Grenada To St Martin.

Wednesday 29 April, 2020.

We finally received permission to sail to Tyrell Bay on Carriacou Island and lifted anchor at 07:45. The wind is variable, as usual, in the lee of Grenada Island, so we zigzag along the west coast. It is likely we will have to motor for part of the coast until we get to the north coast and will be back in the easterly trade wind. As the wind freshened and we had the Genoa tight, with two big bangs both splicing of the Genoa sheets Broke.

We arrived in Tyrell Bay at 13:30 and immediately went ashore to clear out with the immigration and customs. Did the last shopping at the supermarket to get rid of our last EC$ and I picked up the missing laundry. Back on board Serena did some more cooking, Alex repaired the Genoa sheets and we did last minutes computer work while we still had data left and we set the course on the plotter. Alex is very handy for PC work and has set us up with the Predict Wind that calculates the optimal course in according to get the best wind and angel to sail with, i.e. the fastest passage. Then a few beers and we were off to bed.

Thursday 30 April, 2020.

Our calculations for the coming 356 NM sail to Marigot Bay, St Martin is for about 44-50 h, so as to arrive in daylight, we decided to set sail at 09:30 and arrive St Martin during the morning in two days time, unless we would make stops on the way.

As I write this, we are now at sea and the east wind varies between 16-24 kn and the boat speed is 7.5-9.3 kn, which is faster than we had calculated, but time will tell what our average speed will be.

The morning is wonderful as the sun raised and we had mostly clear sky. Our course is 343° T, so the sheets are eased a bit, giving a most pleasant sail. The waves are 1.5-2 meters and comes at an acceptable angle, so the boats movement is pleasant.

However I feel saddened to have to race through the Caribbean and to see all these wonderful islands flying pass us on starboard. I had planned to spend several months visiting these islands, but now we can only pass them on a distance, as they are almost all closed because of the Corona-virus. How sad, but with these islands closed or on lockdown, I don’t have a choice as we need to be out of the Caribbean before June, which is the official start of the Hurricane season.

The sea has become a bit agitated, but it has been a beautiful dark blue colour, with some white tops on the waves. As the day progressed the wind strengthen and the waves became 2.5 m high. By mid afternoon it started to get a bit rough and we installed the boom break to avoid the boom banging as we rolled. The speed continues to be good and the weather continues to be perfect. So far, we have seen only a few clouds that are always hovering over the higher islands and only a few continues past the islands as they mostly disappear once they leave the high peaks of these islands.

Friday 1 May, 2020.

At 00:20 the waves has increased to 3-4 meters and the wind fluctuate around east at 18-24 kn. The west going current is 2.3-3 kn, so we have it on starboard at 90°, making the boat movement unpleasant. But, on a positive side, the speed continues to be good at 7-9 kn, with the average speed about 8 kn.

Yesterday the Grenada Government announced 3 more Coronavirus cases, bringing the total to 21, and I believe one has died. It seems that some people has not respected the “social distancing” and when we were in town shopping, I noticed several without a mask. The new cases were all related to a previous case and the company where they worked had not respected the lockdown rules, so the Government closed the company. In fact we feel safe being on New Dawn and we have hardly been on land for about 45 days. We hope to stay healthy and will stay away from people as much as possible. Not very sociable.

As to the crew, it works out well. Serena has done a lot of the work in the kitchen and is a very competent cook, always trying new recipes and ideas. She is interested in learning about sailing and did her fair share of hand steering since we left Tyrell Bay. Alex is a competent sailor and own a Hallberg-Rassy 36 which he sailed across the Atlantic to French Guyana and left her in Grenada to be hauled out, as when the lockdown came, he decided to go back to Switzerland, rather than just sit and wait for months not knowing when he could sail again.

Although most countries are closed, the French Caribbean Islands allow EU boats and nationals to enter under certain conditions. I have had to fill in several forms and send copies of our passports to the French authorities. In the end we got permission to stop in these islands. In addition I had to negotiate with the Grenada authorities to clear out as Alex is Swiss and not an EU national. I had argued that Switzerland is an EEA country and part of the Schengen. Let’s hope it will work.

We need a 14 days quarantine before being allowed to go ashore in St Martin, and they consider the quarantine to start from the day we cleared out of Grenada, I.e. as of 13 May we can go ashore. But then we will be in a hurry to collect equipment and provisioning to set sail east.

At 06:40 the wind became rough and we reefed both sails making the boat movements more agreeable in the large waves. The wind increased to 23 kn and I reefed again the sails and we are fine again, but a bit slower.

The Sargasso weed is back and there are big patches everywhere. It seems this weed has increased a lot since I last visited the Caribbean and as the 1.8-3.0 kn current runs west, I guess it will end up in the middle American countries. We have had to take in the fishing line, to avoid us catching the weed and its is a pain to untangle.

Otherwise it is a beautiful morning with hardly any clouds. Last night we passed St Lucia and managed to avoid the worth of a very big and long dark cloud that unloaded a huge amount of rain on either side of us, but when we were on the other side of the cloud we could see the formation of tornadoes and the start of water-sprouts.

 Genoa Sheets broke.

Saturday 2 May 2020.

After we passed that cloud we received Gale force winds of 36 kn for a while and after we reached the first way point we were passing Nevis, St Kitt, Statia and Saba when the wind suddenly dropped to nothing, or 4 kn, but it did not last long and as soon as we were free of these islands the wind returned and we were heading straight to St Martin about 32 NM away.

We had a Coast Guard plane flying low over us, but I could not see what country it came from, but surely we were being checked on. It was yellow and white, but we could not see its country of registration and we were too slow to get the cameras out and take photos. But I believe they were Dutch?

At 12:15 we dropped anchor in Marigot Bay and did the 356 NM with an average speed of 7.05 kn/h. Then we had lunch which included smoked herrings and a beer, before we all had a siesta. Welcome back to St Martin, where I have been many times. Great to be back.

In quarantine in Marigot Bay.

Serena made a great Chocolate Mousse.