We visited St. George's, the capital of Grenada, again last week and climbed to the top of Fort George. A beautiful view of the bay and city unfolds from there. We also saw the basketball court at the fort where the prime minister of Grenada, Maurice Bishop, was executed in 1983, during events leading up to the U.S. invasion.
Later, we took a bus tour of the island with other cruisers, from Cuddy's Taxi and Tours. We had a great time, even with the cloudy skies all day. We had several nature lessons, where Cuddy stopped to find samples of different herbs by the roadside (mace, nutmeg, allspice, lemongrass, saffron) for us to sample in their natural state. We toured a cocoa factory and a rum factory, and saw Annandale Falls.



The rum factory can only be described as Dickensian - it is still operating using 18th/19th century tools, cauldrons, a water wheel, vats, and wood-fired furnace. After seeing the vats of rum bubbling in open vats, even the most devoted rum drinkers in our group had second thoughts about drinking what came from these vats, with bats flying around, and flies everywhere.

At Annandale Falls, we met young men who leaped down into the pool for us to photograph them (and then asked for donations, natch). It appeared that this was their job.

On Friday, July 11, we took a bus from Prickly Bay up to the capital city, St. George's in Grenada, a short trip. It's a lovely Caribbean capital city, with lots to see. We will need another trip to see it all. It's got the ubiquitous fort overlooking the bay, a museum, and each street has many things to see. In the first photo, of the Carenage in St. George's harbor, you can see the cathedral with no roof on the skyline, we think from hurricane damage. You can also see hurricane damage in the roof of this old Parliament building (no longer used). They have done a remarkable job of restoration after the damage done during Hurricane Ivan in 2004, but you can still see many roofs blown off, especially on the historic buildings.
The streets of St. George's are steep - many do not have motorized traffic, only steps, and many others rival San Francisco in their climb. The views from the top are wonderful, though.

While in Carriacou, which is an island in the far southern Grenadines and actually a part of Grenada, Deb got the sewing machine out again and finished the lee cloths for the cockpit and some other repairs. Carriacou is about the sleepiest little island we have been to, not much going on there, but we could go running in Tyrrel Bay and swim around the boat.
From Carriacou we sailed south to Prickly Bay, Grenada, and we really like it here. It's a great cruiser community with a VHF net every morning, and several protected bays on the south coast. We'll stay here and take some buses around the island for a few weeks and then move on to Venezuela.

While in St. Lucia, we took a bus up to the Sulphur Springs and saw the active steam vents and bubbling cauldrons. We also soaked in the sulphur springs pool, very warm waters that we eased into. It is supposed to be good for the skin.
We sailed south and bypassed the island of St. Vincent, with all the reports about boat boardings and some violence in Chateaubelair in the last year. We sailed into Bequia, in the Grenadines. We stayed there a little over a week, until the wind came down a bit.