tour of the Island. Grenada really is the ‘Island of Spice’, spices grow everywhere! Especially nutmeg, it can be found in almost anything healing potions, food, ice cream, jelly, jam, Rum punches, the list goes on! So it’s no surprise that Grenada is the 2nd largest exporter of nutmeg to the rest of the world, a claim that they are extremely proud of! We were taken to ‘Laura’s spice garden’ where we were talked through the origins of all the different spices that we are used to cooking with, really interesting.
We then took a hike through the rain forest to a set of waterfalls called ‘Seven Sisters’ we had a lovely swim underneath them, ate our picnic and were treated to some impressive diving from our guide. After we hiked back, we drove through the bustling city of Grenville, and then onto the Belmont Estate which is a cocoa processing plant! The men were delighted to drag the ladies away from all the chocolate so we could move onto the rum distillery. Stuart was devastated to find that rum was made in what looks like a cow shed J It wasn’t the cleanest of places! I can confirm it has not put him off drinking it! We then drove along the west of the Island and back to our anchorage. Grenada is a beautiful island, full of lush green rainforests, beautifully kept gardens stunning beaches and very welcoming locals! A great day out!
New Years Eve we sailed the boat back along the coast to Le Phare Bleu marina ready for our big party to see in the New Year! Blue Moon, Christina Pearl and True Blue joined us! We started of with drinks on True Blue and then moved onto the restaurant and bar for a fantastic evening of live music and great food! Free alcohol all night, so you can only imagine the hangovers the following day. New Year ’s Day a group of us were going to Hogg Island, a small island famous for its Sunday afternoon BBQ laid on by the locals. What a great way to nurse a hangover, beach BBQ, live reggae music overlooking the most lovely anchorage and sunset! Really something special! To save us taking Ocean Lady out of the marina as Alan and Margaret were due back the following day, Stu and Laura stayed overnight on Christina Pearl. Thanks to Steve on Christina Pearl for your hospitality.
The following day Steve dropped us back to Ocean Lady, and a full day of cleaning to welcome Alan and Margaret back to Grenada was ahead of us. They arrived at around 5pm and finally Ocean Lady had her full crew onboard. It was great to have them back!
Since Alan and Margaret have arrived we have been busy preparing the boat for its next passage, provisioning up and fixing things that needed fixing like our generator. Every morning there is a Cruiser’s network on the VHF radio at 7:30am, it gives you news, weather, social events and an opportunity for boats to help each other out. It’s now our alarm clock, and we’ll miss it when we move on from Grenada. The ‘net’ advertised a meeting for all boats heading west through to the pacific. We met some more cruisers all with similar journeys in mind to us albeit on different time frames. The cruising world is very accommodating and it seems anyone will go out of their way for anyone else, so since the meeting there has been a lot of data and chart sharing. We met up for drinks with our friend Jan who has been a great host to us here in Grenada!
We treated ourselves to another trip to Hogg Island for the BBQ, reggae dancing and socialising. We managed to say our goodbyes to a lot of the people we have had fun with over the past few weeks. We are now ready to move onto our next stop Bonaire, and will be setting off at some point tomorrow. We anticipate it taking about 4-5 days depending on the wind. We would just like to thank Jan, Spruce, Blue Moon, Secret Smile, Christina Pearl and all the other boats that have helped give us a great time here in Grenada. We are now looking forward to the next adventure. We will be in touch as soon as we settle back into life at sea!
Love to all
Ocean Lady
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