Deserted Island, no other boats – easy to unwind.

Anchor alarm set, at 150 feet, goes off a few times as we get what looks close to shore, reset it to 160 feet after checking the chart and the shore is actually 400+ feet away, and pretty much sleep through the rest of the night. Well minus the rolling, the guide book said it was rolly, lots of surge wrapping around the Isle de Ronde, but mostly just rocked you to sleep.

Up with the sun for the ordered entertainment to show up. A large 100+ foot yacht was coming to pollute our happy anchorage. But since they are so large they couldn’t come nearly as close to the shore as we were, and were forced to anchor out amongst the local’s fishing dingys. The wind and surge were changing directions and could see the big boat from all sides as it rolled and spun around out there. A few mins later they were real close to one of the dinghies out there. So close it looked like they were touching, grabbed the binoculars, and yup they had some how managed to hook its anchor line to the fishing boat, so for the next 30-45 mins we watched the crew peer over the bow and the captain drive in circles trying to free itself from the poor unsuspecting fishing boat. They would back up and the yellow boat would follow like a lost child, the would go around then pair up again, finally free they really wanted to anchor here so they moved 1/2 mile south, well past all the other fishing boats and anchored.

Ahh so much for the excitement, lets go snorkeling, okay really, lets go find our long lost stern anchor. Get all suited up the water is nice, drag along the Go Pro, a long floatable line, and an empty water bottle just incase we spot it. Christine asked how in the world are we gonna find it when we set it 200+ feet from the boat, in the pitch black, and the boat was swinging all over the place? I said there should be some track in the sand where I had drug all that anchor chain in by hand. Course there were plenty of things that looked like lines in the sand. We started swimming in the general direction and we spotted what looked to be a fresh line. Kept following that line and Christine spotted a shinny object at the end of the line. Yup there she is, in all here glory firmly planted in the sand below, looking up saying now what? The bay is mostly 8 meters / 24 feet deep, so I know I can get there, but long enough to tie a knot? Luckily, the line I brought was long enough to go twice to the survace so I just had to thread the needle down there, unrolled the line and down I go. Unfortrunately, the Go Pro wouldn’t turn on or we’d have video of this. Success. Line right through where the anchor chain goes. Tied to the bottle give it a quick tug and nope its not letting go of the sand that easy. Feeling strong, after all I broke the chain last night, I dove down again to grab the anchor by the fluke and show it who is boss (actually by the shoulder, but thats not a fun anchor word). Yanked it out of the sand and started to swim back to the surface with the anchor, but quickly realized I wasn’t going up. Its an anchor after all. Left it on top of the sand with the bottle and line just like the locals do for fish traps, and headed to the reef for some fishing spotting.

The reef is 1/4 mile from the boat, so lots of swimming in the swell with not alot to look at. Getting discouraged as we’d have swum all that way for not much but kept going. Lots of fish were the reward, so much so that I got out on the rocks to reset the GoPro camera and we’ll see if we got some good footage. We encountered tons of tangs, blue, yellow, brown, several box face puffers, and a new orange spotted fish that we will have to send to Tim our fish guy to identify. This on top of the multitude of other fish poking around the reefs. Good spot. Probably spent and hour in the water, took the long way along the shore back to see if there was any more good reefs, and noticed another sailboat coming for their day stop along the way. Hopefully they won’t think our floating water bottle is a mooring, course that 1/8th inch line wouldn’t hold very well. We make it back to the boat, I check our undersides, and Damn if we didn’t pick up some fishing line, all wrapped around our port prop and saildrive. Ugh, it totally destroyed the zinc, and when I got the last bit of line free’d it felt oily, that means it probably busted the sail drive seal, that took about 30 mins to dive and pull, dive and cut, dive and pull the line off the propellor.

Off to go get the anchor, dropped the dingy, got it running and over to our floating bottle pulled the anchor up without an issue, so we have our second anchor back.

Had made some breakfast BLT’s before going snorkeling, well substitute Eggs for L and Cheese for T, so probably nothing like BLTs.

Lazy day only 10 miles to go, chilled out, and plan was to make a pizza under way for lunch, pulled anchor – quite a process with a windless that doesn’t want to pull up the chain and keeps taking a break. But we managed to get going and put the main sail up 2 reefs, blowing 25knots and just a bit of jib as we had no real distance to cover and the waves were steep and short, meaning tall waves but short distances between them so any much faster and we’d be getting beat up, it was a comfortable over and around the waves vs bashing through them. Tossed out a new lure, still no luck in the fishing department on day 2 of trying. Almost caught a few seagulls that put on a good show of trying to pick up the lures for 45 mins.

Made it to Tyrell bay, crowded and there were supposed to be mooring balls, but nothing looked appropriate so we anchored near shore between a couple of monohulls, and made that pizza.

Went ashore later to find we ‘just missed’ customs, so we couldn’t clear out as planned. Decided to have a cold drink at the marina with Chef Kevin, checked the internet on their slow, but functioning wifi and watched a bit of the news. Another trip in the AM to clear out of Grenada and head to the Grenadines.

After a short walk about the island, a few stops at the local grocery stores, and back to the boat for some dinner–sweet and sour pork chops and apple sauce. Somehow we both managed to make it past sailor’s midnight–845p.

How not to attach an anchor

Tyrell bay. Ignoring all the other boats behind us. Busy bay.

Always a cold beverage can be had

Down Island view from the to of Carriacou, Grenada.

Customs and a bar at Carriacou marina. How convenient.