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| Secret Bay Marina Restaurant |
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| Secret Bay Marina |
Grenada’s southern coast has an interesting profile, it
reminds one of a glove, the fingers of which are all protected bays, providing
permanent or temporary accommodation to various yachts as they come and go. Our
next stop was Secret Harbour in Mount Hartman Bay, right next door to Prickly
Bay really. A very shallow passage required a strict lookout, thankfully the
water is so clear sandbanks and reefs are pretty visible.
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| Great Pizza and view |
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Sadly there is a wreck on nearly every
beach |
Secret Harbour, named
after the hotel complex which houses the marina, has a well maintained jetty
and docks for around 50 yachts and is fairly well protected, a good option for
leaving the yacht in the water during hurricane season. Being off the beaten
track it’s a secluded, quiet bay in which very little happens. The restaurant and bar have a wonderful view,
good menu, friendly helpful staff and good happy hour specials.
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| Oasis the outside belies its charms |
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| Oasis Bar |
A fun stop was
at the Oasis bar, a floating shack that is opened by a couple of locals on
Friday nights and weekends. The night we were there play was interrupted by a
light/power shortage – no petrol in the generator and none at hand – sorry…, ha
ha, gotta love these Islanders.
Our second day in Mt Hartman Bay produced a really bad smell
inside the boat, which got worse as the day got hotter. Out went all the
rubbish, yup, they charge here too, smell stayed, so after sniffing like blood
hounds we narrowed it down to the front locker which houses the anchor chain
and petrol and diesel canisters (there are holes from there, inside, carrying
fuel pipes between the tanks and the engines) and, convinced that a flying fish
must have somehow landed in there unnoticed, we gingerly investigated only to
discover that the anchor chain was a nasty pile of smelly rotten stewing
organisms. When we anchor we put out a scope of 3 or 4 to 1 chain to depth, eg.
in 5m deep water we would put down 15 – 20m of anchor chain, Prickly Bay’s anchorage
was unusually deep at 9m so out went around 35m of chain and stayed in the
water for 2 weeks, the perfect home for the organisms in the warm nutrient rich
water, this chain was then pulled up into the locker and as the anchorage in
Secret Harbour was 5m deep, only 20m went out, leaving a smelly pile of chain
behind.
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| Hog Island beach, Rogers beach bar |
The high pressure cleaner was hastily put into service and out went the
offending chain to be cleaned and restashed, pshew.
On our way next door again, to Clarke’s Court Bay, we
cruised in and out of Hog Island, a small bay with nothing but a beach bar and
the reputation of being the best place to be if a hurricane is around. Not very
big, it is fairly crowded and immensely popular.
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| Calvigny Island |
Around again to Clarke’s Court Bay, we passed Calvigny Island
on the way in. Calvigny Island is a privately owned Island that can accommodate
up to 50 people, the cost for those 50 people would set you back a cool
US$150 000 per night for the whole resort, including meals. We gave the
big grey super yacht tied to the jetty a wide berth.
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| Clarke's Court Marina |
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| Clarke's Court hard yard |
Great options here for
hurricane season, Clarke’s Court Marina has a large yard where they can store
boats on the hard, with a great chandlery and a couple of on-site contractors
for any boat maintenance or repairs, early bookings are essential, they were
fully booked in January already.
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| Clarke's Court jetty and restaurant |
They also have a lovely, sturdy jetty but they
require someone to be on the boat full time, if there is a hurricane warning
they require you to move your boat – where, your discretion, they can’t advise
you in case of repercussions, gosh what is this world coming to.
Clarke’s Court Bay is quite the hub of social activities for
cruisers, so we decided to suss it all out, in one day! The marina has a nice
restaurant, simple menu, beautiful wooden tables and great coffee.
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| Whisper Cove restaurant |
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| Whisper Cove Marina |
Next was
Whisper Cove Marina on the opposite side of the bay, a little jetty that is
apparently (according to the owner) hurricane proof and the nicest restaurant,
bar, mini convenience shop with bakery and delicatessen and friendliest staff.
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Decent wine, cold beer good food, great
evening's entertainment |
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Kettle drum (steel drum) underlines the Island
vibe |
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| All aboard for shopping |
We booked for a tapas evening here the next night, great food, quaffable wine
and a local band playing kettle drum and guitar, wonderful. We caught the
cruisers bus to the shops, quite an experience with ever helpful advice from fellow
cruisers, we never realised just how much and many could fit into a mini bus!!
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| Nimrods Rum Shack |
On with our quest we located Nimrods rum shack and Taffy’s
restaurant and bar.
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| Trivia day @ Taffy's |
From pool competitions on wonky tables with bad pockets and
trivia afternoons to friendly cricket matches, these two venues are the places
to see and be seen.
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| Beautiful view of the bay from Taffy's |
A short tender boat trip under the bridge separating Hog
Island from Clarke’s Court Bay brought us to the beach which the day before had
been teeming with people, only to find that Rogers beach bar is only open on
Sunday’s,
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| Memory remover on Hog Island Beach |
but no problem, the friendly chap selling curios also sells rum
punch,
Island rum with coconut water – bad for the memory but good enough to
put in the petrol tank and keep the tender motor running for days!
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| Anchored in the mouth of Benjy's Bay |
Lastly,
Benjy’s bay where we were anchored, hosts ad hoc events such as yoga and the
odd party such as the full moon tender boat party – basically any excuse for
fun.
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| Entrance to Port Louis |
Our last stop on our Grenada exploration was to be the
underwater sculptures at the Marine Protected Area of Moliniere Point, we
anchored in Dragon Bay, donned snorkelling gear and swam off round the corner
to find most of the sculptures, colourful fish, loads of coral and even a ray.
Well worth a repeat visit with scuba gear when we have more time. It was on to
join Irene on anchor in Martins Bay off the Carenage and St George’s Harbour
where the cruise ships dock and the fishing boats call home. A short tender
boat ride allows you to tie up right across the road from the Foodland and
chandlery, easy for provisioning but you pay for this with traffic noise,
ambulance sirens as it is right next to the hospital and an anchorage which
doesn’t hold well, we were warned and our anchor just didn’t quite want to
bite, luckily we found an old mooring block right underneath us which we tied
onto for extra insurance. The marina is neat as a pin and fully secure with two
lovely restaurants and good solid jetty’s at a reasonable price, central and busy.
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Rainbow eucalyptus -
beautiful |
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Cutty a walking spice
encyclopedia |
The Irene family had booked an Island Tour and asked if we
would join in, the more the merrier so together with two other cruising couples
and Cutty our incredibly knowledgeable guide we set out on a brief Island
encounter, brief in that we covered a very small portion of the Island, enough
to whet our appetites for when we return.
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| Nutmeg growing |
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Layers of Nutmeg, looks like so much
yet this factory is operating on a very
small scale |
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| Cinamon sticks are shaved from this bark |
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| Nutmeg fresh off the tree |
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| Mona Monkey |
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| Grand Etang Lake |
We started with a drive past the beautiful landscaped home
of John Criswick, the head of the Grenadian team who have received 14 Gold
Medals at the Chelsea Flower Show in England, no mean feat.
On to the Grand Etang Rain Forest where we found the Mona
Monkeys and Grand Etang Lake.
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Locals bring nutmegs which are sorted and they are paid
accordingly |
Then to a nutmeg factory. Grenada used to be the second
biggest producer of nutmeg worldwide until hurricane Ivan in 2004 which
effectively wiped out a major part of the nutmeg plantations.
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| Sorting Mace, the outer cover of nutmeg |
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| Nutmeg's processed and ready for distribution |
They still only
have 6 of the original 14 nutmeg factories in use and on a much smaller scale,
it seems nutmeg trees are, like the Islanders, not in a great hurry.
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| How to sort cocoa beans |
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| A small chocolate factory |
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| The main processing equipment |
Then the Grenada Chocolate factory, well actually it’s a
small two storey house, a very hands on producer of some really delicious dark
chocolate and truffles, the Rum truffles packed a punch.
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| Sugar Cane being loaded for crushing |
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| Removing sugar cane husks |
Next the River Antoine Rum Estate where the only operational
big wheel still does service, again a hands on, labour intensive facility that
produce around 600 bottles of rum a day, they don’t export, this is just enough
to supply the Island, they have 2 products, one is 69% vol Alcohol and one 74%
and the Islanders can drink up to 2 bottles per person per day, neat, chased
with a little cold water if necessary, do not mix as it’s the mix that gives
you a hangover!
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| Big water wheel, beautiful |
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The crushing equipment that
the water wheel drives |
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All this is transferred from one vat to another by hand using
big spoon like scoops |
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| Home made Ice Cream, welcome treat |
Well after tasting a little sample of each and the rum punch we
were only too grateful for the homemade ice creams (nutmeg flavour is delicious!) on the way to Mt Carmel
Falls, not a long hike to a beautiful waterfall, perfect end to a lovely day.
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| Denzell playing under the waterfall |
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We tried star fruit for the first
time, was actually delicious |
Thus ended our short adventure of Grenada, there is so much
more to see and do, we look forward to exploring more when we return in
hurricane season, for now its on to Carriacou as we make our way north.
