Grenada has been our favourite place so far. We stayed long enough to get to know some people, look around and explore, and develop some pleasant routines: rowing, walking to the Carenage, taking the bus, shopping at CK's, mango smoothie before catching a bus home again with whatever treats we found. It's something of a relief after so much travelling to be able to greet some people by name as you go about your business.

But after almost five months in Grenada, we've hauled anchor (and a mess of clay and mud and barnacles), raised the sail and headed back up to Carriacou. Just when the welcome-back-Sue parties were petering out, we launched into the goodbye celebrations. Now we'll have a brief period of normal life, scrubbing and painting and industrious stuff like that. Randy's already cleaned out the fridge and freezer, so I'll have to counter with something equally self-sacrificing. Clean the filter in the shower sump? Clean the shower sump? This will take some serious procrastination.

Since November 1, there has been a lot of boats coming and going. We had a great evening on "Lughnasa" last week with Peter and Mary Anne (and Lawrence from "Meander," Graham and Anne on "Rasi," and Roxanne and Bill from "Raven"). "Lughnasa" boast a large afterdeck/dancefloor, so we made use of it, although the view from the cockpit is a bit weird - all you can see are people's legs hopping around. The next day, "Lughnasa" headed for Trini, "Raven" headed for Marguerita, and within a few days, we were away as well.



Kim and Tara and I had one last day of shopping madness in St. George's before we left. Sans lads, we went into every tiny shop and spent as long as we wanted just blathering and browsing. Met some lovely ladies in the shops who were very curious about the live-aboard life. Kim, as is her wont, told them all the gory details, and left them laughing. And not just because of the hats we bought.

We did one last island tour before we left, and Cutty took us to Fort Frederick for starters. You can see so much of the island from up there, and at any time, there might be two or three different weather systems on the go. A rainbow below us to the west, a heavy squall to the north over the rain forest, a brilliant sunny day on the south coast. The interior of the island is unbelieveably green. We saw wild looking plantations of nutmeg, bananas, papaya, cinnamon trees, lime and tangerine trees, lemon grass, turmeric plants and so many more I forget. Every 10 minutes or so, Cutty would stop the van, reach out and grab a handful of leaves and pass them around so we could smell and guess what they were. Incredibly pungent smells, just from the leaves.

We thought our stop in the rainforest might be a bit of a bust -- it was raining -- but as soon as the van stopped a monkey appeared as if on cue. Actually, it was on cue. Cutty has a good business relationship going with this particular monkey. He even has a name, "Loverboy," and as soon as Tara piped up and said "I've seen a monkey's willy!" we figured out why. Loverboy crawled around inside the van eating bananas for a while, then retreated to the side of the road to finish up. I'm glad he got out of the van -- in about 10 minutes, he scarfed four big bananas. Most of the banana he tucked in his cheek pouches, but he looked ready to pop by the time the last one disappeared. Then he ate an after-dinner mint, no kidding, Cutty passed it to him, he unwrapped it and down the hatch it goes, and then he headed back into the woods.

Concord Falls has a big pool at the base of the falls and we were hoping to swim, but there had been so much rain the falls were just pounding, and we were told it was "too rough." So we paid our $5 EC to go down the steps to the falls and we contented ourselves with crawling around the rocks and getting soaked with the spray. It's very beautiful. There are many falls around the island, and it's here that you actually get a look at the rocks that are holding up all this endless green foliage. One last lunch at the Creole Shack, bbqed chicken and ribs, rice and beans, pumpkin, scalloped potatoes, salad, beer and ice cream. An excellent day.

We plan to be a week or so in Carriacou, waiting for a new computer battery to arrive from St. George's, and, with luck, rounding up the rest of the sailing rig for the little boat. The last time we were here and bought the boat, Scraper said that he would find the mast and the rudder when we returned. Something about his son knowing where it was? Randy's headed ashore this afternoon to start the process. I'll probably have to tackle aforementioned gross jobs.

See below for the island tour photos.