Grenada, Saturday Dec. 17th
Monday we did the rainforest tour.... that was a real great tour. Our guide was a guy named Darlington, a local Rastafarian with rasta hair that went down to his calves... More then once his hair got stuck when he closed the door of the van :-) In the jungle he bundled it and put it in his pocket!Anyway, he really knew his forest and all the plants and birds, he told us many amazing stories and showed us a lot of exciting spots. Whenever he saw a bird, he would look at the color of one of our T-shirts and the one with the closest match in color had to remember the name. Mine was the 'breast speckled spine tail', you would think he made that up on the spot. However every time he took out his bird book and showed us a picture and all the names were in the book too...
He kept on talking and telling stories about the animals and the Island of Tobago. So by the time we had lunch it was around 5 pm.
By that time Kitty had fixed a seat on the plane from Trinidad and was due to arrive in Tobago at around 6 pm. So we had to skip the 'afternoon' part of the trip to get in time to the airport and sort things out with the letter to get her through customs and immigration.
Since we were a bit pressed for time, Darlington drove us to the airport via a shorter route.... He drove like a madman, but kept us assuring he knew all the (6) roads very well, where to hit the break and where to step on it... That didn't kept him from stopping from time to time to have a chat with somebody he saw walking down the road...
Anyway, when we arrived at the airport, Kitty already had gotten though customs and immigration.... nobody had asked her about any letter... I guess she flew in from Trinidad, a doestic flight. They should had checked things when she boarded the plane but well, that's Trinidad....
Tuesday Kitty and I still had to go over to immigration in Scareborough to get her on the crewlist. Next stop was customs to get clearance to leave Tobago.
We wanted to sail to Englishman's Bay first and then leave for Grenada but for that we needed a separate clearance which I found was too much. So we didn't bother telling them.... :-o
Englishman's is listed as the 6th most spectacular anchorages and... it is! We didn't visit the first 5 yet but I believe whoever made up the list. It's a bay at the edge of the rainforest with only one hut where you can eat roti and that's it. The beach is gorgeous and unspoiled, a river from the forest flows into the sea and you can sea how the fresh water mixes with the salt water...We stayed the night and most of the next day, snorkeling and eating roti. At the end of the day Jur, Elisabeth and Stephaan joined us for a goodbye drink. The had rented a car and drove over the bay/
After they left we set sail for Grenada.
It was about 80nm and we figured it would take us about 14 hours. We had to get in early next morning.... Marc and Clare had thought it might be nice idea to give Rutger his paddy open water diving for his birthday :-) Actually Clare already had called them and made the booking. Rutger was very excited when they told him!! However, that also meant he had to study. The course includes a theory exam that he had to take the next day... :-) Clare had brought the book with her so Rutger spent all his time reading...
The sail to Grenada was great. With 15 kts we actually had to slow the boat down, otherwise we would have gotten in at 4 am :-o
We arrived at around 6:30.and found a berth in True Blue Marina, next to the diving center. I thought I’d join Rutger and luckily for me, we could take the exam on Saturday so after clearing immigration and customs, I also had some time to study.
The first part of the course was in the pool and went really great. Today, before the real thing, we took our exams. Rutger of course beat me in the score, but we both passed. The dives today went great too so tomorrow we'll have a fun dive in a marine park and Marc, Clare and Kitty will join us.
Monday we have some work to do at the boat. The decklight didn't make the crossing so we'll have to replace that. Also I got a new windlass which has to be installed and a new outboard. The ride to customs and immigration was indeed the last ride of the old one and I was lucky to get a tow from s real nice guy from another yacht in the bay.
Last night we had dinner at True Blue Bay. Marc made the reservation but had already had a beer or two and obviously had trouble pronouncing his name, looking at the card they made for us.. :-)
This morning at 09:30 we all went for a dive, two actually, at Shark reef and Glovers reef. At the end of both dives, Rutger and I had to do a few tests, like taking off your mask, put it back on again and clear it. That wasn't to o hard...
We saw a lot of fish, including a couple of nurse sharks, a stingray, turtles, moraines and lots of others. Also the corals were very beautiful. We went down to about 16 meters, too deep for my camera unfortunately...
This afternoon we'll chill at the pool or dodgy dock, the bar at the waterfront. Tomorrow we'll go back to budget marine to get the windlass and change the decklight. I wanted to fix the light but a part was missing so now I have to chill out too :-)
Also we'll do some shopping tomorrow and get some provisioning supplies for the coming days. The plan is then to leave for Carriacou on Tuesday and go for Union Island the day after. That means going back to customs and immigration again since Union Island belongs to St Vincent. From there we'll go to the Grenadines and Tobago Keys, celebrating Xmas and Rutger's birthday at Mustique :-)
