A Day in Grenada
Katarina
11 years old in the 6th grade.
I live on a boat called Escape Velocityand right now we are in Grenada.

As we've been traveling down the Intercoastal Waterway and through the Caribbean island chain, we have met a number of cruising families out doing the same as us - exploring their world and learning about other cultures. We met Katarina and her family in St. George's, Grenada shortly after we arrived. One of the highlights of her visit to Grenada was a tour of the island. Katarina was very enthusiastic about her day-long excursion and was thrilled to turn her adventure into a journal entry and podcast for us. Meet our cruising enthusiast, 11-year old, Katarina who's going to take you on a mathematical tour of three island factories.

Hi, my name is Katarina (Kat-a-ree-na) and I’m 11 years old in the 6th grade. I live on a boat called Escape Velocity and right now we are in Grenada. This is in the southern Caribbean near Trinidad. The other day I took a tour of the island with 24 other cruisers. We saw the nutmeg, rum, and chocolate factories. I had a good time. So Kim & David asked me to write about it. So, what I decided to do was tell you some about each place then in the end give you a math problem. The answers will be at the end. Well we might as well get started!

The Nutmeg Factory:
Our first stop was the Nutmeg Factory. It cost us $1(US) to get in. First we went into a room with about 20 old ladies all cracking open nutmeg nuts. After that we went up stairs to the room where they weigh the bags and put them in to units. Each unit had 38 bags in it and hung above it on a slate was the total weight and where the unit is going. Then we saw the room that had tons of stencils and lots of spray paint, that’s where they spray paint on the names of the places the nutmeg is going(I think that’s the best job). When we were done looking around our tour guide led us to a room that looked like…um…Ok, imagine your garage times 75. That’s how big it was! The room had lots of big trucks to ship the nutmeg from place to place.

Math Question: If 1 truck can take 8 units how many bags can each truck take?

The Chocolate Factory:
When we got to the Chocolate Factory I expected it to be big as or bigger than the Nutmeg Factory. It wasn’t. It was basically a house turned into a little business. To power all the machines they used 24 solar panels and to hold the power they used 18 batteries! In the company they make 2 different types of chocolate 71% and 60%. The % has to do with how much cocoa is in it. The more cocoa (the higher the percentage) the less sweet. In my opinion neither tasted good but I guess some people like sour chocolate.

Math Question: If each box of chocolate has 8 bars how many bars would be in 86 boxes?

The Rum Factory:
The first building our guide took us to was where they crush the sugarcane with a giant watermill. That was so cool! Then we learned they boil it to get the germs out. After that I saw the cutest little puppies and stopped to take a picture and missed the last 4 steps (Oops! you girls can relate).

Math Question: If the watermill crushes 27 pounds of sugarcane per hour how many pounds are crushed per day?

Here are the answers to my questions:
1. Nutmeg Factory: 304 bags
2. Chocolate Factory: 688 bars
3. Rum Factory: 648 pounds

I have to say good-bye now so I can go to a potluck at Clarke’s Court Marina. Ahhh….. I love the cruising life!
So I just hope some day you come out here and maybe I can meet you.