Still in Grenada… 03/09/2021

Apologies for not posting anything for quite a while. Not a lot has happened, we are still here, anchored comfortably in Prickly Bay and awaiting the metalwork that should have been done by now. Caribbean time – things tend to take a lot longer than promised here!

One negative thing that has happened is a tightening of Covid rules. Until two weeks ago, the curfew was 11pm, which meant that it didn’t really disrupt things. No problem to go out and eat and have a couple of drinks. And it was lightly applied – places were open past 10:30pm.

Firstly, the curfew was moved to 9pm. Irritating, but at least places could be open – although clearly they felt under threat and were calling last drink orders at about 7:45pm so staff could get home before the cutoff. Then last Saturday restaurants and bars were shut altogether. There had been a spike in cases, to about 100 out of a population of 110,000 – very low by most countries’ standards. The authorities clearly feared the start of a serious spike, and were right – 2 days ago there were 278 new cases. (Between May and July there had been zero new cases, so this is a real change). It’s hard to see why restaurants should shut – eating here is invariably out of doors, and there is no evidence that restaurants have been responsible for new cases. The cause was a few large parties, held in contravention of the rules. 

One reason why the authorities are worried is that vaccine take-up has been poor. Grenada started vaccinating early this year and has not had any supply problems. Along with Antigua, they were happily vaccinating foreign yachts people, free of charge. However, only 24% of the adult population has had one jab, and only 17% is double-vaccinated. This very low take-up is the result of disinformation, multiple conspiracy theories, as well as younger people seeing the vaccine as unnecessary. 

So now the country doesn’t look good as a tourist destination – rather unfortunate when your biggest industry by far is tourism. People were already suffering: unemployment, over 20% before Covid, has risen sharply. Those in formal jobs get some government assistance. Those in the informal sector – fruit and vegetable sellers for example – get nothing. It’s all a mess.

On that bright note, I can say that I’m happily going to the beach every day. The weather has been good, except today, when it absolutely poured with rain for almost an hour in the late afternoon. I got drenched going from the beach to the supermarket. In fact, I was so drenched that I was refused entry to the supermarket! This was very funny – I had to stand outside for 20 minutes sort of drip drying before they would let me in! And then it was freezing inside because of fridge and freezer units and my wet clothing. It was the first time I have felt cold for months…