Out-Running Bad Weather

A Week Aboard S/V Sabado: 6/18/2023 – 6/26/2023

Gooooood morning! I apologize for being a day late this week. I wasn’t feeling well yesterday but am doing much better today, so let’s jump right into it-

Here is our latest YouTube video. 🙂

Last Sunday, we took the dinghy to shore, walked to the Customs and Immigration office, and officially checked into Dominica. Ray fell in love with this island in 2019, and I instantly understood why: it was stunning, and the people were unbelievably kind. 

One of the locals affiliated with Portsmouth Association of Yacht Services (PAYS), named Andrew, picked us up that afternoon to take us down the Indian River. Historically, the river was used as an access route to the Caribbean Sea for locals to transport goods for trade with sailors along the island chain. Now, it is a protected freshwater swamp home to various species of crabs, iguanas, birds, and plants. 

No motorboats are allowed, so Andrew rowed us down the river. He told us about the impacts of Hurricane Maria and shared stories of driving a boat for the production team while filming Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest. We got to see the famous Witch House from the movie:  

At the end of the river was a small bar, so we stopped for a few drinks, and Andrew made us three woven figurines out of palm fronds to take home. 

Doesn’t the last one look like the little fish that has been living in our sail drive? 😂

We returned to Sabado, only for another PAYS man to stop by with a bowl of mangos that Andrew had picked from the tree at his house for us! 

We had planned to stay in Dominica for at least another day, but when we saw the updated weather forecast the next morning, we knew we needed to move farther South. Tropical Storm Bret was expected to hit the islands beginning Wednesday.

We reluctantly left. We hoisted our sails, shut off the engines, and set our course for Bequia. We planned to sail through the night, anchor there, and then decide if we wanted to travel the final stretch to Grenada based on the latest weather projections. 

The wind was steady, and the sea was calm. We averaged a SOG of 7kn for the majority of the trip, and we saw three different pods of dolphins, just after I had been complaining to Ray that we haven’t seen many this season! 

As the sun set, the sea state took a turn for the worse. We were slamming into waves and had lost ~3kn of speed. We decided to alter course and anchor by Martinique, hoping things would calm down overnight so we could continue in the morning. We dropped anchor just before midnight and went to bed. We were woken up at 3am by voices outside. Ray got up to investigate, only to be yelled at by several French fishermen. We didn’t understand all of what they were saying, but “you go, we fish” was crystal clear. We pulled up our anchor in the dark and motored for an hour to the next closest anchorage. We would have begun our trip to Bequia then, but the zipper on our sail bag had broken the day before, and Ray had rigged up a temporary solution that needed to be properly repaired before we could bring up the main. So, once the anchor was down, he got to work. The job took under an hour; then, we were back underway. 

The wind was light, and the waves had calmed down. We sailed on and off, with intermittent help from our motors when needed. We were hours behind schedule. As the day progressed, the wind filled out, and we sailed our way through a few squalls—nothing too bad, but we were reefed for the majority of the afternoon. Unfortunately, we couldn’t make up for our lost time, so we arrived in Bequia after dark. We tried to anchor but couldn’t get a secure grab. There was no moonlight, and the boats in the anchorage were poorly lit. We couldn’t see a better spot to anchor. So, we decided to carry on. We sailed to Union Island, dropping and setting our anchor around 4am. We slept until 9am, checked the storm projections, and decided to press on to Grenada. 

The lack of sleep didn’t dull the beauty of our approach. We took our dear sweet time, sailing slowly alongside flocks of birds and vibrant rainbows, the sweet smell of nutmeg filling the air. We had made it to Grenada! 😍

We had paid in advance for a mooring ball near Customs and Immigration, only to find the mooring field full upon our arrival. So, we anchored nearby, watched the sun set behind the storm clouds in the distance, and got our first proper night’s rest in what felt like ages. 😴

The following day we were able to move onto a mooring ball, then head to shore to check into the county. With the influx of boats arriving to avoid the storm, there was a looooong line. It took us 3hrs. We returned to the boat and were invited to our neighbor’s place for drinks. We shared wine and sailing stories while sitting on their bow, then parted ways for dinner. 

The bulk of the storm was set to hit that night. At this point, we were far enough out of its path, so we were only expecting a bit of wind (nothing over 25kn) and rain, but we double-checked our mooring lines and tidied up around the boat before going to bed, just in case. 

We didn’t see any storm impacts until the next morning. The wind picked up early in the afternoon, and Sabado got a thorough freshwater rinse from the downpour of rain. Several of the boats that were anchored in the mooring field began dragging, but everyone was very responsive and helpful on the radio. We stayed home all day, waiting out the storm. 

The sunshine was back by Saturday, so we set out to do some chores. We lugged our laundry to shore, dropped it off, and checked out the local farmers market + grocery store. We bought a sack of water lemons from a guy on the side of the road on our walk back to the dinghy dock. Have you had one before? They’re small yellow fruits with pulpy interiors. The skin smells very floral. We were instructed to bite the end off and suck out the insides! 

It is similar to passion fruit but not sour/tart at all! 

Later that afternoon, we met up with some friends for drinks, then went to a fantastic sushi restaurant for date night. 😘 Carib Sushi has an incredible appetizer called New Style Sashimi. It’s thinly sliced fish sitting in a zingy sauce. We ordered a side of sushi rice to pour the leftover sauce on because we couldn’t let a single drop of it go to waste! It was delicious! 

We hung out at home all day yesterday since I wasn’t feeling well, but I’m back to normal today. So, we’re planning on catching up on chores and maybe going for a swim before we move the boat again. 

I hope you had a great week! ❤️