Carriacou, small and laid back

I think Scruffbag and I are small island people. We love little Carriacou.

The anchorage in Tyrell Bay is beautiful. There are several beautiful, white sand, deserted beaches. The people are so friendly and the place is so laid back.There are no cruise ships disgorging tourists.
Massive shells abound on all the beaches

The water is crystal clear and Scruffbag even caught a fish from the anchorage at first cast.

We took the dinghy and visited our first ever mangrove swamp. We turned off the outboard and rowed but the expected mass of birdlife never happened, although we saw two dark blue heron like birds at a distance and we enjoyed the peace and beauty of our surroundings.

The only negative is that food is very expensive, especially fruit and vegetables. Beer is cheap, however, and so is rum and you can get reasonable quality wines at ok prices. Strangely, eating out is not particularly expensive if you eat where the locals eat. Bus fares in the minibuses are cheap and the service is regular all around the island.

We also bumped into Sourianne, a 24 year old French lad in a wooden Purdy boat. We met him in El Hierro when he photocopied our Cape Verde charts and then again in Sal. He has been here for 3 weeks after crossing from Mindelo and he is working for a while for some people he met in El Hierro who are setting up a dive centre here.

We have been doing some walking, though long distances are unfeasible in the heat.

We climbed to the top of  the second highest peak, Chappeau Carre, from whence there were some excellent views and we followed this with a swim on the aptly named Paradise Beach.

We also walked for about an hour uphill from  Hillsbrough (the capital, but really a village, albeit a large one) and went into the grounds of the hospital, which is a renowned viewpoint. The views were amazing and we put money in the donation box. The hospital itself has 32 beds, including maternity and psychiatric care. It is very telling that a lot of its services, including ambulances, are funded by overseas donors. The schools are also supported by UNICEF and the Red Cross.
On our way to the hospital, we called into a small rum shack for refreshment in the heat. We watched the proprietor cooking his lunch over a two ring burner. He washed 3 small fish in water and lemon juice then added potatoes, vegetables, garlic, ginger and small peppers to make a fish soup.


Another visit was to the village of Windward, where the locals still make wooden fishing boats in the tradition of Scottish settlers. From here we walked to a deserted beach and had a swim before visiting a dry mangrove swamp. This was a bird sanctuary complete with hides but, unfortunately we saw no birds.

Another deserted beach we were told was to be found at Anse de la Roche. We duly took the bus and had a pleasant walk through woodland along quite a steep downhill trail in parts. It was a beautiful beach but it was not deserted, having a catamaran at anchor and a young German guy camping on the beach. After we had finished eating our picnic lunch, a cow strolled down to the water's edge to take a dip alongside me.

We had intended to stay in Carriacou for a couple of days. In the event, we stayed for 9 days and our next plan was for the even smaller island of Bequia.

Goodbye to the waterfall island

So the riggers returned and completed the job and we now feel secure about the ability of our mast to do its job.

We had a few more days on Grenada so we took the opportunity to do more exploring. There are lots of waterfalls on the island and we wanted to visit the Seven Sisters, We knew that the higher falls involved a long, arduous trek but we  decided to visit the lower falls. We actually set off quite early (for us) on the day of the visit and we arrived early at the falls. The first fall was a fairly easy downhill walk and we enjoyed a swim in the pool all on our own.

We needed a guide, a young lad of about 17, to get to the second fall, as it was well hidden and we would never have found it on our own. It was amazing and I had a dip, whilst Scruffbag bravely swam under the fall itself.

On our way there we had changed  buses in St. George and had noticed a cruise ship arriving. On our way back from the falls we passed  about a hundred American tourists making their way down  the track ( thank goodness we had the place to ourselves otherwise instead of a fantastic experience, it would have been an overcrowded nightmare).

After a great time on a lovely island, it was time to move on so we took several dinghy trips to the marina, filled our water tanks and got ready to leave.

 At 6 -30 on 5th February, we pulled up the anchor, cleaned off the weed and set sail for Carriacou, a small island 40 miles from Prickly Bay and 20 miles from the top of Grenada. As the island is part of Grenadan territory, we did not have to check out.


Unfortunately, the wind was on the nose for the whole journey so, not wanting to tack out and back, we chose to motor sail. We were hoping for a wind change once we passed the northern tip of Grenada but this never happened. None the less it was a pleasant trip in the sunshine. At one point we almost caught a big tuna. We saw it jump on the line but the line (40lb breaking strain) snapped and we were denied a good meal.

By 3pm we were anchored in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, blowing the dinghy up to go ashore.