Ava's Tropical Dreams- The Carriacou Chronicle

 THE CARRIACOU CHRONICLE

This week my blog is newspaper themed! I hope you enjoy it... due to the format, please view on laptop, computer, ipad or tablet, as phones will cut off some writing and muddle the words up.

On Sunday, we got up at 7am ready to set off to go                 While at Sandy island my dad got out his 

to Carriacou! We untied from our mooring ball and                 foil board kit. He struggled on the actual

began the journey. Only just 30 minutes after starting,             board so instead he started using the paddle-

 as we were motoring along Grenada's lush, coast a                  board. I was his tow boat and whenever he

 pod of dolphins appeared! They were swimming                     got too far downwind, I would go and tow

along under the boat next to the bow. It was incredible!            him back upwind. The next day, he tried

 There must of been eight of them jumping and playing            again but there was not enough wind so I

 with us as we were cruising along. After a few minutes            towed him behind the dinghy on his actual foil

 of playing, they swam away. However, in he distance                board. He was good at it and could be lifted out 

 we could see a pod of around 50 dolphins (adults and              of the water for 10 seconds!

babies) all silhouetted by the rising sun! We watched in 

amazement as they appeared and disappeared from the 

water. In delight we looked but they did not stay for long 

though and disappeared completely under the surface.              When a big storm came, after it had passed,

As we pulled away from Grenada, I felt sad to be leaving            we move to Tyrrell bay. This bay is the main

as over the past few months this island had become our            cruisers bay and had many boats in it. In

home. However, at the same time excitement and curiosity         Carriacou, last year, hurricane Beryl destroyed

bubbled inside me! What a fun adventure this was. As                  most of the island. In Tyrrell bay, there were

hours passed, I began to get a bit bored, only flying fish and         many boats on rocks & boats with hurricane

giant splashes in the distance (which we think were wales)          damage. When we went to shore, so my dad

interested me. Slowly but surely, Carriacou became less of a        could go into a kite boarding shop. Me and

shadow and more of and island with 2 or 3 villages scattered      my mum walked down the street. It was such

along the shoreline. I was really curious when we first saw            a shame to see all of the destroyed buildings

Sandy Island. To be honest, my first thought was- this is just a       and houses. One cafe was ran by an English

patch of sand in the middle of the sea. Why do all of my friends    couple who had experienced the hurricane.

love it? But... when I saw the white sand and the beautiful,             They told us how they were safe in their

clear, turquoise water, I saw it as everyone else had... A                  house bathroom. It made us think how

tropical paradise! When we finally picked up a mooring after         lucky we are to not experience hurricanes in

the rocky journey of 7 and a half hours, me and my sister             the UK. We went back to the boat but went

jumped into the clear, warm water at the first opportunity.            for a drink at a local bar. We chose to go to a

One or two days after arriving, another kid boat (Yola 1)                local bar to help support the locals as

pulled in and took a mooring. We had fun playing on the               Carriacou is not a tourist spot so it is really

beach with them during the day and then later that night              hard to get business. Also, all of the locals

had a beach bonfire. We played guitar and talked around the         are so nice so we enjoy having a 

fire. Us kids searched for hermit crabs in the sand and made a      conversation with them. While we were sat

little nursery for them. During the day we thought that we had       having a drink the sunset was beautiful. 

Seen baby turtle tracks so us and Yola 1 searched the beach         Today (Thursday) we are off to Union Island.

in the dark for baby turtles. We were very confused because         The next island up the chain and our first one

there were so many tracks but no turtles. However, there              in the Grenadines.

were lots of crabs so we put one down and it made no mark.       Speak soon! Ava (I hope you've enjoyed

I then thought- what if we do a test to see if it is a hermit crab     reading this, comments encouraged!!)

track.  We put a hermit crab down and all watched. When it          

came out of its shell and began walking, it made the 'turtle track'!   

😂 We laughed lots. At least we found the answer to our 

mystery... Turtle Crabs! We have also gone to an uninhabited island.     

It was really hard to get to in the dinghy but we found some  

amazing Puka shells on the beach and I have kept one safe in my

treasure box back on the boat.

 

           

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