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Free & BrEasy - Deep Turtle



We are gradually working our way up the Winward Islands, collectively called the Grenadines, that form a chain of stepping stones between Grenada and St Lucia. Our last few days in Grenada continued to be happy ones, except for the frustration of not being able to fix either the water maker or the single side band radio, but by now Roger is well acclimatised to the vagaries of the Marine service industry! A huge achievement whilst we were still in Grenada was to finish the beans and rice that we had over prepared for a meal with Adela; what a relief to finally see the bottom of the bean box!

We left Grenada with many happy memories of a beautiful island with friendly locals. As one old Yottie, that we met in the Market, commented, with a very wistful look in his eye, "I could die here". We set our course up the west side of Grenada to Carriacou, completely forgetting about the 2 knot northwest setting current which left us with 5 hours of bashing into a strong north easterly wind and sea, not helped by weed gathering around the rudder. We arrived at Sandy Island in the last moments of twilight and luckily went straight on to a mooring ball. In the full moon the thin strip of sand decorated by a few palms beckoned to us but not as much as a beer on board. Maybe our westward detour was meant to happen as we were well away from Grenada's famous active underwater volcano and a little island called Kick 'em Jenny because of the nasty seas kicked up in the vicinity.

Next morning, after Roger had taken his early morning snorkel, we went to Hillsborough to clear out at Immigration and Customs. We spied a cheerfully painted café right on the beach and decided to treat ourselves. Sally, the owner, had been a Yottie from Durban, South Africa, who had sailed in 10 years ago and never left. She said that the little village of Hillsborough still possessed the friendly character that used to be found everywhere across the Caribbean. She regaled us with stories of hair raising passages down the South African East coast and finished saying that she thought it was time to sail away from Carriacou to her next port! For our part, we found ourselves imagining what it would be like to finish the circumnavigation in Carriacou and settle down to an idyllic life running a café! While in the café, Roger found an advert on the Cruisers Forum for a new anchor made for boats 32-35 ft in length that was guaranteed never to drag. Intrigued by such a strong marketing boast we demanded to see a picture of the new anchor; there was the huge anchor completely dwarfing a standing man and the words 'Happy Easter' - yes, it was an April fool!

From Carriacou we made our way to Clifton on Union Island to sign in to the territory of St Vincent and the Grenadines. This is a very busy little harbour with a small village surrounded by pretty hills. There is a small Marina and after a hot walk up one of the hills, we rewarded ourselves with a ice cold fruit smoothie while we used the Anchorage Hotel's excellent wifi. All around us were young people on expensive looking charter catamarans preparing for an evening of partying. 'Bliss was it to be alive but to be young were very heaven!'

The next day we made the short trip to Tobago Cays. This is a small group of deserted islands protected from the sea by a reef in the shape of a horseshoe. The water is crystal clear, the sand pure white and the turtles plentiful. As we approached the inner lagoon we were alarmed to see a forest of nearly 50 masts, already anchored! We weren't the only ones with the idea of snorkelling the Cays that was famous for being deep with turtles! Some of the boats turned out to be our friends from the World ARC tribe and were soon welcoming on board our fellow circumnavigators.

The yacht charter industry in the Caribbean appears to be doing extremely well but the large number of yachts must be putting the marine resources under pressure. We watched with apprehension, three large catamarans raft together, near us, expecting them to party through the night, but they didn't. In fact, the anchorage was generally quiet and everyone well behaved.

The water was so inviting that we jumped in for a snorkel. Often only a few feet below us, turtles were quietly munching on the kelp like sheep in a field. Every few minutes a turtle would rise to the surface and delicately sip the air, completely ignoring the human voyeur. Only if you dived down towards them did they calmly fly away, with a dignified but hurt expression. We were happy to be in 'Deep Turtle' lagoon where you could 'Snorkel on the water' (apologies to Deep Purple fans).



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