The beginning of this season took a turn from the usual! Due to some sad and stressful events in my sister Jenny Rebecca’s life, we all benefitted from her impromptu visit to the Spice Island and Nancy Lu! We had only been in Grenada ourselves for a week and had not even launched the boat when she arrived!

First things first: before we even shed our airplane clothes on January 16, we strolled up to the point where we routinely watch the sunset. That was probably the last time I will wear sneakers or pants for at least 5 months!

We spent the week before Jenny got here shuttling back and forth from our little cottage at the University Club to Spice Island Marine boatyard using Saint George’s University’s wonderful bus system offered to all students and members, like us, staying at the University Club.

I spent my mornings out on my porch leisurely enjoying my breakfast and doing my daily Bible reading where I could take in the view of Prickly Bay where Nancy Lu would become part of the scenery in a short while. Later, I would join Mark for lunch and some work on Nancy Lu before we shuttled back to the University Club for the night.

Jenny became part of the routine when she flew in on the 23rd, and first things first: We shared a walk up to the point to enjoy the sunset, but were treated to what our bus driver of years past, Shademan, called liquid sunshine instead!

Jenny had a beautiful view of the sunset from her hotel room at the University Club.

Of all the traditional Grenadian foods Jenny was able to try, the University Club’s callaloo soup was her favorite! She also liked doubles (a Trinidadian delicacy that a lady sells outside the boatyard every Monday through Friday). She didn’t care much for the roti she ordered for lunch at the University Club, but that problem was solved with a switcheroo of our entrée’s. She liked what I ordered (my go-to meal at the UC), grilled swordfish tacos!

Jenny’s experience as a visitor to Grenada and Nancy Lu was unique to anyone before her. She was involved in all the pre-launch chores like cleaning up the dinghy before the dinghy chaps were tied on, going grocery shopping for meals, and the launch itself. No one else has had to climb a ladder and hoist themselves over the air conditioner in the companionway to enter the closed up, darkened saloon in order to hang out there while Nancy Lu’s all jacked up and looking rough after months closed up in the boat yard,…

but before long, she was voluntarily taking her nightly baths in the bay (not me; I don’t do “cold”, salt water even with a freshwater rinse after) and having her morning coffee in the cockpit as Nancy Lu was starting to look more like her sailing-season-self and our perspective switched from looking out from the University Club to the bay to looking out from Nancy Lu to the University Club .

We were able to pack in a few adventures before Jenny had to get back to the Pacific Northwest…

One of our adventures was to Grand Anse Beach for lunch at Umbrella’s, a little swim to close our exercise ring on the Apple Watch, and a steady stream, full water-pressure, if not luxurious shower and hair washing session at the public bathhouse .

Another  of our adventure was to Concord Falls after a quick shopping spree at St. George’s downtown market.

After taking the #5 city bus to the junction at the village of Concord, there is a 2 mile uphill trek to the falls. I enjoy this walk every time I take it. Concord is a lovely farming community, and the scenery is breathtaking…from cocoa trees, to beautiful deep red Sorrel out of which, a yummy juice is made, to baby pineapples with little purple flowers, to turmeric out drying on a…something…an I-don’t-know-what , to grand vistas, it is a feast for the eyes!

In keeping with the theme of Jenny’s visit to Nancy Lu being unique to other guests’ experience, we were unable to hike back to the less visited Fountainebleau Fall. The river was very swift and the ground was very slick due to so much rain, lately. We hiked back as far as we thought was prudent, and then we went back to Concord Falls where only Jenny was tough enough to brave the cold water. Then it was back down to Concord Junction to catch the #5 bus back to downtown St. George’s…

Click on this text to see Down deh stretch video

We ended up catching a ride in a truck bed down to the junction—sweet! We rode the #5 bus to the downtown bus station then caught the #1 bus back to our stomping grounds. It was SUPER crowded at the end of the work day! Unlike all but one other time, we were on a conductor-less bus! This is the only time I’ve ever been nervous on a city bus! It was a crazy ride! Jenny and I were in the front seat giggling as I tried to get a clandestine video of the harrowing experience, but I was too late. Things got back to normal as the bus emptied out to just those, including us, who were going “down deh stretch” to “the last stop”.

The next day, we donned our rash guards and did something else no other visitor has ever done…We went on a guided snorkel tour with Scuba West Indies to Flamingo Bay and Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park. Other guests have snorkeled with us in these places, but right off the back of Nancy Lu. For Jenny’s trip, we didn’t have time to sail there and back before she had to leave, so this was a good option. Mark dinghied us up to the head of Prickly Bay where Nancy Lu is moored to join the group for a quick powerboat ride to the snorkeling spot!

Our first snorkeling spot was Flamingo Bay. Our guide dove down to try and coax out creatures for us to observe such as the shy Porcupine Fish, but it was Jenny who spotted the barracuda in the reef!

Our next stop was around the corner at the sculpture park…

I learned that Butterfly Fish enjoy a concrete banana every once in a while .

After all that snorkeling, Jenny was COLD on the way back to Prickly Bay.

We zoomed back to Prickly Bay leaving the southwest coast of Grenada in our wake!

There was a regatta going on right at the entrance to Prickly Bay!

Too soon, it was time to accompany Jenny to the airport on George’s bus. He was very sympathetic to Jenny’s tears as we parted. When we got back to Prickly Bay, he made sure to ask me to tell her that he wishes her all the best!  It was so nice to finally get to share time with my sister on Nancy Lu.  There’s nothing that compares to sister time!

Our time since Jenny’s visit has been a mix of fun outings and day to day life on a boat… 

Click on this text to see a short video of Sabrina Francis

We treated ourselves to the mellow, Caribbean groove of Sabrina Francis at the first of her limited series of performances called Sabrina’s Sunset Sessions.  We went with our friends, Annemarie and Steve on s/v Freebooter. Annemarie and I sat right on the front row to most fully enjoy this intimate concert at Rocky’s Beach Bar at BBC Beach.  The February 7th concert coincided with the 51st anniversary of Grenada’s independence—my idea of a perfect celebration! I had fun singing and vibing along with the familiar set list!

 

We were able to check out the tranquil yet popular BBC Beach before the concert began.

At this time of year, Grenada’s colors are on display every where you look!

The next day was the Grenada Hash House Harriers’ Independence Hash, Hash #1333. It met at the village of Laura’s playing field. We take part in as many Grenada Hashes as we can!  There are always so many beautiful and interesting sights along the way, and we would not get to experience near as much of the out-of-the-way places of Grenada as we do if it weren’t for the hashes we join. You can find Hash House Harriers on Wikipedia and read about this worldwide club’s interesting history. We always enjoy the post-hash food provided by the village that hosts that week, but we don’t usually enjoy the post-hash routine that much. This Hash; however, was “the fancy dress” hash and the “red carpet walks”  and awards ceremony was pretty cute!

On Superbowl Sunday, we decided to take advantage of the big screen showing at Prickly Bay Marina of Taylor Swift’s boyfriend’s team and the Eagle’s match up. Hot dogs and hamburgers along with other tailgate type foods were advertised as the special! Well, leave it to an island establishment whose national sport is Cricket to forget to buy the hamburger buns…. Oh well, the burger-on-a-hotdog-bun tasted good! Needless to say, I was disappointed in the outcome of the game…

Nancy Lu is in a constant state of maintenance. Mark is captain and chief upkeep officer! Recently, I’ve polished up the stainless steel and Mark has waxed and buffed the blue stripe among other things, but back to the fun stuff…

Before Freebooter took advantage of a weather window to head north, we were joined in the bay by Lee and Sharon on s/v Allegro who sailed up from Trinidad. The last time we saw them was during the covid pandemic! We closed some more exercise rings with noodling up by Calabash beach (yes, we’re senior citizens…the amount of talk about aches and pains at these noodling sessions is epic), and we’ve had some nice visits for sundowners on Allegro (accidents and resulting health issues featured prominently in conversation during these get-togethers, as well).

Lately, we’ve been focusing on getting ready for our next group of visitors, daughter and DIL, Amy and Marie, along with Ben and Casey will join Nancy Lu in Bequia on March 2!  We’re really looking forward to that! I anticipate the conversation leaning more in the direction of pregnancy and baby while they’re on board…exciting!