Itchy feet

I get bored easily. After 2 weeks in a place we am climbing the walls, eager to try out something new, change the scenery from our portholes. We had pretty much done all of the anchorages mentioned in the Doyle guide in Grenada and Carriacou. We needed to stick around the area for longer waiting for post sent via USPS (been a month now and yet to receive it) so we started looking for other options. A sail to Carriacou with our friends off Sunrise and Karma was the plan to clear away the cobwebs. 

As usual, the passage between Grenada and Carriacou was to windward against current and waves. Beating for 9 hours covering 35 miles we were relieved to enter Tyrell Bay and were rewarded for our hard work by a wonderful night's sleep feeling like we were floating on a lake with no rolling!

The next day we all planned to sail to Saline Island, located to the South of Carriacou and a little known secret. With the promise of a deserted anchorage, white sandy beach and clear waters, Team Orion set off early. Only a couple of hours sail we dropped the hook in 10ft water and were the only 3 boats in the tiny bay. The place reminds us very much of Tobago Cays but with less people. Our own private island to explore and to top that off, the water is gin clear and the beach rock free.

No sooner had we arrived, Dylan was keen to check out the lobster population. On our first attempt we hauled in 4 medium sized lobbies and agreed we would have a beach BBQ (or Braai) that evening with everyone, also taking our yellowfin tuna we had caught the day before. 

Now this is what we had imagined the Caribbean to be, sun, sand, clear waters, deserted beaches and beach BBQs. We had yet to tick off the BBQ dream so an excitable Dylan rowed ashore uber early to start collecting firewood whilst I stayed on the boat preparing some side dishes. 

Getting the fire going we all sat around cooking our seafood and staring at the stars that seemed so much more noticeable with no light pollution around. Suitably fed one of the guys lay back to relax and complained about someone nipping him. Turning on our maglite we illuminated a HUGE crab that had invited himself to our gathering. I have never seen a crab so huge, I must admit we did contemplate cooking him too but figured that would be greedy so let him be. Sure gave us a fright and I wish I had been quicker with the camera. It was easily the size of both my hands and its claws alone would have provided great meat. Mmmmmm, we stopped drooling and questioned our sanity. Had we just turned into the cast of Swiss Family Robinson? Shipwrecked on a desert island and desperately needing sustenance….erm no, I had a fully stocked fridge aboard Orion with plenty of provisions to last a good few months!

To finish off our evening, I relived a childhood memory of mine by whipping out the marshmallows and going in search of some decent sized roasting sticks. The Americans in the group introduced us to s'mores. I had never heard of these before and thought it scandalous that you could do anything other than eat a burnt marshmallow straight off the stick. A s'more is a marshmallow sandwiched between 2 honey graham crackers with a layer of chocolate melted in. I must admit, they were really yum and I managed to wolf down 3 before I gave in to my bloated stomach and called it a day. 

A deserted beach to me always has the allure of excellent shell collecting and this one didn't disappoint. Slipping and sliding on the windward side of Saline Island I found many intact helmets and olives, albeit on the small side but all perfectly formed without the holes you so often find once they have been thrashed through the wind and rocks to end up ashore.

Every day we were anchored there, Dylan went out lobster hunting and on one occasion he and the other guys managed to catch a HUGE lobster. The antennas alone were enough to feed a person. I was a little hesitant pulling off the tail as he was very much alive and kicking but with 2 people and a towel (to cover the sharp spikes of his shell) we managed to extract and clean the tail as well as pick all the meat from the head and legs. With more lobster than we could possibly eat, I have a big bowl of it currently stinking out my fridge. What a lovely dilemma to have! Where most people pay ridiculous amounts of money in restaurants back home for a lobster dinner, we are eating our weight in the stuff here for a mere 2 hours of hunting them down. Lucky? Yes. Sick of it yet? No!

With canvas work waiting to picked up on the mainland and almost empty water tanks due to lack of rain recently, our stay in Saline came to an end. A great way to spend no money for days on end (our gold star days this month exceed the non gold star days), live off the land and enjoy good company. We shall be back!