Ronde Island

From: Sauteurs, Grenada
To: Ronde Island, Grenada

We left Sauteurs after the successful morning shopping. We were trying, for a few days already, to find a place where we could go on land. Not easy when the local population jealously guards the emptiness of its beaches.

Our destination was Ronde Island. It lies right next to an active underwater volcano called “Kick ‘em Jenny”. Guaranteed to be quiet — or so I hoped at least.

I saw a lot of white horses on the waves in the distance, so I expected 25 knots: 1 reef(make the sail smaller by rolling it in or lowering it a bit) in the main it was. As soon as we hoisted the sails, Vite & Rêves zoomed off, happy with her cleaned hulls.

It was a very pleasant sail. Small waves, beam(the side of the boat) reach, Vite & Rêves doing 9 to 11 knots the whole time. The 5.5 miles flew by in half an hour. Near Ronde Island we caught some strange currents, heaping up the waves, but that was only a short while.

The uninhabited island was, as expected, perfectly quiet. Only two other boats were anchored in the bay.

The kids made cherry crumble while we waited for the sun to burn a bit less enthusiastically.

And then, finally, after being cooped up on the boat for days, we could explore land again. We pranced like foals up and down our private little beach. The crabs looked very disturbed and disapproving, but we didn’t care. Free at last!

While I was snorkeling I noticed that, because of the shifting winds in the bay, the anchor chain got caught underneath an old corral head. I carefully maneuvered Vite & Rêves first sideways and then backwards until she made a 270 degree turn and got her untangled. Our second anchoring attempt of the day went off without a hitch.

We sailed back to Sauteurs the next day, because the anchorage at Ronde Island became quite rolly due to a slight wind shift.