Carriacou

Our first night in Carriacou

Paradise Beach

Nickernuts found on Paradise Beach

The weather report FINALLY shows a NNE wind and seas under 20+ knots and we decide it is time to sail north to Carriacou! We filled our fruit and vegetable hammocks, topped up with water, and headed north up the island. Early morning in the lee of the island of Grenada things looked new and fresh, the fisherman were already out in their boats, and a stream of sailboats were going north with us.

We realized that we would be sailing very close to the wind so we took a tack into Sauteurs on the very north of the island to help put us at a better point of sail. In the open water the winds were still 20+ knots but we were reefed and ready to go! Then we saw the biggest squall that stretched as far as we could see and we knew that it would not miss us...oh well. We got drenched (well, Carol did anyway) as the wind and rain slammed into us. We just hung on as Aldebaran stayed on course, put her port rail into the water, and flew along. As most squalls do, it passed in about 15 minutes. We patted Aldebaran and praise her for taking such good care of us :-) Then the sky cleared up, the winds calmed to 18 knots and the dolphins came out to play!! All around us the dolphins swam, crossing back and forth in the wake near the bow of our boat. We always get excited when we see those beautiful creatures as they come up to say hello!

We reached Carriacou in the afternoon along with all the other boats that left when we did. We all packed into Tyrell bay. Boats were everywhere, anchored as far out in the bay as they could go and still be protected! We relaxed for a few days in the bay, took some walks in the tiny village, bought some grapefruit from the lady at the fruit stand on the road, walked the beach. We knew we needed to make a decision soon about what we wanted to do next. Carnival would be coming that weekend - crazy time - our visas were running out - renew them or leave...such BIG decisions!! We decided to check out and move on. To check out of Carriacou we had to take a bus to the main town of Hillsborough. Not a big deal here....we love to ride these buses. They just drive along slowly (unlike Grenada) through the countryside, honking at everyone they know along the way. They dropped us in Hillsborough and we began the long process of checking out. Everyone is at lunch - wait.......Go to Immigration first - wait in a packed office until it is your turn, and then go across the street to Customs - wait (good thing Jon is the Captain).....in the meantime I take off to the beach to hunt for sea glass :-)

After we checked out we got a sandwich at a tiny deli and took a bus back. We asked to be dropped off at Paradise Beach so we could rest in the shade, eat our sandwich, and stroll along the beach - tough day. We didn't find any sea glass on the beach, but we did discover some seeds in spiny pods hanging on bushes on the beach. We recognized the seeds because people use them in jewelry, so we started collecting as many as we could. Last year we bought a book in Martinique about grains and seeds found in the Antilles. The book is written in French , but the pictures are great for identifying seeds. I looked up the seeds we found on Paradise Beach and discovered that the common name is Nickernut, and at one time children played a game similar to Mancala with these seeds. They are a beautiful green or gray color as you can see in the picture above. We are excited about finding more of these seeds on the other islands we visit.

Note** Sorry about the formatting - this program has a mind of it's own and will not break correctly for paragraphs!