From the hostage boaters in Tyrell Bay

by Craig Leweck, Scuttlebutt Sailing News
While my bareboat cruise to Grenada and the Grenadines in 2022 was mostly forgettable, it was better than what’s being experienced now by a group of cruisers at Carriacou, a Caribbean island belonging to Grenada. Leslie Bell-Friedel shares this update:

I am writing to bring an urgent story of growing national and economic concern to your attention regarding an ongoing civil dispute at Tyrell Bay, Carriacou. I am one of the detainees in this story.

While a private, two-party civil dispute over property usage at the Tyrell Bay Marina continues through the courts, a physical fence erected by the second party has trapped my vessel and other visiting international cruisers and their boats on land.

These vessels are all sailing yachts—they for most of us are our permanent homes and places of work – who came to Grenada for routine boat maintenance.

Beyond the immediate monetary, physical, and emotional distress to an innocent third party, this situation is rapidly developing into a broader economic threat for Carriacou and Grenada as a whole.

• Impact on Local Marine Trade: Local boatyards, mechanics, taxi drivers, and small businesses rely heavily on yachting revenue.

• Reputational Risk to Regional Tourism: Cruisers travel by word-of-mouth. Reports circulating in the global sailing community about trapped vessels are actively deterring incoming yachts from choosing Grenada as a safe harbor.

• Humanitarian Concern: Visiting tourists are caught in the middle of a private dispute with no immediate physical way to relaunch their homes, despite asking only for temporary access to clear the site.

• Long-Term Economic Concern: The failure of legal protections for visitors is causing foreign authorities to consider logging travel advisories for their citizens. It would take years to clear these warnings.

I include a Love Letter to Carriacou that we, the detained cruisers, are sharing. We also just distributed a Hostage Release flyer.

We are hoping people will take an interest in this situation and help with this urgent need for a practical solution, fair compromise, or temporary access window before further damage is done to the local tourism economy as a whole, and to Grenada safe harbors and marinas in particular.

Contact: [email protected]

Additional details on nowgrenada.com