The last of Grenada - Ronde and Carriacou

We were hoping for a lovely sail up the coast of Grenada but the wind was fluky and ended up being on the nose for a lot of the way. We also had quite a strong current which slowed our progress making a four-hour trip turn into a rather long, tiring eight-hour trip. I had the fishing rod in the water for most of the way with a Rapala on it as bait but didn’t manage to catch anything, unlike our friends Brandon and Shaun who caught a massive Wahoo on the way up.

Testing my new rod

Brandon and his Wahoo

With only one other boat already at Ronde, we were able to choose a good spot to drop anchor. Ronde is renowned as a bay with poor holding and true to form, we had to drop anchor three times before we were satisfied that it was well-bedded in the sand. Andrew jumped in the water to check and made sure we still had three blades on our prop. Claire and Jim came in shortly behind us and managed to drop anchor in good holding the first time. Ian and Faye came into the anchorage in the dark. They weren’t too worried about that as they have anchored here several times before and we guided them with torches to a good spot. Ian was in the water first thing in the morning checking on his anchor.

 

We had a lovely day, swimming, and snorkelling. That evening we went across to Gumbar to play Canasta. Unfortunately, it started raining and the cards were blowing away, so we packed it in and tried a round of Liar Dice.

We had a lazy start the following day. I managed to catch a small fish which we threw back as it was too small to eat, and we weren’t sure what it was. In hindsight I should have kept it for bait. We picked up anchor around 10am to head for Carriacou. We wanted to be in Carriacou sooner rather than later as there was a weather system predicted to be passing through bringing wind and rain.

My first catch

Which lure should I use?

Andrew trying his hand at fishing

 

Even though the wind wasn’t strong, between 9 and 10 knots, we still managed to get 5 knots of boat speed. There must have been a current running with us. I put out the rod again but caught nothing!

 

We bypassed Sandy Island this time and went straight to the bay off Hillsborough, managing to anchor without too much trouble although when we checked the anchor the following morning, we found our anchor chain wrapped around a rock. We tried to untangle it by starting the motor and manoeuvring around it, to no avail. 

 

The most amazing part about being in this sailing community is the willingness of everybody to lend a hand. There is seldom a need to ask for help. Andrew was swimming in the water and checking out the anchor, next thing, Claire and Jim were in as well and Ian had swum over from his boat to help. Both Ian and Jim can dive deep and hold their breath for a while underwater, so they took turns to dive down and release our chain. Then Ian went to look for a sandy patch for us to re-anchor in. Finally happy that the anchor was well set, in light of the heavy weather approaching, we were ready to continue with our day.

Andrew, Ian, Claire and Jim

 

On Tuesday Andrew and Jim went across to Gumbar to see if they could help him fix his fridge while Claire, Faye, and I played Canasta on our boat which proved to be quite tricky as the weather was turning and the wind came up, blowing cards into the water! Andrew jumped in to save the jokers! 

Send a man out to go shopping and he invariably comes back with something that was not on the list! Andrew and Jim went to get beer and bread and came back with a new fishing rod for me, complete with coffee grinder on it! Lucky me! Yes, he did remember the beer and bread as well.

Paradise Beach Club is a lovely restaurant on the shore opposite Sandy Island. They have a Sip 'n Paint every Wednesday afternoon. It was definitely on our list of things to do, so we dinghied across the bay and had a wonderful few hours painting our boat name on a block of wood. It was a lovely social event with a few other sailors joining in the fun. Alison, the proprietor of Paradise Beach club puts all the boat names around her restaurant which makes the bland walls a colourful display of those who have passed through. We recognised some names and were all very excited to be leaving our mark. They hadn't put our names up by the time we left, so we will have to stop here again if/when we sail back next year.

Stage 1 = design

Stage 2 = background

Stage 3 = Name is on

Serious Concentration

Finished products

Post painting natter

The staff at Paradise Beach Club are lovely. They are friendly and happy and they smile!! They took an interest in our paintings and took photos of us for their Facebook page. I think the reason is because their boss is super nice, friendly and seems to treat them well.

And then the weather set in. We had two days of rain and wind and were unable to go anywhere. We read books, did colouring in, stared at devices, and fished. After fishing all day and catching nothing, I finally caught a King Fish on Friday evening which was too small to eat but could be used as bait. Later I was fishing again, but all I caught was a massive Garfish! They are smelly things with sharp teeth and not good to eat. I kept some for bait, but didn't catch anything. Maybe the other fish think they are just as smelly!!

Bait

We somehow got a puncture in our dinghy which was very frustrating. Andrew figured the hole was at the end of one pontoon. He spent a few hours glueing it back together. It seems to have held - hold thumbs!

 

We awoke on Saturday to partly cloudy skies, some sunshine and gusty winds. We were all suffering from cabin fever so undeterred by the grey skies, we decided to walk into Tyrell Bay. We left our dinghy at Paradise Beach club and walked the 2+ kilometers to Tyrell Bay and the marina, had a drink and did some shopping and then caught a bus back to our dinghies.

Faye and Ian were having problems with their fridge/freezer and we found a guy who could fix it for them. We all decided that he could take a look at our fridges while he was about it but the only snag was, we would need to go to Tyrell Bay and he would meet us there. 

So on Monday morning we upped anchor and motor sailed into Tyrell Bay. 

Pancakes for breakfast

Marco, the fridge guy came over and regassed Ian’s fridge and then did Bully’s, but ran out of time to do ours. He said he would be back the following morning. We waited for ages for Marco to send a message to say that he could be fetched at the dock. Eventually at around 1pm he sent a message to say that he had only just woken up! He had had a big party the night before.

 

He spent a few hours working on our fridge but it was not just a simple case of regassing for us, we needed to install a new compressor. Thank goodness we had a spare one on board. He took it away to fit all the wires etc and promised he would be back in the morning.

 

We all went over to Viento del Mar for a Wahoo fish braai. A South African family boat, Quazami, had been on the hard with Brandon and had just splashed, so they joined us. Laura was delighted that there were some kids to talk to. 

Brandon left the following morning and headed back to Grenada. He is going back to SA for a visit and to pack up his house. His son, who has been living in his home is moving to USA for work. He should be back late November and will start making his way up north.

Marco came back that morning and spent three hours installing the compressor and re-gassing the fridge. Let's hope it works.

We did a bit more provisioning in preparation for our departure. Ian, Jim, and Andrew went ashore early to check out, but true to Island Style form, the guy pitched nearly an hour late for work. Finally checked out of Grenada, we headed for Union Island.

Stay tuned for the next installment, where we anchor off a private island and endure an hour long squall before entering Clifton Harbour.