Due to the restrictions in place for the COVID-19 pandemic all Grenadian “Carnival” celebrations were cancelled, officially that is, on the island of Carriacou the locals just went ahead and had a few anyway, they still held The Around The Island Race for the locally built boats with free food and a bit of a party afterwards.
I must point out the island of Carriacou is covid case free, the country of Grenada is case free and the borders are closed for the time being.
The Locals Round The Island Race is the one Craig managed to get a spot on “Free in St Barts”. Millennial Falcon did an episode that has a small segment click the link below to watch it.
On the Sunday evening the locals had a party night in town with a metal drum band and free food for everyone, we actually didn’t go into town for that one as we were a bit tired and hung over from the night before’s celebrations.
It all started with Scott from Fruit Bat asking Craig if he would be interested in doing the Cruisers Around The Island Race and if so he would love to crew for him. Jack and Kyra from Yellowbird at a different time asked the same question (I think they had been chatting)
Craig being just slightly competitive was considering entering so we went along to the briefing on the Friday evening, “just to see” says Craig.
It was a great night at The Slipway Restaurant the Quran-Tilla was back together again. We caught up with Timmies, Gina Lee and Breakaweigh who had all just arrived in Tyrell Bay after taking a slower path from island to Island than us. The organizers of the race had red hats and T-shirts for the competitors and a hand out information sheet, the race T-shirts may have been the deciding factor. Craig decided to race and somehow they managed to talk Brian from Timmies Run into entering as well.
Saturday morning up bright and early I was going to sit on Fruit Bat and keep captain Lupe company the kitten than Scott and Sam rescued in Luperon when he was a tiny baby, so little that he had to be hand fed and could fit inside the palm of your hand, he is now a robust friendly teenager full of mischief and fun. I didn’t want to be onboard “My House” as they raced her flat out so I found somewhere else to hang for the morning.
The crew ended up being Scott and Sam-Fruit Bat, Jack and Kyra-Yellowbird and Adam and Khiara-Millennial Falcon plus Captain Craig.
Nath on Timmies Run was the same as me she hid out onboard Gina Lee while they raced her house.
Adriana is set up for going to sea so it doesn’t take much to stow our everyday things and be ready, they crew were collected from their respective boats and I was dropped off, Sam tied off our dingy to Fruit Bat then swam back to Adriana.
So this was the race that didn’t happen there were supposed to be no start sirens except there was - a countdown with blasts from a horn, there were about 20 boats entered they were all circling the harbour, under sail maneuvering through the anchored boats it was a grand sight, soon they were off.
Heading north to the top of the island in a clockwise direction it was beautiful to see all the sails on the horizon.
Three hours later I’m disturbed from my reading by someone yelling I look over to see Adriana heeled over literally flying into the harbour neck and neck with a forty odd foot catamaran, Adriana just managed to get ahead in the last few minutes to take first position.
Onboard Adriana they had had a tight race and had even put up the spinnaker for a few minutes when the wind had dropped, she had been well out in front until they hit a lull in the wind as they were too close to land as they rounded the corner that brought them back into Tyrell Bay, that’s when the catamaran came flying past, but she managed to find enough breeze to take them over the line at the last minute, thrilling stuff.
The crew were ecstatic. They had come flying into the harbour celebrating their victory but then Craig had to yell “furl furl” being so excited they were forgetting they had to take down the sails so they could slow down and stop before they caused more chaos.
It’s worth having a look at the episode Millennial Falcon made of the race, while they were crewing it’s really good.
Sam swam over and we dingied back so I could be part of the celebrations, there were beers all round, then coffees, we then headed into town, the team looking resplendent in their red T-shirts and hats, a few more beers were had, plus a couple of baskets of hot chips as no one had had lunch.
Later we headed to the cheapest eatery for a 20 EC chicken dinner. Two fried chicken wings coleslaw and chips.
A few more beers catching up with the crew from Timmies Run and the other competitors, we bumped into the family off Kracken, it ended up being a fun night with everyone out on the street using the harbour wall to sit on, the bar had a saxophonist playing with backing music on his iPad, he was great and it created a fun party atmosphere, there were lots of locals hanging out too, ready for a chat and a dance in the street.
So yes we didn’t feel up to partying a second night, we could hear the tin drum band and the revellers from where we were anchored it sounded fun. One of this islands carnival traditions is called Jab Jab or devil, it involves covering themselves in black oil and having a piece of something red hanging out of their mouth to represent bloody meat it stems back to the times of slavery and it was a way for the slaves to make a mockery of the white masters. We had watched a guy smeared in black oil with a horned helmet and chains run up and down the street banging a huge piece of corrugated iron on a rope around his neck, the night before, it was so loud, but he looked like he was having fun. We were a bit wary of the night just being noisy and messy.
The next morning this old fishing boat that had been anchored behind us, for some reason decided to move and anchor in front of us, the diesel fumes were awful coming straight across the water and into our boat we had to move the fumes were killing us as they kept the engine running constantly.
We upped anchor and headed out, turned left and hoisted the foresail there was no need to hoist up the big main sail, the trade winds were blowing with just enough force to pull us along nicely, it was literally a half hour sail we were heading for Saline Island. On our way we passed White Island, the most stunning piece of sand and water with layers of shades of blue water set off by the white sand and palm trees, there were 2 other boats anchored there with plenty of room for us, we couldn’t resist stopping to have a look and hopefully a swim at the beach.
While we were getting ready Karl on Free sailed past on his way to Saline Island, we waved and took some photos of the beautiful boat under sail.
Jumping in the dingy and going straight to shore we were like two little kids marveling at the amazing colours we were immersed in. A quick walk around the uninhabited island and we headed back to Adriana the sun was high in the sky and so intense.
As we were getting cleaned up there was a yell and a knock on our hull, there was Karl with a huge lobster and a red snapper, gifts for us with big smiles we thanked him, I told him I thought he was really cool 😊
Now what to do with this beauty, we have run out of gas for the bbq so decided to boil up the lobster and save the snapper for tomorrow.
We were joined by Gina Lee and Breakaweigh dropping their anchors just behind us, both couples like us happy to leave the busy not so clean waters of Tyrell Bay to rest in this totally different environment literally just around the corner.
We met on the beach for a swim taking a beer or two with us then back onboard to feast on our lobster. Craig broke it apart and removed all the meat from the legs etc, frying up some garlic and adding a small amount of pasta sauce he whipped up a delicious lobster pasta. Thank you Karl.
It wasn’t too rolly when we anchored but the swell increased overnight, the forecasted swell was to stay the same, Gina Lee decided to head back to Tyrell happy to have seen and swam at this beautiful beach, Breakaweigh moved over to Saline Island where they said it was less rolly but there were more boats at anchor. We decided to put up with the sea-state and enjoyed the serenity, we hung out there for a few days, by the last day we were completely alone.
It was time to head back to civilization we needed some fresh fruit, and some free WiFi.
Due to what’s going on at home (it being the middle of Winter and there having to be more lockdowns) we have been very hesitant to post pictures of us frolicking in the water, enjoying sunshine and hanging out with friends, so we hadn’t put anything on social media for a while but then we started to get messages asking if we were ok and what were we up to?
Craig put up a number of photos, the response has been lovely and heartwarming. I had written a couple of blog pages so it was time to upload them.
Thursday 13th August we had a lovely day walking to Paradise Beach from Tyrell Bay with Jack and Kyra - Yellowbird, it’s a hot walk maybe 20 minutes slightly uphill but you get to swim at a beautiful beach as a reward.
After a refreshing dip we kept walking, bumping into Adam and Khiara- Millennial Falcon on the way the roads are narrow but it’s a pretty walk quite rural with lots of goats grazing along the verges.
We passed a building and out of the corner of my eye I noticed a small sign to indicate it was a roti shop, I guess around here the locals all know who sells what so no need for signs and they are not expecting tourists, really if you were on holiday you’d probably be sitting at Paradise Beach Bar having lunch not seeking the best value for your buck lunch.
We stopped for a quick bite to eat, they only had Roti’s with bones ugh neither of us like picking out the bones, they make the curry from the chicken wings so they are full of tiny tiny bones but they did sell ice cold beer, the Carib helped wash it down.
Hillsborough is the main town on Carriacou it’s the one with the most shops we had wondered if you could anchor there and yes there was one boat anchored out front and there is a pier with a dingy dock, ohh we said this looks nicer than Tyrell Bay so the next morning we upped the anchor and sailed the half hour around to Hillsborough, it’s not far we had walked there, we don’t seem to need to go far to find new and interesting places.
Adam MF had mentioned “they do great chicken and chips there” pointing to a little hole in the wall shop, and as you know Craig loves his fried chicken, so for dinner we had really delicious fried chicken wings with home cut chips and 2 Carib beers, all while sitting on the pier, $25EC about $15 Australian.
The locals all say hello well they say either “good morning” or “good afternoon” more than saying “hello”, it’s polite to use that greeting before you ask a question or launch fully into a conversation, the older ladies especially get narky if you forget these niceties.
Yellowbird arrived the next morning woo hoo we really enjoy their company.
When we pulled into Hillsborough we discovered the one boat in the anchorage area was Jo and Daz on Requin we met them when we were straight out of quarantine and anchored in Mon Rouge it had been Daz’s birthday and we had joined them on the beach for a few drinks.
It’s rather nice to be able to shout out hello to people you know as you are dropping the anchor.
Jo stopped her dingy on the way back from town letting us know they were meeting some friends on the small island that we could see about a 15 minute dingy ride away, they were going for a snorkel then having a bbq on the beach and did we want to join them. “We are carnivores” she said “we don’t bother with sides or salads”. That certainly made things easy, Craig jumped in the dingy and motored over to the supermarket picking up a pack of pork ribs and a pack of chicken wings. He whipped up a marinade and quickly boiled the meat in it, reducing the juices as much as possible, I got together a few cold beers and made a watered down pineapple mix with ice to go with my vodka and Craig’s rum.
Off we headed, it was maybe a 15 minute ride over, the approach to the island was very tricky, rocky and shallow with smelly slimy water trapped in by a huge wall of conch shells, we had to lift the motor up on its hinges and row the last part into a tiny gray sand beach.
The snorkel/ swim consisted off jumping off the deep water side of the island and drifting down and around, it’s not a big island so it only took Jack and Craig 10 minutes or so.
Meanwhile the bbq pit was prepared a small circle of rocks was created to hold the heat beads (bbq charcoal rocks) and once they were hot a grill was balanced over the top, our meat was piled on and the beers were cracked, what a lovely afternoon we had, the actual island was not very pretty full of rocks covered in bird poo, but we were looking back over our boats the sun was shining and the meat was delicious.
Later the other four joined us on Adriana, Jo brought along a game called Pit. It was the funniest loudest game we have ever played, it’s from the 80’s everyone gets 8 cards and the winner is the person who ends up with all 8 cards the same. The cards are pictures of trading commodities wool, corn, coal, gold. To achieve this you push a pair or a single or three cards into the centre while shouting out the number of cards you are trying to swap. Luckily we didn’t have any neighbors to disturb.
It’s Jacks birthday on Tuesday, the txt’s have been sent we are gathering at a bar to celebrate......
If you do go to you tube and watch Adam and Khiara on Sailing Millennial Falcon please give them a thumbs up and hit subscribe it costs you nothing but helps them boost their channel.
Love and miss you all ❤️❤️
No comments:
Post a Comment