The 45th annual Carriacou Regatta is taking place between Sunday 25th July and Monday 2nd August 2010.

Boat Racing

Friday July 30th
09:00 Yacht Race – Tyrell Bay
13:00 Sloop Trial Race – Windward

Saturday July 31st
09:30 Round The Island Race -Windward
10:00 Yacht Race (Hillsborough)
11:00 Long Open Boat Race – L’Esterre

Sunday August 1st
10:00 First Race In Series For Work Boats & Optimist
14:00 Second Race In Series For Work Boats & Optimist

Monday August 2nd
10:00 Yacht Race – Hillsborough
11:00 Final Race In Series For Work Boats & Optimist

Onshore Activities

Other Activities

Sunday 18th July
06:00 GPSCCU Marathon Road Race
13:00 Seafood Festival

Sunday 25th July
07:30 Church Service – Anglican Church Harvey Vale
17:00 Regatta Official Opening Ceremony (Hillsborough Tennis Courts)

Tuesday 27th July
19:00 Karaoke Competition – Regatta Jupa

Wednesday 28th July
21:00 Boat Cruise – MV Amelia A 1

Friday 30th July
22:00 Green Hype Soca Fete – Hillsborough Tennis Courts
Wear something GREEN!!

Saturday 31st July
21:00 Miss Aquaval Queen Show – Hillsborough Tennis Courts

Sunday 1st August
23:00 Regatta Glow Fete – Hillsborough Tennis Courts

What’s happening in Grenada this year? Plenty! So much, in fact, that to get the most out of your visit it’s best to take a good look at the calendar of events before you set off.

There’s nothing more frustrating than turning up and finding that the legendary Annual Carnival finished the day before you arrived or starts the day after you return home.

Rock D Spice

The first big event of the summer is Rock D Spice on 4th June, now in its second year and proving a big hit with its lively celebration of arts and crafts, with traditional and contemporary music to dance along to.

Annual Regatta

The 45th Annual Regatta on Carriacou is one of the biggest events of the year, still going from strength to strength and centred about the island’s long and distinguished tradition of boat-building. Carriacou sloops are highly regarded throughout the islands as sturdy, fast, reliable and works of art in their own right. The Regatta is held over the weekend marking emancipation, celebrated this year from 22nd July to 2nd August.

Sailors from all the neighbouring islands turn up along with locals and tourists to admire the skills and traditions of the boat builders and watch the annual race. The celebrations include other events such as the Miss Aquaval Queen Show, and the Miss Wet T-Shirt competition, always a top attraction with males in the audience.

Emancipation Day

Emancipation Day, which celebrates with the rest of the world the abolition of slavery, falls on 2nd August, first Monday of the month, in contrast to everyone else who celebrates it on 1st August. Lots of events, on both Grenada and Carriacou.

Carnival Monday

Carnival Monday on 9th August sees hundreds of gaily dressed masqueraders thronging the streets in a riot of colour and grotesquely fantastic costumes. Jab-Jabs, the local devils, gyrate to the pulsing, hypnotic rhythms of steel bands and DJs blasting out the latest hits and carnival melodies. There’s a competition in the afternoon for top carnival band, and the party continues well into the evening, with Mas bands winding through the streets waving lights to thunderous applause.
Carnival Tuesday the following day sees a continuation of the carnival and its ceremonial end. Don’t expect to get much sleep over these two days.

Parang

The Parang Festival on Carriacou, 17th to 19th December, is the 33rd annual event of its kind, and is held every year on the last weekend before Christmas. It’s the premier cultural event on Carriacou, a celebration of all the varied aspects of the island’s unique music, traditions and entertainment. A deeply-rooted part of Carriacou’s culture was the house-to-house serenading by string bands, and the Festival was inaugurated in 1977 to preserve this tradition. The competition for the trophy and cash prize in the Parang String Bands Competition is fierce, with the players using percussion instruments and often risqué lyrics in their songs.

Christmas

The last big event of the year is Christmas day. Christmas trees and Nativity scenes are ubiquitous, cards and gifts are exchanged and Santa puts in his annual appearance for the kids.

What’s happening in Grenada and the neighbouring islands this year is simply not to be missed, so check the calendar and make a
note of your favourites. Whatever you’re in to, from high culture to snorkelling, Grenada is bound to have it fully covered!

Carriacou is an island almost tailor made for the connoisseur of relaxation, as more visitors are discovering each year. Whilst some other of the Grenadine Islands are succumbing to the temptations of opening noisy discos and bars and generally going the dismal way of the most touristy resorts, Carriacou has somehow managed to retain its innocence and charm.

It’s a place to leisurely while away your time in a much more civilised manner. You can totally forget the rat-race here, and when you think that even residents of Grenada escape to neighbouring Carriacou for a bit of peace and quiet you know you’re in for an unadulterated peaceful experience.

But it’s not just about lazing on the sand, though that in itself is hardly a crime with untouched beaches curving like gleaming, white scimitars cutting a scythe through clear, turquoise waters and palm trees practically begging you to sit in their shade with a pina colada in one hand and a book in the other.

Swimming is obviously high on the agenda of things to do in Carriacou, and it takes nerves of steel to resist the call of the sea sirens. Maybe chaining yourself to a palm tree like Odysseus to his mast would do it, but for ordinary mortals there are plenty of unspoilt beaches to take your pick from. Anse La Roche beach is picture-perfect and proves that tropical paradise beaches don’t just exist in the Photoshop-doctored pages of travel magazines. Almost one whole side of the island, sheltered from the wind, is a beach. Or try Paradise Beach, which is close to the airport and used by the locals, and has the best sand on the whole of the island.

Go drift snorkelling and admire the explosion of colourful sea life around the reefs. It’s like watching a movie as you let the currents take you along.

Sailing trips are a great way to see the perimeter of the island, stopping off at various coves as you go and jumping overboard at the best spots for swimming and snorkelling.

Other things to do in Carriacou? When you’ve had enough of the sea, try just walking around Hillsborough and take a peek in at the Botanical Gardens, or explore the Grenada National Park with a guided tour and marvel at the rich plant and animal life of the island. Hiking tours, treks – you name it, Carriacou has it.

The small museum on Carriacou has interesting displays about the island’s colonial past, when sugar cane and cotton were grown here.

No Caribbean island would be complete without its Carnival, and the one on Carriacou is as loud and colourful as you would expect. It’s held over February and March, and there are other festivals throughout the year.
With homely restaurants serving up traditional Maroon food, a handful of nightspots if you feel in need of Calypso rhythms (and who doesn’t?), and shops selling art and craft items, Carriacou has it all.

If you still can’t find anything to satisfy you here then give yourself a good pinch, because you’re either dreaming or dead.

The islands of Grenada and Carriacou, together with Petite Martinique, form a three-island state. Carriacou itself is the largest, southern island of the Grenadines archipelago that stretches between Grenada and St Vincent.

This whole set of islands is a real paradise on earth, with numerous unspoilt beaches where you can feel like Robinson Crusoe. Some of the more tucked-away islands in the chain have become favourite secretive destinations for the rich and famous, as if anyone in their right mind might be trying to find them.

The natural treasures of islands like these are something to be nurtured and protected, especially the incredible wildlife. Man has lived in such a state of harmony with nature here that as the outer world starts inevitably to encroach there’s always the danger that the balance might be upset.

Although it’s impossible in these days of, hopefully, enlightened awareness that visitors to the islands are going to blast indigenous species to extinction as they did the hapless Dodo and gargantuan Moa a few hundred years ago, it’s as well to be on the safe side. Denuded natural habitats can have a more devastating effect on a secluded island’s wildlife than any gun.

With this in mind, Grenada and Carriacou have set up National Parks to make sure their greatest asset is kept safe for future generations of residents as well as tourists to enjoy.

The 30-acre Grand Etang National Park in Grenada is just a few miles outside the capital, St George’s, set in a mountain range and focused around Grand Etang Lake. There are plenty of things for visitors to do there, with a visitors’ centre, numerous treks and walks, and a wealth of well-presented information about the rich wildlife and plants of the island.

A mangrove swamp in the North East of the island has been converted into Levera National Park, and has its own distinctive character. Leatherback turtles can be seen flopping their laborious way up beaches to lay their eggs and there’s a wealth of coral and marine life to admire.

For birdwatchers, you can’t beat St Antoine for its waterfowl, kites and finches, whilst at Bay Gardens near St Pauls you can have a conducted tour of the magnificent gardens containing over 5,000 different species of plants.
With whale-watching, hiking and diving to keep you occupied, there’s hardly a dull moment in the National Parks of Grenada.

Carriacou’s national park is necessarily on a smaller scale than its neighbour’s, but Belair National Park on Carriacou contains some French and English ruins amongst the more natural attractions. Plantation buildings and windmills are all that remain of a dodgy colonial past. It seems fitting that these old vestiges of power are being reclaimed by the plants and animals, and the old disturbing dreams of greed and prejudice laid to rest by the spirit of the island itself.

When you visit Grenada and Carriacou’s national parks, it’s nice to know that their resources of often unique plants and animals are being intelligently and effectively nurtured, and that Paradise Lost is not on the agenda.