After
sailing close-hauled all the way up Grenada's West Coast keeping as
close inshore as possible to avoid the current we cleared the island
and set a course for Tyrrel Bay in Carriacou . Once you clear the lee
of the island the wind tends to strengthen along with the current
setting to the West and the seas can get a little rough , but on most
occasions you are in for an exhilarating sail . There are a number of
uninhabited islands on route to keep clear of including Kick 'em
Jenny , but there is also an active undersea volcano of the same name
that erupted in 1988 and 1989 . The Grenada Government has declared a
1,5km exclusion zone around the volcano at all times and when Kick
'em Jenny gets a little grumpy the exclusion zone is extended to 5kms
. Yet we saw yachts sailing south right over the volcano either not
concerned or worse still unaware that the volcano was even there .
We
finally arrived at our approach waypoint off the entrance to Tyrrel
Bay which is a huge and protected anchorage very popular with
cruisers although we experienced our worst rock & roll session
one evening while on anchor and we all slept across our bunks to
minimize the effect . The cause was a northerly swell that wrapped
around the point and rolled into the bay with all the yachts lying
beam to the swell . One of the locals told me the story of the day
when out of the blue after Hurricane Lenny a huge swell rolled into
the bay and literally wiped out a brand new road that had just been
completed along the waterfront . One of his mates owned a car hire
business with his cars standing in a yard across the road from the
beach . When these waves started breaking over the road he had all
and sundry scrambling to drive them to higher ground . In November
2016 a boat sank in the anchorage right bang on the entrance waypoint
listed in our second cruising guide . What is concerning is that if a
boat is not aware of this wreck and is using this guide as a
reference , in the dark you would never see it and would probably
slam into it thinking you were perfectly safe . We were anchored
quite close to this wreck and on two occasions after dark we had to
yell to warn the skippers that they were headed for the wreck as in
the dark and using only headlamps they would never be able to spot
the sunken boat . Hopefully at some point the wreck will be removed .
Talking
about wrecks , late one afternoon while relaxing in the cockpit we
noticed a large superyacht flying the Brazilian flag motoring into
the bay at a rate of knots and heading straight for a reef commonly
referred to as Bareboat Alley . They slammed into the reef and came
to an abrupt halt . The captain immediately put the engine full
astern and with black smoke pouring out of the exhaust he dragged
themselves off the reef and eventually got back into deeper water .
After drifting in the bay for sometime while l presume they were
looking for damage the captain turned and started heading back into
the bay once again at a rate of knots , but this time heading
straight for the sunken wreck and by now in the dark . Fortunately a
fellow cruiser got onto the radio and started yelling at them to
alter course immediately which they did and finally they anchored
just short of the wreck . I still can't figure out how come he/she
was not aware of this reef as it is clear on the charts and also
spoken of in the cruising guides .
As is
now our standard practice when arriving at a new island we got
together with our cruising buddies and arranged a island tour of
Carriacou . Our tour guide Linky explained that this island has over
a hundred rum shops but only one gas station to refuel all the
vehicles that travel around this enchanting island . The one place l
was dead keen to visit was Windward , not only because this village
was named after our boat ( joke ) but also because it is where the
old traditional boat building industry continue to build the old
wooden classics that still sail the islands today . Recently a
documentary film was produced telling the story about these boat
builders and their trade . We were fortunate enough to get to see two
of these classics under construction which after having finished my
own boat l found really interesting . Linky told us about the
launching methods that are used to get the boat to the water and the
party that celebrates the launch with no one apart from the owner
knowing the name of the new vessel until the priest blesses the boat
and announces the name to the audience at the launch . The entire
ceremony is carried out in the old traditional way as the generations
of boat builders have done in the past and everyone and anyone is
welcome to the launch party .
Changing
the subject completely , while my girls were out exploring in
Paradise Beach they came across a little restaurant come coffee shop
and started chatting to the lady owner . It turns out that she and
her brother were at school with my sister and myself in Westville
back home in South Africa in our junior school days and l remember
them well . When my sister finds out she is going to be blown away
that here on a remote Caribbean island in the opposite hemisphere my
daughter bumps into an old school friend dating back to the sixties .
It is unbelievable
how small this planet really is .
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