CARRIACOU AND GRENADA

Carriacou and Grenada

We had beautiful sailing conditions heading from St Vincent and the Grenadines to Carriacou. We arrived just before sunset and instead of anchoring as planned in Tyrrel Bay we dropped anchor off Sandy Island. It looked too pretty to pass by, so we stayed! Sandy Island is a strip of sand in the ocean with palm trees and a beach and is surrounded by magnificent reefs. Tayne caught a fish, we braaied and watched the sunset with a few glasses of wine in the most beautiful, tranquil surroundings.

The beautiful Sandy Island, Carriacou

Tayne with his homemade sailboard

The next morning we sailed to Tyrrel Bay and Michaela and Tayne took the paddle boards around. They paddled for about 2 hours and it was beautifully calm and clear and they snorkeled along the way. We spent a week in Tyrrel Bay with the threat of a hurricane looming across the Atlantic, heading exactly in our direction. It was pretty scary, watching it's movement as it got closer. Everyone in the anchorage was talking about it and discussing what to do if it did reach us. There are mangroves next to the anchorage and Stephen and I took a dinghy ride there to see where we could hide. It wasn't very encouraging to see a few wrecked boats between the mangroves that had been left to die from previous hurricanes! We were contemplating heading for Grenada when, at the the very last minute, the tropical depression took a turn to the North and headed up the island chain. We were so relieved and the only effect we felt was a storm and a few hard rain showers. The depression eventually did form into Hurricane Bertha and caused some damage along the way.

We were in the predicted path of Hurricane Bertha

We had a good time in Tyrrel Bay with Les, Ron, John Perry and a few other cruisers we met on our travels. Stephen and I took a taxi ride to the neighbouring Hillsborough, a cute village, to do some shopping, we went to a Cruisers Pot Luck and were part of the festivities for the Carriacou Regatta. It is a busy anchorage with loads of yachts sitting out the hurricane season and lots happening on shore. We went back to Sandy Island and caught (sneaked) some huge crayfish and had a lovely lunch with Steven and Janet from s/v Lunacy.

Magnificent underwater life, Sandy Island

Lobster for lunch!

The Carriacou Regatta

We met up with Shaun from South Africa here on his yacht Kirha. He was also heading for Grenada on his little sailboat with no motor. When the weather cleared he left for Grenada with us so we could check on him along the way.

Shaun leaving Carriacou on Kirha

Kick 'em Jenny

There is an underwater volcano called Kick 'em Jenny between Carriacou and Grenada and there is a warning not to sail too close to it because dangerous gasses are released. Well, we should never have told Stephen that! There was lots of bird life around and the sea looked alive right at that spot......so we went right over it. Before we knew it we had something huge on the line and all hell broke loose.....a sailfish jumped into the air at the end of Tayne's line!! He fought it for about 20 minutes and eventually brought the 19kg sailfish on board with great excitement. It was huge and took up the entire length of the cockpit area. We took photos and celebrated and Stephen was so proud! Both the boys have now caught a Sailfish and Stephen has caught a Marlin. All good to catch this poor fish but the cleaning of the boat and the fish is another story altogether....

Tayne's Sailfish

It is 27 miles to Port Louis, Grenada and it took us 4 and a half hours and it took Shaun about 11 hours. He still hadn't arrived by sunset and we were getting worried and were so relieved when he called up on the radio. Stephen and Tayne went out on the dinghy to help him in as there was no wind and it's difficult to come into the anchorage with no motor.

We only spent 2 days in Grenada as we were in a hurry to get down to Trinidad to get our saloon cushions covered. There was a buyer interested in Katz and we needed to get the job done as soon as possible. The cost of covering the cushions was half the price in Trinidad and the material was available there.

Port Louis, Grenada

We met up with our SA friends Peter and Colleen Lubbe on s/v Madiba, got a few provisions and were on our way again. Shaun needed to collect his passport in Trinidad so he came along with us, leaving his boat in Grenada.

Raising the anchor in Port Lois and leaving for Trinidad

Before we left we were warned about pirating that has been taking place off the coast of Venezuela. Apparently armed locals in pirogues attack boats near the two oil platforms. We were very wary because we were traveling on our own so we had a plan in place! We made a fake gun with a broomstick and wood so that from far it would look like we were armed, we had our sjamboks from South Africa and we had our flare guns out, ready for action! We turned our AIS transmitting signal off so they couldn't pick us up, we took our sails down and took a wider route around the platforms. We were in stealth mode! It was really scary when we saw a pirogue coming from behind us out at sea. I was sleeping in the cabin and Stephen came to wake me up saying there is boat approaching and we need to be vigilant. Michaela scrambled to hide all our electronics and we all stood outside, showing our 'strength' and looking mean with our gun and binoculars. A pirogue with 5 guys came really close and had a good look at us and then went on their way. Just as we started breathing again about 20 minutes later, we looked on the AIS to see something in our path and another pirogue came towards us. Again Michaela hid everything and the boat just came past and waved. By the time a 3rd boat came towards us we realised these are probably only fishing boats just being inquisitive and coming close to us.....we hope!!!

The oil platforms off Venezuela

We were ready for the Pirates of the Caribbean!

A storm approaches

We were also heading into an almighty storm that turned black and purple in our path and we battoned down the hatches in preparation for it. But it seemed like King Neptune was on our side and we only got a few showers and saw the thunder and lightning in the distance. As land came into view we were welcomed by a huge pod of dolphins, it was as if they were saying, "It's all okay now!"

This is how close Trinidad (left) is to Venezuela (right)

Dolphins welcome us into Trini

We were very relieved when we finally got into Trinidad after 14 hours out at sea. We came into Chaguaramas as the sun was setting and battled to find a mooring buoy in the anchorage. We tried a few places and every time we tried to anchor someone would pop their heads out of their boats and have something to say. We were close to one boat and this skinny, grey, nude Frenchman started gesticulating and shouting.......who can take anyone seriously with their wobbly bits in your face??

Arriving in Chagaramas

Trying our best to anchor

After about an hour in the pitch dark a kind Trinidadian came over on his dinghy to say we should go on to an open dock at Coral Cove and sort it out in the morning. We were tired and hungry and just needed somewhere to put our boat for the night, so this was very welcome. We have found the Trini people to be the the kindest, friendliest and most helpful locals we have come across along the way.

Posted with Blogsy