Sadiqi: Grenada - February

Australia Day was spent on Taipan. Much beer and wine was consumed into the the small hours of the morning.

Prickly Bay sunrise

Not a great deal happened in February. I languished in Prickly Bay, Grenada enjoying the cooler temperatures and the wind. Some work was done on the boat. Some socialising happened on the following boats:

Taipan – David and Kris – Albany, Western Australian

Contrails – Jim and Barbara – Florida, USA

Jig Saw – Phil and Faye – Australia

Volo – Max and Sandy – Sydney, Australia

Ngomo - Robin and Sandra – Zimbabwe

Aurora – Ted, Texas, USA

Lotus – Jerry and Jonni – Oregon, USA

Grenada Race Week culminated in Grenada's Independence Day. There were an impressive number of yachts racing. I was almost pressed into crewing on one of the yachts. My preference is to cruise not race. The inevitable happened with one yacht returning to the anchorage without its mast. The over zealous crew had over-bent the carbon fibre mast on the cruising J125. The Tiki bar, part of the Prickly Bay Marina provides beer, free WiFi and ongoing entertainment. At EC$6.50 for 275ml bottle of beer it is pricey (~AU$3.00)!

Piereve and Mirhay on “Umido” from Canada offer free yoga and Tai Chi classes four mornings a week near the Tiki Bar. This was an opportunity for me to learn Tai Chi. The yoga and Tai Chi classes are one of the reasons I have chosen to stay in Prickly Bay. Even though it is only 80 miles south, Trinidad was just too bloody hot to do any exercise. Well, that was my excuse anyway.

On Friday February 21 I joined an island tour run by Cutti taxi and island tours. The southern end of Grenada was pretty much flattened by Hurricane Ivan in 2004. There were still a good number of houses and churches with out roofs.

Nutmeg processing factory. I had no idea where Nutmeg came from. Grenada is known as the Spice Isle with it production of Nutmeg and Mace. We visited a Nutmeg factory where the nuts are dried, sorted, mace removed and cracked before being exported.

Cocoa bean heating and cracking

Grenada Chocolate Company

Chocolate factory. There was an abundance of Cocoa trees around the island. The Grenada Chocolate Factory processes the cocoa into very tasty chocolate.

Rum factory. Rivers is a privately owned sugar plantation and rum factory producing sufficient high octane, between 75 and 90 % alcohol, rum for local consumption. The guide stressed that the company was unable to export their rum as the alcohol content was too high to be shipped by air.

Sugar cane fields

This rum factory prides itself in being low tech and environmentally friendly. An impressive feature of the factory was the water wheel that turned the cane crushing machinery.

Water wheel

Sugar cane crushing

The squeezed cane juice is piped to boiling house where it is manually ladled into each pot getting progressively hotter and improving the sweetness.

Sugar juice boiling house

After cooling the juice, now called wash, is piped to the concrete fermentation tanks.

Wash

The juice, now called wash, ferments for eight days before being distilled.

Distillation

The condensed vapour from the distillation process is clear rum. This is measured using a hydrometer to determine the alcohol content.

Hydrometer

The rum is bottled and labelled by hand before being shipped. A taste of the 85% alcohol rum cleared my sinuses and gave the synapses a jolt. I don't usually drink neat rum!