Night Sail to Grenada

From: Charlotteville, Tobago
To: Woburn Bay, Grenada

We left Charlotteville around 22:00, to arrive in Grenada around noon the next day. The charts warned us against arriving at night, because of the many reefs and missing buoys on the south side of the island.

We glided out of Man O’ War Bay under spinnaker(a large light sail that is used when the wind comes _from behind_ your boat) and an almost full moon. Tobago sank behind the horizon and the wind gradually increased from 5 to 15 knots. Barbara took first watch, from 22:00 to 2:00. She woke me up a few times when small fishing boat lights appeared, but none of them warranted a course change.

I took the second watch, from 2:00 to 6:00. We passed a few more fishing boats in the distance, but then nothing anymore. A small dolphin pod came around to play a bit. The wind speed stayed between 13 and 16 knots. Very peaceful. I sat looking at the waves, letting my mind wander, doing a bit of soul searching and software architecture — I know, but it’s a hobby.

Barbara took over again at sunrise. We watched the sun come up together and I went to bed. Around 9:30, the Equatorial Current was pushing us westward so fast that Barbara had to gradually adjust our course to the north, so the wind shifted to our side. Around 10:30, we had to roll in the spinnaker and continue on mainsail.

We arrived in Le Phare Blue marina around 13:00. I tried calling them on the radio. No answer. I tried another radio. Still no answer. I motored over to another catamaran that had people on board fixing things. “How can we contact the marina?” “Well, it’s Sunday, there’s no one here.” Damn you, 17th century priests!

We went out to sea again and anchored in a neigbouring bay (€0 per night), with a fantastic view of a very expensive looking resort ($140,000 per night).