Our decision to stop overnight at The Saintes was brilliant. Not only are we finding the most picturesque bay with lots of red-roofed houses studding the lush green hills all around; not only are we enjoying the swim off the back of JACE, a most amazing sunset, and a wonderful fish dinner in town; not only is a full night sleep most welcome.

But also we find a bright clear morning with a nice 15kn breeze, just as was forecast. We leave at 8a and soon have all sails up, right next to a bright red ketch.

There is a saying among sailors: if two or more boats are going in the same direction, it is a race. Well, the winner of this race is JACE.

The next island we pass is Dominica, very high and steep to and notorious for its wind shadow to the west. So we are forced to motor again. After a couple of hours our Rudolf Diesel dies on us again. Same symptoms as two nights prior, so we assume it’s a quick fix indeed. Only it isn’t so. Thankfully the wind finds us at about the same time and so we decide to sail, let “Rudy” cool off, and deal with the problem the following day.

So for now we enjoy the sailing day and night and take our turns hand steering – 3hrs on, 3hrs off, 24hrs a day. It is tiring and with increasing wind speed the swell gets bigger. The wind had been blowing from the south and is now back to the east. The result is a confused sea with short steep waves. Poor JACE gets thrown around quite a bit.

It is hard slogging and we start feeling it. I unfortunately get caught by seasickness, feel very tired and lose my appetite. We power through the night, pass Martinique and St Lucia, although we are now too far offshore to see them. Standing, or in my case sitting or even lying, watch becomes harder. My eyes keep shutting and I doze off into the weirdest micro dreams just to be awoken seconds later by flogging sails or a change in the boat’s movement, alerting me of my lapse of attention. And that repeats itself every few minutes.

The next day we attempt the engine repair. I try to help but in my state being below deck – let alone in the sticky engine room – is not really feasible. So I steer and am in touch with Jeff via satellite messenger, helping us find all the right parts and tools. Poor Brad has to do all the work, sweating profusely and not enjoying the experience. But he does it with a smile on his face. Amazing! We heave to, pic above with a back winded jib, essentially like “parking” on the open water. That reduces the boats motion substantially while it slowly drifts downwind. You can actually see that on the tracker.

Long story short, we can’t fix the engine and decide to just sail to Grenada and deal with it there. So we carry on, switch to 2hrs short shifts as I am just too groggy to handle full 3hrs uninterrupted. In between I pass out on the cockpit benches and feel almost a bit delirious.

In the early morning hours of Mon the 1st we finally reach Grenada. Since we don’t have the engine we sail into a big mooring field, select a ball with lots of room, and manage to sail up to it and put the boat into the wind just as we reach it, pull a line through the mooring, and furl away the sails. Done!

It took us almost 4 full days but that includes the fuel stops and overnight stay at The Saintes. Brad laughs it off but acknowledges this was not the easiest delivery he’s done: first no wind and a broken engine, then plenty of wind in a choppy sea with just two onboard and no autopilot.

Makes me feel a bit better for having wanted it to be over for the last 24hrs or so.

All is well now, Brad left to spend the day with his family and I have been enjoying a slow day onboard, doing some cleanup and other chores. And finally eat again!