We had a lovely walk along Grand Anse Beach. It is 2.5 miles long and Richard and I taught Leah our tradition of walking the entire length of the beach, touching the rocks at each end. 
We stopped at the west end of the beach for a drink and to watch the finish of the sailboat races that had been going on during the weekend.
Leah’s last day on the island was a tour of the north end of the island. We started at the nutmeg processing plant in Gouyave, the same place that we had gone for the fish fry on Friday night. Then it was off to Sauteurs on the north end of the island for lunch and a visit to the Carib Leap site. Sauteurs means “leapers” in French and in 1651 the French forces tried to capture the native Carib Indians but they leapt to their death rather than surrendering into slavery.
We had a quick stop at Belmont Estates where they process cocoa into the world’s best chocolate. Leah stocked up gifts for friends back home. We had a stop at the River Antoine Rum Distillery which still uses a water wheel to crush the sugar cane. Then it was off to the highlight of the day, a hike to the Seven Sisters Waterfalls. We just went to the first 2 which were pretty special. Leah only had sandals with her and she was hiking in bare feet; thanks Leah for being willing to do that! The dip in the pool was worth the hike!
Leah has now returned to Calgary and the boat seems quiet without her. She was great company, willing crew and never complained about anything. We loved having her. There are more pictures of her visit in the gallery section.
We are now in Port Louis Marina in St George’s waiting for a weather window to head west. We are meeting with 4 other boats tomorrow that have similar plans. I expect we will be heading out mid week. We probably will not have access to internet once we leave Grenada until we get to Bonaire, in about 3 weeks, late Feb or early March.
Tag Archives: Port Louis Marina
Grenada
On Thursday May 14th we left the Grenadines and headed for Hillsborough, Carriacou to check into Grenada. This was one of the few islands that required all crew to visit the immigration office. We are not sure if this was a result of the swine flu that seems to be making its way around the Caribbean.
We left the next day for St George’s and took a slip at the Port Louis Marina. We were surprised at how few boats were there considering how reasonable the rates were. We were joined on our dock by a $9 million Oyster 82 and a $6 million Oyster 62 (which is available to buy for anyone with a bit of spare cash…). Snowaway looks pretty small beside those sailboats.
We explored the island and enjoyed tours of three rum distilleries; Westerhall does not actually make its own rum anymore but imports rum from Trinidad, blends and bottles it, and sells it as Grenadian rum. The first distillery we visited was Clarkes Court, the second was Westerhall and the final was the River Antoine Rum Distillery. Clarkes Court produces one of our favourites, Old Grog, while we had trouble drinking the very strong River Antoine rum.
In the mountainous heart of Grenada is the Grand Etang Forest Reserve. There is a lake in the crater of an extinct volcano and unfortunately the day we stopped the views were foggy. However, there is a visitor centre where we were able to feed bananas to the local Mona Monkeys.
Grenada is known as the Spice Island and its most important spice is nutmeg. The fruit of the nutmeg tree is used to make jam, syrup and liqueurs. The red mace covers the nut that holds the nutmeg. Hurricane Ivan in 2004 destroyed over 90% of the nutmeg trees and they are just starting to come back. This has had a very negative effect on the economy with the loss of employment (particularly to the women).
We tried several of the local restaurants and our favorite was BB’s Crabback Caribbean Restaurant. Mike and Richard had the goat curry and claimed it was the best meal they had had in the Caribbean!!