12:02.66N 61:44.90W

Saturday 9^th and Sunday 10^th April

We spent Saturday at anchor in Tyrell Bay getting one or two jobs done in preparation for the lay up and dodging numerous cloud bursts.  Not much else going on here although quite a few yachts left and we were very entertained by one or two of the new arrivals. It seems that this must be the first stop for some of the bareboat charter yachts coming out of Grenada and so boat handling is still something they are coming to terms with.   One catamaran managed to miss the buoy it was trying to pick up, then fall back and straddle the boat behind, bouncing off  two further boats behind that – obviously handling twin engines had not been mastered yet.

Saturday night was pretty breezy but the anchor held firm and it was around 0730 hrs that we pulled up our anchor and headed south to Grenada.

The wind quickly picked up to 25 knots and so we set a course and with a slightly reefed main and one of the twins flying we were soon making 8 knots towards the north west tip of Grenada. There was just the one real hazard as such on this part of the trip and that was the active underwater volcano directly in our path. There is a one and half mile exclusion zone which we skirted, although the 57ft Oyster that we had just over taken calmly sailed straight over the top. Oh how we prayed for a small eruption....

Made very good time to Grenada and were able to sail most of the way down the west coast to St Georges which is the capital, passing another Oyster along the way. We then made our way into the main harbour which seems to be one of the prettiest we have seen anywhere out in the Caribbean. Hurricane Ivan wreaked havoc across the island only a few years ago and still there are many signs of the damage caused, however the waterfront in St Georges looked beautiful. We headed into Port Louis marina where we plan to do some more of our preparations for laying Serafina up. The marina staff where very helpful and accommodating, but as is the way with so many marinas around the world, they seem to all want to re-invent the wheel and so the system for mooring up here was as convoluted and tricky as any we have seen before. Fortunately there was no real wind blowing at this stage and we managed eventually to get Serafina nicely sorted out with the only casualty being the base of my back when I tweaked something trying to haul on a bow line, so I am having to take things even easier for the next 24 hours or so!

The first thing we noticed as we arrived though was the extraordinary number of Oysters (make of yacht) here and we soon discovered that the Oyster Caribbean Regatta 2011 is based here starting on Monday.

There are 46 Oysters assembled here from all over the world, of all sizes (well actually they are almost all 56ft or bigger) and they have 5 days of racing and/or socialising. The good news was that James and Lesley (who we have met in various places along the line - starting with their wedding in Mongonissi, Greece!)  had recently got a job working together aboard the 56ft Oyster ‘Sulana’ are here.  They are with the owners Alan and Sue on board and so we immediately were able to get to meet various people involved in the week-long event.

Competition for the sailing community – what is a suitable collective noun for so many Oysters. A ‘richness’ or perhaps an ‘opulence’ please submit ideas by email using the ‘contact us’ form at http://www.rhbell.com .

The berth we have been given here at Port Louis is very apt as we are on the one piece of quay that all the Oyster owners have to walk down to come ashore, so we have proudly raised our big Najad flag and are getting to know them all as they repeatedly stroll back and forth, sneaking admiring glances at Serafina, or perhaps not!