THE LAST LOOK

As we were signing out of Grenada, the immigration officer asked us: "Why do you want to leave?"
We are coming back to this spectacular and friendly island, we'll anchor again in the Prickly Bay, spacey and well protected from the open sea waves.
Three years ago we toured Grenada with our friends Beni and Rick from LAIMA. We want to do it again, it is something to see!

Man's home is his castle

Beautiful gardens everywhere

Prickly Bay Marina, anchorage in a background

Captain Polde

ST. GEORGE'S, THE CAPITOL OF GRENADA

The harbour is like most. Marina takes a great deal of the small, well enclosed bay, not leaving much room for the fishing boats, a few moorings and the anchorage. The main street that runs by the bay is lined with restaurants and stores, catering boaters and the cruise ship visitors. Those, that know the town, narrow and steep streets lead to St. George's market. Many markets have a cent of discarded vegetables. This market is so fragrant, the smell of spices, especially nutmeg, stretches well outside the market boundaries. One side of the market is occupied by sandal makers and a few stands with colourful clothing. You often see the colours of Ethiopia being worn not only on Grenada, but other islands as well. Some girls' dresses, beaded necklaces, crochet hats, vendors' small boats are in combination of colours red, yellow and green. Many islanders believe Haile Selassie being their God.

GRENADA'S SPLENDOR OF COLORS

MANGO

Grenada is not only a spice island. It is a kingdom of mangos. They come in different sizes and of course  they all taste good. There is more than one way of enjoying them. If you pretend to be sophisticated mango expert, cut a slice on each flat side of mango, make slots into the flash without cutting the skin, and turn it inside out. You get small cubes, that you pick off with a fork.

Or, you can peel a mango, put a few drops of rum on a top, and quickly, before rum drips off, sink your teeth into a golden sweet flesh. 

Be sure to lean forward, or the color of mango juice will forever stain your Grenada tea shirt, that you just bought on the colorful St. George’s market.

  

FROM BEQUIA TO CARRIACOU

Still being paranoid about our anchor, we picked up a mooring in Charlstown Bay, Canouan. The tourism is spreading south, we paid for the mooring as much as we did on Virgin Islands. But it was a piece of mind and we had a good night’s rest. Evening we spent with ten Slovenians, chartering for three weeks in the Windwards. There was a lot of laughter going on after a few rounds of rum punch. Slovenians are gay people.

Indian milkweed

A short trip on a jib in a strong wind took us to Saline Bay on Mayreau. Even with many boats on the anchorage the beautiful beach seems deserted but for one day every week. A cruise ship anchors outside the bay, tenders bringing people to the shore, to the picnic tables covered with white tablecloth. Lunch is being served in a shade of the palm trees. Small shacks come alive with colors, dresses and scarves on the line swinging in the wind. Vendors are patiently waiting for lunch to be over.

In a few hours beach is empty again. Vendors bag their things and leave, they don’t get a lot of business from sailors. In every town the same things are being offered, colorful dresses and jewelry made from shells. Tee shirts made in China with the same design, only the name of the island on them changes.

We met with friends from ‘Noor Daria’, they stopped in Saline Bay on their way north. They treated us again with an excellent Slovenian wine and wind-dried ham, Slovenian tradition.

Saline Bay beach

'NOOR DARIA'  with Majda and Toni

An hour of sailing on the jib again brought us to Clifton Bay on Union Island, the last of Grenadines. It is breath taking but dangerous bay with not well marked reef in the middle. The sailboat came in after dark and got it’s keel caught in a reef. Two small boats came to help tilt the sailboat to relief the keel, then pulled it away from the reef. What luck! It could not have been done with the sailboat in Bequia.

Mountains outline of the Union Island

Clifton Bay anchorage

Kite surfing

Clifton market

We supplied ourselves with fruits and vegetables that we desperately needed. Then we signed out of Grenadines in a friendly Customs and Immigration Office, a little too casual, we didn’t notice, that from the papers we got, the sign out form was missing. When we arrived to Carriacou, which is part of Grenada, the immigration officer threatened to lock Polde up for not having all the documents. Of course he didn’t, as we learned later, the island has it’s own crime to deal with.

So, now we are on Carriacou, the island with a population of 6000, probably just as many goats and over a hundred rum shops. We are taking it easy in a pleasant Tyrrel Bay. After having a problem dragging again in Saline Bay, we anchored using danforth.  In Tyrrel Bay we found a mechanic with a heavy duty press and he finally straightened the bent anchor. It is holding now.

We are taking walks, talking to the natives. We found new friends in this bay, Canadian fascinating couple Janice and Larry from the sailboat ‘Sea Bear’. Both single handed sailors on lake Ontario, they teamed up to sail Caribbean Sea. They both sailed Atlantic and Pacific, Jan all the way to New Zealand and Australia.

Tyrrel Bay

Nets resting

Larry, Jan and Polde

BEQUIA

Sailing to Bequia was beautiful, sunny with 25 knots wind. But in the Admirality Bay we started out with some trouble anchoring twice. At night we dragged again. I slept in a cockpit and the anchor alarm woke me up. Polde changed the anchor, put on the danfort, while I was circulating in a 30 knots gusts. We have been sitting tight and far from the crowd of other boats since.

In the morning we realized, that the shaft of the CQR anchor was bent upward. That probably wasn’t the only reason why the boat dragged. We watched other boats trying to anchor twice or three times before they settled. One sailboat dragged during the night and ended up on rocks. People were rescued in the morning, but the boat was slowly taken by the sea, only the top of the mast sticking out as a reminder of the Caribbean sailing pleasures. Another boat dragged into the neighbor and scraped the side of it.

I did some bottom fishing off the boat and caught enough for my meals. I added another specimen to my trophies, a flying gurnard, a beautiful and tasty fish, but not easy to clean.

There is a tennis court available at the Gingerbread Inn on a shore by the anchorage. The weather didn't permit us to play, so we exercised by walking over the hill from Admirality to the Frienship Bay, quiet with only a few fishing boats resting. A small restaurant and a bar, were we refreshed ourselves a few years back, was washed away by the storm.

We said our farewell to the past year with a couple of Slovenian sailors, Majda and Toni Bozic, who participated in the ARC with their beautiful 65 ft ketch NOOR DARIA. We met them the day before in the Admirality Bay and yet, we had such a good time as if we were old friends. Must be the sailors’ spirit.

We have not had a peaceful day or night since we sailed into this bay. The wind just wouldn’t slow down, gusting to 30 knots and bringing rain heavy clouds. Our generator and the water maker have been resting the last two weeks. There is always something good in bad, isn’t there? And there are always rainbows after the storms.

A thrill

and a beauty

Flying gurnard

Are William and Kate visiting?

Admirality Bay

Friendship Bay

PITONS

We left Rodney Bay December 26^th and spent two days at Pitons in a company of big yachts. The place is not as quiet as it used to be, but it still has a good fishing ground. I caught a large yellowtail snapper, enough for three people to have two meals.

To stretch our legs we walked through a jungle above the resort Jalousie, the trail neatly designed with wooden walkways and bridges.

As always Jarule supplied us with fruits and vegetables. He surprised us by being neatly dressed, when we complemented him, he showed us a ring. He got married in August.

Yellowtail snapper

Bungalow in a jungle

Roots

The trail through the jungle

Jalousie Resort hurricane shelter

Cozy spot

Mango blossoms