Wednesday, 21 Feb: As we wake up we are rewarded with clear blue sky reflecting in the sandy bottom of Tyrell Bay, yielding beautiful turquoise water around us. No wonder this bay is so popular. Finally we are in clear water as we would imagine the Caribbean to have. The mangrove lined bays in Grenada had rather cloudy water.
After breakfast we go ashore to explore. We leave the dinghy in the small boat yard on one side of the bay and walk along the beach, popping into the various colorful restaurant/bars on the way checking out the scene and menus. By the time we have walked through the small village fronting the bay we discover a brand new very smart super market that looks totally out of place. Inside you could be in any modern supermarket in Europe. And surprisingly, the shelves were full and not too expensive. We’ll come back armed with shopping bags later!
At the far end of the bay, as mentioned on the chart, is a “port under construction”. Again, this modern port and marina, with its stainless steel bollards looks out of place in this rustic village. Walking back to the dinghy we stop in Gallery Cafe, a small popular tea room where they actually make a brilliant cafe latte. Our first since Europe! The owner comes out to chat to us; she is English and came here 10 years ago. They live on a small Warren catamaran that is right behind CB and we realize we chatted with them as we anchored last night. Between her and a Swedish/Hungarian lady we gather information about the islands. Interesting, there is no running water supply on the island. Each house collects its own rain water that they have to make last through the dry season… which should be right now! But this year, with all this unusual rain, they are fully topped up with water.
We have a late lunch after shopping in the supermarket, where we are excited to buy bananas, paw-paw and even locally made yogurt. Yummy! It’s our first real shopping for weeks. But although individual prices look cheap we still manage to spend US$50 on not much.
Back at the boat Glen decides to move. He has spotted a better place to anchor, with more space and lovely color water. Once there, we both go for a swim – Oana’s first in the Caribbean. It’s so nice to be in clear water. With masks on we can see lots of star fish on the sandy sea bed.
Our walk along the bay had been unusually hot. Both of us got a bit burned. So we didn’t venture out again till the late afternoon. Ashore again we walked up and over the hill to explore Paradise Bay. A wonderful stretch of open beach with the odd funky beach bar along it. And from the beach we could look out to Sandy Island. A sand bank with just a few palm trees on, surrounded by coral reef. 2 or 3 yachts are anchored there. That will be our next stop.
Back in Tyrell Bay village as it gets dusk, we settle into Lambi Queen, a small bar. Over a rum punch or two, we chat to a French couple who also came across the Atlantic a few weeks ago, then a Canadian couple on holiday, staying in AirBnB. I guess AirBnB really is truly international now. Although Canadian, she comes from Moldova (speaking Romanian ) and he comes from Argentina; a classic example of modern Canadians. As we say our good nights we agree to meet up in the morning and take them for a trip into the mangroves. Back on board Cloudy Bay we find ourselves rocking in the swell and swear no one else is rocking even half as much as us. So we go to bed thinking again of stable catamarans that don’t rock at anchor!