Talulah's Log - Carriacou and Grenada
Talulah's Web Diary
Paul & Anette Morris
Mon 8 Jan 2007 12:39
position "12:02.646N
061:44.854W"
Sunday 7th January 2007
We had a good sail down to Carriacou,
cleared customs and immigration in Hillsborough, had a beer at a lazy waterfront
bar and met some friends from a Norwegian boat, Silene, that crossed the
Atlantic with us. We then left Hillsborough and motored around
further south to Tyrell Bay, one of the most protected in the Grenadines, and
anchored up with a number of other boats at the head of the Bay. The
mixture of boats has changed quite considerably, and we find now that the number
of charter boats has declined, and the more 'live-aboards' and long term
voyagers are seen.
Tyrell bay was good, the people of Carriacou
the friendliest so far, and things seem pretty cheap. The wind
dropped in the bay and we had the first barbeque for a couple of
weeks. The next morning, Friday, we went ashore for a walk, then met
a guy called 'Bubbles' whom we negotiated a lift around the island in
his 'pick-up' truck. Bubbles seemed to know everyone on the island
and we ended up waving to almost everyone as we drove around at never more than
15 miles an hour, up and through the wooded hills and valleys of
Carriacou. We saw people building traditional wooden
boats on the beaches, old houses and plantations and sampled some of
the cool air at the top of the island.
We invited Eli
and Joern, our Norwegian friends over for another Barbeque that evening and had
a great time. It turned out that Joern was a submariner and we had
served in the same places in Norway, but at different
times.
We set off for Grenada on the Saturday morning
and had probably one of the best sails in the last few weeks. The
wind was on the beam all the way at between 15 and 22 knots, and we 'cracked on'
at quite a pace until we got in the lee of the western side of Grenada, when we
gently wafted down to Dragon Bay. We dropped an anchor and then
went snorkelling on a coral reef, and saw all kinds of strange looking
coral formations, fish and rays. It was a little exposed in the
anchorage at Dragon Bay so we then sailed on to St Georges, the main town on
Grenada, which seems like a throbbing metropolis compared to the tiny places
visited so far. We sailed in under a very imposing Fort George
high on an outcrop, before turning into the Lagoon, where we are now
anchored. Last night was completely still, with no wind at all -
which is the first time that's happened since getting on board in Lanzarote last
November! It was quite odd.
The Lagoon is a strange place.
Again there are usual smattering of 'live-aboards' and long term voyagers
anchored here. Our own anchorage is just about 25 metres from the
remains of a jetty which formed part of the marina that still on the charts, but
must have been blown away by Hurricane Ivan. Around some of the
shores in the lagoon you can see the hulks of boats and other yachts that must
have met their fate during the same Hurricane. But beyond
those, the town looks pretty, with vestiges of it's colonial past and the
struggles between the British and French for control of the island, evident
everywhere.
We're off for a look around later today, and
might even take in the Cricket World Cup stadium being built for the April
competition.
The photos are of Anette and Mr. Bubbles on
the highest point of Carriacou, and some of the traditional boat building going
on at Windward, on Carriacou.
