Passage prep day

As we’re really hoping that tomorrow will be the day that we can set sail towards* Grenada (we have been watching the weather and the winds are supposed to abate a bit), today is going to be passage prep day. It began at sun up this morning with us returning all of our treasures to their previous resting place in the bilges. As one other Amel owner commented, we’ll soon start referring to those spots as floor lockers and not bilges as they are not really bilges in the traditional sense. Unless you fill them with water like we did. 🙁

Yesterday, I did another rig check and went around mousing all of the shackles closed. Today, I started off by checking hose clamps, replacing some corroded ones and doubling up on any below-the-waterline spots where it had not already been done. I’ll do some engine checks too just to make sure that everything is ready to go.

We’ll be running in to shore later this morning to meet one final time(?) with our broker, Stephanie. She told us that she has some navigational charts that she wants to pass along to us for our future travels. That’s pretty cool but we really just want to thank her for all of her amazing help! We also need to firm up our insurance for the boat today, and obtain clearance from customs to allow us to leave tomorrow. The French normally have customs totally figured out. We’ll see how we do trying to leave with a newly-purchased boat!

Another cool feature on this boat. In the event of a serious collision that results in us taking on a large amount of water at the bow (think shipping container), the entire V-berth can be sealed, making it watertight. The door is gasketed and with the specially-designed braces, it can be locked shut. Don’t worry guests… we won’t lock you in unless you’re really annoying. 🙂

*Note: I said towards and not to because it’s really Mother Nature that will decide where we end up. We left Martinique one other time hoping to sail straight to Grenada. In that instance, the sea state and winds were so crappy, we pulled into St. Lucia and ended up staying there for several days until it improved.