On to Carriacou

It rained almost continuously the first four days after my return to Grenada. Then the forecasts called for northeasterly wind of 15-20 knots and 8 to 11-foot waves. Since Carriacou, our next destination, lies northeast of Grenada and our prepaid 30 days at the Grenada Yacht Club (GYC) hadn't expired, we decided to stay put and wait for a little less wind against us. Finally, Wednesday looked good, and we left the dock.

Veranda of the GYC. Nothing fancy, but electricity for laptops using the free Wi-Fi.

Lagoon entrance at St. George. Masts at GYC visible behind the blue industrial building. Big yachts are at Port Louis.

Brownie troop on their way to Lagoon Park after school

We weren't alone. As we left the harbor at St. George and turned right to motor up the western coast of Grenada, we saw that a couple of boats were ahead of us and a couple more behind us. We're slow when we motor, so more and more boats caught up with us. It looked like lots of people had been waiting for the weather break, but we knew there would be room for everyone at Tyrrel Bay, our destination.

As we neared the north end of the island, the wind picked up a bit and, as forecast, it was from east of northeast, so we pulled out the jib and got a little boost. We had been warned to hug the shore to avoid a westerly current that can be quite strong between the islands. There's an active underwater volcano on the way, and although we went right along the edge of its cautionary exclusion zone, we didn't see any indication that it was doing anything. We made good time and were comfortably anchored by 2:30 p.m. That gave us time to do a little socializing with a neighbor from GYC, Ron on Erasmos from Victoria, B.C., and also to say hello to Michael on Transcendence.

First sunset at Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou

Carriacou is a nice little island. Around Tyrrel Bay, at least, there are no high-rise resorts, just a few little cottages for rent and maybe some low-key inns. The people seem friendly and helpful, and although we had only planned to stay two nights, after our exploration yesterday, we decided to linger and explore further.

John exploring. The beach is the coolest road.

View from the pizza place with dinghy dock

The whole view

We'll take the bus into the main town of Hillsborough today, have a look around, and do our check-out for tomorrow. The governments of many of the islands in the West Indies have gone together on an Internet-based customs and immigration system called eSeaClear. Neither Barbados nor Grenada are on the system yet, but Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, our next island nation, is. I've filled out and submitted the forms, originally for our arrival today but edited for tomorrow. We're looking forward to seeing if it reduces the number of times we have to fill in forms with the same information.