Calypso's Journal: Grenada

The Gang's All Here!

Governor's Cup Participants, Sunshine, Savoir Vivre & Calypso Meet Up Again

We have now been away from South Africa for exactly a year! This time last year, we were bouncing up & down in the rough seas off the SA coastline on our way to St Helena along with a handful of other idiots! We simply cannot believe the way time has flown and how much we’ve seen and done since then. And, boy, have we learned a lot!

We are, at present, anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada, having spent the last few months in Trinidad hauled out for repairs. In Chaguaramas, near Port-of-Spain, Trinidad, there are literally hundreds and hundreds of yachts. Most up on the hard where the northern hemisphere seems to migrate back home for their summer and the hurricane season. By the time we left, the boat yards were furiously dumping boats back into the water for the start of the new sailing season. It looked somewhat like lemmings heading for the cliffs. We’ve never seen so many yachts in one place in all our lives!

Chaguaramas was an ideal stopover for boat repairs and general maintenance. You could get almost anything (at a price) and most yards could offer a fairly good workforce to help out. It also offered a reasonably active social life but a bit too commercial and busy for our liking.

During our stay there, our daughter, Robyn, arrived out from London to spend a few months with us and it didn’t take her more than five minutes to get into island life! We then revisited Tobago to show her around there. Unfortunately, winds & currents were 100% against us so we had to motor overnight all the way back. We stayed in Store Bay & Charlotteville for a couple of weeks and then headed over to Grenada.

Upon arriving in Prickly Bay, it was like a class reunion! Firstly we saw friends from Trinidad which wasn't surprising, followed by an Australian chap we’d last seen in Simon’s Town (certainly didn’t expect him to still be here). Next, a couple with their 6 year old son who we’d also last seen in Simon’s Town (thought they were long gone) came to greet us. But the piece de resistance was, not one but TWO of the other three yachts who, like us, had carried on across the Atlantic after the Governor’s Cup race to St Helena! And on the eve of our first anniversary as well!!!!!!

What a great excuse for a celebration and celebrate we certainly did! If, for months, we had tried to arrange this get together, it could not possibly have worked out as well as this impromptu gathering! And then the final addition, an SA yacht we had originally met in Brazil and again in Tobago. They were meant to sail up to St Lucia, ran into trouble so joined us here as well! I defy anyone to tell me that all this wasn’t a good enough excuse to PARTY! ! ! ! ! ! !

Grenada is an ancient volcanic island, one whose history has been unsettled & sometimes violent even as recently as 1983 when the Governor-General called for military intervention which was followed by the US & Eastern Caribbean ‘rescue mission’ that restored order.

It's main sources of income are tourism and nutmeg, both of which were truly decimated as a result of Hurricane Ivan in September last year along with so many homes - not to mention what happened to hundreds of yachts! However, the 95,000 inhabitants, who seem to be a very resilient nation, are rapidly piecing things back together, erecting better buildings and replanting the nutmeg trees with a more hurricane resilient variety. Evidence of Ivan’s ferocity is still very prevalent throughout the island but new developments are flourishing.

We had a wonderful day’s tour around the island with some of the highlights being the rum factory which is still using equipment commissioned in 1785 (unlimited free tasters but it was so strong it was impossible to have more than a few sips!) and the island’s organic chocolate factory (yum)!

We’d like to take this opportunity to wish you all a very Happy Christmas and the very best for the forthcoming new year.

PHOTO ALBUM:

Robyn & Debbie (Sunshine)