Wednesday and the weather started to improve. Still cloudy and grey with limited visibility but at least the rain has stopped. Hurrah!!!!! Having a lazy morning on board and, to our surprise, Sha Sha sails into the anchorage. We met Jim and Sharon in Anegada back in December at the start of our trip – and although we have kept in touch via e-mail – we haven’t seen them since! So lots of waving going on – and we organised to meet up at Happy Island later in the afternoon for a reunion. We also got to meet Mandy, their daughter who is having a holiday on board, and to catch up on the gossip – including the fact that Jim and Sharon tied the knot in Cane Garden Bay in February!   Fantastic news…so happy for them both. Oh yes, we also marvelled at the latest small plane to come down into the local airport behind the trees and across the anchorage…. looks like a terrifying challenge for the pilot!!!

At Happy Island we all ended up joining up with two couples from the UK who were holidaying on their large catamaran. Later on we went ashore for dinner together – although Jim bailed as he was tired and had had enough rum already. This was the sensible thing to do!!!   Unfortunately it was clear that one of the English women had peaked way too early (it was only 7pm!) – as she spent the whole time in the restaurant with her head resting on her arms, ignoring the food placed in front of her, and then suddenly stumbled away to puke over the top of the wall onto the path below!!!! We were embarrassed – this was a pretty nice place – and really didn’t know what to do – so we just ignored her letting her friends sort her out… and quickly called it a night and escaped back to the sanity of Morphie, and it was still only 9 pm.

Thursday and the weather was significantly better – although still a bit cloudy. We spent the morning doing boat jobs and watching some naughty goings on by a boat boy who picked up a floating kite surfer’s board and secreted it in his boat, even though the owner was going up and down in his dinghy looking for it. So on the way back to Happy Island in the afternoon we stopped by their boat to let them know where it was – and they had already sussed it out and got it back! Good – didn’t want to be a grass – but that was so blatant it was unbelievable. At Happy Island we met up with the gang and had a bobbing time for the whole soggy afternoon. Jonti was in a really good mood too and put on loads of music – so there was some aqua dancing going on too! Fantastic time had by all…

Friday we awoke to sparkling blue sunshine – at last! We went ashore to pick up some fresh bread and to check out of customs and immigration for Saturday, as we plan to spend the night at Petit St Vincent which is still part of St Vincent and the Grenadines. We had our last soda waters in the Anchorage Hotel; enjoyed the view across the bay in the sun; and had our final look at the crabs in the pool. 

We said goodbye to our friends, who were also moving on today, and sailed away from Clifton towards PSV having our final look at Happy Island. Not very far to go but PSV is tucked away behind a reef across the way from Petit Martinique, so careful navigation was required! Approaching PSV we were stunned by how beautiful a tropical paradise it really was. The sea is an amazing colour and Morphie enjoyed being the only boat in the bay! 

Once we were set we took off in dink to explore Mopion – a desert island – but we failed to see how you could get ashore as the reef was dangerously shallow and we (er…actually…it was me!) was nervous about grounding the prop or even holing the tubes…. so we had a quick look and turned back. Later in the afternoon we went ashore to PSV – as the original and current owners were sailors, they welcome yachties to this luxury private island – we visited Goatie’s beach bar and enjoyed the splendid surroundings as well as the most spectacular sunset.

Saturday we picked up our anchor and sailed out alongside the reef and around the top of Carriacou – our next destination, which is part of Grenada. Pulled into Hillsborough to do customs and immigration and wandered the town for a little while – deadly quiet for a Saturday afternoon. It appears all the shops are shut up for the weekend, although we did find a supermarket open and topped up on some exceptionally cheap wine and beer! And it wasn’t rubbish either – the wine is a Chilean Sauvignon Blanc that we often buy at home.    Hillsborough’s dinghy dock was horrendous – a concrete slab under a huge commercial dock – with metal steps going up which were cracked down the middle, sloped backwards, and the handrail was so dangerously loose it was tied up with rope! We thankfully made it safely back on board without any mishap – phew…..

We then picked up anchor again to sail around to Tyrrel Bay where we knew Sha Sha had settled in, as well as Suzie on Spirited Lady who we had last seen in Chatham Bay.  As we were only going around the corner – literally – we decided to drag dink behind us rather than put him back up on the davits. We were also going to go through the relatively shallow cut through the marine park alongside Sandy Island. We were making pretty good way downwind with just the genoa out and spotted a catamaran motoring behind – but he appeared to be keeping a respectable distance. Anyway, as we are just about to harden up to port to clear the headland he starts to speed up to overtake us. Richard shouts out to him – we are turning to port and overtaking vessel should keep clear – but to no avail as the guy ignores him and overtakes us on our port (windward) side so we had to hold our course until he was clear of us. Grrrrrr….

Arriving into Tyrrel Bay we were surprised by how many boats were here (including the French Canadians again!). Finally found a spot to anchor and made contact with Sha Sha. Suzie had already told us there was a party at Lambi Shack this evening at 6pm so we made arrangements to meet up there. We spent the next few hours cleaning Morphie and getting salt off her woodwork and stainless. Had a great night at Lambi Shack – beers are half the price than on Union – and as it was Connie’s 75th birthday there was free food all round too!!! What a fantastic welcome to this place. Great time had by all and back on board around 9pm.

This morning (Sunday) we are just lazing – plan to explore later – and will probably sail on down to Grenada on Tuesday.

Bye for now

Jan