Sailing Calypso: Going remote -- Ronde Island

Woburn Bay and Ronde Island

Before we headed north we decided to visit Woburn Bay, which includes Clarks Court Marina, Whisper Cove Marina, Benji Bay and La Phare Bleu. Woburn Bay is about an hour and a half away from Prickly Bay. It felt so good to be out on the water again.

The rumours about Whisper Cove were all true. The people were friendly and welcoming, but the water certainly wasn't as clean and clear as Prickly Bay.

The main roads are tarred but the side roads are gravel. The houses are mostly build on stilts with a big open area under the house. It is not unusual to find cars left abandoned and rusting in the long grass near houses or in gardens.

View from Whisper Cove Marina

Cats at Whisper Cove Marina

Dave decided to join in the poker game. He didn't stay long as he realised these guys were serious players.

Dave playing poker

We had a busy weekend starting with a wake for a gentleman who had fallen off his boat, hit his head and drowned.

Listening to speeches at the wake

After the wake there was a stand up mic segment and then the DJ started to play music. We danced for hours. Andrew asked the DJ to play Impi and a couple of other Johnny Clegg songs. Laura was amazing. She found the dress up box and put on a hat and hit the dance floor. She knows all the words to most of the songs and she had a ball.

Party animal

Andrea at the party!

Having a blast

I don't think I have mentioned my skin but you may have noticed my pink face in photographs and thought that I have been in the sun too long! Well, no. I have rosacea which has become worse over the last few months. I thought it was just the stress of leaving South Africa, but it didn't improve. There were two ladies at the marina that night who are homeopaths. Sue Field and her Texan friend. They asked me about my skin, and said they were sure they could help, so I made an appointment to see Sue. My appointment with her was interesting. Her Texan friend had some Rescue Remedy cream which I put on my face. I wish I had thought of bringing those sorts of creams with me from South Africa as it helped immediately. It is impossible to get here. Sue made up some pills for me and said I could come back for a follow-up appointment when we are back. Let's see if it works.

On Saturday morning we went for a walk. We found a second hand store called The Treasure Trove, which sells everything and anything.

We went to La Phare Bleu which is just round the corner from Benji Bay. While we had lunch we watched the kids sailing their oppie type boats in the bay.

Beautiful view

La Phare Bleu bay

Kids learning to sail

and paddle

Elric and his friends had organised a Saffa Bring and Braai on Hog Island, near Roger’s Beach Bar for Saturday night. There were fires lit, people had made salads to share and the music was playing. There were other people there as well, not just Saffas. Quite a few people had come to Woburn especially for the braai. It was good to hang out with the people we have met so far.

Obligatory foot up

Dave and Sandy left on Sunday morning and headed back to Prickly Bay. The plan was to meet them in Grande Anse, St George's and then go on towards Ronde Island.

We spent Sunday doing laundry and watching the tennis.

Smaller screen than I am used to

I don't have any pictures of the beach braai, but Andrew, Laura and I went to Roger's Beach bar for a beer on Sunday afternoon. People are dropped off here to eat and drink at Roger's Beach bar, in very fast speed boats, who race between the anchored boats at Mach 2.

On Monday morning we started to prepare the boat for departure. Andrew had put a fuel filter on the dinghy and forgot it was attached, so when I pulled up the dinghy motor I ripped the pipe out, broken!! Andrew was not happy with himself. We had to make our way to Prickly Bay so that he could fix it.

Andrew managed to fix the pipe quite quickly and we still had enough time to head to Grande Anse where we spent 2 nights on a mooring ball. Continuing my effort to learn more, I drove onto the mooring ball for the first time! Andrew picked it up on the first go! I was super happy with myself.

I love the view of St George’s from the sea. The little houses reminded me of the puzzles that I did back home. The bay goes into a beautiful horse-shaped harbour with fishing boats tied up alongside the street and shops lining the road on the opposite side. It is called The Carenage and is a must see for any visitor. It is much noisier in this bay with cars and buses driving along the main road and the occasional dog barking. My pictures don't do it justice, so if you want to see clearer pictures go back to my post on our visit to St George's - Grenada post to see better photographs.

Facing The Carenage

We went ashore to do some shopping and got pelted with the biggest raindrops we have seen so far. So we took refuge in the Yacht Club. And had a few drinks while we waited for the rain to pass.

View from the yacht club

Grenada Yacht Club

We upped anchor the next day and made our way to Grand Mal, hoping to dive on the sculpture park. Unfortunately it was very busy with other boats and charter dive boats so we decided to carry on to Ronde Island. For those of you who do not know what the underwater sculpture park looks like, Google Grenada underwater sculpture park. It is quite eerie! Hopefully we will get another opportunity to dive there next time we go past.

Ronde Island

The trip to Ronde was longer and bumpier than we thought it would be but we still managed to put out a headsail and sail for a few hours. We did have to furl the headsail and motor for a bit as the angle wasn’t right and the current was pushing us off course.

Ronde Island

There is an underwater volcano called Kick 'em Jenny about 8km north of Grenada which has a maritime exclusion zone of about 1,5km from the centre of the volcano and a 5km radius during high seismic activity. Apparently bubbles of volcanic gasses can lower the water density and can create a sinking hazard. We had been warned by other sailors not to sail over that zone, so in an effort to avoid it we ended up taking a rather long route to Ronde.

Serious sailor

Staying hydrated

We finally arrived at about 4 pm and had to drop anchor twice before it took in the sand. We all jumped in the beautiful clear blue water for a quick snorkel and a swim.

The sisters

Beautiful, remote Ronde

Ronde island is a remote, private, 2000-acre island in the Caribbean Sea. It was listed for sale in 2007 for a mere $100 million. Apparently one can find the red-footed tortoise and the Grenada tree boa on the island. We didn't find either and I was quite relieved not to have spotted the non-venomous tree boa.

We woke to some cloud on Thursday morning, but it cleared enough for the sun to shine through for a bit and let the solar panels charge the batteries. We took the dinghy to shore and snorkelled around the shallows. We saw some tiny fish, stripy fish and one fish that was trying hard to hide in the sand. No, I don't the names of fish. Terrible, I should learn. We even saw a small moray eel.

Wave watching

Go-Pro evidence

Short walk on the beach

There were lots of pumpkin shells on the sea bed. I thought they were too far down to dive down and pick up. Next thing, Laura takes a deep breath, dives down, picks up the shell, pops up, blows water out her snorkel and carries on swimming. Andrew and I looked at each other in surprise. We certainly didn't expect that!

Laura's find

Laura loved it and spent a long time in the water, face down, swimming for ages. We had bought new flippers in St George's which made snorkelling so much easier. Andrew put a strap on the side of the dinghy to make it a bit easier for Laura to get in. She did a great job and managed well. I, on the other hand, was pathetic and had to have a hand up to get in, thank you Laura. Andrew thought it was very funny and took go-pro video of me being an arse, instead of helping me into the dinghy.

Dave, Andrew and Laura admiring the Lune

Calypso in the distance

It was lovely and peaceful in the bay. There were 4 boats overnight and another cat arrived in the morning but the bay was big enough for us not be on top of one another. The weather was quite overcast with lots of Saharan dust in the sky. It didn't get cold at all, in fact was quite muggy most of the time.

Dave dropping his dinghy

Dave pulls his dinghy up on the side of his boat every night. There are a couple of reasons for this, the two most important are for safety, nobody can thieve the dinghy or the motor, and to prevent it getting a dirty bottom or covered in barnacles. We don't pull ours up but have a thick wire which we lock to our dinghy and our boat every night.

We spent three nights at anchor at Ronde island. We snorkeled a lot, had supper with Dave and Sandy and played a new game called Left, Centre, Right. It was good fun and very easy to play.