Week 45-46;Sept 21–Oct 4 Two more weeks in Grenada and what a social time it’s been. In the last 2 weeks we’ve been out to listen to live music 6 times, been to 2 socials on boats, Jim’s been to a bachelor party, Linda’s been to a bachelorette party and Jennifer’s been to 6 steel pan drum practices. It crossed our minds that we should find a deserted island for a few days to rest, but we didn’t.
All the kids that Jennifer has been playing with have temporarily left the anchorage. Rambunctious is out of the water for 2 weeks and Kitty & Rob & the girls have moved into a cottage during that time. Ubuntu is also out of the water and the kids have gone back to the States for 2 weeks. Nathaniel has sailed to Martinique for a couple of weeks. With no kids to distract her, it seemed like the right time for Jennifer to start 7th grade. Jennifer and Linda are both off to a good start.
Our friends Sim and Rosie on Alianna are getting married October 21. The guys took Sim out for a bachelor party at a local night club. The club rules were “no shorts, Crocs or sandals”! That was a challenge because Jim’s one pair of long pant and leather shoes were deep under the V-berth and hadn’t seen the light of day in almost a year. Check out the pictures. For Rosie’s bachelorette party, the girls took her out for margarita night at a nearby bar with no dress code. Six women from 5 different countries (England, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, US) found plenty to talk about after a round or 2 or 3 of margaritas.
We finished off our 2 weeks with another “Full Moon” party with Kitty, Rob, Olivia & Sophia from Rambunctious. Since they’re staying in a cottage right now we cooked hamburgers and hotdogs on an outdoor charcoal grill and swam in the pool.
Oops, I forgot to write about the 3 pound lobster we bought off a local fishing boat. Good meal! Again, see the pictures. How could I forget, the ice box still smells of lobster!
Week 43-44;Sept 7–Sept 20 For those of you who thought we’d get bored on our trip . . . it’s just not happening. Another 2 weeks have rolled past while we sit out hurricane season in Grenada and we’re all busy.
Jim celebrated his birthday on September 13. It was kind of a birthday weekend with Roy from Bold Endeavor celebrating on the 10th and Denise from Absaroque celebrating on the 11th. We started Friday afternoon with cake and ice cream for the group on Blue Heaven. After that we all went to the Fish Fry in Gouyave, halfway up the west coast of Grenada. Every Friday they close off 2 streets and line them with food booths selling all kinds of fried fish and side dishes including fried breadfruit. Sunday we had a small party just for Jim on Alianna. Rosie helped Jennifer make a 3 layer chocolate cake that she frosted and decorated. For his birthday meal, Sim and Rosie treated us to an English meal of “Bangers & Mash”. The 5 of us managed to down over 30 sausages and almost 5 pounds of mashed potatoes with onion gravy. Wow, talk about comfort food! It was great and so was the cake we ate afterwards. Thanks Sim and Rosie.
Besides playing with Olivia and Sophia on Rambunctious almost every afternoon, Jennifer has been learning to sail the Tinker and learning to play the steel drum. Jim sailed with her a few times, went along side her in the ivory soap bar to coach her a couple of times and now she’s doing pretty well on her own. She still likes to have Jim close by for moral support though. Last week Jennifer and 6 other cruiser kids signed up for a steel pan drum learners program. They practice 3 times a week in St. Georges. She’s learning to play a set of 2 drums called “Double Seconds”. Right now they’re learning the C major scale. The band manager told them if they all practiced hard they would be learning an actual song by November. The steel pan drums are really pretty sophisticated. You don’t just bang out a rhythm. They’re refined to the point where you play actual notes, including sharps and flats, and the different types of drums play different parts just like in a band. They are all in tune too!
Linda went on a “Ladies Day Out” to the La Sagesse Nature Center in SW Grenada with 25 other cruisers. They learned about some of the local fruits, vegetables and spices and did some hiking, but mostly it was just a day off the boat and away from the men where you could have a nice lunch out and meet other women. Linda and Rosie had a good day.
Since Linda and Rosie were having a women’s day out, Jim and Sim decided to have a guys day out and took Opus out for a sail just for fun. They too had a good day and were relaxing with beer in the cockpit when Linda and Rosie came back. They had stories of good sailing and big fish and had about 10 pounds of fish steaks in the ice box to back up the stories. They couldn’t decide what kind of fish it was, but thought it could have been King Mackerel. Jim grilled some of the steaks that night for a terrific meal. We had more fish steaks Saturday when Rob, Kitty, Olivia and Sophia from Rambunctious came over for dinner Yes, that’s right, we had dinner for 7 on Opus. We had to improvise and use a small frying pan as our 7th plate, but it all worked out. The left over grilled steaks got used for mackerel salad sandwiches and a mackerel dip with crackers at a boat social. The tail pieces went to Ally, the cat, on Alianna. Nothing went to waste.
On September 18 we celebrated one more birthday. Brett on Dutch Dreamer turned 15. A group of 15 of us attended a concert by a band called “Men from the Mainland” at the museum in downtown St Georges. Instead of a keyboard, they had a single tenor steel pan drum and their pan man was no beginner! After the concert we all went out for pizza and stayed till they turned the lights out on us at 10pm. Dutch Dreamer is still at the dock at Port Louis Marina, but we take the bus in to see them often.