We are truly enjoying the cruising life and just coming and going where and when we choose. In this first photo we had walked from Prickly Bay to True Blue Bay and just sat to enjoy the scenery.
Then a much needed haircut performed by Bud (note he is in his dive BC????)
After the haircut we moved the boat to Clarke’s Court Bay where the guys tried their skills in a local “pool” tournament…John came in 2nd place and Jonathon lost to a 10 year old pool shark 
It is another name for the Sunfish. On our sail back to Grenada, we spotted several of these funny-looking yet rather large aquatic creatures.
Got an early start and headed to Customs where we had to “clear out” of Carriacou. Then headed straight to Union Island where we had to “clear in” to St. Vincent and the Grenadines. It cost 125 Eastern Caribbean $$ (EC) to clear in Grenada, 42 EC $$ to clear out, 254 EC to clear in at Union Island. Today, an EC is worth about 40 cents. On the way over the seas were rough and, of course, that is when Jonathon catches a nice Spanish Mackeral that we made into Fish Tacos for dinner…yummy! Before dinner we had lunch at Anchor Yacht Club while waiting for the Captain to clear in. It didn’t live up to our 10 year old expectations/memories of THE BEST PIZZA around. The nurse shark pond was still there but the lobster tank was long gone. Quite a few Island Dogs hung around for our scraps.
From Union, we headed straight for Tobago Cays. It is so beautiful, no explanation is needed. Check out the large iguana roaming through the cactus…ouch!
Tomorrow we are going to explore Petit Tabac, where Captain Jack Sparrow (aka Johnny Depp in Pirates of The Caribbean) was stranded on a deserted Island. It is surrounded by a reef and very hard to get to but we are going to do our best!
Well we didn’t make it across the reef but here is the photo of that infamous island.
After snorkeling with the sea turtles and crashing the beach BBQ of the Royal Clipper ship this afternoon, Jennifer decided we just had to have our own Beach BBQ so at sunset we headed over, cooked ourselves a wonderful dinner and stayed until after dark, making for a fun ride back to Jay Sea Dee…luckily we brought a flashlight and Jonathon came up with an ingenious use of the water bottle/nightlight. Our best dinner experience yet! Thanks Jenny!
Yesterday we moved from Tyrell Bay, Carriacou to a beautiful area next to Sandy Island. Before leaving we took a quick dinghy tour of the Mangrove Swamp-Oyster Beds. Not many oysters left for the plucking. It was pretty rough last night with the wind but today the move paid off in Gold! We dinghied to the Island and all went snorkeling. We are in snorkel Heaven. I think I saw almost every fish on The “Caribbean Fish Chart”…just awesome! Capt. John said he snorkeled over 5 minutes with a turtle…how cool is that?! Tonight is jerk chicken on the BBQ.
At 12/22/2011 13:21 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 12°13.02'N 061°11.35'W sailing at 7.5 knots on a course of 244T
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Before lunch we stopped at the Spice and Herb garden where we got to smell, taste, and feel many herbs and got the local remedies they are used for. The plants in order are tamarind, an all-spice tree and then a cocoa tree.
After a quick lunch stop we went to the Clark’s Court Rum Factory. We had been here 6 years ago and John, being the mechanical engineer, was so fascinated with the steam driven engine. Since then, unfortunately, the factory had a fire and with the help of hurricane Ivan (which depleted the Islands sugar cane), the factory is now running on more modern methods but we got a tour of the old engine and factory anyway.
What a great way to start the season!
What a way to start the New Year…meeting up with my boys on Jay Sea Dee located in Grenada, “The Spice Island”. Jennifer and I flew in on January 1st. We took a day to relax, unpack and get used to the humid climate. Then today John had arranged an island tour with Henry’s Tours. Our driver, Von, picked us up from Port Louis at 9am sharp. It is supposed to be the “dry” season but has been raining on and off daily. The beautiful thing about that is we have seen many rainbows as you can see in the photo. We drove through the capital, St. Georges and saw the Fort in the distance (photo #2). In its history, Grenada changed hands several times between the French and British. The Island was discovered by Columbus on his third voyage in 1498 although there are artifacts dating prior to that suggesting it was occupied by the Caribs long before that.
As we drove North out of St. Georges we stopped at Annandale Falls. As soon as we got out of the van we were greeted by a local who plays his guitar and improvises a song just about you. Today he told Jennifer she was like Jennifer Love-Hewitt, Jonathon was Antonio Banderas, John was John Travolta and I was Celine Dionne. Quite funny actually. We proceeded to the Water Falls and watched another local do a cliff dive.
Moving on we started heading to the East coast and stopped at Grand Etang Lake.
Next stop, the Nutmeg processing factory. Grenada used to be the top exporter of nutmeg in the world but after 2004 when hurricane Ivan destroyed much of its crops and infrastructure, they now only produce about 2% of the world’s crop. Locals bring in burlap bags of the nuts which are then weighed and sorted. A nutmeg usually has a red striped covering of “mace” but the farmers strip that off to sell seperately. The women sit on the benches to sort the nuts based on size and quality. We were informed over and over again that it is ONLY women that do that job…hmmmm.
Our destination is Grenada, deep in the West Indies of the Caribbean Sea. Our entire rout from Tenerife to St Georges in Grenada is 2806 nautical miles (6000 feet in a nautical mile vs 5280 feet in a statute mile). We are sailing to a predetermined way point southwest of the Canary Islands and then we will turn west and sail direct to Grenada. As with the previous Trans-Atlantic Voyage, we are using Commanders Weather service to provide expert weather forecasts and routing guidance while at sea.
The first day at sea is always the hardest. It takes a while to get your "Sea Legs". Each crew has their own tried and true method or concoction to get these sea legs. I have never been sea sick, but I always take a pill the first 12 hours just to be safe. Today everyone seems to be just fine and adapting to the new watch schedule posted by the Captain. With a crew of 5, each taking a 3 hour stand on watch, we get the luxury of 3 hours on, then 9 hours off, 3 hours on, and then 12 hours off!!!. Every 5th day, a crew member is assigned galley duty and received of all watches for a 24 hour period.
The first day at sea we a played around with the new whisker pole and the dual head sails. There are many more lines coming to the cockpit than ever before. I decided to take it easy on the crew and boat for the 1st night and just fly the main and the staysail which is flying out to windward with a preventer line. We are moving along at about 6-7 knots in some very very rolling seas. I predict we will make Grenada in 16-17 days, putting us on land just before Xmas.
Stay tuned for more.
At 12/6/2011 08:46 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 27°03.09'N 017°44.45'W sailing at 6.7 knots on a course of 235T
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The crew finished off the leftovers from our Thanksgiving feast for dinner tonight. I am feeling more in the mood to work in the galley now that things have calmed down. We were visited by a lively school of dolphins this afternoon. They jumped and played off our bow for about a half hour before moving on. In honor of that treat, we watched "Le Grande Blue" on the DVD tonight. Bud tried fishing today but no joy, will try again tomorrow. We did finally cut into and sample some of the Jamon I bought in Spain. The whole leg is tied up in the corner of the cockpit.
All systems are functioning very well at this point, the hard work and preparations in Almerimar Spain the previous 2 months seem to be paying off.
More tomorrow......
At 11/27/2011 19:06 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 34°27.19'N 009°30.35'W sailing at 7.3 knots on a course of 225T
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We just finished a pan of Jodi's homemade lasagna which we had been saving in the freezer since she left: it was well worth the wait!! The crew will be settling into a 3 hour watch system. Greg Kerlin has 9-12, Bud has the graveyard watch from 12-3 and I have the dawn watch from 3-6 am. We are working our way west to get off the Moroccan coast and then we will turn southwest early in the morning and sail straight for the Canaries. The weather is good, the sky's are crystal clear. Stay tuned for more updates.
At 11/26/2011 19:24 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 35°43.36'N 006°48.66'W sailing at 6.8 knots on a course of 253T
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At 11/11/2011 03:35 UTC saling vessel JAY SEA DEE was at 36°15.24'N 004°43.49'W sailing at 6.2 knots on a course of 255T
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As you can see from the map above we have conquered the Mediterranean. This only shows where the boat went during the last 3 summers. The inland tours we made while over here in Europe were almost as equal to the those of Jay Sea Dee. As we prepare to head back to the Caribbean and eventually the USA, I leave no regrets behind. We seen and experienced more than we ever dreamed, and been to many places an average American tourist would not get to.
After transiting over 3500nm around the Mediterranean this summer alone, staying in just one place for the last 6 weeks has been quite a change of pace. Jay Sea Dee is in Almerimar Spain, about 120 miles east of Gibraltar. Of course there has been much work to do, including a major repair of our Mastervolt Generator due to 2 wires rubbing, chaffing, and then shorting out. I am still waiting on a circuit board that my son Jonathon will hand carry from the USA next week. I have a 5 page list of boat tasks, in Outline form, prioritized, categorized, and status updated each day. Despite battling a case of Adult Attention Deficit Disorder, I am 90% complete and on schedule !
One significant project has been the acquisition and installation of a whisker pole for Jay Sea Dee. I had read an article last May in Cruising World written by the famous sailor Don Street. The article was entitled “ The proper trade wind rig”. The basic configuration is shown below and it includes flying dual headsails. One to windward and one to leeward. As many may recall, the first trip across the Atlantic by Jay Sea Dee was dominated by the problem of no wind and lots of motor sailing. We were worried about fuel the whole time.
This voyage will be different. First and foremost, the leg between the Canary Islands and the Caribbean will be 2800nm instead of the 1850nm we had from Bermuda to the Azores 2-1/2 years ago. This time we have no hope of making it by motoring alone, we must be able to log 150+ sea miles a day under sail alone. So when I read this article it made perfect sense to set up Jay Sea Dee for this type of sailing. Even though we had recently replaced our Genoa with a brand new 120% from Quantum sail loft in Greece we saved our old 110% headsail as a back up. I will use that sail for the windward sail and pole it out with a whisker pole.
After much research, many emails and numerous Skype calls, I finally decided to buy a Forespar telescoping whisker pole from the USA and ship it over to Spain. This pole pole extends from 15 to 27 feet. There were no suppliers here in Europe selling a telescoping pole that big,they were all trying to sell me a fixed length pole. The minimum length I need for Jay Sea Dee is equal to the J value: which is the distance from the mast forward to the head sail ( 19.5 feet for our IP485). I wanted to be able to store the whisker pole on the front of the mast on a track for easy deployment. The problem is, my radar dome is mounted at 16 feet above the deck on the front of the mast. Storing a 19.5 foot fixed length pole would entail relocation of the radar array further up the mast ( a major headache).
The Forespar pole got the vote. We bought the pole on Sept 17th, it shipped on Oct 6th, and arrived here on Oct 19th via DHL (express air cargo). The freight and duty and VAT tax was almost 50% of the the price of the pole, but the sum total was far less than even a simple fixed length aluminum pole sold here in Spain. I have completed the installation of a T track on the front of our mast. This involve drilling and tapping over 50 holes in the mast.
Jonathon will be here next week with the balance of part I require to complete the installation. He and I will sail to Gibraltar and wait for our 3rd crew member Greg Kerlin to arrive. We have never met Greg in person but I feel like we are good ole friends. Greg Kerlin owns an IP380 in North Carolina. Greg followed our blog when we voyaged across the Atlantic in 2009 and incredibly took the initiative and solved a technical problem with our GPS while we were underway. Greg has earned his spot on this cruise and I am really looking forward to the time with him. Charlie and Jennifer McNamara ( our Bahamas cruising buddies fro S/V Lady) will meet us in the Canary Islands on December 4th. Then off we go!!
Its time to move south, it snowed in the Sierra Nevada mountains yesterday !!!
