Sunday was a wash. It rained mostly. We stayed aboard and read.
Today we’ve been a bit more busy. Having checked the weather forecast and saying our farewells on the the cruiser net we dinghied into Woburn then took the bus into town to clear out of the country and to buy some final food. As immigration and customs were in the Grenada Yacht Club we popped in to say Au Revoir to Jim on Bees Knees as he’s still slipped there doing his own summer boat projects. Not much of a goodbye as we hope to be back in a week or so – definitely in time for the Grenada Carnival which is considerably larger than the ones we’ve seen to date.
Back on the boat we ate rotis we’d picked up at the supermarket then rested. Whenever we’ve been feeling sleepy today we’ve tried to nap as we don’t expect to get much sleep tonight on our crossing. To that end we even forwent our usual bottle of wine with dinner last night. Serious stuff.
When we’ve been awake we’ve been prepping the boat. Even in fairly rough seas things tend to stay on shelves but we’re being cautious about this crossing. Dealing with flying things in boats in rough seas is never simple so time spent avoiding mishaps is time worth spent. The boat is nearly ready. I still need to tie down the dinghy and run some lines fore and aft to act as jack lines (the proper ones are coming from the US).
Apart from that we’re pretty much set to go. We plan on leaving at 9pm. We are familiar with the entrance to Clarke’s Court Bay and have a number of plots of our passage in and out so we feel confident navigating out in the dark. We’re aiming to pass the Bocos (the NW tip of Trinidad) no earlier than 8am. If we look like we’re going to get there earlier will slow down. If we pass any earlier we may end up incurring overtime fees from immigration. We’ve heard they can be quite aggressive finding ways to charge sailors extra so we don’t want to give them an excuse.
Next blog from Chaguaramus.
Fair winds. See you soon.