Sailing to Carriacou

Grenada’s underwater sculpture park   

After spending the first part of the morning snorkelling on Grenada’s underwater sculpture park, we needed to get a wiggle on to sail further north to Carriacou because the wind would be on the nose and we only expected it to get stronger.

Typical lush green scenery in Grenada   

We left the mooring at 11am and headed up the sheltered west side of Granada. We saw lush green valleys, like the one that we had climbed up to see the waterfalls, and a light sprinkling of houses up the hillsides. At least the scenery looked Caribbean, even if the grey clouds in the sky are not exactly what you expect when you think of a Caribbean scene.

Gouvaye viewed from the sea   

A little further up we passed the coastal town of Gouvaye (pronounced Gwaave) which we had visited briefly and found a little disappointing. It looks a lot more interesting from the sea!

We then cleared the shelter of the island and started to sail. With the wind coming directly from our destination and a tidal current sweeping between the islands it was not the best wind for the passage and so we did a mixture of sailing and motoring. The motoring had the advantage of giving our batteries a good charge. The unusual grey cloudy skies we’ve been experiencing have meant that our small set of solar panels has not really been keeping pace with the demands of the fridge, so the batteries have not been kept topped up.

Five miles north of Grenada is an unusual avoid. There is a 1.5km diameter exclusion zone and a 5km diameter restricted area for marine traffic. These sit above Kick ‘em Jenny, the only live submarine volcano in the eastern Caribbean. It not every day that you have to dodge an active volcano in a sailing yacht!    

‘Hunter-Gatherer’ status reconfirmed!   

In the channel between the islands we caught a barracuda which added a bit of excitement to the passage. Having landed it we decided to let it go rather than kill it and eat it. Perhaps a mistake because I subsequently read that barracuda are quite tasty fish to eat though there is a risk of ciguatera poisoning if you eat those that live on reefs.

Looking north at Carriacou (R) and Union Island in the distance (L)    

Navigation was not really a challenge because passage distances here are short enough for the islands to be visible. However, we were starting to see much more pointed hilltops on these islands, more reminiscent of the classic Caribbean island silhouette.

Approaching Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou   

Our destination was the island of Carriacou. It is part of the Grenadian Grenadines and so we wouldn’t need to do any arrival paperwork, just head into the bay and anchor. We aimed for Tyrrel Bay because it looked to offer good shelter but even from a distance we could see that lots of other yachts had had the same idea.

Tyrrel Bay – a busy place!   

SY Sea Dragon    

Coming into the anchorage we saw Sea Dragon who we had last seen in the Salvagen Islands. We circled them briefly to say hello again and then made our way further into the anchorage to try to find a BV-sized space in shallower water.

A lot of the yachts were on mooring buoys but, despite it initially looking very busy, there was space to anchor without getting in anyone’s way. The question was, which gap would we go for?

Bruno’s Girl ahead of us in the anchorage   

The answer came when we looked just a little further in and spotted Bruno’s Girl and Quadrille nicely at anchor with a BV-sized space just beside them. We decided that evening drinks would be on board BV and so circled both yachts to both say hello and to pass on the invitation.

Rhys and Claudia rowing Philip out to BV for sun downers   

It was then a mad dash to get BV all sorted and her covers on before our guests arrived. Despite the rush we were both ready in time to enjoy the comedy dinghy transit to BV. Having collected ‘Team Bruno’s Girl’, Rhys gave Claudia one oar whilst he continued to heft the other. Philip ‘directed’ operations from the bow in between gales of laughter. The ‘semi-coxless pair’ proceeded to row in a series of sweeping arcs, nearly arriving at another yacht for pre-drinks before reaching us. Great fun and they made it in the end [Ed: and they got back too which is even more amazing!] Both Quadrille and Bruno’s Girl had come across to Carriacou direct from Barbados but would be heading south to Grenada next and so we were able to pass on some up to date information about the island as well as having a very sociable evening – which turned out to be one several over the next few days.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou