On the road again 12.15N 63.21W
Salsa af Stavsnas
Ellinor Ristoff Staffan Ehde
Thu 7 Feb 2013 09:33
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It is now 5 in the morning, still pitch dark, but
the sky is sprinkled with stars without any obstruction. The moon is thin but is
casting a moonstreet on the water. We are doing between 7 and 8 knots and for
the first time we have managed to sail with the Hydrovane (windrudder) more than
12 hours. It saves a lot of energy and wear and tear on the autopilot and
regular rudder. Hopefully it continues to work. I have aligned it and cranked
all the bults and nuts really hard.
We had a bird on board this night, have no idea
what kind since we did not put a light on it. It sat first on the boom and then
on the solar panel, for hours.
We are on our way and it is a crossing of 380nM to
Bonair, we are north of Venezuela and have no intention of going there (unless
there is an emergency).This is our fiirst longer crossing since the Atlantic,
and we think we will be there in about 35 hours, wind permitting. The waves are
uncomfortable, first because we are not used to them, second they come from the
side and freak the boat out of course. We are making 8 knots right now and that
is excellent.
Yesterday we went provisioning and that takes a lot
of time. I also had to get a spare part from Mastervolt they sent with Fedex, a
task like that takes a day in total. Getting the right stamps from Customs etc.
The evening started well with pizza by a restaurant
just by the water. We where a bunch of families going out together. The
boat kids can play and enjoy themselves. Then suddenly Erika came crying with a
bleeding lip, a boy from a boat that we just know very little had thrown a
stone at her. They where playing around and something got very wrong. Fortunally
no teth was damaged and Ellinor cooled the lip so it looks pretty OK now. The
worse part with that incident was that the father of the boy could not take it,
he said that his son would never do something like that, it must be the company
that made him do it... They did not even bother to come by this morning to check
how Erika was doing. Well for the most part people are VERY nice and this birds
will probably not be seen again....
Leavin to Bonair makes it almost a point of no
return, and we have left most boats we know behind us, very few contnue towards
the Pacific. The only Swedish boat we know is Miss My that will come after us
and we know an ARC boat called Chilly Cat, they are from Australia and on their
way home.
hat do we think of Grenada?
It is probably the most busy island we have seen in
the Lesser Antilles. People work harder than anywhere else. It is the place we
really felt they let us just be on our own. Not chasing us for money.Grenada is
marvelous with a grand nature and steep hills. Sailing Grenada along the west
coast, nice to do it but very few anchorages, on the other hand the south coast
is full of protected fjords (very popular during the hurricane season). Grenada
is a place we would like to see more of.
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