In the hustle and bustle of our crazy lives… oh wait, we are cruisers, we are no longer part of the rat race! Okay, for a change of pace from hanging around Grenada for the complete hurricane season, Ken and I took off North to get away from the same old to hang out in the Grenadines during the much less busy season. We had initially tried that and ended up hanging around Carriacou most of the time, with a side trip to Petite St. Vincent and Petite Martinique for a couple of days. We really like Carriacou, and it is safe for me to say that I have run around the complete circumference of that island by now (but not all at once, it IS 13 sq miles!) and many of the in between roads, too.
We stayed in Carriacou longer than we had planned, too, and met two “hash tourists” from the U.S. Kim and Felicia had contacted the Grenada group by Facebook, and I had communicated with Kim. They come up to Carriacou for a visit, and Ken and I took care of them. We took then snorkelling out at Sandy Island, and even sailed them back down to Grenada. It worked out well, as my cupboards were approaching Old Mother Hubbard status, and it really was spectacular weather to head back down to Grenada for a bit. We ended up staying in Grenada three nights, long enough to stock up the groceries, go out for dinner, go to Fish Friday, and let me get a Hash in. We left again Sunday morning, after checking out the day before with Customs and Immigration. It was a very sleepy trip up.

We anchored off Mayreau for a night (the smallest inhabited Grenadine island) and had a slow sail up to Canouan the next morning. We could have checked in at Union Island, but we are not fond of the harbour at Clifton. We knew we could check in at the airport on Canouan.

This is not our first time visiting Canouan, but the previous visit had us stick mostly to the water. This time, with me being a runner again, we are seeing more of the island. The first order of business was walking to the airport. It is about 2 miles from the dock, and it was the middle of the day when I struck off. The only people I saw were under shade. It was hot. But I made it to the airport without melting. Customs wasn’t a problem, and the Immigration officer was sweet. Then she said “you can check in in the yellow building across from the bank, ya know.” Huh? And it is, of course, true, just it isn’t in the Cruising Guides, and nobody has mentioned it on the Cruiser groups. I checked it out on my way back to the dinghy. Well, it gave me a chance to check out the lay of the land, and buy some ripe plantains for the next morning’s breakfast.

Yesterday morning, Ken and I went for a walk to see a bit of the Windward side of the island, and Friendship Bay. Good thing we brought water. At one point Ken stopped, looked at me, and begged “Please, no more hills!” It is a very pretty coastline, but yeah, lots of hills. This had me wondering what the next morning’s long run was going to be like. It ended up being very hilly.

We have also done some snorkelling and just hanging out the last two days.

Tomorrow we plan to go down to the famous Tobago Cays to give them another try. Our first time there was rather blustery, and we only stayed one night. Right now the conditions are very mild (while Hurricane Gonsalo pummelled some of the Leeward Islands, his influence on us has been very mild conditions). We can see for ourselves what the hype is about.

So we are far from the maddening crowd and just chillaxing on our own.