Grenada to Bequia

3 January – 11 February 2011

Madison Violet, a visiting Canadian folk group, wanted to hold a free dinghy concert which was announced on the cruiser net, so on 3 January we dinghied round to Clarkes Court Bay where right in the middle was anchored the tub boat Calico with the group on board, a yacht tied alongside and a raft of dinghies attached to lines from the tug. Incoming dinghies tied on anywhere to the raft. The concert was great fun and there was a fantastic atmosphere.

Click here for our video from Grenada including some of our excerpts from the dinghy concert filmed whilst bouncing around in the dinghy.

Link to official video of the concert

On the 8 January we motored back round to Prickly Bay ready to be hauled out of the water for our rudder repair. The part had not arrived, but the boatyard had a piece of the material and would be able to have it machined once the old bearings were removed as a pattern.

We were hauled out at Spice Island Marine on the 13th, the rudder was removed and we started work – rubbed down the bottom of the boat, removing barnacles and paint from the prop, SSB plate and fridge plate, painted with barrier coat and 2 coats of antifoul (hull below the waterline); touched up paint to the topsides (hull above the waterline); serviced the seacocks; replaced the anode – it was a very hard 10 days work in the heat. The yard had the bearings machined and fitted them. A couple of days before launching we found some cracks on the topsides where something must have hit us, so we had the yard grind it out and repair. The yard did excellent work and were very quick; we also found all the staff helpful and friendly, the boatyard is relatively clean and the security is good. We would certainly return if we need work done in the future.
We launched after 11 days on the hard, and on 29 January we departed to head north for the remainder of the winter. Our aim is to go north reasonably quickly and return to the Grenadines around May/June when it will hopefully be less windy and less busy.

We had to motor sail most of the way up the west coast of Grenada to Carriacou as the wind was on the nose. We anchored overnight in Tyrrel Bay then sailed to Union Island, anchored overnight behind Frigate Island then motored round to Clifton Bay in the morning to clear into St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Clifton Bay is exposed to the wind but protected from the seas by a reef, with a 'roundabout' reef in the centre of the bay. It was really full of boats (many charterers come here) but we found a spot near the entrance – just a long choppy dinghy ride to the dock.

The next day a Danish boat came in to anchor next to us – going too fast while dropping the anchor, they promptly dropped back towards us. They tried to pull up their anchor and found themselves stuck fast on our anchor chain!! We got our engine going to prevent us dragging onto the reef if they pulled our anchor up. Fortunately Paul from Namaste saw the problem, he swam over and dived down in about 10m depth to try an free their anchor. It was impossible. We pulled out a trip hook (bought some years ago and never used until now); Paul managed to hook it under our chain so they could pull it up and allow him to free their anchor. Big sigh of relief – emergency over. He tied a fender on the end of the line and when they had gone, again with his help, we were able to recover the hook and line (Jim motored in reverse to raise the chain and free the hook).
Later on, the Danish couple dinghied out to us and Namaste with a very nice apology and thank you.

The following day (2 February) we had a marvellous sail to Bequia – with a nice clean bottom Impressionist absolutely flies along (7 knots hard on the wind!). We anchored off the north end of Princess Margaret beach. Since then there has been nothing but strong north-easterlies so we are waiting for the weather to improve before continuing our journey north.

For more photos please click here

We recently found a new site called Photosynth which allows you to stitch together a collection of overlapping photos to give a wonderful panoramic effect. We have uploaded one from Grenada together with 3 older ones. If you would like to see them please click here