12 degrees N 61degrees 46 W Antigua to Grenada
Meryon.bridges
Sat 23 Jan 2010 19:52
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Got a bit behind with the blogging these last few
weeks - we've been enjoying ourselves.
After our rough night on the west side of Barbuda
we threaded the reefs to get around to a lovely quiet anchorage inside Spanish
Point, completely protected and lying in 3 metres of water torquoise water over
white coral sand. Went ashore to explore/ swim/ etc. Barbuda has a
completely different character from Antigua in that it is almost uninhabited and
it is completely flat and low lying - in fact it is an old reef raised above the
sea and the peace and undisturbed natural tranquility were
wonderful.
We had a lovely sail back to Antigua, and a few
days later another one when we went down towards Monserrat to have a closer look
at the volcano, which was spewing out a a plume of ash which drifted away
on the wind to leeward.
Jo and Wes left us on 7 Jan when Suzie and Fenella
arrived from the UK. The good officer Holden had reappeared and after a
couple of days shacked up in a smart hotel he rejoined us on board to make it 5
for the cruise south to Grenada. Our route was dictated by available time,
so we called at: English Harbour; Antigua, Portsmouth, Dominica; Fort de
France, Martinique; St Lucia; Bequia: Carriacou, and arrived in Grenada on 20
Jan, having allowed a day in each to explore and enjoy the islands.
We were particularly struck by the variety in
their individual characters and also by their universally charming,
friendly and helpful populations.
Dominica was perhaps the least developed of the
islands we visited and we had a very interesting tour through the
mountainous rainforest, albeit seeing only a sample of the island, which lives
mainly on subsistence farming. By contrast Fort de France was
"civilisation" and it afforded us a splendid lunch worthy of Paris. In St
Lucia we split our forces. After a very pleasant evening with Teresa and
Jim and a couple of their friends in Rodney Bay in the north of the island,
Peter and Fenella took an overland route to
Soufriere in the south, while Meryon, Suzy and Peter H moved Ares down there to
a mooring opposite the Pitons. This is a very beautiful and dramatic
anchorage, from which an ascent of the Petit Piton was an irresistable
attaction, providing a really enjoyable scramble and stunning views over the
island from the top. Bequia and Carriacou are very small but lovely islands,
providing insights into local life, boat building, turtle preservation,
etc. A restaurant offering a large half lobster for dinner at about
£16 a head was a real treat, as was the discovery of Callalou soup. This
is a spinach like vegetable from which they make a number of very tasty
dishes.
And so to Grenada and the end of the
cruise. The crew took the opportunity to have a couple of nights in a
hotel next to the very small marina (a single pontoon which bucked like bronco
in the swell) in True Blue Bay. Air conditioning and unlimited showers
were the great attraction. The Peters and Fenella explored the capital
town,St George's, where much is still unrepaired after the damage caused by
hurrican Ivan in 2003, while Suzy and Meryon toured the northern half of the
island in a car, visiting a spice plantation, nutmeg processing plant, a rum
distillery still using the equipment installed in 1795, and having a hike
through the rainforest. Granada is a really lovely and quite prosperous
island, and it was with considerable misgivings that Fenella and Suzy flew back
to UK on 22 Jan.
So now we are planning the next leg to Panama with
just the three of us, calling at the Dutch Antilles and perhaps some of the 378
San Blas islands on the way. More anon.
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