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American Spirit II - Day 445; We Tour Carriacou Island & Get Cleared Out for Saturday; Friday, March 27, 2015



One year ago today:

"Day 83; On to Fatu Hiva, and Another Green Flash Sunset; Thursday, March 27, 2014. Up at 5:30 AM; breakfast at 7:15 AM. We checked our email after breakfast hand I had a response from Martin from the boat Caduceus of Burnham. I had emailed him last night and asked him about the anchorage at Fatu Hiva and if he had any directions to the waterfall there. He gave me excellent information on both accounts, and indicated that the villagers had even hosted a large dinner for them."

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Up at 6:15 AM. A sunny day. I watched the sun rise above the high hills to the east.

At 6:45 AM Polaris weighed anchor and sailed south towards Grenada to pick up family.

At 7:30 AM the Carriacou Net, run by a business on Carriacou, went on the air. The first information revealed was the local weather (a beautiful sunny day!); followed by new arrivals to Tyrrel Bay announcing that they'd arrived (we did); departures; then businesses on shore plugged their own businesses, such as a dive shop, restaurant, bar, etc. Then at 7:45 AM Union Island, our entry point for St. Vincent and the Grenadines, had their net. They started with a weather forecast around the world, listing such places as Alaska and Siberia; followed by a local forecast.

At 8:00 AM we departed in the dingy for the dingy dock, and then to the Gallery Restaurant. The restaurant opens at 8:00 AM and is owned by Kim and Sally. Sally is (mooring ball) Paul's wife. We met Kerry, Sigi and Cameron from Avocet for breakfast. Joel ordered French toast with ham; and I had the same but with an egg and some sausage (that wasn't very good), also. Breakfast was 127 EC.

We departed for our tour at 9:15 AM in our Linky Taxi, a van that could hold 10 people. Besides our driver he had one assistant. Perhaps a tour guide in training, although he didn't look like tour guide material. The thing our driver/tour guide said was that the tour would take 2 to 2 1/2 hours. So much for a 'half day' tour.

Our driver/tour operator explained that Carriacou means 'islands surrounded by reef;' that the island is 13 square miles; and that the population is 7,000. There are 2 seasons in Carriacou, the dry season from January to June; and the wet season from June to January. Crops grown on the island are used primarily for local consumption instead of for export. Cotton used to be grown on the island, but no more. Unlike the main island of Grenada, no spices are grown and very few bananas.

There are goats everywhere. Many are inside a fence; many are tied on a rope along the road; and 1 many are roaming free around the island. The 'free roamers' have collars identifying who their owners are; and they apparently are like dogs and cats in that they go home to their 'bed' for the night. They don't really go home to eat because they're roaming the island all day and eating all day.

A typical nice house costs 200,000 EC ($1.00 US dollar = 2.67 EC). There is 20% unemployment, which is low compared to other countries we've been to.

At one point in our tour we came to a place called '6 Roads Town,' because 6 roads intersected. And there wasn't even a stoplight!

With 7,000 people on the island, our driver said there is an amazing amount of cars...300! The 3 hurricanes to strike the island the last 60 years are Janet in 1955; Ivan in 2004; and Emily 10 months later in 2005. There is one gas station on the island. The highest point on Carriacou is 955 feet, so it is called a hill not a mountain. The highest point is called 'High Hill.' Very descriptive, huh? In order to be a mountain the elevation must be at least 1,000 feet. Who knew?! There are no rivers; and water is collected by cisterns on the houses and businesses.

There is a hospital located at the top of the island. It was built in 1907 and was located on the highest point on the island to be away from malaria and yellow fever mosquitos. These mosquitos can't 'function' at the top of this big hill due to the trade winds blowing too strongly. The original name of the hospital was 'Belview,' meaning 'Beautiful View.' It was changed to 'Princess Royal' hospital after the princess visited the island. A plaque was erected on October 27, 2007 commemorating the 100th anniversary of the hospital. The plaque says in part, '...Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.' Sound familiar? John F. Kennedy said that in a speech in the 1960's. Two doctors live at the hospital.

Next we visited the ruins of an old (1600's) sugar cane windmill at the top of one of the island's hills; then stopped by a business where there were making 'cassava,' a drink on some islands but a sort of cereal here. After that we went to the Windward town where we saw a couple of fishing boats being built using white cedar planks. It takes 6-7 months to build a boat from scratch. The wooden boats are becoming less numerous as fishermen are now going to fiberglass boats as they require less maintenance.


While walking thru some local bushes, Joel grazed by a plant called a 'stinger nickel plant,' and got stung.

Our last stop on the tour was the museum in the capital of Hillsborough. A very small museum with some island artifacts and paintings and pictures. The crew of Avocet elected to stay in the town for lunch; while we headed back where we started, arriving there at 12:20 PM.

We went for a snorkel at 1:35 PM, swimming over to 'Bareboat Alley' reef just 70 yards from our boat. The most interesting thing we saw was a 'Bearded Fireworm,' a 5 inch underwater centipede. With 'fire' in its name it must hurt if you touch it, so we didn't. We also saw some West Indian Sea Eggs,Long Spined (sea) Urchins and Green Finger Sponges. A small, shallow reef.

At 3:05 PM we went ashore again at the dingy dock near our mooring ball and I cleared us out of Grenada by visiting Customs and Immigration. We're back on the bat by 4:05 PM and turn the generator on at 4:10 PM. Then I type one log.

NDS Darwin grabs a mooring ball at 5:50 PM. Just up from the marina we were in in Grenada.

At 5:55 PM we see a bunch (4?) small sea turtles near our boat, feeding on the bottom but sticking their heads up to catch a breath every so often.

Dinner at 6:05 PM is Mahi Mahi, left over French fries and garlic bread.

The sun sets at 6:17 PM and we miss a green flash due to a cloud on the horizon. The sun has a BIG green hue around it, so without the cloud we would have certainly had a green flash. Oh well.

It rains after dinner on and off as we read in the cockpit. Then at 9:00 PM we watch the movie 'Knowing,' staring Nicholas Cage. Another end of the world movie. He seems do specialize on those sort of flicks. I'd give it 1 star out of 4. We'd seen it before, but like a lot of movies, sometimes the 2nd time you see a movie you wonder what you liked about it the first time. After that Joel went to bed and I finished a Louis L'Amour book called 'The First Fast Draw.' A good, short read.

I'm in bed by 11:30 PM, and the music from a bar on the shore is really loud. So loud, that closing the hatches on the boat doesn't seem to help in quieting things down. I think around midnight the music stops.

Brian Fox


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