Greetings from Carriacou!

Monday, September 19, 2022

Greetings from Carriacou,

Well, Carriacou AND the airport in Grenada. That's right... for the first time in quite some time we are in two different places! Keith is holding down the fort with Bosun on the boat in Carriacou, an island that is part of the Caribbean nation of Grenada. It sits just northeast of the main island of Grenada. Becca grabbed the early morning ferry from Carriacou and, after a bus ride, is sitting at the airport on the main island waiting to catch one of only two afternoon flights that departs to the United States.

Becca is heading back for a consulting project she accepted at Emory in Atlanta, Georgia. First, she'll be swinging into Houston to visit family and friends. While she's gone for a few weeks, Keith will have the boat hauled out of the water and will place a few coats of anti-fouling paint on her below the water line. This helps limit the amount of growth on her hull while she sits in the warm Caribbean waters. It's a lot of work and Keith is questioning whether Becca feels guilty she'll miss out. But hey, the haul out was meant to occur while she was still on the island. However, like most sailing endeavors, things don't always go as planned. Unfortunately, the boat yard got backed up and doesn't have room for Vagari at the moment as two boats that were meant to splash into the water both started taking on a bit of water and needed to be hauled back out onto land. With those two boats on the hard still, the yard is full. Such is life!

Before separating today, we've been soaking in the beautiful windward islands. St. Vincent & The Grenadines were a dream. We sailed south from Bequia, stopping at as many anchorages as possible before needing to get down to Grenada to meet up with friends that were arriving to look at a sailboat of their own to buy. ("Yay!" for friends joining in on the sailing life!). From Bequia, we sailed to Petit Nevis and Canoun. We were able to spear fish in both locations and made some delicious fish tacos! From there, we went to the Tobago Cays. We first stopped outside the reef at Petit Tabac. It happens to be the location, where they filmed the Pirates of the Caribbean scene when Captain Jack is marooned. Lucky for us, we weren't marooned. After collecting some coconuts, we headed into the reef and enjoyed the quintessential remote Caribbean island life. Here we mostly relaxed. We had beaches to ourselves and clear blue waters, so it was hard to say goodbye and continue south. The postcard above is from our next anchorage - Salt Whistle Bay, Mayreau. A small little cove on the lee of the island lined with palm trees and a beautiful soft sandy beach. With one last stop at Mopion, the smallest island we've been on and likely will ever be on as it's simply a little mound of sand with nothing more than a single palapa, we completed our time in the Grenadines.

This. Is. Mopion.

After sailing to Clifton, Union Island to clear out with immigration & customs, we left the beautiful Grenadines for Grenada. We've since met up with the friends mentioned, checked out the boat they're buying, and then sailed Vagari up to Carriacou to be ready for the haul-out. It's been busy, so we haven't gotten around to making a video, but we suspect with Becca back in the States, videos will be made quickly as she'll be watching the footage anyway as she'll miss life on the water.

Hope you all are well! It's been great to connect with you all on a personal level with emails. Keep them coming!

Much love,

Keith & Becca