Passport's Adventures: November 2010

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.

Our Sails

Sunset at Sea

The view at sea

The Monitor Wind Vane that is steering the boat

Downtown St. Georges

Grenada. Adult summer camp for cruisers. That about sums things up nicely. From Mt Hartman Bay there is a “bus” (all the buses on the island are just vans) that leaves from Secret Harbor Marina every Wednesday and Friday at 9:30am to take cruisers to the grocery, hardware, chandlery or nearly anywhere else they need to go for just $10 EC. ($1 US = $2.7 EC) The bus is a great benefit that allows easy transportation to get into town and buy supplies. The bus is also a real PITA, during many trips a lot of time is spent waiting for someone at a store you don’t need to go to, and resulting in a long day with many stops. So it’s good, it’s bad, we all love the marina bus and we all grumble and complain about it. Every morning except Sunday there is a local cruiser net on VHF channel 68. They have a weather forecast; information on local businesses including any specials happening; treasures of the bilge that gives cruisers a chance, to sell, buy, swap, or give away items unwanted on their boats; and different cruiser events. Tuesday is movie night at Clarks Court Marina; it’s also 2 for 1 pizza night at La Phare Bleu Marina. There are watercolor classes, yoga classes, tutoring kids in reading at the Mount Airy Young Reader program on Saturday morning, and French and Spanish lessons. If you lack something to do here it is simply because you are not doing something. The first couple of weeks we zipped around from one activity to another, meeting new friends and enjoying being “settled” for the first time in a long time. It didn’t take long for the demanding social schedule to become too much so we slowed down in our participation level.

We went with a group up to the Seven Sisters falls. IB and I had been up there on our own once, but taking the public bus and hiking in to the two main water falls. We were rained on as we left and had a hard time getting a bus back to town although we finally did. When we found out a group was going and hired a bus to take us and wait on us it sounded like a good day to get off the boat and enjoy some cool air and fresh water. Although summer in Grenada is hot and humid every day, just up in the mountains the air is cooler, less muggy and the waterfalls very cool and refreshing. The group we were with hired a guide, and once we reached the main two waterfalls he took those that wanted on up a rugged path to the top of the seven falls. From there we followed the water down, jumping down each fall as we went, ending with the highest fall of about 35 ft.

After our first week on Grenada we decided to go into the marina to be able to run our air conditioner and have the dock and extra power to work on some of our summer boat projects. I also made plans to go back to the States to visit my family while IB worked on some of the dirtier projects. It turned out to be a good plan, he got a lot of work done while I was gone, and I didn’t have to live in the dirty chaos while he did it.