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When sailing the Antilles we start to believe that the entire world is like what we see every day; bright sun, clear water and a volcanic island with a tropical forest on it every 30 miles. But even here we sometime arrive at a new place that reminds us that things are different. The Tobago Cays in the Grenadines is one of those places where we thought we were in paradise until we got there. This is a set of tiny islands sitting in the chain of islands between St-Vincent and Grenada. On the islands are white sand beaches that contrast with the volcanic black sand we find on most of the Antilles and a large coral reef offering protection against the crashing waves from the Atlantic Ocean. We set anchor in this national park and just reminded us why we set into this trip!
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The cruising life is not only sipping a smoothy on a sand beach before jumping in the water to snorkel through hundreds of colorful tropical fishes. We also have to do the usual chores such as buying food at the market of making the laundry. As you can see, nothing is more romantic than a nice dinner with wine and cloths hanging over our heads in the cockpit of our sailboat! By the way, the market here is on Union Island in the Grenadines. This is a very nice little town where people made significant efforts to make their town appealing to sailors.
Claudette is having quite a good time sailing with us. Of course in order to pay for her voyage she must contribute to operations of the boat. Armed with her binocular she is the best watchwoman a boat can have, especially at anchor where we would quickly have a complete description of all the boats in the anchorage including the name of the boat, the number of people on board and a detailed summary of everything they did since the morning! On the second picture you can see her chained in the galley where we would release her once and only once she is done cleaning the dishes!
While anchored in Tyrell Bay on the Carriacou Island in Grenada we got hit by a very violent squall that washed the anchorage with a torrential rain and gale force winds. During the storm, that last about half an hour, Renaldo, a local fisherman, got into some troubles as he was trying to row his small wooden boat into the bay. He managed to get to Chocobo and asked to attach his boat while the wind rages. I was away with our dinghy and Danielle let him secure his boat, which he did and stayed calmly in his boat in company of his little puppy who follows him while he goes fishing oysters. Danielle gave him an old raincoat we had as well as a Sprite. He took them happily and even asked for a bit of rum in the Sprite! After about 15 minutes the rain and the wind calmed down and I was able to take the dinghy and come back to the boat. As I arrived Renaldo explained to me that the pegs holding his oars are too small and he couldn’t row hard enough without breaking them. He then left but this was apparently too soon. After 5 minutes the squall came back and poor Renaldo was trying again to come back toward us to secure his boat. Unfortunately, the wind was pushing him too fast and in an effort to reach us he broke one of his pegs and couldn’t row anymore. At that time Danielle had already pushed me in the dinghy to go and get him back. Maneuvering the inflatable dinghy with 28 knots winds is not as simple as it may sound. The fact is that in those boats when you are alone the weight is not well distributed and it is easy for the boat to be flipped by the wind. I had to be very careful as I managed to get to him and pull him back to Chocobo where he would safely wait for the wind to stop. After the rain, and the day after, I helped him by drilling bigger holes so he can put bigger pegs for his oars and manage to use more force next time he gets in that kind of situation.
This is an interesting restaurant we saw in Union Island. The bay where we anchored was surrounded by a large coral reef on which this guy decided to build his own island called “Happy Island”. He previously had a restaurant on shore but had a hard time finding customers. He then decided to make this island out of cement and a large pile of conch shell left on the beach by the fishermen and build a restaurant on it.