July in Grenada

The first Sunday of the month Le Phar Bleu has a dinghy concert and reputation proceeds it as a great afternoon event. So we dinghy over with lots of other cruisers to watch the local young band perform on the floating stage. The marina towed out the barges and provided the floating bar and we rocked the late afternoon away to some great tunes.

The resort at $35,000 a night

The local band

Cruisers having fun

Chester with Karen and Micheal

Later that week we decided we would take the cooking class at True Blue marina and we joined lots of cruisers and some hotel guests to see a lovely demonstration by Esther and Omega who are truly wonderful ladies and very entertaining in their cooking style. We had Fish in a gravy but we would call it a sauce and boy was it delicious! The rum punches at the bar are also on special and beware as they are pretty potent too.

Esther & Omega

Classroom cooking

The best part is sampling the result

Our next event was also food related as Cutty invited us to his local neighborhood for an “Oil Down” which is the name of the national dish of Grenada. We had seen several locals cook this on the beach near our anchorage but this was our turn to see how the locals put it together and get our hands in the pot too. We had a great afternoon preparing the dish and then socializing (and watch the world cup soccer final) while the meal cooked. The end result was absolutely fantastic and we learnt a lot about local vegetables and how to prepare some of them.

Oil Down prep by Cutty

First few layers including chicken

Next few layers - breadfruit and calaloo

Ready for cooking with dumplings in now

Looks almost ready

The line grew rapidly once it was done

While we were cooking a local man turned up practicing for carnival. The Jab-Jab is part of the break of day party during carnival and like in St Thomas it involves getting very dirty. Here this guy is coved in used motor oil and waiving a lamb jaw bone, so it should be fun to see these guys at carnival in early August.

A taste of Jab-Jab

We couldn’t resist another trip to Nimrod’s bar and the delicious roti’s they have, so a Steve & Angela (s/v Pannikin) and Stan & Lan (s/v Barefoot Life) joined us for a walk around the bay and lunch at Nimrod’s and we were not disappointed!

After working up an appetite for Nimrods roti's

Well there was a sad note to our next event, the closing of Clark’s Court Bay Marina, after 12 years Bob has sold the marina and they are starting reconstruction. So it was a huge night for all the cruisers and lots of locals to come to the last burger night event and rock to the local band. We had a great night and judging by some of the sore heads the following day at noodling everyone had a great time.

The local band at the closing party

s/v Miss Molly (UK) Monica & Phil with Devin

Some wild partying

Well every few days we take a walk into the local shopping or around the bays and it’s great to explore and keep fit at the same time. Well we heard of the boat jumble and book swap at Prickly Bay Marina decided to walk over as we had a few books to swap. It was an easy walk from Secret Harbor and we found several nice books to swap and enjoyed the rest of the morning chatting to folks we see on trips but are in this secluded bay and a long dinghy ride away. It’s certainly a nice marina with fast free wifi at the bar so we could be back a bit more often.

Boat jumble & Book swap

Well another walk opportunity presented itself when the crews from Serenade, Serenada, Barefoot Light, Slow Waltz, Simplicity II, Night Watch and Moosetracks decided to walk to the Jamaican Jerk Chicken stand. It’s a good 2 miles each way walk through the dove sanctuary to the ridge of the hills where the road crosses to St Georges. There they have a small hut that cooks the chicken to order next to a bar that claims the coldest beer on the island, what a great combination! We all agreed it was a great afternoon and well worth the effort.

Where the jerk chicken is cooked on the open grill

The bar with really cold beer

Waiting for chicken to be ready

This weekend we decided it was time for another exploration of St Georges as our mail had arrived and we had to go pick it up. We caught the bus into town and got off at the post office and collected our mail. Then we shopped a little for produce and walked over toward the fort to have lunch at Nutmegs overlooking the harbor. We had to work off a great lunch special that was delicious and features many local vegetables and spices. So we found the Kendal Tunnel which takes us under the hill to Fort St George. We paid a small fee to tour the fort which still has lots of damage from hurricane Ivan 10 years ago. You can also see from the photo’s lots of new looking roofs on the surrounding buildings but also lots are still missing like the fort and the churches. Still the fort is well worth a visit and the views are awesome.

Fort St George on the hill

Typical street in St George

Kendall Tunnel under the hill

The fort approach

Battlements (notice missing roof to left)

St Luis marina

The Carnage

Ahh

We walked over to Clarks Court today on a trip for produce from Jenny, we saw they have finally moved the bar and most of the buildings. No idea yet where they are all going though?

Where the bar used to be at CCB

Ready to float to it's new home????

Well that brings us pretty close to carnival and provided the weather holds out we should get some great trips into town and have a fantastic time during the 3-4 days of Grenada’s big party.

We hope you are all having a wonderful summer, judging by our facebook friends it sure looks like you are.