Walkabout - Talk of Scurvy may be Premature - Day14 Mindelo to Grenada
Walkabout has gone Sailing
Andrew and Traci Roantree
Fri 3 Dec 2021 12:36
Oooh! We are getting close to Grenada now!! If things stay as they are/forecast, then we should be in Port Louis sometime tomorrow afternoon (Walkabout Time) - so just one more night at sea, and 190NM to run!!
The cookery club has been doing a stock take, and figuring out how much food we need to gorge ourselves on before we arrive!! The list of remaining fresh produce is as follows;
1 Orange
1 Courgette (zucchini)
1 Avocado
7 Lemons & Limes
1 Cabbage
1/2 Red Cabbage
6 Tomatoes
3 Carrots
1/2 Mango
Bag of potatoes
We also have 2x500g beef mince.
It’s like ‘Ready, Steady, Cook…’. Suggestions please on what we can rustle up for our final night at sea with that little lot! One thing is for sure, the scary has been held at bay by Traci’s fab victualling.
We ate like kings yesterday. For lunch we had scrambled eggs with smashed avocado and feta, served on freshly made Focaccia bread. For dinner it was beef stew with potatoes, cooked in Mr D’s Thermal Cooker (a great bit of kit).
The Musical Society held its inaugural session yesterday - a bit of Ukulele practice, having forgotten what little I knew. But there could be a performance to be part of when we get to Grenada (hope the others are better than me!!
We put the BWR up yesterday lunchtime, and decided to keep it up overnight, as well as the 3rd reef on the main. The strategy being that if we had squall action, we could furl the BWR and just have the small bit of main for some drive through the gusts and shifts. We did have squalls - it seems to be a very regular thing. The radar is great for picking them up and tracking them, then deciding if we need to take action. We did take action once last night - furled the BWR and the squall blew through at 25knots and some heavy rain (nothing like the one we experienced a couple of days ago). During the rest of the night there were numerous squalls which passed close by, but didn’t require action.
The deck walk this morning has revealed a couple of problems with our vang and goose neck - there is a bit too much play in both of them. So the main is now down, and we will use it as little as possible until Grenada.
The BWR does not make for good sleeping in the rolly swell - it is loud and shakes the boat. It causes the sail to regularly collapse and then fill with a loud crack, sending judders through the rig. If we have 15knots of wind it is a lot more comfortable.
Looks like that will be our sail plan for tonight, though. So we will arrive in Grenada tired and over the moon!!
T&Ax
PS. It goes without saying now - The Fishing Club returned a big fat zero once again - running out of time...