St Vincents and the Grenadines/Grenada 2 (15th Jan – 22nd January)

Union Island – 15th January

Next on the list of islands to visit was Union Island, first stop Clifton. This was an awkward and very busy anchorage to get into. one side was protected by a large reef, so it meant navigating around it and through a narrow channel and then having negotiate around all the other boats to find a space. We ended up miles from the dingy dock & it was a pretty windy harbour which was a pain getting ashore with our ridiculously tiny 2 man tender. However it was pretty cool to be anchored opposite the reef where shallows would create ripples of small breaking waves & it was a popular spot for kite surfers.

Clifton itself was a bright bustling little village, full of boutiques selling posh & expensive hand made jewellery. It has a wonderful fruit and veg market made up of lots of little stalls in a horseshoe shape and painted with all the colours of the Caribbean, red, yellow, green. They even had a dog home where they looked after all the stray dogs on the island, although the site of new top dog Scrumpington in town had them all in a frenzy so we couldn’t go over to say hello. Simon and I had an internet day in one the many chic cafes, so we order more UK supplies as Pumba was planning on visiting us in a few weeks in Grenada.

After a night here we stocked up on supplies and headed to a quiet and desolate anchorage called Chatham Bay. It was lovely and peaceful here, well protected from the swell it meant we could enjoy an easy snorkel and it had a long golden sandy beach ideal for walking the rat bag with his ball. The bird life was buzzing and it was full of big pelicans & other sea birds diving down into the water & catching fish. There were a handful of ramshackle bars along the shore but being skint hobos we had to take a rain check.

We had a good nights sleep, but was rudely awoken by torrential rain however it didn’t take long to pass so that we move on to Mopion, Mopian is probably the smallest island in the whole of the Caribbean, its pretty much a pile of sand 20 metres across with nothing on it part from a sun umbrella. This was a must for the tourist tick list and we enjoyed a picnic lunch on the beach, before a power boat turned up & a group of locals hi-jacked the beach with some fresh caught tuna & a BBQ putting our chicken sandwiches to shame. From Mopion we set off back to Clifton Bay for the night, we dropped the girls off by the town to get some drinks whilst Chris and I anchored up. By the time we were done the ladies were back with the booze and we settled in for a night drinking on board.

Carricoau, Grenada – 18th January

We were up early and set of on a medium length sail down to Carricoau. The wind was good and we made good speed down to Tyrell Bay, Carricoau is part of Grenada, and it was good to get into a new country, although it was an island just like any other in the Grenadines. The bay was nice and sheltered but not great for any snorkelling. We went ashore for the evening for pizza and proper chicken wings Carribbean style, they were amazing, KFC can do one…..these were amazing. We also met and fell in love with a local dog who Scrumpy befriended. The next morning we tried to find him again to give him flea and worm treatment, but he was unfortunately long gone. We sailed the short distance round the to the North of the Island to Sandy Island, now this was amazing underwater. It was as clear as glass and there was wildlife galore. Chris and Kerry did a lap of the Island, whilst Holly and I explored the reef for hours. Holly spotted a large ray, which I missed much to my annoyance, but I did find a Queen Conch shell, these are like the Queen bee of the Conch world, and 1 in a few thousand, I considered taking it, but felt to bad to kill the ;little conch, but after finding out how much the locals would have bought the shell, maybe I should have. That evening we pushed over to the town of Hillsborough, who’s best feature was a small deli selling western treats, something we had not seen since europe, pastries, Jambon, golden syrup, sciracha sauce……. if we had more than about 20 pound to last us the next week, we would have spent hundreds, but alas, we just gorped through the window like a pair of idiots.

Halifax Harbour, Grenada – 20th January

So we were up nice and early again to make the passage down to mainland Grenada, it was about 35 Miles to where we wanted to get to, and we also wanted to stop on Isle De Ronde, a small but of land inhabited by 20 people and halfway between Carricoau and Grenada. We sailed the whole way getting to huge bites on the line, unfortunately both got away, but the felt and sounded like the Dorado had been, so we were a bit gutted. So we stopped at Isle De Ronde, but Holly and I were shattered and just fell asleep for 3 hours. We woke up just in time, cutting it very fine for the rest of the sail, we made it just in time to Halifax Harbour in Grenada just as the sun was setting.

St Georges, Grenada – 21st January

We woke to realise the bay itself was actually beautiful, even tho in the dark it was a scary looking place. It was only 2 miles to Molinaire Point, which had been where we had all been looking forward to getting to since arriving in the Caribbean…….for here was an underwater sculpture park, so I can see your all thinking the same as I was, underwater Legoland………..in short NO! it was cool, it had about 15 concrete art sculptures of people mostly, a ring of 20 people holding hands, a man sat at his desk on a typewriter, it was good, but I think it was one of these places I had built up a little, it was all surrounded by the usual beautiful life which I found more amazing.After the mornings activities we pushed on south to the biggest town/city we had been to since Europe, St George. Although being broke, we took advantage of splitting things 4 ways, and treated ourselves to a night in a marina, this was absolute luxury, massive showers, electricity, no skimping on water, a sturdy pontoon, a simple jump off to walk Scrumps. It was a bit naughty, but well worth it.

True Blue Bay – 22nd January

Chris and Kerry went off to explore the town the following morning and Holly and I had a good old boat husbandry day and cleaned the boat down, it was well needed, 4 in this small space was hard going for keeping on top of things. Holly and I set off from the Marina and picked up Chris and Kerry from the dock side in the main town, then we heading to the main anchorage outside of St George. After much deliberation and umming and arring, we decided to push round to the south of the Island to True Blue Bay for the night. With Chris and Kerry’s leaving deadline looming, we wanted to get in as much as possible for them before normal life was upon them.The south coast of Grenada, is just an endless amount of mile deep long thin bays, one after another all the way from West to East, we expected these to be beautiful, like the bays of St Lucia, in reality they were somewhat murky and uncomfortable with the Atlantic swell creeping in. Anyway we settled in for a night on board, and got the home cinema on the go (Laptop and all crammed on the sofa)….only three days left for Chris and Kerry, it has been great having them on board, but we are certainly looking forward to life just the three of us.