Friday, 16 January 2009
The Lagoon, St. George's, Grenada
Today we have more jobs to do, refilling the gas, another service available at Grenada Yacht club, a visit to the Island Water World chandlery where they did have the right fishing gear and overdue catch up on the blog. It is really hot in the lagoon with very little breeze, which I know you won’t thank me for mentioning! However, it doesn’t make you feel like doing too much so a bit of reading etc. I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to meet a local JP as I have to get an affidavit signed to say I am single and eligible to marry to enable me to get married in Grenada. Hopefully if we have managed to get all our other wedding jobs done we may then get away for some local cruising. Although there is a Billfish Sports fishing tournament in the Grenada Yacht Club next week which Kevin is very keen to join if we can find a boat with a space, so we’ll see!
Thursday, 15 January 2009
The Lagoon, St. George's, Grenada
Thursday morning I ventured out on my own for a hair cut, supermarket run and to do some laundry at the Yacht club. Candice looked after me very well in here new salon which she had just opened for herself. She is a very hard working young mother of two with big plans for the future and I am sure she will do well. We discussed and agreed my hair styling for the big day and I was very pleased with her ideas and looking forward to going back.
The local men are very flirtaeous in the Caribbean, not just with tourists but every woman passing by and it always amuses me the difference when I walk on my own compared to with Kevin. However, it is all good humoured and a mention of a husband is usually enough.
I spent a nice hour or two with my book in the shaded terrace of the Grenada yacht club whilst waiting for our slot on the self-service washing machine and doing the laundry. I also made use of their book swap, the first one I have found so far which had books I wanted to read.
We are fairly busy back at the boat too with arrangements for the wedding, coordinating travel plans and trips etc during the week which is made easier by the flaky but free WiFi provided by Island Water World. Unfortunately bad news from Lucille, The Beach House restaurant where we planned to have the wedding reception have taken an exclusive booking for 120 guests on valentine’s day and we can’t now use it for the reception. So we are having to look at Plan B options. Therefore a quiet evening in, with more Wahoo fillets with excellent local Pak Choi stir fried which is a new favourite.
The local men are very flirtaeous in the Caribbean, not just with tourists but every woman passing by and it always amuses me the difference when I walk on my own compared to with Kevin. However, it is all good humoured and a mention of a husband is usually enough.
I spent a nice hour or two with my book in the shaded terrace of the Grenada yacht club whilst waiting for our slot on the self-service washing machine and doing the laundry. I also made use of their book swap, the first one I have found so far which had books I wanted to read.
We are fairly busy back at the boat too with arrangements for the wedding, coordinating travel plans and trips etc during the week which is made easier by the flaky but free WiFi provided by Island Water World. Unfortunately bad news from Lucille, The Beach House restaurant where we planned to have the wedding reception have taken an exclusive booking for 120 guests on valentine’s day and we can’t now use it for the reception. So we are having to look at Plan B options. Therefore a quiet evening in, with more Wahoo fillets with excellent local Pak Choi stir fried which is a new favourite.
Wednesday, 14 January 2009
The Lagoon, St. George's, Grenada
Wednesday we had an appointment to meet Lucille our wedding planner at True Blue. We have been in email contact for months, so it was great to finally meet up and she took us through all the details over a coffee which put both of our minds at rest. She then drove us round to see the beach where the wedding will take place, the restaurant for the reception, both were absolutely perfect completely how you would dream of a beach wedding (sorry no photo's til the Big day!).
Lucille then gave us a bit of a tour of this area of the island pointing out useful supermarkets etc and taking me to meet my hairdresser for the day. I booked an appointment for the next day for a very overdue trim and then Lucille dropped us off at a shop she’d recommended for some wedding items we’d still not found. Unfortunately, we still didn’t manage to get what we wanted and ended up back at one of the first shops – in a way that men always deny doing!
Finally, wanting to get everything done in one day we returned to St. George’s by bus to see about some shoes now the rest of the outfit was sorted only to find they didn’t have the right size. We did get some books at the second-hand shop though and then had a nice cool drink at the Yacht Club.
Kevin and Lucille overlooking Grand Anse beach
Lucille then gave us a bit of a tour of this area of the island pointing out useful supermarkets etc and taking me to meet my hairdresser for the day. I booked an appointment for the next day for a very overdue trim and then Lucille dropped us off at a shop she’d recommended for some wedding items we’d still not found. Unfortunately, we still didn’t manage to get what we wanted and ended up back at one of the first shops – in a way that men always deny doing!
Finally, wanting to get everything done in one day we returned to St. George’s by bus to see about some shoes now the rest of the outfit was sorted only to find they didn’t have the right size. We did get some books at the second-hand shop though and then had a nice cool drink at the Yacht Club.
Kevin and Lucille overlooking Grand Anse beach
Tuesday, 13 January 2009
The Lagoon, St. George's, Grenada
Tuesday we ventured through the Sendel tunnel past the Carenage to where the cruise ship docks to do some shopping from the wedding – outfits for groom, best man and father of the bride. After all this time in foreign ports it was very odd to hear all the English, Scottish and Irish accents in the area with three very large cruise ships in dock. Although we found some excellent hardware stores and a good second-hand bookshop we didn’t manage to find what we were after here for the wedding clothes. We decided to try some of the shopping malls in Grand Anse where the large hotels are concentrated at the back of the beautiful 3 mile white sand beach. We took one of the excellent local minibuses for the grand total of £1.25 for both of us each way. There are so many that they pas by every few seconds, it really is an excellent form of transport and would certainly cut the congestion on UK roads and perhaps the loud reggae music would liven up early morning commutes! We were a little more successful in our shopping here, though no pictures as we don’t want to spoil the surprise for our guests on the day!
Monday, 12 January 2009
The Lagoon, St. George's, Grenada
Monday morning we decided to venture by road from True Blue to see Spice Island marine boatyard which turned out to be a five minute walk…funny when we asked for directions at Horizon Yacht charters we were told 20 minutes and two buses and recommended to take a £10 taxi! We found the Budget Marine chandlery which although well stocked on some things didn’t have the fishing gear Kevin was looking for. We did however manage to book in for some work we want to do on the boat on 26th Jan.
Kevin at Grenada Yacht Club
We decided after our lazy quiet weekend to head back to St George’s which is a bit more central to allow us to complete some of the wedding preparations we need to do. We found a good anchoring spot in the Lagoon and visited the excellent Grenada Yacht club. The water is clearer on that side of the lagoon and we watched several large fish jumping out of the water in hot pursuit of the smaller fish hiding around the dingy jetty. There were several egrets roosting in the trees just off the balcony, you wouldn’t think you were on the edge of the capital of the island.
View from Grenada Yacht club balcony at night
Kevin at Grenada Yacht Club
We decided after our lazy quiet weekend to head back to St George’s which is a bit more central to allow us to complete some of the wedding preparations we need to do. We found a good anchoring spot in the Lagoon and visited the excellent Grenada Yacht club. The water is clearer on that side of the lagoon and we watched several large fish jumping out of the water in hot pursuit of the smaller fish hiding around the dingy jetty. There were several egrets roosting in the trees just off the balcony, you wouldn’t think you were on the edge of the capital of the island.
View from Grenada Yacht club balcony at night
Sunday, 11 January 2009
True Blue Bay, Grenada
Sunday we decided to make use of the facilities and spent the morning doing some boat jobs / cleaning and the afternoon swimming in the pools of the hotel. A great day and obviously several more chapters of Captain Jack Aubrey’s adventures to keep me entertained.
Saturday, 10 January 2009
True Blue Bay, Grenada
We decided to head south on Saturday to see the True Blue resort where we would be staying during our wedding. It was a fairly short sail round the south west point of the island through the channel to the uninhabited Glover Island and along the south coast with its deep inlets created sheltered coves, which makes Grenada so popular for sailors. We visited Prickly Bay first which is the most famous of the bays and it was chock full of anchored boats however with 25 knots winds blowing across their decks and no shelter that we could find we weren’t sure why this was so popular.
We decided to try True Blue Bay instead which was far more sheltered from the wind, through there is a fairly consistent light swell. We didn’t mind this however, for us it was a nice gentle rocking which made us both sleep very soundly that night! There are a number of mooring buoys available in the bay managed by Horizon Yacht charters who also operate the jetty there for the resort. We decided to take one of these and after a quick lunch we ventured onshore to check in and have a look round. We paid our £10 a night for the mooring ball, which gave us access to showers and two pools in the hotel and free Wifi and seemed very reasonable to us!
Next we spoke to Peter at the Aquanauts dive school there about some diving for our guests coming for the wedding. Peter was very helpful and it looks like they are very active from the boats in and out during our stay.
We then went up to the hotel and Jennifer the reservations manager showed us round, which was well worth it for her as we decided to upgrade our room to a Tower suite. This has a fantastic Tower overlooking the bay and as soon as we saw it we decided as we will only do this once we wanted to have that room. The resort is lovely, lots of brightly coloured small buildings in tropical gardens, very Caribbean and relaxed. You have guessed it… that evening we also surveyed the Dodgy Dock bar for sundowners, which passed the test well. We returned to the boat for another splendid Wahoo fillet dinner (with Kevin special five spice / piri marinade) and were joined by a black hooded Caribbean kite which must nest nearby as it flew over the headland behind us. It is a really quiet and protected bay and the lovely evening there was only improved by the sound of a great saxophone band playing later at the Dodgy dock and drifting over the water to us.
We decided to try True Blue Bay instead which was far more sheltered from the wind, through there is a fairly consistent light swell. We didn’t mind this however, for us it was a nice gentle rocking which made us both sleep very soundly that night! There are a number of mooring buoys available in the bay managed by Horizon Yacht charters who also operate the jetty there for the resort. We decided to take one of these and after a quick lunch we ventured onshore to check in and have a look round. We paid our £10 a night for the mooring ball, which gave us access to showers and two pools in the hotel and free Wifi and seemed very reasonable to us!
Next we spoke to Peter at the Aquanauts dive school there about some diving for our guests coming for the wedding. Peter was very helpful and it looks like they are very active from the boats in and out during our stay.
We then went up to the hotel and Jennifer the reservations manager showed us round, which was well worth it for her as we decided to upgrade our room to a Tower suite. This has a fantastic Tower overlooking the bay and as soon as we saw it we decided as we will only do this once we wanted to have that room. The resort is lovely, lots of brightly coloured small buildings in tropical gardens, very Caribbean and relaxed. You have guessed it… that evening we also surveyed the Dodgy Dock bar for sundowners, which passed the test well. We returned to the boat for another splendid Wahoo fillet dinner (with Kevin special five spice / piri marinade) and were joined by a black hooded Caribbean kite which must nest nearby as it flew over the headland behind us. It is a really quiet and protected bay and the lovely evening there was only improved by the sound of a great saxophone band playing later at the Dodgy dock and drifting over the water to us.
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