The joy of these Islands is that they are only a day sail away from each other, we won’t need to do any passage sailing till we leave Grenada to head for Curacao where we shall lay Sisu up over the hurricane season. Our sail to Carriacou was a joy, full head and main up all the way, steady 6 to occasional 8 knots of perfect beam and close reach sailing. We had companions along the way. There are many seabirds here, the Magnificent Frigate, Terns, Black Headed gulls, Pelicans and Gannet sized Brown Booby birds. With their large wings spread out, brown plumage, white beaks and gentle expressions, we watched them dive into the sea, hunting for small fish. Of course, their name gives Terry full permission to shout loudly “Boobys!!” whenever we see them…. Seeing two of these seabirds flying past is even better, and like a naughty schoolboy he calls out “A pair of Boobys!!” resulting in the pair of us chortling away in the cockpit like badly behaved children. We’ve decided that the collective noun for a group of Booby birds must surely be “a handful of Boobys”. Stop sniggering at the back of the class!!!!
Biting our lips to curb our immature behaviour, it’s such fun though, we are brought back to a higher level of wildlife appreciation by the arrival of a very large pod of dolphins. Leaping and twisting as they throw themselves high out of the waves, they come towards us, showing off, adults and babies together. We’ve never seen so many! I tried to photograph them, but it wasn’t easy as the boat was pitching with the beam on swells, but I got some good film footage. They dived under and around us, their minds were on fishing though and they didn’t hang around too long, just enough to once again prove they are in total harmony with the environment they live in and life for them is pure sensation of power and joy. They writhed and spun their grey gleaming muscular bodies a foot six feet out of the water each time they leapt, landing on the surface with an audible belly flop splash. We think they could be stunning or scattering the fish when they do this, perhaps making it easier to catch their prey. We can only watch and wonder at the sheer power of propulsion they possess when they do this. They rapidly distanced themselves from our boat, focussed on hunting.
From the start of our sail, rain squalls were creeping along the horizon, dumping tropical rain on the many small Islands we sailed past. Rain squalls nearly always herald their arrival by sudden gusts of wind, we let out our main each time we felt the winds increase but luckily avoided the squalls. We sailed past the Tobago Cays, we’d like to have visited them, but didn’t have time, on this occasion we didn’t mind, they looked grey and wet today, totally unlike the photos you see in brochures!
At 1730hrs we entered Tyrell Bay. The bay is a natural horseshoe and hurricane hole. The name Carriacou is a Carib word meaning Bay of reefs and we carefully avoided the waves breaking over the shallow reef on the Northern side as we motored in to find a spot to anchor. A good friend Mike Brooks and his boat Exulans is here so we look forward to catching up with him and his news during our short stay, we see Mike’s Westerly anchored not far from us, tomorrow we’ll catch up over some beers, for now it’s time to get Sisu sorted and settled down for the night. There’s the Rib to get off the foredeck and into the water. Hoisting the Rib up with the anchor windlass into the air and over the guard rails is sometimes a challenge if it’s windy, it’s a lot of weight and mass to control! Then we swing the outboard off the stern hoist and carefully drop that down onto the Ribs stern. Get the oars back out of the heads locker for the Rib, untie the Rib fuel tank from the deck and fix that in the Rib. Get the sun shades out and hung up in the cockpit, switch off and put away the radio, ditto the GPS plotter, tidy up the cockpit, wash it down with sea water if necessary if we’ve caught some waves over us. Put away the main sail into its stack pack, hoist the quarantine flag, lash up the halyards to stop the thwack, thwack, thwack of rigging slapping against the mast, guaranteed to drive you mad as you go to sleep! Open up the hatches and let fresh air blow through after the saloon and fore cabin have been battened down for hours. Oh, not to forget setting up the outdoor shower! If it’s not too dark and conditions allow, a swim on arrival is fabulous, but in any case, we need a shower once we’ve got the boat straight. We get our large garden plastic watering can and garden hose at the end of which is the shower head, out of the heads locker, firstly removing the wash buckets and bits of hose from the locker, then a large container which holds our fresh shower water comes out of the deeper depths of the locker. I siphon the water from the container to the can. The water container stays on the floor by the loo, we have to fill the watering can twice each day and this usually gives us two showers a day for three days, Terry then uses our de-salinator to produce more fresh water to fill our metal water tank in the bilges and the shower water container. I then carry the full watering can up the deck and, remembering to attach the hose to the spout of the can, hoist the can up, where it’s then roped on to a bracket on the mast. Forgetting to attach the hose means a rapid and wasteful shower from the spout as you hoist the can above your head!! If you’re lucky you still have enough water in the container to go through the whole rigmarole again, if not, you don’t get a shower till Terry makes more water! You only forget this once….. Makes you realise how easy it is to simply step into your shower at home, doesn’t it?! We’ve got all these jobs down to a good routine now, and naturally, when we’re leaving to sail onto another destination, we do the whole routine in reverse!
We met up with Mike and his girlfriend Rhiannon, and her sister Cat the next day, so good to see him again and catch up over sundowners, which lasted to midnighters! Mike took us out in his Jeep on an island tour, amongst the many sights we saw, the graveyard by the sea was certainly the most unusual. The graveyard is in a peaceful setting, in the shade of many different varieties of trees. In its original state, the graveyard extended way out into what was now covered by sea. Many years ago during a hurricane, the beach was washed away, taking many graves with it. Now, the waves wash against tombs and gravestones, gradually claiming more and more graves each year. It wasn’t macabre at all, as the setting was so serene.
Then we visited Watering Bay to see what may possibly be the last Carriacou boat to be built, there is a shortage of young people wishing to learn the trade of boat building, yet that is what Carriacou is known for. The boat was impressive large teak frames with cedar planks and will be able to carry up to one hundred tons of cargo when ready. She is going to be a sloop, but can easily be made into a ketch if required. She’s being built on the edge of the beach, being patiently worked on in the shadow of palm trees, then, when ready, she’ll be moved on wooden rollers, about thirty feet onto the sand and into the sea. We hope she won’t be the last, but only time will tell.
Like other islands, we’ve enjoyed the local food! Mike and the girls took us to a local small eating place where we had big ribs covered in bbq sauce, big chunks of chicken, fish with delicious coleslaw and potato salad, about £5 per person! With beer naturally. Then as it was Good Friday, we joined the locals at the Lambi Queen and danced off the food to the music of a local band, then when we needed a rest from dancing, the drummers took their turn, different sizes of drums and rhythms belted out in perfect time. Everyone was friendly, locals mixed with cruisers, Mike knew many of the local folk and we were introduced and made very welcome. After more beers, we had a supper of chicken and chips, the mood of the evening was to have a great time, easy company and lots of laughter! We dinghied back on a flat calm sea to our boats and flaked out!
sisu journey 