8/3/05 Carriacou Regatta

Make sure to check out my Yahoo Photo Album when you're done reading as there are too many pics to put up in this entry!

On Saturday after work we headed to Carriacou for the 40th Annual Workboat Regatta (watch out, there is some loud audio on this site). We ended up taking a 30 minute flight to Grenada's sister island. The plane was a small, or more accurately a cramped, 10 seat (including pilot) dual prop plane. It looked tried and trusted and was so old that it quite possibly could have flown the route without the pilot. Once we were in the air we had a cool view of the island and part of the rainforest before plunging into the clouds which are constantly hanging around the mountain.









We stayed at a place called "Scrapers" (owned by who else but Scraper!) which was a very small collection of very small cottages. But you know what they say, "Location, location, location!" We were staying right on the water of Tyrell Bay in southwest Carriacou. This is the point when I found out that instead of saying east or west to describe a side of the island, the yachties (owners of yachts) will say windward or leeward in reference to the tradewinds. The tradewinds hit the windward, Atlantic, or east side of the island and the opposite side is the leeward, Caribbean Sea, or west side of the island. And just to let you know, these yachties are not a bunch of snobby jerks like Judge Smails, although I'm sure that those types are around. But these folks are all down here either living the simple life on their boats or working on other people's boats. They all seem quite happy to be here and to share some of the experience!

Anyway, we got there in time to watch several Laser sailboats racing into the sunset. Seems like an extremely cliche photo but this is my blog so deal!


We then headed out to dinner which involved the best pizza place in the entire Caribbean run by authentic Italianos!

I was very much looking forward to getting to sleep in a little for the first time since I arrived in Grenada but instead I had to find out why they called the owner of this fine establishment "Scraper." It turns out that when the man walks he, and for that matter his whole family, cannot pick up their feet more than the several millimeters required to clear the ground to move the foot forward. The result is a constant scraping of their flip-flops on the cement, directly outside the window next to my head. I'm not really sure if this is where he got the name but I like it so that's the story!

It was cloudy and rainy for most of Sunday so we lounged, discussed plans for the year, and did the only reasonable thing possible, went for some beer. Later, we took a bus into Hillsborough, the capital of Carriacou, to watch some of the race. The Workboat Regatta is the biggest event on Carriacou for the whole year. Unfortunately, we were too late for the "Miss Wet T-shirt Contest" and the "Greasy Pole Competition" but we enjoyed ourselves nonetheless. Carriacou has a heritage of Irish and Scottish ancestry inspired wooden boat building. These boats used to be used as fishing boats but are now generally used for racing and fun.









Since it was cloudy and rainy, I'm posting some photos that were taken last year.







And then there are the motor boats. These seem to be the equivalent of a teenager in the the US with a Camaro or T-Bird. There's usually several teenage kids in the boat, drinking, and doing the stupid shit that we all use to do and some of us still do (well except for me) !

We had a beer, wandered around a little, and then had a rum and coke. It was around this time that I decided that nobody should consider spending any substantial time in Grenada if they have any remote tendencies towards alcoholism. It's all around, all the time, and so many people are drinking that it is all too easy to join in. Eerily similar to Colgate!

The Yacht Regatta occurred on Monday morning. Peggy and I were able to get on one of her friend's boats; a little 25' sloop named Gans. The boat pictured here is not Gans but a sloop called Saga owned by another of Peggy's friends, Tim. I'm not quite sure how to accurately describe Tim except to say he is British. This man is quite a character; he lives on his boat, sails in any regatta he can get to within a reasonable period of time, when he is not sailing he is drinking and I have yet to see a glass of water in this man's hand. So anyway that is his boat Saga.

We took off from Tyrell Bay at 7 am and got to Hillsborough for the 9 am starting horn. The course went from Hillsborough, around several marks in that bay, out around The Sisters (pic on the right), around a mark in Tyrell bay, back to Hillsborough, around The Sisters and then finished in Tyrell Bay. I really can't remember how long it took to finish but I do know that we finished in last place. This was to be expected since we were by far the smallest boat in our class but this fact doesn't make it hurt any less!



To the left is a ketch from the cruising class of yachts that passed us.








After finishing up back in Tyrell Bay the marina that sponsored the regatta had a chicken BBQ for all the participants. And of course they had cold Carib waiting. To the right is a pic of Tyrell Bay at dusk.

The next morning I was able to get onto Gans for the trip back to Grenada. We left at about 6:30 am after a hearty sailor's breakfast of a Coke and a salami sandwich with mayo! Once we got out of the wind shadow of the island we had a steady wind off the port of about 12 knots, with some chop and seas of about 4 to 5 feet. The pic on the left below is Carriacou behind us with the Sisters on the left of the photo. On the right is a faint rainbow falling on the north end of Grenada.









The next photos were taken about 5 hours later of a small island as we were rounding the southern tip of Grenada and coming into The Yacht Club in St. George.










Now, some of you might ask, "Don, why not take some photos of the island in those intervening hours?" And I would say to you, "Well now, that's a good question." You see during that undocumented portion of the trip I was battling a slightly more than minor amount of motion sickness and trying like hell to keep that salami sandwich with mayo and Coke down. It is a battle that I am sorry to report that I lost...twice. Although I must say that I didn't get any on the boat and I felt much better afterwards. When I arrived back at my apartment that evening I promptly threw away the remaining salami.