May 26
We cleared customs in Clifton Harbor on Union Island and slid over to Petit St Vincent for the night. They are supposed to have spectacular snorkeling there but because of the boat traffic and strong current we decided to just have sundowners on the boat and admire nature.
The next day we motored over to Tyrell Bay on Carricaou Island for a couple days. Carricaou is part of Grenada so it was the last time we needed to clear customs and immigration for awhile.
There is a wreck in the bay about 200 yards from where we anchored so we grabbed our dive gear and jumped off the swim platform for a remarkable, shallow dive. Lots of fish, the biggest lobster I’ve ever seen (too bad it’s not lobster season) and a huge sea cucumber.
We also managed to do a couple dives off the point with Raquel from one of the local dive shops. Because we wanted to dive in the marine park we were required to go thru a local dive shop instead of diving off our boat as we usually do. These were also drift dives and we really needed someone in a chase boat so it worked out well and was a fun day.
But all things come to and end and we finally headed to St George’s Harbor on the main island of Grenada. We anchored out for a few days to check out the marina before taking the boat in as we were going to be docking in a whole new way.
We’re staying at Port Louis Marina. Usually when we dock we sidle up to a dock, throw the lines off and can jump on and off the boat with no problem. Port Louis poses a slight problem for us tho. In order to maximize the number of boats at the dock everyone has to pull stern in and tie off to a mooring bouy on the front and a couple dock lines off the back or aft at the dock. The marina sends out a couple guys in a small boat to lead you in to your slot. They attach the bow lines and move the bouy out of the way to allow you to back into the slip.
It’s a european docking system and if you do this all the time you have a passarelle or gangway that connects your boat to the dock to allow easy access on and off the boat. Unfortunately for us we’re ‘Mericans and our boat is not equipped in this fashion and it’s too big a step up from our swim platform to the dock for me. After a couple tries Gary found a small step ladder that he tied to the back so I can just step over to the dock. That works.
The other issue with docking like this is that we are sandwiched in like sardines and you can literally climb from one boat to the next. So we’re going from anchoring out and not having close neighbors to being on top of each other. Guess we’ll get to know our neighbors really well over the next 6 months!
Over the next week or so we’ll be cleaning the boat, getting a few things fixed and setting up a delivery system so we can have things imported from the states while we’re here. We’ve already taken an hour cab ride around the harbor to figure out where things are, get groceries and several trips to various hardware stores. We’ve located the nearest KFC and pizza shop as well as the local golf course so things look good.
It’s an interesting next step in our adventure.