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American Spirit II - Day 438; We Go to the 7 Sisters Waterfalls and the Rally Prizegiving, Party and Dinner; Friday, March 20, 2015



One year ago today:



"Day 76; Bad Eggs, Hot , Dolphin Show & Another Time Zone; Thursday, March 20, 2014. Great night sleep, despite rock and roll of boat all night. Going downwind (and waves) has its disadvantages concerning boat motion. Sunrise cloud obstructed, again. Will we ever have a cloudless sunrise?"



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Another 'sleep in' day. We're all up around 8:30 AM.



Breakfast at 9:00 AM consists of eggs, potato and chilled peach halves.



The car rental company dropped off the car at 10:30 AM; and by 11:18 AM Joel, Heidi, Sigi from Merlyn of Poole and myself were off first to Budget Marine to return a part; then to the 7 Sisters Waterfalls. Along the way we stopped at a restaurant that had a 'Good Food' sign in front of it. I ordered a mutton lunch; Joel and Heidi had chicken; and Sigi had some sort of salad. Like we've had at other meals out, our chicken and mutton was cut using a meat cleaver, with the bones all cut up with the meat you're going to eat. Having the meals prepared this way makes it difficult to eat because eating the meat with a lot of broken up bones is a habit I haven't gotten used to yet. Its like eating fish with a lot of fish bones in it.



Driving thru the mountains on Grenada takes your full attention, especially in the rain. The driving is on the left side of the road, not the right like in America; and most of the road surfaces we were on were barely wide enough for two cars to pass each other. And the driving was one blind hair-pin turn after another. With an almost total lack of guardrail's. Isn't this fun?!



We followed a sign to 'Margaret Falls;' which led us to the Seven Sisters Waterfalls. We parked, emptied our pockets of our wallets and cell phones; and headed out with our guide, a young boy named 'Wayne' who obviously was skipping school to make money being a tour guide. Five minutes after starting the hike, which Wayne said would be 1/2 hour, it began to rain...torrentially. The hike to the falls was up and down hills coated with mud and red clay; but mostly it was down. If you've ever walked on wet mud or clay, you know that it can be as slippery as ice. Thankfully, there were bamboo steps along some of the steepest parts of the trail we were on. Just before we got to the falls we had to cross one stream. Once we arrived, Heidi and Sigi entered the water in their swim suits; Joel went hiking to the top of the falls for pictures; and I was left high and dry because my swim suit was in Joel's backpack which I now had no access to. After staying at the falls for maybe a half hour, we trekked back. The way to the falls was the 'slippery' experience; and the way back was the 'aerobic' experience. When we got back to the boat and talked with others who had made the same hike when it wasn't raining, we were met with stares of disbelief. Oh well.



On the way back to the boat we passed a sign that said we were at the highest point on Grenada, at 1,910 feet above sea level. Then we drove thru downtown St. George's, the capital; a city of 35,000. Traffic was awful. Not sure if it was because of 2 cruise ships in town; rush hour; school kids out of school; or that almost every street is one way; etc. We stopped at one light, the second car in line, for 5-10 minutes before a police officer waved us thru. The cop was just incompetent; and the driver in the car ahead of me just sat there like he or she was a piece of petrified wood whenever our light turned green, which it did once per minute for 5 seconds.



By 4:55 PM we were back at the boat, had coffee, then off to the showers. Even the showers were backed up, with 4 people ahead of us competing for 3 showers.



At 6:30 PM we had a Rally party. Free drinks, followed by the Minister of Culture and Heritage giving a rather lengthy speech; and then dinner. Our tables were set up under 2 large tents by the pool. It was very nicely done. During dinner prize giving was done, with I think every boat getting a prize for something. We ended up getting a bottle of rum for being in second place in our division. Civetta II was first. Of course, there were only 2 boats in our division from Fortaleza to Grenada. A good time was held by all.



Brian Fox


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