Grenada and hurricane Beryl

We made it to Grenada! What an accomplishment for our family. We journeyed from Panama sailing north and then south through the islands to arrive at our hurricane safe area and all in a relatively short amount of time. We were thrilled.

A week after pulling into Le Phare Bleu, however, hurricane Beryl hit Grenada. We were thrust into a situation we’d tried so hard to avoid. Knowing what to do and how to keep our family and Onwards safe felt impossible and yet we made the best decisions we could. Many boats sailed for Trinidad during the night as predictions of Beryl’s strength intensified on Grenada. We knew though that sailing the 15hrs and being out on the water while Beryl was growing in speed was not our path.

Early Saturday morning we moved Onwards from Le Phare Bleu to an anchorage called Egmont, a known hurricane hole deep in the mangroves. There we got to work tying the boat to mangroves, dropping two anchors and building friendships with the two boats around us. There were about 30 boats in Egmont. In our tiny nook, there were two other boats, one owned by a Thai sailor and the other by two sisters sailing from Norway. Our Thai friend stayed on his boat while we went and stayed in a sheltered cabin at Le Phare Bleu marina. He sent us updates as the storm went through. Hurricane Beryl hit on Sunday morning, destroying much of its sister island, Carricou, and leaving boats all around us up on the beaches, roads washed away, forests of cacao decimated. Thankfully, we were okay in our little cabin at LPB and Onwards in Egmont.