12:27.39N 61:29.25W

Friday 8^th April

Music finished on the nearby boat around midnight and then for good measure they sounded their horn when leaving at 0700 hrs in the morning.

Since we were now awake we opted to make a start on today’s journey and so by 0840 hrs we had lifted the anchor and were making our way (reluctantly) out of Clifton and heading south west to Carriacou, which is an island just to the north of Grenada but also part of Grenada, so we could clear through Customs and Immigration and spend a few days there.

It is only 5 miles between Union Island and Carriacou, but we tried a bit of fishing along the way and were rewarded with a Yellow Tailed Snapper (and very pretty it was too, as Sarah pointed out).

Hillsborough is the main town on the island and it is rather  small even by standards out here, but the anchorage was large and straightforward, although there is a big swell  and consequently the only boats here were, like us either clearing in or out of the country. The paperwork was easy for us as Sarah had noted from the pilot book that you could download the one page ‘check in’ form in advance and complete it and make the required 5 copies before going ashore, so I had done this the previous evening. Life then was very easy as the officials dealt with our case quickly and pleasantly. Other boaters were less fortunate and were sent off to find a photocopy machine once they had laboriously completed the forms standing outside in the sun!

As soon as this was all completed, we set off for Tyrell Bay which is round on the western side of Carriacou and we motored round, making our way between several islands, past a stunning quintessential Caribbean beach/desert island – basically just a sand bar -  and across some shallows before making our way cautiously into what appears to be a large bay, but is in fact a mass of shoals, reefs and the odd unmarked wreck. The pilot book certainly talks this place up and we were looking forward to a few days here, rather along the lines of our time in Chatham bay, but with the added benefit of internet access. Sadly Tyrell Bay appears to have lost its charm and is little more than a rather tired and run down place, with a handful of basic restaurants, several large rusting barges and tugs (quarrying sand?) and a very dilapidated boatyard. The internet WiFi is close to useless and the boat boys are listless and almost disinterested. One of them, whose speciality appears to be selling Chilean wine, spends most of the day drifting round the bay, trying to get the outboard engine started on his boat.

I suspect that we will not be staying here anything like as long as we planned and may well head south to Grenada in the next day or so.

There are a couple of things that I forgot to mention at the time, one of which was that the large scruffy fishing boat anchored not far from us for several days in Chatham Bay, Union Island, turned out not to be a fishing boat at all but a Venezuelan vessel that brings fuel to Union Island. I think the correct term is smuggle, but given that Venezuela is very much off limits now to yachts due to the rapid expansion of piracy there, this was not something we felt the need to find out more about, but it did explain why it would disappear for part of each night. 

The other issue was the April Fool’s trick that we fell for hook, line and sinker. Shaun Mc Mullen is a friend out here who has been exceptionally helpful in advising us about all manner of things, but primarily about laying the boat up in Grenada where he has personally recommended Spice Island Marine. I made the mistake the other day of probably asking one question too many about the way things are done when laying up in the summer as opposed to the winter and got a very helpful email warning us in great detail about the one big drawback at Spice Island Marine which are the Fruit bats and in particular their poo. The email detailed the problems and various solutions (including making a scarer from wire, silver paper, and an old anode – Sarah was then planning the most elaborate, and artistic bird scarer) and we were completely taken in, even to the point of asking other boaters who have laid up there about the problem. Well done Shaun – just watch your back!

On the subject of piracy, we have been very sorry to read how Mark and Chris on Blue Magic on the current Blue Water Round the World Rally have had to abandon their attempt to sail up into the Red Sea so close to the end of their odyssey and Blue Magic along with all the other remaining boats are to be loaded onto a ship and transported into the Med at no little cost. The problem off Somalia and across the Indian ocean has now escalated well beyond any semblance of control and all the naval warships from around the world patrolling there are not even able to protect the merchant ships over such a widespread and lawless area.

And Happy Birthday today to our son youngest son Ewan, who never ever reads this log!!