The fact that most people do not realize that there are, in fact, three islands in the nation of Grenada is a fitting introduction to Carriacou (carry-a-cou). This humble isle is often forgotten. Where the island of Grenada can feel touristy and busy at times; Carriacou, by contrast, is quiet, laid back and relaxed.

This beautiful little island is thankfully off the radar of most travelers, leaving its green hills and white beaches ripe for discovery by cruiser's like us. The island is 13 square miles with a population of about 6,000 people. The main villages on the island are Hillsborough, L'Esterre, Harvey Vale, and Windward. We spent our time in Tyrrel Bay at Harvey Vale.



Upon arriving in Tyrrel Bay all we wanted was to find a calm anchorage, we had done enough rolling at anchor in the previous two months to last us a lifetime! Regrettably, we were not to find this peace in Tyrrel Bay, the winter winds were blowing and the northeast swells had followed us to Carriacou. For the five days we were there the winds blew a consistent 20-25 knots. Great for making power, but it ultimately proved too much for our flag. The ungrateful wretch jumped ship as I was clearing us out of Grenada and Barry was preparing Smart Move to set sail for Petite Martinique. The shocking part was he managed to talk his staff into jumping ship with him. I guess he just didn't believe us when we told him we would get him completely refitted when we got to Puerto Rico in June. I think he suspected we were going to replace him and he wanted to take control of his destiny!



We spent our time hanging out with old and new friends and enjoying the great restaurants and happy hour specials.



A couple of restaurants of note where the Lazy Turtle and the Slipway. At the Lazy Turtle we were met at the entrance at the top of the stairs by the owner, holding menus and asking us where we would like to sit. We were stunned to silence by the service! Seriously! In our experience, in the Caribbean (the exception being resorts) you have to go ask for menus after 20 minutes when you realize no one is going to come to your table, you have to go order your own drinks at the bar and wait for them, and at the end the night you have to chase down the waiter to get your bill. In our experience, most restaurants do not give a shit. By contrast, the Lazy Turtle was a little bit of restaurant heaven - good service, good food, and fair prices. The rum punch was great too!



The other notable restaurant was the Slipway. It is in a building that boats use to be built in and much of the equipment used to build the boats are still there - incorporated into the bar, or tables and some were suspended from the ceiling. The lunch special the day we were there was Chili Verde with corn tortillas. Any sane California native would never order this dish in the Caribbean but I couldn't help myself - I was desperate enough I would settle for even bad Mexican food! When my meal was served I thought I had died and gone to heaven! I would have just been happy eating the fresh made corn tortillas, the chili verde was an additional gastronomic ecstasy!



Carriacou is probably best know for it's local boat building heritage, boats ranging in size from small fishing sloops to large trading schooners. The village of Windward was home to a group of Scottish boat builders who settled in Carriacou during the 19th century and passed on their practices, which are still used in boat building today.





Carriacou is also known as the 'Land of Reefs', with shallow clear waters surrounding the entire island. For Christmas 2012 Barry and I bought for ourselves SCUBA gear. Our friend Phil Henriksen got us some great gear from Neptune Divers in Salt Lake City and our friends Bob and Leslie brought the gear with them when they visited us last January. Well when we got to Carriacou we decided it was time to take a refresher course and get diving again. After completing our refresher course with Arawak Divers we did two more dives. The first was to a site called the Rock, the second site was called Sandy Garden. Unfortunately I didn't enjoy the first dive too much as my new (prescription) mask was having issues. Fortunately, the dive master had brought along a second one and I was able to change masks in 35 feet of water. I would have preferred to go to the surface to do this so I was a bit stressed out and missed much of the scenery. The second dive was spectacular though. The dive master had original planned to have us do a drift dive in 65-130 feet of water. Having problems with my mask the day before and worrying about how Barry would cope with the current, I asked to change sites. I wish I had taken my GoPro with me, it was spectacular! There were endless expanses of soft corals which had juvenile reef fishes hiding among them. We saw yellowtail snappers, groupers, trumpet fishes, nurse sharks, moray eels, an adult Queen Angel, huge lobsters, and of course the invasive lion fish .





Carriacou was to be the first of many small islands we have visited in the last month. The pace of life is relaxing in the max. We left Grenada as a well provisioned boat so we didn't have to deal with the realities of grocery shopping there. However, we were just starting to realize the downside to being 'off the grid' so to speak as our ailing autopilot finally gasped it's last breath of life.