The beauty of night sailing …
10 December 2011
Karen
Saturday December 10th, 2011
The beauty of night sailing …
Is sometimes lost on me. I guess that means I am not a real cruiser, but it’s the truth. The absolute, stunning beauty of a full moon shining a platinum path on the sea is sometimes overshadowed by trying to identify what, exactly, that other light is and is it coming closer, and does the engine sound ok to you, and am I off watch yet, can I go to sleep now?
Monday, we left Port Louis early and headed around the corner to Le Phare Blue Marina on one engine, so Mike and his crew could rebuild the port one that is leaking oil. We arrived by 8am and they put us on the fuel dock and began work right away. By noon the port engine was nearly completely disassembled, a frightening sight for me, but good as their word Mike and Sean had the engine rebuilt and running by Tuesday end of day, and by Wednesday, (after changing the coolant in the starboard engine, which was feeling somewhat left out with all the attention the port engine was getting and so needed to act up, just a bit), midday we were off the dock and headed back to St. George to anchor.
Thursday 6am, up anchor and away to points north. The sea was easy, and we were able to motor sail, and then eventually sail fully for about 8 hours, before the winds headed too far north for us to keep the sails full. Sunset came beautifully with a cloudy sky delivering spectacular color, an escort of dolphins, and the green flash. Jim was able to sail nearly all the first watch, however it was a bumpy rough ride and didn’t even out until midnight…fortunately that was when my watch started, so I was able to motor sail while the seas calmed down, and Jim slept. The winds and seas settled throughout the day on Friday, and we ended up just motoring along the coast of Guadaloupe heading for the northernmost harbor, deshaias. We decided to make this trip in 2 steps, Grenada - Guadaloupe, then Guadaloupe - Virgins islands. It seemed the prudent thing to do since in reality, this is our shakedown cruise, which some people seem to think means going out for two or three hours, testing all the systems and then returning to the anchorage. But not us…no, we decide to sail 250 miles past 6 countries in 48 hours --- yup, most everything works, and we’ve learned to deal with the stuff that doesn’t – good shakedown!
Along the way we saw a pod of pilot whales heading south, several sets of dolphins, two amazing sunsets, one green flash, a full, spectacular moon, several cruise ships and several fishing boats. We learned how to use our radar to identify approaching vessels, since unfortunately our AIS is on the fritz and we cannot rely on it. We discovered a few other random issues, but all in all, everything is going pretty well.
After arriving here this morning, we dropped the dingy and headed to town so we could clear customs, in and out, pick up fuel, drop off garbage and check the weather. While I was doing the customs, Jim dropped off the garbage and informed me there is a festival in town, which we could hear from the boat starting at about 7 this morning - Loud music, an announcer, etc. While getting the fuel I asked the girl what the festival was for, but she didn’t know….hmm, I thought…that’s odd, since it is about 3 blocks away, but ok. That is the problem with not speaking French, it was actually the weekly farmers market, with vendors, and a bouncy house for the kids – I’m sure she thinks we’re nuts.
So here we sit in pretty Deshais, a picturesque fishing village, in a peaceful anchorage, with turtles swimming nearby, fishermen waving as they motor past and the church bells ringing the time every hour and half hour. Now, Jim says…we are finally cruising.