Calivigny

Still enjoying Clark’s Court Bay.  The big plans for the day????…go to the BBQ Smokeout at 5pm!  Earlier today we took a dinghy ride to Hog Island being extremely careful after Jonathon and I hit a rock/coral patch last night on our sunset cruise

After Hog Island we explored the exclusive Calivigny resort privately-owned by a very rich Frenchman named Mr. Cohen.  He spent 100 million Euro creating this PRIVATE resort.  It is 81 acres total and only sleeps 40.  It costs $65,000 per night…alcohol extra.  I pulled some photos from their website while the rest are my photos.  Several boats are at your beck and call too.  One of them is a 173’ Perini Navi sailing vessel and the other an 86’ fishing boat.

I couldn’t resist and had to walk on the beach.  Although you can’t go past the beach, it was worth the stop…just gorgeous…for the RICH and FAMOUS for sure!

Still in Grenada

We are truly enjoying the cruising life and just coming and going where and when we choose.  In this first photo we had walked from Prickly Bay to True Blue Bay and just sat to enjoy the scenery.

Then a much needed haircut performed by Bud (note he is in his dive BC????)

After the haircut we moved the boat to Clarke’s Court Bay where the guys tried their skills in a local “pool” tournament…John came in 2nd place and Jonathon lost to a 10 year old pool shark .  We came shore today for some internet and noticed a boat card from the crew of “Lady” who helped crew across from the Canaries to Grenada.

What’s a Mola Mola?

It is another name for the Sunfish.  On our sail back to Grenada, we spotted several of these funny-looking yet rather large aquatic creatures.

Tobago Cay

Got an early start and headed to Customs where we had to “clear out” of Carriacou.  Then headed straight to Union Island where we had to “clear in” to St. Vincent and the Grenadines.  It cost 125 Eastern Caribbean $$ (EC) to clear in Grenada, 42 EC $$ to clear out, 254 EC to clear in at Union Island. Today, an EC is worth about 40 cents.  On the way over the seas were rough and, of course, that is when Jonathon catches a nice Spanish Mackeral that we made into Fish Tacos for dinner…yummy!  Before dinner we had lunch at Anchor Yacht Club while waiting for the Captain to clear in.  It didn’t live up to our 10 year old expectations/memories of THE BEST PIZZA around.  The nurse shark pond was still there but the lobster tank was long gone.    Quite a few Island Dogs hung around for our scraps.

From Union, we headed straight for Tobago Cays.  It is so beautiful, no explanation is needed.  Check out the large iguana roaming through the cactus…ouch!

Tomorrow we are going to explore Petit Tabac, where Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp in Pirates of The Caribbean) was stranded on a deserted Island.  It is surrounded by a reef and very hard to get to but we are going to do our best!

Well we didn’t make it across the reef but here is the photo of that infamous island.

After snorkeling with the sea turtles and crashing the beach BBQ of the Royal Clipper ship this afternoon, Jennifer decided we just had to have our own Beach BBQ so at sunset we headed over, cooked ourselves a wonderful dinner and stayed until after dark, making for a fun ride back to Jay Sea Dee…luckily we brought a flashlight and Jonathon came up with an ingenious use of the water bottle/nightlight.  Our best dinner experience yet!  Thanks Jenny!

Sandy Island

Yesterday we moved from Tyrell Bay, Carriacou to a beautiful area next to Sandy Island.  Before leaving we took a quick dinghy tour of the Mangrove Swamp-Oyster Beds.  Not many oysters left for the plucking.  It was pretty rough last night with the wind but today the move paid off in Gold!  We dinghied to the Island and all went snorkeling.  We are in snorkel Heaven.  I think I saw almost every fish on The “Caribbean Fish Chart”…just awesome!  Capt. John said he snorkeled over 5 minutes with a turtle…how cool is that?!  Tonight is jerk chicken on the BBQ.

Jay Sea Dee Island Hopping

We are finally into the cruising lifestyle: successfully transitioning from the Voyaging mode to the Cruising mode. The big difference being the level of wind/seeas and the duration of the trip. Today we sailed from Grenada to the nearby island of Carriacou. After a couple of days of preparation: provisioning full, water full, fuel full, sails repaired, genset repaired, scheduled maintenance completed...we left our temporary home at Port Louis in St Georges Grenada and sailed north to Carriacou. We did stop at Dragon Bay on the west coats of Grenada to enjoy snorkeling and swimming in a unique marina park where there are underwater statues on the sea bed, We saw lots of colorful fish. Then we sailed 4 hours north and dropped anchor in the dark in Tyrell bay. Fried potatoes/onions and burgers by Jonathon are the dinner fare tonight...gotta go get it before its gone...Capt John

At 12/22/2011 13:21 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 12°13.02'N 061°11.35'W sailing at 7.5 knots on a course of 244T

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Our Day in Grenada #2

 

Before lunch we stopped at the Spice and Herb garden where we got to smell, taste, and feel many herbs and got the local remedies they are used for.  The plants in order are tamarind, an all-spice tree and then a cocoa tree.

After a quick lunch stop we went to the Clark’s Court Rum Factory.  We had been here 6 years ago and John, being the mechanical engineer, was so fascinated with the steam driven engine.  Since then, unfortunately, the factory had a fire and with the help of hurricane Ivan (which depleted the Islands sugar cane), the factory is now running on more modern methods but we got a tour of the old engine and factory anyway.

What a great way to start the season!

I’m Back

What a way to start the New Year…meeting up with my boys on Jay Sea Dee located in Grenada, “The Spice Island”.  Jennifer and I flew in on January 1st.  We took a day to relax, unpack and get used to the humid climate.  Then today John had arranged an island tour with Henry’s Tours.  Our driver, Von, picked us up from Port Louis at 9am sharp.  It is supposed to be the “dry” season but has been raining on and off daily.  The beautiful thing about that is we have seen many rainbows as you can see in the photo.  We drove through the capital, St. Georges and saw the Fort in the distance (photo #2).  In its history, Grenada changed hands several times between the French and British.  The Island was discovered by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498 although there are artifacts dating prior to that suggesting it was occupied by the Caribs long before that.

As we drove North out of St. Georges we stopped at Annandale Falls.  As soon as we got out of the van we were greeted by a local who plays his guitar and improvises a song just about you.  Today he told Jennifer she was like Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Jonathon was Antonio Banderas, John was John Travolta and I was Celine Dionne.  Quite funny actually.  We proceeded to the Water Falls and watched another local do a cliff dive.

Moving on we started heading to the East coast and stopped at Grand Etang Lake.

Next stop, the Nutmeg processing factory.  Grenada used to be the top exporter of nutmeg in the world but after 2004 when hurricane Ivan destroyed much of its crops and infrastructure, they now only produce about 2% of the world’s crop.  Locals bring in burlap bags of the nuts which are then weighed and sorted.  A nutmeg usually has a red striped covering of “mace” but the farmers strip that off to sell seperately.  The women sit on the benches to sort the nuts based on size and quality.  We were informed over and over again that it is ONLY women that do that job…hmmmm.