First Full Day in Grenada -Burgers, Cruising Friends and Art Fabric

Grenada is technically out of the "hurricane zone".  Many boat insurance companies require cruisers to be out of the "zone" so Grenada and Trini (and to a lesser extent the ABS's) become big hubs for cruisers during hurricane season.   Basically everyone is here!  The morning cruisers net is a doozy!!

Friday, June 6th we joined s/v Endofin II and s/v Somewhere for "Build-a-Burger" Friday lunch at Merry Bakery.  Now normally if you order a hamburger in the islands, you get what you deserve as it is far better to order the standard fare roti vs a hamburger.  However, we had heard good reports so we went.  Nice big burgers made up just the way you like them by....you!  Yummy indeed!  When we walked up Renee and Stacey from s/v Pipe Muh Bligh were there.  We first met them in Antigua.  Hugs all around.  We also had a chance to meet some of the cruisers from the St Georges anchorage.

After lunch Tom and I set out to explore.  Several seasoned cruisers we've met have items from Art Fabric.  Truly unique pieces of batik art.  To quote the Doyle cruising guide "The shop is a riot of colorful batik fabrics, clothing, and household items."  This is putting it mildly.  It is nothing short of spectacular.  We took a tour upstairs from the shop and saw first hand how they create the amazing batik fabric designs.  Each step in the process is done with the end result in mind.  In other words, the artist has to work backwards from idea of the finished piece in her mind.  Then we went back downstairs to the shop with a completely new view of the items there.  Each piece in the store is truly a one of a kind piece of artwork.  Needless to say, it was a budget busting stop but so worth it.  FYI- the woman in the glasses sailed into Grenada 23+ years ago and never left.  Careful cruisers how long you keep the hook down in one place!

One of the Batik artist at work on a free style piece

The tools - hot plate, boiling water, hot wax and various tools to apply the wax

Molly, I took this one for you - awesome

So detailed and beautiful

Wonderful layers of color

Dyeing and boiling courtyard

20+ years as master of boiling and dyeing and he has never burned himself

Pieces ready for boiling

Round green/gray cakes are recycled wax ready to go again

We also stumble onto the Grenada National Museum.  I had read that they often have events on Friday evenings.  The nice man at the info desk said yes, they have events every first Friday of the month.  Friday, June 6th - BINGO.  He said there would be an American jazz artist playing from 5:30 - 7:30.  Double Bingo!!  We are there.

It doesn't get any fresher than this

By this point we were thirsty so we headed off towards the local market in search of coconut water.  The streets were a buzz with uniformed school kids, parents and people doing their errands.  We found the coconut water but unfortunately it wasn't cold.  We roamed through the ACE Hardware (ACE is fairly big in the islands) to be sure there wasn't anything vital we needed and then hiked up the steep hill and back down to our dinghy on the wharf and back out to s/v Honey Ryder somewhat exhausted.