A passage in pics

When you’re on passage, out of sight of land, there’s not much to look at except the water and the clouds. You may gather from the photos I’ve included in this post that we had a squally passage. On the contrary, we had an excellent passage. There’s just not that much to photograph out there other than storm clouds! While there were a few times that we got wet from the rain, we largely managed to avoid the squalls that are shown in the pics. For that, we are thankful.

We completed the 368nm passage from St. Maarten to Grenada in approx. 55 hours giving us an average speed of just under 7 knots. We completed most of that under sail although we did run an engine at times to both charge the batteries and to keep our speed up when in the lee of the islands. No matter what anyone tells you, there is a definite lee effect from the islands, even when 60 or more miles offshore! The waves lessen considerably when blocked by the islands and the wind decreases enough to kill at least 2 knots of boat speed. Those breaks were welcomed though as flying along at 8 and a half knots in the bumpy seas can be draining.

Did we catch any fish while underway? No, but certainly not for lack of trying. We actually hooked (at least) 3 separate tuna but each one of them were able to shake the hook before we could get them to the boat. Oh well, next time.

Welcome to Grenada!