In the early hours of the morning Dad woke me up and we quietly raised the anchor on Catching Up. We carefully navigated around the yachts in Bequia and rounded the corner to make way to St Lucia. We already decided to skip the island of St Vincent due to time constraints. What I noticed about these passages that if you stay on the leeward side of the islands (the Western side), you get a much smoother passage.
Shortly after helping dad get going, I went back to sleep for the duration of his shift. 3 hours later I took helm as we were in line with St Vincent. I watched for hours at the isolated spots of lights on the island imagining what it would have looked like during the day. I returned to sleep for 3 more hours as dad came back up.
After a lovely long month exploring Grenada it was time to sail north to bluer waters. We cleared out in Carriacou and did a short sail (5miles/ 1 hour) to Union Island. Union island is one of the southern most entrance points for the Grenadines. What was was unique about Union Island was the little anchorage was almost a water Roundabout/Traffic Circle. In the centre of the anchorage is a giant circular reef with a channel surrounding it. We found a tiny sandy spot off what’s called roundabout reef and Dad and Dantelle went ashore to clear in. Soon enough they returned to come collect us and take us ashore.
After our quite frightening night before, off the coast of Carriacou, we rounded the corner and dropped the anchor for the first time since Fernando De Noronha. Dantelle, Dad and I dropped the dingy and we all boarded it to make our way into the bay to clear into Grenada. The anchorage was filled with all sorts of cruising boats. We cleared in with ease and took a few days to recoup after the long and bumpy passage. After doing a small re-provision in Carriacou we sailed south to the main island of Grenada. This is where we sadly losing our last crew member, Werner. We pulled into Secret Harbour in Mount Hartman Bay and said our goodbyes to him.
Sitting in Secret HarbourWe found a fellow Knysna, SV Impulse in Secret HarbourEnjoying Catching Up at night!
Secret Harbour became our base of operations for Grenada for a few weeks. During that time, we began to settle into the cruising life, making friends with other cruisers and joining the weekly grocery run from the marina to the local IGA for our groceries. During these weeks Dantelle surprised me with a little island adventure of our own. For valentine’s day she organised 2 nights at the Cabire Beach Lodge. Read more →
Firstly, we are so sorry for the missing articles! We have been having a blast cruising up the Caribbean. In between the cocktails, cleaning and exploring islands we have had little time to write. Not to mention the wifi has been less than satisfactory. Anyway heres the next one. Enjoy!!:
Leaving the iconic rock of the Brazilian island behind us, once again we set off on a long passage with one less crew member. Now only having 5 people on board we decided to change our watch schedule to 3 on 6 off. Unfortunately, this watch schedule did not work very well and quickly we returned to the 3 on 9 off watch schedule we were used to. This was at the cost of me losing Dantelle as my watch buddy. Yet again, it was back to the monotony of doing long distance passages. The nights got broken with squalls and the odd container ship that would pass near by. We were warned about possible debris in the sea and the countless fishing boats that hug the coastline up to 100 nautical miles away from land. We opted to sit about 200 miles off the coast. The passage did give us good fortune with a huge current pushing us along Brazil’s coastline. Read more →
It’s time for another slightly different perspective on this adventure. Dantelle has written this story.
I have been welcomed into a country in many different ways, but one experience thatwill always stick with me is the one we had in Fernando de Noronha, a small island off the coast of Brazil. As we were approaching the anchorage we were greeted by a playful pod of dolphins, jumping out of the crystal clear, turquoise water, doing flips. A truly remarkable sight! After anchoring next to the local fishing boats, we set off toCustoms andImmigration. Besides the language barrier, it was a delightful experience.
The local port with all the fishing boats out in the back
After a good night’s rest,Lloyd and I set off to explore this stunningisland. With snorkels and flippers under each arm we headed tothe Marine Park. Itis home to turtles, dolphins, reef sharks, manta rays and many more tropical fish.
Our first stop in the Marine Park was Sancho beach, known as the most beautiful beach in Brazil and popular for its snorkelling. I have never been snorkelling, so I was buzzing with excitement to have my first snorkelling experience. What brochures tell you is that you walk through a forest-like trail for about 5 minutes and thenyou’regreeted by a spectacular sight, what it doesn’t tell you isthat you have to descend down two ladders of about 5 metres, through narrow rock tunnels and then walk down steep steps to get to the actual beach. It felt like Jacob’s Ladder from St Helena island all over again.
The incredible view from Sancho BeachWhite sand and turquoise water
After a snorkelling lesson from instructor Lloyd, we made our way to the water. I have to admit, I wasn’tblown away bythe sea life that we saw. A few colourful fishhere and there and some rocks, but nothing worth writing home about. We decided to check out some of the other beaches inthe MarinePark instead, with hopes of finding some bettersnorkelling spots.
We walked 3.5kmtoSuestebeach, yet again, a beach known for its snorkelling. We arrived there at about 3:30pm, thinking we would have a chance to snorkel, only to be told that the beach closes at 4pm and that we could not hire the mandatory float vests to go snorkelling anymore. We walked along the beach instead, taking in the beautiful sight when Lloyd commented on the murky water in the small bay, saying it was a perfect spot for thenursing of sharks, he was right! Not even twominutes later we saw many baby black tip reef sharks swimming in 10cm shallow waters. Honestly, I wasn’t disappointed that we couldn’t go snorkelling anymore, because mama shark could be lurking around.
We found therest of thecrew on the way back to the boat, stopped at a restaurant and had some Caipirinhas,a traditional local Brazilian rum/lime drink (very strong),before retiring back to the boat for the night.
Enjoying some drinks on the beach
Waking up the next morning we had to say goodbye to one of our crewmembers, Monica, who has been on the boat for a good 3 months. We were sad to see ourMasterChefleaving as she made some incredible meals onthe trip, but she was on to a new adventure.Werner went along with her to the airport while the rest of us went snorkelling in theport, which is not part of the Marine Park, yet had more sea life than the other beaches we had been to combined.
We saw a turtle before even entering thewaterand that was only the beginning. The 28°C port water was home to many pufferfish, crabs, zebra fish, disco-looking fish and rock cod.A manta ray made its appearance a short while later. I was very relaxed, looking at some astounding sea life, untilMr1.3m nurse shark swam right under us, and yes, I know it wouldn’tdo anything to me, but you try keeping a calm composure with this animal passing so close to you and this is merely the second time you’ve been snorkelling.
We spent a few more days exploring the island and stockingCatching Up with some of the finest Brazilian fruits, vegetablesand foods. One of the favourites that was discovered was a wafer biscuit called Bis. It is a chocolate covered wafer biscuit that is incredibly addictive. Other interesting foods were these tear drop shaped fried pastry foods stuffed with potato and chicken. Fernando De Noronha had an excellent selection of fresh fruits like bananas, mangos, pineapples and as many limes as we could carry. After stocking theyacht,it was back to exploring what the island has to offer.
We sat atthe Port Control making use of the freeWIFI availablewhen our friends fromElcie,that we met in St Helena,showedup to clear in. They stopped atAscension Islandbefore making their way to Fernando de Noronha, hence their later arrival. We invited them to have some traditional South African Bobotie onboard Catching Up. They brought us some lovely Mahi-Mahi that they had caught on the way to the island. Having only caught a 6kg tuna the whole trip, we were happy to have some fish, that we didn’t take out of a tin, onboard. After the meal, they went back to their boat and the 5 crew on Catching Up prepared the boat for the passage the next day.A saying in Afrikaans ‘Haastige hond verbrandsymond’ (all haste no speed) became a reality, when trying to tidy up the boat in a haste, I dropped the aft locker door on my hand, fracturing it…You live and you learn.
I really liked this little island and I didn’t want to leave so quickly, but the Caribbean was calling our name and were ready for the next leg of our trip.
SV Catching üP! 