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.
Well Sylken Sea has been launched in Trinidad and is now berthed at CrewsInn Marina. We have been busy getting her ready for a season of cruising the Windward Islands, Grenada to Martinique. Gelcoat work, changed some hoses, watermaker rebuild and upgrade, Genny repairs and general maintenance. Peake Yacht Services completed some hull gelcoat repairs (Had an Ooop's last year before we left the states) and we had Lincoln and Ian from Chaguramas Metal make up a BBQ bracket and a bracket to modify our SPURS. Originally the SPURS holding block was only screwed to the fiberglass strut tube. First time we got something "heavy" in the spurs it tore off. now we have a serious bracket installed to hold the block. A few more days here and we should be ready to head north, we think Carriacou for a few weeks before visiting Grenada to spend Christmas and New Years with John & Paulette on Seamantha.
