Day 10 Sunday April 24, 2005 Sand Island, Carriacou
We’re up by 7 AM. It’s scrambled eggs and grapefruit for breakfast. We’re underway by 9AM. We leave Horseshoe reef and sail back the way we came, past Mayreay Island but around the opposite side of Union Island on to Carriacou. We have maybe 12 knots of wind but we’re making 7 knots on a broad reach. It’s lots of fun!
In 2 hours we make Carricaou. We anchor just behind Sandy Island in Hillsborough bay about 100 feet from the island in 7 feet of water. Our task for today is to fix the depth sounder. We rip it apart and decide to start by soldering all the connectors which he had temporarily twisted together to see if it would work (and it did). About an hour later we’ve finished and we try the sounder. Still no reading. Casually Bill reaches over and firmly pushes in the two connectors. Suddenly it’s working, just a loose connector. Oh well, all the wires needed to be soldered anyways.
Snorkling off the east tip of Sand Island looks promising so we swim to shore and walk along the beach. We meet Bob and Theresa from Alberta with their snorkeling gear. They’re on a 30 foot Nonsuch anchored just 100 feet from us. We exchange pleasantries and I invite them to Chispa later.
We’re right about the snorkeling. It’s excellent and what’s really amazing are the different schools of fish. Near the shore are the small fry, about ½ inch long. Further out we see a school of ballyhoo. Suddenly a silver cloud of fish flashes our way. We’re surrounded by then and the school is soo thick that you can’t see the sea bottom just 10 feet below. There must be thousands of them moving is a giant formation across the reef. It’s amazing how they stay so close together and then suddenly it’s like a border, fish on one side and blue ocean on the other. We swim in and out of the silver cloud. This is fun.
After dinner Bob and Theresa motor over. Bob works in the oil industry and he can get weeks/months off at a time. He’s sailing up from Venezula where he’d stocked up on good Chilean wine. As their dinghy docks Bob hands up a string bag with three bottles of wine, a bottle of Ameretto and chocolate! We’re overwhelmed and I race to bring out gingersnaps and we’re having a party. Bob and Theresa get the tour. They love all the room on the cat. Soon enough Bob and Bill are talking sailing. Bob has been coming down here for over 20 years and he knows a great deal about the coast of Venezula which is of great interest to Bill. Bob finds Bill’s tales of sailing Konstancz through Holland fascinating. Soon it’s 10 PM and the party is over. Our guests leave and we’re off to bed. This turns out to be the latest night we stay up during our entire trip.
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| Carriacou Map | Relaxing off Sand Island | Lynn and Bill | Sand Island | Our Russian Neighbours |