1-31 Carriacou to Grenada

Kevin said he wanted us to be on our way to Grenada by first light, so an hour before sunup I was in the galley banging the coffee pot to rouse the sleepy skipper.  Sure enough, we had the hook up, and were motoring out past the True Blue when the sun peeked over the horizon to the east.

Sid's call of "Pleasant sailing!" wasn't far off the mark.  We had a stiff easterly breeze the whole way to our anchorage at Clarke's Court Marina in Woburn Bay on the south side of Grenada.

Just as we cleared the southern tip of Carriacou we picked up some impressive easterly swells that were probably the fetch from all the way across the Atlantic.  At times they were pretty confused coming from two directions and tossing spray onto the Raindancer's crew, sometimes in our faces and sometimes on the backs of our heads.  The swells from the port quarter were overtaking us at an impressive rate, but the Raindancer would just lift and let them slide under her.  Occasional, one would approach, breaking with a long roar.

Just north of Grenada there is an underwater volcano called "Kick 'em Jenny" with a warning/hazard area around it.  We sailed near it, but she wasn't active enough for us to notice anything on the surface.



A pic of the chart plotter when we were just outside the caution area of Kick 'em Jenny

 

When we got in the lee of Grenada, the swells died down and we kept the wind.  With just the jenny the Raindancer was flying along getting as fast as 8.5 knots at one point.  The west coast of Grenada is a rugged, beautiful, rainforest's.  As we passed, we saw occasional patches of rain and sunshine shining thru the clouds.

 

West coast of Grenada from St. Mark Bay to Gouyave Bay.  Note the rain shower up the hill from Gouyave.

 

Mt. St. Catherine is 2,757 ft high at its highest point.







Later, off St. Georges on the SE side of the island, we saw two tall ships plugging along at 2-3 kts.  They didn't have much sail up and appeared to be motor/sailing back and forth on legs of only a couple miles each.

The T/S Sea Cloud

 

The T/S Feather of London