Underway again

5 dorado and 1 barracuda. Fish is on the menu for the near future.

As we left Grenada to head to Los Roques, the forecasted light winds were MIA. Fearing that we would be motoring the entire 290 miles, we seriously considered turning around and waiting for better winds. We decided to keep going because the forecasts weren't showing anything better for the next week and you never can tell what will happen anyway.

Eventually the winds picked up enough to fly our asymmetrical spinnaker and it stayed up for almost the entire trip. Matt put it back in the sock as a precaution on the second night because of rain squalls in the area and then on the last morning again because of more rain. Despite the hard time I gave Matt about the purchase of the spinnaker and radar, I was happy to have them on this trip.

We averaged a respectable 5 plus knots (seeing 7-8 at times and under 2 at others). The easy downwind sail in relatively calm seas was just what we needed to get our sea legs back.

A hitchhiker.

The spinnaker effectively blocked our solar panels for much of the day as we headed west, so we had to run the generator a couple of times. A wire that connects the switches to the generator came loose again, causing the gen to die suddenly. Matt quickly figured out and repaired the issue. These types of hiccups used to bother us a lot more when we were first starting out.

We had good luck trolling lures and scored a bunch of fish, ending our dry spell. Mark and Conrad handled the passage relatively well, although we were subjected to the phrase, "I'm bored" more times than any human being should have to. They were fascinated by the multitude of stars and even saw the fin and fluke of a large whale. Conrad thinks it might have been a sperm whale based on the shape of the fin.

Los Roques

I'll write more about Los Roques but so far it lives up to its reputation of rivaling the Bahamas for crystal clear water.