2024-07-07 Trinidad - and back to Grenada - the destruction caused by hurricane Beryl

We rode out Hurricane Beryl in Trinidad on July 1st..  We had a good anchorage, and no issues, although it got pretty bouncy for a while with a 2' chop/swell rolling through anchorage for about 12 hours, but nothing unsafe, just a bit uncomfortable.  Hurricane Beryl was so much worse for so many more - so no complaining from us.  

Beautiful sunset that night as Beryl moved off to the west

Next day, seas were flatter so we headed to town with our friends on Matcha.  As we had been running from Beryl for several days, we were a bit low on groceries, so headed to town.  Trinidad is used to cruisers, but not where we were, but luckily a local boat was kind enough to let us use them to tie to to access shore.   

Trinidad is a large island, and somewhat "Americanized"    We had a short walk to a large mall.   First store as we came in was a Smoothie King, so that was our first stop.

Getting some goodies for breakfast/lunch

Quite the mall, Dean enjoying the fountain and the smoothie

We also had a nice lunch in the mall, a panini, then off to the grocery store for supplies, then back to the dinghy.   Dean climbed down in the dinghy, and then brought it over to a lower dock for us to load in the groceries.    Kris would have had a hard time getting the dink, as Deans legs were just long enough to make the climb.

Dean climbing into the dinghy

That evening the first reports started coming in from the damage of Hurricane Beryl on the islands north of us.  It did not look good.  Our friend Tracy on Wanderlust reported that her boat was a total loss, as were many others.  Our friends on Melelana also had bad news, their boat flipped.  The island had no water, no food, no communication and most buildings were destroyed.   

We decided we would try to help so on the 3rd, we upped anchor early, and moved the boat 4 miles and re-anchored.   This spot had a good dinghy dock so we headed in to go to town to a bulk grocery store.   We were quite lucky, and a local guy stopped and asked if we wanted a ride - which we did.  Tony had lived in Trinidad his entire life, and was a very nice guy.  He dropped us off right in front of PriceSmart - a membership grocery like a Costco.  We filled up our cart, with just a couple items for us, and the rest for donation to the islands hit by Beryl.   Tony told us to call him, and he would give us a ride back, but we did not have cell service, so had to find it.   Luckily we saw a Starbucks nearby.

Inside PriceSmart

Kris standing a small spot of shade trying to get internet to call Tony for a pickup

We got ahold of Tony, and he told us it would be about 20 minutes, so we found better shade, and happened to have a nice restaurant right there as well.

Kris eating her lunch by our packages in the shade.

Lunch was yummy bowls

Tony arrived, and helped us load up the supplies and gave us a ride back to the dinghy dock.

Tony dropped us off, and we went back to the boat and upped anchor again, and headed into the main port of Chaguaramas, about 3 miles, and anchored again.  Dean stayed aboard, as the anchorage was tight and deep, and somewhat iffy holding.  Kris headed in to check out of Trinidad.   

Trinidad is keen on paperwork, and the check in and check out process is long and tedious.   It took Kris 2 hours of waiting and 20 minutes of actual time to check out.   By the time we were checked out, we received word that Tracy had found a ride back to Grenada, as they were running an evacuation boat and she was able to get off island.  We were going to pick up more donated supplies to transport, but after check out were too late to get more so we left Trinidad and headed back to Grenada with what we had.  Brisk overnight sail, with about 12 other boats with the same plan.

Arrived in Grenada to Prickly Bay at around 5 in the morning.  Dropped anchor and cleaned up.  Another boat pulled in, and we transferred our supplies to them, as they were continuing on to Carriacou after checking in.  Trying to minimize the number of boats heading into the islands, so we were happy to offload our stuff, as we knew we were not leaving for Carriacou right away, but our supplies could.

We had been in contact with our friend Tracy on Wanderlust, who had her boat on the island of Carriacou during Beryl.  Other friends on Melelana were there as well.  They secured their boats in a mangrove lined inlet, and spent the night ashore.  They were lucky, the house they stayed in did not collapse or lose the roof, so they had shelter.  Unfortunately, both their boats were lost.  Melelana flipped upside down, and although somewhat still floating, is damaged.  Tracy on Wanderlust no so - her boat - a Manta 38 catamaran flipped upside down, landed in the mangroves and caught fire and burned.  Tracy left with nothing.

Tracy was staying with another boat friend in Tyrell bay, so we checked in with her, then headed into town to check back into Grenada.  Had to take a taxi, as the local immigration office closed, as the immigration officer had relatives in Carriacou and had left to help.  Once back to boat, Tracy came over to use the computer and our internet to start filing out insurance forms.  The anchorage was rolly, so while she filled out forms, we moved the boat to another anchorage nearby which was calmer.  

With forms done, we headed to shore, and walked back over to where Tracy was staying with friends.  One friend had a boat that was beached during the hurricane, so stopped to see the progress pulling boats off the beach.

Several boats on the beach.

They got one boat off, but have to wait on high tide, so it is pretty much only one boat a day that gets pulled off.  Tracy's friend will have to wait until next Monday for his turn.

We headed to a local restaurant, had a nice dinner, and then Tracy headed back to her friends boat, and we headed back to Charm.     

There are a lot of relief efforts going on for the islands, and boats taking up supplies, but unfortunately lots of conflicting information.  We decided, based on Tracy's first hand reports that it would be better for us to help out from here as we can instead of taking the boat up.   

Friday the 5th, was our 33 wedding anniversary.  We just spent the day relaxing on the boat, which was great, as we have had a busy week, and a day of nothing was well spent.

Yesterday was boat projects.  We took one of our boat louvers off, as we suspected a small leak, so wanted to reseal around the windows.

Today, we will probably walk into town, see Tracy, and perhaps help load a van with fruit and veggies heading up to the islands that were destroyed by Beryl.


For those interested in how bad the hurricane damaged the islands, here is a link to a good video with drone footage showing the town, and mangrove inlet where our friends had their boats.     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhxOM6hp_6Q&t=286s