To Grenada

Sailing Hurricane season formally starts July 1 and the boat will be hauled for the season in Grenada. We look forward to going home. We are both grizzled and unshaved with skin like tanned leather. We look forward to our home being secure and our bed not moving.

Union Island

We have been anchored behind a reef in Union Island for the last 3 days. On the other side of the reef is the open ocean and behind is the Island. It is a holiday here and we need to wait for Monday to officially check out of The Grenadines with Customs, Immigration and Port Authority. The wind has steadily increased and we have steadily worried about the anchor holding, while our bed bounces about and the wind howls. This boat weighs somewhere around 30,000 lbs, and is hanging on a little chain attached to a tiny 30 Kg anchor that we hope is really dug in by now. You can tell yourself to quit worrying, but…..

If you think anchoring is nervy, you should see the airport here. Small planes come in just clearing the mountain peak, immediately dropping down at a very steep angle, hitting the runway and slamming on the brakes just before sliding into the water. It is a sight to watch. We watch the depth gauge very closely when we are anchoring. The pilot of the plane must quickly gauge exactly when to pull out of his steep dive, and hit the runway. I believe the runway is sloped a bit down hill to help both the landings and to quickly get speed for take off over the water.

We left Union Island and sailed the entire 9 miles into a different country, anchoring in Hillsborough Bay, Carriacou. This island is part of Grenada and the Southern Grenadines, so we are now officially in Grenada. It is a beautiful wide sandy bay with only a couple of other boats. After a while one can see why there are so few boats here – the bay is rolly with wind bullets. That is, waves coming around the point hitting us on the side, so the boat goes bop bop from side to side. Then the wind builds up behind the island until it finally lets go and blasts down onto the water, in what cruisers call bullets. It actually got very calm after about midnight.

Yesterday, while in a small nondescript store in the small village of Hillsborough, we ran into an old sailing friend, David Haigh. The first time we met David was 6 years ago in Aden, during our sail from India through Pirates Alley, up the Red Sea and to Turkey. David is from Australia, sails “Sahula”, usually single handed, and was right behind us going thru the Suez Canal. David and most of the other boaters making this journey were very competent sailors, only going thru this part of the world as part of their around the world journey. Some were on their 2nd lap circumnavigation. Many of us were anchored at a famous reef in the Red Sea miles from land when the group decided that since we had the biggest boat, we were going to host a get together. We had 12-14 cruisers aboard for a BBQ. The fishing in the Red sea was so good that most brought their catch of the day. It was a very international interesting group, Canada, US, Oz, Turkey, Romania, UK. From Turkey, we swallowed the anchor (sold our boat) and returned to California. Meanwhile, during the last 6 years, David went up the Black Sea, thru the canals of Europe; up The Danube River; to the Baltic Sea; to the UK and then across the Atlantic to here. We really enjoyed reminiscing with David and his crew, Martin, over sundowners yesterday evening. This morning we waved them off on the next leg of David’s journey back to Australia. They were headed west, 400 miles non-stop to Curacao. Should be a 3 day downwind sail.

I can’t resist complaining about wifi in the Caribbean. Years ago when we first started sailing internationally, we had an acoustic coupler. It looked liked like an old telephone handset. You would plug it into your laptop, then find a pay telephone booth. The acoustic coupler had a bit of Velcro on it; you would mate the telephone handset with the acoustic coupler and wrap them together with the Velcro. If you dialed the correct number (there was one or 2 numbers for each country) and the coupler received the internet screech – then bang, you were on line. I was often standing out in the weather, with the flies and mosquitoes balancing the computer on whatever I could find. Some of the more sophisticated countries had Internet rooms where you could pay a few $’s and either use their computers or plug in your own. Then came wifi. I like the acoustic coupler better! I’m still dragging the laptop around, the screen glares unless in a dark room, and I sometimes get on line. It seems that no one wants to give away free wifi. You need to buy a beer or a meal. Some of the shop owners have the damned signal so limited that you have to go within 10 ft of their modem and compete with the other 30 customers to get on line, then grow old while it sometimes works. Before leaving home, I bought a Umbiquiti 2HP Bullet wifi receiver, an EnGenious antenna, and an Air 802 POE (power over ethernet). I plug it all together, turn on the power and hoist it up the mast, and NOTHING!

We are now in Grenada, having sailed on a great down-wind 30 mile sail from Carricou. So far Grenada has been very interesting and scenic. We are anchored in St. George the capital city. It is a very old British City with well preserved colonial buildings. The fort is 300 yrs old and sits on a spectacular hill overlooking the entire bay. Grenada is a large island with high mountains and plenty of water, so it’s quite green. We were delighted with the large supermarket and the choice of foods. Lettuce, tomatoes, and vegetables in general were sparse in the smaller islands. The islands eat a lot of fish and chicken. What I wouldn’t give for a good steak!! We actually had a can of sailors’ staple, corned beef, yesterday. But tonight we are having steak and fresh salad.

Next day – we sailed around the southern point of Grenada and up to Prickly Bay. This is the place where we will have the boat hauled and stored “on the hard” until after hurricane season. We looked at the yard and it is really nice, very secure. Our boat will be tied down with huge straps so that it will not blow away in case of a hurricane. This is a bonafide hurricane hole acceptable to our insurance company. There are hundreds of boats on the hard here from all over the world. We should be the only boat with a hailing port of Folsom, California.

To put this great adventure into the proper context – we have spent over 4 months covering a distance of 456 miles, based on taking the most direct routes from St. Martin to Grenada. I think we spent more time at happy hours than sailing! That is as it should be! This may be the last update for this adventure and I don’t know if my first mate will consent to another season.

After visiting these Caribbean Islands, I need to say that we, living in America, are very, very fortunate!!!