A trip to Grenada

A Boat Ride, Snorkeling, and a Secluded Beach

We had met a man named Michael Sylvester the previous day at Coral Cove, who offered his services in taking us out to better snorkeling around a small island called "Hog Island" off the south coast of Grenada. We joined up with him and his helper around ten in the morning, and set off in his boat, one of the brightly painted, hand-crafted wooden boats that are traditional on the island. After a short ride, we anchored near the reefs, and went snorkeling off the boat. At first I was a little nervous (thought it was too deep to stand up in), but it turned out to be shallow enough. The snorkeling here was very good; the water was much clearer and the coral more varied than closer to shore. I stayed in the "I can get to someplace I can stand up within a minute" area, while Yvonne and Susan followed Michael out to deeper water and the ocean side of the reef, where Michael collected some additional fish with his speargun and lobsters to augment what he already had with him. As far as what I saw, there were lots of colorful fish, but the coral was relatively dull looking. There was a bit of dead coral also (as well as in Coral Cove), possibly related to an unusual storm surge the island had experienced a few months back. Afterwards, we made our way in to the south end of Hog Island, and chilled on the pretty beach while Michael and his helper started a fire and made lunch. They steamed lobsters and served the tails to us as an appetizer, and then used lobster parts and fish to make a bouillabaisse. We had that for the main course, served with plantains on the side. I really enjoyed having lunch made for us with fresh seafood and served on the beach! One of the things that was used to season the bouillabaisse was an octopus, which Yvonne and I sampled. For dessert we had slivers of a "boxfish", a fish with a hard skin that had been smoking on a rock next to the cookfire the entire time (you can see it in the picture of Michael Sylvester).

The boat we were snorkeling from Y & S in the water off the boat Click to see larger images

Michael Sylvester and the cookpot (note the boxfish) Click to see larger image

After more lounging, Yvonne and Michael went snorkeling to a nearby reef. The 50 foot wide channel separating the reef from the shallows near the beach didn't look like much standing up, but I found it intimidating while I was in the water, and ended up snorkeling around the rocky point (the one in the picture of Y and S coming around the corner) instead of following them. We took the long way on the boat ride back in, and got a nice look at the rocky coastline of the southern end of Grenada. Michael was a good fellow, although we had some qualms about his taking relatively large numbers of fish and small lobsters from the reefs, as well as the overall attitude towards trash on Hog Island (let's just say there's not the "pack it in, pack it out" mentality I'm used to). I don't think those problems are specific to him, but perhaps part of general environmental attitude in Grenada. (although there were a number of large "Don't Litter" signs on the main island)

This evening we went to a restaurant in St. George's called "Nutmeg's" for dinner. None of us had anything with nutmeg on it this time, though. :)

The boat anchored off the Hog Island beach	Yvonne and Susan return from around the corner	Approaching Hog Island (and Michael's helper)
Click images to see full-size versions

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