North to Carriacou

Leaving Le Phare Bleu and our ARC+ friends on Boxing Day 2021, we started to head north towards Grenada’s sister island, Carriacou. On route, we spent two nights at anchor in Grand Mal on the west coast of Grenada. Here we caught up on a few boat jobs, including breaking out the scuba gear to clean the hull.

One of the reasons that we chose to anchor in Grand Mal was its proximity to the underwater Sculpture Park. This is in a Marine Protected Area at Molinere Beausejour and was the first of Jason de Caires Taylor’s underwater ‘gardens’. The park covers an area of 800 square metres and in it you can see 75 of his works. Some are located in sand patches, but others are hidden away in gullies between natural rock formations. As they are all at depths of 5-8m, they are accessible by snorkelling, if you can find them! Over time, nature has taken over the statues, wearing away the intricate details and features and covering them with marine life. We spent an hour snorkelling in the area – we didn’t find all of them, but maybe next time!

From Grand Mal, it was short sail (45 nm) north along the west coast of Grenada. The wind was E/NE Force 5 (17 -21 knots) gusting up to Force 6. This is defined as a ‘fresh to strong breeze’ and made perfect sailing conditions for Escapade, making speeds of up to 7 knots with 2 reefs in the sails. At the top of Grenada, we headed further north towards Carriacou, past Rhonde Island and Kick ‘Em Jenny’, an underwater volcano.

Our first anchorage in Carriacou was at Sandy Island. Situated in a marine park, this is a tiny stretch of land with calm, turquoise waters and white powdery sand and is a perfect place to snorkel and watch the pelicans diving for fish. What makes this island especially interesting is that it was almost completely destroyed when hurricane Ivan ripped up the palm trees ‘holding’ the island together. Nature is amazing though and has built its own protective wall on the seaward side. This has then enabled the locals to replant the palms. Working together, they have ensured that Sandy Island is well on its way to recovery.

A sandy island called Sandy Island

An evening on the beach

Across the bay from Sandy Island is Paradise Beach, a long sweeping beach lined with exotic trees and a smattering of small beach bars. The most well known of these is Paradise Beach Club. After a long day sail, we treated ourselves to an evening meal here. Pick up by water taxi, a relaxing meal on the beach, listening to the waves and returned home by water taxi. Bliss!

Is this Paradise?

We enjoyed it so much that we returned the next day to join their join their ‘Sip and paint’ session. At this, we spent a few hours chatting with other cruisers while painting a plaque to add to their wall of fame!

Not too bad considering...

'Calling cards'

From Sandy Island, we headed to Hillsborough – the main town on Carriacou. It is referred to as a town, but is more like a small village; one long road running beside the beach. It may be small, but it has everything you would need: banks, supermarkets, guest houses, bars and restaurants. It was quaint, colourful and quiet and spending a few days here was definitely not a hardship.

Essentials only

Beer o'clock

The other ‘town’ on Carriacou is Tyrell Bay. This is only a few miles away from Hillsborough, but is completely different. Although it is a busy bay with two marinas, a supermarket and a couple of bars, it is much more basic than Hillsborough and it gave us the chance to shop ‘local’. The single street was lined with locals selling their various wares. Our favourite was Rufus who set up shop every day to sell his home grown fruit and vegetables. He was quite a character and gave us cooking tips for the local produce: christophine, breadfruit, yam, soursop….

It's not always blue skies!

Shopping local

While on Carriacou, New Year’s Eve (or Old Year’s Night as it’s called here) was approaching fast. We wanted to do something special and Tim’s Sunset Beach Bar and Restaurant fit the bill perfectly. Situated in the secluded cove of Anse la Roche, only accessible by a walking trail or by boat. We had hoped to anchor in the bay, but it was a little too rolly for us. Instead, we anchored slightly south in Sparrow Bay. This was no problem, as Tim has a ‘driver’ with a very, very fast boat. This picked us up just as the sun was going down and we rounded the headland in the dark to be greeted by burning torches on the beach. It was like something out of a movie set. There on the beach was a simple, a palm leaf covered roof on large wooden supports, a small bar and a monster BBQ. The spread was delicious: lobster, suckling pig chicken, tuna steak, lambi (conche) curry and plenty of sides.

Welcoming in the New Year under the stars with sand between our toes, sipping cocktails was a once in a life time experience, never to be forgotten.