Sunday, October 21, 2018

Rewind: A Great Sail to Carriacou

Actual Date: July 27th to August 6th

By Dan

As our cruising season began to wind down we wanted to take one last sail up the coast to Carriacou which is a small island that is part of Grenada.  The trip starts with a slow motor sail up the west side of Grenada for the first couple hours:

Our Route

St. Georges - the main harbor in Grenada

A spectacular view of the mountains of Grenada from the water


Sam captains SandStar up the coast

 
Once you reach the north tip of the island the wind and current stacks against you and the wave and wind funnels right onto the bow.  There is also an underwater volcano called Kickem’ Jenny which can cause a confused sea and add in a squall or two and you have an interesting 3-hour sail in lumpy conditions but Carriacou is worth it!

Carriacou from the sea

We stayed in a great anchorage named Tyrell Bay for a week or so and rented a car, ate some great food and snorkeled the local wrecks.  From there it is a quick 45 minute motor over to Sandy Island which to me is one of the best examples of a picture perfect Caribbean Island.

Sandy Island by day (the little dots in the picture are birds)

Sandy Island by night
Our girl from the beach with Carriacou in the background

We stayed for about a week and snorkeled several times each day, but we needed to start making our way back to Grenada for the haul out.  Fortunately, the trip back south was perfect sailing and we were on a beam reach the whole way

Kathy at the helm
On the way back to our anchorage we stopped by the famed underwater sculpture park just off Grenada and had the anchorage to ourselves.

A view from our back deck

The kids immediately launch their favorite mode of transportation

We were able to buy a whole fresh black fin tuna for about $12US and had grilled fish tacos for lunch

The trip was a great opportunity for us to stretch the sailing legs and get in a couple weeks of fun at a new island.  The kids also took the opportunity to launch our new family bulletin board which is right in the middle of our salon.  It's been funny to see a lost and found poster on our small boat.

Signups for boat events and missing items :) 


We can't wait for hurricane season to wrap up so we can explore the island chain up to the Virgin Islands.