Carriacou

Anchored in Tyrrel Bay

Carriacou

Grenada

Grenada Islands

Caribbean Sea
12'27.3N/61'29.2W
397 miles from SV Christa

A Happy Birthday to Amy!!!

Check another country off the list. We left the anchorage in Clifton Harbor, Union Island last Thursday for a short one mile trip. We dropped the hook on the southern tip of Frigate Island, a very tiny island just a quarter mile off the southern tip of Union Island, where we had hoped to do some snorkeling.

Ever since arriving in the Caribbean the trade winds have been blowing very strong. On Thursday the winds had gone up to 30 knots, wrecking our snorkeling plans. Amy's birthday was on Friday and we awoke to one of the rarer days where the trade winds had dropped below 15 knots, making for one of the better sails we have had in years to the island of Carriacou. It is just a short 6 mile sail away and part of Grenada. The cool thing about sailing in these waters is that all the islands are so close and in sight of each other.

We dropped the hook amongst the 20 other boats by early afternoon. Then we jumped into the dingy to explore the mangroves and find the floating bar called 'Angels Rest' for a birthday beer. The floating pontoon bar was supposed to be moored in the middle of the bay and was owned by friends on S/V Buxom. After a bit of looking around not finding the floating bar we asked a local "Where is the floating bar?" He answered "I have some bad news for you. The bar floated away." I asked if it was full of people when it floated away, but was told that luckily it was empty when it blew out. It must be somewhere downwind, in Central America by now, where some lucky local must have found it.

We tied the dingy up in front of the Carriacou Yacht Club. It is not really a yacht club,  but a bar and hotel next to a boat yard. After a few rum punches we walked down the road along Tyrrel Bay and found the 'Lambi Queen' restaurant and bar where we had heard they were going to have a steel drum band that night. Turns out that the band is made up of all ladies led by a somewhat famous local gentlemen who use to actually make the drums and now has a steel drum band school on the island. The band consisted of all sizes of drums, with two lead drummers on smaller sized free standing steel drums. The rest of the band had larger barrel steel drums backing them up. Along with the teacher on a real drum set there is a cow bell and set of bongos at the back. [YouTube video - loud!]

These ladies really had it down. You could see in their faces and body movements that they were having a great time. Most the bar was filled with cruisers, and there were locals lined up out along the street drinking rum, dancing around, and really enjoying themselves. Later in the evening Amy even got her own personnel steel drum 'Happy Birthday' played for her by the teacher and one of the lady lead players. Too cool!!

After the band stopped playing around 9pm and all the cruisers headed off to their boats to go to bed. That left Amy and I with all the locals for the rest of the night. After the 'Lambi Queen' closed we headed farther down the road with one of our new island friend Jason. We heard loud music playing down a dirt road and found 'Joann's Swampy Jo's Bar' empty with one man asleep on a table. Finding no one else around we called out "Hello!" loudly and heard some shouting from the back. Our new friend Jason poked his head in one of the doors behind the bar and then told us that the owner was gettin' busy in the back with a lady. And he added that the bar owner told him he still had awhile to go before he was done and wouldn't be able to serve any beer.

So we left the man sleeping on the table and headed farther down the road to Hillsborough Bay. The closer we got, the louder the music became. Along our walk Jason explained to us that everyone is a bit restless with Carnival happening soon. Amy is sure there will be an increase in births 9 months from now.

We found a bar that is open all night that plays ear splitting music with locals dancing all over the place. One thing we have discovered in the Caribbean is that is seems like everyone goes out every night, all night long. I am not sure how the small amount of work that is accomplished around the islands ever gets done with everyone staying up every night.

We made it back to the 'Piper just as the sun was rising. We will stay in Carriacou for a few more days before heading off to Grenada.

More Later From The Land Of Jack Iron,
Tom and Amy