Tyrell Bay

Just over a week ago we sailed another 140 miles across the Atlantic, from Barbados to Grenada. It was tempting to stay a little longer to greet other yachts as they arrived in Barbados but it was time to go and the rolly anchorage made it easy to move on. A couple of days before we left Bandit and Moonshadow sailed into Barbados and just as we left Matador arrived. We had a quick chat with Steph and Stu , handed over our well used island map along with some tips on where to find essentials in Bridgetown and headed for Prickly Bay on Grenada. The overnight sail was another down hill run with just the genoa out as the 25 to 30knt winds pushed us along on the familiar Atlantic swell. Sunday morning was grey and windy, we soon spotted land over the white caps, by early afternoon we were anchored in Prickly Bay. We spotted two familiar boats, the lovely little square rigger, Norna and Chalofa last seen on the other side of the Atlantic. The advantage of the Magellan Net of 45 plus boats is that I am sure we will see many of them throughout the Caribbean. Many we have only talked to via the NET now we will be able to meet them in person.

Prickly Bay is a popular place, it has a good haul out yard, excellent chandlery a small marina, buses to town just up the road, a couple of restaurants and most importantly immigration and customs have offices behind the Prickly Bay marina. The bay is full of yachts, some visiting, others living semi permanently on their boats creating and interesting community. Grenada is just on the edge of the hurricane belt so many people either leave their boats on the hard and go home for others Grenada has become their home and they take a chance and stay in the water. There is a morning Net on the VHF giving announcements on everything from Music Jam sessions to history tours of Grenada, I can see how some come for a week and stay for years. We were just passing through so after a couple of bus rides through the lush hills of the island and a visit to Georgetown we made our way up here to Tyrell bay on Carriacou (Carry-a-coo) Island.

As we sail up through the chain of Islands we are heading into the wind until we get to Martinque, where the wind becomes on the beam. The weather forecast was for developing strong winds so we pulled up the anchor at sunrise and motor sailed the 40 miles to Tyrell Bay. Carriacou Island is part of Grenada but is part of the Grenadines group of islands which are largely part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. All these little countries require yachts to clear in and out, not too difficult but the process can take time. The Immigration officer at Prickly Bay kept us waiting a couple of hours before he turned up. On the plus side the number of countries we have visited is growing quickly.

As we anchored we got our first experience of the Caribbean boat boys,( the “boys” are long past boyhood ) offering lobster and bananas amongst other things. The cost of lobsters sounded a bit high so we said , “not to day thanks”. So they returned the next day and the price dropped a little so we agreed to buy one. Produce here is still sold in pounds, apparently this lobster was 5 pounds. Alan was a bit skeptical, but it had been along time since he had held something and thought in pounds as to its weight. After our boat boy had left with our money in his pocket we thought to weigh the still wriggling creature. Not 5 lbs at all only 3 1/2 lbs. Still it tasted great and the next day when our boat boy appeared to sell us bananas Alan informed him of the discrepancy. We ended up with a large hand of bananas for free to right the wrong.

Carriacou is a small hilly lush green island of around 9000 people, no visiting cruise ships, not many tourists and friendly people. I get the impression that it is another place cruisers have come for a week and stayed years. The main town of Hillsborough stretches along one road running along the water front, with the wharf and government buildings the focal point of the town. There are many colourful little shops and restaurants along with some more substantial buildings which all seem to have belonged to the Bullens family since 1942. A walk down the main street didn’t take long so we go the bus…well mini van through the middle of the island to Winward ,on the north east coast, which was the centre of wooden boat building in the 1800s. The brochures said some boat building was still happening today but we only found one set of ribs underway, the greying timbers indicated it had not been worked on for a while. Not all was lost the bus ride gave us a lovely view across reefs and blue water to Union Island until rain obliterated the view.
Along with the predicted wind, rain squalls have been swooping down the hills into the bay. Tuatara is now very clean as all the African dust has been washed into the Caribbean. We open and shut our hatches several times a day. At night rain drips onto our faces to wake us up so we can shut the hatches once again. Between showers it is hot sunny swimmable weather so we still happy sailors.

Tomorrow we clear customs and head 10 miles across to Union Island in St Vincent and the Grenadines another country, another flag.

For those interested in Egret and their sail across half of the Atlantic using only a drogue for steering after they lost their rudder go to www.sailblogs.com/member/egret