Magnus has a diving certification since the 1990’s when he dove off the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, but Jodi just started snorkeling here in the Caribbean and hasn’t yet worked up the courage to get dive certified. So mostly we snorkel, but a few days ago we met some really friendly boaters, John and Shannon, on their boat Carisma. They had full dive gear, and they took Magnus on a dive at Sandy Island, Carriacou (Grenada).
Often when we snorkel or clean the hull, we notice curious fish surrounding us. When Magnus and John dove, there was a huge school of fish that followed them (pictured) for almost their whole dive. We have been followed by Barracudas, had tuna and tarpons hanging out under the boat while at anchor, had smaller fish swim right up to our goggles. When surfing down waves on the Atlantic crossing we had a pod of dolphins swimming just under the tops of the waves behind the boat, watching us from within the waves and disappearing when we reached a new peak.
Some fish eat the seaweed and other things that grow on the hull and chase down what we are scraping off, if they aren’t just trying to snack directly from the hull. Fish jump all over around us, mostly because they are being chased by predators, but sometimes we have dolphins who are clearly trying to get a better look – or just showing off their mad acrobatic skills. This morning on our way to the chandlery, a smaller fish jumped at least a meter / yard up into the air right next to us.
Dolphins aren’t as visible in the Caribbean as they were on the north Atlantic coast of France, where we saw them alongside Lulu almost on every sail. Recently on a night sail we had dolphins swimming and jumping alongside us, the first time in several months. Sometimes we assume there are dolphins underneath us, because our depth meter will suddenly start showing 3 to 10 meters when we are in up to 1000 meters of water. The first time it happened way back in the Bay of Biscay, Magnus panicked and thought that he was going to run aground, before he figured out what it was.
As long as we are calmly snorkeling or diving and not making loud noises or sudden movements, the fish appear to either ignore us or be almost as curious about us as we are about them.
We entered Carriacou, Grenada on June 1st, after a stop for several days on Bequia in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. Bequia is a peaceful oasis, we spent Christmas there with the Norwegians and our buddy boats Platon and Angelina, plus lots of other folks and have fond memories of hanging out and meeting new friends. This time we visited the chandleries, as Magnus noticed that the rubber seals on the switches to the autopilot and deck lights had dried out and were broken, possibly letting salt water in. Also, when Magnus inspected the switches, he noticed that one had previously been repaired and figured it would be good to replace it. Fortunately he found both new seals and a new switch, and Lulu was returned to good order.
After Bequia we returned to Carriacou, Grenada; another favorite stop from our trip south earlier this year. This time, we anchored off Sandy Island, part of a marine national park. They had just replaced all the buoys with new ones with strong ropes and plastic protectors, the nicest buoys we have used in the Caribbean. If we can choose, we stay at anchor; but many islands have reefs they want to protect and therefore restrict sailors to buoys only.
We have an app called “NoForeignLand” which has information about anchorages and boats, and found our neighbor boat Carisma listed there. Their listing said to come and say hi, so Jodi jumped into the dinghy and said to Magnus – take me to Carisma! We had sundowners together with Carisma then later snorkeled and dived together and met another boat, Equus, on the beach. That night we played bocci on the beach with Equus and Carisma, and Jodi baked chocolate chip cookies and gave cookies to everyone who joined us on the beach.
Carriacou island across from Sandy Island has beautiful beaches, and at one of them there is a restaurant called Paradise Beach Club where they invite cruisers to paint wooden signs with their boat names / logos. We have seen several of our friends posting that they have painted signs there, so we joined our fellow boats Carisma and Equus at the “sip-and-paint”. It was great fun, we met another boat couple from SEA3PO. There is a special service at the Paradise Beach Club, they send a boat out and pick up cruisers from their boats and then take them back. Truly a magical evening and a wonderful place, and the food was great, too.
Our buddy boats wanted to check out the volcano “Kick ’em Jenny” so we joined them for a stop at Isle de Ronde, which is just inside the exclusion zone for the volcano. There we were joined by Equus and Carisma plus two other buddy boats for a sundowner potluck picnic on the beach. It was surprisingly calm in the anchorage, there were 12 boats anchored there by nightfall.
When in Isle de Ronde, we started smelling diesel inside the boat pretty strongly, so we searched the bilges and finally discovered a leaky jerry can of diesel. It had a small split in the middle, and about 10 liters or 2 1/2 gallons of diesel had run into the bilge. We used as many bottles as we could find to store the diesel, fortunately it had not caused the bilge pump to go but rather was in several compartments sloshing around. First when we arrived in Prickly Bay were we able to lift all the floor panels and mop up the last of the diesel; finally flushing the bilge with fresh water and wiping down all the compartments. It was the second jerry can that has burst on us, so we bought all new jerry cans, replacing the cheap ones we bought in Las Palmas. The diesel was left with the local boatyard in Prickly Bay, as hazardous waste.
Once again, Lulu is back in her usual good order!
Thoughts from Prickly Bay, Grenada on 8 June 2024.