Grenada & Carriacou

Grenada consists of three Islands : Grenada itself, often called the Spice Island, Carriacou 40 miles to the north, and Petit Martinique, 4 miles to the east of Carriacou. During the past month, we were lucky to be joined by Kate, taking time to chill out before starting her new job, and to checking up on her old folk, to see how they are adjusting to this new cruising lifestyle. We moved around in a respectably slow and leisurely way, doing our best to show her some of the sights and delights of Grenada. We anchored in Prickly Bay for a few days, before going round to Hog Island for a few more days, and where we went to Rogers Sunday Beach braai and opskop. We then returned to a different ancorage area in Prickly Bay, and found ourselves anchored next to Klaus on"Ti Bay", (the cat that wiped out half our Hout Bay Marina in a big blow). We then went round to St Georges, anchoring outside the harbour entrance and visited the markets, yacht club, and shops by dinghy. We treated ourselves to a couple of days of real luxuary at Port Louis Marina,( which I had seen in June 2008, when asked to help sail the 76ft Zephiro to Sardinia from Grenada),and where we watched England murder Australia in the T20 final.

We then sailed up to Tyrrell bay in Carriacou, where we spent a full week. What a lovely place! Simple and unspoilt. About 7000 people live on the island, but there are about 20-30 000 living in England, and a further 15 000 in New York. A number of these folk return to Carriacou when they retire, and build impressive mansions alongside the little dwelling where they were born/brought up. Martin, (or should we call him by his Island name Bramble?) took us for a tour of the Island, which took a whole three hours, including the hour for lunch in a liitle local restuarant in Hillsborough! The Islanders are a proud and industrious people, involved in farming ,fishing, boat building or tourism activities. Crime seems not to exist there. We came across a few really intersting Island Names .... Sexy Romantic Venus, was one belonging to an eldery, toothless, fruit seller! "Warrior",was another belonging to the little old oyster seller, who would demand a beer or rum, before trying to sell oysters.Afterwards, he would then ask for another, to "seal the deal"! The only battle he was ever involved in was rowing back to shore after his evening selling session.

The water there is crystal clear, warm and inviting, and hourly swims were the norm to cool down. We went to the legendary little Lambi Queen restuarant, where we tried Curried Lambi ( Conch shell), Lobster & fish. All too soon we had to sail the 35 miles back to St Georges, so that Kate could catch her plane back to the Real World. It was a good brisk sail and we got there 6 hours later, just as the Rainy season arrived with a vengeance! We checked in to Port Louis again, which was just as well. Trying to negotiate getting Kate, her luggage and her Mom, from the anchorage to the airport, via dinghy, in a tropical downpour would simply not have been possible!

Even walking the 100mts from the mooring to the Taxi was a wet affair.

So now its Derby and Joan again.Meanwhile, we are waiting for a replacement Raymarine Chartplotter, as our brand new one seems to have a Page Button problem. Budget marine were the suppliers, so we are hoping that the Trinidad Installer, will arrange for a replacement swap via the Budget Marine in Prickly bay.When I placed the original order, it took 4 days to reach me from the US. So far its been 6 days and counting since we reported the problem... Will let you know what transpires !