Sad to report that we drug the lures through the whole trip so far and only a few scars on the lures to show for it. Not even enough to make the reels sing. We will keep trying tho.
Christine prepared for battle.
Wayne’s battle geared up too. The rain showers are cold.
Oh look another squall is coming.
Our goal was to travel a day and a half from Grenada to Les Saintes which would have been about 40 hours (give or take). After our later start and bad weather, we ended up motor sailing for about 6 hours in an average of 25 knots of wind, 2.5-3 meter seas at 10 seconds apart in between several squalls. We were in a constant state of “wet”. None of us were feeling “well” so we made the decision to abort Les Saintes and back track to Union island – still another 5 hours in what I call pure “crappy” weather! We rolled into Chatham bay around 10:30 and went straight to bed! OMG what a long rough day. Keep in mind that we thought it would be an easy breezy trip – long, but easy so I did not wear a patch or take any meds. We got up after a good night’s rest and headed north – not sure where, but our goal was to hit St Lucia which was about 90 miles. We endured another challenging weather day with the same swells, squalls, and wind and rolled into Rodney Bay around 930pm. Got another good night’s rest and headed North again to Martinque. We all decided to call it a short day after 8 hours of being beaten up by the weather and pulled into St. Pierre where we stayed on the boat (didn’t want to clear customs as we were planning on leaving at dawn). The boat has been awesome, holding strong, taking a beating on the waves, being launched all over the place and drenched by heavy seas and rains. Some pretty pictures of Martinique – you wouldn’t know that the weather was not cooperating by these pretty pictures!
I know you think I’m crazy right? We are enjoying a lovely dinner on the deck when I ask the boys if they have ever seen a moon rainbow and Matt pets my head as Wayne says there is no such thing. Until that is I point to it and low and behold it was there in all of its glory. Amazing site to see! Our goal was to get up early to make the long sail to the saints which should have been about a 40+ hour sail. We are up, not as early as we had wanted to be, but early enough, and Wayne heads up to the bow while Matt heads to the helm (I’m in the galley cleaning). Matt seems to be having problems getting the port engine into gear and he fusses for awhile before he calls to Wayne and checks the engine. Wayne sees that something is wrong and let’s Matt step in. He immediately sees the problem and jumps up to get the hose clamp and when he returns he yells out “fire” but in a way that resembles Sweet Brown in the video so I laugh. But Wayne sees an orange glow and jumps into action to help put it out. OMG a fire on a boat is not a good thing, especially in the engine room. We get the fire out and realize that our friends at Grenada Marine who put the port engine back together did not do a good job. Although the engine room was clean it was not assembled correctly. They tied the shifter cable and throttle cable together but didn’t attach it to anything so the jostle from yesterday’s motoring either made the cable fall onto the alternator or it was just placed there or left there. The alternator did its thing and generated energy and melted the cables together so we could not shift and then caught fire. Luckily we had the spare cable on the boat and Matt and Wayne spent almost 3 hours tearing the helm apart to run the cable on the starboard helm to the port engine. I’m not a happy camper-but will wait until I calm down before I email the yard.
After that mess, we get underway, me at the helm the boys resting on and off. We had a long way to go and were starting a lot later than planned. During our attempt to get to the saints, a 6 hour journey, I was mostly at the helm through squalls, 25-30knots of wind and 3 meter swirly waves which launched our boat more times than we care to experience. Matt cooked dinner and since nobody was feeling great we decided to head to Union to get a semi decent night’s rest instead of continuing to get beat up. So we head in, which explains our crazy track if you were following us on spot (under location on this site). Luckily Matt took the helm after dinner and I crashed for 4 hours only to wake in time to drop anchor and call it a night. Being cold, wet, and not feeling so great for most of the day wears one out so we all slept like logs.
It’s great to be on a boat that handles so well in foul weather but I hate putting her to the test. Hopefully tomorrow will bring better weather, a new wind angle, and better seas.
