This must have been the slowest passage EVER ! We left St. Davids bay at 15h UTC and arrived 07h next day. That’s a 16 hours trip in which we sailed about 45 miles giving an average speed of a whopping 2.8knots !
The start was good, running before the wind along the south coast of Grenada. Rounding the SW-tip of the island we hoisted the main sail and had little wind. But that freshened up only half an hour later increasing to a stable 5 Beaufort. We made a leg out to NW and tacked back towards the coast 2 hours later. Just to find ourselves in front of the harbour of St. Georges. We’ve made three miles in nearly two hours !!
The current runs strong along the coast of Grenada and the next idea was to run under engine, just a few hundered meters off the coast. Here the current was slightly less and we made slow progress towards north. It was a little frustrating to run under engine the whole night but as the wind was coming from NNE and that was exactly our direction – we had no better option. We arrived in the dark, around 03h local time. While entering the harbour we nearly hit a large towing vessel that sat in the entrance of the bay without light. Funny – nearly all the amateur sailboats had their anchor light on but NONE of the four professionally operated vessels. Heh.
So we dropped the anchor in five meters of clear water and fell into the bunks minutes later. It’s always exciting to wake up and then have a first look at the island you just landed on. – And it looks nice ! The island is green, a few houses here and there, a sand beach, palm trees. Everything you’d expect of an island in the Caribbean.
We’ve found the internet in a cafe at the beach called ‘Lazy turtle’, have a cold pineapple juice while the kids explore the beach. Afterwards we’ll walk over to the other side of the island and then wait for our friends, the SY Kira to arrive !