Grenada, its been a long time coming Part one

Grenada our home for the next few months so to speak, hopefully far enough away from the hurricane belt thats why the area is so full of yachts but you never know.

Grenada, so much to say about this place, as I do this blog I will try and give you more information in bits rather than all in one go.

6 days a week at 7:30 is a cruisers radio network which gives information on just about everything, the weather, security, lost and found, treasures of the bilge, local events like games, exercise, walks, party's, shopping busses and local businesses give their input with anything from selling goat meat to beer.

Our lovely friends Andrew and Clare on Eye Candy have been here for almost 2 months we have had a few "beers" together both in the Virgin Isles and here. Now are on their way to the ABC's for the diving and further West ready for the Panama canal for the Pacific. We first met them in Cartagena Spain they left the year before us and said then one day we will meet up again. We will miss them, stay safe guys and fair winds.

We came here on the 8th of June 2014 after a lumpy bumpy 4 and a half hour ride, the wind was a bit fluky from 12 then 18 to 22 true wind we were using the main at about 3/4 full and the full jenny.

Dropped the anchor at 12 02 N  61 45 W in 2.7 metres of water, the holding here is not too good its coral and sand but we laid out lots of chain, this anchorage has a reputation for boats dragging and there were lots of yachts about. We sat away from the pack a little longer dinghy ride from St Georges the capital.

This was taken from the yacht club St Port Lois Marina in St George's

Although it was Sunday we took a ride into the supermarket dinghy dock first and did a little shopping then went into yacht club for a few drinks. As we hadn't been here before and time was getting on we returned to the boat.
The anchorage is very exposed and we rolled about but I did eventually get to sleep, Don can sleep through anything.

Both of the above are of the Carenage in St George's the ferries go in here and the cruise ships take the tourists into here.

Street markets in St George

Monday 9th of June we set off for Prickly Bay just a couple of hours around the headland and along the south coast. Until we reached the headland we had a smashing sail just with the jenny then things changed, engine on and slamming into the sea with wind on the nose, reminds us of the Mediterranean.

Most of the bays here are entered by navigating through some treacherous reefs, some have markers, some of the markers have gone and there are some shoals that move too so as Don is concentrating on watching the depths I keep quiet and I try to keep busy and not panic.

Prickly bay is pretty big, there is a very small marina and some moorings mainly private I think, it was busy, we tried to anchor in one place closer to the West side but we would have been very close to other yachts so we decided to move a little way out in much deeper water and laid out all of our chain, bad decision flip did we roll all night again, so the following morning we lifted and shifted, luckily one of the best spots in the whole bay.

Prickly Bay has a floating dinghy dock on one side close to the marina, there is a customs and immigration office, small chandlers and great bar. The Tiki Bar which serves food, free wifi they provide concrete tables and benches hanging power supplies with different sockets, its very well done, they always seems to have some kind entertainment going on. Its not fine dining but the lunch specials are quite good with 2 for 1 pizza not that we eat many pizzas.

The Tiki bar with free WiFi and sockets to charge all the pc's and phones

The Tiki bar

The other side of Prickly has Budget Marine and if you walk up the hill you can catch a bus into St Georges so thats what we did so we could go to the supermarket and we had a walk along the beach at Grande Anse which we could see from the anchorage outside St George, its a shame its not an anchorage we couldn't have anchored there but it is quite shallow. We noticed even more yachts that we have either seen or met on our way down its a comforting sight to see others have arrived safely.

Thursday 13th of June.
Moved into another anchorage Mt Hartman Bay, yet again another very tricky entrance, we had a scary moment when the route in on the chart and markers were incorrect, the depth suddenly changed from just over 5 metres under the keel to .3 of a metre so Don took us back a little further out and moved us over to deeper water, well done Don.

Next time we will use the alternative route and go to the east side of the bay further out but even that route is not marked properly.

So here we were close to Secret Harbour marina,
dropped the hook 12 00 N 61 44 W a place the yacht insurance should be content with.

Views from Secret Harbour bar

Don with his cold beer

Just "liming" a common expression used in the Caribbean

The excitement was increasing as out friends Steve and Lizzie  fellow yachties we first met in Spain, now living on their yacht Seraph in Chichester England were due on the 19th. We booked Agua Therapy into the marina for a few days so when our friends came we could make it comfortable for them and we prepared the foreword cabin where they would sleep, it was hard to remember when we last saw the bed clear of sails and general "suff" in fact very satisfying.

So here they are just arrived from the UK

Compulsory drinks for new arrivals


So the fun begins in Part 2 of Grenada
BFN
Agua Therapy
Don and Glenys Graham