Bill
08/03/2012, Prickly Bay, Grenada

When we are underway, we all wear harnesses and tethers. In this photo we are getting ready to run down wind, wing and wing. Isobel has found a place in the shade to chat...

I a hooking up the preventer... this is a line that runs from the end of the boom through a cleat at the bow and then back to the cockpit. The preventer holds the boom out. Yesterday running down wind we wanted to keep the sail from slatting and banging... so the preventer holds the boom still.

The whisker pole does the same thing for the Genoa which is held out to windward, the other way from the boom. Thus the name "wing and wing." This allowed us to run down wind very comfortably at about 6.5 knots, which is a pretty good speed for us. On the radio we heard that other boats were motoring and had taken down their sails because they couldn't handle the noise of them banging and slatting.

We love our preventer and Whisker poles. ( I have talked about the whisker pole in past posts... the fore and aft guys hold the whisker pole in a fixed position before the genoa is moved to that side.)

Comments [3]

Bill
08/02/2012, prickly Bay, Grenada

Well, this made me nervous also!

She has reached the point where she is climbing everything... and is quite capable... yikes!

We travel with the dinghy on the bow rather than towing it... because we can go faster, and we don't have to worry about it being blown around or flipped by a wave. Isobel loves to have it on the deck as it makes a wonderful trampoline. In this configuration it has made a great play house/cave... and now a mountain to climb... (we put it up to act like a wind scoop and to let light into the V-berth and head)

Comments [3]

Bill
08/02/2012, Prickly Bay, Grenada

Wow, I guess we are at the end of the runway!

Well, we had another wonderful sailing day. We were up early (although we didn't want to be!) and on our way by 0600!! First the current pushed us at more than 8 knots to the west around Union Island then we set up the whisker pole with the Genoa to windward and the main prevented out. With this arrangement we sailed for 4 hours in 15 to 20 knots true wind... giving us a wonderful flat sail... the girls sleep and I read for most of it... very nice. Our first down wind sail for more than an hours... very nice... and as we go, the solar and wind are generating electricity and the water maker is running filling our water tank with fresh water.... The monitor steers the boat... Now, this is living!!

The final few miles was a struggle... a worthy struggle... up wind and against the current... We were hoping to clear in this afternoon so we could move around into a more protected anchorage... when we arrived the customs officer didn't want to see us until tomorrow morning... so we are here for the night anyway.

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Bill
08/01/2012, Mayreau

An early morning view of the Pitons on St Lucia. There was some pretty amazing snorkeling there...

At some point in the distant past, I saw a photo of boats anchored between the Pitons and that image has always represented "the Caribbean" to me... to have spent the past few days here has really been a "dream come true" for me. We will be back...

Well, the weather guy said to head south and so we did. We dropped our mooring at Les Pitons in St Lucia at 0600 and sailed a broad reach for 72 miles. Our speed was well over 6 knots most of the day. and 7 knots for some of the day. Our bottom cleaning, rig tuning and new sails create quite a fast old boat!

Tomorrow we have only 50 miles to take us to the south shore of Grenada. A Tropical Depression is moving into the Eastern Caribbean Friday and Satureday... and we want to be on the south side of it. We have been very lucky to have spent so much of the summer in the islands north of here. Many people have been in Grenada since June first...

We will leave here early so we have time to get our sleves settled should the storm shift south, something we don't expect, but want to be ready for.

I will post a photo when we have internet.

12 38.049'N 061 23.894'w

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07/29/2012

Isobel was a really good sport about this...

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Lara
07/29/2012, The Pitons, St Lucia

Another amazing adventure snorkeling here beneath Gros Piton. We think this is a rock fish, but we'll have to do a bit more research. Again we're having issues switching between the 2 cameras and knowing how big the field of vision is for each. There was actually a very cool pink sponge and sea urchin that we hoped to catch here.

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Lara
07/28/2012, The Pitons, St Lucia

The smart together person would be sitting in the cockpit enjoying the view when the sun sets. Instead, I'm usually trying to get dinner together in the galley, or if we're more on schedule, Bill is down below reading a bedtime story to Isobel. It's been almost 3 years now, we'll work it out soon... I'm sure.

From the galley I heard a call of "sunset! nicest one in a while!" I ran up to see the last 15 seconds of sun disappearing beneath the horizon. Bill said there was a green flash but I was looking in the camera and missed it.

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Lara
07/28/2012, The Pitons, St Lucia

Several boats past by this morning loaded with poised men balanced in the boat. I'm pretty sure they were headed out around Gros Piton to dive for fish of some sort, but their impressive stature gave one the impression they were Olympic swimmers headed out for training.

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Lara
07/28/2012, The Pitons, St Lucia

We thought we might go see the sulfur springs and have a mud bath, but our cruising guidebook said that it was a scene straight from hell & frankly it's hot as hell here (might be an exaggeration) so we decided to lay low in this uniquely stunning spot to enjoy the view & do some snorkeling.

Bill badmouthed our Sealife camera a few blogposts back & I just want to say that it was never really given a chance. We've since taken some nice photos with it & realize that we're still riding the learning curve understanding focal lengths, etc. Here's a cuttlefish that we chased mercilessly.

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Lara
07/27/2012, The Pitons, St Lucia

We were thrilled to find that Peter on Livity had avocados for sale. We haven't seen them since Nassau, Bahamas. We asked Peter about his boat name - He said it was about "living the life." And the colors: red for blood, yellow for the sun, and green for the land.

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