To Grenada
Tuesday 21st and Wednesday 22nd May,2024
Tuesday was the day for our sail from Carriacou to Grenada. Because of the underwater volcano (Kick ‘em Jenny), it’s not advisable to attempt the direct route. In fact earlier this year, the exclusion zone around the volcano was expanded to 5km. While that increase is no longer in effect, we picked our route to stay outside the larger zone. This meant our trip would be in two legs, first a broad reach to the edge of the zone then a beam reach down to Grenada. We chose to go with full mainsail and full genoa. The first leg was fairly mild except for a squall that blew through. We were making water so we hoped to stop the engine (to feather the propeller and stop it spinning) and restart keeping the engine in neutral for power. However, the prop would start to spin again and we were forced to put the engine into gear at low revs. There were some unpleasant noises that were stressing Mike.
After about 2 hours we hit our waypoint and turned in a more southerly direction. We turned off the motor and continued sailing, but ran the water maker for another hour until we had collected about 15 gallons of water. Then the sailing became quite “salty”. All was well until we got into the lee of Grenada. The wind speed that had been steady at around 15 knots, became varied from less than 8 knots to about 25 knots. When a big gust hit us, we took a lot of water over the rail and decided it was time to douse the genoa. By this point we were tired so we decided to head for the closer anchorage.
We turned into a small cove encircled by cliffs a short distance north of Halifax. There were two yellow-hulled boats already at anchor. We attempted to go further into the bay to anchor in front of these vessels. We were just about to drop the anchor when I spotted a heavy-duty white line below us. That could have been a nasty foul up. We quickly decided to anchor behind the second of the two boats. Once stationary, the impact of the swell became obvious—side-to-side rolling. The motion was exacerbated when the wind died away later in the day. It was a night for seasick meds and sleeping in the main cabin. The GPS showed many revolutions around the anchor overnight! All told it was a difficult day.
We were moving a tad slowly this morning. Knowing that we only had a few miles to go, there seemed no reason to rush. We hoisted the anchor and motored about 3 miles to pick up a mooring near an underwater sculpture park. We needed to launch the dinghy and get the outboard on it. The dinghy was bouncing all over the place, causing us to decide that we wouldn’t be staying there overnight! The snorkeling over the sculptures was interesting. (You can search on the inter-webs if you want to see some photos). We also saw some interesting fish, including large parrot fish and a flounder! We also saw a whole squadron (?) of squid and a Donkey Dung sea cucumber (!)
After lunch and a rest, we dropped the mooring and motored a few miles to a mooring field off Port Louis. It was a challenging pick-up—no line, just the thimble at the top of the ball. Thankfully, our resident genius was able to sort out the lines from the deck. Port Louis is adjacent to St. George’s. It looks to be a much more urban area. From here we hope to explore the town and rent a car to see more of the interior of Grenada.
Gloria
12 02.505 N, 61 45.353 W
That underwater sculpture park looks interesting - and slightly freaky with corals growing on certain parts! Jo L
ReplyDeleteCorals, like "certain parts", come in hard and soft varieties. We saw no evidence of either ... although, I can't say we were looking that carefully!
ReplyDelete😂
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