Prickly Bay – Grenada
Monday 19th June
Grenada has a cruiser net which broadcast every day at 7.30am. We get the latest weather report and the news is not so cheerful. The storm is definitely passing over the south of Grenada, it still can develop into a hurricane rather than a storm, a named storm. The morning is spent preparing for a blow (40 knots winds are predicted with gusts up to 50). The main is lashed down, so is the genoa. The solar panels are taken down below. The bimini is taken down and secured. Everything is taken away from the deck, fenders are put up around, dinghy is lashed securely and we have 3 lines on the buoy, plus the anchor is ready to go if the mooring fails. Not much more we can do. Our direct neighbour drops by to mainly reassure us that he has enough chain out. We are as ready as we well be. All we have to do is wait for the storm to strike later today. It is expected to ramp up from late afternoon and to last all night long.
We have been listening to the local radio all day. They are preparing the nation to the possible hurricane situation we will have later tonight. Interesting stuff about emergency shelter, water and even discussion about the benefit of opening windows to let the wind go through the houses. Learnt a lot today, and we are reassured by the checklist s given out on air. We have water, flashlights, food, our important papers and money in the grab bag and all we have to worry is the mooring coping and hope no other boat will come and smash into us. People on land have trees and branches potentially flying about, buildings collapsing, rivers coming out of their banks, electricity and water outages and phone lines going down… we’ll still have the VHF and the coast guards are just around the corner. We do feel pretty safe. Love Miss Campbell on GNC, the local radio, very professional , no nonsense lady. All day she and her team give all the sort of advice to face the emergency situation, they do tend to calm the public with frequent reports on the situation and the development of the storm in a measure way, trying to avoid general panic. Hurricane Ivan is still fresh in the memories, destruction and more disturbingly, the looting which took place after it. I love the humour seeping through, most of the songs heard today have a rain topic like “Have you ever seen the rain” (bonnie Tyler’s song) for example. The phones in is also entertaining with people talking of the olden days, and how Grenada has coped. Schools have been closed at midday; some of them are emergency shelters and need to be prepared. A flurry of calls about what are the kids going to do if the parents are still at work. A lot of businesses are closing early. Warning about social media not always correct, going through check list of what should be done in the event of emergency, list of shelters location are given out on air. The police is on standby to prevent crime and there could be power shortage.
By midday, the storm is still coming but its trajectory seems to be south of Grenada. We will still get strong winds but we won’t be in the middle of the worst of it. Tobago will be getting this. All flights out of Grenada and Trinidad have been cancelled. We have been monitoring wind speed all day, a few squalls but nothing above 25 knots so far… a few showers but nothing heavy.
By the 6 o’clock news, they have a better idea, a hurricane hunter has been sent into the storm and it is going faster than expected so won’t have time to develop into a full blown hurricane, it is now going south of Trinidad and should make landfall in Venezuela squall of 40 to 45 knots. We now have a tropical storm named Brett (the second in 2017). Huge sigh of relief on the radio and the VHF, won’t be as bad as bad as could be. The epicentre will be 250 miles south of Grenada. This does not mean we will have a quiet night. Guess that Carriacou is now safe;
The wind has strengthened as we were having dinner, about 8pm. We sit up in the saloon with the radio, VHF on and the wind monitor on my lap. Ian is doing round regularly. We just sit and listen to the rin and the wind howling in the ringing. Around 10pm, VHF comes alive, a catamaran, 2 boats down from us, with no one on board is drifting to the center of the bay. The boat in direct line of impact has no engine for their dinghy, and they are asking for help. Swede Dreams and Lazoulie take charge. The keys of the catamaran have been left by their owners with Swede dreams. Ian is the first one to offer to help with no dinghy, we have deflated and lashed it on deck so it would not fly away, he is stuck. Soon someone is onboard and the engines are on. Only problem is they need someone on a dinghy with a flash light to direct them to the buoy. The coast guard have been called and they are not able to assist either. So the Frenchman comes to the rescue on his inflatable kayak! Off he went in the dark, rolling seas, winds to help….Ian is now really gutted, he has found his match and he is French!
After 2 hour of hanging to every words said on the VHF, all is well that ends well. By 1 am I go to bed with the wind monitor, Ian has elected to sleep in the saloon. Another call on the VHF, another boat has come loose, but nothing else is heard. I sleep quite well, Ian is up and down all night,
Tuesday 20th June
The day is a wash out the wind has died down but the rain does not stop all day. So It’s stay in the dry listening to the radio. The play list is fun, again it is all about the rain and how it has been and gone (“I can see clearly now”). Again the phones in are entertaining, people all over the world do like to have a moan, about the government scaring them to death and the storm was a bit odf a damp squid, only one tree down, a few little flood, nothing to get too excited about….some people are grateful about the advice and the fact that they were spared the worse this time.