Grenada

Monday, June 13, 2011

We left Union Island at 0830 heading for Grenada. The wind was 16-18 knots from the ESE. Our heading was 232 degrees and the wind was 140 degrees so we had a great sailing day on a beam reach. We even had a current pushing us so Speed over the ground was 7knots plus, even hitting 8 knots for a brief time. We passed by wide Hillsborough Bay and Tyrrel Bay of the island of Carriacou within two hours. Between

Carriacou and Grenada there are several rocky islands and an underwater volcano which must be avoided.We stayed about 2 miles from it, but the waves did kick up some while we passed it (5-7 feet). Evidently a few days later it was more active and the waves were higher and shorter distance apart making the passage rougher in that area. We passed it safely and proceeded down the west coast of Grenada to St. George's Bay towards the south end of Grenada .. We arrived about 2:30 p.m. into the bay and went into Lagoon to Port Louis Marina. This marina does uses a mooring ball for the bow and ties the stern up to the dock. Since we have a canoe stern, we have to have the mooring ball tied to our stern and then tie ourbow to the wall. They tried to put us on a mooring but couldn't get the mooring pulled up even after two tries. They only have 110 electrical service on this one dock, the one they were trying to place us. Instead they gave us a slip on the 220 dock so we had to use our generator to run our refrigerator,battery charger, and air conditioning. This marina is fairly new with most amenities and even have holding tank pump out stations. This is the first place in the Caribbean we have seen pump out facilities. They have wifi but it is weak and doesn't really reach the docks. You can get a modem for a deposit. If we were going to be here longer, we would do that. The wifi signal is associated with their restaurant, but even there the signal is weak. They also have many services for boats here in the marina in small

colorful one room cottages. Is is beautifully landscaped.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

We found the laundry place at the marina and left 35 pounds of laundry to be done. It was not a do it yourself, but we had to have sheets and towels cleaned. I also had our rugs washed.

We spent the morning getting ready to check into customs at the Grenada Yacht Club ( also in the lagoon). We had to get the dinghy off the cabin top and put the outboard engine on it to go check in. We ate lunch there. Charlie had pork ribs which were good and I had chicken fingers which were terrible. The building was much more utilitarian than the Charleston Yacht Club.

We noticed that some American and Canadian boats have a transformer which allows them to use either 100 or 220, so we thought about buying a transformer which would give us more flexibility. We went to the nearby Island World chandlery to try to buy a 220-110 transformer. They did not have them and sent us to a nearby hardware store. They had some but not what we needed. In researching it further, we discovered that we might destroy our refrigerator's and air conditioner's compressors. We decided it was too much of a risk. So we spent another day using our generator instead of being plugged into shore power. That night we began having some short but heavy showers.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

We had had a lot of rain overnight and it continued throughout the day. Charlie had the marina call a computer store which sent someone to pick up his computer to try to fix it. He got it back in late afternoon and it is now working fine. The marina moved us from the 220 dock to the 110 electrical dock before noon during a lull in the rain. We have begun to meet some of the other cruisers. Some we had met during our travels southward. I was able to walk over to a nearby grocery store for some supplies. Walking back to the Marina I noticed that our Canadian friends (Rick and Elizabeth on "Sojourner") had arrived at the marina and were on the same dock. We visited with her and then were invited to board another boat along the way for a cocktail. A young couple, Scott and Brittany on "Rasmus" from Chicago that we had met in Rodney Bay introduced us to an older couple, Andy and Sharon in a trawler "Finally Fun". The older couple have a daughter who lives in the Charleston area. It is a small connected world.

We had hoped to use the Cruisers Net which is on VHF channel 68 every morning at 7:30 to try to find other cruisers who planned to sail to Trinidad to form a convoy. We discovered that we could hear only some of the net. Luckily we met a couple visiting the marina who currently had their boat in Prickly Bay where the net was broadcast. We gave them our boat card and they were going to contact one of the boats there that seemed to know and organize activities to see if they knew of boats planning to go to Trinidad. This couple e-mailed both of us and through them we were able to contact two boats planning to go to Trinidad.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

The rain is not constant but showers and the sun come and go throughout the day. Since it has been rain ing a lot, there should be many rainbows but I have only caught one so far. I 'm not sure it will be visible enough.

We continued to try to get together with the Trinidad bound cruisers. One couple on a 60 foot boat would travel much faster than out boat can so that did not work out. Another couple, Cheryl and Robin Wilson have a catamaran "Just Imagine". They came over to our marina this afternoon so we could meet each other and explore the possibility of sailing together. They are a very nice couple and we plan to leave here, sail to Prickly Bay where they have their boat, and then we will sail together on Sunday afternoon . It is 85-100 miles to our destination in Trinidad so it will take more than 12 hours to get there. Therefore you leave in late afternoon so you will arrive the next day during daylight hours. If you are delayed, you still have 8-10 hours of daylight to arrive at the destination. If we go 5 knots, it will take us 17 hours. If we can go 6 knots/hr we can arrive in 14+ hours. If we were to go 7knots/hr, it would be just over 12 hours, but neither boat would be able to average 7 knots/ hr even using the engine.

We went to the small pool at the marina in late afternoon and visited with the cou

ple, Glory and Bob, on the catamaran "Tranquilla" next to us. They have been cruising for many years. Several other boats that we have seen before came into the marina on our dock today. It was nice to visit with them again. We had cocktails tonight on the Canadian boat (Rick and Eliz) and looked at some of the pictures they have taken during their cruise. We ate dinner at the marina restaurant. There we met and chatted with the captain of a HUGE expedition yacht in the marina. The captain is from Spain and the crew of 10 is international. the owner is European and spends about 5 months total on the boat during the year. This boat could go

anywhere: Alaska, Chile, Europe, etc. The owner likes to go to the more unusual places. He is not at the boat at the present. In the picture, the catamaran is 46 feet to give you a sense of the boat's size.