Grenada
Thursday, November 12, 2015 – Prickly Bay, Grenada
We pulled out of the Crews Inn marina in Trinidad last Friday and traveled a whopping 6 miles to the very pretty anchorage at Scotland Bay. Scotland Bay is the typical jumping off point from Trinidad to head north to the Caribbean. It’s 80 miles from there to Prickly Bay on the southern end of Grenada, so a departure at 3 am from Scotland Bay gets you in to Grenada before dark. We were so excited to be done with boat work, to be out of the marina and to be back on anchor again after a very long time. Unfortunately that excitement was tempered a bit because a few days earlier an American boat was robbed at gun point and the crew beaten up pretty badly just around the corner in Chaguaramas. Needless to say we were a little nervous about being anchored in somewhat of a remote spot but at least there were a few other cruising boats with us including our friends on Kite and Allegro.
We had a great sail up to Grenada but we were quite surprised to see hundreds of boats anchored or on moorings in every cove on the south end of the island. Welcome to the Caribbean! Fortunately Prickly Bay is pretty big so we had no problem finding a spot to anchor just outside the moorings. That night we had a moderate squall come over the bay with about 30 knots of wind in it. I got up to check on the anchor and saw that a sailboat that was anchored in front of us was dragging down directly towards us at a very fast rate. With no time to start the engine and try to get out of the way, I thankfully watched the bow of Hokule’a tack away in a gust and the dragging boat missed us by half a boat length. As the boat was drifting by we saw a man come up from down below who looked really confused. He was probably trying to figure out if he was dragging or if we were just motoring by him. The VHF radio was buzzing with frantic calls about dragging boats and from the cockpit I could see two other boats relatively near us also dragging. Again welcome to the Caribbean.
The next morning we went ashore to check in and to see if we could rent a mooring. We wanted to see a bit of Grenada but didn’t like the idea of not being on the boat and having to worry about other boats dragging in to Hokule’a. Especially with her new paint job! So we ended up getting a mooring close to Kite who also decided that a mooring was the way to go.
In addition to the sheer number of boats here, the other thing that shocked us about Grenada is that there are daily organized activities specifically for yachties. It’s like an adult day care center! On Mondays for example there is yoga at 7am, water aerobics at 9 am, a special bus into town for shopping at 11am, lunchtime chess games, happy hours going from 3pm to 7pm, and bingo starting at 7:30pm. And that’s just Monday.
So we have spent the past few days trying to avoid the adult day care activities and have been exploring the southern end of Grenada with Jack and Zdenka. We have enjoyed visiting the ancient Fort George, cruising around Prickly Bay in the dingy, walking the streets of St. George and of course going on long walks to seek out fun and interesting places to eat. But what we have really been enjoying the most is getting to spend some quality time with Jack and Zdenka. We first met them in Bora Bora back in 2011 and we would occasionally run into them as we sailed on to New Zealand, Fiji, Vanuatu, New Caledonia, and Australia. Then in mid-2013, somewhere along the Coral Coast of Australia we ran in to them again and we have more or less tagged along with them ever since.
So today is a really sad day for Jackie and I as Kite and Hokule’a will be heading off in different directions. Kite is heading north to complete their circumnavigation and to start working their way home to Maine. Jackie and I have decided to point Hokule’a west and start heading slowly back to California to finish our circumnavigation.
Originally we had hoped to continue on with Kite, but after a lot of research we realized that the timing for getting up the Caribbean, up the east coast to Maine, up to Nova Scotia and then all the way back down to the Panama canal in about 13 months would really be pushing it. Especially while having to deal with hurricane season and the winter trades. To do it we would constantly be on the move and not really getting to enjoy anywhere for very long. Hence our decision to head towards home on a slightly more relaxed schedule that allows us to visit Bonaire, Columbia, San Blas, and other parts of Panama, before transiting the Panama Canal. We figure the Caribbean and East Coast are easy enough to do when we are retired and have no time limit for exploration. Heck by then we might even appreciate the antics of adult day care in Grenada….not!