Port Louis Week 10

Hi everyone,

We're now into month 3 of our stay in Grenada.  We were expecting to have hurricanes passing by but the Saharan dust is keeping them from developing.  As a result it's been mostly dry but very humid with little wind.  Not very comfortable, but that's hurricane/cyclone seasons for you!  No doubt the hurricane season will start up soon!

Huzzah for the steel band!

Last weekend was Grenada's Carnival.  What a blast that was - the music literally shook the boat in her pen.  It was a great spectacle which ran over 4 days.  Sadly the steel bands which presumably used to dominate the music are now almost entirely gone.  Each truck-hauled 'float' packed rock concert style speakers, topped and followed by spectacularly dressed masqueraders.

Noise Approaching!

Rockin!

Dancing along

Masqueraders

Girls and Boys

Strange masqueraders

Don't ask me!

Well oiled

Everyone had a blast!

Keep on drummin'

With the sv Ceruleans

Yesterday we took a tour of the island with the sv Ceruleans and other cruiser friends.  It was a busy day in which we circumnavigated the island with tour guide Cutty.  Highlights were a caldera lake, a monkey encounter, the Seven Sisters waterfall, lunch in Grenville, a disused airfield, the River Antoine distillery, Welcome Rock on the northern tip of the island and the Petite Anse hotel.

One of Grenada's main reservoirs - a natural caldera lake

Friendly Mona monkey

Into the jungle

Spectacular track-side flowers

Negotiating the muddy slopes

Two of the Seven Sisters waterfalls

Cooling off

Heading back out

The disused airfield is now a drag-racing strip.  When the US 'invaded' Grenada a Cuban Airlines AN-27 passenger aircraft was on the ground.  It never left, and nor did the Grenadian PMs aircraft.

Abandoned aircraft at disused airport

Cuban Airlines AN-27 Cockpit

AN-27 Turboprop engine

Ex-propeller

AN-27 interior

The River Antoine distillery has been operating for over 200 years.  It still uses the original water wheel installed in 1795.  It looks dilapidated but is still producing rum. 

1795 distillery water wheel

Rum Vats

Rum Basins

Welcome Rock is a spectacular viewing point on the northern tip of the island.  Getting there involves a short climb up a _very_ steep hill.  It's worth it.

Welcome Rock view

Welcome Rock crew

And back down the hill we came

View from the very nice Petite Anse Hotel

Aboard Zen Again the pace of boat jobs has been slow but steady.  We received our first shipment of goodies from the US by ship via a warehouse in Miami.  This allowed us to order all sorts of goods from Amazon US and elsewhere.  Our goods were consolidated into a container and shipped from Miami to St George's.  Our goodies included:

• An Apple Mac Mini M1 to replace our Macbook Air with broken screen
• Replacement water-proof cases for our phones and tablets
• Replacement silicon cookware

We used Portage to manage the shipping and import.  They're also here (on Facebook).  We have a second shipment currently enroute.

At home on G Jetty in Port Louis Marina

The Mac Mini's M1 processor consumes far less power than the Intel processors on our Macbooks.  So our SignalK instrumentation system now runs 24/7 on the Mini.

Trust all's well where you are!