Portland to Grenada

June 20, 2018

Some might say that it is the very definition of madness to winter over in Maine and leave for the tropics as summer begins to burst onto the scene. Those people would be absolutely correct.

Nevertheless, that is just what we have done. The trip from Portland to Grenada took us within shouting distance of Bermuda, was entirely upwind, and graced us with a Gulf Stream crossing that was a low scale version of the worst conditions we could have hoped against (wind against current).  The first few days had much of the crew horizontal and green.

Once we crossed the current though, the skies brightened up, the seas moderated, and the breeze blew more or less constantly at 10-15 knots (at 45º-90º). For a boat like Eva, these are dreamy conditions. The kids played D&D and other imagination games all day, the adults had languorous, luxurious naps, and we all enjoyed the short peaceful watches (with 4 adults, nobody had to be up more than 3 hours at night).

We saw frigate birds, boobies, shearwaters, swallows (one landed on Claude’s arm), tropic birds, flying fish, dolphins saragossa weed filled with shrimp and other tiny critters, and even a large pod of whales.

 

See the whale tale, right next to the shroud?

When the wind died for 48hrs, we took the opportunity to swim in the middle of the ocean. The last chance we had to do this was in the South China Sea in 2015.

We ate well too. Some claimed that, in 14 days at sea, they didn’t even get sick of cabbage. The author of this post may disagree, but we all concur that the food, especially the birthday cake, was of the highest quality.

Speaking of birthdays. Ruby’s personal goal was to get to Grenada before her 14th birthday. She lamented that her last two birthdays were at sea, and though none of the adults believe that this is gripe worthy, it was her birthday wish and we tried like heck to indulge it. We succeeded too, sort of. We made it to Grenada on June 18th at 10pm, but we couldn’t make a safe entry into Prickly Bay, so we stoped for the night in St. Georges.

We woke up before the sun on the 19th, and motored around to our final destination in time for the beginning of the day long feast which constitutes a Conveva birthday celebration. I was pleased with this situation because it gives her the right to claim three birthdays at sea, whenever she realizes how much cooler that it is.

The rest of the big day was rounded out with clearing in, sushi (reportedly very good), seven home made pizzas and a lemon curd filled, lemon cake with white chocolate butter cream glaze.

We managed to secure an anchor spot right up close to the public beach. There is relatively low swell where we are and at least two kid boats have already been identified (one of which was over for some splashing around this morning). I suspect that we will branch out over the upcoming months to visit the nearby islands, but Grenada seems to have been a great choice for hurricane season.

Pizza under the sun shade. At anchor in Prickly Bay, Grenada

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