Trinidad to Grenada (Prickly Bay) - Away at last!

Imagine Of Falmouth Online Log
Jon Constantine
Sun 9 Nov 2008 09:35
Sat 8th to Sun 9th Nov 2008

It's soooo good to be back on the water again.  We're glad to get away from Trinidad too.  Very hot with little breeze and the water is too dirty to swim in.  A good place to get a haul out and boat work done (apart from our stainless steel work - we never did find Mitchell!) and also a good place to make new friends and catchup with old ones but not a place we'd want to spend too much time in.  Crime is pretty high there and there is a feeling of not being quite safe but the locals we met were great and we had a pretty good time.  No sure if we'd go back again unless it was to outrun a hurricane!

                                                              Farewell to Trinidad
                                                               Leaving Trinidad

We cleared out and raised the anchor at 4pm for the night crossing back to Grenada.  We'd previously met up with Lee & Cindy from Tranquility in Customs so we will be making the return journey together.  We arrived in Trinidad with them back in August from Grenada so quite a coincidence that we're both going back again at the same time.  We kept in radio contact with them but we soon lost visual.  Much faster than us but then, we're in no hurry.

After a few problems getting the main up we set off through the Bocademonos channel to the open sea motorsailing with a strong current behind us, choppy seas and the wind on the nose!  What a surprise.  Once out of the channel the wind soon came round though and the seas calmed down so we put the headsail up and turned the engine off, sailing in very light winds. 

Bubbling Seas      Choppy Channel
                  Bubbling seas in the Bocademonos Channel                                                               Bit of a chop leaving the channel

We put the fishing rod out (ever hopeful) and settled down for a gentle sail.  Hot thirsty work this sailing so out came the Caribs with a toast to Neptune for good weather and a cheerio to Trinidad. I made some sandwiches for the journey while we still had daylight, gentle winds & seas, just in case!  As it was, the crossing was great with almost a full moon coming up until around 2.30am.  We didn't stick to strict watches and just took turns taking naps when each of us got tired.  It worked really well for just one night but not really recommended on longer passages.  There was quite a lot of traffic around and at one point we had to hail a large ship on a collision course with us.  We had to move!  Oh well, you're not gonna argue with a huge steel ship in the dark even though we had right of way!

Cheers      Off watch
                             Drinking and Driving - tut tut!                                                                                            Jon off watch

Sun1      Sun2
                                                 Sunrise                                                                                         The squall that disappeared

Sunrise was lovely and the squall we saw looming ahead of us died away to nothing. Almost a perfect sail if a little light on the wind front and no fish biting.  We dropped the sails and motored the last mile or so into Prickly Bay, Grenada, dropping the anchor at around 9.30am, a bit tired but happy to be here.  Tranquility came over in the dinghy to say they were checking in as a friend of theirs had told immigration that they had arrived!  We decided to check in too even though we were going to wait until after the weekend.  Lucky we did as it turned out.  Customs & immigration were open and apparently very strict about boats checking in within 2 hours of arriving, even on a weekend, which we didn't realise.  We heard later that one boat was fined 1000 EC Dollars (about £250) for not checking in until after the weekend!

After breakfast, a beer and a quick swim we went ashore and dealt with the paperwork (and paying a minimum overtime fee) before chilling out for the rest of the day back on the boat.  We received a radio call from our pals John & Andy on Happy Spirit.  They are round the headland in Hog island and are coming over to Prickly Bay on Monday so we're looking forward to a fun reunion.
 

                                                            Sun Prickly
                                                                   Sunset in Prickly Bay