When we posted our last blog entry we had just arrived in Grenada and cleared customs. We hated to leave the Grenadines but after 6 weeks, collectively, sailing around those wonderful islands it was time to visit a new island nation. Besides, we were in the 4 week count-down to our departure from Trinidad back to the USA so if we wanted to have any time in Grenada before arriving in Trinidad it was time to make a move. Our first stop, the island of Carriacou, initially felt a bit underwhelming. We were so spoiled by the Grenadines and its pristine, unpopulated, beaches and islands. Even where we checked in (Bequia) and checked out (Union Island) the towns were small and didn’t intrude on the glorious beaches and hillsides. The only place to check in on Carriacou was Tyrrel Bay and it was quite industrial. No real beach to speak of and lots of unattractive development. We decided to have dinner on our boat the first night and, after pasta with house made spicy marinara (Shrimp Fra Diavolo for Zack), we settled in to finalize and publish our blog post on our second tour of duty through the Grenadines and also make plans for the next day.
As Jill was posting our latest entry we noticed something highly unusual — someone, unknown to us, had posted a comment to our previous entry about our return to Saint Lucia. We say unusual because very few people, other than our parents and a few known insomniacs, read our blog. We are really doing this blog for us, to preserve our memories, so we acknowledge that our entries can be tedious and don’t make for the most riveting reading. (At least that’s what our kids tell us!). So to see a comment from a real person (not a bot) that we don’t know was a surprise. And not just a surprise but a pleasant one because their note said, in effect, that they were on a charter boat anchored to our starboard side in Tyrrel Bay and thought we had the most beautiful boat they had ever seen so they Googled our boat name, found our blog and were just reaching out to tell us how much they liked our boat. After doing our own Google sleuthing (just to make sure, the best we could, that the occupants of that charter boat were not unsavory characters), we responded with an invitation for them to come aboard for a tour of Che Figata the next day.
The next morning at 10:00 AM, after getting their attention by blowing our air horn and waving our arms wildly (why use the radio?), Denis and Johnnie joined us on Che Figata. We learned that they are avid sailors from Texas on a charter holiday to celebrate their 27th wedding anniversary which was, coincidentally, on the 27th! 27 on the 27th was their mantra. At any rate, we had a lovely time showing them around Che Figata, getting to know them a little bit and hearing about the taxi tour they had taken around the island with a local named Simon.
On their recommendation, we decided to give Simon a try so after they departed Che Figata we reached out to Simon and arranged a tour of our own. Simon picked us up at around 1 PM and we spent a few hours learning all about Grenada history, past and present. This included information about the sugar cane plantations, the COVID lockdown (which was brutal — most people were not allowed to leave their homes other than for a few hours a couple of times a week to attend to essentials like buying groceries), political shifts, Ronald Reagan’s visit after the US invasion of Grenada (he was accompanied by an aircraft carrier!) and the rich tradition of wooden boat building that continues to this day. It turned out to be a great way to spend the better part of an afternoon. And, there was an added bonus! As we drove around the island Simon pointed out a lovely little spit of an island, Sandy Island, just off the coast of Carriacou not too far from Tyrrel Bay. Once we saw that island we knew we had found our happy place and decided to leave the next day to anchor there. We had another great dinner and evening on Che Figata and went to bed excited to move to Sandy Island the next morning.
What a special place! A Che Figata crew kind of place! It was wonderful on multiple levels — beautiful, undeveloped teeny tiny thin strip of an island (barely bigger than a sand bar) with a gorgeous white sandy beach, very few other boats (less than 10) and great snorkeling with rich marine life on one end of the island and magnificent coral gardens, teeming with fish, on the other end. The snorkeling was definitely some of the best we have done this season. We saw all the usual Caribbean tropical fish suspects plus a convention of cuttlefish (up to 50 at times — we could watch them for hours), the largest lionfish we have ever seen, a moray eel, spiny shrimp, a comet starfish, an eagle ray, barracuda and young tuna. At times there were schools of small fish — literally thousands thick — and we were able to swim through the school giving us the feeling of being engulfed in fish! It was truly surreal. We had such a lovely time that we ended up staying 3 nights and 2 full days. The island itself — though pencil thin and only about 700 feet long — was also fun to explore. There were many places where visiting “yachties” built cairns using old smooth coral and rocks, giving the island a mystical feel. We had a great time adding to some of the creations. There was one — which we used as the feature photo for this blog post — built in an arch shape. Not sure how the designers of that cairn were able to do that and have it survive — it remained intact during our entire visit despite the strong winds (perhaps retired engineers turned cruisers?) — but it was quite a marvel.
The loveliness of Sandy Island didn’t stop at the island itself or the surrounding underwater wonderland! As mentioned, Sandy Island is not far from the Carriacou mainland and is directly across from Paradise Beach, near the town of Hillsborough, which is the home of the Paradise Beach Club Bar and Restaurant. Our new friends, Denis and Johnnie, had mentioned that they had enjoyed lunch there during their first day on Carriacou and that a small boat from the beach club would pick you up from the Sandy Island anchorage/mooring field to take you across the water to dinner. With that strong endorsement (and the convenience of a boat taxi), we knew we needed to check it out and we ended up eating at this quaint beachfront restaurant (another 6 table/1 seating kind of place) all three nights.
Denis and Johnnie had moved on to Sandy Island just before we arrived there and we dined with them the first 2 nights. We enjoyed getting to know them better and learning about how they met (on a liveaboard scuba trip, apparently Denis made quite the entrance but we will leave it at that), their brief courtship and the business they built together. They had to leave after day 2 to return their charter boat so we ate dinner at the Paradise Beach Club ourselves on night 3 and struck up conversations with a sailing family (French mom, Dutch dad and two adorable girls, ages 8 and 5) as well as 2 couples on a sailing holiday from Atlanta, Georgia. The food was really excellent all 3 nights and the camaraderie with other yachties was really fun but the best thing about Paradise Beach Club was the genuine warmth of the local woman, Allyson, who owns the place. In less than 5 minutes we felt like old friends. Allyson works hard to make cruisers feel special and welcome. For example, Wednesday night (which was our first evening there) is sushi night and during cocktail hour they bring out pieces of wood and paint so that sailors can paint their boat name on a plaque which then gets hung on the crowded external walls around the open air restaurant. (We posted a picture of one such wall on Instagram.) We got there too late that first night to participate in the painting but we will definitely go back after hurricane season and will make a point to be there on a Wednesday night. A hand painted Che Figata plaque needs to take its rightful place among the many other sailboat plaques that grace the walls around this wonderful establishment.
Though we weren’t quite ready to leave Sandy Island, our clock was ticking and there were a few places we wanted to visit before meeting our buddy boat, SV Hylander, for the trip to Trinidad. So off we went at about 9:30 AM after our third night off Sandy Island and we set sail for mainland Grenada. We had a great sail on a beam reach flying to our destination quickly, often over 9 knots and, at least once, clocking in over 10 knots. Wow!
We arrived at our first stop, Happy Hill, early afternoon. Happy Hill is on the southwestern side of Grenada and is part of a 3 bay area that comprise the Moliniere/Beausejour Marine Protected Area (MBMPA). This area is renown for great diving and snorkeling and is particularly famous for the underwater sculpture park. The sculptures are located in 16 to 26 feet of water and placed in different sandy patches in between the coral. It is listed as one of the Top 25 Wonders of the World by National Geographic so we were anxious to check it out. (You can read more about the underwater sculpture park here: https://www.puregrenada.com/diving/sculpture-park/).
We arrived a bit too late on our first day to have enough time to fully explore the sculpture park so for day 1 at Happy Hill we opted for a short snorkel near the boat. We were not disappointed. We snorkeled around tall walls of coral close to shore and saw the largest number of drumfish we have ever seen in one place. The juvenile drumfish are particularly spectacular with their wispy upper and lower fins that look like streamers as the glide through the water, often in circles. After this little taste of what what’s below the surface in the MBMPA we were excited to visit the sculpture park the next day. We also decided diving was a must and made an arrangements to do three 2 tank dives with a local dive operation, Aquanauts Diving. But we didn’t wish the night away. For reasons we can’t explain, we were the only overnight boat in Happy Hill. We settled in for a dinner of Pad Thai with crispy tofu — a lovely white wine we bought in the French islands nicely accompanied the meal — and dined to the sounds of the surf. Wish we could bottle that sound. It never gets old.
The next day, after a leisurely morning, we hopped in our dinghy to head to the underwater sculpture park. We were pleasantly surprised that, until the very end of our time snorkeling, we were the only ones there. It was really interesting, almost eerie at times, swimming among the sculptures. There were many human forms — some sitting at a desk or park bench, others standing in small and large circles — that looked frozen in time and plaintive. Having been placed in the underwater park just over 15 years ago, the sculptures now have significant growth and serve as an artificial reef that attracts marine life. They have truly become one with the environment. Though we saw many of the sculptures, there is no “guidebook” that tells you precisely where they are, so we know we missed quite a few. The underwater sculpture park is one of the most popular dives in Grenada and we now understand why. We hope to return to dive the site when we make our second pass through Grenada in October.
After several hours of snorkeling around the park we returned to Che Figata for another really lovely evening in our private bay! Jill prepared one of our favorite dishes — Cauliflower Shawarma with Spicy Tahini — which she served over black rice. We paired the dish with a lovely Pinot Grigio that we sipped throughout the evening as we watched the sky cycle through hues of orange, deep blue, red and purple until the fading light was replaced by a black velvet sky twinkling with stars. The sounds of the surf, combined with the gentle waves, was almost hypnotic. Another magical evening!
With only a short time in Grenada before we head to Trinidad, we decided to leave our lovely secluded spot and head to Saint George after 2 nights in Happy Hill. Saint George is just a bit further up the western coast of Grenada from where we were moored. It is the capital of Grenada and hosts many shops and homes as well as the beautiful Grand Anse Beach, the home of several resorts. We headed there for two reasons. First, we were really low on provisions. We’ve picked up some fresh vegetables here and there but our last true provisioning was when we were in Saint Lucia as we prepared to leave for the Grenadines. We were low on everything and, of course, had thrown away a lot of our dry goods as we attempted to remedy the weevil invasion. The good news is that our weevils remediation efforts appear to have been successful. (Yay!) The bad new is that between our purging and the lack of a proper grocery store for 3 weeks, our cupboards were bare! Saint George was supposed to have a decent grocery store.
Our second reason for the visit there was that friends of ours on SV Renegade, a Hylas 54, were at the marina there. We hadn’t seen them since the Hylas rendezvous in the Fall and we were anxious to catch up. Unfortunately, the grocery store was pretty much a bust but the dinner with Jeff and Julie on Renegade was delightful and well worth the short trip to Saint George! The added bonus of this stop was that after we returned to our dinghy from the grocery store we noticed a boat named Mary Doll just down the dock. Jill recognized that name from the participant list for the WorldARC rally we are registered for. We went over to say a quick hello and met Derek and Letitia, a lovely Australian couple. Coincidentally, they were headed to True Blue Bay Resort and we were leaving to pick up a mooring there. (More on that below.) Naturally we made arrangements to have dinner with them at the resort upon their arrival.
After our brief detour to Saint George, we were off to True Blue Bay. Aquanauts Diving is based out of the resort there so that’s where we needed to be to go diving with them. True Blue Bay and the boutique resort that operates there was a really nice surprise. The bay was small, picturesque and uncrowded. Just 2 other boats were there during our visit. The resort was also lovely and very low key. There was a nice restaurant on a patio overlooking the water with excellent food (including vegan options) and 3 small but relaxing pools. Our favorite (where we worked on portions of this blog entry) was the infinity pool built into a small beach. Imagine a horseshoe shaped beach with fine creamy sand that slopes gently down into a pool. The pool gradually gets deeper as you wade in and when you find yourself at the edge on the other side of the pool you are elevated over the bay.
There were two other pleasant surprises in True Blue Bay. The first that was that we had and unplanned rendezvous with fellow participants in the Salty Dawg rally there. Jim and Stephanie are a lovely couple from Massachusetts who sail a Pacific Seacraft 38, SV Hero. While many of you think what we are doing is adventurous, we know that the true adventurers are those who cross oceans in smaller bluewater cruisers. That would be a Pacific Seacraft 38. We are in awe with what they have accomplished in a boat almost 20 feet smaller than ours. That 20 feet is exponential because with the reduced length you also get reduced beam (width) so if you measured our boats by volume Che Figata is probably almost double the size of Hero. They have the same needs that we do for fuel, water, refrigeration and storage and have been able to meet those needs very strategically (and also by making hard choices). Certainly no washer/dryer, cappuccino maker or carbonator aboard Hero. (Shamelessly, we have all three.) We enjoyed evening cocktails together one night at the Dodgy Bar at the resort and an impromptu (and long lasting) pasta dinner aboard Che Figata another night. What a delightful and inspiring couple! Named after the boat that Jim’s ancestors sailed on to get to America long ago, Hero is a very appropriate name for their boat.
The second surprise was that one of our absolute favorite restaurants on Antigua, Indian Summer, operates a small restaurant on Grenada. We had become regulars at the Antigua restaurant because, aside from the great food (including many on menu and off menu vegan options for Jill), the hospitality there was second to none. We knew that the Grenada location was a different kind of place — in a food court with a more limited menu and no alcohol — and we hoped to stop by but made no specific plans to do so. But while diving with the Aquanauts (more on that below) the owner, Tom, recommended a really great Indian restaurant close to the resort for dinner and we decided to give it a try. He said the name was Indian Summer and, even with that, we didn’t connect the dots. It wasn’t until we got close to the restaurant and saw the lettering on the sign and the location — in a food court made out of shipping containers — that we put two and two together. (We blame too much sun — kills brain cells). At any rate we had a fabulous meal there and enjoyed telling the owner on premises about our experience with his sister restaurant on Antigua. Before we knew it we were taking pictures and sending them to the Antigua location. It was great fun and, as we said, great food. So much so that we returned the next evening!
In addition to these lovely surprises, we found an awesome grocery store after an epic walk from the resort so we replenished our provisions. How glorious to have fresh fruit again. Life’s simple pleasures! And we did have dinner with Derek and Letitia (of SV Mary Doll) when they arrived at the resort. We got to hear all about their passage across the Atlantic to Saint Lucia which was harrowing at times. They got caught in a squall with winds clocked at 60 mph and ended up blowing their mainsail. (Yikes.) We had already met two couples who will be participating in the rally with us, Jim and Arden on Kalli (fellow Americans) and Jamie and Fiona on Szel (Brits), and it was very nice to now meet a third! We had a wonderful evening with them and are looking forward to getting to know them as we sail around the world together.
Of course, as noted above, the main reason we were in True Blue Bay was to dive and the diving exceeded our expectations! Our first 2 dives were great. On the first dive we swam around a wreck. It’s always interesting to see the hard and soft coral growth that takes over these structures and the marine life that makes these artificial reefs home. On the second dive we swam down to a hard coral garden that looked like tiered toadstools. We had never seen coral like that before and it went on and on for what seemed like many stories of a building. The best part of that dive was the fairly large octopus we found. It was fascinating to see how he changed shape and color to blend into his surroundings. When he was near the brown coral he not only turned an identical color but his body appeared to take on the texture of the coral, becoming almost indistinguishable from his surroundings. As he moved to a sandy patch he turned a mottled grey that allowed him to blend in with the sand. Honestly, if he didn’t move you would never spot him.
We enjoyed our first two dives so much that we spoke with the owner, Tom, about possibly using our remaining two 2 tank dives to get an additional certification. He suggested that we consider a nitrox certification along with a deep dive certification. (For the non divers among you, nitrox is simply oxygen enhanced air. While the air we breathe — and that fills an ordinary scuba tank — is roughly 21% oxygen and 79% nitrogen, nitrox increases the oxygen to about 30-32%. By decreasing the nitrogen you reduce the nitrogen build up in your system that happens as you dive underwater which increases your maximum dive time.). His reasoning was that with those two certifications you could pretty much go on any dive. Since we are finding that some dive operators, for liability reasons, are starting to get stricter about not allowing you to exceed you open water certification limits (60 feet) we decided to go for it. While we were excited to get these additional certifications it did mean that Zack and Jill were back in school. In addition to the practical portion of the courses (e.g., the diving), there was written course work and an exam. Not really time consuming (about 2.5 hours total for the reading and exams) and not terribly hard to pass (if you read the materials) but not what we would necessarily call fun. It was, however, a necessary evil for the certifications and we were committed!
Our remaining 4 dives, which now served as our practicum, were quite nice. They took us on another wreck dive and through deep coral gardens. And we are happy to report that we passed both the written and practical portions of the course so we are now certified to dive with nitrox and dive to depths of up to 130 feet. We have no real plans to dive that deep but its nice to know we can if there is something worthwhile (and there often is) below 60 feet.
After completing our dives it was time to say good bye — for now — to True Blue resort. True Blue Bay was definitely one of our favorites stops so we will be back (to enjoy the resort and more diving) as hurricane season draws to a close. We were off to Woburn Bay, our last stop in Grenada, to meet up with Diane and Don on Hylander. We hadn’t seen them since we met up on Mayreau Easter weekend. We had great fun catching up over sundowners and dinner at the resort, Le Phare Blue, located in Woburn Bay. Lots of laughs in addition to the requisite discussion about boat repairs, past, present and future as well as our planned buddy sail to Trinidad. Aside from our lovely evening with Diane and Don, most of our few days in Woburn Bay were spent getting ready for our sail to Trinidad. There were the usual departure and arrival forms to complete and submit, COVID testing, checking out of customs and, of course, watching the wind, current and weather forecasts to make the final decision on departure time and sail course. Based on our final course and what looked to be favorable wind and weather conditions we estimated that the ~ 80 mile sail to Trinidad would take about 12 hours so we decided to leave at 4 AM on June 9 with the goal of arriving by 4 PM but, allowing for a margin of error, no later than 6 PM when the sun starts to set making anchoring or picking up a mooring difficult.
The sail plan to Trinidad is interesting. To get to Trinidad from Grenada you sail near the coast of Venezuela for a portion of the passage. Though there have been no reported issues in the last few years, there was a time when boats from Venezuela would apprehend private sailing vessels as they passed by to rob them. There are oil platforms off the coast of Venezuela and, allegedly, workers on these platforms would watch for private boats in transit. When they spotted one they would alert these modern day pirates (who were waiting along the coast) so they could catch up to the vessel and, brandishing weapons, board the yacht. Again, there have been no reports of piracy for about 3 years now but, following the adage that it is better safe than sorry, the recommended route to Trinidad is to head east and stay far enough away from the oil platforms that they can’t see you. An added precaution is sailing with a buddy boat because the more boats traveling together the less likely you will encounter an issue. There really is safety in numbers. Naturally, we followed both pieces of advice and, after a really nice sail (okay there was some some motor sailing in there as well) we arrived in Trinidad without incident at 3:15 PM on June 9. Unfortunately, we are on island time and things shut down rather early. As a result, we were not able to get our health clearance and clear through customs and immigration — that would have to wait until the next day (June 10). That meant we could not get off our boat. No worries — Jill planned for this contingency and had a wonderful dinner pre-prepared. We enjoyed Jill’s now famous Old Fashioned Rum Punch, Mongolian Tofu and a nice bottle of red. We live a good life!
As usual, we filled this blog entry with the activities of our daily life from the mundane to the awful to the totally awesome. (Hopefully you found that most of this entry was in the totally awesome category.) One thing we didn’t write about, but wanted to share, is the phenomenon of Sahara dust. “Sahara dust” as the name implies, is dust from the Sahara desert. In the late spring and early summer months, these tiny iron rich dust particles get picked up by the trade winds and their extreme light weight allows them to remain suspended above the Earth’s surface for thousands of miles. Yes, that takes these particles all the way to the Caribbean! We first noticed the Sahara dust around mid-May as we sailed back down through the Grenadines towards Grenada. The sky had a constant haze (not dissimilar to what the sky looks like on bad air quality days in big cities) that made it difficult to see surrounding islands that were generally visible. At sunset, instead of seeing a large fireball and a mosaic of blues, reds, purples and oranges, the sky had a grey cast. Before it got better, it got worse and fine rust colored dust started to coat the exterior of our boat. We had to get out our rain dance manual to bring about the heavy rains required to clean our boat. (The other alternative was two “somebodies,” that would be us, doing the cleaning). Fortunately, we did have a few timely heavy over night rain showers that gave Che Figata a good rinse. After a few weeks the dust started to subside and by the time we reached Happy Hill in Grenada we could once again see that beautiful blue that usually serves as the backdrop for the Caribbean daytime sky.
Having arrived safely in Trinidad, next on our hit parade (after getting our health certificate and clearing customs) is getting the boat ready to be hauled and getting ourselves ready for our trip back to the States and our extended stay there. To give you something to look forward to we will share all the details of the extensive preparation activities when we write about our time in Trinidad. Expect to see what promises to be a riveting blog entry about decommissioning a sailboat and related preparations right before or after we hop on an airplane to Connecticut on June 21. Until then dream big, live large and don’t run with scissors — it’s all good fun until someone loses an eye. (Okay, we just spent nearly 8 months in the Caribbean so we had to get in a Muppet Treasure Island reference. Anyone who knows us well will understand!)
