True Blue Bay, Grenada

Today we decided to head a little to the east in Grenada where there are a number of other sheltered bays and small islands to show our new visitors the more rural areas of Grenada. We decided a beach barbeque would be the perfect way to do this, my parents finding a disposable one and bbq at the supermarket. We did however need to fetch some fresh meat and some bait for the next day’s planned fishing trip so I headed into the capital St. George’s with Sean and my dad Pete for supplies. We ended up taking a slightly diverted route to the fish market due to the one way system which routes the traffic through the narrow roads and one way Sendal tunnel. The back streets of St. George’s was a bit of a revelation to Sean who had expected the white sand beaches side the Caribbean but not the corrugated iron fences and wooden shack homes in the capital. We bought some flying fish bait, the ballyhoo not being available and some chicken wings. I couldn’t interest Sean and Dad in trying some of the other local cuts available such as salted pig’s snout or chicken feet, though probably just as well as I’m not sure how well they barbeque.


Views in downtown St. George's


Island dressed up in National colours for Grenadian Independance Day


New mall and renovated shopping area for new cruise ship docks in St. George's

After calling at another supermarket for the remaining items we were back to the boat and on the VHF to call Jonny & Kate on Newtsville who were planning joining us with their guests – Kate’s Mum Jane and sister Hayley. We intended to head over to the anchorage east of Hog Island for our barbeque and we motored round to Prickly Bay to meet with Newtsville and head round. We were head on into quite a running swell pitched up by the shallow water in the area, however it was a short run and promised to be sheltered in the anchorage so we pressed on. We reached the channel first on Invincible which winds between coral beds on both sides and is fairly narrow, the pilot books and charts and electronic charts all providing a different version of the buoyage to expect on entrance. We entered the channel by the first green starboard mark (IALA System B here so taken to port on entrance), however after that despite a hesitant run further in and much scanning by all onboard all we could see was what appeared to be orange fishing buoys and reef in front and to starboard. We could not see the edges of the reef very clearly due to direction of the swell, we called Newtsville who were of much the same opinion and we decided to head back to Prickly Bay to have our barbecue on the beach at the head of the eastern side of the bay.


Newtsville on the way out to Hog Island


Heading back into Prickly Bay for Plan B

We managed to find a good spot under trees for the odd passing rain showers lasting only two minutes, but which seem to make our newly arrived British visitors seem more at home when barbecuing with towels etc whipping out to keep the cooking going. We had a very pleasant afternoon under the gaze of the Calabash restaurant owned by Gary Rhodes, I’m not sure he was too intimidated by our cooking but we all enjoyed it. We discovered by one of those small world coincidences that Hayley and Kate went to the same school as Sean but a different year, which just goes to prove my theory that these people from Wigan / Standish etc seem to find each other wherever we go.


Men make fire...


Men make fire...


Kate, Hayley and Jane


Sean

We went round into True Blue bay that evening as did Newtsville trying to find a slightly less rolly anchorage. We went into the Dodgy Dock Bar that evening after our showers and found to our delight that bottles of the excellent local Carib beer would be 1$EC (about 25p) a bottle that night after 9pm (whilst stocks last). However, by the 9.40 when the cheap Carib bar had still not opened and apparently the entire entrance of the neighbouring university plus many locals had also turned waiting for the one cooler’s worth of beer we decided to abandon and drink our own supplies on the boat.