Leaving Carriacou

Well as predicted we left Carriacou on November 1st on the first day our insurance allowed with our friends John and Jo from s/v Out of Africa. We didn't go far, in fact less than 20nm to Union island and the anchorage at Frigate Island. This is a lovely spot in the lee of a breakwater to the island and by a derelict marina project that never got anywhere near built. There were a few other boats in the anchorage all looking for good wind to kite surf in the flat clam waters of the bay. Unfortunately the winds were still light so we didn't see anyone get out. 

Oor new SVG flag goes up

We walked into Clifton which takes about 40 minutes from the dock at Ashton and checked in at Customs & Immigration at the harbor there. It was a pleasant walk along the road with nice views over Petite Martinique and Petite St Vincent. 

The Pinnacle from our anchorage

After a short rest it was time for a serious hike. We chose the Pinnacle behind Clifton which is a 740' high protrusion of rock. It was definitely  more of a scramble up the rocks than a hike. We missed the trail near the top and sat on a ledge to enjoy lunch and the great views, then on the descent we saw the missed turn and climbed again to reach the summit. The climbing was strenuous and the views fabulous so well worth the effort. The decent got a little tricky when the rain came making the rocks a little slippery but we took our time and made it down safely. On our way back we stopped for ice lollies in the ice-cream shop and then for a bread and chicken pieces in the small supermarket in Ashton. 

Our fist rest stop

View of our anchorage from half way up

Great views

A cute fellow drinking water

Stop for lunch on the ledge

The summit before the rain

Yes to the top of that

Our next stop was Chatham bay a couple of miles around the west side of Union Island. It is a lovely bay and very sheltered from the trade winds. We dinghied to shore to walk the trail and roads around this side of the island and again had spectacular views of the Grenadines. The bay has interesting slabs of rock near the sandy beach which makes dinghy landing tricky but does support a lot of small fish and baby lobsters. So we took our snorkel gear and the Go-Pro camera and got a few really nice photos. 

Our next hike

Great views too

Chatham bay

The next stop was Mayreau and the anchorage at Saline Bay, it is a very nice sand beach with a nice dock for the dinghy which makes it quite popular. So much so that small cruise ships turn up 2-3 days a week and use the beach as a small resort. Bob and Gigi from s/v Pinnacle joined us later in the week and we had some lovely beach brai's (BBQ) using up the 2.5 ft fish we caught on our short sail here. We stayed almost a week and enjoyed walks on both the windward side and leeward side. Although a very small island we were surprised how much walking we could get in. We enjoyed the local bread at the bakery so much we stopped nearly everyday for a loaf fresh from the oven. In fact John enjoyed the bakery so much with conversations of politics about the US election this week he couldn't get away. The baker even talked John and the girls to go to church on Sunday, Devin abstained, but the others had a great time. 

Windward walk

Saltwhistle bay

Leeward views

We all go a little crazy sometimes

John and the baker David

Again we got some great snorkeling on the reefs south of Saline bay, great schools of fish in water up to 20' but the swells caused the water to cloud and return trips were less successful.  

Juvenile Yellowtail Damselfish

Peacock flounder

French Angelfish

Juvenile Blue Angelfish

Sunset

When the wind turned north east and the swell entered the bay we got a little too much rolling so we decided it was time to leave. We wanted to go to the Tobago keys but after 3 days of waiting for the wind to either die down or go to the south we gave up and sailed to Canouan. This is a very exclusive island with the northern half being a very expensive Donald Trump golf resort, and as our new president we were not to impressed at not being allowed in. So we walked south to the new Marina being built and the airport on the island. It's a very impressive looking Marina, so much so we believe it will no doubt be a mega yacht destination and well beyond our pocket. Still it has generated a lot of local employment for Canouan and St Vincent and no doubt the islanders welcome it for that alone. We had some good snorkeling in the harbor by the obvious rock the juts out in the north of the anchorage. 

Charlestown bay, Canouan

New Marina

Nice little commuter

Spotted Drum

Juvenile Blue Tang (really)

Redlip Blennie

Our next stop was Bequia and a lovely looking morning turned a bit sour as we rounded the point and ran almost straight into a squall we couldn't see form the anchorage. Well we got another soaking but the wind never exceeded 30 knots so it was not too bad. We made good time for the first couple of hours in 15-20 knot then the wind died and we motored into Bequia, not a great passage. We anchored in Admiralty bay off of Princess Margret beach as usual in nice sand closer in. We did a few new walks for us whilst we were here. The first was up to Spring Estates by taking the road out of the village and turning left to the North West shore. We then followed the trails through the woods to the top of the Spring hill estates. It was a very pleasant walk with a lovely private park and picnic area at the top of the estate. 

The trail peak

Great views

Nice picnic area

The other walk was south to the unique homes at the Moonhole. The walk is mostly a road hike down to the airport at the SW tip of Bequia then a little further to the Moonhole beach. Unfortunately the owners were there and the security folks would not let us in for a tour (often allowed for a small fee) so we walked the beach and then the roads above to get a few pictures of the unique rock constructed homes. The first home was constructed under a natural rock arch and featured open windows and no straight walls. Unfortunately a piece of rock fell into the home when empty and damaged it. However several vacation homes are still there and used regularly even though they have no electricity or windows. 

Moonhole 

We had a wonderful beach potjie for thanksgiving on Princess Margret beach with several other friends in the bay,

Potjie or small pot on the fire

Thanksgiving games on the beach

Our last stop for November is Rodney bay, St Lucia which is a 70nm hop from Bequia. Being as this is a little more than we can do reliably in 12 hours of sunlight we elected to make this an overnight passage. We left Admiralty bay as the sun began to set and as we crossed the pass to St Vincent it went dark. The wind was from the east at 15 knots and we were making great time at over 7 knots. As the night wore on we got blanked by the island of St Vincent so we motored for a few hours before picking up the wind again and having a lovely sail through the pass from St Vincent to St Lucia.  Morning started to come we agin were in the lee, this time of St Lucia so we motored the last two hours in light winds to enter Rodney bay. This is a huge bay and easy to find a spot, but the first attempt we failed! Well the water was cloudy and we couldn't see the bottom, we anchored in a mass or rocks and coral. When Devin dove the anchor he found it lying on by a rock, not good! We picked up and re-anchored in a nice piece of sand and got a great set when we snorkeled to check it. Now why would I mention that? Well  the next day we got a big wake up call. The wind turned north then west as we were settling down to a movie for the night. As the wind picked up we came on deck to check and found we were  on a lee shore and the wind is picking up to 20+ knots. Not great so we cancel the movie and start prepping for a night watch at anchor. We removed sun covers and brought our life jackets and flashlights out. Very soon the wind gusted well above 30 knots, in fact we saw 48 knots briefly and the waves picked up in the anchorage to 4-5'. Now this is very serious, a normally flat anchorage was a mess with boats dragging all around us. We heard 3 boats call for help and several others re-anchoring around us. This all lasted for 2-3 hours until the wind settled below 20 knots. The waves driven by this cold front though just kept coming and we had a horrible night with waves subsiding from 4-5 feet taking all night to calm down to a foot or so. Well come morning there were 3 yachts on the beach and a few lost dinghies as well. Thankfully everything was towed of the beach and the yachts all floated. We heard the same tales from Martinique which is 25 miles north of us so it was a pretty big squeal line. We were so glad we took the time to check our anchor and that we have a 35kg Rocna which is just as good as it gets. 

Unfortunate charter boat on the beach near us

Well after the storm we settled for a little light retail therapy and the wait for our friends Bones and Anna on s/v Emily Morgan to arrive on the ARC rally crossing the Atlantic from the Canary Isles.

We hope your start to winter is calm and comfortable, we have had a lot of rain and clouds this Oct/Nov and we are looking forward to the dry season and mild temperatures which the winter hear brings. 

Happy Christmas to all our friends.
s/v Moosetracks

Carriacou - summer is nearly over

We are spending our last month of hurricane season in Carriacou this year as we have had such a good time here with the right balance of things to do with peace and quiet. We have had lots of walks around the island, lots of snorkeling, diving and nights out with friends.

Well the month started off with a tropical storm warning for "Matthew". It was forecast many days away so we had lots of time to think about our strategy and converse with other boats and locals. As time and the hurricane got closer we made up our mind to go into the mangroves. Not everyone did, two of our buddy boats sailed to Tobago, they were planning that anyway so just took the choice to do it. Several other boats went south to Grenada as the track looked like it was going just north of Carriacou. Some decided to do nothing and stayed on anchor or moorings.

So here we are in the sheltered mangrove bay just to the north of Tyrell Bay. The entrance is 13 feet deep into the first lagoon and around 50-60 boats did just that. We only draw 5 foot so we went into the even more protected second lagoon deep in the mangroves with again 50 or so boats. We tied 6 lines to the mangroves and 2 stern lines to a shore and back to the main winches.

Tied to the mangroves

Our neighbors

Local fishing boats

Well after the storm was over we all started to escape the mangroves and the mosquitoes that got a bit much at night and kept us below decks at dark. The exodus took several days as the moored boats here were not in a hurry. Well Matthew did in fact spool up to a hurricane after passing us, having slowed down north of the ABC islands it became a Cat 4 hurricane.The end result was a lot of waves a few days later and a surge in the bay from the west of 4-5 feet. We were at anchor and had a pretty uncomfortable night. The waves were too rough for 2 docks which were destroyed by the swell which pushed over a foot of sand up on the beach to the sea wall and had waves crashing onto the beach road. We had it OK however as the hurricane continued toward Haiti they had it really bad with hundreds of lives lost to the destructive force of a major hurricane.

High surge in Tyrell Bay

Waves crossing the beach road

Well like all things cruisers do we called a pot luck to celebrate our near miss. Diane and Richard volunteered their home and even found some frozen lobster tails from a local we could buy so we had a wonderful feast to celebrate. 

Harm, Richard, Chis and Devin

A huge spread

Very happy people

We enjoyed a bit of Karaoke to end the evening, but learned not to let Richard participate as he is tone deaf.

Diane, Richard and Dave with Karaoke

Well life quickly gets back to normal and we start off with a nice walk with Dave and Chis from Platina, we take a nice forest rail over to the east side of Carriacou and enjoy finding this abandoned cottage with beautiful word carvings in the trim of the doors, windows and roof.

Devin and Chis

Cute cottage abandoned

We have spent a lot of time with Richard and Diane of Lumbadive here in Tyrell bay as they participate in a lot of activities and host several for cruisers. So we invited them to Moosetrcks for sundowners and a chance to get to know each other better. We had a great time and shared many good stories of how we got to where we are today.

Richard & Diane

Liz & Devin

Towards the middle of the month we started to see lots more boats coming through and headed north for the season. We all have different insurance limits and these folks didn't need to wait until November 1st as we have to.

Well some good friends Morgan and Carmen arrived in the middle of Oct on their way north. We were invited over for some of Morgan famous sundowners and told them of all our activities and Carmen wanted to play fish with us and get in the water.

Carmen on our Lionfish hunt

Beautiful Townsend Angelfish

Spotted Drum

Nurse Shark (5')

We had the full moon dinghy drift as well and Morgan and Carmen joined us and 3 other dinghies for drift in the mangroves.

Morgan and Devin anxiously awaiting their sundowners

Of course we have several more visitors coming in for the end of the month and we get several more walks with other crews. 

A good view of Tyrell bay from a forest walk

Some young lambs on the trial

For the local Grenadian thanksgiving we went out to dinner at Tanty Mavis' restaurant with Richard and Diane but before that we all stopped in at Levi's bar to help him celebrate his wife's birthday.

Levi and Mary celebrating her birthday

Lots of cruisers stop in for the party

Thanksgiving feast by Tanty Mavis

Liz and Diane

Boys will be boys?

When Serenade and Pinnacle arrived in we went for a walk in to Hillsborough, but decided to explore a mangrove trail around from Paradise beach rather than taking the road. It was a bit of trial and error but we found a way through and had a great walk.

The beach towards Hillsborough

Gregg & Jo in the wreck we found on the beach

Devin did his last scuba dive with Diane before we leave and had a few new species to add to his years list. As usual it was great fun and a very nice dive. Diane even got to stroke a sting ray while it was sitting in the sand.

Spotted Moray eel

Balloonfish

Goldspotted eel

Beautiful Blu/Purple sponge

Well our summer is at an end and we soon pull up our anchor and start to head north to explore the other leeward and windward islands. Our objective this year is not huge, just St Martin and back, we still think there is a lot we missed or would like to see again.

We hope everyone has had a great summer!