Port Louis Marina, St. George's, Grenada

I can’t believe that in my last post with our excitement of catching the big Wahoo I forgot to mention the largest school of dolphins had passed by us only 30 minutes before! I was at the helm and at first saw dozens of fins close together on the surface to which my first reaction was that I had missed some sort of off lying rocks on the chart and shouted Kevin up. The next thing was that the whole pod of dolphins then left the water in unison and dive through the air. They were coming at us very quickly and showing off jumping through the air, when Kevin shouted me to give a hand to pull in the fishing lines quickly in case they took a liking to the lures. They’d passed by as quickly as they had appeared but it was a great welcome into Grenada.

We were up really early on Friday morning as we were both excited to see some more of Grenada, our arrival here was long awaited as we had read so much because of our wedding here. We decided to have a walk into St. George’s before breakfast, which turned out to be about 20 minutes walk around the bay from the marina. It is quite a bustling place, which with all the colonial architecture reminded me a little of Falmouth with its narrow winding streets. Unusually for the Caribbean the older buildings are brick built with tile roofs which were brought in as ballast on the returning spice ships taking the native nutmeg to Europe. A number of the building have been refurbished recently and are used as government buildings with cobbled courtyards surrounding using the old hand made bricks. The town is built on quite a steep hill and a tunnel is used to get through the rocky headland round which the town has expanded. The Carenage is the name of the waterfront which we explored and the water in the bay here is really clear with lots of fish and is still used by the fishing boats.


The Carenage, St. George's


The Carenage, St. George's

After a stop-off at the supermarket for supplies we were back to the boat for breakfast and somehow the morning seemed to escape us as we charged all the electrical appliances and refilled water etc now we had the luxury of marina life again. I checked us in with the marina and found out that the signed office for Customs & Immigration wasn’t actually open yet and we’d have to go to the one at Grenada Yacht Club across the bay. The nearest ATM was also on the Carenage and we’d need to go there first to get some cash for the fees. Our pilot book said that the Customs & Immigration office shut over lunch time and it was about 1pm when we finally made it there with the boat papers. We received a telling off for not reporting directly when we arrived by the youngish and humourless official, but I guess he was right so we can’t complain.


Newly refurbished Government buildings


Original fishscale tiled buildings in St. George's


Statue dedicated to the Bianca C Passgenger Liner which foundered off St. George's

We then needed to do a proper supermarket stock up with shopping bags, finding that the prices here are about half of Union Island and Bequia. After all that walking around in the sun all day by 5pm we were more than ready to take advantage of the half price Happy Hour in Victory bar. We even treated ourselves to a burger and West Indies Vegetable curry as we’d forgotten to get our Wahoo out of the freezer!


Grenadian courtesy flag now we are cleared in

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!!!

Clifton Harbour, Union Island

Wednesday started early with a tender over to one of the islets at Tobago Cays where we were anchored so we could walk up the small hill to see the view from the top. We took Indefatigable our tender over to the white sand beach and pulled her up before heading off up the path. Grass to my head height (no comments please on the altitude of that thanks) surrounded us as we made our way up the path, with bursts of colour provided by the local wild flowers and many butterflies. We were soon up to the edge of the summit, but the thick and rather spiky vegetation persuaded me not to go much further, Kevin managed to get to the top but said that you couldn’t really see out of the thick growth there. We therefore contented ourselves with the photo’s posted in yesterday’s blog and went back down to the beach to the picnic area there to enjoy the view before heading back to the boat for breakfast.

We both went for a snorkel to say a last goodbye to the turtles for now before we dropped the mooring to head back to Union Island. We had decided it was time to head to Grenada to finalise arrangements for the wedding and do a few boat jobs, so we needed to check out of customs / immigration for St. Vincent & The Grenadines, which I did without too much trouble despite the fact we had apparently only cleared customs and not immigration at Wallalibou on entry, not that anyone explained that at the time.

We completed a few jobs and then decided complete our last task of Union Island which was to visit Janti’s Happy Island recommended to us by Tim we met in the Cape Verdes. Six years ago, Janti an enterprising local decided he had a solution to the growing pile of conch shells left by the local fishermen. He decided to use them to build a bar on the reef at the entrance to Clifton Harbour. It started as little more that a mound on which a very informal rum bar was started and is now a full building with I understand restaurant facilities and a lobster pool! We took our tender over and did the same as everyone else entering that evening, caught the reef which shallows very rapidly just infront. However, we were soon tied up and Janti came over and showed us photos of the progress of the build over the years he had been here. He is a really nice guy and wished us well on our wedding, he too is planning to tie the knot this year, his fiancé works alongside him behind the bar.







We had a couple of beers, as more and more dingies arrived over the evening. As it grew dark the candles came out and everyone moved on to rum punches. Janti was kind enough to provide ours on the house to wish us well for our big day. A really great place with a great atmosphere and one of the busiest bars we have been to in the Caribbean so far.

Tobago Cays

We were up early to get some fresh fruit and vegetables before departing from Sheena’s stall and some fresh bread from the baker’s next to Erica’s. We made the short 6 mile hop to Tobago Cays via Palm Island just after breakfast arriving about 11am. Tobago Cays is a horse shoe reef off the east coast of the island of Mayreau which provides a great anchorage over white sand and seagrass with the reef surrounding you to break up the surf. There are four small islets within the reef all with white sand beaches. It is utterly stunning as you arrive, we took one of the substantial mooring buoys provided by the Marine Park to discourage anchoring. We saw a turtle breaking the surface just in front of us as soon as we stopped and we were both soon in the water with mask fins and snorkel to investigate. There were lots of turtles around and you didn’t have to swim far before you saw one either gazing on the grass at the bottom or coming up for a short breath of air before descending again. They didn’t seem too concerned by the many yachts and day boats in the large anchoring area and we had a great swim round watching them before returning to the boat for lunch.










There are lots of boat boys operating in Tobago Cays and we refused fresh lobster, fish, t-shirts etc, though we did buy ice. We also paid our park fees of 10$EC (£2.50) per person and 45$EC (£11) for the mooring buoy to the very helpful and friendly park rangers that visited. I asked them where we could best get to snorkel / dive the reef and he directed me to some pink buoys set up for dingies on the edge of the area. We went straight over that afternoon and spent an hour or so swimming around. The reef was great though only about 2-3m deep it was teaming with lots of fish of many different varieties. It wasn’t really worth getting the dive gear out for but we really enjoyed our snorkelling, Kevin managed to find an octopus and lobster whilst I excelled at taking pictures of fish swimming away! The deeper areas of the reef were either directly in the swell or on the entrance channel and so it wasn’t really suitable to dive from our tender.






We watched the sunset from our cockpit that evening, it’s unusual to have such an all round view at anchor, broken only by a small islets. We could see the lights on in the yachts all around us and another lovely evening onboard under the stars.











Next time I say have have my tea ready, better have it ready! who am I kidding, I do all the cooking anyway :-)

Clifton Harbour, Union Island

After a bad night’s sleep we decided to head straight to Union Island and treat ourselves to a night in a marina to catch up on our rest and give my a arm a chance to recover before going to Tobago Cays. We had another pleasant sail past Mayreau and into Union Island. We docked at the Anchorage Yacht Club stern to, with our anchor holding us off forward. It is just one simple floating jetty with one hosepipe and two double UK style sockets for power in the little watch house at the end of the pier, so not exactly plush, but we could walk ashore and we did as soon as we were moored up. The dock belongs to a small hotel which has a lobster and conch pool for diners at the edge of the bar and a shark pool between the path and the restaurant presumably for non-payers. It had a number of fair sized nurse sharks in, though it was pretty shallow and presumably quite hot for them as they were trying to hide in the large concrete inlet pipe. We had a cool beer / G&T to celebrate our arrival to a new island then went back to the boat to clean up before a wander round Clifton.

Clifton is fairly small but full of colour and character with brightly coloured vegetable stalls round the central grass square. Everyone is very friendly but not over pushy and we had a pleasant browse round the shops. We visited Erica’s a really good yacht facility with internet stations, book swap, cycle hire, dvd hire, charts, property and souvenir sales infact just about anything you can think of. We decided to hire an old war film for the evening and headed back to the YC for a sundowner cocktail (Pina Colada and Margarita respectively) before retiring to the boat for fresh tuna steaks and the rare treat of shore power and a film.

Charlestown Bay, Canouan

We were up early today ready to be back under sail again, whilst we were having our breakfast in the cockpit of the boat we watch an Osprey dive into the water and take a fish just behind us. There are apparently a number of them on the island. We are also treated to daily fishing displays by cormorants too, the local waters are teaming with fish.

We had a great sail down to Canouan where we had decided to stop off rather than Mayreau as we needed to get some cash and there are no banks on Mayreau. We had a steady 5-6 knots under one reef and a reefed jib to keep us at a nice speed for fishing, the rods going in the water as soon as we had the boat on the right bearing. I thought that was some mistake on the setting up of the rods because literally seconds after Kevin had put the rod over the side the now familiar buzzzzz of the line running out started however the quick dash across the boat from Kevin and the bend in the rod, I soon twigged we had a bite. Kevin worked on reeling it in whereas I did my jobs of fetching the camera, the medical alcohol, gaff hook and bucket and watching the helm. Kevin soon had another tuna in the bucket, slightly bigger than our last, which was dinner today and tomorrow sorted again! We could see Mayreau, Tobago Cays and Union Island in the distance as we rounded the headland into Canouan. At that point we heard the buzzzzz again and Kevin started to pull in our second catch of a large barracuda, however after photos we decided to let him go, being a little bony for our taste, especially with fresh tuna already available.

The usual super yachts were moored just in the lee of the coast and we proceeded in through the gap in the reef to the inner anchorage. We picked a good spot and laid our anchor with plenty of chain because there was a big swell running and breaking on the shore. The dingy dock was right in the middle of where it was breaking and we decided to let Kevin drop me off there to get to the bank and get in some fresh supplies rather than leave ours lurching again the dock in the swell. I jumped off the dingy quickly up the ladder which is at the shore end of the jetty. Kevin kept going and just managed to turn the dingy into the next wave before he was swept on the beach.

I wondered down the road past the posh new Moorings Yachting base and then into the local’s area a football ground with corrugated iron fencing and down the main street with baby goats and chicken wandering around. I found the bank straight away (there is only one main street) and went into the little kiosk, put in my PIN, pressed Enter as directed on screen, it didn’t do anything then eventually asked me if I need more time? After about 4 attempts and worried about having my card swallowed on a Sunday I decided to go to the supermarket (well minimarket in UK terms) and see if I could pay by visa there. No, luck there either, so I decided one last try at the ATM, on this attempt I finally saw the sign that told you to press the Clear button after entering your PIN! Ah well, back to the supermarket though I didn’t go mad as the prices were not exactly cheap (3 tomatoes = £1.25, all wine £11+ per bottle etc).

Canouan definitely had an undeveloped feel to it, Charlestown has a few restaurants but they are more like modified houses and definitely has a locals feel to the place. However, this is only part of the story because the entire northern half of the island has been sold to developers and now houses a Raffles resort and Donald Trump golf course. The entrance is apparently gated and open only to residents, closing off half the island. I gather it has brought some prosperity to Charlestown as the local houses are a good size, but the ongoing income clearly doesn’t extend far beyond the walls.

Back to the dock, I called Kevin on the handheld VHF to pick me up, I could see the swell was even worse now splash up through the dock and the ladders were clearly no longer an option. Kevin told me he’d pick me up at the end and I’d need to be quick. He swooped round and I eased myself to the edge and then dropped in as he came below. However, somehow I managed to leave my right arm behind me, trying to slow my descent, ending up with my weight resting on my underarm before I dropped into the tender. Ouch! I told Kevin to keep going as I grabbed my arm and we got back on Invincible. It turned out to be just badly bruised though swelled up like a golf ball. Kevin got me some ice in a towel to get the swelling down and I spent the afternoon with my feet up reading Patrick O’Brien. Writing this now three days later I am nearly back to normal though have a quite impressive bruise, which I am hoping will be gone before our wedding day in only 6 weeks time!

Our impression of Canouan didn’t really improve overnight as the wind howls down the hillside permanently into the anchorage providing about 25 knots all night when it’s only about 15 knots outside. This is barely mentioned in our pilot book, which we have detected is concerned more with not upsetting the advertisers than informing yachtsmen. Anyway, we still had a lovely evening with our fresh tuna fillets and we were joined by a number of other yachts.

Britannia Bay, Mustique

We had booked a Mule ourselves for an island tour this morning, but it was absolutely pouring down at 9am when Paul the manager came to drop it off for us at Basil’s. He said to us that the forecast was due to be like that for the whole day with a big band of squalls passing through and suggested we perhaps delay for tomorrow and to give him a call. We were also chatting to one of the barman, everyone here is very friendly. He said “Mick” was home at the moment and some England cricketer. I don’t think I would recognise a single one of the English squad, except perhaps “Freddie” Flintoff, so I am afraid I won’t be too good at star spotting. We agreed with him and headed back to the boat to dry off. Obviously the weather cleared up by around 10.30am, so we are heading for a walk along the shoreline instead later.