The speed of time is different on land, period. We’ve been living in a Grenada house for a month and the daily/weekly sense of urgency we’ve known since 2019 is gone. Without the threat of storms, weather, other boats, emergencies…..I’m honestly grown complacent and I’m looking forward living in the water again next month and resume island hopping.
Anyway, that is my half-hearted apology to myself for not writing since July. Since then, we sailed to St Croix and then down to Grenada in order to beat our insurance deadline of August 15th. A ton has happened over the last 400 miles and several months but all good things. The most important is we because slightly better sailors and we’ve started tacking into the winds instead of motoring. The ride is amazingly smoother and fewer bad things happen. You can see the zig-zag lines from Puerto Rico; that’s us improving our skills! Of course the sail to Grenada was a single LOOONGG sail with much less effort thanks to favorable winds and calm-ish seas.
St Croix was pretty amazing and I wished I would have written while we were there so I could remember the details better. A few memories that stand out include hundreds of these “towers” that dot the hills on the island.
At first glance they looked military but after some investigation we learned they were old Dutch sugar mills. The Dutch built sugar mills in the late 1700’s to grind sugar cane using wind power. Here’s a good link to get more details.
The sheer number of huge iguanas also stand out in my fading memory. Huge.
St Croix is also where got immunized for Covid (required for entry into Grenada) at a Kmart of all places! Yes, St Croix is a LONG way from the continental United States but the US Dollar is their currency, no passport is needed for USA Citizens, they have a Home Depot and a Kmart. Of course they have hundreds of other noteworthy places to take your money, but not many WAREHOUSE FOOD DEPOTS! This place had everything except boat supplies.
Since St Croix is so far south of the other Virgin Islands, it typically receives fewer tourists and feels more like a community than a amusement park. Driving the car on the left side of the road is another charm of the island but we (Kendall) got used to it super quick.
We did some hiking, explored all the coasts and tried to learn as much we we could about St Croix. We also went to the most eastern place in the United States, did a lot of exploring and really had a great time.
While we were there I was convinced this place was my favorite and I wanted to live there someday. Until we got to Grenada….more to come!
Ocean Stray 