2024-11-24 Tobago Cays, Mayreau, Canouan, Petit Nevis and Bequia

We left Union Island early, and had a quick 6.5 mile motor into the wind to get to the Tobago Cays.  The Tobago Cays are in a marine park, and it is expensive.  It is $33.30 US a night for a boat with two people.  It doesn't matter if you anchor or take a mooring, price is the same, so we took a mooring ball.  We had been here on What If in 2013, and had good snorkeling and swimming with turtles.

We headed out to the reef to snorkel, and there were fish, but the state of the reef was a bit sad.  Warm water and hurricanes have turned a beautiful coral reef into a bit of a wasteland.

The areas we checked out snorkeling.

Broken dead corals

Some fish and soft corals

Brain coral

Resting nurse shark

Ocean side of reef 

Never seen this configuration of brain coral before

Completely bleached white brain coral

Mostly dead and some bleached corals

Dead broken Elk-horn corals

Still quite a few fish around

Broken and dead

Snorkeling has been sad in the southern Caribbean.  Don't know if it is the spots we are picking, or if what we are seeing is truly representative of the conditions. Hurricane Beryl certainly did not help things.   

We did see some turtles (no good photos), and watched an Eagle Ray looking for food.   It would come to a spot, then "blow" the sand away while in an almost vertical position.  It had an entourage of fish following it everywhere.

Eagle ray looking for a meal

We had planned more snorkeling the next day, but more rain and clouds were coming, and the anchorage area had turned into a bit of a washing machine, so we decided to motor over to the lee side of Mayreau and anchor.

We headed into shore, and had one of the worst beach dingy landings we have had in a while.  Big surge came while near shore, and turned dinghy sideways right after Dean jumped out.  The dinghy swept him off his feet and landed him back in the dink, but he lost his sandal, which broke when he got flipped back into the dink.  We were able to recover and fix the sandal.   Kris also knocked down into the bottom of the dink, but she hadn't fully stepped out yet, so was unscathed. (no video thank goodness)

We walked across the island to check out the windward beach, but saw a large rainstorm coming, so did not stay long.

That dark cloud doesn't look good

Went to the small grocery store in town, and it was a very sad little store, with very few items, but a good selection of ice cream in the freezer, but looked a bit old.

The rain came, and we waited under a building overhang for around 20 minutes until it passed

Waiting out the rain

Walking flooded dirt/gravel road back to beach and dinghy

Goats on every island

Next day quite rainy, so just hung out on the boat.   Wednesday we headed up to Canouan.

Huge signage for the luxury marina on Canouan - very out of place in the Caribbean

We went snorkeling off of L'Ance Guyac Point.  We had snorkeled in 2013, and made notes that there were tons of fish, and even saw a Manta Ray.

  

We started snorkeling on the south side of the point, and started seeing lots of jellies.  They did not have tentacles, so we were not too worried, and didn't seem to be stinging, as there were snorkelers off of charter boats also in the water.

Spot wing comb jellyfish

As we snorkeled we would pass though clumps of these jellyfish, with close to 50 in a clump.  It got so bad it was impossible to avoid them in some spots, so you just swam through feeling their squishy bodies on your legs, hands and face at times.  Kris was not enjoying.   They got fewer as we rounded the point to the north, but the current picked up as well, and the water got cloudier, so we gave up on the snorkel, as we had not seen many fish, and mostly dead coral as well.   

At one time it was beautiful coral.  Now dead

Nice rainbow in Canouan after another squall passed.

After a boat day in Canouan with many rain squalls, we headed up to Petit Nevis, a tiny island that used to be a whaling station, but no longer.  

We snorkeled from the boat along the shore.

Mostly dead

Some still living

Had a few live sponges still

Lots of surge made getting out of the water onto the small beach difficult, and sea urchins added to the treachery, but we made it not without difficulty.   We had put our land shoes in a net bag that we hauled with us snorkeling.

On land, pretty island

Old building

View from the old dock to the anchorage area

Windward side of Petit Nevis

The island is private, so we did not explore too much, and rain was coming, so back to the boat.  The anchorage was a bit choppy, and since we had time, we upped sail, and headed to Bequia a short 5 miles away to the anchorage.

One of the Moonhole buildings on the south shore of Bequia.

Found a nice spot to anchor in Bequia.  Next day stopped to see Hahalua, who is also anchored here.  They suggested dinner that night, which sounded good.

Found a dead squid on our stern steps in the morning.  The ink stain took some scrubbing to get off.

We headed to town, dropped off our trash, and went to a few spots to get some fresh fruit and veg.  Went to dinner that night, but due to some rain squalls and high wind gusts Hahalua did not come in, but we did meet some new friends, Dave and Stephen on Stella Mari were also friends of Hahalua, and were invited to dinner.  Enjoyed dinner with them, and had a nice evening.

One weird thing going on, is that we got a sim card in Grenada to use for internet.  Supposed to allow us 45GB for a month.  It hasn't been a month yet, but we are up to 57 GB of use and it still hasn't shut off, but the phone call ability has been, and we haven't used the phone minutes at all.   The month plan is up on November 30th.  We will probably get cut off then.

We will stay in Bequia for a bit. 

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.