Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

We left Fort de France on May 24th for an overnight sail to Carriacou and Tyrrel Bay. The passage was superb and the wind was on the beam the whole way so it was a great run. The wind does die away some what in the lee of the larger islands like when passing Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent and we dropped some speed even though we were 5 miles or more to the east and in what we thought might be clean air. In any case the ride was fast and relatively smooth given the 15-20 knots of wind and 4-6 foot seas.

Tyrrel Bay is a wide open bay with great protection from the prevailing easterly winds and NE swells so it is pretty flat as anchorages go around the Caribbean. The anchorage looked very full to us as we came in and we tried a couple of spots before settling, after settling in and talking to others they said it often had 50% more boats in it! We were exceptionally lucky on leaving Martinique to hear from good friend Joy and Steve that they had not left Bequia yet and we might meet them. As we passed we hailed them but got no response, so we guessed they were in Tyrrel Bay already. They did briefly catch us on the radio as we were getting out of range but just enough to know they had not left yet. A quick check of email revealed they missed our call but where coming to Tyrrell Bay soon so we would see them. So we settled in as it was Sunday for a check in the following morning. Check in went well and we toured a little of the island to see what was there.

Checking in

When Ocean Angel arrived we let them settle before inviting ourselves over to catch up with Joy and Steve. They have spent the whole winter in the Caribbean and were among several friends we had hoped to catch so we were delighted to have done it. They both looked fabulous and very relaxed aboard their boat and for us it was a first to see them aboard as we normally met at SSCA events in Florida either locally or at the GAMS. We had a great evening catching up with them both. The following day everyone had boat chores so Steve tending to his mainsail while we cleaned Moosetracks. We arranged to get together with Native Dancer and Ocean Angle for Mexican train dominoes that evening. We made great friends with Gary and Patty and see why Joy and Steve had a great time with them. It was a great evening and huge fun all around. Sadly Ocean Angle and Native Dancer had appointments for haul outs in Trinidad so had to get moving while weather allows so we bade them farewell and promised to look out for them both next year.

Joy, Liz & Steve on Ocean Angel

Well it was time for us to explore the anchorage and meet some folks so we first decided to attend the noodling class, which is basically in water (sea) aerobics with floatation (noodle). It was great fun and we met lots of other people like; Barb & Chuck of Tusen Takk II, Sharon & Lee of Allegro, Heather and Don of Asseance, Annie & Ian of Celtic Spirit. We took a walk to Paradise beach which has a wonderful view and lovely white sand then stopped and had a beer or two there before walking back via the bakery and villages.

Hardwood Bar 

Paradise Beach

Awesome T-Shirts for sale

The beach view

Our first walk was with Barb to Manchaneel Bay.

Our first walk on Carriacou

Our next outing was to Hillsborough to shop for cell phone cards and see the largest town on the island. It was a fun bus ride over for EC$3.50 each about US$1.30 so a great bargain. We stopped at the tourist office as well to get our bearings and a map of town before visiting both cell phone providers to choose our plans. So we now have a local phone for Grenada! We stopped for lunch at a local roti shop and had a great sea view to look out on. We toured town and saw the local Museum and talked with the curator about the exhibits that were very interesting and showed the local amerindian finds as well as the origins of the current population from Africa. All very worth a visit. We then had a lovely evening with Barb and Chuck on Moosetracks for dominoes.

Roti lunch at the beach bar

Museum in Hillsborough with the curator

The next walk was with Barb & Chuck a few days later to the second highest point on the island for great views over the harbor and a look at the plantation ruins on the way. Unfortunately our destination restaurant was closed so we had a little further to walk before catching a bus back. On the way the bus stopped for us all to buy roti’s for lunch and the driver and passengers sat outside and waited for us, now how cool is that! We arrived back in Tyrrel bay and sat on the beach and eat our lunch with a view over the bay.

Beautiful tree in School yard 

Plantation ruins

View from the top

Tyrrel Bay

Devin, Chuck & Barb

Well the noodle activities came to an end as Barb and Chuck had to start heading for Trinidad to and were leaving. But before they went they wanted to host dominoes on their boat so invited us over. That day our friends from Out of Africa, Jo and John arrived. Since Barb and Chuck knew them as well they joined us with a fourth boat Chimayo with Debbie & Bob aboard. We all had a wonderful evening and Barb really topped it off when she brought out Ice Cream to go with the cake folks had made! Our next outing was the Saturday night BBQ at Lucky’s restaurant, she only does it once a week and has a happy hour too so the local cruisers all tend to congregate there as it’s good atmosphere and great company. We went along with Celtic Spay, Ocean Rainbow, Spirited Lady and Santiago. It was a great night even though the BBQ chicken was sold out so pork was only left for us. The local specialty was rum sold by the 1/4 or 1/3 bottle and since we were trying local fare Devin tried the Clarke's Court Bay 1/4 bottle and it was so nice he had two! Well it a very good crowd here with lots of ideas and since it was regatta weekend in Petite Martinique Susie on Spirited Lady wanted to go. On Sunday she had made the trek and decided again on Monday to go as it was a holiday weekend and the final races. She announced on the radio and after a very hasty decision Moosetracks & Celtic Lady joined her. We took a taxi from Tyrrel Bay to the far side of the island to Windward and then a fast “ferry” across to the island. It was a beach full of sailboats that greeted us as all the boats were beached overnight and between races. We were a little early so we toured town and had refreshments at the local market and guest house. Surprisingly Ocean Rainbow arrived just a little later as they missed the early morning departure but it was great to see them here too. Back at the beach we watched the races start by group, first the kids in dinghies then each class of the senior boats. Most classes had 3 boats with the other having 4, but the competition was still very intense as these were all nearby island folks and had long rivalries to contend. The festivities included beach games for all the family; egg and spoon races, eating apples form bucket of water, slipper racing with 3 kids to each “slipper” and some beer drinking competitions for women and men.

Petite Martinique arrival

The "Ferry"

Awaiting the start of the day

Gina's entrant?

Flipping Crystal Clair for repairs

Our refreshment guest house and market

Race Start

Another start

Devin & Locals comparing notes on positions

One of the beach bars

Apple eating competition - no hands allowed

Slipper races

Unfortunately we missed the greasy pole competition as we wanted to be back before dark but we bet that was hilarious too! It was a great day and we were so glad we had made the effort to do it.

We have really enjoyed Tyrrel Bay, it is so quite and peaceful with just enough places to explore, trails to walk and bars/restaurants that we could be back here in not so long. Anyway our last few nights we will enjoy the company we found and then move on to Grenada for the weekend.

 We hope everyone is fully into their summer and is having a great time too.

Carnival in the USVI then the French Islands

We completed the circumnavigation of St John and returned to Christmas cove to relax and meet up with Out of Africa and Sailacious again as well as to enquire about our water maker pump which we still had not heard about. After a quick email we got a response that it has at last shipped so it should be in St Thomas this week. It was John and Jo’s wedding anniversary so we had a BBQ on the beach to celebrate and the British crew Bob and Leslie from s/v Moon Rebel came as well. It was a great evening and also a farewell to Sailacious as they are heading west to be hauled out for hurricane season in Puerto Rico.

That resulted in both Moon Rebel and Out of Africa joining us in Charlotte Amalie harbor for the start of Carnival. We anchored in the main harbor and had ring side seats for the parades when they came along the sea wall road. We also of course had ring side seats for the music and it kept us up to 3 am almost every morning. On the Break of day parade it continued all night so we decided we might as well join in at 5 am and we took the dinghy over to see the parade with the paint and powder throwing over all the participants, of course we kept a discrete distance too. During this both Serafina and Balvenie joined us in the harbor too.

Break of Day parade

Paint pouring

Crazy DJ

He laid down to get this paint job!

Early morning drinking too!

The next day it was the children's parade and we walked into town to see the parade travel down main street.

They sure were young

Lots of great talent though

A great children's steel band

The following day as the Adult parade so again we followed it down main street.

Lots of Carnival Queens

A few Jumbies

More Jumbies

Wicked costumes

We said farewell to Moon Rebel as they too had to leave for their journey to the US and were headed west. The closing night was a firework display right over the harbor. Yes right over us, in fact we had been told to move our boat as we were too close. We re-anchored a safer distance away and enjoyed a fabulous firework display from Out of Africa with John and Jo.

The harbor setting at Charlotte Amalie

The finale

After all the fun it was time for a little work so we joined John and Jo and took a work day at the local laundry. When you have to carry all your laundry to the place then sit whilst it gets done and then carry it all back then yes it takes a good part of the day. We did manage to compensate for it by getting an ice cream fix in before returning to Moosetracks. On our last night together John and Jo joined us for Mexican train on Moosetracks and we had a great time as we always have with them.

The next day saw us in Christmas cove again as we waited for weather to cross through the British Virgins and spend a few nights there before leaving for the Anegada passage to St Martin. Well looking at the weather the following morning it changed our plans. The front coming through would mean far longer in the BVI than we felt we had time for, so we decided to leave immediately for St Martin and catch the BVI next year. So it was we motored across to St John and checked out at Cruz Bay and left for St Martin. We had a very light wind forecast for the crossing which can get very difficult, but it was a piece of cake with wind 10 knots or less and a 6 knot average for the crossing.

Checking out at Cruz Bay

A CBP pet or guard perhaps?

So we arrived in St Martin at Marigot Bay at 2 am in the morning, much faster than we anticipated. The harbor is really very large and since there was no wind we stayed well off and anchored to await the sun rise. We moved to a better spot once rested and the daylight allowed us to see where would be good. We dinghied into the lagoon later that morning to check in and clear customs. The island is actually divided between France and Holland with the town of Marigot on the Northern French side (St Martin) and the town of Simpson Baai on the Dutch side (Sint Maarten). It gives some interesting contrasts and most notable for cruisers are the bridges into the shared lagoon. The French bridge being far less reliable than the Dutch but free. We wanted to check out grocery prices here as the French side is duty free and of course has great French goods like wine, cheese, pate and breads so we had some great discoveries.

Some of the lovely buildings

The harbor side market

Spice market

We had caught up with Little Wing and arrange to meet for lunch in Marigot as they were anchored in the lagoon on the Dutch side. We left for town early to get some shopping done and discovered to our surprise it was a local holiday and almost the whole island was closed for business. So we called Joe & Anne and got a rain check for the next day. We caught up with each other shopping for SIM cellular internet plans in Digicel the next morning and after a frustrating experience we both got connected all be it expensive. We then walked around to the harbor for lunch and a catch up on our cruising since Culebra.

Our friends Jo and Gregg on s/v Serenade were also in the Lagoon but the dinghy ride is several miles and since it seemed to rain every day after meeting Joe and Anne we couldn’t catch up with them, ah well we both will be between Grenada and Trinidad all summer.

Well once the rain stopped, and after 6-10 inches it was a welcome cessation, we took the opportunity with easterly trade winds to make our passage south east to Guadeloupe. It was a planned over night trip of around 140 nm, so we allowed 24 hours. It turns out the whole way was close hauled and Moosetracks was considerably slower than we wanted but we still managed to make it well before dark. The arrival at Deshaies is easy and straightforward in the pretty little bay on the NW corner of the island. Deshaies was a wonderful stop with a very friendly and quaint village which took only an hour or so to walk completely through. We stayed 3 nights to rest up before our next jump and met some more folks heading south for hurricane season as we all do the annual migration. It was great to get some tips from folks who are in the second or third year in the Eastern Caribbean.

Passing the volcano at Montserrat

Deshaies

The bridge to the harbor

Local fishing boats 

Lots of beach front restaurants

Our next jump was more due south and hopefully with the trade wind keeping up it would be a little less close hauled. Indeed it worked perfectly with the wind 60-90 degrees off the bow we stayed on a port tack and had many hours of 7-8 knots boat speed which is really quite pleasant at that wind angle. We made Martinique at 5:30 am as the sun was up and came into Fort de France in light winds in the lee of the island. It is a fairly large bay but a smaller anchorage due to ferry terminals. It has a beautiful back drop of Fort St Louis but sadly it is a military base and you are not allowed in to see it?

Fort St Louis

The military entrance

We took a lot of walks around town and caught the sites of the library, Cathedral, Government buildings and the many shops and markets of the capital city. It is fair to say it was much more run down than we expected but it seems most island nations are struggling to maintain infrastructure on a fickle tourist economy and  the Caribbean nations are no exception. The people here are very pleasant and very forgiving our school book French language and of course there are great places to eat everywhere.

Old government buildings

Next to new ones..

Fruit market

French passion - Napoleon's wife's statue was beheaded

The library

The Cathedral

Some of the restoration

Inside the Cathedral

The spice market

Well that’s us almost down to our summer layover. We plan the next 5 months to avoid the hurricanes of the Caribbean by staying in Grenada and Trinidad which statistically at least are unlikely to get any severe weather.

We hope everyone is safe and well, Enjoy your summer too.