Monday, May 12, 2025

Caribbean Sea, 296NM W of Prickly Bay

Around sunset we got a visitor - a brown noddy flew over, and after a few attempts managed to land on our sprayhood. There it stayed, not particularly interested in our comings and goings. And then left a bit after sunrise.

Today we’ve had a pretty fast ride. The wind angle is not perfect for our route, and so we’re getting pushed a bit further north than planned. But that’s fine, it is anyway better to give Venezuela a wide berth.

The afternoon was pretty much perfect ocean sailing. Windvane steered happily on its own, and the boat ventured further west on a deep blue sea. And apart from some short drizzles, the sun has been shining, and the crew has managed to sleep.

• Distance today: 150NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: stovetop pizza with olives

Sunday, May 11, 2025

Caribbean Sea, 146NM W of Prickly Bay

Sea state made the night a difficult one to sleep. The bane of first night on a passage, hunting down warious objects making noice in the cabinets kept us entertained. So Suski stepped into her morning watch with only few blinks of sleep.

Misbehaving windvane made sure that it was impossible to fall asleep on watch. Bergie got some hours of sleep on his off-watch, so he took over the watch duties at noon and Suski promptly fell asleep like a log.

Now we are hopefully settled back to our routine. 4 months of day sailing and we are clearly out of practice in passage making.

• Distance today: 116NM
• Engine hours: 0
• Lunch: spaghetti with tomato sauce

Saturday, May 10, 2025

Caribbean Sea, 30NM W of Prickly Bay

Two weeks went by quickly enjoying the sights and the cruiser community of Grenada. Having cleared out the previous evening, we waited a morning squall to pass and then hoisted anchor. The murky waters of Prickly Bay ensured that the chain came onboard with a thick coating of seaweed. So, some scrubbing and under way!

It was fun to make the boat again offshore-ready after such a long time coastal sailing. As we’re again on a downwind passage, we got to pole out the genoa.

Waters were a bit rough just west off Grenada where two currents meet, but the sea state mellowed after getting beyond the Reindeer Shoal (something named after reindeer, here?). This would be perfect Parasailor conditions, if it weren’t for the cumulonimbus lurking in the horizon. But lovely to be again on a passage.

• Distance today: 30NM
• Engine hours: 0.4
• Lunch: salad

Saturday, April 26, 2025

St. George's - Prickly Bay

Yesterday we got an big upgrade to our setup. Isosaari now has an electric engine! A ePropulsion Sprit 1.0 Plus. Now we have about 7.5 hour run time at 3 knots of speed. This will give us plenty of opportunities to do some dinghy sightseeing.

In the morning we lowered the dinghy, put on the outboard, and went to get some freshies from the farmers market. With the distance being over a mile we wouldn’t have done it with rowing. Bag full of fruit and vegetables we got back to the boat, packed the motor and dinghy away and hoisted anchor. We decided to motor the way as we had made a sizeable dent too our battery levels by putting together this month’s YouTube video on a rainy day.

The way over was at first pleasant in the protection of the bay and slightly uncomfortable after rounding the Point Salines. Prickly Bay is very crowded so it took us a while to find a proper spot to anchor. Now we are securely anchored and ready for some land adventures.

• Distance today: 7.4NM
• Lunch: feta salad
• Engine hours: 2.1

Wednesday, April 23, 2025

Ronde Island - St. George's

After a couple days on the deserted island, it was time again to seek civilization. We hoisted anchor and headed across to the main island of Grenada on a fast beam reach. Suski scrubbing the bottom clean had a clear effect on the boat speed.

As always, the winds were more fickle in the lee of the island, and so we had to motor some bits amid a thick layer of sargasso seagrass.

We dropped hook in the anchorage outside of St. George’s. The depths here require lengths of chain we’ve hardly seen since Scotland. But better to stay on our own hook than trust a mooring.

Kippis, Stefan, Arlette & Gizmo!

• Distance today: 23.5NM
• Lunch: cheese and vegetable wraps
• Engine hours: 2.5

Sunday, April 20, 2025

Tyrell Bay - Ronde Island

A rarity in the forecast, a couple of days of calm! So to capitalise on that, we decided to sail over to the uninhabited Ronde Island. The anchorage is not particularly well protected, but with the calms, it should offer could snorkeling.

And so, after some Easter video calls, we hoisted anchor and set sail south.

What followed was a slow but pleasant sail on a beam reach. Full sails up, another rarity in these waters. With the light winds and strong current, most of the trip went on a “crab walk”, pointing some 30° off our target.

Now we’re anchored off Ronde Island with a couple of other sailboats. Suski already went snorkeling, and I’m also due for a swim soon. The day is hot!

• Distance today: 11.5NM
• Lunch: Spanish omelette
• Engine hours: 0.6

Wednesday, April 16, 2025

Frigate Island - Tyrell Bay

We cleared out already on Tuesday, so today we just needed to pack the dinghy and hoist anchor and sails. We opted for main in first reef and genoa partially rolled in. The sail was fast and smooth. The reefs were protecting us from the swell the whole way.

As we turned to Tyrell Bay we got smacked with a gust of 33 knots, we opened the main a bit to smoothen the heel and proceeded to drop sails after the gust was gone. Now checking in to Grenada and ‘anlegers’ of Carib, kippis Kari!

• Distance today: 9.5NM
• Dinner: prawn pasta
• Engine hours: 0.7

Saturday, April 12, 2025

Saline Bay - Frigate Island

After morning coffee and preparing a sourdough, we hoisted anchor and set sail to the next island over. We will eventually need to clear out of St Vincent and the Grenadines here.

The sail was short, but a pleasant one at beam reach with full sail up. We arrived to the lee of the small Frigate Island and the ruins of the superyacht marina just as sky turned grey. Anchor was set and boat made ready before the first squall hit us. Oh well, maybe we’ll wait a bit before deploying the dinghy.

• Distance today: 5.6NM
• Lunch: stovetop pizza
• Engine hours: 0.4

Monday, April 7, 2025

Salt Whistle Bay - Saline Bay

After coffee it was up with the anchor. In Salt Whistle Bay all the good spots are taken by mooring balls, so we went looking for a bit more comfortable anchorage. We motored the 1.2NM to Saline Bay. Here we have more space, less swell but the wind is howling through without obstructions.

It has been pretty windy recently, so we haven’t been able to use our flinsails, which means that we are a bit low on power. A kindom for a wind generator that fits in a ‘spitsgatter’.

• Distance today: 1.4NM
• Lunch: bibimbap
• Engine hours: 0.5

Sunday, April 6, 2025

Lower Bay - Salt Whistle Bay

This morning it was finally time to pack the dinghy and head south. Forecast promised a bit lighter conditions for the next couple of days.

Leaving Bequia, we still got some 28kn gusts at the acceleration zone. But otherwise the sail was quite nice broad reach. We made some water, and enjoyed looking at the islands on the way.

In the afternoon we arrived at Mayreau. Salt Whistle Bay is quite packed with charter catamarans, but we managed to find a place to anchor. It is quite rolly, so depending if we get a better spot tomorrow morning, we might move to the other end of the island. Here the distances are short.

It should be noted that we left our home port of S.C. Gothia in Berlin exactly a year ago. The European part of this adventure, from Norwegian fjords to the Scottish islands and the Spanish Rías feels quite far away.

• Distance today: 25.1NM
• Lunch: lasagne
• Engine hours: 0.3