Ant, Rach & Gretchen Sailing in the Grenadines – November 2010

Grenada & the Grenadines
We all had the most amazing week long trip sailing in the Grenadines with Ant, Rach and Gretchen aboard. Despite some fearsome squalls on the voyage there and heaving to twice in one afternoon, it was loads of fun and laughter all the way.

[dropcap]W[/dropcap]e set off from St George’s Bay in search of the legendary Grenada Underwater Sculpture Park at Moliniere…we donned snorkelling gear and set off excitedly with cameras at the ready, but after 45 minutes of fruitless swimming in less than clear water we decided it had to remain a legend….this time. We subsequently discovered we’d been in the wrong bay and although it was only a hundred yards from the right bay, it might as well have been a hundred miles!

Onward to Isle Ronde in the afternoon with a night on the anchor. Ant tried his luck at fishing with a hand line and was rewarded with some small Squirrel Fish – they have huge eyes and big spines. We did have them for dinner, but I won’t be trying hard to catch any more; they were very bony with not much meat for the effort.
[pullquote_left]”Squirrel Fish have huge eyes and equally enormous spines”[/pullquote_left]
The following day was an exciting one; we set off the 20 mile trip for Carriacou with black thunderheads looming and within an hour were hit by horizontal rain and 30+ knot winds. Although still warm, and with 2 reefs in the sails, it was pointless trying to sail and we hove to until the squall passed. As the sky brightened, we were joined by some porpoises, but our delight was short lived as we were hit by another squall and hove to for a second time! We eventually made Tyrell Bay and anchored for a look ashore.

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We had another fresh breeze the next day for our sail to the beautiful Chatham Bay on Union Island where we lost Ant for a couple of hours as he went snorkelling. Snagging a couple of lobsters from the local boat vendors meant a fabulous barbeque dinner on board under the stars; time to crack the chilled champagne!
[pullquote_right]”snagging a couple of lobsters…time to crack the chilled champagne”[/pullquote_right]
The next morning we tucked 2 reefs in the mainsail again and tacked along the North of Union Island to Petit Martinique; a tiny island which is part of Grenada. There, disaster struck as the dinghy which we were towing was caught by a gust of wind and overturned! Mon Dieu! We motored over to Petit St Vincent which made for an easier, and indeed stunningly beautiful, anchorage and managed to get a Grenadian local guy, Manny, to come and collect the outboard to flush it of sea-water. What an angel, we had it back and running by 10am the next morning for less than 50 quid, and despite the terrible ordeal of spending an afternoon at Petit St Vincent, we whizzed over to Morpion – home of the “Engagement Unbrella” and not much else, for some wonderful snorkelling before a fast sail down to Hillsborough on Carriacou. There, we found a lovely local restaurant, which looked to have been set up in someone’s garage, for a memorable evening meal.

The next day we had another fast sail under just a reefed genoa back down to Grenada. And on the 25th we actually found the Sculpture Park! Again, the water wasn’t too clear, but we did manage to discover a few of the exhibits, half buried under sand and coral growth.

Read what Ant & Rach had to say about their trip….

To see when we’re next sailing in Grenada, click on our Caribbean Sailing Calendar, or the main menu links at the top of this page, or contact us if you’d like to find out about a private sailing charter on Yacht Ibis.

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