Grenada Yacht Club, St George’s, Grenada

We left Bequia on 29^th August and had quite a nice sail down to our overnight stop in Sparrow Bay, Carriacou. Those who have been paying attention will remember that Carriacou was devastated by hurricane Beryl and neither the mate nor I wanted to anchor at Tyrrel Bay for this reason. Tyrrel Bay was always the ‘go to’ anchorage for Carriacou, but the destruction was immense and the authorities advised you not to go there. So Sparrow Bay it was, well, after three anchoring attempts (lots of dead coral and weed – not the Manson Supreme anchor’s favourite!).

We left Sparrow Bay the following morning and sailed down the leeward side of Grenada, arriving just after 1630. As this was the cut off time for the Grenada Yacht Club staff we decided to anchor just to the north in Grand Mal. Grand Mal turned out to be a pretty nice anchorage and we made a note to return at some point. Leaving Grand Mal the following morning we arrived in good time (it was only 20 mins away) at Grenada Yacht Club (GYC). We were told to call them on VHF 16, but after 20 minutes of no response we caved in and called the GYC office on the phone. Eventually we berthed stern to the concrete quay with two bow lines out and fenders suitably placed at the stern. Luckily, the mate and I have both got long legs and so we are able to hop on and off, if not with ease, but at least some elegance…

Grenadian wildlife – Green iguana or Jungle dragon (about 1.5m from nose to tail!)

We chose GYC as it’s about a third of the price of neighbouring Port Louis marina where we spent nearly four months last year, and we get one well with the manager here who hails from Manchester (it is a small world!). What can we say about Grenada and GYC in particular – it is HOT (we are berthed at 90° to the prevailing wind and sandwiched between a huge catamaran (windward side) and a sport fishing boat so there is very little moving air! – Mate). So hot that your brain doesn’t function at normal speeds. We’ve tried it: do a few easy sums, say 6 times 2, divided by 3 when you are cool and then try it in serious heat, the results will surprise you! They did us… not the answer of course, just the length of time it takes to arrive at it (for any divers reading this it is a bit like mild nitrogen narcosis – where you can’t really be bothered to do anything!).

The mate quickly pointed out that we needed to install the sleeping cabin fans that we’d bought back up in Rodney Bay. This took me two days as a lot of dismantling had to be done first and me being me, the job had to be a neat one. At last the fans were installed to my complete satisfaction, but, I fell ill. As I had been working in serious heat with sweat pouring off me and not drinking very much the mate’s diagnosis was dehydration and heat exhaustion. I’ve never taken such things terribly seriously, but I must admit after taking nearly a week to recover, I will now! (unbeknown to me Skip had also stopped taking his magnesium supplements (as the water we are drinking is stripped of all useful minerals) which, combined with the hard work and lack of water, had accelerated Skip’s plight! – Mate).

The mate, during this time, was very kind. She did all the chores and looked after things whilst I spent most of my time sleeping/napping. As I started to recover the mate organised a nice little birthday for me, despite it raining all day. The mate is good at birthdays, I had banners, balloons, candles – you name it. As it was a major birthday (how does it get to this – where do the years go??) we decided to defer the actual celebration until we leave Grenada as there isn’t anywhere I would think ‘oh great, let’s go there’ but up in the Grenadines there is. Mustique or Bequia will definitely provide so we’ll wait for birthday shenanigans until we get there (probably end October).

The birthday boy (before I’d decorated the boat)

SG in Big Birthday mode!

The birthday ‘cake’ :)

Whilst GYC has been kind to us (we leave on the 30^th September) Grenada can be a challenge I find. Food availability, the heat of St George’s and plenty of rain being low points. We’re told that the southern bays have less rainfall and a more cooling breeze so we’ll look at heading round there when we leave GYC as we’ll need another two or three weeks to start getting to end of hurricane season (which is why we are in Grenada in the first place).

Some things are quite nice though. We’ve discovered each Tuesday there’s jazz at GYC’s bar. (Actually we can hear it from the boat, so it didn’t take much discovering). The band is local and unlike a lot of local music which can be too ‘boom boom boom’ this is excellent. Great music and a beautiful, sultry female singer with a voice to die for. Next week, says the mate, we must go and see them rather than taking the easy option and lying in the cockpit just listening.

Skip has also discovered Dollar Wings Night! This is a very Caribbean thing and is what is says on the tin – a chicken wing for $1EC (less than 30p at current exchange rates). So one can dine like a king on a Wednesday for a few GBP. I can enjoy a fish or veggie roti which isn’t too much of a hardship :) Further dining out options are to be had at BBQ night (Friday) with meaty and fishy options, and some often rather random sides! It also means less cooking onboard which can add to the already ridiculously hot temperature down below on SG (it rarely drops below 30°C and is often in the high 30s!!).

There are a few places to keep cool here: we have been looking after a boat over in Port Louis marina (whilst our friends David and Trudie were back in the USA) so have been able to enjoy the air conditioned showers there; the grassy area just outside Port Louis has lovely, shady palms, generally much more breeze than over in GYC, and a little beach where I can swim; and Grand Anse beach which is a nice dinghy ride away (so Pierre can stretch his legs) and has lovely white sand and clear water.

Skip enjoys the beach

As it is hot and bearing in mind the sums mentioned earlier, I’ll leave this blog here as it’s taken me a long time to type and my brain isn’t quite up to writing much more.