Sailing past the Caribbean

Listening to an audiobook on the fast sail north.

From Grenada we sailed 50 or so nautical miles north to the Grenadines for a short week in the Tobago Cays and from there we bypassed the rest of the eastern Caribbean island chain and sailed directly to St. Croix. Between covid testing costs for a family of four, lengthened check-in and check-out processes at each island, and a schedule to meet which meant that a few days at a few islands wasn't worth the windward beat, all paired with easy domestic flights for Hans from the USVI--skipping the eastern Caribbean was actually a pretty easy choice. Even so, as we sailed past all those dramatic, lush, and historic islands on our way north, I couldn't help but feel that we were missing a big part of the adventure.

 Cruising with kids and cruising while working is a different experience than an open-ended, fully-funded cruise. This is definitely not a freewheeling, long-term vacation--we have daily, weekly, and monthly commitments and a schedule to maintain. But it's still fun and we prefer this lifestyle much more than other alternatives; it just means it's not all fun and games all the time. 

But first, back to Grenada. Freja met a new best friend on one of our last days in Grenada and the two were joined at the hip for an entire weekend. We stayed an extra day and indulged with a stay at Port Louis Marina to enjoy the pool and be close to shopping to provision for the Grenadines. That also meant another couple days with our friends on s/v Bravo, rum punches and pool time all around! The Grenadines required pcr tests for entry, which cost us $500USD total. Gulp.

late night party to round out our time in Grenada

The extra couple days in Grenada gave us the chance to see the largest single masted sailboat in the world. Bonkers!

We left Port Louis Marina and stopped a few miles north to snorkel at the underwater sculpture park, then dropped the dive mooring and continued north toward Union Island in the Grenadines. Weather is consistent in the eastern Caribbean: ENE, east, ESE at around 15-20 knots. As we started up the north coast of Grenada we were hit with 25-30 knots on the nose (north!). UGH. We assumed it was funneling around the north of the island creating an acceleration zone, so we tacked offshore, motorsailing at 2000rpm with the staysail. The wind stayed strong, north of 25 knots, but we were committed so we kept going, motorsailing and tacking to Carriacou. Pre-sunset arrival at Union proved to be impossible so we spent a calm night at Tyrell Bay before making the final slog to Union. Check-in at Union confirmed our decision to skip covid bureaucracy--Union requires that all international arrivals use an agent to check-in, so we had to add $75USD to our $500 covid testing costs. This was turning out to be an expensive week in the Tobago Cays. 

The motorsail from Grenada to Carriacou was so rough that the kids and I spent most of the time sleeping.

All checked in, we headed east to the Tobago Cays Marine Park and enjoyed a couple days of snorkeling with turtles and along the wall at the edge of the reef. Matilda started to get the hang of diving down and is starting to equalize the pressure in her ears. It poured rain the last two days we were there, which, while cozy, was also a little unfortunate. Soon enough it was time to sail north to St. Croix so we could have a few days with friends before Hans had to fly back to Texas to work.

Sargassum collecting all over windward beaches in the southern Caribbean

Here comes some weather!

We were socked in for a couple days.

The beauty of sailing directly to St. Croix is the wind angle. Instead of sailing due north and having the wind more or less on the nose, we pointed further west and had winds mainly on the beam and a little aft of beam. PW's favorite point of sail and it showed. We flew! Average speeds were 7-7.5 knots, helped along with the night Hans pushed us faster and we averaged 8 knots during his watch. We made around 350 nautical miles in 54 hours, not too shabby. Unfortunately I was on and off seasick the whole time. It was a good point of sail for the kids and they were in good spirits and not sick at all. A big part of seasickness is a mental game and we started with the autopilot acting funny, a continued bad electrical connection in the chartplotter, and a few other glitches which put me on edge. I had a few glorious hours here and there where the water was sparkling and the boat was moving beautifully and I stopped daydreaming of life on a farm and was reminded why we live this life.

The sail north was very squally. This is what it looks like on the radar...

Real life.

Arrival in St. Croix was like a little homecoming since we had lived there for two months a year ago. We called our friends as soon as we had the hook down and the sails stowed. We dinghied ashore and met for dinner; Hans and I were very tired and a little spacey but the kids were in 7th heaven playing with old friends. And of course it absolutely poured rain during dinner and we had left all the hatches open. Our bed was soaked, at least with fresh water, and there were puddles everywhere. Rookie moves.

We spent the first few days catching up with friends and stopping at some of our favorite places on island, including the humane society where Matilda got some puppy love.

Sunday evening fun at the Leatherback Brewery.

We all piled onto PW on Saturday for a sail to Buck Island. It's a National Park and unfortunately they've changed the rules so you can't anchor overnight anymore. Still, we enjoyed our short time ashore and had a perfect downwind sail back to Christiansted.

Kids on the foredeck, adults in the cockpit!

The crews of Jacumba and Whisper/Positive Waves back on the water together!