Passport's Adventures: Grenada

Downtown St. Georges

Grenada. Adult summer camp for cruisers. That about sums things up nicely. From Mt Hartman Bay there is a “bus” (all the buses on the island are just vans) that leaves from Secret Harbor Marina every Wednesday and Friday at 9:30am to take cruisers to the grocery, hardware, chandlery or nearly anywhere else they need to go for just $10 EC. ($1 US = $2.7 EC) The bus is a great benefit that allows easy transportation to get into town and buy supplies. The bus is also a real PITA, during many trips a lot of time is spent waiting for someone at a store you don’t need to go to, and resulting in a long day with many stops. So it’s good, it’s bad, we all love the marina bus and we all grumble and complain about it. Every morning except Sunday there is a local cruiser net on VHF channel 68. They have a weather forecast; information on local businesses including any specials happening; treasures of the bilge that gives cruisers a chance, to sell, buy, swap, or give away items unwanted on their boats; and different cruiser events. Tuesday is movie night at Clarks Court Marina; it’s also 2 for 1 pizza night at La Phare Bleu Marina. There are watercolor classes, yoga classes, tutoring kids in reading at the Mount Airy Young Reader program on Saturday morning, and French and Spanish lessons. If you lack something to do here it is simply because you are not doing something. The first couple of weeks we zipped around from one activity to another, meeting new friends and enjoying being “settled” for the first time in a long time. It didn’t take long for the demanding social schedule to become too much so we slowed down in our participation level.

We went with a group up to the Seven Sisters falls. IB and I had been up there on our own once, but taking the public bus and hiking in to the two main water falls. We were rained on as we left and had a hard time getting a bus back to town although we finally did. When we found out a group was going and hired a bus to take us and wait on us it sounded like a good day to get off the boat and enjoy some cool air and fresh water. Although summer in Grenada is hot and humid every day, just up in the mountains the air is cooler, less muggy and the waterfalls very cool and refreshing. The group we were with hired a guide, and once we reached the main two waterfalls he took those that wanted on up a rugged path to the top of the seven falls. From there we followed the water down, jumping down each fall as we went, ending with the highest fall of about 35 ft.

After our first week on Grenada we decided to go into the marina to be able to run our air conditioner and have the dock and extra power to work on some of our summer boat projects. I also made plans to go back to the States to visit my family while IB worked on some of the dirtier projects. It turned out to be a good plan, he got a lot of work done while I was gone, and I didn’t have to live in the dirty chaos while he did it.