August brings excitement for us. Our younger daughter, Michelle, is flying to Grenada to be with us from August 3 through 13. She teaches nursing at the Kearney campus of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her fall term starts as she returns home. She arrived on time with all of her luggage in the evening of Tuesday, August 3rd. On the 4th, we took her to St. George on the bus to eat at our favorite restaurant in Grenada, if not the whole world, Flag Restaurant, run by Sichuan Chinese. Even after living in Hong Kong and China for months, we still think this may be the best place in the known Universe. Most of the staff can’t speak English, but one, a delightful young lady named Li Song-Song speaks English very well and translates for us. After dinner, we walked on through the Stendall Tunnel to the big open-air market so Michelle could take in the experience. She bought lots of spices, herbals, some clothes, and enjoyed visiting with the stall proprietors.
On August 5th, we all joined one of the commercial island tours so Michelle could see the rain forest, the spice plantations, the rum distillery, the spice processing plant, and island scenery, the same tour we had taken in June. On August 6th, I made Joan and Michelle visit in the boat while I studied grain markets and made another incremental sale of 2010 crops -- crazy marketing year. Later, I took Michelle on the nearby forest trail through part of the Grenada Dove preserve. We crossed over the bridge to Hogg Island for an additional walk there. We returned to the boat, showered, and got ready for another outing to the town of Gouyave (pronounced “gwav” with a long “A”). This is a small town on the north coast that claims to be the fishing capitol of Grenada. Every Friday night, they close off about a half mile of downtown streets. Vendors set up booths and serve every kind of Caribbean fish and shellfish imaginable, along with side dishes. It’s quite informal. What you buy is wrapped up in a scrap of paper or in a dixie cup and you eat as you stroll to the next booth. It’s also quite cheap. It’s all delicious and I only regret I can’t hold as much food as in my youth.
On Saturday, the 7th, we made an attempt to go snorkeling with Dive Grenada on the southwest shore. There was a squally storm with a wind reversal and they cancelled their trip, so we went back to our bay and took the dinghy towards the mouth of the bay where the water is mostly clean and took Michelle snorkeling here. At this point, the surviving reef critters looked a little better. The new corals were growing and the tang and parrotfish had grazed down lots of the invasive seaweed.
On Sunday, the 8th, we hired a taxi for the afternoon for a private tour. We wanted to show Michelle Belmont Estate, where they grow cocoa trees and process the beans. By the way, they are also certified organic and have a number of vegetable gardens for supply their restaurant, with the excess going to the St. George market. Later in the day, we drove to the north end of Grenada to Sauteurs Bay, and the site of Carib’s Leap. It was here on a 100 foot cliff that the last Carib Indians chose to commit suicide by jumping off the cliff rather than be enslaved by the French occupiers. From this cliff, you can look north over the patch of sea where Kick-em Jenny is erupting. Beyond this lies the islands of Carriacou, Union, Mayreu, and Petit St. Vincent. On a very clear day, you could see all the way to St. Vincent.
On Monday the 9th, we gave Michelle a very long dinghy ride. From Clark’s Court Bay, it is possible to reach the Hogg Island anchorage, Hartman Bay, and Petit Calivigny Bay, all without going out to sea. The mouths of these bays all lie protected behind the great fringing reef of Grenada. Even in death, the reef still protects the inner bays. We had a real naturalist’s day, cutting the engine at times and paddling right into the mangroves to watch and photograph herons and egrets.
On Tuesday, the 10th, Joan and Michelle took a taxi downtown to see the parade that culminates the last days of annual Carnival. They got pretty good spots to watch and photograph the people and their costumes. I’m a real old scrooge and stayed home to take care of grain contracts and irrigation fuel bills.
On Wednesday, the 11th, we all took the bus to St. George. First, we stopped at the Lagoon and walked to a grocery, where Michelle bought a supply of Grenada hot sauce (it’s made with Scotch Bonnet peppers and is about the hottest in the world. A dried Scotch Bonnet is a Habernero.) Next, we caught another bus toward downtown, where we ate again at Flag Restaurant. Superlative! After dinner, we walked on through the tunnel to the downtown market where Michelle finished buying her souvenir spices and flavorings. After we returned home, we finished the day with another snorkel near the mouth of our bay.
On Thursday, the 12th, I took Michelle for another long walk through the Grenada Dove preserve, showing her different parts accessible by the trails. I finally got to show her the endangered dove this time, too. It’s such an eery feeling to spot an animal that looks so ordinary at the time, but is so exceedingly rare and precious. As I stated earlier, there are estimated to be fewer than 100 individuals left on Earth. This little nature preserve is their last refuge. Since I walk in this forest all of the time, I see them frequently. Anyway, after our walk, I took the dinghy to Woburn for carry-out roti again. For the rest of the day, Michelle snorkeled near the marina and I took care of farm business.
On Friday, the 13th, Michelle’s last day with us, we took her along on our regular Friday shopping trip to the IGA at Grande Anse. For lunch, we took her by dinghy over to Petit Calivigny Bay to a restaurant in Le Phare Bleu Marina. During the afternoon, she packed for her trip home. On the morning of the 14th, we all went by taxi back to the airport to send Michelle home again. Lovely time.
With the sudden vacuum left by Michelle’s departure, Joan became a little maudlin. To me, it seemed a bit excessive. Within a couple of days, we realized Joan was sick. Meanwhile, phone calls from Michelle revealed that she was sick as well. Checking symptoms on WebMD plus a doctor’s visit reveal that both Michelle and Joan had likely contracted Dengue Fever, probably on the day they went downtown to watch the Carnival parade. While it can be seriously life threatening, it’s usually not so during the first episode. In general, each time you get it, it’s more severe. Death usually results from bursting capillaries and internal bleeding. Joan and Michelle were overtly sick with flu-like symptoms, along with some extremity pain (amongst natives of the Caribbean, Dengue is also known as “Break-Bone Fever”, due to the extreme bone and joint pain) for a couple of weeks or so. Following this period, they felt pretty good but tired rapidly after attempting any activity at all. Back home, Michelle had to skip her first week of teaching. Here in Grenada, I did most of the cooking and housework, and Joan couldn’t even go out for Friday shopping with me for two weeks. Gradually, they got better. Michelle went back to the campus and her job. Joan went back to her usual boat activities and outings.
During all of this activity, I’m watching the weather, every day, sometimes hourly. This is the peak of the hurricane season. All the time, throughout the year, low pressure waves form in the tropics, above or below the equator, and flow as a band or conveyor belt around the world. This will be hard for my friends from the mid-latitudes to grasp, but at these latitudes, we don’t have “highs”. All we ever have are “lows” or the interval between lows. Nearly all of the lows are linear. They don’t spin counterclockwise. They’re referred to as low pressure waves or ridges. As the barometric pressure goes down, they may attain the status of low pressure troughs. Within them, you’d find squally winds and heavy rain. As they pass over the western coast of Africa, they generally continue on as they are. If the sea is very warm, above 83˚ F, and atmospheric conditions offer subdued vertical shear, these systems may begin to rotate and strengthen and are termed “tropical depressions”. When the embedded winds reach 34 knots, the NOAA National Hurricane Center in Miami designates them a Tropical Storm gives them a name, and they become a “named storm”. This is already serious for us because our hull insurance deductible doubles for claims of damage by a named storm. However, once at tropical storm status, these storms often continue to harvest energy from the over-warm ocean below and increase to hurricane strength. If at sea, we might possibly survive a Category I hurricane. Anything stronger than this will surely sink our boat and kill us. This is why we spend part of each day studying the weather. It’s also why we’re berthed in the headwaters of a sheltered bay. We take it deadly serious. Being in Grenada, we actually pray that the storms will spin up soon after leaving the African Continent. Once they’re spinning, another natural phenomenon, Coriolis Effect, will inevitably cause the spinning or cyclonic storms to veer to the right as they proceed west. This takes them further and further from our latitude. The further west they begin to go cyclonic, the higher the odds that they may strike Grenada. So far, it hasn’t happened. We have experienced two tropical depressions attempt to turn cyclonic while they were directly over us. It’s caused lots of squally wind and heavy rain, but no life- or boat-threatening conditions. Some time during October through December, the conveyor belt moves south, the sea cools down, and the season ends.
Joan’s overt illness from Dengue Fever lasted for the rest of August. As a consequence, we stayed close to home. I took the opportunity to write numerous letters to friends and get to a few more boat jobs. The engine coolant cap started leaking. I found a replacement. I bought nylon strap and hand-sewed a custom-fitted hoisting harness for our new dinghy outboard motor. I added 3 feet of 3/8ths chain to the dinghy anchor rode and spliced in a new eye. I patched a leaking fender.
On August 30th, Hurricane Earle, by now a category III, runs over Antigua, Barbuda, St. Maarten, part of the British Virgins and the US Virgins, leaving the first substantial damage of the year in the Lesser Antilles.
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