The Perfect SQUALL - Sailing Through Squalls In The Caribbean [Sailing Kittiwake Ep. 118]

If you look over here, you can see it's a nice sunny day. And then you look over here and it's the end of the world. Well, we are ready for this school. Perfect school. It's nice and fresh. How do you like this place? It's really nice. I'm Elena. And this is Ryan. In 2017, we left the UK on our first boat, Kitty Wake. We lived on Kitty Wake for two years. Then, Skua came along. She's a Tayana 37 from 1976. We live on Skua on a budget and work online to keep travelling by sailboat. In 2020, we crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the Caribbean. Now, we're exploring this beautiful part of the world. Good morning! Today, we are off to Carriacou, which is an island just northeast of Grenada. It's part of this country, so we are free to go there. How many miles is it again? It is about 35 miles, I think. Skua is getting a bit of growth in these very organic anchorages. It could take us maybe eight or nine hours. Hopefully not. If it takes too long, we can stop off on the western side of Grenada. Yeah, there are a few anchorages over there. We are escaping some waves. There are waves going over the eastern Caribbean. Tropical waves, not waves on the sea. Yeah, sorry. Tropical waves. They are bringing lots of south-southeastly winds, which are no good for 90% of the anchorages down here in Grenada. Exciting stuff. We've got a full day of sailing. What lure are you using today? I'm using this little guy. Fake little plastic fish. People call them Rapalas, and this one is made by Rapala. Something's had a bite. It's got some tooth marks. Oh, really? Nice. He works. Yeah. Maybe that was the needlefish I nearly caught in the kayak. He's got a little wire in front of him so that he can resist two-feet fish. And then, it's just on this little hand line. I'll pop him over and tow him around this headland and see if we can... I really want another Spanish mackerel. Yeah, it's quite shallow around here. Five to six meters. Yeah, it should be the right lure for this kind of place. Barracudas tend to hang out in shallower stuff. Slow down, slow down. Slowing down. You've got a bite? Yeah, already. Good job I was holding on. Yeah, we were about to put it down. It must have been, what, two seconds? Yeah. Wow. Is it definitely a fish? Yeah. Awesome. Let's see what monster comes out of the depths. I think it's weird. It has a small chinook or a jack? A big jack? Yeah, a trevally or something. A trevally, nice. That's the biggest jack I've seen. So, now that he's dispatched, do you want to show the size? Yeah. He's pretty decent, huh? Yeah, really decent. Obviously not like a tuna or anything. No, but he's going to make decent tacos or something. Yeah, if we make up some of that bread that we make, flatbread. Homemade flatbread. Make nice tacos. Just trying to bleed him as much as possible because otherwise it has loads of dark red meat that isn't very nice. There is exactly zero knots of wind. I can still hear the shimmering sound. The hill is near, let's get right up. Walk up to every top. We couldn't tell. Yippee, we have 12 knots on the nose. If you look over here, you can see it's a nice sunny day. And then you look over here and it's the end of the world. The end of the world music. It's in tune for the end of the world. I think if it hits, we'll just take all the sails down, you know? Okay. Well, we are ready for this school. Whatever it is. So, shall we take the main down? Yeah, just in case there's a ton of wind. It doesn't look that windy over there. If anything happens, if anything gets stuck and suddenly it does pick up to like 40 knots. Yeah, all right, let's do it quickly. Can't really do anything anyway, the wind's so low. No. Yeah, give me a sec. It's coming. It was a bit of a rain shower, it was quite heavy. The wind didn't go beyond 25 knots. So, totally fine. We would have gone a bit faster if we had the main still up. But it's never worth taking the risk. And the sun is coming out just now. Perfect. Perfect school. We can see the northern tip of Grenada and also Karakum, Rwanda Island. And in the background, our beloved Union Island. So, yes, visibility has increased a lot and it's gone back to a really nice day. Getting ready for school number two. Hello. During hurricane season, tropical waves exit Africa and often reach the Caribbean. Waves are elongated areas of low air pressure, which move from east to west across the tropics, causing areas of cloudiness and thunderstorms. Waves can develop into tropical storms, which can in turn develop into hurricanes. Most waves don't develop and simply bring squalls and thunderstorms to the eastern Caribbean. This is Ronde, a private island which lies northeast of Grenada. Together with Kyle Island, Diamond Island and Letant, it forms a mini-archipelago that some spoiled. We hope to make a stop here soon, as it's meant to offer incredible snorkelling. So, it's about 15 knots well forward of the beam. So, we're sailing about as close to the wind as we can get for school. So, we have out the mainsail with one reef because it's been a bit squally and the staysail is actually pretty close on the centreline. And that works pretty well for going upwind, but it hasn't got as much power as if you have the Yankee and then you can go a bit faster. Yeah, hopefully an hour and a half, two hours away. Yeah, I think we should be fine for going in. Sometimes the sand patches are a bit undersea, but we'll have Google as well, which is always good for seeing sand spots. Yeah, looking forward to getting there. We're almost there. It looks really, really pretty, but a little bit busy. So, yeah, I'm really hopeful that we can find a spot. What's going on? Well, behind us, we noticed after we dropped our anchor, there's some sort of net or mooring with a load of line on it or something. So, I'm just going to row over and see what it is. What is it? It's like a honking boat. It's a mooring line. It's a mooring line? Yeah, it's a mooring boat. And it's not got any marker, buoy. Zero. Completely invisible. Even from here, it's not visible. I could have run it over, you know. Well, this is it. Here we are. Tairo Bay Karayaku. And there's a super beautiful rainbow. Amazing. I can't really capture it, but it finishes near those boats. It's amazing. You enjoying your beer? Very much. It's going down very, very well. How do you like this place? It's really nice. Super well protected. Loads of nice looking boats. Nice surroundings. Quite excited to go in the kayak and explore the mangroves. That's the hurricane hole. And you can still go in there, even though they're using it as a quarantine anchorage, can you? Oh, I don't know. We'd have to ask, actually. Yeah, probably worth checking. There's a few other boats just flying Q-Flex around. Just spotted another one over there. But that is the quarantine anchorage, apparently. Pretty warm, I guess, being in there. It's amazing out here. Really nice breeze. And, yeah, it's really relaxing. So far, we're not rolling very much. No, not rolling at all. Bobbing gently at anchor. Good morning! Today, we are going to shore. Have a little explore. Buy a few bits and bobs, especially fresh produce. Because it's almost the weekend, so I don't know whether any ferries will deliver anything later on. And we have a really good feeling about this place. It feels a lot like Bequia. There was a really friendly cruises net this morning around 7.30 on channel 69. And, yeah, really excited to go have a look around. It's really nice here. It's a little bit dead. I guess it's just before 9am, so maybe a bit early for the cruises who have been drinking last night. It looks very quaint. Very green. And it seems there's a big supermarket. Where are we going, sweetie? We're going to Frog's Cafe. French cafe called Frog's, which I approve of. It's kind of funny. It's just around the corner here. I think it's literally right here. And apparently they do coffee and croissants. I think we'll just have a coffee. Maybe share a croissant. Oof, I don't know. I'm getting so fat. There's space for one in there. Let me see. Oh, yeah. At least half. That's for sure. Let's go. It's proper strong. You having a nice morning? Yeah, it's amazing. Super refreshing pineapple juice. Ah, what a place. Looks great. I can see the croissants in the background. I can smell them. Oof, he must have 50 or something. I don't know. I really shouldn't. So we did really well. Resisted a temptation of croissants. And that was 12 EC, so that's about 4 euros. Now we're off to the supermarket. Oh my god, I never thought I'd be so excited about an air-conditioned supermarket. Look at the amount of stuff. Wow. Do you need this for the mosey repellent? Oh yeah, I need to eat. Where's the garlic? And there's the budget marine. I think it's safe to say this will be our base for hurricane season. Safe to say. Now that I've put all the shopping away, we can go for a quick swim. I'm going to get my snorkel so I can see what's underwater. Ah, it's nice and fresh. How is it, Ry? Amazing. There's loads of fish on this mooring anchor behind us. You want to show them? What's on the menu for dinner? We have local potatoes and local yellowfin tuna. So tuna here is very affordable. It's about 9 EC for a pound, which is 3 dollars a pound. Don't pop me off. I could have done a really embarrassing rubbish run. Come on, anyway. Wow, that's the loudest in the anchorage. It's the loudest on this boat. I want to do it for longer, but... Bloody hell. There's too many wind generators and generators going. Otherwise you'd be able to hear the other conchs going. We can just about hear them. Lovely, lovely evening. Thanks for watching. If you enjoyed this video, subscribe and click on the bell button. 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