Month at Sea (Grenada to St. Lucia, St. Marten, BVI

 A Month at Sea (Nov. 9th  - Dec. 11th)

The weather in Grenada when we boarded Dakota Dream was hot, hot, hot.  We were not acclimated to it that is for sure!  Still in high gear like we are back in North Dakota, it seemed to take us several days to slow down the movements.  Although we try not to run them often, sometimes having the air conditioners on the boat is very nice.

All alone, a tiny bay, close to shore, two anchors out.  Sweet!

It was good to see Dakota Dream!  She was possibly in better shape than had we been sailing her for the past year.  Although, I do think we would have had the bottom a bit cleaner and the broken zipper on the sail bag would have been repaired.  There was, as expected, more engine and generator hours that had accumulated since new. We would find out later that those hours were 1/3 to 1/2 the hours on identical boats we would be sailing in St. Marten and the BVI, and those boats had been purchased when we purchased Dakota Dream.

Our trip towards St. Lucia was way to uneventful.  While Sandy and I were both hoping for some good sailing experience, our anticipation for good sailing made it seem that most of what we had was flat seas and light winds.  Usually 10 degrees or less off the bow and less than 10 knots, I think we managed about 40/60 sailing vs. motor sailing.

I had been prepping Sandy for a tough slog from Bequia, around St. Vincent, and across the open to St. Lucia but when we came around the north point of St. Vincent, the sea was as flat as we had seen it!  We would have to gain our higher winds and waves experience later, hopefully sometime during the next 3 weeks while in St. Marten and the BVI.  We would be aboard two other boats identical to ours, the Moorings 3900 (Leopard 39).

Hit the wind and swells we did, on our first trip out of the harbor in St. Marten.  Six to eight foot swells and good wind.. good wind to take us directly to St. Barts.  We had been in rougher water once before, but we were motoring and it was only for a short pass, so this was good, we had the sails up and it was good to see more of what the boat was capable of.  It's a good boat.  This would be our roughest pass but not the strongest winds.. we would see that in the BVI. 

16.7 knts apparent wind, 40 deg. off, 7 knts sog.  Not bad, considering we were loaded fuel and water!  We actually did over 8 knots this day on same point of sail.  Fairly flat water really helped.