Month: July 2018

“Let’s go! Let’go! Let’s go!” That was Juan’s battle cry. “They are leaving!”

That was followed by a mad race to weigh anchor and push Ñandú as fast as she would go. The goal: catch one of the precious mooring buoys close to the Molinere Underwater Sculpture Park. We had kept a sharp eye on them with the binoculars after being sorely disappointed to find all the buoys taken.  Following some crazy maneuvering and a show of amazing seamanship skills we were the proud renters of a white ball.  We saw a competitor arrive a few minutes too late. We celebrated with a beer and a smug face.

After catching our breath we geared up and jumped into the water. It was colder than we expected and we were farther from the sculptures than we thought.

If you have been a faithful follower you will remember (or maybe not, depending on your age) The Musician, an underwater sculpture by Jason deCaires Taylor that left us in awe more than a year ago in The Bahamas. Well, in Grenada there are more than sixty pieces, most of them by him.

They are eerie, delightful, spooky and hard to find. I don’t think we saw them all. They are hidden on the sides of rocks, on serpentine gullies and sun-dappled sand patches. I’ll let the images speak for themselves.

It was a long way back to Ñandú. I was distrustful of the low water visibility and kept imagining a lovely aquatic predator touching my legs with the soundtrack of Jaws in the background. It was funny predator Juan keeping the journey interesting.

The island of Grenada is as far south as we intended to go before battening down and cowardly deserting Ñandú for the hurricane season. Only 75 miles from South America, this is far enough south to be considered outside the hurricane belt, but that doesn’t mean Grenada is entirely free of risk: Hurricane Ivan caused extensive damage in 2004.

Leaving the boat to its own resources for several month meant many days of you-know-what: boat work! Yay! Cleaning, removing all sails, stowing the dinghy inside the cockpit, getting rid of everything that could attract insects, and a long list of miscellaneous tasks left us with no time to explore this beautiful island, except for half a day around the capital, St. George’s. We expect to remedy that when we come back.

Grenada is know as the Spice Island. It is the second largest exporter of nutmeg (after Indonesia), but it grows and exports a variety of other spices as well. Grenada’s history starts with the usual suspects: Arawak and Caribs as first inhabitants, and then Spaniards claiming the island but letting the French and English fight for it. Independence came in 1974, and things got interesting five years later, with a communist revolution led by Maurice Bishop that overthrew an oppressive government. With strong ties to Cuba, Bishop improved medical care and education, but the lack of political freedom led to power struggles. 1983 saw more coups; Bishop arrested, freed by a mob, recaptured and executed; and a U.S.-led military invasion.

Human right violations and political assassinations during that turbulent period left wounds that polarized the public—in a way all too familiar to us, Chileans. In 2000 a high school research project about the fact that Bishop’s body was never found, caught the attention of the Miami Herald and ultimately led to the formation of a Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. Today it seems that Grenadians have found their truth and peace, and enjoy political and economic stability.