7/10/01 | Hunting and gathering

catching fish

We're finally back in a country which allows spearfishing, so in Tyrrel Bay we unpacked our weaponry for some serious hunting. Of course, just because it's legal doesn't mean there are any fish. Unlike the Bahamas, Grenada allows the use of spear guns, but we just use our Bahamian-legal pole spear and Hawaiian sling. Also unlike the Bahamas, spearfishing with scuba gear is legal. So it's possible for someone with a spear gun and tank to really clean out an area, making it tougher for us little guys.

As it was, we little guys only got little fishes, but we got lots of them. Patrick and Theresa from Kajsa came with us out to the reefs around the corner from Tyrrel Bay, where we launched a serious multi-pronged assault on the sea life. The visibility wasn't very good, but once we got close enough to the big rock formations and corals they revealed themselves -- and the fishies hiding there. Between the three of us (Theresa didn't have a weapon so she did spotter duty, but I can tell she's hungering for a sharp pointy thing of her own) we got a mess of fish; mostly glasseye snapper, along with a Caesar grunt and two small mackerel. We hadn't had a big old fish fry with another boat since the Bahamas, and it was great to do it again.

catching two birds with one...lure?

Spearing, of course, isn't the only way to get fish, and we always drag a lure or two while underway. When we can make over five knots (which is most of the time in the tradewinds, unless we're hassling with wind shadows) we use "feathers", rubber lures which are supposed to look like squid or maybe just flash like fish. The idea is they're moving fast enough that the fish don't get a good look. When we're poking along at three or four knots, Britt swaps out the feathers for spoons (which are shiny like fish) or rappalas (which look like little fish).

The rappalas are so fish-like that they attract birds looking for a seafood meal. We've had lots of gulls and terns swoop down to take a close look, then veer off when they realize they've been had. We always figured that it was a good thing that birds are smarter than fish, or we'd be having gull stew instead of tuna steaks. Right?

As it turns out, not all birds are smarter than fish. We were trolling feathers -- not even rappalas! -- approaching Kick 'em Jenny, a rocky island infamous for "kicking up" big seas around it, and we started collecting a huge flock of brown birds that seemed awfully interested in one of our lures. Britt had rigged two lures in series on our port side line, and the birds were swooping down to inspect the second lure. First there were just a few birds, but they kept coming, and pretty soon several dozen were following us, dipping into the water by the lure and then flying back above it. We started getting worried we'd hook one, because none of them seemed to be figuring out they were chasing a bunch of strands of floppy rubber.

Unhappy boobies

Sure enough, after a little while we noticed a bird staying in the water about where our lure was. Britt rolled up a little more sail to slow the boat while I reeled in the line. That bird was fighting as much as any fish; I'd make some progress, then it would pull out a bunch of line. Finally I got it close by the side of the boat -- and we could see that there were two birds, tangled up in each other and in the fishing line. Britt put on heavy gloves (which he uses for unhooking barracuda and other toothy fish) and got the birds on the cockpit bench, evading their snapping beaks as best he could, then I held them down while he freed them from the line. One had gotten a hook through the webbing of one foot, but other than that they seemed uninjured but tired. He tossed them out of the cockpit, where they rested on the waves to gather strength for their next fishing expedition. Hopefully, they'll go after real fish this time.

Another cruiser identified these birds as boobies. No wonder they're called boobies -- they're even dumber than fish. At least, they're dumber than the fish around Kick 'em Jenny, because we arrived in St. George's, Grenada, fishless. (We did, however, catch our wind generator, again. Arrrgggh.)

catching waves

Kick 'em Jenny did kick 'em up, and we got tossed around a bit until we got clear. The weird current line was almost visible, as the seas rapidly changed from rolling to breaking. It's a good thing we were out on a "light wind, small seas" day -- I wouldn't want to see this place when things were rough!

We wanted to stop and do a scuba dive out at the Twin Sisters rocks, but the currents were even wilder by the rocks, making standing waves between them. There's really no place to anchor there, so after Kajsa, ahead of us, sent back a discouraging report, both boats turned in to Isle de Ronde. The anchorage there is rolly, but reasonable for a lunchtime stop. Supposedly there's a reef just south of the anchorage, but we couldn't find anything worth using our tanks for, so we all went snorkeling near Isle de Ronde's north end instead. The visibility wasn't great, the currents were strong, and there weren't many food fish, but there were some interesting formations and fish. We saw both a juvenile and a mature spotted drum, and (for the first time) a highhat, another unusually shaped fish.

catching up on shopping

In the morning, after an overnight in tiny, pictureseque Halifax Harbour, we came to St. George's. This is the capital of Grenada, but its real attraction for us was that there is a grocery store there with a dinghy dock. We were out of fish, out of eggs. Other than half an onion, two carrots, and a few bulbs of garlic, we were out of fresh vegetables. It's not that we were out of food -- we've still got cans, pasta, and dried beans -- but I think Britt would toss me overboard if I made him eat curried garbanzos more than once a week.

What a nice grocery store!  Air conditioned, clean, lots of food, and the red-shirted employees even wheel your cart to the dinghy dock and help you load all your goodies. It's the first store we've seen since St. Martin which sells fruits and vegetables, which is nice because it let me compare their fixed prices with what the street vendors charge. I had expected that the store would be cheaper than the vendors, but the prices actually varied all over the map. Green peppers were more expensive, mangoes cheaper. Some prices really threw me; eggplant was less than a dollar a pound (way cheap), spinach was a bit more than a dollar a pound (cheaper than lettuce, and surprisingly reasonable since I would think this climate's too hot to grow spinach), and eggs were $2.75 a dozen (way expensive). I declined to purchase Cheerios for $7 or a teeny jar of Skippy peanut butter for $5, but I did buy two 750 ml bottles of lime juice at about $2.50 each. Chicken wasn't too expensive, but the only cuts available were dark meat, legs and thighs. We've noticed that's what tends to be served in restaurants, too (at least the cheap ones we patronize). I guess the white meat all goes to the high-class resort hotel restaurants. Either that, or they have a special breed of Caribbean chicken here with lots of legs and no breast!

Sunset at Halifax Harbour, Grenada