20 Nov 2010

[Captains Blog] Carriacou

We sailed up to Carriacou two days ago, and spent the first night at Sandy Island, a small spit of the most idyllic coral sand you could ever imagine. The journey up from Grenada took us 8 hours, we lost the wind towards the north of Grenada, compliments of the mountains that are close to the west coast, and so had to motor sail for a short while until we cleared the north tip of the island. Pandora sails very close to the wind, and we can be bowling along into the wind, only 20 degrees off the bow. On our old boat we would have had to have been 40 degrees off to even get going!

We are currently at anchor in Tyrrel Bay after a very rolly night. It was a full moon and the tide was coming straight into the bay. Not helped by the wind which was keeping us side onto the roll and making for a restless night without a great deal of deep sleep. The weather is predicting high winds for the next few days (beaufort 5 25-30 mph) so we might not be doing much sailing unless we are triple reefed. However, the forecasters got it completely wrong the other day and so I live in hope! If the winds are reduced, we'll go around the island to have a look at Petit Martinique which is a duty free place with cheap fuel and Rum!