It’s all fun and games…until we realize what we got ourselves into now we have arrived in the BVI (for our second time this year – just crushing our traveling bucket list).
We step foot on OUR boat.
OUR boat.
Our floating home.
It is just perfect.
Absolute perfection.
Release those damn doves again!
We have high hopes for the next 2 weeks to go through the boat and discover all its nooks and crannies then take a leisurely sail down to Grenada – a three-night passage where we will become one with the sea and the wind.
We will make delicious meals onboard, maybe try and catch a fresh fish and make sushi! Sunbathe naked to rid these 20 year tan lines, sleep under the stars and the moon, practice video editing and do some boat maintenance along the way. HA! HAHAHA!
Now, going through the boat and discovering everything that it came with was actually bliss.
Scuba gear, linens galore – a lifetime supply of chapstick (yasss!), even spices in the cupboard. Happy, happy, joy, joy.
This was the RIGHT choice.
We put a lot on the line to accomplish buying a boat and making the decision to cruise. To the bar to celebrate (repeat 6 nights in a row…)
Now fast forward to the day of our departure to Grenada.
It’s a Tuesday. Taco Tuesday (at the bar) to be exact, which actually made me a bit sad to miss out on.
The plan – push off from the dock in the morning. Ahoy! (ever since owning a boat I just want to yell AHOY to everyone, I’m sure I will get over that, maybe).
We have done all our provisioning over the past few days, made some great friends, had one too many bottles of wine and fancy cheese with forever friends and are ready to go.
7 am up and at em. Ok, it was probably closer to 830am…we had another late night with our forever friends – why do wine and cheese pair so well…. So onto our final checks and AHOY – Mike, why aren’t our batteries fully charged? We have been plugged into shore power all week….Miiiike??
And so my friends, it begins.
We have heard of this “fixing your boat in exotic places” or just generally “always fixing your boat” and if you are somewhere exotic, it just makes it more expensive!
So after troubleshooting these batteries, and honestly, I’m not mechanically inclined in ANY way, so it was Mike doing all the troubleshooting, we opted to find ” a guy” to come to look at it. We requested this guy to come by the boat around 10am…. Island time took over and he was over and he found his way to us for around 130pm.
So after some discussion, a button pushed and so forth – we are apparently fixed.
We now can’t leave the dock until 4-5pm as we don’t want to arrive in Grenada in the middle of the night as per our (Mike’s) calculations so we hurried up and waited.
4pm – BAM – we are outta here!
Out for our adventure of sailing, sunbathing, fishing and relaxing.
Well. I wrote this post after arriving in Grenada so we are alive. Not that we felt in danger….but it was Rough. Two rules – stay on the boat and still like (ideally love) each other once we arrive. Success with both of those. Barely.
One hour after departure it looked like our batteries weren’t charging. Thought we fixed this…..so a bit of a panic at the thought of turning back as well as missing our weather window. We HAD to be in Grenada by Saturday. As of now, we would arrive Friday, sometime. Then batteries slowly started charging. Ok. Still good. Onwards. Ahoy!
We put up the sails and we were flying. Well, sailing, really fast.
Smashing through waves like a beast.
Wow, this is amazing, we are sailing and soon won’t be able to see land. Sunset is approaching. How magical. 3 hours later I begin to wonder when we won’t be smashing through waves and when it will be calm.
Here’s the answer…
…GRENADA!
We had winds gusting up to 29 knots . We reefed in all our sails and were still flying at 10 knots.
On a plus, I thought we would get there in 24 hours at that rate of speed. Nope. Still 3 nights. Ok, Mike, time to make you a nice meal – cause that’s part of the plan.
I went into the galley (kitchen) to concoct something – after smashing my hips off the edges of the counters while trying to maintain balance and then becoming nauseous….the dinner decision was made.
Mental note for next time – have everything pre-made because dinner that night ended up being a bag of Doritos.
Similar to the next day’s breakfast and dinner – some pre-cut cheese and salami.
Also, hard to sunbathe when a) you are holding on for dear life and therefore need to have a lifejacket on and you are harnessed and tethered to the boat at all times and b) I wouldn’t leave the helm station because it was so choppy I would have for sure broken Rule 1 (stay on the boat) by attempting going to the bow of the boat on the trampoline.
So sunbathing out of the question.
Don’t get me started about trying to catch a fish.
Mike and I laughed out loud – like a true laugh out loud when I said, “Imagine we caught a fish”. We did not get out the fishing rods.
“Mike, batteries still aren’t charging great….OH, Mike some kind of alarm is going off….oh found it, it’s the starboard engine overheating – hmmmm….that doesn’t seem good” “Miiiiiike”
Mental note for repair list…..engine overheating – I’m sure it’s an inexpensive fix……………..BOAT = Bring On Another Thousand…. Catamaran = Bring On Another Two Thousand?
Sidenote: We have two engines – the other one got us to Grenada safely.
We set up our bed in the saloon so that we were close to each other because we love each other – haha – really in case s**t got real and we needed all hands on deck. All 2 pairs of hands.
Sleeping – that was a novelty too – similar, actually, no the same as being on a water bed (remember those from the 90’s…) and somebody jumping up and down on it – plus creaking, lots of odd noises and unfamiliarities we weren’t used to while sleeping tied at the dock.
Another unfamiliarity, no air con – I know, but just adding salt to the wound.
So no sushi, no meals actually, rough sleep, a tad of nausea and seasickness, sore ass from that helm station that we had to brace ourselves on while sitting. Just crushing our trip plan!
Was there anything great about this trip, sorry not trip, adventure. Yes.
I found myself sitting on my sore ass, at the helm station (steering wheel – but who am I kidding, autopilot did it all. Thank you autopilot for not breaking, THANK YOU) and just looking around. I mean, not a great deal to look at, it was all water. But it was SOOOO COOOL to be in the Caribbean Sea, surrounded by water, and occasional flying fish, it was surreal really. My brain shut off (during daylight hours and when Mike was awake only haha – on my night shift I was on like donkey kong),
When my brain turned back on I would think about how I really left my comfort zone. I mean, I thought I wasn’t leaving my comfort zone and just living the dream but discovered pretty quick that my comfort zone was left in the BVI. It’s a crazy feeling and also being able to think – about something or nothing at all, by nothing at all I think I fell asleep with my eyes open once or thrice.
It makes me feel accomplished like we have done something that not many have, like saying you’ve climbed Kilimanjaro (haha, ya we have done that too)….
Mike and I look back on our first passage and ask each other if we miss it.
Depends on the day – when we are cozy in bed, air con on, bellies full on a meal and probably slightly drunk, yes I missed being out in the middle of the sea. As for now, we found land, AHOY! Time to check into Grenada and get this boat ready to come out of the water and stored on land for the next 3 months. We figured the hard part was over.
