St George’s, Grenada

12:02.66N 61:44.84W

At 12.45 hrs gmt on Saturday 2 March we tied up on the arrivals quay of the Grenada’s new Marina. We had set off from Porto Santo in the Cape Verde Isles at 15.00hrs gmt on 13 February giving a passage time of 16 days  21 hours and 45 minutes. Total distance covered since leaving Porto Santo, 2164 nautical miles.

After an initial slow start to clear the islands a NE wind kicked in to give us a good lift over the early days. We had wind strengths of 6 and 7 and regularly attained speeds of 8 knots. Our best mileages were recorded in these days, our best being 148miles an average of over 6knots for the 24 hours. In fact we only put the main sail up on day 10, until then we had sailed puely on the mizen and head sail. In total we had three days were our mileage was in excess of 140 miles. At one point we were convinced that we could complete the crossing without using our main sail. Normality did prevail eventually. We have gone from full water proofs on deck to shorts and tee shirts through out the day and night.

On some days we were plaqued with squalls. These  came through at about 40 minute intervals. The head sail was in and out all the time. Eventually things settled down and we had near perfect down wind tradewind sailing for the remaining five-six days of the passage.  The lowest mileage day was day 11 when we recorded only 88 miles.

We had no cause to run the engine for propulsion except at the beginning of the voyage to get away from the islands. After that we ran it for a bout 2/3hours total to top up the batteries from time to time but didn’t use it to drive Running Tide.

We have had no major problems save for the failure of our computer which put a premature stop to the blog. However we were able to get a reduced format up and running with the help of David, Peder’s brother so that family and friends were assured that we hadn’t sunk without trace. The worst we had to contend with was the failure of the  heads, the ship’s toilet,  Norm was the star here getting stuck into  an at at sea strip down of the thing.  This is not easy with the boat bucking all over the place. A joint effort got it sorted and back together.

The food on board has been great.  Lots of fresh food some of which lasted until day 10. We eat our last banana yesterday. These were the green plantain bananas which eventually became edible. Water hasn’t been a problem. We cooked and washed up using seawater so drinking water useage has been minimal. We haven’t washed much so people should keep away from us for a while. A lot of the fresh fruit like oranges we picked up in Cape Verde was going off in the first few days of the crossing but apples survived really well.

The rocking and rolling of downwind sailing has driven us mad at times. Nothing was safe to put down we have tea coffee dinner, crew members hurtling around. Three point contact was essential at all times or pay the price.

On our way across we had seen no ships or aircaft until day 15, but we have seen whales, dolphins. And lots and lots of flying fish. Many unfortunates ended up on the deck of running Tide to cleared off in the morning. We did try fishing for tuna on the low mileage day without luck but generally our speed through the water was too quick for the type of fishing gear we had.

All on board are well and in good spirits and looking forward to a few days ashore. Peder will be heading ofF back home to Sweden as planned in a few days and Pat my wife will be joining us for the passage through the Windward and Leeward Islands to Antigua over the next month. Pat, a friend of ours Sally and Peder’s Mother Marie are here in Grenada to meet us.

Regarding the auxilliary crew monica deserves a special mention for steering almost faultlessly throughout the crossing. The squid for keeping the beers cool. Vinden wasn’t so good hiding behid the mizen for the entire crossing. Its day will come when we are reaching up and down the windward and leeward isles.

Just now we are off to have a shower and explore Grenada.