2024-11-17 Sandy Island, Union Island

We spent a couple of days in Tyrell Bay in Carriacou.   Did some more shopping, as we knew it would most likely be our last chance for the next few weeks.  Headed out to Sandy Island which is part of Carriacou, but in a protected zone.   Sandy Island was hit hard by hurricane Beryl, but is still beautiful.   

Sandy Island, Carriacou

People have created paths on the island using the washed ashore dead coral

Lots of work on the paths

Don't know if the palms were tilted this hard before Beryl, but they certainly are tilted now

A lot of coral was broken and washed up ashore on the ends of the island.  Interesting to see how nature has changed and will continue to change the island.  Where the coral is piled up it acts as a breakwater, creating a protected area that will fill in eventually with sand and debris creating more island, while other parts of the island were washed away in Beryl.

You can see the pile of washed ashore coral, creating a breakwater of sorts

Crossing the shallows, that are new since hurricane Beryl

Washed ashore coral from hurricane Beryl

Island is not that large.  About 115 ft by 1200 ft

There is a new underwater snorkel park called "A World Adrift" that was put in within the last month near Sandy Island that we checked out.

Water clarity wasn't that great, but diving down gave a good view of the sculptures

They have "seeded" some sculptures with coral, as you can see on this sculpture

We took the dink to mainland Carriacou to check out, and had a 3.5 mile round trip walk from the beach to immigration and customs.   Asked a nice man on the beach if it was OK to leave our dink with the fishing boats.   He said it was, and walked with us a bit of the way as well.  He was a middle school teacher for 30 years on Carriacou, and pretty much knew everyone.  Interesting person to talk to.  He lost everything in the hurricane, but now is rebuilding, and has a roof, so is thankful for that.

  

On Carriacou, demolishing a home destroyed in Beryl

On Carriacou, destroyed home overlooking the mangroves in Tyrell bay

Had a nice 1 hour sail from Sandy Island up to Union Island.  We took a mooring at Frigate Island, and then took the dink the 2 miles over to the town of Clifton to check in.   Union was hit very hard by hurricane Beryl, and the customs and immigration office is set up temporarily in a vacant room in the local hotel - which is also damaged and rebuilding.   There is a small dinghy dock near the hotel, also badly damaged.   

Dink coming into the dinghy dock through narrow damaged opening.

After check in, we went for a snorkel around Frigate Island.

Not much coral

Some nice underwater structure, but lacking in coral or sponge life.   

Interesting rock formation on Frigate Island

The anchorage got rolly overnight, so we moved over to Chatham Bay.  There was  a small cruise ship there as well, so we were entertained watching them ferry folks back and forth to the beach.

Small cruise ship

Sandy beach and steep hill in Chatham bay.

There used to be some small restaurants in Chatham bay and a small resort, but all are destroyed.  Only the building from the resort are left, and are being rebuilt.  Went snorkeling at the north side of the anchorage, was identified as a good spot but the water was cloudy and didn't see much.

Union Island looks like it was harder hit than Carriacou, and the rebuilding is slower as well.  We would say only about 10% of the buildings are live-able here, although we did not walk through town, so that could be off, but an estimate from what we can see from the boat.

We will move today up to Mayreau.

2024-11-10 Touring Grenada, Underwater sculpture park, and off to Rhonde and Carriacou

Monday we took a half day tour.  We have toured around Grenada in the past, but never seen the Grand Etang rain forest - so that was on our list.  Tour was part drive and part stopping at some spot.  Our driver Dexter did a great job, and since it was only the two of us, we enjoyed talking about lots of local issues with him.

The Grand Etang rain forest is very pretty, and is a protected National park.  We went for a small hike on a very muddy trail and got to see a Mono monkey - which Kris bravely even got out the van to look at.  (Kris doesn't like monkeys -  had traumatic encounter when young).

Nice view of the harbor of St. Georges from atop the hill.  

Grand Etang park sign

The Mono monkey is not native to Grenada, but is now part of the "native" animals in the rain forest.  Only a couple of them will come close to humans - this one is 10 years old.

Hiking along a very muddy slippery trail.  

Our original plan was a longer hike, but with the condition of the trails, glad we did not, as they are still not completely cleaned up following hurricane Beryl, and with the rainy season, they are very muddy and slippery.  It was difficult to not end up on our bums in the mud - but we did it - couple of close calls though.

Dean talking with Dexter our driver at the Grand Etang lake

This is the lake from a stock photo, so you can see we were up at the top of the mountain.  We were lucky did not get rained on while on the trail.

We stopped at the Nutmeg museum, and learned about nutmeg processing - will never take that for granted again, and also at the Diamond Chocolate Factory - and yes, we bought some.

Ripe Nutmeg, ready to pick when it splits open.

The entire nutmeg is used.  The outer husk, the red covering (mace) and the seed (nutmeg)

Tour was interesting, except for our guide, which actually read every sign to us for a while.

After nutmeg, it was on to chocolate.

Green Cocoa pod

Pretty gardens at the Diamond chocolate factory

We sampled a few, but Kris settled on the 75% dark, and 60% with nutmeg.

After chocolate we headed to Concord falls.  Very pretty falls.

There are a couple of very deep pools at the bottom of the falls.

We could have gone for a swim, as we brought our clothes for that, but it began to rain, and rain, and downpour, and rain, so luckily we took shelter at a restaurant/shop near the falls and waited it out.

The downpour only lasted about 1/2 hour.

After the falls, it was back to the boat.  We spent a couple more days in St. George's.  Went out for a nice lunch, and took a bus for groceries and stocked up, as we know the next few islands won't have much since they were all hit hard by Hurricane Beryl.

After a full week in St. Georges we headed out, after a stop at the Underwater Sculpture Park.  Had a good time snorkeling, and saw almost all of the sculptures before the clouds came in and made the visibility poor, and the tour boats came in and crowded the area.

You had to dive down a bit to get a good view

One of the sculptures in the "Coral Carnival" group

Belair Dancer sculpture

Vicissitudes sculpture

Bench and selfie sculpture

After the snorkel, we headed north to Rhonde Island.  We have been there before, but Kris had wanted to hike to the north shore.  After a very rolly night, we looked for a place to take the dingy to land, but the rollers were so big, you would need to anchor out and swim ashore, that looked risky to our health as well, so we moved on up to Carriacou.  

Carriacou was hit hard by Hurricane Beryl, so interesting to see some of the recovery going on.  All the boats had been removed from the mangroves, but there was still a lot of debris in the mangrove branches.  More than half the boats in the boatyard were still in a state of brokenness.   About 50% of the homes looked to have a functioning roof and walls, but the rest still open to the environment in some fashion.  Two small groceries stores open in Tyrell bay which was great to see.  Not much else, think one restaurant is open here, but that is all.   

View off the main road, still a lot of trash and downed brush to clean up

Something completely destroyed still just sitting, with no clean up done

Tyrell Bay

Dump site

Inside one of the small stores that has had a good refurbishment after hurricane

Runoff creek, still clogged with downed vegetation

We were surprised to see our friends boat Melelana upright and floating.   Last time we saw it, it was upside down partially submerged in the mangroves.

Easy to see what was underwater, and what was not.

Our friends were insured, so the insurance company agreed the boat was a total loss,  the salvage company must have found a buyer for the hull.  Unfortunately, there are 3 boats like this in the harbor, plus several more with damage that had not been partially sunk all anchored or moored, but no one on them, no lights, and taking up a lot of the harbor.  Makes the harbor somewhat unappealing, and afraid that these boats will end up sinking in the harbor, or breaking loose at some point and ending up floating away, or on the shore somewhere.  Sad to see.    

We will move today to another anchorage, and hopefully do a little snorkeling before moving further north.

2024-11-02 Last days in Trinidad and sailing back to Grenada

We did some more exploring at Chacachacare.  Hiked up to the abandoned buildings and walked around.  Think the buildings were a church, living quarters and the hospital for the leper colony.

Buildings were nice at one time, with covered verandas

Nice view of the anchorage

Kitchen areas were outside the main buildings

Don't know what the odd shaped cutouts in the walls in the hospital were

Showering and toilet facility

Dean being goofy

Lots of black vultures on the roof and in the building added a bit of creepiness

Next day we headed to a different anchorage, as Chacachacare had gotten to be a bit choppy and rolly in the afternoons.  We needed to put up our sails, and mark reefing points on our halyards, and figured doing it in the daylight would be best, as when we left Trinidad, we would be leaving in the dark.   Had a nice sail, with lots of tacking but got all the reef points marked.  We anchored in Scotland Bay, which  was quite nice and calm.   We could hear the howler monkeys in the forest.

We checked out of Trinidad - took 1 hour, and we never waited in line, we were the only ones checking out.   Lots of paperwork, and lots of copies and stamping and initializing and signing.   Had a nice lunch out, and stopped by to see Bruce and Sandra on Namid.  They were hauled out, and flying out that same day that we were leaving as well.   

Chaguaramas Trinidad anchorage

We spent our last Trinidad cash at the store, and rested until 7:00 p.m, then set sail in the dark for Grenada.  Did spend some time getting our Grenada courtesy flag ready, as it was a bit torn and faded from use.

A good selection of sharpie markers is great for coloring flags

Nice sunset for our last night in Trinidad

Had a nice sail, left at 7pm and arrived around 9:00 a.m.  Showered, checked in, and walked to the grocery and hardware store before back on the boat for lunch and needed naps.

Next day we moved over to St. George's, which is the largest town and capital of Grenada.  We took a mooring for a week, as the area in front of St. Georges is a marine park.

Went to town, and got a Digicel sim card for internet, and just walked around a bit, and got a few groceries

Industrial area of main harbor

Lots of pleasure and fishing boats in inner harbor

Busy streets with lots of stores

Narrow streets as well

Today we head off on a tour of the rain forest and more.