Port Louis Marina, St. Georges, Grenada

We were away early into a nice gentle 15 knot breeze and very gentle swell for a great leisurely sail south through the Grenadines toward Grenada. The plentiful yachts began to thin out slightly from the hoards further north and we had a really great sail downwind past the beautiful islands of Petit St Vincent & Petit Martinique, Carriacou and Ronde Island before we entered the lee of Grenada. The smaller islands looked great and we hope to get time to head north again at some point to visit them too when we have completed our preparations.
Grenada is very green and mountainous and much bigger than the other islands visited so far creating a large lee which provides a millpond sea along the west coast, though we did need to start the motor to go closer in.



We were within sight of the lovely colonial architecture of St Georges, the capital of Grenada, complete with large cruise ship in dock when there was a sudden buzzzz of the fishing reel. After one bite that had not taken earlier in the day we had been just about to put the reels away to go inshore. However, as Kevin had predicted when the sun got a little lower and the fish came shallower again we got another bite about 4pm. At first it seemed that it had gotten off again because there didn’t seem to be much tension on the line. Kevin lifted the rod out of it’s holder and started to reel in to check when clearly his catch now realised he been hooked and started to swim off fast in the opposite direction. The line ran out at a rate of knots, about 100 meters running out within seconds as Kevin fought to apply the clutch to the reel to stop him. The reel really heated up from the friction, as well as Kevin’s thumb! Clutch applied, Kevin started to reel him in, the bend in the rod suggesting this would be our biggest catch so far. It was quite a battle to reel in, I was sure the rod would snap from the bending but sure enough soon there was a flash of silver in the water, Kevin shouted for me to get a photo, I guess in case the landing was unsuccessful. I lent out the back to catch him coming to the surface and couldn’t believe the size! I thought we’d got a marlin or something on, though a few minutes later Kevin had him on deck and alcohol was swiftly applied as he’d managed to slip his hooks. It was a 4.5ft Kingfish, same family as tuna. Kevin was thrilled as you can see from the photo.
It was all go then as we were practically in the channel for St. Georges, we dropped sails and managed to get a berth at the new Port Luis marina being built by Camper & Nicholson who have marinas in all the tops sailing spots around the world. It is only partly built yet, but nearly all the superyacht berths were full already, infact there was more of them in than normal yachts! We were soon alongside and Kevin did a very neat job on processing the fish, I was on rinse and cling film duty. We now have about 15lb of fish fillets in our tiny box freezer and the Norwegian boat next to also benefitted with a couple of very large steaks!







There is a nice bar in the complex who had a half price happy hour when we went to look round, so it seemed appropriate to participate! We went back to the boat for a lightly fried fillet with fresh garlic, ginger and soy sauce and I have to say it was the best fish I have ever eaten, which is probably just as well as we will be eating it for weeks!!!