By Cheryl Cermak
About one month ago I traveled to the Grenadines in the eastern Caribbean. Three friends and I sailed the lesser Antillie Islands for six days. The islands are made of volcanic rock, one volcano is still active. Our approximate location was 12 degrees away from the equator=720 miles. We stayed on a beneteau sloop with a maximum speed of 8 knots/hr. The constellations are upside down and we never saw the moon rise.
I was introduced to many new foreign dishes such as conch stew, Cristophenes, rice boiled in coconut water, callaloo and fresh fruits like banana figs, passion fruits and kilims.
We sailed by a rain forest and rock shores where long ago the Carib natives tied people to rocks, let the tide drown them, then eat them. That’s where the word cannibal came from. Afternoons we’d deep sea fish. We caught a yellow finned tuna and Barracuda.
Early evenings snorkeling in the reefs was our favorite. A huge school of silverfish swam around us. Nurse sharks were supposed to inhabit the area but none were seen. We did get to see a ray, eel, flying garbles and many, many more fish. This area was filled with sea urchins, brain coral and fan coral. We would barter (trade) fish we caught with Rasta men for blocks of ice. Ice is hard to come by because refrigeration is not common down there. For dinner we had swordfish, tuna, lobster. New Zealand steak and beer brewed locally in Grenada. About every other night we had hurricane rain or wind.
So the snorkeling was world class, the view…..breathtaking, natives laid back, ice cream expensive and the experience, unforgettable.