5/12/2026 Grand Mal Bay, Grenada
A quiet night at anchor abruptly disrupted with the loud
music at 0630. Is some one really listening to this intentionally at 0630?!
Despite our ear infections, mines all better, Suzette’s is not improving, we
dinghied out to the underwater sculpture garden. With our looking box we
thought we could see the sculpture. We arrived and there were several tour
boats with snorkelers. You must use a mooring buoy to park here, and it is
policed by a ranger. We grabbed a buoy and chatted with the ranger, but without
getting in the water you could not get close enough to see the sculpture. We
moved on, back to the boat.
With the strong winds coming we decided to head south to St
George and get a mooring in the marina, Camper Nicholson Port Louis Marina. The
price was good, $81/night plus utilities. The access from the marina to town
and resources is great and they have a swimming pool. We checked into the marina
at about 1500 and checked out the facilities. Lots of nautical shops, boat
brokers, charter companies, customs and immigration, massage, boutiques each in
an island style bungalow. The pool was beautiful, surrounded by a great deck
and plenty of loungers. There were several restaurants as well. We hung out at
the pool and pretended like we were on vacation.
We were plugged into the dock with 110v power, air conditioning for the night!
5/13/2026 Port Louis, St George, Grenada
A lovely sleep in an air-conditioned cabin and quiet. A bit
of overcast to the sky but welcome. First stop in the morning was the Island Water
World. The digital display for my tanks and batteries is going dim. It is a bit
disappointing to see this occur after less than 4 years, though it is on 99% of
the time. The panel is made by a French company, Scheiber, and the system is
very proprietary. In other words, there are no user serviceable components or
good instruction for doing so. A new display can be ordered from France and
shipped to the US for about 450 euros. Alternatively, my Raymarine and Yanmar
instruments can be connected to the tank level senders, and I can get more
useful fuel usage data at the helm. I did some research to confirm the Tank
Senders are analog. I need to by an analog to NEMA translator and a NEMA to
SeaTalkng cable. This will allow me to connect into the SeaTalkng network and
utilize the analog data on the digital displays. I have already installed a
Victron battery monitor for the house batteries, I will need to expand it to
monitor the engine, generator and bow thruster batteries, but I digress.
Island Water World is a fabulous chandlery but the items I
needed are kind of specialized and they did not have them. They did have analog
fuel gages as a fallback position. I picked up the various oils I needed to
service the engine, generator and outboard engine. We stopped at a warehouse
food store next door, a place for larger purchases and provisioning yachts.
Suzette engaged the gentleman, who was helping us, about their food, coconuts
in particular. He said he would bring her a coconut tomorrow morning and show
us what to do with it. We dropped our purchases off at the boat and headed into
the old town. Everything here is accessible by dinghy; the old town is across
the bay.
We asked a fisherman about tying up the dinghy and he
indicated that we could tie up along the sea wall, where it says, “Berthing
Restricted”. The only thing to lock to was an iron bench but it was not going
anywhere. We walked up the hill, everything was uphill from here, and stopped
at the chocolate factory, Jouvay. They gave a really great presentation on how cocoa
is grown, harvested, processed and turned into a myriad of products. Of course
we bought a few chocolate bars, 70% dark chocolate with cashews and 60% dark
chocolate with ginger. We also bought cocoa oil and a sort of cocoa butter
lotion, both good for the skin and repel mosquitoes. We continued to the top of
the town, stopping in a few very artsy boutiques and every food market we came to.
Suzette must check out every market to see what they have to offer. It seemed
like we walked for a while to get to the top but a set of stairs had us back at
sea level in no time.
It was lunch time and it was getting warm, so we found an open-air restaurant on the water and enjoyed a fabulous lunch. I had never had Conch, so I tried their conch sautéed in ginger and tomato, absolutely delicious. Suzette had the short ribs with a honey glaze, equally good. We lingered for a while enjoying the view and watching the boats come and go. On the way back to the boat we stopped at the grocery store, right on the water, park you dinghy out front. There was an old guy selling fruit by the dock, he was quick to engage us. He sang a Mango song for Suzette and did a little dance. Then he talked about the meaning of love. He was quick to say, “not sex…love”. I am not sure that I understood what he was telling us. We agreed to buy a bunch of mangos, plantains and some sort of prickly fruit that is good for the prostrate, but first we went into the market. Seeing the price of fruit in the market we realized we were being taken for a ride by the old guy. When we returned, we offered him 10 euros instead of the 30 he was asking for and he accepted.
After returning to the boat, we were off to the pool for a refreshing soak, still no ears in the water, but a shady lounger to read and nap. This could be habit forming. As the sun was getting low, we returned to our air conditioned boat for a light dinner snack and cocktails.
5/14/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
We woke to an overcast morning and clearly a change in the
weather with more gusty winds but very calm water in the marina. Suzette debated
on going to the doctor, she thought she might finally be improving. We passed
on the doctor and went to see a man about a coconut. He had two, one brown and
dry and one green and wetter. He had a machete and demonstrated how to open the
coconut. We drank the coconut water and observed his technique for opening the
coconut, miraculously he still had 10 fingers! The coconut guy gave us his card;
he does island tours. We signed up to do a tour on Saturday and off we went
with our fresh coconut.
We spent the afternoon on boat chores, cleaning, canvas
repair and cleaning all the coils and filters on the AC units. This is no small
task as accessing the units is more than half the battle. We had looked at the
weather and decided to stay in the marina until Monday, it’s a pretty cushy way
to spend time after so much sailing. In the afternoon it was off to the pool,
swim, read, nap…repeat.
For dinner Suzette reprised the plantains and rice with
fresh coconut and steamed pumpkin (squash). The air was cooler and the breeze
was fresh, so we left the boat open for the night.
5/15/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
Up and back to work cleaning and working on projects. At
about noon while having lunch, Suzette decided she needed to go to the doctor
for her ear. The doctor’s office closes at 1300; off we went back to town. I
dropped Suzette at the dock so she could find the doctor’s office, I parked the
dinghy on the quay and proceeded to try and find her. Could not find the doctor’s
office so I just sat on the bench that the dinghy was locked to and I knew that
she would find me. Then I decided to go looking for an ATM because cash is king
here and no one takes credit cards! I had no luck with the ATM but I did find
Suzette who was wandering the streets looking for me, it’s not a big city.
She had found the doctor’s office, but that doctor could not
help her. Another doctor was called in and would meet us at the office in 30
minutes. Suzette led the way to the Doctor’s office in a back alley; I never
would have found it. The first doctor was 80-year-old women who was practicing
part time and owned the office. The doctor directed me to an ATM nearby; I
never would have found it on my own. Checking the screen, it said no cash was
available! As I was leaving a passerby joked “I take some of that”, I told them
the machine was broken so there was no money to give. They directed me to the
big bank downtown. This was a trek to the top of the hill and back down to the other
side to the big bank, success!
By the time I returned to the Doctor’s office Suzette was
just finishing up. They discovered that her ear was impacted and they irrigated
it. Then they discovered a polyp that was inflamed and hoped that the swelling
would go down with the ear drops. The Dr installed an irrigation tube to ensure
that the ear drops would get to the inflamed area. The Dr insisted that Suzette
return on Monday afternoon for a follow up, guess we will be staying another
day in the marina.
We were happy to be making progress on the ear. On the way
back to the boat we stopped at the chandlery, I needed some hardware for the
never ending bimini infill project, yes, it is still not done! I also looked
for a new gas strut for the swim platform. I repaired the old one, but I did
not feel confident that it would hold up. They did not have what I needed.
Back at the marina it was back to work until 1700, pool
time. We have established that there is a regular group that is there in the
afternoon when we are. This time there were some newcomers, a family that just
arrived on a big catamaran. I never determined where they were from, but they
had cruised many of the same places as us and they were heading next to
Australia! I started to rain so we stashed our things under and lounger and
went back into the pool thinking it would be short lived. For a change it
really rained, and we had left all the hatches open. We were counting on the
wind being from the east and that we would not get too wet inside. This was the
first real rain we had seen in weeks. When it let up and we were thoroughly
pruned we walked back to the boat. Fortunately, we took on very little water
inside the boat and the boat received a good bath.
We went about making dinner and watching a movie as it
started raining again. It rained and blew most of the night.
5/16/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
Up with sunshine, a good breeze and dry decks. We hired
Diamond, our coconut provider, for an all day tour of the island. He has
Diamond Taxi and Tours as his side business and I would highly recommend him
(473-406-7131, diamondsylvester@gmail.com).
He picked us up at the marina at 0900, first stop, the St George Fort. The fort
was built by the French in 1706, protecting the east side of the island.
Sitting high above the city we had a bird’s eye view of St George and the
surrounding Caribbean. We quickly left the city and climbed the mountain to Annandale
waterfall. A short hike into the forest which brought us to a very cool
restaurant overlooking the falls. Diamond expressed his concern about swimming
in the pool at the base of the falls, crocodiles? We continued up the mountain
to a lookout at the highest point on the island, 1901’. It was a spectacular
view from here, the air was fresh with unimpeded breezes and cooler mountain
temps.
The mountain is in fact a volcano, dormant for over 12,000 years. We continued on to a museum at the edge of the crater with lots of information about the island and its various eco systems. We drove down into the crater where Grand Etang Lake was situated. This is the water source for the town. Here we saw the island monkeys, Mona Monkeys from West Africa. It is not known whether they came as pets or food, I had heard pets on other islands.
We returned to sea level passing through St Andrews on the west side of island, the second largest city. There was a small airport here that had been abandoned and is now used as a drag strip. There is talk of resurrecting the airport to support St Andrew. We continued on with views of a very rough and windy Atlantic Ocean. As we approached Bathway Beach we could see a huge building being constructed, part of a huge resort be funded and built by a Chinese entity. It looked spectacular in the rendering. We reached the very north end of the island, Levera Beach. There were two men preparing the island dish on an open fire. The dish is like a huge stew called Oil Down with the bases being salted meat, bread fruit, dumplings and seasoning or other vegetables. It simmers for a couple hours. They had lots of all of the ingredients and gave us some green onions, mango, bread fruit and tarragon from their gardens. They invited us to stay for the feast, but we had more island to see. The last stop on the north end of the island was a cemetery; it is significant for two reasons. A man who died of sickle cell anemia is buried here, he was the first person to be diagnosed with this disease, he was a Grenadian doctor, Walter Clement Noel. Second this is a place where the Caribe Indians were driven to suicide rather than become slaves to the French, they jumped off of this cliff with their children in their arms.
We were now working our way down the east coast; we saw the
various anchorages that we had landed in when we arrived here. We stopped at
Diamonds home to pick up his 15-year-old daughter and see his beautiful home,
he was very proud of both his daughter and his home, we were honored to be
invited to see them. The last stop was an area called True Blue home to a prestigious
private medical school, the high end hotels and lots of shopping malls and big
stores. The university campus is huge with a multinational student body.
We picked up Diamonds wife at one of the high end hotels
where she is a masseuse. We all went to the Grand Anse Beach to see this highly
rated endless stretch of sand and beautiful Caribbean Sea. It was a very full day,
and we learned a lot about Grenada, a very friendly place where Diamond and his
family are excellent ambassadors.
Back at the marina there was just enough time to enjoy a cooling
swim in the pool, no rain today. Dinner and a movie.
5/17/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
A very lazy morning. The marina asked that we move over one
space to make room for a cat that was coming in. All hands on deck as we pulled
the boat over to the adjacent finger dock and cast off the bow mooring lines.
Once settled we walked the marina in search of a gourmet food store that was
supposed to be here, but we found none.
Suzette braved the heat and sun to finish polishing the
stainless on the boat. I enjoyed the cool of the cabin working on preparations
for our trip to Michigan. We are liquidating tools and equipment from Suzette’s
family home in preparation for eventually selling the house. Between her dad
and brother, both passed now, they had amassed a huge collection of mechanic’s,
electrician’s and woodworker’s tools and parts.
In the afternoon we enjoyed the pool as usual. The cruisers
all congregate there and exchange information and stories. More rain and wind
overnight. I managed to finish my book in the wee hours, Michener’s Caribbean.
Aside from learning about the history of the Caribbean, it makes you very aware
of how people’s prejudices were brought about. One Love should be practiced by
all.
5/18/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
I was having trouble with Starlink last night and decided to
address it in the morning. It turned out that the house power tripped the main
breaker, the AC being on a separate breaker continued to run masking the
problem. A little bit of investigation revealed that the water heater was
tripping the breaker. I tested the heating element, and it was no good,
hopefully the chandlery will have a replacement.
Back to the doctor for a follow up on Suzette’s ear, she has
made good progress but the doctor would like to see her one more time next
week. By some miracle the chandlery had the heating element that we needed. A
short stop at the grocery store to buy only necessities as we want to work
toward empty cupboards when we leave.
I spent the afternoon replacing the heating element on the
water heater. It seems that it is now working properly. Pizza for dinner and
early bed.
5/19/2026 Port Louis, Grenada
Up with the sun and ready to clean the hull before we depart the marina. This is a chore that is much easier at the dock, plus we have unlimited water. Cleaning done we checked out of the marina and found an anchorage just south of St George, Mourne Rouge. Clear water with two other boats anchored. The wind was gusting to 20 but holding seemed to be good. All that cleaning in the morning had the admiral napping in the afternoon.
I was happy to get back in the salt water and snorkel to see
my anchor was well set.
5/20/2026 Mourne Rouge, Grenada
A gusty night but a settled sea overnight. A busy day taking
care of some projects while Suzette continued her cleaning and waxing. One
project I have been reluctant to tackle is the removal of the fiberglass covers
over the chain plates for the side stays. The panels were glued on but left with
an open top for sea water and dirt to accumulate. A weep hole at the bottom
aloud water to seep out but a constant orange stain formed on the hull, this
told me there was rust and dirt behind this panel. I managed to pry the panel
off and revealed the red dirt from the Med and surface rust on the chain
plates. I was very happy to have them exposed and clean.
Another overdue chore was checking lines for chafe and
looking for loose screws, I found several examples of both. This led to
splicing an eye into double braid line, a good workout for your hands. Next on
the list was to finish my butane installation. I needed to add an isolation
valve and extend the connection for the grill. This went well but led to
cleaning out the stern lazarettes.
We quit at about 1700 and jumped in the water to cool off.
It was a relatively cool dry day to get lots of work done.
5/21/2026 Mourne Rouge, Grenada
Up with the sun after a gusty night of wind. The wind blew
all day but finally slow down in the evening. At least it was consistent and
not so gusty. We continued with our chores all morning under a very bright sun.
We retreated below for lunch and a reprieve from the sun. A beautiful 3 masted
schooner came in to join us in the anchorage for the day. The jet skis and
little sports cars buzzed around the boats putting on a great show.
In the afternoon we did a dinghy tour of the beach resorts
in clear shallow water and calm seas. The resorts were by no measure busy but
there were some patrons to be seen enjoying the beach and water. It was a calm
night with just the right amount of breeze to keep us cool but not noisy.
5/23/2026 Mourne Rouge, Grenada
Another very clear morning sky and the light breeze lingered
into the morning. We attempted to take down the Jib but the wind picked up and
we abandoned the effort. We pulled anchor around 0830 and motored slowly to the
Spice Island Marina. As we rounded the south end of the island the wind and
seas picked up on our nose. Fortunately, the marina is well protected, we had no
problem med mooring with a light cross breeze.
We settled the boat and launched into a few projects before heading to the office to check in to the marina. Very nice staff and facilities though it is really a boat yard for working on and storing boats. Lots of activity as there was a steady stream of boats being pulled and staged on land. We were struggling with making progress on our cleaning efforts as there was no water pressure. Evidently the island is suffering from a lack of rain.
In the evening we checked out the hotel we would be staying
in for a couple nights next week, very conveniently located just outside the
marina gate. We also scoped out the restaurant next door; we will be back for
dinner one night. Dinner and a movie on board. The boat was a bit retching as a
small swell had us tugging on our lines.
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