Ann's Blog
Hog Island, Grenada:
December 29, 2010
Hog for the Holidays
’Twas five nights before Christmas when we finally broke suction with Trinidad and headed north to Grenada. Much as we love Trinidad, we (particularly me) were determined to be at anchor for Christmas in a place we could swim off the boat. (Besides, Santa had left some gifts on Receta for our soon-to-be-four-year-old goddaughter in Grenada, and had requested that we deliver them for him by Christmas Eve.) Luckily the weather gods gave us a good window for travel once our boatwork was done. We untied from the dock at Crews Inn at 1:30 a.m., were flushed out the Boca de Monos at 8 knots on an ebb tide, and 12 hours and 15 minutes later, we had the anchor set behind Hog Island, on the south coast of Grenada.
It was a fast passage — not enough wind to pure sail, but enough to give a great sail assist – and a glorious night to be at sea, the moon just one day shy of full. We saw our first moonbow, a luminous white curve from sky to water, with just a hint of colour at the edges, and then, come daylight, several rainbows. Fortunately, the rain that created the rainbows all missed us, and we never felt more than a couple of tiny spatters.
Mid-morning I came back on deck after a short nap below, just as Steve was on his way to get me: He knew I wouldn’t want to miss the pod of dolphins that had come to play in our wake. He was right, though I was still too sleep-stunned to grab my camera.
It was such a lovely day for travel, we ran out one of our fishing lines and subsequently hooked – but didn’t land – a huge dorado. It stripped all the line off the reel, jumped about six feet in the air (leading to Steve’s estimate that it was at least a five-foot fish), and shook the hook. I was too stunned to grab my camera then either.
one of our favourite vendors in the St. George’s, Grenada market.
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