Speed, Comfort and Safety
While I wouldn’t exactly say that we’re on a tight schedule, the clock is definitely ticking down until the time that Rebecca and I say farewell to Grenada for another season. The 850th hash, a big one here in Grenada that we want to participate in, is taking place this Saturday. Sometime following that, we intend to head out, weather permitting of course.
St. George’s, Grenada to Cruz Bay, St. John.
When our boat is stationary down here in Grenada, I admit that we pay little attention to the day-to-day fluctuations in the wind and sea state. We really only concern ourselves with the development of any larger tropical disturbances in our region. When we’re planning a passage though, things change. We then start looking to see how the wind and waves are going to affect our travels. Speed, comfort and safety are the factors that we consider, for the entire time that we’ll be underway.
We recently had a couple of friends complete the passage that we plan to make, Grenada to the Virgins, and it was a unique one for them. They departed Grenada on their Lagoon 380 Beagle Knot with very light winds forecast. LaDonna had this to say after they arrived in St. Thomas:
We are back on St Thomas after 5 nights of sailing directly from St David’s on Grenada. Never had a passage like this one, so easy! We never even had even one wave make it over the bow. We took our jack lines off this afternoon and NO SALT at all. Seas were almost flat, but along with that winds were very light and sometimes non existent. We were able to open some hatches and put up some of our sunshades while under sail, really that’s how calm it was. We never saw more than 13 knots of wind. Almost no traffic on our route either, I think I only saw 3-4 ships during my watches. We motored an hour or two on a couple of days when we were totally becalmed. Mostly we just sailed slowly along enjoying the ride. Dolphins visited us 4 times and the captain caught us a Mahi Mahi. I love my life!
That sounds very pleasant, doesn’t it? Normally these passages are much faster, with a bit more “excitement” thrown in. At this point though, we’re kinda thinking that a slower, calmer passage might be a nice change!
As of this morning, after consulting both PassageWeather and WindGuru, Rebecca and I are leaning towards an early morning Tuesday departure. As the next few days tick by, that may change. In the meantime, we’ll continue to enjoy what little time we have remaining in beautiful Grenada.
Our friends on Truant 3 anchored behind us last night.
Mike,
Do you encounter many seasonal only cruisers? I’m know you head to Grenada to get south of the Hurricane prone zone, I’m wondering what the seasonal only cruisers do. Do they keep S/V in South Florida and make trips to/from Carrrib each season? Or do some keep S/V where they like to sail, say US or BVI and then and put on the hard in off-season? Curious as to your take on the pro’s/con’s of different scenarios for those that are only seasonal cruisers.
Sean
For people who travel back and forth to the States, the Bahamas is often as far as they would travel. Others who do go further but don’t remain south all year frequently haul their boats out and store them on land. There are exceptions, of course.
Mike we hope you and Rebecca have as pleasant a passage as we did! See you in the VI
Thank you. We hope so too!
Dear Mike and Rebecca:
We are so glad we had a chance to catch up with you both on our trip down to Grenada last week. Thanks for introducing us to the whole “hashing” experience and we are only sad in as much that we will not get to join you and the locals in Grenada for hash #850.
We are safely back in British Columbia determined more than ever to get back out sailing and living-aboard again as soon as possible.
As you plan to head north again soon we wish you fair winds and following seas!!
Alan and Christina
Thanks guys. As you might have read today, we’ve decided to delay our departure for a day or two until the weather settles down a bit. Hope to see you again in the not too distant future! And let me know if you find a hash group back home.