Grenada

We have now arrived in Grenada - the "end of the line" for Charlotte and me. Jimmy will continue south to Trinidad with my brother-in-law Alan, where the boat will be hauled for hurricane season.

Grenada is a lovely island, about 120 sq miles, lush, green and hilly with a population of about 100,000. It’s a very peaceful island, a few hotels, a relatively small amount of tourists. It’s a boat haven for hurricane season. Coming back to Grenada is like coming back to somewhere that we have lived – we are now very familiar with the island, and know a lot of people, both on land and other fellow cruisers. Due to the many cruisers, Grenada has a great cruisers network, with a lot of organized events and social gatherings (all advertised on the morning VHF radio cruisers net broadcast).

So pretty soon we have our social calendar organized.

We headed out to snorkel the sunken statues - amazing seeing different statues (including a man riding a bike and a man sitting at a computer desk!

One day we did an island day tour - swimming in waterfalls, having monkeys eat bananas on my head (and Charlotte petting the older tamer monkey "Lover Boy" - see pic below), visiting the rum factory (where nothing much has changed since the 1700s - they prefer to keep it that way rather than make a lot of people unemployed...), visiting the nutmeg factory that once employed many people - Grenada used to be the number 2 producer of nutmeg in the world - until hurricane Ivan in 2004, when they lost 90% of their nutmeg trees. And seeing the many spices growing along the roadside - Grenada is known as the "Spice Island".

One Saturday morning Charlotte and I went "to the country" to help out with a program set up to listen to children read and help them with maths. The standard was not very high but at least the children were coming along of their own accord to try and learn more (or was it for the social event?) About 25 children came from the villages around to a small wooden building. There were about 6 volunteers. Charlotte was even put to work with a 4 year old, reading to her and pointing out the words!

Saturday afternoon the airport was closed for a renaming party!! - not sure what message the people on the delayed incoming flights were given!

There are a lot more children in Grenada, and so Charlotte is now back to having play dates on other boats and on the beach. Boat children seem to mix well with children of all different ages - I think they are just happy to have other children around and can't be choosy.