After spending way too much time in Grenada, we finally have stared moving north again. Part of the problem in leaving was completing all the boat maintenance that needed to be done. However, we have also had a nasty winter/spring in terms of weather as well. Normally, there's a couple weeks to maybe a moth of really high winds around the middle or end of December (the Christmas winds). This year, they stared in early December and continued until mid-March! It's not much fun to be going north when you're going into north-east winds blowing 25 mph and pushing up 8' seas! But finally we got a break. It looks like the weather pattern is changing for the better.

To prepare for leaving, we sailed around to the anchorage off St George's on Monday. This is on the west coast towards the south end of the island. We hauled up the anchor at 6am Tuesday morning and headed north. We still had a NE wind, but only blowing 15+ mph. Being on the west (leeward) side of the island, we had 1'-2' seas with a mild swell coming from the north. As we were heading into the wind, we ran one engine at a slow cruise speed. We left the anchorage with both motors running but then the starboard one started to overheat, so we shut it down. The trip up the coast of Grenada was comfortable and easy. Once we got past the north end of the island, the wind & seas picked up a bit but not so much as to make things uncomfortable. And we still made good time as we passed just to the west of the Grenadines islands. Part way up the island chain, we caught a 3' barracuda. So I cleaned it on the starboard stern steps & put it in the refrigerator for dinner after we anchored. Good, white meat though with quite a few small bones.

We got even with the south tip of St Vincent around 6pm and kept going. St Vincent isn't heavily populated, so once it got dark there were very few lights on shore. Also, the moon didn't rise until very late, so with the extremely dark night the sky was ablaze with stars!

Around 3am (Wed) we were mid-way between St Vincent & St Lucia when the high-temp alarm went off for the port engine. Unfortunately, getting to the port engine entails emptying everything out of the aft storage cabin. Instead, I moved the few things blocking access to the starboard engine to figure out why the alarm went off for it. I found that the V-belt, which drives the alternator & water pump had broken. So I pulled out some tools and a new V-belt and got it re-installed. We started up the engine & kept on going.

About 15 miles from our destination (Rodney Bay, at the NW part of the island), the wind shifted so that we were heading directly into it while also dropping to 3-4 mph. I dropped the mainsail (having already rolled up the jib) and we motored the last 3 hours into the bay. We ended up anchoring at 7am Wednesday morning.

We've now spent five days in Rodney Bay - seeing many old friends on other boats whom we haven't seen for almost a year. The winds are shifting to the east tomorrow (Monday) and we'll be heading northwards again. Our next post should be from Dominica as we make our way towards Antigua for Classic Race Week, which starts April 16th.

The picture is another one - a panorama - of the dinghy concert.