Further north to border of St Vincent

Persevere
Pat and Bruce
Mon 20 Feb 2012 02:19

12:32.04N 61:23.30W

 

20 Feb 2012

 

Well after a nice quiet sleep and no drunken boater hitting us we left Tyrell Bay to move over to Hillsborough to check out with Custom and Immigration.  Well the party from the night before moved to Hillsborough.  As we approached the loud banging music became louder.  No choice as this is one of the few places to check out of Grenada.  So we anchored off the town in 8 meters of water with weedy bottom.  Several other boats did the same.  I lowered the dingy and rowed to the main ferry dock which was packed with local small boats but still enough room to squeeze in.  Once up on the pier it was obvious I was late to the party as many totally passed out people were asleep everywhere on the wharf and shore areas.  I walked past the large music speakers and found the Immigration office with the help of some nice locals.  Once inside it was pleasant with nice officers and several other boater clearing out.  Lots of fun conversation about the goings on outside.  Nice Spanish women who told me that Mallorca was her true home and we exchanged points of interest about the island.  Funny comment that with all this loud music she will never complain about the loud disco called Titos right next to the Palma de Mallorca marinas!  It was much quieter.

 

Once thru the clearance we weighed anchor and sailed, yes sailed for most of the way, to Petit Martinique where a fuel dock with good filtered fuel existed.  Nice people helped us berthing and supplied good filtered diesel.  Many of the local island buy Venezuelan diesel which is poorly stored and full of contamination.  This place does not use that crap.

 

As we left the fuel berth we looked over at Petit St Vincent, a small island but just beautiful so we went over for a lunch stop which turned out into an overnight stay.  Small tropical island with a white sand beach and coral formation to snorkel.  It is a private island operated as a boutique hotel but they allow boats to anchor off the beach.  Great place for a night stay, one of the best anchorages we have done.

 

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Sandy Island just north of Carrioacou.  This is the place you would paddle to shore to have a picnic on the beach, we should have stayed here instead of Tyrell Bay.

 

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So we suffered and had to anchor off this white sand beach of Petit St Vincent for the night the next day.

 

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A French flagged barque (originally Dutch based on is painted over lettering) that anchored north of us.  One of those tour type boats.

 

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Bit more modern.  This is the J-Class boat Velsheda rafted to its “tender” called Bystander.  What a great charter, sail all day on a world class J-Boat and then spend the night on the 138 foot tender with everything you could want.  We were at the same port for several night between here and Grenada.  By the was the sailboat is also 138 feet long.

 

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A few of the underwater neighbors at the anchorage.  We always anchor in sand to avoid hurting the coral, this cannot be said for many other boats, mainly charter boats that anchor anywhere and destroy with the anchor and chain what they came here to see.  The current along here is strong as it changes direction with the tides.  Even though there is little tidal depth changes in the Caribbean the currents can be swift as they funnel between the islands.