10/12/2009 Grenada

10/04/2009 I took No Rush into the Grenada Yacht Club for the night. After she sat in Trinidad for three months her water tank was fouled. I put her in a slip for the night so that I could flush the tank several times and a slip is lot easier than hauling ten gallons of water at a time. I probably also spent less for a slip than all the fuel I would have used running back and forth.
10/05/2009 Today we moved over to Prickly Bay. I plan on bouncing around the south coast for the week. I want to see the Classic Cricket Match being held this Saturday. I been looking forward to seeing a match since last summer when my buddy Greg was talking about the game.
10/06/2009 There is plenty of social activities that are announced every morning on the cruisers net broad casted over the VHF radio every morning Monday through Saturday. This evening there is happy hour at D Big Fish. It is a fun bar that mixes great drinks. For entertainment tonight there was a three member band that played jazzy blues from one of the boats anchored in the bay. They were very good and it was fun to hang and listen to the music. Most of the rest of the time is cleaning or maintaining the boat. There is also time to read or watch movies.
10/07/2009 Today I took No Rush over to Clark Court Bay. I had spent an afternoon here the when I circumnavigated the island. There are four or five reefs with snorkeling available. When I was here I snorkeled the two inner reefs. The water was a little murky and wasn’t much better this time. Today I went out to the edge of the bay and went on three other reefs. The first was had a lot of wash from the waves and was murky, but I did see my first barracuda since being back on the boat. The second reef was on the opposite side of the bay and was clearer. This picture here is live white corals growing. It was like a field of them everywhere.
After I went back to the boat, there is what I thought was a sunken island. It was actually a reef also. It rose straight out of the depths of the bay to about three feet below the surface. This was not even marked on my cruising guide as a place to snorkel. It turned out to be the best snorkel in the bay. There were three large schools of fish and plenty of corals. Unfortunately I did not take my camera with me on this dive.
The other reason for coming over to Clarks Court was the happy hour scheduled there. It was hamburger night. That was ok, but it was the live music I was there for. They had a local playing the tin pan. He had a little computer that provided the background music and he played the tin pan. It was very good and what you expect of the Caribbean life.

10/08/2009 I motored over to Westerhaven Bay. I was looking for the owners of the same make of mine, Seawind 1000. I did not find there. They must have been off with customers for a day charter. I decided to head back t Prickly Bay. I was getting ready to cook a chicken dinner I had been planning for the last few days. But the best laid plans…. A couple of local fishermen came by with fresh caught lobster. I couldn’t turn that down. I had not had lobster since my second night in the Bahamas. I cooked him up on the grill along with a potato and corn. It was a meal fit for a king.
10/10/2009 Today is the day for the Cricket Match. I caught the bus to St George’s on Saturday morning. The streets are starting fill up for the weekend and I finally found out where the fruit market is located. It is just north of town, along the street by the main bus terminal and fish market. Still no pineapples to be found and I was told they are in season. I walked from the bus station to the national stadium. It is a three level stadium I believe built specifically for Cricket. I purchased my ticket, a whole $10.00EC or $4.00US. Not bad for a double header including the Old Timers game between The West Indies and The World. I will have to say I was expecting a bigger turn out for the match. It was probably only 10% of capacity.
The first game was the Old Timers and The West Indies Team won quite handily.
They are playing a version of Cricket known as 20/20. After watching two matches I believe I have the basics down.
There is a batter and a bowler, along with 9 other fielders. A batter is the player swinging at the ball and the bowler throws the ball, sort of like a pitcher in baseball. A big difference is that the bowler runs towards the batter to throw the ball.
The field is pretty much a circle and the ball can be hit anywhere including behind the batter. There is no foul ball in cricket. The batter is trying to protect his wicket. A wicket is three little sticks behind the batter. If the bowler can hit the wicket, then the batter is out. The batter can also be put out by a fielder catching a hit ball on the fly, our baseball term of a fly out. The third way is to be caught running between the wickets. If a fielder throws the ball to another fielder who can tang the wicket before the runner can make it safely to the wicket, then he is out.
An Over is a collection of six thrown balls. So the 20/20 is 20 Overs per team. That means there will be up to 120 thrown balls per side. The team that can score the most amount of points within the 120 throws or 20 Overs wins the match. The way to score is to hit the ball and run between the two wickets or there is a perimeter around the field. If the ball bounces or rolls to the perimeter and then goes over it, that is four points. If the ball clears the perimeter on a fly, then it is six points. One side plays offense for the whole 20 Overs then the opposing team plays it’s 20 Overs or scores more than the first team. That is Cricket in a nutshell. I am sure there is more to the game, but Cricket for Beginners. By the way, if you have a few beers, you can fall asleep watching cricket just like baseball.
The second match was between Grenada and Barbados. Barbados won quite handily using only 12 Overs to win the match. It was a more competitive match vs. the Old Timers. That was more like an All Star game in the US where it is high scoring and little defense.
I did have for lunch the national dish of Oil-down. It is a mixture of vegetables and meat with a heavy dose of saffron. That is where the yellow coloring comes from and it has stained the end of my fingers.
10/11/2009 Today is probably one of those days I should have stayed in bed or at least in-port. The good news is I am safe and there is no harm to No Rush. I started early this morning to sail to Carricaou on my way leaving Grenada and heading north. It had appeared the wind did shift a little to the north while I was on anchor.
I set my course on the chartplotter and took off. After I left harbor I was sailing along and had to do some work on the boat somewhere. All of the sudden I look up and I am within 50 feet of two rocks about a quarter of a mile off-shore. I was also in 12 feet of water. This is one of those nightmares that sailor dread, running aground on some rocks. I luckily missed the rocks and kept on sailing. You may say, “why did you not check your course of obstacles”. When I set my course, I walked through the whole course that was plotted and there are no obstacles. I stayed far enough offshore to avoid any shallows and other sorts. The problem lies in that I was sailing head to wind, which meant I was tacking and not staying to the projected course. In this type of navigating, I need to keep an eye on the surrounding and the chartplotter at all times.
The next issue for the day was that the wind did shift towards ENE to about 70 degrees. This meant that I was not going to be able to reach up the eastern shore of the island like the last time I sailed there. I had to tack across the southern part of the island then tack also up the eastern shore. This added many more miles of sailing. I ended up that day sailing and motoring a total of 64 miles when my projected course was on 38 miles.
The third issue was since I had all this extra sailing to do that I was not going to be able to make my destination by sunset. So I decided to stop at a small island on the north end of Grenada known as Sandy Island. I was there with 40 minutes of day light left. I tried to set the anchor and the bottom was so hard that I could not get the anchor to set. I tried several times and could not get it to set. The anchorage was not going to be comfortable either since the wind was out of the ENE.
The next issue started after that failed attempt. I decided to motor on to Carricaou. The problem with this is moving at night. I don’t have an issue with sailing at night time in open water, but it is dreadful to sail or motor at night near land. That is when most problems can happen. There could be other boats, rocks that can’t be seen, fishnets, fish traps, garbage, etc. I did make it to Carricaou, but I was going into an unfamiliar port that had many boats in it and many of them did not have any lights on. I stayed on the outer edge of the bay and was able to set my anchor after the second try.
The upside to the trip was that I was safe and sound and so was No Rush. I also made a pot of chili earlier in the afternoon and that sat well in my stomach on the three hour motoring through the evening.
10/12/2009 This morning I got up early and left Tyrell Bay and motored over to Sandy Island. This is a different Sandy Island from the day before. I spent the night here when I circumnavigated Grenada a week before. I just enjoyed being here. I now understand how a sailor can become locked into a location for a long period of time. Grenada has been that for me and it is a bit of a struggle to move on. I met a sailor in the bar one night and he was talking about his trip from the US to Grenada. It took him also three years to do the same thing I did in six months. He pulled into Luperon, DR and did leave for a year and a half.
Later that day I motored over to Hillsborough. This is the town that has a Customs office so I can clear out of Grenada on my way to The Grenadines. I can see Union Island from here and tomorrow’s journey should be an easy one to enter the Grenadines. I sat and watched my last sunset from Grenada and had a Carricaou Sunset. I know I have talked about that drink. It was a drink made up due to the need to finish off some mangos. When you buy mangos here, you usually get a bag of them. Then you need to figure out what to do with them. I have had mango pancakes, mango oatmeal and the Carricaou Sunsets. They are a mixture of rum (of course), tonic water or ginger ale, mashed up mango and a twist of lime. I good tasting drink that is good for you also with plenty of fresh fruit.