Bonaire to Grenada .. almost - 27 Sept to 2 Oct

So it was eleven am by the time we got up and underway.  fortunately it was quite calm to start will and we where able to get everything organized and hae bfast before rounding the northern tip of bonire into the open ocean.  the forecast was for one  to 2 meters and ten to fifteen kts for the next few days so i was hopeful we would have a relatively painless 400nm 3 day motor.  



alas this was not   to be... we started out smoothly with a calm seas and a bit of current on the nose making 5 kts with about 2600 rpm burning about 1.3 gal per hour.



the first day was perfect i even got the bb going and bbed the "free sausage and cheese snack seth got with his rum back in Cartegenga.  after dinner we where able to watch a another james bond in the cockpit very nice.



moral remained high the following day and we where able to manage another bond movie in the cockpit but that night the wind and the swell really started to go in the wrong direction.  we had 20 to 25 kts on the nose and short choppy seas bashing into the hull.  it reminded me of the baha bash .  the only upside was less water in the boat.  we still got a small leak in the fwd hatch and also a bit of water coming in the fwd side hatches but nothing that could not be constrained with a few towels.



the real problem was the current we where up at 2800 rpm and only making 4.2 krts.  at 330 am on the 29th we where looking at another 44 hours and 75 gal of fuel required to make grenada and we had about 90 gal.  at dawn we where 180nm and still showing 44 hours and 75 gal to go buy we where down to 80 gal.  so i woke the crew and told allie we where going to have to bail l and sail north.  she took the news very well considering we had been hoping for only one more night at sea and now i had no idea how long we where going to be sailing for or where we would end up



as soon as we started sailing things changed dramatically.  we had a reefed main and jib and where doing 6 to 7 kts with 20 to 25 kts of wind.  it was very pleasant although it took allie a bit to get the hang of walking around the boat on the side of everything.  



i also discovered a leak in the hatch over the nav station resulting in water dripping on the laptop.  i mopped things up but it seems i have lost a few keys, including the delete button .  fortunately i was able to tighten the latch and stop the leaking.  of course the cord on the laptop picked this point to fail as well , i looked down at the floor and saw sparks coming out of the charger unit.  fortunately i have a space dc adaptor that seems to work about 50% of this time.



we had a few issues the most interesting was opening the aft head and seeing it full of water.  the shower drain had gotten pugged up and water was coming in through the sink thru hull due to our excessive heal.  i made the mistake of saying "we are sinking" to allie who took me literally for a second.  we actually had to heave to to get the water out of the sink and the thru hull closed.  in the heave to it was remarkably calm but we where doing 2 kts away from our destination.



i got the hose out and tried to blow the obstruction down the drain.  after many attempts i finally took the hose apart in the bilge and blow water the other way.  i got some piece of plastic and a bunch of hair but then the drain worked smoothly.  after one more heave to to drain and clean the bathroom we where good to go.



i did my famous yaki soba for dinner and  we managed to do yet another bond this time a little less comfortable due to the heal.  of course i waited until sunset to run the genset and discovered i could not get it started.  i noticed the fuel pump was not making its standard noise so after i changed the filter and transferred the remaining fuel into the main tank i was able to get it going.



we had a great day sailing at about 50 deg off the wind.  as the day progressed we where pointing anywhere between st martin and antigua..  aliie went over the cruising guide in eager anticipation of making landfall somewhere.  we had another great sunset and over a few to many r&c's i finally got around to telling allie my somolian pirate story.



in the morning it looked like we where going to be hitting  monsarat.  we thought about motoring to antigua but about midday with the winds coming up i finally settled on nevis.  we could make it falling off 5 degrees and when we did we accelerated to 7 to 8 kts.  it was an amazing sail with the boat blasting along.  



we got into nevis about 9pm so it was quite dark but i picked a spot close to where sunshines beach bar was supposed to be on the chart.  we motored in until about 25 feet and then dropped 30 meters.  we made spaghetti with sausage Bolognese sauce and celebrated our travel.  our 3 day trip had morphed into a 5 day 550nm event .  the good news was we still had 3/4 of a tank having used next to no fuel after we started sailing.



cheers,
Roger