July 15–Aug 6 Carriacou Carriacou is a small island just north of the island of Grenada, same country, separate identity. We spent several weeks here last year so that made it easy to settle right in. We anchored in Tyrrel Bay and found our cruising friends Sim & Rosie on Alianna and John & Janet on Ventoso. These folks are like our cruising family, so meeting up with them was like coming home. John's & Janet's daughter Jenny and her boy friend Mark were with them, so now we've met all their kids. Kind of amazing when you consider that neither Opus or Ventoso have any set itinerary and we travel independent of one another. We buddy boated with Ventoso for a few weeks in the Bahamas, but it was just by chance that we ran into them last June in the Spanish Virgin Islands while their son Dougal from Spain was visiting, and just by chance that we ran into them in March in St Maarten when their son Jamie from Norway was visiting, and now in Carriacou when Jenny was visiting from Scotland. If we keep this up, we may eventually meet their grandchildren too!
It was surprising how manly local people remembered us from last year. Do we really stand out that much? Denise and Collin from the bar boat welcomed us back. It seemed like we payed Happy Hour prices regardless of what time it was. Thanks Denise! Jim found his friend Rasta Thomas, who worked on the bar boat last year. He invited us over to L'Esterre Bay to share a meal with him. Someone gave him a large tuna head that day, so he fixed fish head soup. We contributed a few potatoes, onions and carrots and other people contributed vegetables and spices. They cooked it in a big pot over an open fire near the beach. We weren't sure if this was a meal initiated by Thomas just for us or just the normal once a day community meal for the homeless guys. Irregardless, we were Thomas's guests and treated very well. Seeing the raw fish head, watching someone chop it up with a machete and then seeing the big fish bones sticking out of the bowl of soup was almost more than Jennifer could take. She did manage to eat some of it and if you pushed her on it, she'd probably admit it was pretty tasty. Venis, the vegetable lady in Tyrrel Bay, remembered Jim too and always had good prices for him. The last day we were in Carriacou she really out did herself. Jim was in town looking for limes (gotta have em for rum and tenderizing conch meat). Her vegetable stand was closed for the day, but she took care of Jim anyway. She went to her garden and picked about 100 small limes off a tree and sold them to Jim for 10 EC or about $4 US. Need any limes? We've got plenty.
The Carriacou Regatta was happening while we were there. The event centers around sailing, but sadly the races for the old wooden work boats and the modern sail boats are almost mutually exclusive. Most cruisers who get involved race their own "yachts". (In England any size sail boat is called a yacht.) Jim prefers to race on the wooden work boats with the local guys. They're open 25' or 30' boats designed after the whale boats used in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Two of the work boats, Ace and Passion, are stored at L'Esterre Bay. Jim found the boats and Leo, the guy who owns and maintains them, before the regatta and made arrangements to crew on Ace. He crewed on Passion last year. He helped Leo rig the boat and then sailed it with a 6 person crew for 3 days. This year the guys couldn't just call Jim "white boy" because our friend Mark from "Natie M" got a crew spot on the same boat.
Linda and Jennifer also prefer the wooden boat races because there's a lot more for them to do and watch on race days. All the races start from the beach, so they can take pictures as the boats are rigged, help fill sand bags for ballast, hand over the duct tape and tools for last minute repairs, help fold sails when it's all over, etc.. There's a lot of excitement on the beach with 30+ beached boats with sails flapping. There's even more as each class of boats starts a race. They push the boats into to water, all the crew but one (the most nimble) get into the boat, the last man pushes off, the sails fill, he jumps in and off they go.
Ace did well in the races: one first, one second and one third. They missed first overall by one mistake on a tack in 35 knot winds. Not bad for a crew that had never sailed together before. Mark thought they lost the race because he fell overboard during the tack, but Jim assured him they lost much more time on the bad tack than they did on his episode. Mark held on to the main sheet and pulled himself back on board so they didn't have to stop and retrieve him. At the end of the regatta, Jim was exhausted, but very happy.
As we took the bus to Hillsborough for the first official day of wooden boat racing, we saw someone carrying a gum boat. It reminded us of our friends Chicken and Bebe from Canouan. As we got off the bus in town who did we see but Chicken. He brought a bunch of people from Canouan over to Carriacou for the day and also brought his 5' gum boat. His boat took first place one day and second the next.
Last year Jim crewed with a guy named Cisco, who flew back to Carriacou from New York just for Regatta Week. He had recommended we visit the Carriacou Museum and we finally got around to it this year. Cisco's sister Ada works there and she gave us a personal tour explaining the details of many exhibits. There was an exhibit on Cisco's and Ada's father. He was a boat builder, carpenter, artist and musician. He was even "knighted" by the Queen of England for his musical abilities. Cisco and Ada were 2 of 22 children. The exhibit said he had 3 with his wife and 19 with his girl friends. That's just the culture down here!
Gerald is another local guy that Jim crewed with both this year and last year. He's the trapeze guy - hangs out overboard in a harness to balance the boat. He seems to be the only guy that crews for Leo on a regular basis. He crews for the love of sailing, not for any monetary compensation. Jim invited him for a day sail on Opus and he seemed to really enjoy that too. We struggled a bit to understand him, but appreciated what he had to share about Carriacou and Grenada. Gerald owns a power boat, "Blisters", and uses it both for fun and to make his living. He zoomed up to Opus to say hello at our next to stops Isle de Ronde and Port Louis Marina.
A couple days after the regatta we found ourselves at a birthday party for a guy named Cigarette. He and his son run a bar/restaurant in Tyrrel Bay called the "Lambi Queen" (lambi = conch). There's a steel pan drum band that performs there every Friday night and we've become part of the regular Friday night crowd. They served a free meal for family, friends, customers and cruisers - rice & beans and potato salad with pork, chicken, or fish depending on what time you got there. We started visiting with an older guy in a wheelchair. Turns out he was Cigarette's brother. They used to smuggle rum from Trinidad to St Barts and St Maarten and smuggle English cigarettes from St Barts back to Carriacou. (St Barts and St Maarten are duty free.) They made a run on an engineless Carriacou sloop (30' sailboat) about once a month during the new moon, navigating by the stars. That's how Cigarette got his name and his money. There are a lot of interesting characters down here.
Jennifer had a fun time in Carriacou. One of the first people she found was Susie who cruises and races on "Spirited Lady". To Jennifer's surprise, Susie was still wearing the anklet Jennifer made for her a year ago. Jennifer made her a new one and they even made a matching anklet for Shooby, Susie's dog. Susie's crew Andrew, who is a native of Dominica, opted for a bracelet. Andrew returned Jennifer's kindness by teaching several of the kids in the anchorage how to weave birds, fish, crickets and roses out of palm fronds. Pretty cool stuff. There's an Optimist dinghy club in Tyrrel Bay and the kids were practicing several times a week for the regatta. Jennifer got to use one of their boats and practice with them one day. We were proud of her for just getting out there by herself and sailing since she hadn't sailed our Tinker in almost a year. She got to go along when they moved all the dinghies to Hillsborough for the regatta and went out in the chase boat for the practice race. Then she got to go along in the boat that served as one of the marks in the real race. Watching a race is a whole lot more fun when you know most of the kids and especially when the underdog wins! Another fun day was coming back from a day sail to Hillsborough and finding "Lala" anchored in Tyrrel Bay. It only took about 5 minutes before Jennifer and Lala connected on the radio and set up a play date for the afternoon and evening. Lala left the next day, so they had to make the most of it.
We enjoyed excellent snorkeling around Sandy Island. The highlight was seeing file fish for the first time. They are huge compared to other reef fish, 10-15" long. They have a spike on the top of their heads and bright orange spikes at the base of their tails. The first one we saw was in the "orange phase". It was the color of orange soda and definitely stood out from everything around it. If they aren't in the "orange phase", they have white spots all over them. They're hard to miss in that phase too. The other thing that left a lasting impression with us was some light blue fluorescent sponges. It was almost as if they had a light inside of them.
Other highlights of 3 weeks in Carriacou: We hit the 5000 mile mark on our trip log and the GPS stopped working 12 miles later. Good thing we have a back up GPS, actually 2 backups.
Jim and Sim got to go for a day sail on Spirited Lady, a 56' Spirit. It's a 2 year old wooden boat. Jim reports they went 8 knots to weather and 9 knots off the wind on an 80% jib.
Jim found a new source of ice for the ice box - 25 EC cents or about 10 US cents a pound at the fish market. He often picked up fresh fish or conch while he was there too.
We attended a potluck dinner with other cruisers and entered a raffle to raise money for the local school children. We won 2 of the 5 raffle prizes, a bottle of rum and a large canvas bag that easily holds 40 pounds of ice from the fish market.
We also enjoyed fresh donuts one morning for breakfast. One of the cruising boats, "Faith" from South Africa, makes them on board and their 13 year old son Kian sells them boat to boat until they are gone.