We trolled a fishing line for some of our long passage between Trinidad and Aruba.
Category Archives: At sea
Our Route So Far
Money laundering on On Delay
Life aboard is a constant battle against mold and mildew. Something gets damp, and, before we’ve even realized it’s damp, it’s been colonized by some mold. The most recent mold growth was in our emergency cupboard. We keep our first-aid kit, grab bag and emergency water together. We’d noticed some dampness in the dry goods cabinet and eventually traced it to a water bottle leaking in the emergency cabinet higher up and a few feet away.
Route Recap: August
Sunday, August 26 to Wednesday, August 29 : to Nikky Beach, Aruba (map)
Our longest sail to date: We left Trinidad at midnight on Sunday morning and sailed 80 hours downwind to Aruba. It was about 500 miles as the crow flies and about 600 miles through the water.
Running from Ernesto
Saturday, August 4th, Tobago
Early this week, the models indicated that the next tropical depression/storm/hurricane might pass right through Grenada.
Route Recap: July
Monday, July 30 : to Port Louis Marina, St. George’s, Grenada (map)
We motored some and sailed some down the east coast of Grenada to the main port, where we took a slip in the fancy Port Louis Marina. (We plan to stay here until Wednesday, August 1st.)
Safety at Sea Part 2: Drogue Day
When we first started out we practiced our man overboard drills.
Another safety aspect is sailing in heavy weather. When there are strong winds and heavy seas, the boat can pitch-pole. That is to say it can slide down the face of a steep wave, bury its nose and tip over. There is a diagram here. For various reasons this is more of a risk with catamarans than monohulls. Continue reading
Route recap: June
Saturday June 30: Deshaies, Guadaloupe (map)
We arrived in Deshaies around 8:30 am and dropped anchor. We hung out and had a lazy day: snorkeling, swimming, reading, interwebs, snacking, and chores.
Friday June 29: Leave Gustavia and head towards Guadaloupe
We ate delicious Breton crepes for breakfast.
We made two trips to the chandlery again today in our efforts to fix the starboard freshwater pump. (Maybe it is fixed now; I hope.)
We checked out of Gustavia around noon and set sail towards Guadaloupe. We had good wind for once — we sailed and pinched our way with only a very short tack to avoid Redonda.
When abeam of St. Kitts, we deployed our new drogue to see how it would work. It slowed the boat to around 4 knots.
Wednesday June 27 and Thursday June 28: Gustavia, St. Barthélemy (map)
Nice days in Gustavia: a good mix of errands, good food, boat work and exploring the town.
We have decided that it is not so important after all that we get to Grenada by June 30th. Maybe we’ll stop in Guadaloupe for a few days before we go to Grenada.
Monday June 25 and Tuesday June 26: From Anegada, British Virgin Islands to Gustavia, St. Barthélemy
We upped anchor in Anegada at 8:30 on Monday and, after a lot of sailing and tacking (220 boat miles to go ~100 direct miles), we arrived at St. Barth’s around 4 pm on Tuesday.
Growing Food on On Delay
I’m getting back to my wanna-be hippy roots and have started growing my own bean sprouts and culturing yogurt.
The initial bean sprout experiment was a success — sprouts sprout twice as fast in the heat of the tropics than in SF.
Jane and her bean sprouts. (Grown in the odd pasta-and-more container left in the galley by the previous owners of On Delay.)
The cupboard above the freezer pump gets very hot — the freezer pump runs a lot keeping our cold food not-quite frozen in the hot weather. Turns out that this hot cupboard is a great place to culture yogurt. Today’s batch was the best yet — made from Chobani Greek yogurt, milk powder, evaporated milk, a pinch of salt and a touch of gelatine.
Yogurt culture cupboard.
Route recap: May
Wednesday May 30th to Thursday May 31st: At sea between Great Exuma and Turks and Caicos
These were our first full days at sea. It took a while to get used to it. We did watches: four hours during the day and three hours at night. This is when it’s great to be a foursome. Cruising couples have to be on watch half the day, we only had to be on watch for a quarter of the day.
Not much to see: In one of my four hour watches, I saw : one flying fish, one small floating plastic item, two spouts from a whale.
A high point was heaving to and going for a midday swim in flat seas, 30 miles from land where the sea was 15,000 ft deep.