5 December 2011 Hog Island to Prickly Bay, Grenada
Hog Island is a lovely peaceful anchorage. It is almost completely landlocked and flat calm but still gets a breeze. No wonder that we stayed for months when we were here on Glencora fifteen years ago.
We went over for a chat with a yacht called “Lily Maid” wondering if it was the same people that we had met in Trinidad back in 1995. Amazingly it was – Mick, Alison with their children have been living on their yacht in the islands for over twenty years. Brett and Craig used to play with their son Ian who is now working on racing yachts in the Caribbean. These are the only people that we have seen from our cruising on Glencora many years ago.
We motored around to Prickly Bay, primarily to get rid of three big bags of rubbish that have accumulated over the past week. There’s nowhere to dispose of rubbish in Mount Hartman or Hog Island, which is a nuisance.
It was a very hot afternoon, so we lounged about. We went to happy hour at the bar with “Celebration”, “Mr Mac” and “Blackthorn Lady” and had pizza for dinner. It was great to catch up with them.
6 December 2011 Prickly Bay to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
The weather forecast for today was 10-15 knot SSE winds so we decided to take advantage of the wind direction and go to Carriacou for a bit of a break.
We had a great sail until we passed St Georges and then went into the wind shadow of the mountains of Grenada, so we motored for a couple of hours. I put out all three fishing lures and the birds. Near to the north end of Grenada, I hooked a big fish making the line scream out. I tried to be more careful, but again I put too much pressure on the reel clutch and the tension broke the 100lb test leader and it got away. It took my best lure which was a pity, but within 15 minutes, I’d hooked two nice 2lb Barracuda.
Once past the end of Grenada, we were able to sail again and went between the sisters and the Ile de Ronde where I caught another fish, this time a small bonito. The wind dropped off between Ile de Ronde and Tyrell Bay so we had to motor the last hour.
Tyrell Bay is already fairly crowded and we ended up anchoring quite a way from the beach next to an old ferry which is on a mooring, not the best place to be.
7 December 2011 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
Glenys wanted to post a parcel to her Mum containing some bits and pieces for Christmas, so we went into Hillsborough. It’s a quaint little town with lots of small shops and supermarkets selling an eclectic mixture of things. We found out that Immigration is open on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, but customs don’t know if they will be open or not. When Brett and Craig come over for Christmas, we’ll have to clear out and back into Carriacou, so we’ll have to avoid Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
We chilled out for the afternoon, reading, clarinet, swimming, etc. Rod and Mary from “Sheer Tenacity” came over for sun-downers and we caught up on the last few months. It sounds like they are planning to go up to the States next summer, so we spent a fair bit of time discussing each other’s plans.
8 December 2011 Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We dropped off our laundry went for a walk up Chapeau Carre. This is a pleasant two hour walk up to the top of the highest hill overlooking the bay. There is a fabulous view from up there. We have some hiking notes in the Caribbean Hikes section of this web site.
After lunch we went snorkelling on the headland to the south of the bay. There are some impressive sea cliffs which made me wish that I’d brought my rock climbing gear. The snorkelling was good with lots of boulders covered with coral and sponges, but there is a strong current which made it challenging.
We were invited by Derek to have dinner on “Buzzard”, which was very pleasant.
9 December 2011 Tyrell Bay to Sandy Island, Carriacou
It was a lovely morning with blue skies, fluffy clouds and light winds, so we decided to go to Saline Island on the east coast of Carriacou. We motored around the corner and anchored of the deserted island. It’s a lovely spot, but the current rips through the cut between the island and a long reef which is 50 metres away. The sea bed in the small bay shoals rapidly from twelve to two metres, but we managed to anchor in five metres. I wouldn’t feel comfortable spending the night unless it’s very calm.
We did some snorkelling, which was pleasant – we spotted a large octopus hiding in a small coral outcrop. The current really picked up after lunch, so we forgo any further swimming and decided to go around to Sandy Island for the night.
We had an enjoyable sail in the light winds and, for once, took the trouble to tack up wind rather than turning on the engine. Normally, we are just trying to get somewhere, but today felt more like a holiday, so we didn’t mind going slowly.
We picked up a mooring at Sandy Island – yachts aren’t allowed to anchor here anymore. There’s supposed to be an overnight charge for the use of the mooring, but I’ve heard that the Marine Park Authority doesn’t have a boat, so can’t collect the fees. We went snorkelling again – it’s much better to the north east end of the beach. I dived down to look at a coral head and spotted a sea horse, which was very exciting. They’re really hard to see. This one had algae growing on it and was covered in sand. I tried to get a good photograph of it, but it played coy and kept turning away from me.
Fish for dinner again – tonight it was Moroccan Barracuda Tagine – I’m looking forward to some meat tomorrow.
10 December 2011 Sandy Island to Petite St Vincent
We woke to another lovely morning with a 10-15 knot wind from the east, so we sailed to Petite Martinique. It was a cracking sail, tacking upwind in flat water. I took the opportunity to sort out the calibration of our wind gauge to give us consistent wind direction readings. At first, when we were hard on the wind, the gauge was showing 50° on one tack and 35° on the other tack. We found that the best angle for upwind without losing boat speed is just under 45°.
After lunch, we went ashore looking for cheap booze. Petite Martinique used to be a haven for smuggling with good prices on beer, wine and liquor, but it would seem that the customs and excise people have finally clamped down because the prices were the same as anywhere else in Grenada. We did manage to find a shop selling cheap Myers dark rum, so we bought a couple of bottles for Christmas.
The anchorage was a little rolly, so we motored over to Petite St Vincent (PSV), which is a small private island with a high-class holiday resort. It has beautiful beach with overhanging palm trees and the resort has an exclusive bar, so lots of charter boats come here.
This is the first time for months that we’ve encountered charter boats, who tend to be a little blasé about anchoring. They are fascinating to watch. We always carefully look for an open space, then pay our anchor chain out as we drift backwards in the wind making sure that the anchor is well dug in by reversing with the engine. Not charter boats, they roar in, dump their anchor & chain into a huge ball on the sea bed and crack open the beers, often ending up too close to other boats.
The big catamarans are the worst – these huge vessels arrive with a group of ten or more on board and tend to have loud parties in the evening. I got really annoyed with one catamaran that came and anchored close to the side of us blocking our view of the beach – I must relax more…
11 December 2011 Petite St Vincent to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou
We sailed around the windward side of Carriacou. The navigation is a little more complicated than normal, with reefs and shoal patches, but the wind is more consistent. There’s a four mile long reef that stretches along the eastern shoreline forming a very large lagoon. It has two or three entrances, but they look pretty scary in the crashing waves and the lagoon is very shallow, so we gave that a miss.
We anchored off Saline Island for lunch - again we were the only boat there. It’s a lovely spot, but the current is wicked. We tried to snorkel off the long reef, but the current was sweeping us away – it’s mostly broken coral and wasn’t very good anyway.
Later in the afternoon, we sailed to Tyrell Bay. Once again we had trouble finding a place to anchor because the anchorage is so crowded. We ended up anchored close to the ferry. In fact, we were too near and as the sun went down, we were veering too close for comfort – I hope that we don’t hit it during the night.