Let’s compare anchorages
The difference between a good anchorage and a bad anchorage can be measured in so many ways. Let’s try comparing the Hog Island anchorage, our unofficial Grenadian home, and the anchorage outside of St. George’s where we spent the previous two nights.
Holding:
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Hog Island – Excellent holding in mud.
St. George’s – Awful – Hard, broken coral – which is why we paid $25.00 EC per night to be on a mooring there.
Protection from wind/swell:
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Hog Island – Excellent, especially if you anchor behind the reef, closer to Hog Island.
St. George’s – Awful. This anchorage is notorious for developing a nasty swell without notice. We rocked uncontrollably for the previous two days. Our friend on another even larger cat had to take seasickness medicine. I’m just happy that we’re not on a monohull because those guys were rolling like crazy. One friend on a monohull was up all night, crying at times!
Internet:
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Hog Island – I have never had an issue getting a free connection where we anchor and there is also a reliable paid service that we can subscribe to.
St. George’s – I found the unsecured signals here to be very iffy and the paid service only so so ($8.00 US for 24 hours, and it was down for maintenance for 3 of those). Your milage may vary.
Access to services:
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Hog Island – Getting to the city requires a bus. Not all that inconvenient but it does take a bit of time.
St. George’s – This is the only thing this anchorage has going for it. It is conveniently located very close to the city. For us, that is not enough of a benefit to offset the other huge negatives.
Final rating:
-
Hog Island – Mega Yacht ?????
St. George’s – Leaky Dinghy ?
So, if it’s that bad, why were we there? As I mentioned yesterday, we brought the big boat around to St. George’s so that we could be close to the Pig Roast that our friends had organized at Port Louis and also because Rebecca was competing in the Grenada Sprint Triathlon. The triathlon turned out to be an extremely well-run event. As often happens, Rebecca did better than she thought she would. She was 4th out of the water, just behind the event’s organizer and team coach Marc DeCaul, Danny, the assistant manager at Port Louis Marina and our friend Inga. Although we took off before the final results were announced, I “think” Rebecca might have come in 3rd place in the women’s division. Regardless, I remain super proud of her!
After her getting all tired and sweaty, and me getting all wet in the rain storm which followed, we made our way as quick as we could to the Pig Roast. Sadly people were already starting to leave when we got there. Such as it is with cruisers. Anyway, our friends made sure to save us a bunch of food so after filling our empty stomachs, we enjoyed some time socializing around the bonfire with those who remained at the party.
PS: While Rebecca was getting her pre-event briefing at the Triathlon, one of our blog readers came up and introduced himself. Jay, if you’re reading this, thanks for saying Hi. I hope you, your wife and friends had fun on the beach!
Jockeying for position with Eclipse (cat) and Solmate (mono).
We were going so slow they were swimming in between the boats for coffee.
Sabatticus flying their yellow and blue spinnaker.
We have Solmate in our sights.
We spent over an hour taking turns holding the spinnaker out with a boat pole.
Brandon from Solmate surprised us by presenting each of the participating boats with a burgee that he hand made! Very cool.
Lucky number 13.
Rebecca, Lucy and Alison just before the event was to begin.
Everybody ready?
GO!
Rebecca was 4th out of the water.
Getting ready for the bike.
About to begin the final segment of the race, the run.
And it’s over. Woo hoo!
Lucy, a friend of ours from hashing, so wanted that beer, and they both deserved it!
Congratulations Rebecca on a great race. The photos are fabulous!
Rebecca’s job: Get sweaty
Mike’s job: Take pics of Rebecca getting sweaty.
Awesome, Rebecca, awesome!
Mike, now compare St. George’s with Prickly Bay 😮 X 2!
Mike
We stayed in Prickly for a week and even though we were tucked in, it was still bumpy. Bumpy but not as bad as the previous two days at St. George’s. One day though we were visiting our friends in Prickly Bay (on their cat) and I swear it was rougher at anchor than it was when we crossed the Mona Passage.
Where do you keep that great big triathlon bike on the boat?
Mike
We don’t. It belongs to a friend on a Lagoon 380. And it folds in half.
Very well done Rebecca. Maybe the rain helped her. Then after all your effort getting there, then triathlon, when you finally get to the Roast, all the good stuff has gone. Typical isn’t it! 🙂
Mike
Well, our friends did save us a care package. 🙂
A catamaran gives you great advantage when it comes to anchoring versus mooring. You can anchor at the shallow end of the anchorage and sit back watching the monohulls rock and roll. Their envious looks when they go by in their dingies further reinforces the superiority of cats!
Seth and Jamie on Slapdash (theslapdash.com) got to watch a magor anchor drag in Menorca from their Gemini (it was ours) just for this very reason, no one was anchored upwind of them cause it was to shallow.
There is a down side however. If your ancor drags, like Kyle and Maryann’s did on Footprint, your close to the rocks and you don’t have much time to react.
We always backed down on our anchor at 2000 rpm to make sure that we were holding and then dove the anchor just the way you guys do. If there was a large wind shift we’d get nervous until we tested the holding again. The GPS anchor drag alarm helped us sleep a little sounder too.
Good sailing and enjoy those shallow anchorages.
Ted and Rhonda
ex -Winginit
Hi guys
Even though we have the shallow draft to allow it, Footprint’s situation is exactly why I am reluctant to anchor super close to shore. When the wind comes around, which it does even here in the trades, you end up uncomfortably close on a lee shore with little time to react if something goes wrong.
Love the pics of the triathlon! I’ve actually competed in a few, but it’s been several years. A gorgeous place like Grenada would get me motivated!
It motivates some to just sit on the beach!
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