We moved down to the main island of Grenada. After having been on small islands for about 2 months we had grown used to a slow pace and simple days, swimming every day, buying a few basic groceries from tiny local stores, and sipping beer (ok, rum punch!) with our feet in the sand. Grenada by contrast was busy and businesslike, and was quite an adjustment! We stopped briefly at Grand Mal beach, where there is a snorkeling park with underwater monuments to explore. However we had a more mundane chore to do (heads again!) and didn’t have time. With everything restored to working order we came into the main town of St George’s and took a slip at Port Louis Marina. The excellent dock staff there helped us tie up and we settled in for a few days. With showers, a swimming pool, restaurants and a good supermarket nearby it felt like a different world.

By now, all the boats we encounter are positioning for where they will spend rainy season – typically Clarkes Court or Spice Island boat yards at the southern end of Grenada, or Chaguaramas Bay in northern Trinidad. Our friends on Morning Bird had hauled out at Spice Island and were leaving for London the next day, so we taxied over to have dinner together one last time. It’s been wonderful running into them in all sorts of places over the last 4 months!

We took a taxi tour of the island with friends Mark and Marlene and went into the rain forest. We’d grown used to everything being very dry, as the islands we’ve been on have no rivers or lakes, so it was wonderful to see lush greenery and scenic waterfalls. We visited Allendale Falls and Seven Sisters Falls and swam in both of them – the water felt much less chilly than waterfalls we swam in back in February in Dominica!

Allandale Falls – this is close to St George’s and only a 5 minute walk to the falls so in high season it is busy we tourists. We had it almost to ourselves.

Seven Sisters Falls – there are seven falls but we only visited the first two. This was a thirty-minute hike, and well worth it for a lovely swim.

There is a local population of Mona monkeys, which were originally brought over from Africa with the slave trade. Some of them have been trained to perch on your hands in exchange for a piece of fruit. Others are wild, and we saw one troupe swinging through the forest. We spotted them first when we saw bamboo stands swaying, and then were able to make them out more clearly as they came closer.

We visited Grenville, a good-sized town on the east side of the island, where we had lunch in an excellent local restaurant and took in the street scene as local children came home from school. We then visited an abandoned airstrip just to the north. This was the island’s main airport until it was taken over by the US forces during the 1983 invasion. Two old aircraft, one Cuban and one Russian, were stranded there and essentially left to rot. We wandered around and reflected that not too long ago, this island was the site of a coup, a civil war, and an invasion by a foreign country. Since then, Grenada seems to have found its way, and feels safe a relatively prosperous.

Back in St George’s, we did a dinghy tour to see the historic port, and to visit Grande Anse, which is a lovely beach just to the south of the city. We also had dinner at Patrick’s, which has wonderful local food. We first visited there almost 15 years ago as a group of 8, and were served a 17-course tapas menu that we all still remember. Good to see that it is still thriving! Mangos are back in season – finally!! Street vendors sold me bags full for only a few dollars, but apparently they are so plentiful now that most people just pick them from trees when they see them.

We wanted a couple more nights out of marinas, so we moved round to Prickly Bay and took a mooring. The bay was full of boats preparing to haul out there or to head south to Trinidad. We had one more beach afternoon, and attended to a few chores (clearing customs, fueling up, supplies needed from the local chandlery). Then it was time to put the dinghy up on deck and prepare for the trip down to Trinidad.

We enjoyed Grenada and certainly have a wish-list of things we’d like to do on a future visit. The people were friendly, it felt safe, and the interior of the island is stunning. We’ll be back in December as we head north, so we’ll see what happens then!