Tuesday, December 29, 2015

Christmas in Grenada

We spent about 11 days at Port St. Luis Marina with John & Paulette on Seamantha, we really had a great time. We toured Grenada inland, spices, cocoa, rain forest, Forts, with John & Paulette and Rita & Ralph on s/v Calypso. We had a wonderful Christmas lunch aboard Seamantha along with Ian, Wendy, and Ian's mom Sheila, Rita & Ralph and of course Paulette & John. Thanks for hosting!

Merry Christmas All!

Friday, December 18, 2015

Trinidad to Carriacou

We departed Crews Inn Marina, Chaguaramas after clearing outbound and collecting our duty free at 9:45 am, December 8th, 2015. Stopped to take on 1,000L diesel at Power Boats then out to sea we go. Once offshore the winds are 090@16-18kts, seas 4-6'. We are running at 1600 RPM, 2.1 GPH and making about 6.5kts. There is a current through here so we have a bit of a "head wind" component. We see several of the Venezuelan fishing boats, no pirogues though and we are happy about that. We run into numerous squalls in the afternoon, nothing serious just a good wash and some 20-30kt gusts. By 19:30 local time the wind and seas have kicked up pretty good, the current has also changed, this time in our favour, good thing otherwise it would be wind against current. With the wind now 100@22-25 kts and the seas? Can't see much, a very dark night but we are getting rolled around, the stabilizers cannot keep up and once in awhile we get caught by a good wave (7-8 feet?) at times it feels we are sliding sideways but I think it is just rolling a lot, no one gets any sleep in these conditions, luckily it is only another 2-3 hours before we are in the lee of Grenada. The rest of the trip was easier, a few lumps between Grenada and Carriacou, we stayed west of "Kick 'em Jenny" the active subsea volcano to avoid the worst of the currents. By 7:10 on the 9th we are anchored in Tyrell Bay Carriacou, right off the beach in front of DJ's Bar. Catch a short nap before we go into Customs & Immigration.

Monday, December 7, 2015

Ready to Cruise! Trinidad to Carriacou Here We Come.

Well it looks like tomorrow is the day, all the *** "Must Do" things on the list are done, the new BBQ bracket is installed and tested (yeah! we should now be able to, grill, blacken, despite 20kt trade winds!) and the weather report is 090-100 at 15-20kts, seas 4-5' with a 8-9 second interval. We have learned that means 15-25+kts  and higher seas, maybe 5-7' but the good news, beam seas with a long interval, the TRAC stabilizers will get a work out!  We have filed a float plan with John & Paulette on Seamantha, nice to know you have someone watching for your safe arrival. Our routing is east of the Poinsettia Gas Well, then NE to Grenada, north up the West Coast then on to Cirriacou.

Thursday, December 3, 2015

Making posting easier

I really like how easy it is from my Android phone to view, post, comment on Facebook, but I cannot control Facebook, it takes over. Maybe I just don't know how to use it very well. I got frustrated with the Google Blogger App, horrible, again maybe I just don't know how to use it but Google has not built in any help menus at all. Tried setting up a Sylken Sea Facebook page with the intent of importing the blog. Nightmare, again, maybe just me.

So............I'm back to blogging from the laptop not my phone, bummer because we see so many cool things when we are out and about, would be nice to "click" - share- via - blog like we do with FB!

Anyone figured this out? If so please share the wealth!

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

OOP's

What do you do when you are replacing the duckbill valves in a poop pump, cleaning up the calcium deposits in a bucket of soapy water. BEFORE YOU DUMP THE WATER OVERBOARD CHECK TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE REMOVED ALL THE PUMP PARTS! Otherwise you will be hiring a diver to go get them back.

Cheers all!

BTW, it is only a mistake if you don't learn from it.