We’re off!

Departure

Saturday at about 3:30 p.m., we finally left Trinidad and officially began our journey toward the Pacific. Our first leg was the 100’ish mile trip to the island of Carriacou in the Grenadines where John plans on visiting some old friends before saying goodbye and heading west. The first 70 miles or so were mostly upwind in 15-20 knots of wind and 3-6′ seas.  Fairly unpleasant sailing conditions, as Lara can attest, she spent most of the 24-hour trip seasick.

Jason, clearly NOT seasick

We arrived in Carriacou around 3:30 p.m. today safe and sound. We all went for a much-needed swim in the crystal Caribbean waters, and after a freshwater rinse, John cooked up some ribs and Lara made some mac & cheese and a salad to go with them.

I wish I could say this passage was completely uneventful, but as with most boats, it turns out there are a few minor leaks that will require our attention this week before setting off again. Most boats have leaks of some sort or another. Unfortunately for Lara, it turns out that most of Kijro’s are in places that she had her stuff stored. Just before dark on Saturday night, Lara was feeling quite ill, so I agreed to go down to the v-berth to get her fleece and found her storage locker to be pretty wet. Lara, not waiting to make her nausea situation worse, really wanted me to go back down to the v-berth to check on all the electronics, specifically her Kindle. After I bounced around for several minutes on my previous trip to retrieve her fleece, I began to get a bit queasy myself, so there was no way I was going back to the bow anytime soon. More worried about her Kindle than getting sicker, she took a deep breath, dashed below and verified its safety, only to return immediately to the rail to puke. After feeding her lunch to the fishes, she felt a bit better, except for the frustration over all her wet gear.

Another project for the list. In the meantime, we’ll be motoring up to Hillsborough Bay in the morning so we can remove our “Q” flag, for quarantine, by passing through customs and immigration. Then we can join civilization on the island. Lara will be working on her PADI certification with John this week, and we have strong internet from the boat, so feel free to Skype us or drop us an email and we’ll set up a chat time.

Brad, Lara’s still trying to get that conversation you two missed two weeks back!