A long five miles

The south coast of Grenada is interesting. The complex series of reefs, islands and bays create multiple options for safe and secure anchoring. On the other hand, they also provide numerous opportunities to founder your boat if you’re not careful!

It’s very easy for those tucked away in a protected bay to fail to grasp the real conditions in the open waters. Of course, you can check the weather but until you’re out there, you never really know the true effect of the wind and waves. We awoke this morning to the sound of the breeze whistling through our rigging, never a good sign when we have to move the boat. Given that we’re scheduled to haul out early tomorrow, we had little choice and so we made ourselves ready for travel.

Many excellent harbors. Many dangerous reefs!

At approximately 8:30 this morning, after nearly an hour of preparation, scrubbing our anchor rode clean and securing our outboard and tender, we made our way out of the Hog Island cut. Our destination was St. David’s harbor, home of Grenada Marine, a mere 5 miles east of where we have spent the past few weeks. Five miles may not seem like a lot but when it’s dead east, straight into the trade winds, it can take a while to cover it.

As we pointed our boat east, we had 20 knots of wind dead on the nose and large waves to boot. Shortly after passing the outer channel markers, we heard an announcement over the radio that one of the outer buoys on the channel adjacent to the one that we used had broken free and was now on the reef. Good thing we weren’t relying upon that mark for navigation!

Scrubbing the anchor rode clean before raising anchor.
Photo courtesy of Banyan.

Our five mile trip, a distance we could cover in less than an hour in normal conditions, took us almost two hours, anchor up to anchor down. We’re safe and sound now though, and only 100m from the travel lift that tomorrow will carry ZTC to her vacation spot. The real hands-on labor begins then!

Some of the other boats which are also “on vacation.”