S/V Indian Summer 1

We had to do another week quarantine in Carriacou which was fine with us. We were all in a cordoned off section of the bay and could swim, kayak and muck around as much as we liked as long as we didn’t actually go to each other’s boats. On the 4th day we were a called in for our 2nd PCR test where we all had to wait together – bizarre considering we were meant to be in quarantine, but it all went off smoothly and 2 days after that we were allowed to check into Grenada. Carriacou is a smaller island just north of Grenada. It’s very laid back and has one small town called Hillsborough. We were in Tyrell Bay which is the best anchorage and where all the cruisers hang out – and of course where all the small bars and restaurants have sprung up.

A couple days later we went on a tour of the island. The 6 of us were picked up by minibus and our guide Simon, who was very knowledgeable about the history of Carriacou, gave us a wonderful tour. There is not that much to see on an island only 13sq miles with a population of only 9,000 but it was very interesting to see the other areas where tourists don’t normally get to. One of the highlights for us was a beach graveyard. Not in use any more, this graveyard has literally been reclaimed by the sea but in days gone by when people wanted to spend eternity looking out over the water, they were buried on the beach. It seemed quite profound that now there graves are either under water or slowly heading that way.

We were shown the oldest house, the old plantations and even their one and only crossroads which has 6 roads crossing – a famous landmark on Carriacou. We had lunch on the foreshore in Hillsborough and afterwards found a Bottle shop in a container – very Caribbean! Their shops are all painted and very colourful with the blue sea as a backdrop it makes everything so vibrant.

We took Big Dog and Indian Summer over to a small island off Carriacou called Sandy Island. This is part of the marine park and is a lovely spot to just laze the day away. It’s so small it’s uninhabited but there were about 6 boats here.

The next day was my birthday – they seem to come round faster every year – and so we all went out to lunch to celebrate. We got the bus to a great restaurant on the beach called Paradise Beach club. We were given a table under shade just on the beach and had a wonderful afternoon eating, drinking and laughing. This restaurant has a boat name painting afternoon every Wednesday where cruisers can come over, paint their boat name of a piece of driftwood and then have them hung up in their wall of fame. We recognised many of the boats having sailed with them over the past few weeks and decided we would come back next Wednesday to paint one ourself after we lifted out for a bottom paint.

The boat name wall of fame

We had to go up in the hard for a week to re-antifoul Indian Summer’s hull, sort out a couple of new thru-hulls and generally check her condition under the waterline. It was a good haul out – all went smoothly and the guys in the yard were really friendly. Goats wandered around the boatyard which was quite cute.

We got our scooters out and went out to dinner a couple of times and were the talk of the town as no-one had seen them on Carriacou before! The roads are good here and there’s very little traffic so I felt comfortable riding.

We splashed on the Wednesday morning ready to go and paint our sign but Ian was exhausted from 13 hour working days getting the boat prepped and he slept all afternoon. We got our scooters out to to down to Paradise Beach Club one more time to go to a wine tasting event – they were South African wines and we spent a lazy afyernoon eating pizza drinking new wines. The next day people kept asking us where were our scooters – Tyrell Bay is so small we didn’t feel we could justify getting then out again.. We headed into Hillsborough – the capital – one more time and wandered around this sleepy little place.

After week or so it was time to move onto Grenada, the bigger of the islands where we could access better chandlers.