Today was a busy day and I am so glad I have Brad here as my advisor and companion. He really is a great guy, calm, patient, good sense of humor and – importantly – a lot of experience. He and I are a good team and have genuine fun together. So nice.
On the repair front we have good and bad news. The good news is that the fridge and freezer are working well and it was decided that the additional repairs are not necessary. The not so good news is that the autopilot is definitely busted and the supposed spare is a no-go. We will get the replacement cylinder shipped to Grenada and have it assembled there.
But for now it will be hand steering all the way, 3 days nonstop between Brad and I, in 3 hours on, 3 hours off watches. Let’s see how we hold up.
To create some optionality, we decide to take the route that stays closer inshore and hugs the island chain, the red one on the chart:
This way if we get really tired, we can seek shelter in lee of the islands, drop anchor swim and sleep for a few hours. The winds are light for the first day and when the breeze kicks in, we will be further East and have a more favorable course to the wind. So that’s the plan. Should be in Grenada by Sun afternoon if all goes well.
With the repairs out of the way we go into high gear and spend the entire day getting ready: go through the entire boat and locate all the through hulls (valved openings to take in or eject out water, a critical failure point), some of them in hard to reach places like under the engine; locate and review safety gear (life vests, flares, first aid, life raft, etc); stow everything that can move and fall; and a bunch more.
And we go shopping so we finally have some food and drinks onboard now that the fridge works. Tony was so sweet to lend us his son’s car which made shopping a breeze.
In the evening I fire up the galley and cook two dinners. It is so much easier to cook now than deal with it on the high seas. I make a Thai veggie curry and a chili con carne and both turn out quite good. It’s fun to be finally standing in that galley and try that out for the first time.
We have dinner at 9:30 and are quite tired. In final prep we get the Iridium satellite device (weather, tracking, SMS, Sat calls) ready and fired up and clean up.
We plan to check out at 8 tomorrow, have one last nice breakfast with Tony, who has gone above and beyond in every conceivable way for us, take the 11:30 bridge opening, and be on the ocean by noon. How exciting!
Time to go to sleep. Tomorrow is a big day.