Boys Trip Sail & Kite in the Grenadines

Sail, kite, foil, wing, snorkel, eat, sleep - repeat.

Country

Grenada

Date

Friday, 18. October 2024

Geo

Latitude	12.53302° N
Longitude	61.38480° W

After a holiday back home in Switzerland, we are back in the Caribbean. A spontaneous visit takes the childhood friends Thierry & David on a sailing and kiting trip to the islands of Grenada and the Grenadines, which were destroyed by Hurricane Beryl three months ago. This time, the captain is telling the story...

Holiday in Switzerland

After a stopover of several days in London, we arrived in our (old) home country. We enjoyed the Swiss summer, went hiking and biking, swam in the Rhine and ate all the Swiss delicacies. But above all, we spent a lot of time with our families and friends and talked about our adventures. It was good to see and process all the impressions and experiences as well as our life on the boat from a distance. But we are also very happy to return to our floating home, Cervino, after some weeks.

Back in Trinidad

Back in the heat and the mosquitoes, we find our boat almost as we left it: At least it's still standing on its stands. "Mr Clean", a friendly guy from Trinidad, has opened the windows from time to time in our absence, watered the plants and polished the Cervino - shiny on the outside, mouldy on the inside😒 The heat and high humidity have left their mark, so we spend two days cleaning and doing laundy after laundry. We also tackle the final work on the boat and, as usual, there is more to do in the end than expected. After the Cervino is already flying, we patch and paint the final areas on the hull for the finishing touches, hoping to possibly win the next unofficial regatta 😉

We test our life raft, which we hope we will never need.

Caribbean life in Grenada

Finally, after two months, we are back in Prickly Bay in Grenada. But first, we enjoy a splendid sailing day! We set course upwind, max speed around 8 knots, also thanks to a good current and the new genoa. Familiar faces await us in the bay, at first glance everything is the same as before we left. But several boats that are still stranded remind of Hurricane Beryl.

I'm celebrating my 19th birthday 😂 You're as old as you feel! Magali surprises me with a diving trip with the Scuba West Indies crew. We have a day without wind and can dive a wreck at a depth of 30 metres, which is only possible in calm weather (so not very often). We see large barracudas, several big nurse sharks and lobsters hiding under the wreckage. Jamil shoots fish and catches the lobsters, which we then put on the BBQ on the beach. We enjoy the Caribbean life and round off the wonderful day with our friends Judy & Tinu.

We spend the next few days diving, boatwork and exploring the island.

Upwind with the new sail from Trini to Grenada.

Swiss Night in Grenada: Raclette with Judi & Tinu.

Spontaneous visit

My good friend David decided to visit us on the Cervino at short notice with the aim of kitesurfing in the Grenadines and possibly learning to wingfoil (many thanks to Dörte for making this possible with the kids at home!🤩) Well, the wind forecast is weak for the first few days, so we visit St. George's, stock up on provisions and David goes diving with Magali: he not only does excellently above water, but also underwater in the discover scuba diving course. A short breather and off we go to the hash in the jungle of Grenada. Unfortunately, the weather doesn't really play ball, the normally small stream is a raging river and so we only run a shortened lap - but we collect lots of nutmegs and of course we don't miss the beer ceremony for newcomers to the Hash!

Off to the north

As Magali is still completing her Dive Master training, she is staying back in Grenada on her own this time. But I know that her friends from the dive shop and the sailing community will take good care of her! And I have a new sailor at my side who is actively supporting me😉 Nevertheless, it's strange without my Capitana on board. Engine on, cast off and into the pouring rain from an approaching squall - this boys' trip is off to a good start😅 Nevertheless, we have a lovely day's sailing and anchor in Ronde Island, north of the main island of Grenada. We want to explore this small, uninhabited island. This proves to be more difficult than planned, as the extent of Hurricane Beryl is once again evident in the bush. There is no way through the thicket of fallen trees or our equipment is not suitable with swimming shorts and flip-flops. So we end the day on the beach playing frisbee. We continue further to a small sandy island off Carriacou, where we can wingfoil for the first time. Low season in the Caribbean is nice, as we often anchor alone or with only a few other boats. But here, too, David swamped by heavy rain during his first attempts at wingfoiling - doesn't really matter, he's wet anyway.

A perfect start in the squall off Grenada.

David's first wingsurfing attempt just before the rain shower.

Few sailors in the low season

We sail to the beautiful islands called Sandy Island, Petite Martinique, Union Island, Tobago Cays and Mayreau. Everywhere the wind determines our daily programme, as we sail, kite, foil, wave, snorkel, tinker & repair, play, eat, sleep - and repeat this day after day. The days are packed in a raid back way 😎 What a great life! David uses every bit of wind to get on the board and the session often ends with me doing a rescue with the dinghy and picking David up again because the wind has gone completely (yes, of course, he has to rescue me sometimes too). Luckily we have a new outboard engine with 10 hp - thanks Mum&Dad😘! In the end, we were on the board almost every day and both of us were able to ride quite well (as long as there was enough wind😉).

On the last day, we had a lovely day sailing back to Prickly Bay. The highlight was hanging on the fishing rod in the afternoon and laying on the plate later in form of fresh tuna. And now, unfortunately, it's time to say goodbye. We have already spent many wonderful and adventurous (kite) trips together and I hope that there will be many more to come - thank you David for your visit on the Cervino, for your friendship and your support!

When the palm trees on Sandy Island have fallen over, David will soon be standing on the wingfoil.

Wenn kiter ihre Spielsachen auspacken, bleibt nicht viel Platz im Cockpit.

With WD40 everything can be easily repaired - noooot!

Thierry marvels at the many starfish off Mayreau.

This must also be learnt for the freshest sushi.

A warm welcome from the new dive master and crew.

Beryl - you were a beast!

In addition to all the action, we visited the islands that were badly damaged by Hurricane Beryl on July 1st, 2024 and got our own impression of what the situation looks like three months later. We also picked up our Starlink again, which we had lent to the inhabitants of the island of Petite Martinique, as the telephone network was not available after the hurricane. This donation made it possible to communicate with the families and the authorities for first aid. Unfortunately, Starlink switched off the service after 2 months because the router is not in an authorised zone. To reactivate it, it has to go to its registered country, which semi-coincidentally is Panama...

My personal impression summarised: Some of the locals are still trying to come to terms with what they have experienced. Many of them were not warned properly or early enough and were therefore not prepared. A hurricane of this magnitude was a novelty for everyone here and hopefully it won't happen again so quickly. The younger generation is strong and willing to rebuild everything. However, the older residents are more affected by this situation. The cohesion and willingness to help in the community seems great - one love, one unity! 💗💛💚

The locals are very nice to us 'tourists' and have expressed their sincere thanks for (our) efforts and the donations (including yours) that arrived in July. They are happy that tourists are coming again and that they can earn a living in this way. Many thought that tourism would now also be cancelled as everything had been destroyed. The general infrastructure is still being rebuilt as of October: Many of the inhabitants have electricity and a mobile phone network again and the roads are good. However, many houses are still badly damaged, often lacking a proper roof and this in the rainy season! Many are still living in tents as their homes are uninhabitable or completely destroyed. Building materials and goods are being delivered, but there is a lack of qualified labour to drive the work forward.

Unfortunately, more negative consequences are also delayed. During the rainy season, it was not possible to grow fruit and vegetables because the fields were blown away or flooded with salt water stirred up by the hurricane. In addition, no rainwater can be collected as the cisterns are unusable and the roofs that serve as rainwater catchments are missing. This means that the coming months will also be a major challenge and it will take years of reconstruction work before Clifton in Union Island, for example, is back the way we knew it. What is impressive, however, is how quickly nature is recovering, the islands are green again and plants are blooming, but the damage to the trees and mangroves is still clearly visible.

We'll let a few pictures from our visit to Carriacou, Petite Martinique, Union Island and Mayreau speak for themselves, they say more than my words can describe...