Island Life (Grenada)

 

I find myself in the frustrating situation of having written three days worth of diary, only to inadvertently delete it with a single mis-stroke of my finger.

Well here’s the highlights of what you missed:

- A typical Grenadian supermarket trip with three full paragraphs bemoaning the available food, and advising people crossing the Atlantic to stock up on provisions in Spain before they come.

- Finally decided to buy a reliable outboard motor for the tender.

- Finding and agreeing a good price on one from a nice South African cruiser called Chris.

- A bus ride into St. George

- …and getting my bank card gobbled up by an ATM whilst trying to withdraw the cash for the new outboard.

There… we’re back up to date.

I hope to be able to collect my bank card from the branch tomorrow morning after it’s cleared out of the machine overnight - fingers crossed.

It’s tomorrow morning, or today as I now call it. I take another trip into town only to be told by a smiling apologetic bank clerk that the ATM wasn’t emptied last night and I should come back again tomorrow. Ho hum. Despite this, I was able to withdraw the cash I needed for the new outboard.

Returning home from the bank trip, I’m wedged in a bus full of exclusively locals and me. It’s very hot, I can feel individual drips of sweat running down my face. Blaring out of the speakers is a reggae version of Bing Crosby’s White Christmas.

“…As tree tops glisten, and children listen, to hear, sleigh bells in the snow” - despite 20 years of hot Christmas’ in Australia it still doesn’t feel very Christmassy.

I pick up the new outboard motor from Chris’ boat. It’s a 5HP Tohatsu engine which in comparison to its predecessor absolutely purrs. Having tested it with a few quick donuts around the boat, I’d have to say I’m very happy with our little purchase.

It’s tomorrow again! …and I’m off to the bank once more…

Happy to now report that the smiling clerk from the last two days has finally come up trumps: the card handed back to me with surprisingly little fuss.

With the purchase of the new outboard I need to pick up some fuel - my existing petrol supply being tainted with 2 stroke oil. There’s a local businessman, John AKA ‘Fast Manicoo’, who takes your Jerry cans to the petrol station (which is too far to walk), fills them up and returns them for a small fee. As I’m queuing behind his van at the marina to drop off my cans, a German lady in front of me is collecting her filled container. Although it has ‘Petrol’ clearly written on the side, she wanted Kerosene instead. Apparently ‘Petrol’ is the German word for Kerosene. Delightfully for me, her large Jerry can is the exact amount I need to fill my three smaller tanks. Good news all round - I fill up and we head back to Serenity Now.

Having a reliable outboard motor has given us a lot more freedom. La Phar Bleu Marina - a lovely spot somewhere a little too far away to attempt previously, is now an exhilarating 5 minute whizz to the other end of the bay. As the sun went down on their open veranda, we enjoyed a nice dinner of chicken pot pie for me and macaroni cheese for Chez.

Our mate Troy from Greek sailing days is very close now, having crossed the Atlantic with the organised ARC rally.

We popped ashore to check his actual position online, and he’s only about 5miles away. We’d planned to meet him at his destination marina in town, but on a whim, we head back to the boat, up anchor and motor out to see him. The timing couldn’t have been more perfect - as we exit the bay out into the fairly sizeable swell we see him approaching a mile or so away. I hail his boat ‘Fly the Coop’ on channel 16. We motor hard to come alongside. Aussie flag waving and horn tooting, we shout across our congratulations on their achievement - Well done boys!

Then straight back, avoiding the reefs, to our previous spot at the back end of the bay opposite Whisper Cove marina.

Friday rolls around once more, and I’m off over to the Poker game. It’s been announced on the VHF that tonight’s going to be a casino night for a local kids Christmas charity and that people should dress appropriately. I drape an untied bow tie around my neck, consider also wearing a fez, but decide against it and head over. Came home rather pleased with myself just shy of midnight having won both the tournaments played over the night.

..and that brings us to Saturday morning. There’s a boat jumble sale being held this morning in the shade on the beach at Hog Island. We take a some unwanted bits along and spend a few hours chatting to the passing cruiser customers and manage to sell the majority of the odds and sods we came with. The guy we bought the outboard from, Chris, is there with a table of boat bits - none of which I needed, but he did have a rather nice backgammon set. I asked him how much, and he said ‘not for sale - when people want to buy something I’ll give them the option to play me for double or nothing on the cost. Being rather partial to a game, I suggested a game for fun which he jumped at. I haven’t played since lockdown days back in Crete. I really enjoyed it and came away with the win, and agreed with Chris that we should do it again.