We sailed to Grenada on Saturday, June 29th, two days before the hurricane hit. Our nerves were already on edge after the fiasco in Carriacou. There, a confused old sailor was motoring around the harbour with his anchor down, hooked our chain, and dragged us behind, all while yelling, “I’ve got no fingers,” as if that could explain what was happening. And I guess it did. Twenty-four hours later, we anchored at a nearly full Secret Harbour on Grenada’s southern coast to prepare for the storm. It was a small cove surrounded by short green hills and mangroves, with room for a dozen boats at most. A perfect hurricane hole, if no one else came in.
We were scheduled to haul out at Clark’s Court Marina on July 1st, the day the storm was expected to hit. But there was no chance. Even if the storm tracked north as forecast, the winds would still be too high for the crane. We were stuck there.
So we prepared to ride out the storm in that small anchorage. We took the sails down, removed the enclosures, and secured the cockpit. We then watched in horror as hour after hour, boats continued to arrive. By the end of the day, the anchorage was so cramped that if anyone dragged, and many surely would, there would be carnage.
At four in the morning, I woke up to check the weather projections. I got nauseous. Hurricane Beryl had formed into a Category 5 monster storm and refused to track north. It was now expected to hit the north coast of Grenada in the early morning of July 1st. The southern coast would see winds exceeding 80 knots. Worse yet, we would get southwest winds and swell that would funnel through the bay, transforming that peaceful cove into a washing machine.
“What’s going on?” Yolanda asked, still half asleep.
“It’s not good,” I said.
“Does it involve death and destruction?”
“Yup.”
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said.
Still in the dark, we unpacked and reinstalled the sails, submitted the required passage plan to Trinidad’s coast guard, and began motoring south across the bay. We faced an uncertain 14-hour sail to Trinidad.
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