Day 1: Bright and early, Richard and Rosemary (R&R) pitched up at the Grenada Yacht Club to join us for a week’s cruise, having arrived in Grenada the afternoon before. In honour of their arrival, Follyfin had received a thorough clean; staples and beverages had been restocked; the cruising route planned. They kindly brought some essential supplies from UK (tea bags, ground coffee, grape nuts) and some non-essential (gin) but no less welcome.
As it is 8 years since they last sailed with us on a charter yacht in Croatia (and indeed 8 years since they sailed), a short 5 nm cruise up the west coast was planned for the first day. Follyfin slipped from her berth mid-morning heading north out of St George's Bay. Dropped anchor just south of Halifax Harbour for a swim and lunch but someone decided to create a smelly conflagration of tyres nearby on the coast, so we moved a short distance south to Beausejour Bay. Just finished lunch when a Marine Park Ranger vessel moved us on… apparently we had strayed into the ‘no anchoring’ zone. Undaunted, we then moved again, past Moliniere Point, and picked up a mooring buoy a little further south of Dragon Bay. Now settled for the night, R&R and F (the snorkelers) swam round into Dragon Bay in search of coral reefs, fish and (amazingly) an underwater sculpture park. This was created by Jason Decaires Taylor and is (apparently) world famous; it consists of 30-40 human figures standing in a circle looking outwards. It left the snorkelers a little underwhelmed since algae have hidden many of the facial features and folds of ‘clothing’. However a few ‘dead’ figures show more detail.
That first evening we were rewarded with a magnificent sunset.
Day 2: When they joined us, R&R expressed a wish for some sight seeing. Where better than the largest market in Grenada on a Saturday morning?
R bartering for spices; R ensuring she doesn't pay too much
After a swim, we had sailed back down to St. George's, anchored in the bay and then taken a long dinghy ride into the Carenage. Lunch soon followed the market visit, and was enjoyed overlooking the water at BB’s Crab Back (see previous post St George's) then R&R were sent off to climb up to Fort George, in the heat of the day of course, so they could appreciate the full experience of Grenadian sightseeing. Skipper and First Mate having seen it before (see previous post) decided to wait in the shade. That night we were serenaded to sleep by bands playing until 02:00 at an open-air concert (part of the Grenada Music Festival) on the shore near to our anchorage. Actually some quite nice music - jazz and blues - without too much audience participation, making for some pleasant sounds.
Day 3: After the previous two days’ gentle introduction, the time had come for a proper sail. Deckhand Herbert weighed the anchor at 06:15, full sail was set and Follyfin was off. Pointing south first, then turning east round the SW tip of the island, it was clear we would need to put in some tacks to achieve our goal of the SE tip: we faced a moderate head wind from the east but fortunately relatively low seas. R&R turned out to be very able seamen.
We had chosen Lascar Cove as our destination, mainly because it is quite remote and beyond the allowed range limit of charter yachts, the SE and E coast of the island being ringed with dangerous coral reefs and not well charted waters. Following the advice of the rather ancient pilot book, Follyfin entered the cove before 14:00 so that any reefs or protruding rocks just beneath the surface could be easily spotted in good time. Lookouts were posted on the foredeck and the anchor was dropped in 4 metres, when they deemed no danger was near. BUT once settled, we could see a reef, 0.5m from the surface, dangerously near the port side. So by dint of a couple of fenders, a floating line and the snorkelers, a stern anchor with 10m of chain was dropped away off the starboard quarter to hold Follyfin away from danger. Sorted! It was worth the trouble so we could spend the night in this delightful cove, where some local families were enjoying their Sunday afternoon.
No sooner than we were all settled, and the snorkelers returned to the boat, a young man came swimming out to us, shouting "fish, fish, we have fish, come, come" and inviting us to join their party on the beach. As you can see from the photos below, it was a unique experience. We had a great time.
That evening on board was very special: Follyfin gently bobbing at anchor, the only boat in the cove, protected by the reefs at the entrance, sundowners on deck, just the sound of the crickets on the shore and supper served up by the willing galley ‘slave’. A true Caribbean idyll!
Day 4: the plan was to sail on up the east coast as far as Grenville, the second largest town on Grenada after St George's. It is a mere 8 nm as the crow flies, but alas the crow has no sway over the wind when it comes to sailing boats. Both wind and swell were against us and by 12:30 it was clear we would not get to Grenville before 14:00 (in order to be able to see the reefs either side of the narrow entrance to the unmarked channel), let alone anchor up, dinghy ashore and still be in time for lunch. Discretion being the better part of valour, we turned around and headed into St. David's Harbour (see previous post) with its well marked channel and restaurant still serving lunch. Again there was just a handful of boats in there. The snorkelers, especially Richard, enjoyed rich pickings.
Treasures of the deep
Day 5: after a leisurely start, we made our way the short distance back along the coast to Le Phare Bleu Marina (with its resident light ship, see previous post) for a little luxury before negotiating the 90-mile overnight passage to Trinidad.
Day 6/7: having cleared customs the previous day, Follyfin slipped her moorings at 12:30. Because of a couple of isolated previous attacks by Venezualan pirates on yachts sailing between Grenada and Trinidad, we had been advised to sail well east of the sea border between these countries. With the wind now south of east, and not much of it, this proved difficult and required motor assistance for much of the passage. Luckily the swell was very small so no danger of sea sickness and R&R entered into the spirit of this their first experience of a night passage on a small boat, both keeping the night watch company at various stages through the 12 hours of darkness. We sailed without lights and without the AIS switched on so no one could see us. However we did have our radar on so we would be able to detect any largish vessels (though not the pirates’ small ones) before we hit them. Happy to say the only vessel we saw was a huge oil tanker which passed across our bow about 1nm away. Richard took charge of the fishing line, which was out all night. The only catches were made soon after dawn: sargassum weed and…
a very respectable 3lb black fin tuna, which he duly gutted, cleaned and prepped for our supper.
Because of the lack of wind, what should have been an 18 hr passage took 24 hr. Another complicated clearing-in procedure with Immigration and Customs had to be negotiated before we could relax with the pelicans on the dock at Peake Yacht Services marina where Follyfin is to remain on dry land for the next 7 months. Of this, more anon.
