Deciding to explore our old stomping ground on the island of Grenada to see what had changed, we opted for dinner ashore. Dinghying to the head of Prickly Bay, we discovered an eatery we frequented often, now under new management and renamed to One Love. Since they were advertising their pizza night, we enjoyed a delicious and inexpensive pizza each, accompanied by a few sundowners.
Sadly Roy’s pizza didn’t stay put for very long. By the time we returned to Paw Paw he had clearly picked up a bout of food poisoning and spent some time expunging his body of the scourge. This incident certainly got Elaine worried, both for Roy and for herself, but fortunately he recovered quickly and Elaine was unaffected. It wasn’t the greatest start to our return to Grenada, but, note to self, avoid eating at the One Love restaurant. Instead we took our chances at the very much improved Prickly Bay Marina restaurant the following day, a favourite hangout during our 2015 hurricane season, for a coffee and baked delight. This was in lieu of not being able to get a morning treat at Secret Harbour Boutique Hotel and Marina after enjoying an early morning walk over to Secret Harbour Bay. Not only was the hotel restaurant still closed when we got there, but we were nearly knocked down by the speeding driver of the hotel’s shuttle bus. When confronted by Roy once we got to the hotel, the driver claimed he swerved to miss a brick in the road, but never apologised. It was even more infuriating knowing there wasn’t a brick anywhere to be seen; he clearly wasn’t paying attention and didn’t see us until the last minute when he swerved, at which point we were about to jump into the bushes bordering the road. Regardless, stepping back for a moment to reflect on what he said, he clearly valued avoiding a brick in the road more than attempting to avoid hitting two human beings; what exactly does that say about this modern world we find ourselves in!
Setting that scare to one side, it was a lovely morning walk nonetheless and we found Seaduction (Kirsten and Neil) in the marina, having last said goodbye to them in Finike, Türkiye. Unfortunately it was far too early to be visiting, so we took a slow stroll back to Prickly Bay, where we phoned our granddaughter, Capri, for her birthday.
The reason for our early morning walk, though, was as a result of Roy waking Elaine at around 0530, given that the wind had eventually calmed and we needed to get the headsail down for our haulout, a rather peculiar requirement for Clarkes Court Boatyard and Marina. Groping around in the dark in a very rolly anchorage was a tad interesting, but we managed to get it down incident free.
The remainder of our stay in Prickly Bay was primarily to collect the antifouling we had ordered and to purchase the last of the bits and bobs we needed for the haulout, as well as to stock up on provisions again, although the latter has continued to be a challenge across all the islands we’ve visited this year, with the exception of Martinique. It’s been slim pickings on a number of fronts, including bread, meat, fruit and vegetables. When Roy visited the large new supermarket not far from Prickly Bay they didn’t have an ounce of meat anywhere to be purchased and we’ve resorted to baking our own bread again to have something decent. Chandleries have also proven to have the same problem with Roy having to take a taxi or walk to hardware shops instead to purchase a number of items we’ve needed.
While back in Prickly Bay, we stumbled upon S/Y Windwalker and stopped to say hello, having last seen them in Phuket Island, Thailand; they had just completed their South Atlantic Ocean crossing a month earlier, having crossed the Indian Ocean via South Africa. It was also lovely to get an update from them on the whereabouts of other cruising friends with whom we’d lost contact since leaving SE Asia.
Other activities over these past few weeks have included running errands, completing our regular chores, catching up with family and friends, continuing with our Irish lessons and re-advertising Paw Paw privately in an effort to generate more interest than the complete lack of interest we have experienced via the broker, while updating our website to reflect the latest maintenance and services undertaken on Paw Paw. Fortunately we’ve had a steady stream of interest since then, but nothing that is likely to come to fruition before the start of the upcoming hurricane season, leaving us with no alternative, but to progress with our backup plan.
While the weather had improved, all things considered, with slightly cooler temperatures and some rain, but mostly sunny days, the easterly wind and apposing southerly swell had been relentless, making for a very rolly anchorage, something we never experienced before in Prickly Bay. So, after bouncing around for almost a week and feeling rather sleep deprived, we decided to explore pastures new in Grenada, weighing anchor early on the morning of 6th March 2024; our destination, Clarkes Court Bay, where we anchored just off Clarkes Court Boatyard and Marina behind Hog Island. Given that the wind and swell were in the same direction in this bay, we had a far more comfortable experience. What surprised us again, though, was the number of yachts crammed into this large bay and its adjoining coves.
First things first, however, after we were settled, was to dinghy ashore to chat to the staff at the boatyard to make sure everything was still in order for our haulout and to have a general snoop around, including checking the slipway, since this facility was still being built when we were last in Grenada.
The second thing that struck us about being in this neck of the woods, was the number of cruisers ashore taking advantage of the various delivery services, including the bread man, the meat lady, the fresh produce lady and the jack of all trades, John, who provided various services like getting propane tanks filled, getting dinghy fuel tanks filled, delivering pre-ordered groceries and soft drinks, etc. What we didn’t appreciate, though, was the blaring television tuned to some or other American news channel; definitely not what we wanted to listen to!
First impressions of the Cruisers’ Galley restaurant were not all that favourable, but that improved somewhat while eating most of our dinners there once we were on the hard. The experience, positive and negative, was purely dependent on who was working. This included the chefs and the waitresses, with some combinations resulting in absolutely appalling service and lucky dip meals ie did you get fries or didn’t you, did the same menu item produce the same results or not, did you get a glass for your drink or didn’t you, did you get your bottled drink actually opened so you could drink it or didn’t you, did you get sugar with your coffee or didn’t you, did you get hot or cold milk with your coffee; the combinations of this hit and miss service and meals presented were endless.
While the three perpetrators who had hijacked a yacht and murdered the cruising couple onboard in their attempts to escape to St Vincent, but were apprehended and extradited back to Grenada to face capital murder charges, we learnt that another murderer had escaped custody while appearing in court. As you can imagine, this sent reverberations through the cruising community and had us exploring the security at the boatyard in far more detail than we would have normally. Suffice to say, they had plenty of security guards scattered around the yard day and night with the gates permanently closed and manned.
Additionally, we were concerned about the orientation of the haulout slip to the direction of the prevailing wind, particularly, since the wind was howling when we arrived, which would have resulted in us being blown onto the starboard side of the concrete dock. Fortunately our concerns were unfounded because the boatyard staff were fabulous. We were very impressed with their efficiency and proficiency. It certainly helped that the wind had died down on the morning of our haulout, 8th March 2024, but members of staff still visited us in their dinghy, explained the procedure we were to follow and provided an extra set of hands on deck. Before we knew it, Paw Paw was hauled, pressure washed, positioned and chocked. By that evening we’d finished scrubbing the port hull and cleaned the stripes.
Over the following days we progressed with our well practiced method, a project we never expected to be doing again mind you. Regardless, we finished scrubbing the hulls, creating a wonderful mud bath in the process; not what we wanted, but dry sanding was prohibited. Then, using paint stripper, we stripped and sanded the waterline, applied the primer, then set about applying three coats of antifouling. While Roy did most of the painting, Elaine sanded the propellers and saildrives and sanded and cleaned all the throughhulls then applied the numerous coats of antifouling to the saildrives. She did assist Roy with the first coat of antifouling, but, with the subsequent applications coinciding with her methotrexate day, she wasn’t much help after that.
Other than the few odd jobs left of antifouling the propellers, marking the chain, cleaning the bridle, clearing the saildrive water intake slots, adding the new anodes to the propellers and saildrives, doing some polishing, getting the jack-stands moved to do the primer and antifouling on those patches and Spring cleaning Paw Paw inside and out, we were done, but had missed our slot to splash, resulting in us having to wait a few days to wait our turns. This meant we celebrated St Patrick’s Day on the hard, but Roy cooked up a storm in the galley with the slim pickings we had left in the way of provisions and we had Anne and Stuart, off Time Bandit, for company, which was definitely the highlight of this haulout and our time on the hard. The last time we’d seen them was in Penang, Malaysia, during the pandemic. Who would have thought that after we each left SE Asia a year apart and going different ways around the African continent (They went south via the Maldives, Chagos, Seychelles and South Africa in 2021, while we went north through the Suez Canal in 2022) that we’d all end up on the hard at the same time in Grenada. With our splash day revised to 19th March 2024 and, although we were excited to get sailing, it was sad to say goodbye to them. Regardless, we thoroughly enjoyed their company and will miss them. Fair winds and following seas as they head north for the hurricane season and we head southwest.
In between all this hard work, what we didn’t get completed, was having the plastic screens replaced on the helmstation weatherguard. After visiting two different sailmakers, we came up empty handed, but we enjoyed a nice long chat to Keenan on his birthday, a few coffee mornings and most dinners with Time Bandit, as well as watched the Guinness Six Nation Rugby final between Scotland and Ireland. Well done to Ireland on winning this championship for the second consecutive year. Before being hauled we also enjoyed a dinghy excursion to Hog Island and over to Whisper Cove, a boutique-type marina, where we enjoyed the lovely gardens and beautiful views while sipping our morning coffee. Receiving the news that the murderer on the loose had eventually been re-apprehended was a hugh relief too to everyone in Grenada, residents and cruisers alike.
On that positive note we wish you all: Lá Fhéile Pádraig Sona Daoibh!
And, of course, Elaine has to share a little bit of trivia relating to the country we hope to make our home in the not too distant future.
Long before any “global greening”, the very first known St Patrick’s Day parade, marched in honour of the 5th Century bishop credited with bringing Christianity to Ireland, was thought to have been held, not in Ireland, but in Boston in 1737. However, later historical evidence recorded in Spain's Archivo General de Indias changed the established history, when the 17th Century documents revealed details of expenditures in the St Augustine colony and made reference to a procession in 1601 in honour of “San Patricio”, who was recorded as the “protector of the maize fields”.
As one of the patron saints of Ireland, believed to be buried in Downpatrick, County Down, the 17th of March is an important date in the Irish folklore calendar and has been marked with special customs and rituals throughout the centuries. His carefully crafted image is deeply intertwined with the story of Ireland.
So, while we await a sale and wonder when indeed we will make Ireland our home, we’ve re-immersed ourselves in our sailing lifestyle, accepting that this remains our future for some time to come.
