Atlantic Crossing From Cape Verde Is to Grenada
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Extracts from our Transatlantic log and safe arrival in
Grenada I was cooking loads of stuff with pumpkin and nuts ready for the crossing. Just as I’d got the galley covered with food Kai, the engineer, arrives and, after a lot of head scratching by Mike and him, hey presto, the final gremlin’s fixed……we think! Just about to top up with diesel and the power goes off so the pump won’t work! Another hour’s wait and it’s back on, we’re fuelled up and off to anchor. There was meant to be a bit of a gig on the jetty this evening with “Cape Verde’s best artist” but, after a warm up of Bob Marley, we heard very little!
Left at
8.45am on 29th Nov, bound for Grenada. The rest of our log, seems to
focus on how many fishing lures we lost and how many fish we caught.
To save you trying to keep count, we lost 10 lures including one
home-made one and a fresh flying fish off the deck sewn onto the
hook! (Guess what, bigger fish comes along – bites little fish- and
swims off not having touched the hook!) We caught, ummm, zero fishes
but, in our defence, we did have one near miss!
Bit of a lumpy sea so we ate our supper out of the plastic measuring
jug and a mug! Mike gave me an ipod for an early Xmas present so I can do night
shift with 1 earpiece in and the other listening out for…..whales? Engines? Not
sure really, but at least I’m awake!
I’ve tried, but I just don’t
get it! How can anyone enjoy this! Highlight of our day is if the
fishing reel screams and we lose yet another catch and usually a
lure as well! We ended the day, at least, with the same lure we
started with but no fish! Hurrah – over halfway!! Did manage to slam the side of my head
against the bulkhead today and will prob have a cauliflower ear, as a result, by
tomorrow. So I cried, stamped my foot and said I was never going to do passages
longer than 2 days ever again! Had a bar of chocolate and after a couple of
hours, changed my mind, and Mike called me darling, which is an indication of
how concerned he was that he might have to sail without me! Actually, think the
idea prob appeals to him!! Just trying to
let Mike sleep, thought I would whizz below, do the noon position and email
although the wind was getting up. Which would have been a good plan if some
stupid fish hadn’t chosen just that moment to bite! So had to wake Mike to get
fish in and trim sails! Of course, the fish got away but luckily left the
homemade lure behind. Obviously, didn’t find it that attractive! So pasta and
sauce for supper but I have made some foccacia to go with it! Domestic goddess
strikes again!
I
did a watch from 8pm as usual but around 9.30pm I called Mike “sorry
to disturb you, darling, but there’s a big back cloud!” “Where is it?” “On our left and partly behind us” “
Do you mean on our port side?” “Yup, that’s what I said” “Keep an eye on it then!” “OK”, (I think!) Ten minutes later, all hell broke loose, heavy rain
downpour and gusting winds. I tied down the back canvas to stop me
getting too much wetter, reefed the sails (Lynne- that means rolling
part of them away so we don’t get blown over!) And, when the
electric winch noise didn’t wake Mike, I braved myself to call him
again cos I was afeared! When he comes up, I have the situation under control but
I’m soaked. “Why didn’t you tell me it was that black? – I need more
warning!” Hmm, thought that’s
what I did! How black does “It’s black” sound to
you?!!!!
It was roughly this
shade of
black! We decide it’s not going to get worse and he goes back to bed. Big container ship looms into view. I manoeuvre and don’t hit it – pretty proud of myself now! About 11.45pm another large black cloud looms. I call him straightaway and say it’s very very dark black. He comes up, I go to bed and then it seriously tips it down and blows a hoolie!!! Serves him right!
Horrid squalls first
thing this morning – we both got soaked, fortunately I was in my
swimmers! Couple of hours later and blue skies again!! Day 14 and Hurrah! I can see land. Uneventful day (so
far!) – didn’t even bother to put the rod in the water! Can’t wait
till we get there. Difficult to spot, but that’s Grenada in the
distance in photo below! (I hope – if not, the navigator’s going to
get a thick ear!)
Finally arrived St David’s Bay, Grenada at 14.30 on 12th December having logged up 1972.62 miles (although actually sailed 2151.7miles, I’ve just been informed!) in 13.5 days!
Lovely to see land again and even better to tread on it
when we went ashore to try and clear in, found that they’re closed
till Monday, so had a cold beer instead! You’re meant to clear in
within 2 hours of arrival and pay the Immigration overtime rates if
you don’t arrive in office hours but this place is so laid back,
they just said to leave it till Monday! So we’re illegal
immigrants!
They also said they
were cooking this evening so we went back later for supper to hear
that it was pork chops on the menu. “Anything else?”….”Yup, chips
and side salad!” Back to RT for mushroom risotto as we are out of
fresh food! Bottle of fizz to wash it down with and I slept like a
log!
Have spent today on the boat,
tidying up, Mike’s scraping goose barnacles off the bottom, taking
stock and mending broken things and a lovely long Skype conversation
with H and Will.
Thought we might go back here for Christmas day, what do you think,
Tanya? Had to drink the cans of Guinness that were in the fridge as there is
no other booze on board! Have a sneaking suspicion they were donations from
Jude’s larder when they left UK to go back to Oz. Thanks Jude and Garry –
thought they would come in handy – never thought that they’d be useful in the
Caribbean tho!
Sailed the 7 miles from St David’s bay to Prickly Bay on
the Monday and checked in at the Immigration here. This is the
Immigration office in Prickly Bay, Grenada. We anchored in the Bay
and went to the Red Crab up the road for dinner. Mike had Conch
(lambi) starter, I had a very strong rum punch amongst other
things!! Thanks B&P for recommendation
The Tiki Bar for
Happy hour rum
punches!
Having decided to
install 2 more solar panels on RT, we have spent the week since we
arrived going back and forth to the chandlers on the mad buses from
Prickly Bay to the capital of St George’s, so we’re exhausted!
Goodness, we lead a busy life! Too hot now to do anything for a
while!
We
took a group bus up to Guayave on the West coast. It’s the fishing
mecca of Grenada and every Friday (except, of course, next Friday –
being Christmas Day- when Tanya is with us!) they hold a “Fish
Fry-day”. Basically, loads of stalls cooking fish in as many
different ways as possible…..
We had tuna skewers,
fish spring rolls, fish cakes, some stuff called cou-cou (cornmeal
fried, I think) And some fried
plantane washed down with loads of beer! The lady in the queue
beside me said “When I see they’ve got cou-cou, I go
loco!
…..and a steel band of very energetic
youngsters! We
had a lovely evening and met some more fellow cruisers on the bus.
All that remains for now, is to wish all of you who bother to read this a very Happy Christmas 2009. We hope your fire stays hot and so does your Christmas dinner! Ours, of course, will be cold and probably liquid!
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