Back in Grenada

Cas en Bas beach, St. Lucia with an old rocket booster that landed here

Maria hiking in St. Lucia

"Vision", the Ocean Cruising Club Port Officer in St. Lucia with his family

An Ocean Cruising Club dinner in St. Lucia

Maria and Jen (Tanglewood) at Cas en Bas beach

Cas en Bas beach, St. Lucia

Drone picture of the entrance to Rodney Bay Marina, St. Lucia

Our trusty Yanmar engine getting some much needed care...

Savannah Sky in Sweet Bequia

Dinner with our Blue Water Rally sailing friends, Katrin and Steve (Dorado)

Sweet Bequia. Savannah Sky is the last boat at the bottom of the picture.  Note the anchor and keel scars behind her, indicating boats that hit the reef located there. Geeze.

Savannah Sky under sail - taken by Cat Tales, off Union Island, St. Vincent

Sweet Bequia as I first saw her in 1970

Sunset in Sweet Bequia

Mick outside the Bequia liquor store

Sailors in Bequia headed for the floating bar, Bar One, on the left side of the picture

St. Georges, Grenada.  It has changed a little since this picture was taken, ha ha.

 

                               Cassada Bay, Carriacou

 

S/Y Savannah Sky – March 31, 2024 – Log #18

Savannah Sky Position: 12 degrees 02’ N, 61 degrees 45’ W

St. Georges, Grenada, Caribbean

 

Back in Grenada

 

Let’s see, a lot of water has passed beneath our keel since the last blog entry, or so it seems.

 

We left St. Lucia with our fully serviced and repaired engine, new high pressure water maker hose, new sails and lots of groceries for the voyage south.

 

Our next landfall was in Sweet Bequia, once again.

 

Winter sailing crowds have departed, so all we get to watch were wayward charter boats running aground on the reef right behind where Savannah Sky was moored or anchor too close to other boats in the dark of night.

 

At least we are not lacking for entertainment with all the activity!

 

We spent our days hiking, eating lunch with friends and even a few Happy Hours at a great place called the Cocktail Lab.

 

The mixologist at the Cocktail Lab, Ivor, was amazing at what he could whip up, given just a name of a particular drink.  Of course he has his specialties too, as well as local Hairoun beer and an assortment of RUM.

 

Dawn and Laurie (Cat Tales), their guests for a week (Leo and Jo-Anne from Canada), Linda and Garry (x-July Indian) as well as Charlie and Anina (Prism – who crewed with us across the Atlantic this season) were fun to be with as we lounged in Bequia.

 

Mick Jagger even made a visit to Bequia, from his home on the neighboring island of Mustique.  Mick (well, as everyone knows his name) even posted a picture of himself outside the local liquor store, of all places.

 

The infamous “Boley Bash” even took place where musicians gather and jam the night away.  Some sailors are ‘retired’ musicians who never forget how to play or entertain an audience to keep things rocking.

 

Then it was time for more fare-the-wells, as sailors always tend to do during the waning sailing season that is upon us.

 

Prism went to Trinidad, x-July Indian went back to Canada while Cat Tales stayed around to keep us company before we sailed down to Carriacou.

 

Arrival at the smallish island of Carriacou (part of Grenada) took place just before a monster storm tore through the Bahamas, sending long swells from the far-off storm into the bay we were anchored.  That same storm also destroyed our beloved Trade winds, giving us a strange west wind that blew directly into the anchorage.

 

Luckily, we departed Carriacou’s Tyrell Bay just before the nasty wind and seas penetrated this far south, where it created very uncomfortable conditions for those boats at anchor in the bay.

 

We followed Cat Tales around to the seldom visited eastern side of Carriacou and a lovely anchorage called Cassada Bay.  This remote place gave us a bit of shelter from the unfavorable weather on the other, western side of Carriacou.

 

However, all was not as smooth as we hoped at Cassada Bay. 

 

Around midnight and again at 2:30 in the morning we were hit by what Maria thought was a volcanic eruption under our boat.

 

Savannah Sky bounced, as well as rock and rolled to a beat that was pretty incredible and very uncomfortable for a few minutes each time.

 

Sometimes, when the strong tide changes on the east side of Carriacou, bad things can still happen, as we felt the nasty waves that awoke us from a nice relaxing sleep.

 

The mainland of Grenada could easily be seen from our anchorage so we left the deserted bay and sailed further south, arriving in time for lunch at Port Louis Marina.

 

Port Louis Marina: where we made landfall after crossing the Atlantic Ocean in December.  PLM, as it is known, also has the absolute best hot showers in the entire Caribbean.

 

Funny how that all worked out, ha ha.

 

Now it is time to prepare Savannah Sky for summer hurricane storage in Grenada.

 

Our storage preparation will take us the good part of two weeks with another week’s worth of work while she is out of the water and secured on dry land.

 

Maria is pretty much ready for life on land again, after nearly a year away out at sea and at anchor.

 

Having sailed over 5,200 nm this season is far enough for her; she reminds me from time to time.

 

Captain Steve, well… he’s got salt water on his brain.

 

Sail on, sail on Savannah Sky…