Heading to Grenada
Anchorage at Deshaies, Guadeloupe.
After being on passage for 13 days it was time to stretch our legs. The small town of Deshaies and the neighboring beach, Grande Anse, are the location for the BBC series “Death in Paradise”. We decided to walk around and check it out.
After a couple of days recovering from the passage and fully caught up on sleep we pulled up the anchor and headed south down the west coast of Guadeloupe to the Jacques Cousteau marine reserve at Pigeon Island. We had visited the previous season and we were excited to get back in the water and see some fishes. The weather was not ideal, a little rough and rather overcast but we had a short swim. We also knew there was a self serve laundromat and some well stocked grocery stores in this small town, so we spent a couple of days doing household chores before heading down to our final stop in Guadeloupe, Basse Terre. Here we planned to stock up on coconut rum and check out of Guadeloupe. It pays to be flexible in this lifestyle as we discovered the customs and immigration computer in Basse Terre was down, and “maybe” would be fixed next week. As it was a Saturday we needed to check out that day as everything would be closed on Sunday, and our weather window indicated we would want to do our next passage leaving early Monday morning. We therefore hurriedly jumped back onboard, pulled up the anchor and headed across the rather boisterous pass to Isles des Saintes about 6 miles south where there was also a customs computer. The coconut rum would have to wait for our return journey.
We arrived just in time to complete the formalities, checking out ahead of time so we could depart Monday morning, predawn. We then had a little time to enjoy Les Saintes. The flowers, the beach and the rainshowers.
Sunset at Les Saintes
We were up Monday morning at 4am, slipped the mooring lines and using radar managed to get out of the anchorage without hitting anything. We were well on our way across the passage toward Dominica as the sun rose. We were heading south, down to the southern most nation of the Windward chain, Grenada. It took two days to reach our destination, the Grenadian island of Carriacou. As we entered Tyrrel Bay, our friends, Lori and Dan on BeBe, hailed us and that evening delighted us with our first rum punch of the season.
We checked in at the cute customs and immigration office, conveniently right next to a lovely cafe/restaurant. We shared a rental car with Dan and Lori and explored the small island of Carriacou. Only about 4 miles from tip to toe, but it still managed to pack some impressive hills in that space. We went on the High North nature trail, up the highest peak, 956 feet.. The view out across Hillsborough Bay was splendid and we could see our next anchorage off the small sand bar called Sandy Island. The trail was steep but shaded from the hot sun. We spotted some local fauna, a tortoise and some enormous frogs, settled into a muddy water hole.
After lunch we went around to the windward side of the island, where the guide book suggested there was a strong boatbuilding tradition. We were a little disappointed, only finding a fishing boat in the process of being rebuilt.
The cemetry along the shore was a testament to rising sea levels and maybe poor town planning.
The following day we left the busy and rather rolly anchorage of Tyrrel Bay and popped around the corner to the Sandy Island anchorage. Here we spent a pleasant few days, snorkeled the small reef, said hello and goodbye to cruising friends and started some boat projects, including re-covering the salon cushions.
It was now a week before Christmas and we wanted to be in place and well supplied in time for Jake’s visit. We left Carriacou and planned to sail south to the small Isle de Ronde, half way between Carriacou and Grenada. Just off the coast of this island there is a submerged volcano named Kick ‘em Jenny. There is a 1 mile exclusion zone where one is definitely not supposed to sail, and a 5 mile suggested exclusion zone that is enacted when seismic activity is detected. The weather turned out to be quite different from the forecast and we approached in high seas, heavy cloud and rain-showers, we opted to delay a visit to this island and we sailed on past, down the east coast of Grenada, to a sheltered anchorage called St Davids Harbor. The rain disappeared, we dried out and celebrated getting to our southernmost destination with a few beers and delicious hamburger.
We moved along down the coast to an anchorage just off the private island of Calivigny Island and the boutique Le Phare Bleu marina and resort. Here we settled in, ready for Jake and to celebrate Christmas at the resort restaurant.
In the marina there was a lighthouse boat, originally built and deployed in Sweden, it was restored and shipped to Grenada a few years ago. Pre-covid it had been a restaurant, but now it seemed to just be slowly rotting, the bilge pumps constantly pumping to keep it afoat. We made a quick visit to the brand new grocery store to stock up on fresh vegetables, however the shelves were alarmingly bare. We will have to make do with what is in ships stores until after the holidays. We were joined in the anchorage by BeBe and a British boat, Aegle, which had just crossed from Cape Verde. Their journey was a little unusual in that half way across the Atlantic, their mast cracked. They had to bring all the sails down for fear of losing the mast completely, and complete the passage under power. It was fortunate that Aegle had large fuel tanks, 1,200 miles was a long way to motor. We enjoyed sundowners with both boats, on Christmas eve.
After Christmas we took Helacious west, along the coast to True Blue Bay. Here Jake spent a couple of days completing his PADI open water certification. Then we went on a tour of the island along with Lori and Dan. Our first stop was in the center of the island, at the highest point (582m), the Grand Etang Rainforest, where there was a small lake in the extinct volcano crater and some quite friendly Mona monkeys.
After that excitement it was time to taste some rum. The distillery we were taken to was quite historic, River Antoine Estate was established in 1785 and it still uses many of the original methods to produce rum to this day. The sugar cane is locally sourced and harvested by hand. The presses that grind the cane to extract the syrup are powered by a huge water wheel. The discarded cane is then used as fuel to feed the furnace that concentrates the syrup before fermentation. The final distillation flasks are, if not original, still fairly old. Unfortunately because it was the Christmas holidays, nothing was actually operational, except the final step of bottling. That too was very basic, filtered through cheesecloth and bottles filled by hand from an “igloo” then capped.
At the end of the tour, there was of course a tasting. The 69% abv, which is exported, tasted like paint stripper. The stronger 75% abv, which is for the local market, was marginally better. Needless to say, we resisted the sales pitch and left empty handed. The final two stops for the day were at a chocolate factory (great dark chocolate from Belmont Estate) and a refreshing dip in the river at Mt Carmel waterfalls.
Our last days in Grenada were spent exploring the underwater sculpture park. The sculptures are set among sandy canyons between coral outcrops. It was fun swimming around trying to identify them. They were all at about 20feet deep, so a little hard to get really close to.
And just like that 2023 was over. The fireworks over Grand Anse beach just outside St Georges, the capital of Grenada were quite beautiful, a fine end to 2023 and a lovely way to herald the new year. Bring it on 2024!
