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Grenada March 25, 2001
We are anchored in "Prickly Bay", Grenada. Made quite a spectacle of
ourselves yesterday as we sailed, or more accurately motored in, sail covers all
on, bumpers hanging over the side, and laundry strung back and forth all over
the foredeck. The crew on the Little Big Boat ( really L'Ondine, a boat that
seems to be harbour hopping with us that is about 50 ft. very new, and with a
crew of three!!! that by the way has matching deck uniforms which they then
change into chef outfits for the formal dinner - we think they are wishing they
were bigger) prodded each other and had a good chuckle at us. Our excuse for
the disarray is that we just came over from St. George, about 8 miles away.
Quite a pretty town, set down on steep hillsides by a bustling water front. It
is fantastically convenient. A big grocery store is right by the water and has
its own dinghy dock!! There are all kinds of facilities here, friendly yacht
club with washing machine, and a real town with bookshops and some hustle and
bustle and action going on. But also with fairly decent sidewalks and traffic
lights and other mod cons. What really struck us about town too is the people
seemed really friendly. Every store we have entered we have been struck by the
goodnaturedness of the people. This feels very good, as we did not get quite
this warm cozy feeling from Union, or even Carriacou which is part of the same
country. We did come across a group of girls acting a little wild, and one
expressed a lot of interest in Douglas. He wasn't amused. The market was a
joy, after the scarcity of vegetables we have been struggling with lately, with
lots of spices for sale as well (Grenada's other name is Spice Island). The
stalls were packed in together in a large, open square, shaded by big, colorful
umbrellas and most of the sellers had straw hats. It was fairly noisy - a
constant stream of minibus taxis honked there way around the periphery, and
there was a guy ranting on a balcony overlooking the market about how the babies
needed to be taught when they were in the womb, and the water was going to be
full of worms soon, but nobody paid him much attention. The sellers were very
happy to have a joke and a laugh, and prices seemed fair without haggling -
cheapest tomatoes we have seen since the Canaries. Unemployment is a problem,
as usual. There is a fair bit of aggressive panhandling and we hear in some
areas there have been a number of thefts from yachts, and as we cruised slowly
around the harbour which is encircled by town, people were constantly calling to
us to come in here, and did we need a taxi or a tour?
Carriacou, before that, was a bit of a disappointment. The bay we stayed in
for a couple of nights was nice enough, with very good dinghy sailing, but the
town had a bit of a desperate feel to it. Just a dirt road with some grocery
stores and restaurants. But hardly any people, and the restaurants all empty,
charging way too much to draw the yachties. I didn't even go ashore in the main
town, Hillsborough, but the rest of the crew did, and were not impressed with
the atmosphere. There was a nice little cay in the bay called Sandy Island,
with nothing but white sand and coconut palms. It was heavily used by boats,
but did turn out to be a great place to fly kites. A little local boy came over
to watch and was so fascinated we let him have a go. He got pretty good right
away (these are two string kites). Then his older brother shows up and wants a
go. Neill tried to give him a few tips but he said he already knew how. He
immediately crashed it and gave it right back to little brother. (Who by the way
told us we could leave the kite with him and go home and get another one). We
felt ready to leave Carriacou after a few days, and after our long stint in
Bequia, it actually feels fun to get the boat ready for a sail. And we had a
romping good one over to Grenada.
So we will be here a few days more and enjoy the amenities before heading
over to Tobago. Since we don't seem to be making it to Panama you might have
already figured this out, but we have decided to slow down and take transit the
canal around Christmas. This will make school and work easier and allow us to
arrive home earlier the following year and in a better frame of mind. We now
expect to sail in to Anacortes in late May 2002. This means these letters will
continue for a while, so do let Steve Baughn know if you no longer wish to hear
our drivel. Keep on writing to us, we love hearing how your lives are going.
LIVE SLOW SAIL FAST as the T shirts say around here - Sarah
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