A Great Day For A Shakedown Sail

We are back in St George's, Grenada. It's so loud here (cars, trucks, boats, generators, music, etc)...but we are excited to visit with friends again.

We actually got to sail most of the way back, turning on the starboard engine for just 30 minutes when the wind died. And the sea state wasn't bad at all. It was about 7 hours from start to finish.

The boat did great, I'm very happy with the performance in various wind speeds and angles. We found an issue with how the reef lines were set up when the guys at Clarke's Court boat yard installed the mainsail, I'll have to wait for a day with light winds to raise the main and fix it.

I need to write a technical article describing what the instruments are showing and what the numbers mean. She is faster than she has ever been, largely (I think) because of the new Coppercoat bottom paint.

What these pictures show is that we are generally going through the water faster than 50% of the apparent wind speed. If we can do more than 5 knots through the water in 10 knots of wind, we are exceptionally happy. And, of course, 9 knots in 17 knots of wind is glorious!

We can generally count on being able to motor at 5 knots, so if we can go faster than that for "free", it's a huge win!

We saw a turtle early on as we departed Carriacou, and then we had dolphins join us for a bit as we sailed toward Ronde Island!

We never get tired of seeing dolphins. Lynda said she saw 4 of them.

The pups even got to go for a swim once we settled in to the mooring field. They are happy Boater Collies.

We will be here for about a month, waiting for hurricane season to end, doing some boat projects (boats, man), and preparing for our next big passage.