Friday's passage from St. Georges, Grenada to the little island of Carriacou should have taken only 4-5 hours, but we took closer to 7.5 hours. We left at 9 am after the morning VHS and HAM nets, and had some really rough patches. The first three hours behind Grenada were not so bad. We had all sails up in winds up to 18 knots, and actually passed a 42' Lagoon catamaran and a 44' PDQ catamaran. As we headed northeast towards a tall bald island called "Kick 'em Jenny", we got into very squally conditions, bad current, and too much north in the wind. It was wet and bumpy, with winds gusting to 29 knots.
Our hairiest moment occurred when we were attempting to furl away some of the jib during a squall. I had let some sheet out, so of course, the jib began flapping furiously in the high wind. As I began pulling in the furling line, the snapping jib hauled out the other sheet, and whipped it into a ball by the mast. The wind took that opportunity to shift, so we accidentally came about, and were in trouble. Without the starboard sheet, we could not trim the jib to either carry on in the tack or to change back to our course. Also, I could not start an engine, as we were backing up over the fishing lines we were trawling, and we did not wish to foul our propellers and rudders. Somehow, we got turned back to the normal course, and I braved the wind to go on deck to untangle the sheet. Rather stressful, wet work.
By the time we got far enough north to tack into Tyrell Bay, Carriacou, we were two hours to the west. We made it and had the anchor down before dark. Although it seemed to rain on us all afternoon, the sky wouldn't give us a drop to wash off all the salt that built up on the boat. Still, we had an anchor beer or two, cooked up Dawn's favourite, K-Dinner, and had a relaxing evening.
Yesterday, we spent the morning fixing things, including the windlass, which had stopped easing the anchor down. The problem was a bad relay switch in the remote control. Rather annoying, that - It costs just short of $200, and it was obvious that it leaked salt water into the switches. I have a friend, Maurice on Strider, bringing a new one up from St. Georges. The afternoon included a lovely walk to Paradise Beach. We have pictures that you'll see soon, hopefully. The evening highlight was a plate of curried conch from the "Lambi Queen" restaurant. It was easily the best dish we have had this year, with rice and pigeon peas, plaintain, daschene, cucumber, tomato, cole slaw, christophene, and carrot. The curried conch was just right, and the sauce made the rice very tasty.
Today, we're going over to a little sandy spit called "Sandy Island", where we can snorkel or visit Paradise Beach. There will be NO Internet there either!
