The Adventures of Little Rosie

Posted from Mt. Hartman Bay, Grenada

10th Dinghy Concert

Time has just flown by.  The holidays have come and gone and it has just been a blur, but the fun started even before them.  In mid-december Le Phare Bleu Resort and Marina held the 1oth dinghy concert in Clarks Court Bay.  They anchor a tugboat to use as the stage and flank it with a bar and a sailboat.  Then all the dinghys tie on.

The music was by the pan band Wizards.  They were great.  There is a video on YouTube – right-click and open in a new tab.  ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaDutbubxUU ).  At about 54 seconds into the video you will see Jackie (purple top) and me (red hat) dancing in our dinghy in the upper middle-left portion of the screen.

Tiller, Sparky, and their faithful master, Jerry groove to the tunes

Commodore’s Visit

Just before Christmas Pat Ewing, owner of Dickerson 40 Velamore and Commodore of the Dickerson Association, contacted us to say he would be in Grenada for a boat charter.  His schedule was pretty tight, but he, his son Sam, and their friend, Joel, managed to stop by for a short visit on Christmas eve afternoon.

(front) Sam and Pat Ewing (back) Joel and Jackie

Holiday Spirit

Just before Christmas our friends Bob and Debby on Chimayo came down from Carriacou for a visit.  They are very active in the L’esterre Junior Sailing Club and Jackie had picked up some hats for the kids when she was in the states.

Some of these kids sailed in the regatta we volunteered for.

The marinas and cruiser-oriented restaurants all have activities scheduled, so you have to choose carefully.  We had Christmas dinner at Clarks Court Bay Marina, just a ten minute dinghy ride around the point.  This was a potluck with turkey and ham provided by Clarks Court.  We just ate ourselves silly.

Conversation after Christmas dinner at Clarks Court Bay Marina

New Year’s Eve – or Old Year’s Night as they call it here – posed a big challenge as there were great events planned for a lot of places.  We elected a three stage approach.  First: dinner, dancing, and GMT (Grenwich Mean Time) New Year at Da Big Fish.  We are four hours behind Grenwich, so we celebrated New Year at 8pm followed by dancing.

We then hopped on the bus and went to Clark’s Court Bay Marina where we left our dinghy.  The crowd there was pretty small, due in a large part to the strong rains off and on much of the day.    Luckily the band was good and we took over the dance floor.  We celebrated New Years at local midnight and danced a bit more.  We needed a break and the rain had stopped so we headed back towards our boat.  We planned to stop at Roger’s Beach Bar on Hog Island, where some friends were going to hold a jam session, but the place was pretty empty because of the rain, and we were tired so we went home.

11th Dinghy Concert

We were barely into 2013  when Le Phare Bleu held another dinghy concert.  Playing were “The Grenada Chocolate Recipes” who were actually 2/3 of “Madison Violet” the group that played at the first dinghy concert plus Deiter from Le Phare Bleu.  They were excellant.

Check out the reserved seating in the upper left

Special courier delivering beers from the bar on the barge

You can see a song from the concert on YouTube – right-click and open in a new tab: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMhDe-tfUOs

Island Tour

We went on an island tour conducted by our friend, George.  We have done a couple tours in the past and the typical tour takes you to a rum distillery, a nutmeg processing plant, a waterfall, and a few other interesting sights.  The tour was on a Sunday and the rum distillery was not operating, but the doors were open.  Another group arrived at the same time, so their guide, Cutty, gave us the tour.   He did a good job, but we were all disappointed at the end because there were no staff there to give free samples.

Cane juice fermenting prior to distillation

So near yet so far.  Forlorn looks becuase the free rum samples are locked away

Another fun stop was in Grand Etang where among other things, you can see the Mona Monkeys.  A couple of whistles and a banana can start a good show.  You can get a great photo op if you hold the banana where the monkey can’t get away with it immediately.

A fellow cruiser finds a friend

Monkey chasing Jackie – and her bananas – across the parking lot

The next stop was Grenville, the second largest city in Grenada.  We visited the fish market and got some nice, fresh tuna.

Grenville – second largest city in Grenada

Jackie supervises cleaning of our tuna

Selling “firewater” – do you think he got it straight from the pump?

(Not so) Old Paint

December was supposed to be the start of the dry season, but it rained from mid-December until well into January.  Despite this I have been able to make a lot of progress on painting the cabin.  The project has had a few setbacks, but in general it is coming along well and nears completion as of this writing.

Another coat of paint goes on the aft cabin

Painting supplies

Sunsets

Mt Hartman Bay has hills on both the east and west sides, so we never really see the sun come up or go down, but we do get some great effects from the sun shining on the clouds at the end of the day.

Mount Hartman Bay sunset

Another Mount Hartman Bay sunset

Sights Around the Bays

Fire up the grill for hamburger night at Clark’s Court

Locals rowing through Mt Hartman Bay

More Locals cruising through Mt Hartman Bay

Donna from Summer Love standing on Prickley Point

A Red Flower we spotted on our tour

Next: Another tour and a regatta

This entry was posted on January 19, 2013 at 11:09 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.