Arrival in Grenada

Eventually on Monday just after day break Valent crept across the finish line under sail. Valent successfully crossed the Atlantic Ocean, from Las Palmas, Gran Canaria via Mindelo, Cape Verde. Our total distance was around 3,000nm and we completed the trip without recourse to our main engine for propulsion. This may have been rather a mistake as 5 mins of engine at the end would have seen us finish nearly 2 hours earlier – but a sense of pride drove us, however misguided it may have been. We had sailed to 0.1nm (200yd) from the finish line when the wind finally stopped. Finally the tracker agreed that we had crossed the line, (though we thought we had a couple of times before), not helped by the fact that the tracker took 40 mins to update while we kept trying to finish again!

We were welcomed at Port Louis Marina by an enthusiastic and smiley welcoming committee complete with a large colourful banner. After our 17 days at sea it was quite a shock to find a lump of land in the way, lots of boats and a multitude of people. After successfully parking in our cosy spot, managing not to hit any super yachts we were greeted with Rum Punch. Following that with some beer and a bacon&egg sarnie (using the last of our UK bacon specifically saved for this occasion) quickly revived the crew.

The crossing itself was fairly uneventful. The conditions were kind, wind rarely above 15kts and we only had a couple of squalls towards the end. We spent about half the trip sailing with just the Bora parasailor up and it proved a very versatile and comfortable sail.

Fishing was increasingly good and we managed to land 6 Amberjack, 2 Tuna, 2 Dorado and a Wahoo (on the last day). The freezer is now well stocked with fish. We ate well on the trip and never had recourse to any tinned meals. We still have 4 or 5 meals in the freezer and I’m sure that they will prove useful at a later date.

We only had minor breakages and these were in general due to carelessness (tiredness?). The most annoying of these is the damage to the VHF command mic, hopefully this may just need a new socket and not a complete new remote handset. We require a new forward navigation light and one of the horseshoe rings has disintegrated. Other jobs include redoing the breather on the grey water tank, fitting a better door hook to an internal door to stop the annoying rattle and fit all the engine parts that Ann (Mike’s wife) kindly brought out from the UK with her.

All that is left for us to do is to get used to being tied alongside, get to know Grenada and then explore the Caribbean and its unique atmosphere. As part of that we have tickets for the T20 cricket later next week, West Indies vs England playing here on Grenada.

With heartfelt thanks to Neil, Mike & Dwight for joining the crew and making the crossing so enjoyable for Lucy & myself.