Hello Family & Friends from the Royal Clipper, plying the Grenadines
Leaving Barbados we would be at sea for the next 6 days, learning that our first main island stop would be Grenada, with a population of over 100,000, one-third the size of that of Barbados yet with a comparable area size, 135 sq. miles. Our first morning aboard consisted of participating in an exercise class in the ship’s Tropical bar followed by a light breakfast, an hourlong safety talk and demonstrations, crew introductions…all the quintessential cruise ship proformas. We mostly travel on our own, but this was a special occasion and we have always been fans of tropical locales, having spent time in Jamaica, Trinidad, Tobago, Fiji, Cuba, et al. After a light breakfast we motored to the small island of Union (3.5 sq. mi.), 40 miles NE of Grenada, anchoring just before noon and wet-landed at Chatham Bay where there were a couple of rustic structures, one a “restaurant” and bar, where Maggie was yelled at for leaving a plastic bottle she picked up at the shoreline and was trying to find a garbage can to dispose of it. No photos of this place since we came ashore to snorkel. We found a bit of shade at the end of the beach, donned our gear, and snorkeled for an hour along the rocks amidst hundreds of bait fish. Pelicans were perched on dead trees, diving in to dine on the fish. Not the best snorkeling, but gave us some more exercise and cooled us down. Back at the ship for lunch, we polished off with crème puffs and sunning on the pool deck.
We never found out how many passengers were aboard, but its capacity was 227. Two of them, an English couple, renewed their wedding vows, this being their 40th year of marriage, surrounded by a number of the passengers and crew. The husband was all spiffed up in a sport coat, while his wife was led down the “aisle” by our female cruise director, a very touching sight. Little did Maggie and I know at that time that we would surpass that number in our own marital span. During our time in the bar, consuming Gin ‘n Tonics, we befriended an interesting man, Michael, from Orlando and adopted him that evening, making us a group of 6 now. He was traveling alone, good looking, well-traveled, a lawyer, great humor. We had fun kidding Pam since Michael seemed to take a shine to her. We stayed up for the raising of the sails at 10, with attendant stirring music and then called it a day.
We started the next day again with the exercise program, breakfast, and then strolled to the pool deck at the ship’s bow to climb up to the lowest crow’s nest. They had a short window for this (9-10 AM) and Maggie and I were squeezed in just before 10! The nest was 15 meters (50 feet) above, with 25 mph winds and a magnificent view of Grenada (our next island destination, measuring 350 sq miles), which the two of us and Pam were the only ones in our party to climb. Harnessed and hooked to a safety line, we climbed the rope ladder to the platform and the attendant exhilaration. At 11, we were in the piano bar, being presented with the next day’s agenda consisting of Tobago Cays then, later, the details on all Grenada excursions whilst sitting in the tropical bar. Pam, Mary & Bob chose to take the Nutmeg and Falls tour, while Michael, Maggie and I did the Hike at Seven Sisters. Our tour was 13 in total, being hauled up to an elevation of 1,910 feet in a van driven by guides, Dean Isaac and his wife Christine. On our drive, Dean named villages as we passed by and pointed out various landmarks and the ravages of the 2004 &2005 hurricanes, including a ridge of topped trees in the distant rainforest hills. He identified various flora, e.g., mahogany and breadfruit (a staple made from this is called ‘oil dung’, a national dish). After 40 minutes driving on winding and narrow roads, honking at every hair pin curve as a warning (similar to our Jamaica experience, where I was driving a rental on the lefthand side of the road, scared half to death), finally arriving at the trail head.
We proceeded slowly down into a lush valley where Dean took his time again naming various plants (usually spices like turmeric, nutmeg/mace, ginger) and their fruits, which he would cut open and grate bits into our open palms to smell and taste. He had necklaces for sale made from these nuts, Maggie buying two ($5 USD), only to find out later she was over charged!!. We continued our downward trek to the lower 2 falls of the Seven Sisters Falls, which was pretty steep. We were able to catch a back flip from the top of the 6th fall by a local lad, a 50 foot plunge into its pool, followed by a running front dive into the pool at the foot of the seventh. We were impressed! We used the 6th pool, swimming under the force of the falls on our heads…pretty refreshing after a long trek and the heat. Since we had trekked down, that meant we had to go back the same way, which was steep, grueling and had my heart pumping pretty good. Reaching the van, we drank some of Dean’s wife’s juice mix to hydrate before we headed back to Grenada’s capital, St George’s.
After thanking Dean & Christine and bidding them a “good bye”, we asked a young street vendor where we could find a local bar and he walked us a half block away and pointed to a dark, hole-in-the-wall place with one pool table, a 4-stool bar, with a handful of liquor bottles to choose from. By then Mary, who was not on the falls hike, had joined Michael, Maggie and me. We asked Kevin, a local, well-spoken customer about rum and coke. He steered us toward Canne Royale rum that his uncle makes, of which we purchased 4 shots, each costing 7 EC$ (East Caribbean dollars), equivalent to $2.75 USD. We topped it off by also purchasing a fifth to sneak back to the ship, setting us back another $15 USD, for a grand total of $25 USD. Purchasing the fifth allowed us to negotiate the price on the tab for the shots! I exited the bar first, waiting for the others on the street, when I was approached by one of the other customers, a local named Vaughn, striking up a conversation, trying to get me to shoot a game of pool…just seemed pretty sketchy, so I declined, fist-bumped him and moved on.
Before we abandoned this place, we had been tempted to purchase something else which was presented in a wooden barrel and named Barrel Jack (140 proof) of which you could fill up your own bottle for only 16 EC$ (about $6 USD). After having a small taste we realized we could go blind drinking this stuff and politely declined. We ended up meandering around St. George’s, strolling by a local school with uniformed girls, hitting the backstreets, checking out the housing, espying Fort George looming over the harbor and getting a nice photo of the harbor from town. We closed the day dining aboard ship with two couples from England, comprising a jolly good table of 10. The loudness of the steel drum band at 10 drove Maggie and me off to our quarters to rest up for our first stop in the morning, Tobago Cays, which are comprised of 5 small islands.
Five of us were taken by tender to one of the small islands, where we were told the opposite side had the best snorkeling, a 3 minute foot path saunter. We snorkeled off the northern part of the beach with great success, swimming with schools of blue parrot fish, needle fish amid a plethora of colorful coral. After an hour of this activity, we joined the rest of the team, finding Bob, our birthday celeb, already at the shaded picnic table we had commandeered upon landing, then, queueing up for the BBQ lunch, consisting of hamburgers, hot dogs, tuna, salads and desserts. After shoveling all that down our gullets and not observing wait of 1 hour after eating before swimming (from our childhood learnings in the 50’s), we gave Michael his requested 15 minutes and then we were off. Snorkeling from our BBQ beach was excellent with some exertion due to tidal currents we were swimming against. All totaled, we spent 6 hours on this small isle, watching locals catching lobster and selling shirts (Michael purchased a pirate-themed shirt since that would be the theme for the evening aboard ship), skirts (Maggie purchased a red shift) and cigars. We marveled at the number of sailing vessels (both private and commercial) that we had seen here and boarded ship mid-afternoon, imbibing at our tropical bar. After dinner and pirate-like “aaargh” scowling references, we had some fun betting on Caribbean Hermit crabs turned loose in a circled area ringed by our shoes on the wooden floor. Of course this is put on by the crew to entertain the passengers and we would certainly not initiate such abuse of these gentle creatures! We turned in to get a good night’s sleep for tomorrow’s voyage to the island of St. Vincent.
Good night and sweet dreams, Stan & Maggie