Chapter 13 of the book, The Voyage of The Aegre, is about sailing in the Grenadines, the chain of small islands at the southern end of the West Indies, in early 1974. Firstly to Grenada to pull the boat out on a small slipway to clean and repaint the bottom.
In the book, I tell of the passage from Barbados to Grenada, and how overconfidence in my navigation led to the passage taking five days, rather than two and a half. But the weather was kind and it was a lesson well learnt. (But not always remembered – see Chapter 16).
In the book I tell of our time in Grenada, and its incipient Marxist revolution, and then of sailing north to Ronde Island, (For Sale for US$100m in June 2024) Carriacou, Cannounan, St Vincent and finally beautiful Bequia.
It was wonderful sailing; a steady warm wind, many interesting islands and a few other yachts. Sadly our photos, the film undeveloped, became water damaged. I’ve reproduced a few that survived, but none could have shown the beauty of these waters. I found other photos but limitations of the book prevented them being included, but here are some (click to enlarge):
Can you help?
As I tell in the book, in Georgetown, Grenada, we met Dr Alex Bell, a dentist from Ecuador, who had just completed a two-year circumnavigation with a small crew aboard his fair sized ketch Alsanol Too. In an extraordinary act of generosity, Alex gave us all his Pacific Charts. ‘Here, you’re going to need these’, he said, ‘I won’t need them again. They’re yours’.
Fifty years later I still have a few of them, water stained and now with a second set of little pencil cross fix marks extending out across the Pacific. In the years since that day in Georgetown Grenada I have searched for Dr Alex Bell of Alsanol Too, to thank him properly, but with no luck. Can anyone, maybe someone in Ecuador, help me find him? Or perhaps his son or daughter?
We were the beneficiaries of more generosity in St Vincent. In the book I tell how we met a Canadian Navy ship there, whose assistance to us knew few bounds. This was HMCS Assiniboine, on a Goodwill Visit to St Vincent, BWI, on 6th February 1974. I’ve thought well of Canadians ever since. But again I’ve tried to contact Lt Jim Merriam, the Supply Officer Barry Baker, Tex the 2 i/c, Tom de Roos, the Captain and others over the last 50 years but with no luck. Maybe a Canadian reader can help?
If you can help with either of the above, please contact me at nick@nicholasgrainger.com.au
Writing about our time in St Vincent I tell of one evening coming across an informal 50 person steel band gathered at a quiet crossroads. We were entranced as the rythms flowed unendingly back and forth. Get just an inkling of what it was like here (actually filmed in London!) Now multiply that by about 50.
But with its airport St Vincent was busy even in 1974 with tourists and charter boats, and to get away from it all we sailed over to the small and in those days quieter island of Bequia to anchor in Admiralty Bay off the small town of Port Elizabeth and prepare for the passage across the Caribbean to Panama, and the Pacific. This was our favourite place in the West Indies. Click the Bequia link above to see why.
Then on 19th February 1974, with our new stores all logged and stowed securely, we departed this little jewel of a place, heading for Panama 1,100 nautical miles to the West, then the Pacific, our destiny unknown.
To see what happened next you need to read The Voyage of The Aegre, Chapter 14 Across the Caribbean to Panama. I’ll publish Notes for that Chapter in late June.
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