The coast of Florida was left behind with an fatasy of aiming for the Caribbean, but with the first stop at Andros to deliver some Bibles to the High School as well as introducing water purification devices to the school. Both donations were accepted with great gratitude. The people of Andros are very warm and friendly – definitely an island where we will be returning to oftentimes.
As we were studying the wind to determine which direction we were going to take, and also where our next destination would be, the idea of sailing directly to Grenada started to germinate. The traditional route called the “Thorny Path” would take a minimum of 40 days with anchoring, waiting for the next weather window and then sailing from island to island.
A friend hinted that we could be in St Martin within 8 days if we sailed on the Atlantic side of the Bahamas directly to St Martin. The wind was perfect to head to the northern part of Eleuthera, and then we would make a decision to stay or to shoot for the Caribbean and even then, for several days we would have the option to abandon the plan and sail to one of the outer Bahamian islands, then Turks and Caicos, then Dominican Republic, then Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and then lastly any of the Leeward or Windward Islands. And so the journey began.
The sail from Andros to the northern tip of Eleuthera was great with the winds on our beam at a constant 14-16 knots. It always amazes me that on an open ocean with no land or other vessels in sight, the one other boat on the vast ocean would invariably be on a collision course with your boat! Fortunately both boats were alert and no collision took place.
We sailed past the tip of Eleuthera in the early evening and decided to keep on going at least through the night. And so days melted into evenings and then into mornings again – with winds in our sails and waves alongside the boat. We came to absolutely love the idea of real offshore sailing. It was surprising how even the lack of a full night’s sleep didn’t really bother us much because we both took naps as often as we felt like it during the day – as long as one was always on watch, the schedule was easygoing and pretty soon we fell into a routine that worked very well for the both of us.
There’s always an abundance of food and drinks on Mama-Wana, so we ate extremely well all the way. The canned meats and stews came in extremely handy. A quick pot of rice, some steamed veggies and a homemade stroganoff, goulash, beef stew or lamb curry – all in a few minutes. For breakfast we ate eggs and bacon on toast, oatmeal, grits, sorghum porridge or fried bread with cheese and syrup. Lunches mostly consisted of a salad of sorts – tuna, chicken, Caesar or a mixed salad with whatever is easy on hand.
As the land fell further and further away, and the winds kept from the north east, we merrily sailed along. Unfortunately the weather predictions are not always spot-on, specifically on that exact spot where your boat happens to be, so we were beating into the winds and waves for most of our journey east. The same promise was believed everyday – tomorrow the wind will turn just a little and we can make the tack south towards Grenada with a smoother sail. That remained a promise for the entire trip. The tack was eventually made, but we still beat into the wind and waves!
St Martin definitely became more and more inviting, but with the winds never changing for a favorable sail, it was better to bypass it instead of motor sailing into the high waves. Barbuda was our next waypoint, but we realized that we had to go to Anguilla first to clear customs before we could go on land in Barbuda, so we decided to keep on going. Guadeloupe was the next waypoint but after transiting the cut through the two islands, the wind ushed us into the Atlantic yet again. We made the tack and then tacked west to pass Dominica on it’s southern point.
Again, Martinique looked like a feasible stop, but checking out the charts and the internet, it seemed like fairly rolly anchorages at the northern end of Martinique and we argued that we’d rather the “rolling along” at 4 knots, than to anchor and be as uncomfortable. So at his point there was no sense in stopping before our final destination. As we passed Martinique in the early morning hours, we were entertained to a huge Tall Ship that passed our starboard on it’s way to possibly Martinique.
With the sun almost rising on out 16th day at sea, Andre announced that we would go into Carriacou, which is the first island of Grenada to check in. This made perfect sense since we had a firearm on board and the customs office keeps it in safe keeping until you check out again. This way we could explore further south and on our way back clear out again on the northern most point and get our firearm as we leave. We anchored in Tyrrell Bay shortly after eight in the morning, took a nice long nap before Andre went ashore to clear customs. We dropped anchor 90 minutes short of 16 days from leaving Morgan’s Bluff in Andros.
Wheew! We made our first long ocean passage without stopping – 16 non-stop days at sea was a major accomplishment for us and for Mama-Wana. She performed exceptionally well and plowing through the high seas without much effort. We did take on quite a bit of water and the floorboards in the salon area were covered most of the time. We realized that the two hatches – one in the salon and the other in the v-berth were leaking profusely, and then also noted that almost all the portholes were leaking, so we didn’t think we were going to sink, so we kept on going and just dried the floor every so often.
When we first dropped anchor, our first order of business was to stop the leaks in the hatches. I was perplexed at the fact that literally all our portholes were leaking and then to my embarrassment, upon inspection, found that none of them were tightly closed – some were just hooked on and not even secured!! At least that one was an easy fix LOL. Note – check everything properly before making any kind of passage -:)
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