Grenada - St. Vincent

We awoke to be greeted by a sunny Grenada smiling upon us. The generator raw water impeller had failed, so my mother and I decided to explore the island for a few hours whilst the captain tried to sort the problem out. My sister was still sleeping . . .as usual . . .so my mother and I hopped into the dinghy and headed towards Port Louis. We parked our dinghy and caught a taxi to Annandale Falls. A big cruise ship had arrived this morning so the island was covered in people from around the world. The waterfall was 16 meters high and local divers jump off it over and over again throughout the course of the day so the tourists could get their shots. Naturally . . .thanks to Robert. . .I asked a diver to take me with him. We gave him some money and up I climbed to the rock. I was told to jump into a bunch of leaves and that way I will land in the spot deep enough in the water. The leaves made the jump look less high. As my heart leapt out of my chest, I took a step off the rock. Needless to say once you clear the leaves it is a lot higher than you initially thought!! Pain shot through my body as I hit the water, the wind had been taken out of me. The pain surpassed a few seconds later though and I was just so glad that I could say I’d done it. My mom jumped off the little jump into the water and we went to go have a natural back massage beneath the waterfall. As we left, a man on a guitar came up to me and started singing to my mother and I . . .you look like Jennifer Lopez and you look like Jennifer Aniston. We laughed as we were slightly taken aback. As we drove back to Port Louis we stopped at a stall on the side of the road and then again at the spice market and we picked up a few local things . . .nutmeg syrup, nutmeg oil, almond essence, and nutmeg liqueur. We thanked the taxi driver and hopped back into the dinghy and headed back to Jangles. 

We arrived back at Jangles, only to find my dad fixing something else, the salinity probe in the water maker again!!. My dad sent my mom and I back to shore to fetch a few parts from the boat shop. My mother and I started towards shore in the dinghy and as we had gone a couple of meters away from Jangles, the engines died. Uh-oh we thought, what do we do? We tried to start the engine a few more times and it just wouldn’t start. So we did what we had to do . . .we rowed. My mom and I were hysterical; we could not stop laughing the entire time we were rowing back to Jangles. Only to realize that we were both very blonde as the problem was that the petrol pipe had pulled out of the Yamaha engine. A very simple procedure was to plug it back in and just pump petrol back into the engine! Something we could of easily done. . .well us blondes headed back to shore to get parts that the shop didn’t actually have. 

The next day we left Grenada and arrived at Sandy Island, a small, secluded beach in the middle of the water. We picked up a buoy and headed to the little beach for sundowners, we didn’t stay very long as night overtook quickly and an army of mosquitoes began to attack. 

The next morning, I put on my snorkeling gear and snorkeled from the boat to the island. There were hundreds of small silver fish that parted way as I swam through them. Once I got to the shore I glanced back at Jangles, only to see Catlyn parked right next to us! I made my way back to our boat and swam around for a bit until Marco joined me. My sister, Marco, Joe and I spent the whole day snorkeling, building coral castles, and just being on the beach. Night fell upon us and Marco and Joe came over for some stargazing and hot chocolate.

We anchored at Hillsborough the following morning to check out of  Granada customs and immigration. It was a very quaint little town with one main street that everybody seemed to be on. We stocked up on a few food supplies and then sailed off once again to Union Island. We arrived in Union Island to . . . Catlyn once again!! Once anchored, my dad and I took the dinghy ashore to check into The Grenadines Customs and Immigration. Meeting locals is all part of the experience of sailing from island to island. My dad had me on dinghy watch whilst he was in customs so I sat on a very colourful bench by the dock. This is where I met Toto and Little Johnny and there was a mad man too who I was disturbing in some way by doing absolutely nothing. He continued to take his shirt off and swear at everybody on the side of the road and tried to slap a few people too. Once we cleared immigration we went to the water dock where a guy named Abdul said he would bring us some ice to the boat. He arrived at our boat shortly after we did. He took one look at Rebecca and I and told us if we wanted to stay at the island he could provide us with an option. . .we just laughed. We headed towards Salt Whistle Bay in Mayreau to spend the night. On the way we hooked a fish! A small benito that jumped off the line before I even got to reel it in the whole way. We are having no luck with these fish! We arrived in Salt Whistle Bay once again to . . .Catlyn. I’m sure they must by now think that we are a bunch of stalkers. . .if they are reading this post, I can assure you, we are not stalkers. 

My sister and I took the dinghy to shore and walked along the beach, lying in hammocks along the way and climbing up palm trees. We then arrived at the islands pub for a drink. There was such a good vibe with the music blaring, the lights flashing and the feel of sand between your toes. We met and chatted with a few more of the locals, and generally had a really good time. Night drew on and it was time for us to go back to the boat. The sky was covered in stars, which meant another magical night of stargazing for me.

St. Vincent was the next stop on the list. We covered the 34.4 nautical miles to Blue Lagoon Bay in 4 hours and 40 minutes. The winds were kind to us (15-22 knots) and we didn’t have to do a single tack. Our maximum speed even reached 9.9 knots. We arrived in Blue Lagoon and picked up a buoy right next door to Talisman, where Robert, Lee, Kerry and Ashton awaited. 

The beautiful thing about traveling with another boat and being attached to a buoy right next to them is that when they crank there music right up and start dancing on the bow, we start dancing with them on our bow. The nice thing about Blue Lagoon Marina is that it is full of boats, but Talisman and Jangles are the only two boats with actual people on them cause all of the other boats are just charter boats. So nobody can yell at you to turn down the music! We took our dinghies to the dock and went to the restaurant for dinner. We were pretty much the only people in the restaurant besides a couple who left shortly after we arrived . . . I think we disturbed their peace and quiet. We had a reasonably early night as Robert had a run planned for my sister an I in the morning.

So we did run a little bit. . .but we embarked on more of an adventure! There was a big mountain as you enter the harbour with a flashing beacon on top to guide boats into the harbour. We decided to climb it. We took the dinghy and attached it to the small dock on the side of the mountain just to discover it was actually an old fort! We climbed to the top and explored the abandoned buildings and took in the breathtakingly beautiful views. Starting the day with a little bit of adventure is always the best way to go.

 

 

Now that we have met up with Talisman, it is time to go exploring this crazy beautiful part of God’s magnificent creation known as the Caribbean.