IMAGE – SANDY ISLAND

GLORIOUS GRENADA 28TH JUNE TILL 20TH AUGUST 2012

PART ONE – CARRIACOU: -HILLSBOROUGH AND TYRREL BAY; SANDY ISLAND
We sailed south, after checking out with immigration and customs and leaving St Vincent and the Grenadines on Thursday 28th June. We enjoyed an easy, relaxing downwind short 10 mile sail, except for 1 short, sharp squall - reflecting on our month in and around the beautiful SVG islands – then SVG courtesy flag down, and on to our next Caribbean country Grenada. We entered Grenada waters in the early afternoon and anchored off Hillsborough – the main town on the island of Carriacou. Hillsborough is the Port of entry, so Immigration and customs visits were our first priority – all helpful and friendly, and with easy reach of the dingy dock. With the minimum of fuss and only a 50EC charge- £12 for the yacht for 1 month, and a 3 month personal visa a no charge – all good first impressions of this new country. The ‘town’ is just a main street – shops, banks, post office and tourist board running parallel with the coast. We had a mad dash around to the tourist office and then various small shops for some fresh fruit and veg, bread and some BBQ food, just managing to get things done before the ‘town’ closed down at 4pm. The anchorage off Hillsborough was very rolly, and the town didn’t look very interesting, with nothing to see or do, so we motored less than a 1 mile to anchor off Sandy Island Marina Park for the night with 4 other yachts. Sandy island – is just that – nothing but a beautiful palm fringed strip of white sandy beach surrounded by perfect snorkelling in clear shallow waters and stunning coral reefs perfect for safe diving - absolutely lovely surroundings - fantastic. I spotted a large Ray whilst swimming to check the anchor – just fantastic – not bad for a wildlife welcome within an hour of arriving! Early on Friday 29th we enjoyed the morning snorkelling and beachcombing on Sandy Island. The snorkelling was excellent with coloured coral and loads of fish - plus the bonus of spotting 1 hawksbill turtle. Sadly due to the marina Park regulations we were only allowed a 1 night stop – so now just a quick motor around to anchor off Tyrrel Bay. Tyrrel Bay is a huge, well-protected bay, which is very popular with cruisers – here we were with the most yachts (up to 30) we have been with for a very long time. Tyrrel Bay also has oyster beds among the mangrove swamps, and is a good hurricane hole. During our weekend stay here we noticed that we had entered a different climate zone – madly we collected more rain water in 1 day that we had collected for the whole month in SVG. CARRIACOU - the islands name comes from the Carib name for ’land of reefs’- is just a small and basic outpost of just under 5 sq miles. The local townspeople are an interesting mix of Glaswegian and African descendants. Carriacou is well known throughout the Caribbean for its traditional wooden boatbuilding – they still build beautiful wooden cutters here. We had timed our arrival in coincide with the yearly local Fishermans Day activities – so were keen to go ashore on Saturday 30th to check out the 1 street village and see what was happening. Behind the local rum shop we saw some activity - food being prepared for evening event. Several large pots were cooking over coal and wood fires – and the sign said everyone welcome from 5pm. Tyrrel Bay village as VERY BASIC - just a few fruit & veg stalls (which apparently are only there on Saturdays) a few basic supermarket/general stores and a few local bars and food shacks. During the afternoon rain showers we caught enough rain so I could do some hand washing and James put on dive tanks and cleaned the bottom of the hull. Fishermans Day events started about 5pm- the whole village turned out for some old-fashioned fun –men’s, ladies and kids lime and spoon races; men’s and ladies tug-a-war; arm wrestling and beach treasure hunt for the kids – all great fun – and a few of the liveaboards joined in the events too. We ate well from the cooking – tasting the Grenadian national dish, oil-down and saltfish. After the events were finished the loud music and dancing in the street started, so we walked off the have an ice-cream and headed back to the boat – a great day and evening out Carriacou style – but sadly with no camera as the newly purchased one has died!!!! – so will have to return again – if only for some photos. Sunday in Tyrrel Bay is sailing day, and we watched the small boat racing around the bay –a few locals and liveaboards (who are obviously now into the community and here for the summer season) –about 10 boats in all, out having fun. We had a violent thunderstorm in the early morning and heavy rain showers, which left the day cloudy and cool. We spent the afternoon at the Lazy Turtle bar/restaurant where James could watch the European Championships Football Final - Spain won and I could do some internet research. We met the folks from S/Y Kismit here, and were to meet up with them several more times at various events whilst we were out and about in Grenada.