Trip Update - 15th January 2009 Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada

Nutmeg of Shoreham
Ollie Holden
Tue 27 Jan 2009 21:20


Position: 12:00:65N 61:44:21W

 

After a bad nights sleep due to the rolling, we set off at 0900 from Tyrrel Bay and decided to sail round the windward side of Grenada, because the distance was a bit shorter.  It was a lovely 30-mile sail but it was quite lumpy with 3m waves, and the girls suffered a little before going to sleep.

 

We pulled into Phare Bleu bay but it looked very rolly so we extracted ourselves from the vicious-looking reefs and went on to Clarkes Court Bay.  There are a lot of reefs here and you have to keep your wits about you.  We still haven’t got electronic charting so it was back to bearings and the odd waypoint – keeps the brain working.

 

Clarkes Court is a very peaceful bay, very similar to one of the rias of NW Spain, and we anchored in a corner and turned the engine off.  It was only when the engine was off that you realized how quiet it was – just the birds and the crickets in the background.

 

Nutmeg anchored in Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada

 

Grenada’s southern coast is studded with these little inlets and this makes for a great cruising ground.  I could easily see one spending several weeks or even months exploring ti all.  However, we were on a deadline to be back in Bequia to meet my Mum and stepfather Alan in a couple of days, so our trip to Grenada was only ever going to be a whistle-stop tour. 

 

However, you can reach some of the other bays by dinghy, so we set off on a little expotition (the girls are reading Pooh Bear stories at the moment) back round to Phare Bleu marina.  This is a fairly recent development, with a small private marina with bar, restaurant and swimming pool, together with an old lightship which has been converted into a posh restaurant.  Think Gosport marina lightship but without the wet-weather gear!

 

We spent a lovely day swimming and eating and generally lording it up in the wonderful facilities.  We met a lady called Anita whom we had met in Rodney Bay, who works here running a yacht management company – lots of people leave their boats here on a permanent basis as Grenada is (or was, until Hurricane Ivan wiped it out in 2004) below the hurricane belt.

 

Swimming at Phare Bleu, Grenada

 

It was still quite rolly in Clarkes Court Bay so we rigged up a system to dampen the rolling, by hanging the dinghy off the end of the boom, so it would lift out of the water on the big rolls.  Seems to work quite well and is easy to rig up.

 

Whilst we were here, we tuned into the 0730 “Cruisers Net”, which is on VHF Ch68 every morning.  This radio net is operated by various volunteers, who read out the weather, allow announcements and urgent requests, and then do a “treasures of the bilge” section for people to advertise their unwanted items.  Really useful service and completely free, although a bit cheesy and American!  The VHF is used so much more widely out here, and it makes sense – although I can imagine the chaos if you could order taxis or laundry on the VHF in the UK.  It is bad enough with radio check requests every five minutes!

 

Nutmeg at anchor, Grenada