So good to be sailing again!
Salila
Peter Ablett
Sat 19 Jan 2013 20:11
11:59.99N 61:45.63W
After what seems like months of sweaty boat maintenance in getting Salila ready for the new season I'm finally sailing again! It's so good.
Anchored in Prickly Bay, Grenada, yesterday with 5 mins to spare to get a beer before sunset. We had left Scotland Bay, Trinidad at dawn, and had a good motor sail all the way. The wind was only around 10 knots most of the way, and a bit of a swell on the nose slowing us down, but the good old Yanmars did their stuff and we made it in time to avoid anchoring in the dark in a busy bay.
With me now are Jan and Ilka. Two very nice young people from Germany. They met in Mauritius only two months ago and are now making their way slowly to Hawaii to go surfing. They are both late 20's and having a bit of a gap year. They could not be nicer or more helpful. Jan has crossed the Atlantic before so knows a lot, and Ilka is an excellent cook, as well as being a professional kite surfing instructor.
Scotland Bay on Trinidad was interesting. Is just round the corner from Chaguaramus and a well known jumping off point for going north. In the afternoon there were locals enjoying an afternoon on the beach, and when they left the vultures descended to pick the remains. Quite large beasties too. And the bay was swarming with millions of small round jelly fish, not really what you want for swimming, but interesting to look at.
Anchoring was interesting too. The guide book says its deep until you get close to shore, and we had to go very close, enough to keep me awake at night although there was little wind. It was only in the morning that we discovered that the depth gauge had re calibrated itself into feet not metres. So the 8 metres I thought we were in was actually 8 feet, no wonder we were close to shore....
Off to St George's tomorrow, and then heading up the island chain to be in St Lucia by the end of the month.