It's amazing to be sailing once more.  Repairs in check, weather outlook favorable, we're starting chapter two of our sailing dream.  We left Prickly Bay, Grenada, around noon, raised our sails and smiled with excitement as we headed up the coast.  We had a perfect sail - a beam reach much of the way.  

Over the summer we had made some changes to our rig.  First we changed the staysail (small, forward, middle sail) from a hanked on sail (clipped temporarily on a wire stay and rigged onto a heavy on-deck boom ) to a roller-furled sail.  We can now raise the sail and adjust her size quite easily from our cockpit.  We moved the main halyard (the line that allows us to raise our large mainsail), from the mast on deck, to the cockpit.  And we added an electric winch to make her easier to raise.  This new rig is much easier, lighter and safer to handle.  And now that we've tried her out for the first time -- We love it!  For most of our sailing now Dennis won't have to go forward on the deck with me sometimes anxious at the wheel contemplating how I would handle a Dennis overboard.  This new setup is awesome!  We can now more easily sail single handed, just one person, if we had to or wanted to, and with the two of us it is much safer and easier.

I can't tell you how wonderful it is to be underway again.  While Grenada is a beautiful, lush island, and her people are very friendly and gracious, Centime was meant to be sailing and not sitting on the hard (on land) or at a dock.  Yesterday, our first sail of the season, we had 15 knots of easterly wind filling Centime's sails as she glided along a sun-sparkled sea at a steady 5 1/2 to 6 knots.  

We stopped at Flamingo Bay halfway up the western side of Grenada.  It's a lovely bay surrounded by palm trees and hills with a few small homes dotting the landscape.  We were tempted to keep going as the sailing was so much fun, however there was not that much daylight left and the Bay was calling us.  This bay and adjacent bays are in a marine protection zone.  Two rangers motored out to greet us and direct us to a mooring.  Once settled we welcomed them aboard and had a lovely chat about the marine park and life in Grenada.  They told us the best snorkeling places which we later sampled.  

We were the sole boat in this lovely, peaceful area. We had drinks on deck, talked about life and watched a magnificent sunset. After dinner Dennis got out our hammock.  The boat gently rocked the hammock while we in turn laid back and gazed at a splendid sky filled with stars.  A perfect end to a perfect day.  And we, are on the sea again!