Khujada 2

Two weeks of easy-paced family time either comfortably ensconced in Le Marin marina or anchored in front of the beach in St. Anne where the children enjoyed a few nights in bricks and mortar with their grandparents and cousin.

Many (if far from all) of the trappings of civilisation on offer in French Outremer – there’s a VERY good boulangerie in Le Marin, with supermarkets offering Comte, Mousseline, Nutella, Rocher Suchard, not to mention decent wine at a decent price. And the chandlery is outstanding – Skipper has never seen so many through-hull valves in one place! – make it easy to stay here still longer.

There’s even a skate park!

James, Albane & Hugo:

Grenada’s underwater sculpture park was a great opportunity to refine snorkelling skills before arriving in Tobago Cays.

We hunted down statues dotted all round a reef just north of the capital, St. George.

Having dipped our toes in the water, it was off to the Grenadines in hope of clement weather and good visibility.

Tobago Cays was blemished only by consistent 20+ knot winds – the highest reading on our anemometer was 41 knots! – but was nonetheless a wonderful snorkelling opportunity for all the family, with turtles all over the place – even swimming past Khujada 2 in the anchorage – rays (leopard and sting rays), trumpet fish, needle fish lighting up the waters every night, the usual reef fish, sea urchins. All the children are building more and more confidence in and under the water.

Slacklining:

James showing us how it’s done:

When not in the water it was on the beach, with all ages participating on the slackline – even the (let’s not call them elderly) cruise ship passengers spending the day on Petit Bateau.

Arriving in Wallilabou for some Pirates of the Caribbean, the children’s first instinct on arriving in Keartons’ was to jump off the boat and explore the bay and its cave underwater. With water temperature typically 28 degrees or higher, there’s no reason not to.

Monkeying around!

Shame our camera didn’t have its memory card so no photos of Carriacou’s Paradise Beach, a crescent of golden sand backed by vegetation, its clear blue water protected by Sandy Island, a reef and another island.
The rain was torrential – yet again – but at least it’s about 20 degrees warmer than the rain back in London.
Hillsborough wasn’t up to much by the time we got there late afternoon, but it was friendly and sold bread, tomatoes, fresh produce and even some delicatessen.
Very good pizza takeaway from the Lazy Turtle put a shine on our first full day in Carriacou – ordered by VHF, picked up in the dinghy, considerately wrapped in bin liners to keep the water off the boxes. Now to head back up to the Grenadines.

New Year, new location.
After checking in briefly in Carriacou overnight it was down to Prickly Bay, Grenada, for some recharging of batteries, both figurative and literal.

Prickly Bay merits its popularity. Grenada is friendly and less pushy (for visitors’ dollars!), with a more laidback feel than the other windward islands we’ve visited so far. And in our first marina for a fortnight not only do we have electricity (shore power), mains water and wifi, but the marina restaurant bakes fresh bread every morning, does very decent pizzas and they put on quality entertainment on their stage most evenings.

The local chandlery also has some decent outboards in stock.
Since our dinghy was flipped upside down in Chatham Bay by a mischievous gust of wind whilst we were all out on an excursion for the day in Clifton, we’ve been completely reliant on the rest of our flotilla for taxi service to and from shore.
(4-strokes don’t like spending time upside down in sea water! They don’t sell replacement oars in Chatham Bay either!)
A new outboard has been on the shopping list since leaving the UK (6 years old and too small for outside Europe), and for the first time all three of our criteria of availability, price and model were all met.
We now have a new Tohatsu 9.8hp.

Tomorrow we’ll pick up laundry then head up to St. George where we’ll take care of provisioning.
Then we’ll say goodbye to one of our flotilla as they make their way down towards Panama and as the wind abates we’ll look to make the most of holiday-makers going back for start of term and work to do the rest of the Grenadines including Tobago Cays. We want to see some turtles!