Drawing to a close.
Oriole
Sun 19 Apr 2009 17:11
Clarkes Court Bay, Grenada. 12:00.519N
61:44.042W
Funding and time brought a close
to our diving idyll in Carriacou and we raised the anchor on Monday morning
to continue south, with the plan to stop at one of the small uninhabited islands
between Carriacou and Grenada.
Hopefully we are now experienced
enough reef navigators
to pilot our way safely through this
lot.
Our choice was Isle Ronde which has
two possible anchorages both of which inspite of the calm conditions had some
swell creeping in, so we had a night disturbed by Oriole rolling from
gunwhale to gunwhale. We decamped from our normal double bunk in the forecabin
to the seagoing pipecots in the saloon. Ahhh! ... sleep possible once
again!
We were woken at dawn by the cheerful
shouting of the local fishermen and we were surprised to see 10 small boats in
the anchorage with nets strewn everywhere.
Underway we romped down the windward
side of Grenada to St David's Bay where we endured two more rather less rolly
nights for which the prize was dinner at La Sagesse where we used to stay when
we laid-up Oriole here.
Oriole romping.
We are now anchored in one of the
deep bays along the south coast of Grenada where a short dinghy ride and walk
brings us to a bus route to St George's where for 50p equivalant you are
whisked into the heart of the market area where the excellent local fruit and
veg is sold. For your 50p you have the delights of sharing a 12
seater minibus (for that is what the buses are) with 20+ other sardines and
hurtling at breakneck speed from one speed bump to the next with either
the brake or accellerator fully applied, entertained by full
volume reggae. All senses are fully saturated on arrival and the
carefully packed soft fruit rather the worse for wear.
John introducing the Ocean Cruising
Club morning SSB radio net with
up to 20 daily contributors from
Trinidad to the Bahamas.
Meanwhile up in Antigua, Andrew and
Sea Shuttle are preparing to depart for the Azores while he
is weekend race crew on Galetea which he is hoping will be overall
winner of Antigua Classics Week. Many of our friends are also departing the
Caribbean for the UK and are preparing for their Atlantic crossings while we are
probably equally carefully scanning the weather predictions for a fast
smooth trip to Trinidad during the next week or so. However our
passage is more likely to be 14 hours rather than 14 days!