Grenada is OK

I'm still at St George's, Grenada is nice, everybody speaks English, no criminality, nice weather and wind, no insects... perfect.
There are 3 other dutch boats and Germans, Belgium's, US and Canadians. Sunday I toured around the island with a American couple who rented a car, and we visited 7 falls, a nice walk through the 'Forrest' to is were it was nice to swim under the falls..

I play pool and watch films with other dutch, swim every day, and also every day something breaks down again, so always something to repair. last night the 2 weeks old inverter (12V to 220V) broke down, strange, nobody understands, its the 2nd in 4 weeks, so what do you do, buy a new one? Yeah, no choice..

Since Trinidad is very warm, and high crime (6 death a day) so I stay here for a while I think now, but things may change, and here you have to be able to move out quickly since it is at the edge of Hurricane risk area, so we will see..

for now... Cheers Han

Position report

You can (always) see my position on the next link, I'm pa3bxt at the moment..
http://www.findu.com/cgi-bin/winlink.cgi?call=PA3BXT

Best place to go out is Banana's at prickly bay, I'll move there soon probably

Anchor out at St George Grenada

930 anchored outside between 10 other boats, no dutch..

800 I'm behind Grenada now, little wind so 2 more hours to St George where I'll stay first and do customs etc. Trip was fine, nothing broken, only lost one fender.. so 370nm in 3 days, last 24 hours fastest 140.., but now slowly to the end..

Update

1610 100 miles to go, really nice, just had a shower while the Condor is doiing 7 knots..
1435 Blue skies again, clouds run very high up.. cource 165 6knts, nice at the moment
1200 wind drops 20 again
1000 I can do 140 now, pick up some hight, and with 15 knots wind speed is over 6 knots now. Sky is blue behind me, gray in front..

No sun yesterday!!

It was a day with 25 knots and rain for 2 hours and then the wind was nothing until the night.. Then thunderstorms ahead and above, so I rolled away the genoa and waited sleeping, was little wind anyhow. Later I began sailing again and thunderstorms moved away in front of me.. was OK.
At night the wind was 18 nots SE, and still is, so I can only make 185, should be 165.. Upwind the condor does now 4.8 knots at 50gr to the wind, so I need E=90gr to make it to Grenada, very interesting, not really nice going upwind against the current at low speed..

So, only 95 miles yesterday, there is a position report somewhere, but here the numbers 14.16.4N 62.28.0W at 0741 here. Sun is shining now, looks way better because yesterday was strange..

later..

Simply very nice

8oo here, 135 nm done in 24 hrs, 240 to go. N 15.51.6 W 62.39.9. Simply sailing with genoa and dubble reef in main, works fine since wind upto 20knts good to handle this way. Had 6 hrs of sleep, but its warm.. Winds 15knts expected all the way so looking perfect for 2 more days to Grenada..

Finaly left SXM

14 june 800 nice weather, nobody in sight, doing 5.5kn 180 on the way to Grenada, everything looks well.. and everything works!! Later more from the Condor and cheers
Han

Delay delay SXM 10/6 departure to Grenada in a few days

I'm not in a hurry, take some more time to get rested and organized.. Looking in to going to St David's Harbour now: http://grenadamarine.com/ Grenada Marine is a "one-stop shop" boatyard providing quality services in the storage, repair and maintenance in accordance with international standards for yachts in the Wider Caribbean Region. The boatyard is located on Grenada's southeast coast in the parish of St. David, occupying ten acres of beachfront that embraces the well-protected St. David's Harbour. Latitude: 12° 01:00 Longitude: 61° 40:05 Grenada, West Indies ... It's less then 400 nmiles, 4 days?

Map and route

Back in Simpson Bay

I got out the Lagoon Sunday, took all day because the French bridge only opened at 1800 and I was there at 1100, ran aground several times on the way over and in the small spot for the bridge it was hard to anchor.. It took 10 tries before I finally got hold..I looked down in the water and was right above a ship wreck, just enough room above it, but the water is so clear it made me scared that the anchor would get stuck on or even in it.. Did not dare to get off the boat,

The inverter (12V to 220V) blew up, same as the normal adapter, so today I bought some new of thos, and 2 of each, I really need them nowadays...
The new fridge works good, nice cold drinks, but batteries do not like it, this morning fridge was 9grC, because batteries were low..

New plan is to leave Wednesday or Thursday, and go to Grenada in one go, 5 day's I think, hope I can make it against the current and halve/upwind..

cheers Han

Change of plans.....

Lennart is not coming along, he got a better offer to fly (immediately) to Hawaii and sail a Swan to Vancouver... So I'm alone again, I will go down south any way shortly, but will see where the Condor lands.. 

 

Anyone available?

St Maarten

Getting out of St Maarten ... The bridge on the dutch side is closed for 4 weeks so I have go out Simpson Bay Lagoon via the french bridge at Marigot, I hope I get out that way since it is very shallow, and wreks every where since th last hurricane, there, small canal to the bridge, Lennart will be on the bow and look in the water for the deepest places I hope..

cheers... Han...

Card / printout and more pictures on www.picasaweb.google.nl/HandeBruynKops