Let’s start off with pictures of the 140’ mega sailing yacht docked in Prickly Bay Marina which we were fortunate enough to tour.
Espiritu del Xarey.
The captain's boat rafted next to it.
Ditto.
September 5, 2014
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JORGE! A milestone - 65 years old today. When we get back to Canada I can now send him to the stores that offer seniors’ discounts. LOL.
We met Diana and Gilbert at St. George bus terminal as we had planned a hike for the day. We caught the bus to Grand Etang (previous blog on Mt. Qua Qua). This time we took the trail to Seven Sister’s Waterfalls, also blogged about previously. There were two trails leading to Seven Sister’s. One was a 10-15 minute walk along the road, the other was through the rain forest, at least 2 hours. In hindsight maybe we should have taken the shorter route! The hike through the rain forest was quite gruelling. There were parts in the trail where it seemed like the only way down was straight down! Again we played Tarzan and Jane, swinging from tree to tree, vine to vine, root to root, anything we could grab a hold of on the way down. The park personnel also told us the trail had not been groomed in a while and was probably impassable in one area due to the “sticky or prickly grass”. Boy do we know about sticky grass. That’s the stuff that is about thigh high, long blades of grass, very pretty actually, but with thousands of small prickles that latch onto clothing or body parts and can leave quite significant scratches. Well, not to be outdone by a few patches of grass, on we ploughed reaching Seven Sister’s a few hours later. I’m not really sure how long it took us ‘cuz we’re retired and no one had a watch on! We were just hungry when we reached the falls so figured it had to be around lunchtime. We enjoyed lunch and the water, waited out the normal rain forest shower and then headed back, not the way we came but the route we took on our first visit. At the end of the trail, we were again met with a fellow offering to clean the mud off our shoes. He beat Kenny to it, too bad for Diana because Kenny would have really liked to have cleaned her shoes!
Lookout tower at Grand Etang.
Picnic stop.
Good thing for yellow ribbons marking the trail (FYI the flash went off for this picture!)
Little gecko.
Diana and Gilbert on the hike out of Seven Sister's.
Bamboo forest.
After reaching St. George, we parted ways with Diana and Gilbert. Once back at Prickly Bay we stopped by to see how Alain was doing, getting the boat ready on the hard for when he returns to France. He was exhausted, working from sun up, mainly inside the boat where he said it felt like 45C so he gladly accepted our invite to dinner. Next to a good steak, Jorge’s favourite meal is Chicken Diane so that’s what I cooked for his birthday dinner. We had an enjoyable evening and it was much cooler on our boat in the bay than on Alain’s boat on the hard. Fortunately he took an apartment behind the marina for a few days, complete with A/C.
September 6 & 7, 2014
We didn’t do a whole heck of a lot either day. Short walks, no rain, blazing sun, high temp. We invited Alain both nights for dinner so he only had to concentrate on getting the boat put away. Two more enjoyable evenings with him.
Some of the vegetation we encountered on our walk around Prickly Bay, hence the name?
Donut boat for rent.
Too cute!! Dad pulling his daughter.
The parking lot at Prickly Bay aka the dinghy dock.
Prickly Bay Marina.
Anchorage at Prickly Bay.
September 8, 2014 Alain radioed us on his handheld from the plane at 0630 as he was flying over Prickly Bay to say he could see us and to say goodbye. Imagine that, we could hear him from the plane!
I had picked up a case of feeling miserable so we stayed on the boat all day. Jorge, unfortunately, had to do all the pink jobs as well as the blue jobs as I was useless!
September 9, 2014
I woke up feeling lousy which was a huge improvement over yesterday so we decided to move back to St. George. The last three or four nights had been really rolly in Prickly Bay and neither one of us had had good sleeps. Full moon, crazy currents, etc. We weighed anchor and set out around 1030. The first part of the sail was great, until we rounded Pt. Salines when we had to change course and cut into the wind. Instead of taking our time and sailing/tacking we decided to motor the rest of the way as I still was not feeling too swift. We arrived to the fuel dock at GYC, got water and then headed to the anchorage. Luckily the anchor set on the first try. This anchorage is known for its poor holding and in the past, it has taken us up to four tries before the anchor set.
Diana and Gilbert saw us arrive and radioed to say hi and welcome us back. They also invited us for sundowners but we took a rain cheque due to the fact I still wasn’t feeling great.
Bed time was early.
September 10, 2014
Well not quite 100% but definitely on the mend! Jorge got gas for the dinghy and refilled one of our propane bottles in the morning. I had lunch ready for him when he returned (I’ve taken over the pink jobs again much to his pleasure) and afterwards we went to GYC for showers and internet. While Jorge did the internet banking, etc. I sat in a shady spot, in the breeze, in a comfy chair and relaxed. By the end of the afternoon, the showers and clean clothes I felt so much better I thought it would be a good night to have dinner out. We stopped by Diana and Gilbert’s boat to see if they were game and they were. BB Crabback was having their usual Wednesday night curry special and as we had had such a good experience there for our 1st anniversary dinner since leaving HYC we opted to go there again. We were not disappointed, another great meal!
Bedtime around 2130.
September 11, 2014
To all our American friends, we remember.
We had an incredible storm last night starting around 0200. Winds in the south end of Grenada were recorded as 35 - 42 kts with heavy rain and it continued to rain most of the morning.
Life is returning to normal - boat jobs! Jorge got a price from a rigging shop here in Grenada for getting our life lines replaced. We have stainless steel covered with white plastic. Well, the plastic has cracked in a number of places and the salt water has caused the stainless to rust leaving unsightly rust stains on the plastic. The rigging shop came in about three times the price we expected so, plan B, remove the plastic, clean up the rust spots and viola - as good as new! Big job though, cutting the plastic away. My jobs were much easier, cleaning the kitchen, the head, the main salon and, of course, catching up on blogging.
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