The final 5 miles
I admit it, I have an issue with the final 5 miles of a trip. Any trip. It doesn’t seem to matter if it has been a passage of several days or one of only a few hours but the nearer we get to shore, the more impatient I seem to get. Yesterday’s sail from Anses D’Arlet to Ste. Anne was very indicative of this. Because we had all day to get there, and the weather was reasonable, Rebecca and I decided to do our best to sail the entire way, in spite of the fact that the wind was blowing from… I bet you can all guess… exactly the direction we wanted to go. No worries, as I said, we had all day.
As we tacked back and forth, slowly making ground towards our destination, I commented to Rebecca (although more so to affirm it to myself) that we used to just “go sailing” so that we could enjoy the process of doing this*. The sun was shining, the fishing lures were happily bobbing in the water some distance behind the boat (unnoticed by the fish I should add) and we were enjoying the scenery. Until the last five miles that is.
Perhaps it was the opposing current fighting to prevent us from advancing or possibly the sea conditions changed to slow our progress. Regardless of the cause, it seemed that just about the time we were down to the final 5 miles of our trip, we had both had enough. If we continued on trying to beat towards our destination, we would have been at it until dark. And so, on came the engines and down came the sails (even motor sailing wouldn’t work — we tried). At least we had made a reasonable attempt at sailing the entire way. 🙂
We picked a nice tacking angle to make our way between Diamond Rock and the mainland.
Since we’ve climbed the Diamond Rock near Grenada (aka Kick em Jenny),
maybe we should climb this Diamond Rock too?
Here is a real pet peeve of mine… the fact that I can get free Wi-Fi miles from shore and yet can not even find a signal to pay for when we are anchored just off the shore of a town. Grrrr!
The anchorage of Ste. Anne in the distance. Finally!
*I suspect that we may not be the only ones who react as I am describing because I noted on multiple occasions, back when we were sailing in Lake Ontario, how boats would aggressively leave the harbor with full sails flying only to return some hours later motoring the entire way.
I knew it….You are coming over to the dark side of boating….POWER!!!!
Only if we win the lottery.
Diamond Rock surely can’t be the right name for that volcanic mini-plug.
It looks more like a VERY rotten/decayed back tooth!
Mike 🙂
Do you think the one near Grenada is any more appropriately named?
Opposite situation here in Montreal where my sailing club is located on Lac St Louis. One is obliged most of the time to motor about 30-45 minutes before the sails can go up because you have to go against the current of the St Lawrence, and quite often the prevailing wind, to get to the area you can sail. It’s on the way back to the club that I can usually sail right back to my mooring spot.
Very nice, Patricia!
Sailing solo I haven’t managed to grab the mooring ropes without applying the motor but when sailing with others on board I can do a perfect turn at the right moment and moor engine free.
We have not yet anchored, or picked up a mooring, under sail (on ZTC). I have done it on other boats though.
I don’t know Mike. If I were in your shoes I would simply sit back, grab a beer and enjoy Rebecca out on the tramp for the final five… 😉
My type-A personality won’t allow it.
Actually, if you look really close, Diamond Rock looks more like a decayed skull and should be skull rock or pirate rock!!
I think Decayed Skull Rock is much more memorable.
We used to do the same thing on Lake Ontario, sail out in a blaze of white dacron only to return under a droning diesel. On the south shore of Ontario we suffered what I called the 5 o’clock die off, where the wind just blew itself out every day. Very frustrating.
Way back when we had a little 25 footer and we would leave Sodus Bay NY and head straight out until we crossed the border, sing “Oh Canada…” then turn back. The old Johsnon outboard gave us quite the headache as we got back just before dark. Only did that twice before the kids revolted.
I believe we did more actual sailing in the Bahamas then we have so far in the Windwards. I really miss day sailing so maybe next season we can fix that. I have to get over the mindset that once the anchor is down and set you do not move until it’s time to change ports.
Paul
SV Kelly Nicole
Yeah, it’s not too often that cruisers go out for a day sail.