Can't beat a double rainbow in the morning - Prickly Bay

After a couple of weeks in Grenada we are good and relax - almost totally forgotten the fatigue from 24/7 watch after watch at sea. We got our boom re-welded and riveted, replaced the tang on the vang (just gotta love that rhythm) . We are off today for a 3-day sail to the US Virgin Islands.

Shiny new rivets and a well fit gooseneck

Cocoa for chocolate is a major crop in Grenada

When we arrived we needed to get limes for our Gin & Tonics. Turns out there is a bit of a shortage on the island. The ones you can get are very small. Another unexpected event due to the Covid Pandemic. There was a thought on the island that limes protected you from Covid, so the trees were picked bare pretty quickly. Now all you get is the early, preharvest little ones-- but they're delicious, and we're fighting scurvy.

Paul

 

Grenada - Closed the Loop, Got the T- Shirt

 

Last night as we approached Grenada, with a 3/4 moon rising, we crossed our outbound path completing our circumnavigation. It was 8 years ago we were last in Grenada, about 37,000 nautical miles ago (42,500 land miles). Since we left the Puget Sound (Seattle, Pacific Northwest) 12 years ago we've covered about 57,000nm. We have visited in my count somewhere around 39 countries and crossed the equator four times. To add to these stats, Cape Town, South Africa, which we left in February is now 5,847nm in the rearview mirror.

It was pretty fitting that we closed the circumnavigation loop in Grenada. Grenada was the first island I ever arrived at on a sailboat. I got on an orange trimaran named 'Clockwork Orange' while in Tobago as crew in 1976. After an overnight sail we arrived in Prickly Bay, Grenada and I was hooked.

It's been a long, challenging and amazing trip. The most amazing part is that neither Chris or I murdered the other one. Although I have caught Chris humming the tune to the song What If I Threw the Captain Overboard far too many times.

I have also decided it is time to resign from the Flat Earth Society.  There have been a few times on this circumnavigation when I was pretty sure we were close to falling off the edge - mostly in places where the old chart gets fuzzy and has a note Thar Be Dragons. But in the end I'm going to have to go with conventional science,  drop the Q conspiracy and accept that it really is a round earth.

I'm going to have to give some thought to the circumnavigation highlights, and a little to the lowlights, for a separate blog.

Now off to clear Customs and Immigration, then we need to go setup a rigger to fix our boom and vang. Plus we need to organize a boat survey so we can update our insurance for arrival in the USA. 

Paul

Bye-bye Grenada

We cleared out of Grenada at the Port Luis customs and immigration office this morning after a 5 week enjoyable stay. This afternoon at about 3:30 or 4pm we will head off for a 3 day downwind sail to Bonaire. We’re really looking forward to some of the great snorkeling that Bonaire is supposed to have.
The plan is to sail on a starboard tack WNW, then gybe and head WSW to Bonaire. This keeps us off the Venezuelan islands by about 25-50 miles. That should be enough to stay out of trouble. We know of a number of boats that have headed west to Bonaire, but only one that has decided to stop off at the Venezuelan out islands. They are there now, and are probably having a great time. But????
Paul

Grenada

I haven’t blogged much about Grenada. Not sure why. Maybe ‘cause Chris is back in San Diego helping with her folks and I’m here hanging in the cruisers southern hangout. There are a lot of boats that spend the hurricane season in Grenada. It is far enough south, 12* latitude, that hurricanes are rare.
 
Rare, but not unheard of. This is part of the aftermath from Hurricane Ivan in 2004. Since there are so many cruisers down here, there’s a lot of services focused on cruisers. Prickly Bay is the ground zero for the Adult Daycare for Cruisers. They have yoga, Grenada Train Dominos, Hash hikes, Happy Hours, shopping trips, island tours, and dinner specials most every day. These all get announced on the interminably long morning VHF net.
We did some hikes with friends off Mirus who know the island well. We came across this small farm. It looks like the TSA beat us to it. The sign says: Visitors Please Respect Farm Biosecurity.

The biosecurity was in place to protection these precious guys.

The photo at the top of this blog is looking down on the capital, St. George’s. Above is a look from the waters edge of the crowded buildings and hillside.
I think the Caribbean Tobacco Company Ltd. has seen better days. Maybe the cigarettes and the business will rise out of the ashes like the Phoenix with the next revival business cycle.

Like most places, the cell phone has killed the payphone industry. At least these British style kiosks still have character.

At the top of the hill over looking St. George’s is Fort Rupert, now called Fort George. It is famous for the execution of Prime Minister Maurice Bishop at this spot (see historical re-enactment above). Bishop lost his job when the Deputy Prime Minister Bernard Coard led a coup against him in 1983. Bishop himself became Prime Minister by leading a coup in 1979 against Prime Minister Gairy. All of this part of the run up to the 1983 US Invasion of Grenada. I don’t know about you, but I sure felt a lot more secure living in my California neighborhood in 1983 after the looming threat of Grenada was taken down by the Reagan White House and the 82nd Airborne Division.

The fort now spends its time guarding the Cruise Ship dock.

I needed to clean the boat bottom before we take off for Bonaire. The growth is starting to get ugly. Kind of a combination soft fauna interrupted by small volcanic looking hard critters. The water in Clarkes Court Bay is not very clear. Some say it is because of the Rum factory near the head of the bay. I decided to sail around to the anchorage off of St. George to get some clearer water to break out my Hooka and clean the boat bottom. The the two small rocks in the foreground above are The Porpoises. They are about 4/10s of a mile offshore. It is clear to pass either side of them. I went for the outside, as its hard to see these guys in the chop.
Chris gets back late Sunday night. We’ll start getting ready to do the 400 mile trip to Boniare next week.
Paul

Brown Food

I went to the Gouyave Fish Friday with Tim and Patty (off Tevais). Every Friday night this kinda down-on-its-luck fishing town closes down two narrow streets near the city center, next to the old church. Its about an hour scenic drive through the downtown traffic of St. George (the capital of Grenada) and up the east coast of the island.  Vendors setup booths along the road, each selling their homemade seafood specials. There was probably 20 booths to select from. It too a good walk through the booths to narrow down a selection. Most of it is fried and some varied color of brown. Fried Johnny cakes, fried fish, fried fish spring rolls, fried stuff I’m not sure. To be fair, there’s lobster and fish kababs too. The fish spring rolls were really good.
(Taking photos in the dark with manual focus is harder than I remember from the good old SLR days. Can’t wait till I get my lenses back from Canon repair with the auto-focus functioning.) With the exception of Wipe Out by The Ventures, I haven’t been able to stomach a drum solo since being subject to endless replays of Iron Butterfly’s In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida while in various states of consciousness.  There were two competing teams for the nightly entertainment. It was a fun night and good to get off the boat.

Chris is back in San Diego helping out with her Dad, who just got out of the ICU. He’s doing a lot better now. I thought I’d take this opportunity to see if I could reach the back of the port side chain plates. I wanted to see if I could see if there was any leaking and tighten the bolts. The bolts were surprisingly loose.
To get to the chainplate required dismantling a surprising amount of Chris’ side cabinet. A job much better one when she’s not around. I hope to have it back together before she gets back.
A few days after she’s back we’ll head off for a 3-day passage to Bonaire. The land of clear water and good reefs – at least that’s what the tourist brochure says.
Paul

Carriacou

Our first stop in the country of Grenada was the island of Carriacou. We anchored off Hillsborough and went in to clear customs. This was the friendliest and most helpful customs and immigration that we’ve dealt with in ages. Immigration first, across the street from the pier in the police station, then back to the pier for customs. (It turns out that there is a new customs and immigration office around the corner in Tyrrel Bay, so that is probably easier for cruisers – don’t know if they are as friendly).
The real reason for this quick blog was to post this picture for my friend Will. He works in the area of saving mangroves, trading for carbon credits and looking for a true love. The crane in the photo is dredging the mangroves on the right, making room for a larger pier/bulkhead area. The white marker in the foreground says “Marine Protection Area”.

  The mangroves here in Tyrrel Bay also make good boat parking spots during storms.

When you first show up in Tyrrel Bay you are likely to be met by Simon in his leaky dinghy. He sells a number of items and offers services for cruisers. One thing he is pushing is a good deal on Chilean white and red wine. Let’s just say the white is something to stay far away from. I’m not known for my refined wine palette, but I knew just smelling it it wasn’t for me. Friends said the red was decent, but we never got to try it as it ended up in the bilge after the bottle broke during an unexpectedly rough passage. We’re told the money is going to a good cause- to buy Simon a new boat.

We anchored off Sandy Island for the day so Chris could get in her beach walk. Too rough to dive, but good swimming and beach time.

Chris, ever the hunter-gather, did find this giant helmet conch. The resident quickly requested that he be placed back on the bottom.

After we left Carriacou we headed for the small island of Ille de Ronde. Very remote with a few fishermen's skiffs and houses onshore, not much else. Good snorkeling, but a rolly night with the swells working around the end of the island.

One thing interesting about Ronde is that the anchorage is about 5 miles east of the active underwater volcano called Kick ‘em Jenny. The volcano has erupted at least 12 times between 1939 and 2001, sometimes boiling the seas above it, and is heading toward the surface. Its gotta be time for another eruption soon.

We left Ronde expecting an easy sail down to the NE corner of Grenada. We wanted to try snorkeling on a few of the small islands on the windward side. Above is London Bridge. You can see the arch in the rock. This is about half way between Ronde and Grenada. It may not look like it in the pic, but the winds were just howling and a strong current caused really ugly seas. As we sailed past the Green Island on NE corner the winds were 25kts and the current picked up to 3.5kts against us. There wasn’t any place that looked reasonable to anchor. So we continued on to the south end of Grenada where all the cruisers hang out. We’ll stay here for a few weeks till we take off for the passage to the Dutch Antilles, aka the ABC’s, to spend some quality time diving in Bonaire.

Paul