And all because the lady loves Rotisserie Chicken
andromeda of plymouth
Susan and Andrew Wilson
Tue 25 Dec 2012 01:16
And all because the lady loves Rotisserie Chicken
Well the forecast said the wind should be coming from ENE going more easterly so we decided to set out from Grenada and head for St. Lucia in our bid to get further north this year. Having left the anchorage in Prickly Bay we made our way round the bottom of Grenada and made contact with our friends John and Alison on Arawak. They had made the trip up from Trinidad the day before and were resting up before deciding what they were going to do. Whilst in Prickly we had met up with Fred and Judy on Wings and delivered the coffee beans they had requested and although we were told that they had tried to raise us, such is the vagaries of mountains being in the way etc we unfortunately didn't get to talk to them.
We motored up in the lee of Grenada and once at the end started sailing in a lovely bit of wind and so when we were opposite Carricou Andrew asked the question.......Its 112 miles to St. Lucia, 12 miles to Carricou but we would be going again the wind and waves so would probably take 4 hours ish to get there.......where do you want to go? Well having had a beat all the way to Grenada Susan said, let's go on, besides they have rotisserie chicken in St. Lucia......
You know how sometimes you just should have done the other thing? Well we set off and for while it all looked quite reasonable. We weren't making straight for St. Lucia as the wind angle wasn't quite right but we thought the wind was going to come round so didn't worry too much.
As it started to get dark the wind picked up and we were zooming along, so much so that we decided to put another reef in both the main and the jenny and having done this settled down for the evening watches. All through the night the wind was pretty constantly 25 knots gusting up to 30 on quite a few occasions but Andromeda was sailing beautifully, feeling really balanced. We were also treated to a lovely clear star strewn night sky, it was wonderful and so we just enjoyed the sailing........
At first light we checked our position to find that we had been blown well off course and although Rodney Bay was only 69 miles away it was all up wind and against the waves. The day was spent clawing our way back up the wind and at about 3pm Andrew caught sight of the island, very distinctive with the Pitons suddenly showing as the clouds cleared.....Hurrah we could see our destination. Unfortunately it was still up wind and against the waves and the Northern end of island was where we were headed. Still seeing St. Lucia was great and we happily ploughed on and on and on, and once it got dark we couldn't even see the lights. Eventually at midnight we decided to call upon our trusty engine and headed directly towards Rodney Bay, by this time we still had just under 30 miles to go but with the wind and waves could have been out there for days. As it was it took us until 9am to get there.....on the olus side we had another clear night sky to enjoy once we were headed directly for the north western end of St. Lucia and we could see the lights both of St. Lucia and Martinique. We did think of going to Martinique but there was the rotisserie chicken calling, so St. Lucia it was.
After arriving and giving ourselves a berth for a few nights in the marina as our Xmas pressie we took stock and looked at the log. We had covered 207 miles on our trip from Grenada, expecting to do around 120 ish, our scenic route had us covering an extra 80 miles or so but hey, it was a fantastic sail, Andromeda showed us her paces and we certainly have had all the cobwebs we might have gathered blown away.
We had two glorious night sails and even saw dolphins on both the days we have been out so far (and we saw dolphins as we left Trinidad and again when approaching Grenada).
Its now Christmas eve, we have had a busy day cleaning and sorting stuff out and eventually got around to some fun stuff this afternoon. Susan got out the decorations and has duly made the cockpit a bit festive. We hope the photos give you the idea. A real bonus we have found this year is that for the first time ever (and we think this is a Caribbean/Trinni thing) we saw orange yes ORANGE Xmas decorations and so Susan was able to indulge in just a few baubles of her favourite colour.....say no more.
We are now winding down on this lovely Christmas Eve and are thinking of all our family and friends and wishing you all a great Xmas and all the very best for 2013. Its going to be another exciting year with two new grandchildren due to make their appearances. We are looking forward to meeting Shayla's new brother or sister due in Februaryand Phil and Ruth's little one due in June.
And the rotisserie chicken? Well having taken the dinghy to go to the supermarket we had to settle for chicken pieces........
More in due course,
Susan and Andrew
Andromeda of Plymouth
St. Lucia
