Day 150, Year 6 Grenada to Carriacou
Date: Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Weather: Overcast with Squally Periods; Wind NE 10-20 knots
Location: Passage from Prickly Bay, Grenada to Tyrell Bay, Carriacou

We made the break from Prickly Bay at 0645 this morning. We first had to sail west along the southern coast of Grenada with an almost 3 knot positive current giving us a great boost. But we very soon had to turn to the northeast directly into the wind. Thankfully the wind was light, 10-15 knots, but this still required us to motor sail all the way up the west coast of Grenada. Once we made it around to the north side of the island, we were able to sail across to the Ile de Ronde. This is a small island near Diamond Rock, more commonly called Kick’em Jenny, which is in the vicinity of a submarine volcano that periodically spits and belches from the depths. We knew that stopping at Ile de Ronde should only be done in settled weather, which is not really what we had today, but we wanted to check out the snorkeling on the north end of that island. We anchored, dropped the dinghy, and hopped aboard with all our snorkeling gear. Unfortunately the seas were not settled and we could not get close enough to the reef area where we think the good snorkeling would have been. Mark stayed in the dinghy to make sure it was not swept to shore by the rolling breakers while Steve and I got in the water to explore. We saw Porcupine Pufferfish, lots of Ocean Surgeonfish, and some Gorgonian sea fans. It was not as good as we had hoped, but it was great to get in the water. Considering the conditions and the miles we still had to sail to Carriacou, we ended our exploration, got the dinghy back onboard, and headed northwards once again. As we motored out of the Ile de Ronde anchorage, we saw Grenada disappearing behind us into rain clouds. Then we saw Carriacou in front of us disappearing into rain clouds as well. We knew we were going to be hit by the storm clouds and we were. The wind went from 12 knots to 25 knots and the seas got very quickly, very lumpy. Visibility was limited and the rain was pouring down. The weather stayed like this for the two hours that it took us to motor sail against the now stronger wind coming directly at us. But just as we approached the anchorage in Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, the rain stopped and the clouds lifted a bit. We are now safely anchored here for the night and will stay here tomorrow and tomorrow night. We are hoping to explore a couple of snorkeling sites and see a little of the island of Carriacou before moving north to Union Island.