Plans? What Plans?
29 May 2013 | Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, Grenada
Lynn
Chatham Bay was pretty alright in our books. The anchorage was uncluttered, we had internet on the boat (a happy bonus) and lovely places to walk. The downside is that the wind would get a little swirly and in some of the squalls, we would be facing in any direction. This was a little unsettling, even more so when we returned from a long trip away from the boat to find the anchor was lying on its' back, and according to the chartplotter, the boat had moved about 150 feet. Yikes. Fortunately, it reset very easily, but it decreased our confidence in being there.
However, before that happened, we walked to Clifton, the main town, with Wade and Diane on 'Joana'. Clifton is about 4 miles from Chatham Bay, and except for the first road/hill out of the bay, it is pretty much downhill after that. Ken and I were really looking forward to some fresh food, and we all felt like the exploratory walk. We figured we would catch a taxi ride back with the groceries. The buses do not go to Chatham Bay, they might get within 2 miles of the dirt road down.
The walk was nice. The weather remained dry for us, something we were quite happy about, and we had the chance to see some of the views from the elevated roads. I had already seen much of it from my runs, but it was fun to share it with the others. After a while, we got to unexplored territory for me, too. We had one old rummy harass us (sorry man, insulting us will not increase your chance of getting money from us), but otherwise everyone was very friendly.
Lunch at the "Big Citi" restaurant was excellent, and very affordable! Well worth a visit if you end up in Clifton, and it is conveniently located right upstairs from the Tourism Office, where the Immigration officer deals with the yachties. Customs is close by, and it is across the road from the fruit and veggie market (well, one of them, anyway). Grocery shopping is still not exciting, and the food is still on the expensive side, but we found out many Union Island residents take the ferry to Carriacou for the much cheaper groceries! Hmm, a lesson to be learned there.
We loaded up and headed back. A friend of one of the fruit and veggie vendors drove us back to the top of the dirt road to Chatham Bay for a reasonable amount of money. Good luck finding someone to drive you down if it has been raining, and even then, it needs to be someone with a vehicle with good clearance as the road is very rough. But we knew getting a ride down the road was unlikely from the get-go, so we had our backpacks in place.
Upon returning to the boat, Ken snorkeled on the anchor and discovered its' lack of grip. We quickly reset, but we were both a little unsettled by this. Further discussion had us discussing the weather forecast, the anchorage, and the grocery situation. The weather was going to be a little windy for a while, so going to the Tobago Cays and Petite Martinique wasn't jumping out at us. The cheaper groceries only 6 miles away were calling to us, too, plus the decent anchorage in Tyrell Bay. We decided that I would walk back to Clifton and check out the next morning. We could have taken 'Silverheels III' around, and maybe picked up a mooring or got a water taxi to bring me to shore (we take everything off the dinghy before we move), but I was game to do the 8 mile round trip; I also knew that going alone I could do it far more quickly.
So, this morning after my run and breakfast, Ken took me to shore and I went back to town. While I was gone, Ken prepped the boat for departure and stripped the dinghy as much as he could (he still had to pick me up). My errand went well, and Ken did his jobs. We were ready to go to Carriacou.
We had another lovely sail from Union to Carriacou. However, about 10 minutes after firing up the diesel to get into the Hillsborough anchorage, the temperature alarm started up (the icon on the left in the picture). We put the jib back out (we had furled it before a squall came through, and we hadn't put the main up), and Ken checked things out in the engine compartment as I sailed the boat back out of the anchorage. The raw water strainer was fine, as was the impeller. The coolant level was okay, too. There was water coming out with the exhaust as it should.... We were stumped at the time. We chose at this time to go straight to Tyrell Bay. As much as the authorities prefer we be in Hillsborough when we check in, we wanted to get to a more solid anchorage if the diesel was going to be a problem. Tomorrow is a holiday in Grenada, so we aren't even sure if Customs and Immigration officials will be available. I think we arrived on the same holiday another time, and Immigration was open, but Customs and the Port Authority had the day off. We'll just have to see. Hopefully a bus or two will be running, otherwise it will be another 7 mile walk...
We arrived in Tyrell Bay and thought that maybe a mooring might be a wise idea, especially if we have to do things to the diesel. We had to come in by diesel, and had no problems running at low RPM's, a promising start. We picked up a mooring from the guy that always starts with "I'm in the book" (I'm not so sure that he is in the newest version of the cruising guide). His little boat looks rougher every time we see it... that should have been a hint. We got onto a mooring for $40EC, but when Ken snorkeled on it, we decided we would rather anchor. We might have considered securing a pothound or a goat to the system, but we weren't going to trust our boat on it. Too bad we had already paid him, but we figure he will stay away from us or we might ask him for our money back. That's a worthwhile investment as he has been known to stand in his boat while staring into cruisers' boats, calling loudly if anyone wants to buy wine. He would also become belligerent if you didn't want wine (this time we told him we don't drink). We'll see if he stays away or not.
So we are solidly anchored in Tyrell Bay, still not able to fly our Grenada courtesy flag yet. We hope to pop back up to the Grenadines in about a week when the weather becomes a little more amenable to some of the anchorages, and when we are stocked up with more affordable groceries. In the meantime, we'll just relax here, and find out if there is more to the high temp alarm than maybe just a bag over the water intake.