Tuesday, July 28, 2020

St. George’s, Grenada

Port Louis Marina

12.02.608 N

61.44.986 W

Happy Birthday Savannah!

We talked with one of our children this evening and were reminded that we left off our blog as a “hurricane” was taking a bead on Grenada and hadn’t posted anything since.  We’re fine and we do appreciate the concern, so this is how it went. 

I think the last time I posted, I had forgotten to tell you how I was becoming disparate to find a birthday present for Savannah to open.  I felt terrible that her Mom hadn’t been able to find a flight to Grenada as the airport is still closed, so she was celebrating a birthday away from home, no friends her own age and unless I could find something for her to open, no presents.  Islanders don’t celebrate their “name day” with presents. 

At one point, Gerry, Nicky, Gene, Renee, Dale and I had been out and about in a rental car on what could only be described as Mr. Toad’s wild ride.  The roads around the island are narrow.  The ones downtown are no wider, with cars parked along the sides with deep drainage ditches and speed bumps to liven your driving experience.  Renee had seen a toy store on one of her walks and was trying to guide us to it.  Except that most of the roads downtown are one way; up and down steep mountainsides and she wasn’t exactly sure where she saw it.  Gerry was driving and at one point said that now was not the time for sketchy brakes.  I have to admit, I closed my eyes a couple of times as I was sure we were going to hit pedestrians stepping out of store fronts into the streets without looking for traffic. After passing the same traffic cop at least 5 times, we gave up and made our way back to the marina empty handed. 

The next day, Nicky told me that she had picked up a Tshirt and little bracelet at the marina gift shop and suggested that I check there as well.  I did and found a little souvenir doll and Tshirt too.  OK, a couple of gifts to open. I had already checked at the marina restaurant regarding whether we could bring a birthday cake into the restaurant and were told that it needed to be brought in during the morning.  I had intended to make a simple sheet cake but Nicky started telling me about “butterfly cakes” a children’s staple in England.  How could you possibly have a little girl’s birthday party without “butterfly cakes”. 

Pinterest to the rescue.  They were adorable.  They were also made from scratch.  I’ve made cakes from scratch in the past that had resulted in something akin to adobe bricks so as I had already purchased a cake mix and ready made frosting, I figured I could just bake the cupcakes and use the frosting already purchased.  I spent that night making cupcakes; 6 at a time (as I only brought 1 cupcake tin), alternating editing the scavenger hunt Nicky had created and checking the latest updates on Gonzalo.  Still heading towards us but predicted to make a northerly turn as soon as it approached the 50^th longitude. 

Nicky & Savannah
How many stars?  How many stripes?

The next morning, everyone on the dock seemed to know that it was Savannah’s birthday and one and all came out to wish her a happy one as we walked in for our morning swim.  Kim on Dorothy Rose, offered to paint her nails and toenails for the party and Jen on Dragonfly gave me 2 different bags, a blouse and a couple of other items for her, that weren’t her teenaged daughter’s style but definitely Savannah’s.  I was thrilled that her birthday was going to be just fine with everyone making a fuss over her.

What are in the SOS boxes? 

After our swim, I sent Dale on an early morning trip to the grocery store for raspberry jam as the Pinterest butterfly cakes have a raspberry center in each of them.  Nicky dropped by to see how things were progressing and told me my butterfly cakes were OK and that she’d never heard of putting jam in the middle of them.  Well, too late now!  She also told me that the description of how to go about cutting the wings was not how she had remembered and told me of a simpler (and prettier) way of doing them.  Then I tried to frost them.  Its 90* here on a daily basis.  Today, I think it was closer to 95*.  Even in the air conditioning, the frosting was melting no matter how much I whipped it. I put it in the refrigerator to stiffen it up a bit.  I was quickly running out of time to get them to the restaurant before noon.  I frosted the cakes as fast as I possibly could, placed the wings in position and practically ran them up to the restaurant.  When I handed them over, I could see that the poor little wings were starting to droop in the heat already.  Nothing more to do at this point.

Find a plant with pink,
green & cream colored leaves

As word started coming in about boaters who decided to head south to Trinidad in spite of the warnings not to consider it a hurricane shelter were being detained, we turned our attention to the scavenger hunt next.  Nicky had done a wonderful job getting Savannah out and about all over the marina looking for flags, flowers, leaves, nuts, shells, names of dogs on various boats, items on boats or safety items on docks.  We had to question marina personnel, restaurant personnel, other boaters (everyone clued in on the activities) and even had math equations built in to some of the answers. 

Tie a bowline.

At one point, I thought Gerry was going to have conniption trying to get her to identify the flag of Great Britain.   She had said that it was London’s flag but she didn’t recognize that London was a city, not a country.  He was giving her all types of clues finally resorting to “where the Queen of England lives.”  I thought he was going to fall through the floor when she said in a castle!  Its been a long time since he’s had a little girl to reason with. 

What boat has a Texas flag on it?

That evening, with her Mom on the phone, we had our droopy butterfly cakes, sang Happy Birthday, knocked over the fancy spinning candle and opened up not 1 but 4 presents.  Renee and Gene on Texas Crewed found a necklace at the same marina gift shop as Nicky and I, and we had put all of Dragonfly’s donations in a bag as well.  I think it was a success all round as so many people had enjoyed being a part of the scavenger hunt. 

That evening the latest advisory indicated that Gonzalo was not turning north as predicted but heading straight for us; possibly a little south but still as a tropical storm. 

Saturday morning, much to our surprise, Gonzalo never did turn into a hurricane, never turned north as predicted but passed directly over Trinidad as a storm; much farther south than is normal.  Boats that had sought shelter there were directed to the anchorage on a small island that was previously used as a leper colony.  They were told not to leave their boats; could rest for 12 hours but then had to return from where they had come.  To date, I’ve not heard of anyone being fined or jailed. 

On Grenada though, the marina had put into place their hurricane plan which called for turning off the electricity at noon.  As no hurricane had arrived, everyone eased into the non-event thinking there was no need for any further preparations to take place.  That idea was mistaken.  The electricity was turned off as scheduled and wasn’t to be restored until the following day.  Needless to say, we’ve all become accustomed to our air conditioning and being in a marina didn’t allow one to turn into the wind for the cooling breezes felt at anchor.  There were those on the dock who were very vocal about the heated situation.  Thankfully by evening, electricity was restored and most of us had cooled interiors by the time we went to bed.  Unfortunately, those who were the most upset, didn’t notice the lights had turned back on prior to turning in for the night and were still squawking about spending a miserable night in the heat the next morning.  Karma!

Sunday morning we took a taxi to the local brewery who host a fresh market and craft sale.  Unfortunately, I hadn’t returned my wallet to my purse, and the crafters only took cash, so I was without mad money.  Dale had enough to buy the “I survived the Grenada Quarantine Harbor” Tshirts we had actually gone for.  Guess that means we’ll have to return on another Sunday for anything else Savannah and I might have found interesting.  While we were there, a couple with 2 little girls about Savannah’s age came in and suddenly there was excitement all around.  All the girls played while Dale and I got to talk with the parents, Saxon and Leia.  We exchanged telephone numbers and I see play dates in our future. 

The last couple of days have seen a return to our routine although today it rained most of the day so we entertained ourselves inside.  We’ve introduced Savannah to the Harry Potter movies.  Friday we plan on renting a minivan again so that the crews of Opal, Texas Crewed and we can do our project and grocery shopping around the island. 

Until next time . . .

So, after this quarantine, will the producers of “My 600-Pound Life” just find me or do I find them?