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Carriacou is the first of the Grenadine Islands pertaining to Grenada (as opposed to St. Vincent Grenadines). Carriacou would mean “land surrounded by reefs”. It is 7 x 4 miles and counts around 5,000 inhabitants. It is a well-known statistic that the Island counts just 1 gas station, but a good 100 rum shops, so a visit was compulsory.
In the last few days the trade winds have picked up in intensity, and it is most usual to have the anemo showing between 25 and 30kn all day.
When we left the protection of the reefs north of Petit st. Vincent, the policy of setting sail under 1 reef paid off. One gets out of PSV between two sandbars and then heads towards the North tip of Carriacou. The depths are shallow around the north end of the Island, and the seas build up. That does not last long and once under the lee of Carriacou we got most of the wind without much seas. On our way to Tyrrell Bay we passed Hillsborough on our port side (which we were going to visit from land), Sandy Island to starboard (the quintessential Caribbean Islet, a narrow stretch of white sand, coconut trees and turquoise waters) and the Sister Rocks (two large rocks also known for being a good diving spot).
When we arrive at Tyrrell Bay there were about 40-50 boats at anchor, but plenty of space is available here. There a shoals to the NW and SW, but other than that we knew of only another relatively shallow wreck to watch out for. Barely about a month ago a sailboat sunk, and is obviously not appearing on the charts. The roof and part of the mast are floating and marked by a small buoy, so during the day you should be very distracted to get over it. At night it would be a very different story and 3 boats have already hit the wreck. We later learned that the boat was making water and the owner’s son was in charge of running the pumps now and then to keep it afloat until repair. Unfortunately he may have visited one rum shop too many and fell asleep on the beach, with sad consequences.
As usual, the first thing when arriving to a new country is clearing in. It is paper based (boat name, owner, registration number, country of registration, port, date built, type, hull material, length, beam, draft, colour, number of masts, inboard engine detail, outboard engine detail, purpose of visit, last port of call, next port, date of arrival, date of departure, pets?, guns? Narcotics? Number of crew, name, surname, date of birth, place of birth, nationality and passport number for each, place of residence….), with 2 or 3 copies being produced thanks to carbon paper. The issue in my case was I did not press hard enough, so back to school and I had to redo the whole thing again….only for the official to discover that the carbon on the third copy was slightly misplaced…we settled for a photocopy of the original at a modest price, for which I will be forever grateful.
Harvey Vale (named after one of the large plantation owners) is basically a 1 street village with maybe 20 houses, fruit and produce vendors and a supermarket, all nicely spread in front of the narrow beach at the head of Tyrrell Bay. On the North side of the bay, there is a marina under construction which is due for October we are told by a couple of workers from Iceland we met later at Hillsborough. It will be a boon for the locals and although it will somewhat change the face of the area tourism remains the only recurrent resource that can be counted on. In the meantime the place is inherently calm, protected from wind and sea. Yachtsmen seem to be there for exactly that reason. Most of the activity in town takes place at the small boatyard (the only in the Grenadines with a travel lift), where the staff are taking care of sailboats and wooden fishing trawlers and around the aforementioned marina construction.
On the first day, as it is often the case if there has been sailing involved in the morning, we rested aboard and went for a beer (ginger ale for the kids) in the afternoon to the Lazy Turtle, where you have a nice view of the entire bay. Next door, once you have crossed the book exchange shelves, there is a diving outlet run by a Canadian couple, who arranged a dive for me at the Sister Rocks for the next morning, and a further diving course for Isa and the kids.
The diving group was made of English and American, plus our diving guide which is from Carriacou. We will post some underwater images when the next video is ready, but the number and variety of marine life is impressive, from Lion fishes, barracuda and lobster to a nurse shark sleeping under the rocks.
That evening we took our dinghy for an exploration ride up the hurricane hole with its narrow entrance at the NE of the bay. The sea penetrates land for over a mile, and the place looks more like a lake surrounded by mangroves. It is now a protected oyster bed, and a nursing area for a few species of fish. Only 1 gentleman has the right to collect oyster from the place as he has been doing so for over 30 years: Our luck, in the morning the fellow in his wooden dinghy was trying to row upwind to sell oysters to incoming sailboats. As he was facing the wind, he stopped by and asked for a tow in exchange of oysters. We obliged.
Once the rest of the family had returned from diving, we decided to pay a visit to Hillsborough. After landing on the beach with our tender and securing it to a palm tree, we jumped on Bus No 10 (there are 2 bus lines, 10 and 11). I have rarely seen such a well-serviced transportation network, with minivans passing every 5 minutes. They will stop to pick you wherever you are. We were squeezed in and really had fun riding all windows open, no seatbelts, barrelling down the narrow local roads. The goats and dogs are used to see you coming and will barely move. Whereas in Europe using the horn is akin to swearing, here it is a salute. During our ride, the driver tooted the horn about 5 times per minute (twice each time) which explains why, while the minivans are quite shiny, their steering wheel is not looking that good.
Hillsborough is the main town on the Island, with 2 avenues and 4 streets. It is quite lively, with colourful buildings, wooden cafes right by the beach, a couple of banks, supermarkets, fresh fruit vendors and even a preacher with his megaphone. We particularly liked the bus terminus, where all school kids gather and go for the small kiosk to buy candy before returning home. We stopped for lunch at the Butterfly, where we sat by a couple of workers from Iceland and Trinidad that are busy with the marina construction at Tyrrell. The table was shared with Charlie, a very social land turtle that enjoyed chicken and fries. He was not shy at all and soon the kids nominated him as a candidate for joining our crew. Unfortunately he did not meet our stringent criteria and was duly released in the bushes
On our last day on Carriacou we booked a taxi to tour the island. The visit took half a day and was well worth it. Here are some of the things we saw and learned:
Carriacou has a very strong tradition of building wooden boats, be it trawlers for fishing or fast sailboats competing in the many races that the Caribbean offer (including that in Carriacou). Boatyards are concentrated in the Carenage, a shallow water area protected by reefs on the windward side. The name comes from the fact that boats were brought onto shallow water, then tipped on their sides to clean the hull. The shipbuilding knowledge was brought to the island by the Scottish, which to date continue the tradition. Indeed you will find many family names starting with Mc, be it white population or metisse. The boatyards themselves are small patches of land with no infrastructure or machinery, and are easily missed if you do not pay attention when driving. Boats are built by the shore and, when completed, rolled gently into the sea. The tradition wants that when the keel is completed, there will be an animal sacrifice, goat or cattle, to protect the ship.
In the Carenage area, we were showed a stone monument. It remembers the victims of an unfortunate event: Although WWII did not affect the area, a warship lost a mine which ended up on the reefs, about a mile offshore between Petite Martinique and Carriacou. The local boys spotted it. At that time people did not know what a mine looked like, so they brought it to the beach close to a boatyard and tried to open the artefact to see what could be inside. The explosion killed nine, and a much larger disaster was avoided apparently because the mine was upside down.
We also heard a curious story about Petite Martinique. You can see on a map that Petite Martinique (pertaining to the Grenada Grenadines) and Petit St. Vincent (St. Vincent Grenadines) are small islands lying East of Carriacou, and accessible by dinghy or small boats. Fishermen from Carriacou would sell their catch as far North as St. Martin, which is known for being the only Island split between 2 nations (France and the Netherlands) but also for its duty free status. Many wares, especially consumer electronics and white goods come much cheaper compared to countries with high import taxes. So, after unloading their catch, fishermen would sail back with other goodies to Petite Martinique, for the benefit of the Grenadians. The folklore says that attempts to uncover warehouses and stop the trade were met with symbolic countermeasures, such as digging graves, which has apparently allowed to maintain the flow running.
Although the island is still very much unspoilt, one of the growing activities is construction. Many natives, having left for the US, Canada or else, are now return to Carriacou for retirement and build their house. Apparently there is some competition as to who will build the largest, a symbol of success. Once the house is ready to be occupied, the owner will throw a party. Plenty of food is prepared, but the first round is for the benefit of ancestors, served in a closed room at midnight, when they are supposed to awaken and claim their portion.
All this said, the most happy event was meeting the crew of Wind4life and Thalitha which we had crossed in Palm Island. We have been sailing together since (Tyrrell, Tobago Cays, Mustique and hopefully Martinique, Dominica and farther North), which is so nice for us and for the kids especially, as they have finally found friends to do what kids do, as opposed to being with adults all the time as the often complain.