Grenada to Carriacou

This can be a bit of a miserable trip, Often you need to motor up the west side of Grenada and then across the top past this perfect volacanic cone, to get some Easting before setting off on a hard beat up past Kick em Jenny and Diamond Rock where the waves are just the right pitch to stop your forward progress and knock you to leeward. You finished up well downwind of Tyrell bay due to the westerly current which can be up to 3 knots and either needed an hour or two of tacking upwind or many would just turn on the iron topsail and bash upwind taking an hour or so to make harbor.

We had waited for a favorable wind but I was still expecting to motor sail most of the way. However we had a great sail up the west coast of Grenada only needing the engine for fifteen minutes or so at the top end as I had got to close to shore and we were back winded. Then the current setting us to the West was not to bad and the wind was so far south that we were beam reaching most of the time so Elephants Child was flying .







I had a reef in and some of the genny rolled away but we were still making 8 to 9 knots over the ground seemingly effortlessly.

We made Tyrell bay in a single easy tack and were anchored and swimming by 3 pm.

We hope to get the boat hauled out here for a quick bottom job. The yard is liveaboard friendly but is running behind schedule as they have some wooden boats who need dry conditions before they can put a brush to boat.

A PRAWNER ??


Before we left Grenada my 'satiable curiosity got the better of me and we dinked across to our neighbour who is cruising on an old wooden boat with a US flag at the stern. However the design of the stern was unusual and that coupled with the line of the bow made me wonder if it was an old British working boat, a Morecambe Bay prawner. We talked to Matt and Sue with many interjections from their very talkative dog and yes it was indeed a British boat and very probably a working Morecambe Bay prawner built around a 100+ years ago. Built originally without an engine it now has a wing unit and a cruising interior. They acquired her for a song or so 20 years ago knowing nothing of her history then and have sailed her ever since.