Pat and Al Denham's new home?
St George's Fort
Beach at Hog Island 
More evidence of hurricane damage at Hog Island anchorageFriday, 20 March 2009
Photos Grenada 1
Pat and Al Denham's new home? St George's Fort Beach at Hog Island More evidence of hurricane damage at Hog Island anchorage
Photos Grenada 2
Calivigny, Private, Exclusive, Island Resort
Calivigny work boat
Whisper Cove Marina
Super Yacht SELENE. For hire 200,000 Euros per week Wednesday, 18 March 2009
Grenada Reports
It was quite a treat to have a yacht club so near and most of the facilities were inexpensive so the washing was done, we had showers, we disposed of our rubbish and we filled up with drinking water. There was a supermarket nearby with its own dinghy dock and a chandlers. Civilisation indeed!
Much of St Georges (the capital of Grenada) has been rebuilt since hurricane Ivan destroyed it in 2004. There are 3 churches at the top of a hill that are still without roofs. We stood in the shell of the Anglican church and looked up at the sky. It was as though a bomb had hit it and we began to have some understanding about what it must have been like. Horrendous is not really a strong enough word. We walked through a tunnel on another visit to town, which had no footpath or barrier and the traffic rushed by just inches away from us. After climbing many steep steps we reached the hospital and after following a steep road upwards we reached St George’s Fort. The police headquarters are housed here, but visitors are allowed to wander around the old fort viewing the sights but we didn’t expect to see the young man wearing only a towel retrieving his boxers from the washing line. He didn’t expect to see us either and awkward greetings were exchanged. We turned our attention to the English cannons still clearly numbered and overlooking the harbour after two centuries. As well as keeping out the French, the fort was the place where the Communist leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed along with half his cabinet. We stood in the courtyard and saw there was no easy escape. Some of his followers threw themselves off the sheer cliff to avoid capture. There is no safety rail even today and we could wander right up to the edge. Back at sea level, we spent some time in the Grenada Museum, which had once been a women’s prison, and now outlined the history of the island.
The next day we left the lagoon at St Georges and carefully navigated our way through the extensive shoal patches to True Blue Bay on the south coast. We went ashore the following day looking for a shop and a hairdressers. The shop had next to nothing in it and the hairdressers was closed so we walked to Prickly Bay, chatted to someone who had bought a Westerly Corsair which had been damaged in the hurricane and had a look in the large chandlers. We caught a bus to the tourist area of Grand Anse and stocked up at a large supermarket. The return bus kindly took us right back to True Blue Bay, but the fare was triple the cost of the outward journey! After lunch, we weighed anchor and motored round the corner to see Prickly Bay from seaward. It was too crowded for us - the Solent of Grenada - so we carried on to the next anchorage, Mount Harman Bay. We spent 3 quiet nights here, but there was a drawback. Martin’s Marina at the head of the bay charged 10$EC per day to tie up your dinghy so we didn’t go ashore. As we were anchored off a mangrove swamp the snorkelling was pretty poor as well.
By now we were running short of supplies so we weighed the anchor and motored through the many reefs to Clarkes Court Bay and anchored near a village called Woburn, which has a small yacht club called Whisper Cove. On the way we stopped for lunch at Hog Island, which has a well protected anchorage and a small beach. We explored by dinghy and went ashore, followed a rough path through the trees and came out on a recently made dirt road. Many signs seemed to indicate that plots of land had been earmarked for development and a bridge had been built, but was now closed, linking Hog Island with the mainland. Sadly, another piece of wilderness is to be transformed into a resort, but not in the current economic climate, it seems.
The next morning we chained the dinghy to the village dock and caught the bus to St Georges. Twenty of us squeezed into the minibus and soon we were looking for a hairdressers and being mistaken for cruise ship passengers. I eventually got my hair cut by a young barber as two ladies’ hairdressers were closed and two others would not or could not cut it. I now look a bit like a boy, but at least it feels tidier. We shopped at a supermarket next to the bus station and bought fresh produce at the market. Today we have done our washing at the yacht club and filled up with water. The snorkelling in this bay has been better and we have seen numerous reef fish and corals. Just before dark, Jeremy was recognised by a couple in a dinghy from a Nicholson 35 footer. They had had an hours conversation in Rubicon Marina, Lanzarote in October, 2008. No chance for robbing banks then!
Much of St Georges (the capital of Grenada) has been rebuilt since hurricane Ivan destroyed it in 2004. There are 3 churches at the top of a hill that are still without roofs. We stood in the shell of the Anglican church and looked up at the sky. It was as though a bomb had hit it and we began to have some understanding about what it must have been like. Horrendous is not really a strong enough word. We walked through a tunnel on another visit to town, which had no footpath or barrier and the traffic rushed by just inches away from us. After climbing many steep steps we reached the hospital and after following a steep road upwards we reached St George’s Fort. The police headquarters are housed here, but visitors are allowed to wander around the old fort viewing the sights but we didn’t expect to see the young man wearing only a towel retrieving his boxers from the washing line. He didn’t expect to see us either and awkward greetings were exchanged. We turned our attention to the English cannons still clearly numbered and overlooking the harbour after two centuries. As well as keeping out the French, the fort was the place where the Communist leader, Maurice Bishop, was executed along with half his cabinet. We stood in the courtyard and saw there was no easy escape. Some of his followers threw themselves off the sheer cliff to avoid capture. There is no safety rail even today and we could wander right up to the edge. Back at sea level, we spent some time in the Grenada Museum, which had once been a women’s prison, and now outlined the history of the island.
The next day we left the lagoon at St Georges and carefully navigated our way through the extensive shoal patches to True Blue Bay on the south coast. We went ashore the following day looking for a shop and a hairdressers. The shop had next to nothing in it and the hairdressers was closed so we walked to Prickly Bay, chatted to someone who had bought a Westerly Corsair which had been damaged in the hurricane and had a look in the large chandlers. We caught a bus to the tourist area of Grand Anse and stocked up at a large supermarket. The return bus kindly took us right back to True Blue Bay, but the fare was triple the cost of the outward journey! After lunch, we weighed anchor and motored round the corner to see Prickly Bay from seaward. It was too crowded for us - the Solent of Grenada - so we carried on to the next anchorage, Mount Harman Bay. We spent 3 quiet nights here, but there was a drawback. Martin’s Marina at the head of the bay charged 10$EC per day to tie up your dinghy so we didn’t go ashore. As we were anchored off a mangrove swamp the snorkelling was pretty poor as well.
By now we were running short of supplies so we weighed the anchor and motored through the many reefs to Clarkes Court Bay and anchored near a village called Woburn, which has a small yacht club called Whisper Cove. On the way we stopped for lunch at Hog Island, which has a well protected anchorage and a small beach. We explored by dinghy and went ashore, followed a rough path through the trees and came out on a recently made dirt road. Many signs seemed to indicate that plots of land had been earmarked for development and a bridge had been built, but was now closed, linking Hog Island with the mainland. Sadly, another piece of wilderness is to be transformed into a resort, but not in the current economic climate, it seems.
The next morning we chained the dinghy to the village dock and caught the bus to St Georges. Twenty of us squeezed into the minibus and soon we were looking for a hairdressers and being mistaken for cruise ship passengers. I eventually got my hair cut by a young barber as two ladies’ hairdressers were closed and two others would not or could not cut it. I now look a bit like a boy, but at least it feels tidier. We shopped at a supermarket next to the bus station and bought fresh produce at the market. Today we have done our washing at the yacht club and filled up with water. The snorkelling in this bay has been better and we have seen numerous reef fish and corals. Just before dark, Jeremy was recognised by a couple in a dinghy from a Nicholson 35 footer. They had had an hours conversation in Rubicon Marina, Lanzarote in October, 2008. No chance for robbing banks then!
Wednesday, 11 March 2009
Photos up to Grenada
No more compainin about not enuff pixures!
Sandy Island One where we spent two nights
Hillsborough, Carriacou
Butterfly
Sandy Island II, not a tenable anchorage
St George's Waterfront, Grenada.
Sandy Island One where we spent two nights
Hillsborough, Carriacou
Butterfly
Sandy Island II, not a tenable anchorage
St George's Waterfront, Grenada.Carriacou Photos
Petit Martinique, Rich House
Petit Martinique, Poor House
Shell fish sea dollar
Swamp, Carriacou
Not all is lovely in ParadiseGrenada
We left Hillsborough, Carriacou, on 28th Feb and took the inshore passage to Petite Martinique noting two large vessels aground on reefs. We navigated carefully and tied up to a dock for the first time for ages to take on much needed water. We filled the tanks and many containers with fresh, drinking water. Wonderful! We decided to stay for a couple of nights and anchored downwind of the fuel/water dock. As there is only one road in Petite Martinique, it was easy to find the well-stocked, small supermarket and buy a few basics and some wine.
Just across from Petite Martinique(PM) is another small island, Petit St Vincent(PSV). They both belong to different countries and as we had cleared out of St Vincent and the Grenadines we were not supposed to return without clearing in so we took the dinghy across, anchored it off the gorgeous beach and snorkelled. The next day we walked the length of the road on PM; continued when it became a track; ended up in a meadow where tethered cows were grazing; tried to find the path, but gave up when the meadow changed to prickly bushes! On the way back, we noticed several cemeteries liberally scattered between houses which ranged from wooden shacks to mansions with pretty gardens. Tethered goats kept the grass cut and children played “cars” in the road with plastic crates while older ones played cricket with bats made from bits of wood. Back on Sal Darago, we went for our afternoon swim but Jeremy smelt diesel and we climbed out just before a slick lapped round the boat. Moral – don’t anchor downwind of a fuel berth!
During the night the mast began to creak and groan. Jeremy checked everything at first light and still the creaking continued. A liberal spraying of WD40 finally stopped it. We returned to Hillsborough and motored over to Sandy Island for the night. Sandy Island has dead coral heaped up on the windward side, a few young palm trees and vegetation planted after the 2004 hurricane destroyed everything, and a long, golden-sand beach with reefs at either side. The water was crystal clear which was great for snorkelling, although it was choppy over the reefs. This small island has two lagoons and a small beach hut. It’s a great place to spend a few hours. Here we met local man, Che, and discussed the state of the world and Grenada for quite a while, returning to SD slightly sunburned. Jeremy found some live conch near the boat. We’ve seen mountains of shells but few live ones. They have eyes on stalks which poke out of the shell and a kind of foot with which they propel themselves along. When they’re served up in restaurants they’re called lambi.
The next day, we sailed round the small island of Mabouya on our way to Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. We went to the yacht club and found it was rather run down, but the boatyard next door was active with several yachts having new antifoul paint put on their bottoms, including “Sunblazer”, which we had last seen in Barbados,. Tyrrel Bay had a laundry so we had our bedding and towels washed and dried. We took the bus into Hillsborough. I got on the bus first as I had dropped off the laundry. I asked the driver to pick up Jeremy and when the driver said to him, “I’ve got your wife on board”, Jeremy said, “How much do I have to pay you to keep her!” All the men on the bus laughed. I didn’t! At Hillsborough we caught another bus to the other end and side of the island to a village aptly named, Windward. A tragedy occurred here soon after World War 2, when a mine floated ashore and blew up workers who were building boats on the beach. Many of the dead were members of the same families. A monument and plaque commemorated this dreadful event.
We caught the bus back and asked to be dropped near the hospital. Nobody was ill but the hospital is on a hill overlooking both sides of the island and we were told the view was spectacular. We were dropped off at the bottom of a “gravel” track and told to follow the track. We did and we went up and up but we never reached the hospital. We did find a ruined windmill, had a bizarre meeting with a female, American cyclist in the middle of a wood who gave us directions back to Hillsborough and met a local couple who had lived in Huddersfield for 39 years. Exhausted and hungry, we finally made it back to Hillsborough and enjoyed local food in a great value café. Later we had coffee back in Tyrrel Bay with Mary and Philip on “Papa Kilo”. They have left their yacht in Power Boats in Trinidad and gave us lots of useful information.
The next two days were spent exploring uninhabited islands near Carriacou. There was another Frigate Island, which we managed to land on by dinghy and walk across through cacti to the other side. We nearly stepped on tortoises, which disguised themselves very cleverly as rocks! There was a lagoon and a beach but breaking reefs everywhere. We returned to SD with bamboo poles and long lengths of plastic line. Well, you never know when you might need a spare spinnaker pole! Snorkelling off the island was good although I was convinced some smooth coral was concrete! The other islands were equally interesting but we were soon joined by three other yachts. We anchored very close in to Saline Island but we really wanted to visit White Island which had a high rock at one end and a long sandy beach. Unfortunately, it was too rough to risk anchoring there with reefs breaking all around. Still, we enjoyed exploring Saline Island which had an empty wooden house just behind the palm fringed beach, a rocky shore, high cliffs with basalt columns, a round fort, a coral shore and a mangrove swamp. Once again the water was crystal clear and we could see how close to the bottom we were when we snorkelled. As we had to move, we went back to Tyrrell Bay at my suggestion, but it turned out to be a mistake because a big, uncomfortable northerly swell had come into the anchorage and we had a rocky rolly night.
We are now in Grenada having sailed down past some small islands called Les Tantes on the windward side. We thought we might anchor off another Sandy Island or Green Island, but it was too rough, so we sailed past an arch and some rocks called London Bridge and made our way to the capital, St George’s. We’re anchored in a lagoon near a very pleasant yacht club with all facilities, including cold showers, nearby.
Just across from Petite Martinique(PM) is another small island, Petit St Vincent(PSV). They both belong to different countries and as we had cleared out of St Vincent and the Grenadines we were not supposed to return without clearing in so we took the dinghy across, anchored it off the gorgeous beach and snorkelled. The next day we walked the length of the road on PM; continued when it became a track; ended up in a meadow where tethered cows were grazing; tried to find the path, but gave up when the meadow changed to prickly bushes! On the way back, we noticed several cemeteries liberally scattered between houses which ranged from wooden shacks to mansions with pretty gardens. Tethered goats kept the grass cut and children played “cars” in the road with plastic crates while older ones played cricket with bats made from bits of wood. Back on Sal Darago, we went for our afternoon swim but Jeremy smelt diesel and we climbed out just before a slick lapped round the boat. Moral – don’t anchor downwind of a fuel berth!
During the night the mast began to creak and groan. Jeremy checked everything at first light and still the creaking continued. A liberal spraying of WD40 finally stopped it. We returned to Hillsborough and motored over to Sandy Island for the night. Sandy Island has dead coral heaped up on the windward side, a few young palm trees and vegetation planted after the 2004 hurricane destroyed everything, and a long, golden-sand beach with reefs at either side. The water was crystal clear which was great for snorkelling, although it was choppy over the reefs. This small island has two lagoons and a small beach hut. It’s a great place to spend a few hours. Here we met local man, Che, and discussed the state of the world and Grenada for quite a while, returning to SD slightly sunburned. Jeremy found some live conch near the boat. We’ve seen mountains of shells but few live ones. They have eyes on stalks which poke out of the shell and a kind of foot with which they propel themselves along. When they’re served up in restaurants they’re called lambi.
The next day, we sailed round the small island of Mabouya on our way to Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou. We went to the yacht club and found it was rather run down, but the boatyard next door was active with several yachts having new antifoul paint put on their bottoms, including “Sunblazer”, which we had last seen in Barbados,. Tyrrel Bay had a laundry so we had our bedding and towels washed and dried. We took the bus into Hillsborough. I got on the bus first as I had dropped off the laundry. I asked the driver to pick up Jeremy and when the driver said to him, “I’ve got your wife on board”, Jeremy said, “How much do I have to pay you to keep her!” All the men on the bus laughed. I didn’t! At Hillsborough we caught another bus to the other end and side of the island to a village aptly named, Windward. A tragedy occurred here soon after World War 2, when a mine floated ashore and blew up workers who were building boats on the beach. Many of the dead were members of the same families. A monument and plaque commemorated this dreadful event.
We caught the bus back and asked to be dropped near the hospital. Nobody was ill but the hospital is on a hill overlooking both sides of the island and we were told the view was spectacular. We were dropped off at the bottom of a “gravel” track and told to follow the track. We did and we went up and up but we never reached the hospital. We did find a ruined windmill, had a bizarre meeting with a female, American cyclist in the middle of a wood who gave us directions back to Hillsborough and met a local couple who had lived in Huddersfield for 39 years. Exhausted and hungry, we finally made it back to Hillsborough and enjoyed local food in a great value café. Later we had coffee back in Tyrrel Bay with Mary and Philip on “Papa Kilo”. They have left their yacht in Power Boats in Trinidad and gave us lots of useful information.
The next two days were spent exploring uninhabited islands near Carriacou. There was another Frigate Island, which we managed to land on by dinghy and walk across through cacti to the other side. We nearly stepped on tortoises, which disguised themselves very cleverly as rocks! There was a lagoon and a beach but breaking reefs everywhere. We returned to SD with bamboo poles and long lengths of plastic line. Well, you never know when you might need a spare spinnaker pole! Snorkelling off the island was good although I was convinced some smooth coral was concrete! The other islands were equally interesting but we were soon joined by three other yachts. We anchored very close in to Saline Island but we really wanted to visit White Island which had a high rock at one end and a long sandy beach. Unfortunately, it was too rough to risk anchoring there with reefs breaking all around. Still, we enjoyed exploring Saline Island which had an empty wooden house just behind the palm fringed beach, a rocky shore, high cliffs with basalt columns, a round fort, a coral shore and a mangrove swamp. Once again the water was crystal clear and we could see how close to the bottom we were when we snorkelled. As we had to move, we went back to Tyrrell Bay at my suggestion, but it turned out to be a mistake because a big, uncomfortable northerly swell had come into the anchorage and we had a rocky rolly night.
We are now in Grenada having sailed down past some small islands called Les Tantes on the windward side. We thought we might anchor off another Sandy Island or Green Island, but it was too rough, so we sailed past an arch and some rocks called London Bridge and made our way to the capital, St George’s. We’re anchored in a lagoon near a very pleasant yacht club with all facilities, including cold showers, nearby.
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