Grenada, Trinidad, and back to Grenada

We haven't posted in a while so I'll try to get us back up to date. After we left St. Vincent and the Grenadines we sailed to Carriacou which is one of the islands of Grenada. We stayed in Tyrell bay which is very popular with cruisers with many staying there for hurricane season. It has a slower pace than the anchorages on the south end of the island of Grenada. On our arrival there we noticed one of our genoa sheets had snagged the forward hatch over the kids cabin and broke the hinge. This was a big deal because the hatch couldn't be made watertight and when we are sailing the forward deck is quite often awash so the kids would have very wet bedding. Fortunately there was a guy anchored in the harbour who had converted an old plywood trimaran into a full welding shop. I removed the hatch and took the broken hinge to him which he fixed right up for us and had us watertight again.

The trimaran welding shop in Tyrell Bay

We then continued sailing south to Grenada and anchored off St. Georges to do a little provisioning and make a visit to a dentist. After a couple of days there we moved down to Prickly Bay which is full of cruisers waiting out hurricane season. We reconnected with our friends aboard Taia and met a few more boat families. We had been having problems with one of our rentals in Colorado so decided that I(Paul) would fly home to deal with it and get some new renters. The flights from Grenada were very expensive so we looked into Trinidad and found we could fly for half the price. We made reservations and sailed another 80 miles south to Chaguaramas, Trinidad.

Once in Trinidad we found a good place to anchor and leave the boat at the TTSA. We met a couple of other boat families and spent a week hanging out with them while we waited to fly out. I flew to Colorado and Staci and the kids went to see the Grandparents in Phoenix. I came back after three weeks and hauled the boat to redo bottom paint and clean her up a little. Staci and the Kids got back a week later and we put the boat back in the water. The harbour in Chaguaramas is very commercial and very dirty with regular oil spills and trash floating everywhere. We ventured out to Chacachacare Island (a former leper colony) for a night and climbed around the ruins.  Chacachacare is only 6 miles from Venezuela and we felt safe enough on Saturday night because other boats were anchored near us but everyone departed Sunday leaving us all alone so we decided to head back to Scotland Bay on mainland Trinidad while we waited for favorable winds to sail back to Grenada.

Shambala on the hard at Coral Cove Marina with fresh bottom paint

Samantha cutting my hair on the dock

We cleared out of Trinidad and moved back over to Scotland Bay to stage for our night crossing to Grenada. Around 10 p.m. we left and had a very calm sail through the night being pushed along by a a north setting current that made the passage go quickly. Once back in Grenada we anchored in Prickly Bay for a few days then moved over to Mt. Hartman Bay to get away from the constant roll of the swells. We stayed in Mt. Hartman for a week and a half getting caught up on school, provisioning, and doing some touring of the island. We all ran a hash one Saturday and then Nicholas and I did another the following Saturday.  We also did a great tour with a driver named Cutty who brought us around the whole island stopping often to identify and explain the uses of many of the plants that grow here. We visited a chocolate factory, nutmeg processing plant, and an ancient rum distillery where they still use much of the original equipment.

Ladies sorting nutmeg

The kids pointing out Cacao pods where chocolate comes from

Mace with a nutmeg inside

An eggplant(ha-ha)

Waterwheel at the distillery that turns the sugar cane crusher

One of the stills at the distillery

We reconnected with our friends aboard Lagom and decided to sail up to the Tobago Cays together for the full moon.  We stopped in Carriacou to clear out of Grenada and the following day sailed to Union Island to clear into St. Vincent and the Grenadines.