Sunday 16th July
Preparing to go to sea, we have forgotten the boat’s papers in Carriacou when we checked in all those weeks ago. We didn’t realised straight away, and we are keen to get them back as soon as possible. So wind and weather seems to be suitable for tomorrow, we can’t see anything nasty in the offing. We have new French neighbours on a beautiful old Jeanneau 54, racing green, Sylviane & Alain on Starline. They invite us for drinks on board, very nice boat, we meet their friends, Jorge and Kim from Canada. They all have been around the Caribbean’s for a few years and are full of useful information. Another convivial evening.
Monday 17th July
The day does not start well, spillage of washing liquid on the bedding… don’t ask! After a last look at the weather we set off about 8am, hoping for a quick passage to Carriacou. We have a nice down wind sail until the bottom corner of the island and then it is pretty much on the nose, which does not improve my mood. We are hoping that by the time we reach the top of the island and a bit offshore that the angle will get better and enable us to sail across. Not so, it is a long hard slog, not going so fast and with plenty of motoring. Still we have two pods of dolphins following us for a while. We arrive in Tyrell bay about 7pm in the dark which is always very exciting. Fortunately, we know the lay of the land so we anchor up without any trouble, despite this huge rusty bucket of a fishing boat lying in the middle of the entrance. The trouble starts next morning.
Tuesday 18th July
Being in Carriacou, we can still get the GBN news on the radio. So as per usual I am awake at 6am listening to the news and there is another tropical storm on its way, it’s already been named, Don (when did that happened???) and it should make landfall in Grenada/Carriacou tonight, in about 12 to 15 hours. We had been looking at the forecast on various sites for days and very little was moving about. Puzzling. I let Ian sleep, no need to get him up for this, there will be plenty time to prepare. I must say his little face when he hears the news. How come we missed it? Actually we did not miss it just wasn’t showing on any websites until last night around 7pm and we were a bit busy then.
The bay from 6am is a hive of activity. There are quite a few boats anchored up with and without people on them. It is obvious that most people, even the local are feeling uncomfortable with the coming blow, and there is a procession forming to gain access to the mangrove. Guess better stake your place early.Not for us though, whatever happen will happen in Tyrell bay, we do not fit in the mangrove, too much draft. Beside not sure I want to be crammed along with another 100 boat in very confined space and provide feeding for the mosquitoes. We’ll take our chances in the fresh air. It does seem incongruous in such a glorious clear sunny morning to see all these preparations.
We learn more when we went ashore to retrieve the boat’s paper at the customs’ office. We swung by the marina office to have a look at the forecast and met Sandra, the manager. Very helpful lady, she suggested that we had a chat with one of the guys. We had to wait for him for a while he was out helping move some boats. By the time we caught up with him, he had a look around where we were and say that as long as we were anchored in a nice patch of sand, possibly get another anchor out, and lash down everything on deck, we should be fine.
Back to the boat we start our drill, all the while listening to the local radio. We’ve done that once before so it does not take long. The only new component is to lay out the 2nd anchor. We don’t want to move the boat as our primary anchor is in a very nice patch of sand and well dug up (Ian has checked). So Ian rowed the anchor out in the dinghy, selected another nice patch of sand and let it go… there is only 3 to 4m of water and 40m of chain out. This should do it. So we are now ready, the hard part now starts, the waiting, We watching the goings on in the bay, boats are being taken in the mangrove all day. Even the locals are going in, even the working welding barge is going and we had read somewhere that if this one is going then it will be bad. Does not really help. Mind you the good news is that we have not a boat in a 200 m radius of us. Think we are safe. The radio is actually not as hyped up as for Brett, usual programming with some regular update, but not the drumming u, very low key. I feel that if they have not wheeled out Ms Campbell it won’t be as bad… Grenada has shut down though, by 3pm all school and businesses are shut, the water supply is earmarked to be shut down by 7pm and 24 shelters are open… again the nation is bracing itself for what is to come.
The day soon goes we have been watching the dark clouds gathering, there has been some rain but not so much wind, the calm before the storm I presume. and then as per magic, at 6.30pm the wind picks up… and up to about 11pm, the wind reach gust of around 34/35 knots, and there is no rain at all. The 2 anchors are keeping us in place, the movement of the boat is slightly different, but it definitely feel safe. There is no cruiser net on Carriacou, but someone is broadcasting weather information. The last broadcast around 11pm to confirm that Don is now passed up and wishing everyone in the mangrove a good night feeding the mosquitoes!
We listened to the last weather advice on the local radio around 11.30 and go to bed. We’ve survived our second named tropical storm to the sound of Celine Dion on the radio.