Carriacou

Internet connection still not great for adding photos.  Soon.

We had a good sail to the Tobago Cays.  "Beautiful" is an understatement.  Simply a few small green islands with sandy white beaches and a double reef surrounded by watery bands of vivid colors from turquoise to deep blue.  Normally we anchor in a bay or in the lee of of a large island to have protection from ocean swells without a long fetch for wind chop to develop.  Here we anchored behind Horseshoe reef where, as Scott says, the next stop is Africa.  It is actually a double reef where the top of the reef lies at the water's surface and gives protection from the ocean swell and wind chop.  It was blowing around 20 knots so actually there was a moderate swell but not too uncomfortable.  Abeam of us was tiny Baradel Island where a turtle sanctuary is located.  Many turtles, large and small, swam by as we watched from our cockpit.  The reef made for wonderful snorkeling.  Because it was so shallow, the colors were bright with many shades of lavender.

We left the Tobago Cays on Monday.  I discovered right after we lifted the anchor and were wending our way through the reefs that though the chartplotter was on, it was only showing our route over the base chart, not the detailed chart that shows depth.  After some scrambling to pinpoint the problem, we discovered that the chartplotter was not reading the SD card which contains the detailed chart.  Fortunately we were able to follow our buddy boats whom we alerted to the problem and made it without a problem.  We do use paper charts and plot points along the way as we go, but in such close quarters where the underwater reefs are hard to read in early morning light, it was a little tricky.  We checked out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines at Clifton, Union Island, where we stopped just for an hour to do so.  We then motored on to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, which is part of Grenada.  The wind was in the mid-twenties with squalls and gusts to 30.  Not the most relaxing trip, especially since our sail was drooping all over the bimini.  I will contact Garmin about the chartplotter when we get to Grenada later this week.  Our handheld GPS works and my old chartplotter sort of works.  Also we use paper charts as well, so we'll be fine. 

We are only 30 miles from St. George's in Grenada.  This will be our first major stop where we will check out the services available for the many boat projects that need to be done, both by us and by professionals.  We will most likely rent a slip for at least one month.  We will find out about other marinas and boat yards on the south coast as well.  We will have boat projects but we hope to do a lot of sight-seeing.  This is a good place for visitors as we'll be staying put for a couple of months and the island of Grenada is supposed to be lovely.  Hint.  Hint.

Today Bella Blue will head for Grenada as their son is arriving for a week's visit in a few days.  We met up with "old friends" on Alibi here in Tyrell Bay.  Last night they and Celtic Rover stopped by for a sundowner and it was great to catch up.  As mentioned earlier, Darrell and Ann used to own a dive shop in Florida.  Darrell told a story of when he took a group of students down for a dive.  He had a little bit of bait fish in his vest pocket which he put out to entice a moray eel to leave its hole in the rock so the students could have a better look at its sleek form.  The bait worked so well that the moray not only swam out of it hole but continued toward Darrell who still had a little bait fish in his pocket.  In search of that last morsel, the moray swam inside Darrell's vest through the armholes and neckhole and out the waist and pecked at his pocket.  As the wide-eyed students gazed in awe at their daring dive instructor, Darrell was sweating bullets while trying to stay calm and cool and gently encourage the moray to keep moving.  Now THAT'S what I call becoming one with nature! 

We'll explore Carriacou for another day or two then head to Grenada.  Hope everyone is well.