I've finally downloaded the Weebly app to use on my phone as I can (usually) get a much better signal on that than the laptop.
I'm not quite sure how this will look so please bare with it if it's very different! At the mo I'm having difficulty with pictures so I'm afraid its plin text until I can amend it!
I'm not quite sure how this will look so please bare with it if it's very different! At the mo I'm having difficulty with pictures so I'm afraid its plin text until I can amend it!
Well, we’ve finally made it and are now at the island of Carriacou, an island part of Granada lying about 20miles to the north.
Grenada is part of the Windward Isles and, oh boy, have they lived up to its name recently!! The trade winds here are north-easterly winds and as Carriacou, the rest of the Grenadines, St Vincent, St Lucia and Martinique lay to the north-east, this means a “windward” sail, ie sailing into the wind. Not easy on any boat but Moontide does not sail well “close-hauled” and we have to sail about 60* off the wind or over a short distance put the motor and bash through!! Obviously, this is not the most comfortable way of travelling and it is better if the winds are fairly light and the seas fairly small.
We had been looking to leave for a couple of weeks but quite strong winds were forecast with biggish seas on all but a few days – always days when we weren’t quite ready or needed to go shopping etc!!
We had been looking to leave for a couple of weeks but quite strong winds were forecast with biggish seas on all but a few days – always days when we weren’t quite ready or needed to go shopping etc!!
We decided to try to leave on Sunday 26th and on the Friday before we went over to the music night at the Tikki bar where a local steel band was playing. one of our fellow cruisers who has been in Grenada for quite a while joined in - you can just see her in a very pale green t-shirt
Eventually we set off early on Sunday 26th with the hope of arriving in Carriacou by that evening. Although the winds were quite light there were several rain squalls and the sea started to pick up slowing us right down and making it difficult to arrive in daylight. So, a few miles north of St Georges we decided to look for a bolt-hole and looking at the charts we found a lovely bay that we had passed a few miles back – Grand Mal Bay. We turned around and headed for the bay where there were about 6 mooring buoys. We picked one up and settled down to enjoy the afternoon and evening. A radio net is run in Grenada for the cruisers and always provides a good weather forecast. Luckily, we were still in range and the next morning realised that our weather window had been and gone!! Still, it didn’t matter, it was lovely there and we stayed there in the bay for a few days.
After a while we decided to go back to St George to get some shopping so on Thursday we set off and anchored up in St Georges Bay. The anchorage was rather bouncy and in fact we did not go ashore until Saturday. (Luckily for me we were able to then as it was my birthday and we had run out of booze!) Re-stocked and with lighter winds forecast, we made the decision to leave the next day.
On Sunday, we upped anchor at around 8.30 and set off motor-sailing. The winds were lighter but rather gusty and at first I was really very apprehensive about it all. Chris upped the revs on the engine and we bashed on through with him helming nearly all the way as it was quite hard going and I don’t think I could have coped.
We made good time though and arrived in Tyrrell Bay Carriacou at around 4.30 which gave us plenty of time to anchor in the light. Unfortunately, there seems to be something wrong with our anchor winch motor and so we have anchored well away from other boats and a fair distance out as it may take us some time to lift the anchor when we want to leave!
On Monday we rested – well deserved for Chris, I must say.