Weekend away in Carriacou and dodging a hurricane

Laura's beautiful sunset picture

Friday arrived and we were all ready to head up the coast to Carriacou. Most of the boats left on Thursday but Calypso and Bully left on Friday morning, meeting the rest of the fleet on the way past St George's where they had spent the night. Unfortunately the wind was either non existent or coming from the wrong direction so we had to motor most of the way there.

So good to be sailing again

The weather is a big part of our lives. We watch the weather constantly and we are on several groups that predict the weather around here and further afield. There is a cruiser's net which is broadcast every morning at 7:30 where, amongst other news and local advertising, we hear more weather broadcasts. We can see the weather systems coming off the west coast of Africa and watch carefully to see where they are heading and whether they are going to develop into something or not. We saw Fiona, which passed us with very little change in our local weather, and head up to Puerto Rico, where it caused havoc, and then it headed up to Nova Scotia. Andrew's Aunty Jill lives up there and I was very worried about her. I got a message back from her saying she was fine but they had had no electricity or water for a week.

Our trip to Carriacou was planned after Fiona had passed us but we still noticed some strange weather and wind patterns. We had planned to spend a few days in the bay of Ronde Island, which, you may remember from our previous sojourn up north, is a beautiful, remote, uninhabited island with the most amazing snorkelling and sea life. 

Afternoon snooze while we sail

When we got there after 4 hours of motor sailing, we dropped anchor in the rolly bay with messy seas and hardly any visibility. The wind was coming from the opposite direction of what we were expecting, and we were being blown onto a lee shore. For those landlubbers, this means that if we drag anchor we will get pushed onto the land. This is not a good situation to be in especially when the weather is so fickle. We all decided that it was not safe enough and with the visibility so poor, not worth staying there as all you can do is swim and snorkel, so we upped anchor and headed for Carriacou and Sandy Island.

Leaving Ronde

It was beautiful to see six other boats around us, all heading in the same direction.

Twende

Gumbar, Viento del Mar, Bully and Twende

It took another 2 and a bit hours to motor up to Sandy Island, the wind again being all wrong so we couldn't put out a sail. 

Carriacou

Sailing Sunday with their dog, Jackson

Pelicans spotted the fish

You may remember from my previous post about Sandy Island, it is a marine reserve. There were eleven mooring balls when we went there the first time and the second time there were about nine. This time we saw 5 mooring balls. This is hugely worrying as we pay a fee to drop anchor or pick up a ball and clearly the mooring balls are not being maintained. As there weren't any mooring balls, we dropped anchor, which we probably would have done even if there were balls available. We can't trust them at all.

I jumped in the water with goggles and snorkel to check on the anchor and glanced at our beautiful new prop blades as I swam past. To my utter horror, I only saw two blades. After relaying this awful news to Andrew, I continued on to check on the anchor which was firmly set in the sand. 

We sat on the foredeck with heavy hearts wondering how on earth we could have lost the blade. Andrew went through each step that he took when putting it on and thought the only thing that could have happened was that he got grease on it in the wrong place and it slid off. 

As the sun was setting, we decided to check on it again in the morning.

The following morning, Andrew dived on the prop and found the rubber seal still on it. This meant that we had dropped the prop blade while anchoring. We checked our anchor path on the chart to see where we were when we first dropped anchor and donned fins, goggles and snorkels to go and look for it. We even sent out a plea to our friends with a reward of some coconut rum to the person who found it. 

Jim and Claire joined us in the water and the hunt was on. It was like looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack, but Andrew spotted it on the sea floor. Jim dived down to retrieve it. Sadly, it was broken in the same place that the other one had broken. Thank goodness we had bought three new ones, so we have two spare blades. Andrew managed, with the help of Brandon and his dive gear, to put the blade back on the prop.

Jim got the coconut rum as reward!

On Saturday we went across to FOB to watch the rugby. SA vs Argentina.

We spent a couple of nights at Sandy Island and then decided to anchor off Hillsborough, which is the main town of Carriacou. We had figured out that our prop blade broke when we were going astern, (going backwards, for the landlubbers) something that should not happen. Continuing my desire to learn as much as I can on the boat, I have been wanting to be on the helm when dropping anchor for a while, but have been too nervous to do it with a lot of other boats around. I have never done it before as I am usually the one on the bow, dropping the anchor. Andrew decided this was a perfect opportunity for me. The only thing was, I couldn't go astern. I got Calypso into position and Andrew slowly dropped the anchor as the wind pushed us back. One has to go backwards while dropping anchor otherwise the chain will pile up on itself on the ocean floor. One needs the chain to be running on the ground in a nice, neat, long line. Anchor set and we could relax, watch the birds and the fish around us.

Hillsborough

Bully

On Sunday we went ashore only to find the town completely empty. Clearly nothing happens in Hillsborough on a Sunday. We found a couple of places open including a supermarket where we tried to buy some bread but they had run out and were only getting more on Monday morning. I looked at a fishing rod as the fishing is good in Carriacou, but it was too pricey. It was quite eerie walking around with no cars zooming by.

Main Street

We found a restaurant, Snaggs, that wasn't open but the owner allowed us to sit at the tables and have a few beers. 

Jim and Claire

Island dog

Ian, Sean, Siobhan, Andrew, Claire, Jim, Tony and Brandon

Andrew and I celebrated our 29th wedding anniversary on 18 September. Last year we were going around Cape Point on our way to Knysna. This year we invited Claire and Jim over for a braai and a game of Canasta. 

We even managed a beach gym session on Monday morning!

Gym beach

On Monday afternoon we went ashore and had a braai on the beach with everyone from the boats. We all felt like we were on holiday. You may be wondering why the trees have red stripes on them. They are Manchineel trees which are very poisonous. Their fruit is poisonous and one shouldn't be under the tree when it rains as the sap falls on your skin and causes a terrible rash. Thank goodness it wasn't raining. We did wonder why there was a picnic spot in amongst the trees!

Candi, Brandon, Beverley, Andre and Andrew

Candi, Andrew, Jim, Claire, Siobhan, Faye, Ian and Laura

Ian, Steve, Mary, Craig, Jane and Tony's back

Looking for fish

Dinghy parking

There was lots of discussion about the weather. There was another weather system approaching and none of the weather models were aligning. One had it as a really bad system and others less so. We contemplated staying at anchor at Carriacou but as the day wore on the weather models started to predict a big blow with lots of rain, so we decided to err on the side of caution and return to Prickly Bay so that we could be on our hurricane approved mooring ball, which our insurance insists on.

Bully under sail

We sailed back to Prickly on the windward side of Grenada. It was a beautiful sail, doing between 6 and 8 knots. The swell was quite big but not too uncomfortable. A few boats came back with us, Claire and Jim (Bully), Brandon and his friend Ian, who was visiting for ten days, (Viento Del Mar), Beverley and Andre (Sea Dancer) and Tony (Twende) all came back with us. Faye and Ian (Gumbar) and Craig and Jane (FOB) stayed up in Carriacou. Anybody want to hazard a guess what FOB stands for?

Back in Prickly Bay, I managed to get us up to the mooring ball which Andrew picked up easily and bad weather prep began. We decided not to strap our main sail down like we did before, but we made sure that all lines were secure and there was nothing on the deck or cockpit that could blow away.

Thank goodness we were not badly effected. We had rain and some squally weather with wind gusts up to about 35 knots. Sadly that weather system, which was really a non-event for us, turned into Hurricane Ian and wreaked havoc in Florida. 

Life returned to normal for a couple of weeks with the usual mundane, daily routine settling back into place.

Andrew spent a bit of time in the engine room, cleaning rust off Donk and repainting. And he fixed a diesel leak. No more diesel smell when the engine is running!

We went to the Brewery to watch the rugby. It was the one where we won the match against Argentina but didn't win by enough points to get to the top of the log.

Anxious faces

Last week we had another system blow through. This time the worst of it was during the day and we saw wind gusts between 30 and 50 knots. A couple of boats dragged their anchor but were able to reset before hitting anyone. It rained the whole day and was very overcast for a few days. This plays havoc with our batteries, which need solar to recharge. After the stormy day, we woke to the sound of our battery alarm going off, seconds before the batteries shut everything down on the boat. We ran the engine for about half an hour just to get them up to usable charge and switched everything off on the boat. We have had to run the engine several times since then as there hasn't been much sun.

Wind Generator

As my brother, Sean, pointed out, we do have a wind generator which we should be using to generate power. Sadly, it stopped working on the great crossing. It turns but doesn't put power in the batteries. Another thing to go on the list of things to be fixed.

The last weather system that passed us has turned into Hurricane Julia which has now made landfall in Nicaragua. Let's hope these systems are nearly finished!

Off to the Sandbar for sundowners

Off to the Sand Bar for free Wi-Fi

Tony was looking for crew to help him get to Las Roches and Aruba, and met up with Candelaria who is from Argentina. She was heading home after traveling for a year and was trying to get back to South America. She was going to go with Tony as far as Las Roches. Then Tony's dates changed. Craig from FOB wanted to do the trip with him, which meant Tony would only leave mid-October, which was too late for Candi. She met up with a German family who were leaving earlier and hopped on their boat. We had farewell drinks at our favourite spot.

Farewell drinks for Candelaria

It's a tough life

Heading home

Our dinghy motor stopped working well just after the storm passed through. We are not sure what happened but Andrew spent many hours (and many dollars) with Tony trying to fix it. Andrew learnt how to strip a carb and rebuild it, and now has an intimate knowledge of the workings of a dinghy motor. Needless to say, it still wasn't going well. We contacted a guy who fixes motors and asked him to come and have a look. He couldn't come during the storm or afterwards as it was so rolly on board he would not have been able to work on the motor at all. He agreed to come on Monday.

It's funny how things work out. Andrew had contacted the Kiwi Prop company and told them about the broken blade. They didn't really have any good reasons why it happened just to say that it shouldn't have! But on the up side, they gave us two new blades as replacements. The blades arrived and Andrew needed to go into St George's to fetch them, which he was going to do via a bus ride. On Friday, Tony offered to take him in the mini as he was going with Craig and Faye to do a few things. On their travels they met a guy and got chatting about motors and this chap said that it sounded like the main jet on the carb was worn. As a last ditch attempt before spending a fortune on a new dinghy motor, Andrew went off to look for the part. Holding thumbs and crossing fingers, Andrew put the new part in and put the motor back together. I came back from shopping with Faye to hear a whistle coming from Twende and Andrew excitedly yell, "It's fixed!" across the bay. What a relief!

I have finally caught up with all the adventures and news that we have had. We are hoping to be leaving Grenada towards the end of October, weather permitting, and start our journey north. North, you ask? Well, let me elaborate. We will be heading back up to St Vincent and the Grenadines, revisiting some of the places we have already seen, and visiting a couple of new islands. Then we plan to go on to Saint Lucia, and Martinique, where hopefully we can buy some good wine at reasonable prices. From there, who knows? Keep reading to find out.

I have so many pictures of the beautiful sunsets it is hard to decide which ones to leave out. So I am going to put a few here for you to enjoy.

Watching the sunset