Passport's Adventures: Leaving Grenada

Leaving Grenada

I remember a day sailing through the Bahamas still bundled in a blanket at night , even with the warm days the nights on the water with a constant wind were chilly. I would read books about other cruisers in the tropics sailing naked through long stretches of open ocean and I would wonder … under my blanket and winter hat .. how hot does it have to be … I no longer wonder .. I have arrived! I do however find a loose shirt necessary sun protection (preferably with a useful pocket to hold my ipod), no matter how warm it is.

As we prepared to leave Grenada for our four-day voyage to Bonaire, we went through the boat storing away anything that may slide about or fall. I made sure I had my “sea bag” packed and ready to go. Since I am sometimes prone to seasickness I pack a small canvas tote bag with things I may need/want during the voyage, so I can avoid multiple trips below decks for something I may want. My ipod, kindle, journal, water bottle, eye mask, snacks and motion sickness drugs all go in, along with anything else I may find necessary. My bag goes everywhere with me so my stuff is always close at hand. I set one out for IB as well, but I find other than when he grabs it for snacks it tends to sit on one location and his things are always in multiple locations. The last thing we did was to deflate the dingy and lash it down on deck. For short jaunts we leave it hanging on the davits, but for a multi day passage it is safer to have it on deck and besides that leaves our wind vane (that we have never used) accessible for use.

Time happens differently at sea. The hours and days blur together. Time passes: sleeping when you can, eating, thinking about what you want to eat and working up the energy to actually cook it, reading, listening to audio books, sleeping. Even basic meal preparations at sea can be an exhausting challenge. With the boat constantly rocking back and forth, nothing can be left on the counter without being secured. A knife can NEVER be set down, except in the sink. And the whole time you are juggling all the pieces of your meal, you also have to balance yourself. And hopefully when it’s all done you will still feel like eating J

Sleeping is definitely a highlight of the day. Since someone always has to be on watch, we sleep in shits, Every yacht breaks up shifts differently. We used to setup a time schedule but have found working with our natural sleep tendencies work better for us. If I can sleep at 6:00pm, I do or as close to that as I can. IB stays on watch until he gets really tired, usually around midnight, then I’m up till nearly dawn. We take turns napping as needed during the day. The schedule worked so well on this trip we arrived in Bonaire feeling relatively refreshed, rather than the typical sleep deprived. Of course we also spend time navigating, setting the sails and checking weather updates.

On day 2 .. or was it day 1 .. I think it was day 2 .. . either way IB opened the engine room to find smoke rolling out .. the alternator had overheated and fried. Our new alternator, from after the lightning strike, arrived DOA, we could not get the damaged one from the lightning strike repaired in Grenada, so the original one we had rebuilt in the states was installed and working before we left Grenada. It lasted about a week. No alternator, means no charging the batteries from the engine. The solar panels and wind generator do a good job of keeping power up pretty well but we still loose a lot at night. Running the chart plotter, radar, autopilot, refrigerator and freezer all add up. The first thing we did was turn off the freezer. Then we finally got out the lines and hooked up the monitor wind vane. It seemed an appropriate time to finally start using it. Once we got it set up right, (and I read the directions on how to use it) we had it steering the boat beautifully .. and power free! IB did managed to hobble together an alternator and get it working so we didn’t have to be too worried about our power use, I’d hate to have turned off the radar and chart plotter! It will still need to be replaced/repaired, but for the moment it is working.

The rest of our trip was relatively uneventful, other than dodging some squalls on our last night as we neared Bonaire. We pulled into the harbor at 9:00am on the 13^th of November and picked up a mooring. It’s great to be somewhere with clear water again, where we can see the sand under the boat.