Trinidad to Grenada
Author: Shirlz
Friday, 22 March 2013
On Wednesday I rowed ashore to fill all my jerry cans and plastic bottles with water, cleared out with Customs and Immigration and spent the last of my TT dollars at the duty free wine shop. The anchor came up cleanly and I sailed around to Scotland Bay for the night and a chance to say goodbye to William who is snugly moored there for the season on his Wylo, Shandoo.
The ebb started conveniently at about 11 on Thursday morning and soon Speedwell was racing through the Boca doing 6 knots with two reefs in – a thrilling exit – until we were spat out on the other side and found ourselves rolling around in the wind shadow of the island with swirling currents making our progress uncertain. I motored away from the cliffs to reach clear water and soon enough we were sailing happily along doing 3 – 4 knots, hard on the wind but able to lay the course. The flat sail performing well. A westerly current runs quite strongly between the islands so we pressed on being careful not to lose precious ground to windward.
The sun was setting as we passed the oil rigs. As usual it was good to be at sea again, although, as a single-hander, this is the worst sort of trip: close to shore, a fair amount of traffic and no chance to grab some sleep for at least 24 hours. Caffeine helps to keep me awake but my primus stove had been going through a temperamental phase after I’d used some low-grade kerosene and I didn’t fancy my chances of being able to light it in the present rough conditions, so I resorted to sipping Coke which works pretty well but was probably not so good for my newly restored teeth.
As the night progressed the wind veered a little in our favour and when the first light of dawn revealed the southern coast of Grenada we were heading a few miles east of the entrance to Prickly Bay. A turn downwind and a fast sail along the coast, staying far enough off to miss the ‘Porpoises’, a nasty little group of rocks very hard to spot in the rough sea. But no problems and soon we were safely anchored on the outer edge of the flock of big cruising boats.
A hard row ashore as now we were definitely in the NE trades. Strong wind blowing night and day from pretty much the same direction although varying in strength. Some strong gusts would stop me in my tracks but soon there’d be a short lull and I’d row like mad. Good exercise. Getting back to the boat is a relaxing downwind drift. Just need to be careful not to get blown too far and miss the boat completely.
Thursday, 28 March 2013
I only spent a few days in Prickly before moving on to Tyrrel Bay on the small island of Carriacou. A hard sail to windward all the way. The sail was working well but I put in a couple of carefully judged ‘motorised’ tacks to keep us comfortably on track. Cheating, of course, but I prefer to get in before dark.
It’s a big bay with room for lots of boats. And there are many. A moving population with some leaving early each morning being replaced with new arrivals in the afternoon. Some are charter boats with uncertain anchoring skills.
It’s the dry season so I was glad that I had filled my water tanks before arriving as there is no handy tap ashore. The island may once have been covered with trees but now it’s mainly low bushy scrub. A scattering of small shops and restaurants along the shoreline and a handy little boatyard with travel lift at one end. White sand, clear blue water and not too many people. A good place to wait for my new credit cards to be forwarded to me.