It’s Lobster Season

After getting back to the marina, Anna Marie and I were able to successfully repair the domestic water pump. It took me about four hours and four gallons of sweat to remove the pump, install the new brushes, and re-install it.

After taking off the pump cover, I realized that I could have changed the brushes without removing the pump from the engine room. That would have saved me about three and a half hours of time and an equal amount of sweat. Live and learn. The good thing about the whole exercise was that we had spare brushes and that is all that was needed to get her working again. I’m sure it would have taken us a week or more to receive a new one if we were unable to fix it ourselves.

Domestic water pump. The old brushes are in the right side of the cardboard box.

After cleaning up, we headed to the marina pool and soaked until our bodies were significantly water wrinkled. On our way, we were solicited by a couple gentleman asking us if we wanted some lobster. The season opened on September 1. Anna Marie and I looked at each other and nodded a resounding yes after finding out that they were about $5.00 US a pound.

I cleaned them on the dock and we put them on the grill. They were absolutely delicious, but we managed to make a mess of the cockpit. We are going to have to have them more often to establish neater eating protocols…

Delicious

The next day we gave the boat a good cleaning and headed back out to Dragon Bay the day after.

Sunset at Dragon Bay

The next morning we dinghied to shore and headed out on foot to do some exploring. We walked from Dragon Bay to Happy Hill.

Billboard needs some attention

Some of the houses in the area were quite nice

So pretty

Everybody happy in Happy Hill

The goodies we purchased here made us very happy

We moved from Dragon Bay over to Prickly Bay to get some new scenery and experience what the area offered.

Prickly Bay – Grenada

We anchored here for a number of days. We were able to dinghy into the Prickly Bay Marina where they have a nice outdoor Tiki Bar and restaurant, a small market, and a butcher. There are yoga classes two times a week and Bingo on Wednesday nights. Most of the prizes are cash prizes, but some of them range from a “do-it-yourself” douche to a live hog. The cost for a card is $25 EC (about $10 US) and the cash prizes range from $25 EC to $300 EC. The night we played, a nice young couple from England that we have become friendly with won a very welcomed $300 EC prize.

Anna Marie, myself, Daisy, Simon, and Holly (L – R)

The marina restaurant also has the most unusual (to me) urinal. You go on the ceramic tile wall and a stream of water occasionally flows down the wall to rinse things and send it all down the drain. During busy periods, the water flows constantly.

The wall of pee

A recent Sunday morning, Anna Marie and I took a bus over to St. George’s looking for a church. These buses are really vans that are operated by independent drivers that travel designated routes. They also can drop you at specific locations for additional fees. A bus ride is $2.50 EC, Monday through Saturday (less than $1.00 US) and $3.00 EC on Sundays. We got off at a stop not too far from a Roman Catholic Church, and a man on the bus, Paul, insisted on walking with us to show us exactly where it was. He claimed that this is what he does on a regular basis. He helps tourists in the name of Jesus.

Paul took Anna Marie and I on a very brisk walk up some very steep hills to the church.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception

Mass was over by the time we got there, so we stayed for a little while and prayed until they had to lock up. When I noticed that Paul had remained in the back of the church while we were there, I started to get the feeling that his assistance was not going to be rewarded by Jesus alone.