Living statues

From: St. George, Grenada
To: Gouyave, Grenada

COVID19 lockdown has reached Grenada. Gradually, every day a bit more, every day a bit tighter. First the masks appeared, and the gloves. Then the signs and hand sanitizer in every shop. And suddenly, shops limited the number of people that could go inside. In a place like St. George, that has supermarkets filled to the brim regularly, this leads to gigantic queues.

Now everyone was standing outside, talking and socializing. It completely defeats the purpose of the lockdown and it makes getting groceries an exasperating exercise in patience. I felt a change of scenery was long overdue too, so we sailed north to Gouyave.

We kept to the leeward(the side where the wind is blowing to) side of the island. The sea was flat as a lake with a light 10 to 18 knot breeze. Perfect sailing conditions!

On the way over, around noon, we passed Moliniere Point. I knew there was an underwater sculpture park somewhere. Then I spotted empty mooring balls. Although Barbara was hesitant — “Don’t you need a guide for this?” — I said: “I’m going to regret it if I don’t at least try to find the statues.”

Barbara grabbed a mooring ball while I tried to keep the boat in the same place. I dove in, in search of the park. After a short swim, I found some statues. Some of them are funny, some are quite eerie.

The park doubles as an artificial reef and keeps the tourists away from the real reefs. Very clever.

I swam back to the boat and took Andreas along on the body board. We made a bigger tour and discovered even more statues. Then I took Helder and Barbara with me. Mira first wanted to go too, but then she got scared when she had to look under water.

When I got out of the water, I noticed that the back of my legs, which were sort of luminous white until now, had turned angry red.

I forgot sunscreen. At noon. In the tropical sun.

Rookie mistake.

We sailed on to Gouyave, where we anchored in a large patch of sand in clear water, a little way from the village. Close to the shore, but very quiet.

By the evening, the back of my legs was an interesting shade of purple. I had my dinner standing up.