St. Georges, Grenada
12.02.630N
61.44.898W

About 9 this morning, the two crews of Orpailleur and Gypsy Palace dinked over to the dock in front of the supermarket and began our search of the aisles to re-provision. I found just about everything I had on my list and Nicky put a pretty good dent in hers. Although she did have to make a second trip a couple of hours later for those items she forgot to pick up.

We spent the morning putting everything away, hauling the trash to shore, then finally securing the boat for the overnight passage. About 3pm, we hoisted our anchor and made our way back out to the anchorage in front of the lagoon. We dropped it again in deep sand and it immediately grabbed a firm hold on the bottom.

Orpailleur stopped at the marina dock to fill up with water and pick up some gas for their dinghy and then came outside. Gerry wanted to hoist the main sail that they had put back on yesterday to make sure that everything was as it should be before taking off. Apparently it was, as they soon joined us in dropping their anchor in the sand. Scott Free came out last and took a position slightly behind us. We all tried to take naps, but of course, when you’re trying to take a nap, it won’t happen. So let’s just say we tried to rest for the remainder of the day.

About 7pm. Dale started getting fidgety. He checked to make sure our running lights were working, then started carting our passage making safety gear topside. He checked and rechecked various hatches and switches. He reread the cruising guide regarding the suggested route. At a quarter to 8, Gerry radioed to go over the same last minute details. I was wondering which one of them would give in first. Scott Free joined in the discussion and at 8pm, on the dot, we unfurled our main sail and lifted our anchor.

We eased out of the anchorage and made our way around the southern coast of Grenada. We unfurled our jib to the first reefing point and turned off the engine. There was hardly any difference. We were still making progress at about 6 kts. After we passed the tip of Grenada and were more exposed to the trade winds and the northwesterly current, we scooted along with speeds that reached above the 9kts range. This was pretty cool, except that at one point it was so dark, we couldn’t tell if an approaching light was an airplane on final approach to the airport or a boat trying to make landfall after dark. It was an airplane. About this time, I noticed we were darker than usual; our running light had failed. This has occurred before and usually one of us makes our way to the bow and wiggles the connection a little and its good for the rest of the night. Tonight when Dale made his way forward and tried to wiggle the connection, he ended up with a broken bulb in his hand. Oops! Good thing we had a few spares. A couple of more trips back and forth and we were back in business.

It was a great sail. It was even better when the ¾ moon rose later and we could see more of our surroundings. We’re not positive, we need to check with the Coopers to make sure, but we thought we saw the Southern Cross quite late. We know that it can be seen about this time of year from this latitude but since we’re not as familiar with that constellation as we are with the ones in the northern hemisphere, we’ll ask someone who should know. Tomorrow.

Photo from the camera of Orpailleur.