After the wet afternoon and evening, it doesn’t rain all night. I wake up at 6:30 to blue sky! And unlike the last few mornings, I feel energized and ready for the day.

I grab my yoga mat and go to the foredeck and go through my stretching and strengthening routine while listening to a podcast. Afterwards a quick dip to freshen up and then breakfast.

Before I leave, I want to go to the turtle beach and try my luck. I get JACE mostly ready for sailing then hop in the dinghy and motor over to the turtle island and the beach that has been cordoned off to protect those magnificent creatures. I beach my dinghy, grab my fins and snorkel, and off I go. The water is quite clear and there is quite a bit of marine life to see here. And sure enough, after just a few minutes I spot a turtle, and then quickly a second, a third and more as I go. I keep my distance and carefully follow them as they feed off the sea floor and occasionally go up to breathe. I am in awe, such fascinating animals and quite a bit larger than they appear on the videos I take. Amazing!

Once I have enough, I return to JACE, hoist up the dinghy, and start pulling up the anchor. My destination for today is the next island to the north, called Canouan. It turns out to be a beautiful reach with about 15 kn of wind under full sails and JACE is making good speed at between 6 and 7 knots. We get there sooner than I want and so I decide to sail upwind all the way into the large bay at which head lies the anchorage, extending the sail by another 45 minutes.

It is 2 o’clock by the time the anchor is set; time for lunch. I spend the afternoon mostly chilling, swimming, enjoying a cocktail while watching the sunset, and then I cook myself a wonderful fish curry with the second half of the grouper – delicious! Oh, yeah, and not a drop of rain all day, can you believe it?

So why is it only “almost” a perfect day, you might ask? Well, I encounter a minor setback this morning while checking the oil. I discover a hand-wide of water sitting under the engine! That’s not good, I think. Where is that coming from and why isn’t it running into the bilges and being pumped overboard by the automatic bilge pump?

So far, I do not have answers to either question. I use the small drill operated pump that our genius prior owner had bought and left on the boat for us. With it I quickly pump about 16 liters of water out of the engine compartment until it is dry. When I check again after sailing up here, I find new water. I guess, I do have a new technical problem to address. Never a dull day! For now, all I can do is to watch and observe what is causing the water ingress. Is it from running the engine? Or the water maker? Or from sailing heeled over? Or is it just slowly seeping in even if lying at anchor? Well, I will tell you over the coming days and hopefully solve this problem too. Cross your fingers!