PRICKLY BAY, GRENADA

July 9, 2013


RAISING THE FLAG OF GRENADA

Saturday July 6, It's Perfect cleared customs into Grenada.  149 days out of US waters & 1600 miles under our keel we have arrived at what has been our main destination for months.  We are now less than 700 miles from the equator, 83 miles from Trinidad.  We first dropped anchor in True Blue Bay on the west end of the southern coast. Soon we had poured ourselves a glass of wine & looked around amazed that we are actually here.  In the beginning it sometimes seemed our goal of reaching Grenada was beyond our grasp.  As the sun goes down over the water, we have a smile on our face, life is good.


http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=beaches+grenada&qpvt=beaches+grenada&FORM=IGRE
Grenada is also known as The Isle of Spice.  It is a spectacularly beautiful island with lush green mountains, rain forests, clear waterfalls, golden beaches & fragrant spice trees.  Nutmeg & Mace are two of its largest exports. The Grenada Chocolate Factory produces a melt in your mouth chocolate bar that is 71 percent coco.  The River Antoine Rum Factory runs much as it has since the 1800's using a giant water wheel to crush the cane.  They have perfected a strong white rum called Rivers.  There are many things to see & do across the island to keep us busy during our stay.


Prickly Bay

   
For the cruising community, Grenada has long been used as a hurricane refuge.  As the hurricane season approaches the migration of boats going south increases.  Many have returned year after year to the beautiful bays on the southern coastline.  We met many cruisers with Grenada as their destination & expect to see many familiar faces.

After 2 nights in True Blue Bay we moved It's Perfect around to the next anchorage, the famous Prickly Bay, also known as L'Anse Aux Epines.  Spice Island Marine is located on the far side of the bay & provides dry storage for over 200 boats.  When you look toward their dock all you can see are a city of masts over the fence.  Every cruiser heading south to Grenada knows of Prickly Bay.  We were pleasantly surprised with this large bay that is now home to between 70 & 80 boats, with plenty of room to spare.  Most of this anchorage is deep, with tropical storm Chantal on its way we picked up a mooring ball on the edge of the mooring field.  The storm is passing well to the north of us, leaving only rain & light wind over Grenada.


St George's

There are many beautiful anchorages along this coast & we will spend some of our time exploring them on It's Perfect.  Our current plan is to be here about 8 weeks, plenty of time to see some of the sights & other anchorages.  There is also a project list to be dealt with, one thing at a time.