After my reasonably successful kite surfing endeavors, it is time to head back to Grenada. On Thursday morning I get JACE ready, make one more quick run ashore for another block of ice (how I have been keeping some base level of refrigeration), and then it is time to weigh anchor. By now I have gotten pretty good at doing this solo and basically do almost all of it from the helm simply by listening to the speed and sound of the windlass to judge where the chain is leading and how much strain it is under.
It is a light wind day today and I have almost 40nm to go. I am on my way by 9a and first motor for a bit as I have to head dead downwind, which is a very slow point of sail, particularly on a light wind day. As the angle changes I set sail but it is slow going and for some parts I continue to run Rudy to make sure our ETA stays within daylight hours.
After we get out of the lee of Carriacou the wind freshens and the engine can finally go to sleep and things get quieter aboard. I listen to a ton of different podcasts and enjoy the hours of solitude to think and ponder.
The afternoon light is wonderful and I bored enough that I declare a photo hour. There are only so many things to take pictures of, so please forgive the selfies.
Just before sunset I reach St. Georges and grab a mooring for a night. It is a bit rolly here and I am glad when I can cast off the next morning to motor the last two hours around the southwestern tip of Grenada and back to Benji Bay where I started my solo sailing trip about a month ago.
Now I have two days to get JACE and myself prepared for my two-week Christmas trip to Germany. I won’t bore you with the details but it involves a bunch of cleaning, laundry, getting rid of food that won’t last, and prepping the boat to be unattended for two weeks.
It is now Saturday afternoon and I am pretty much done, just a few last-minute items left for tomorrow. At 1p the “taxi guy” Alan will pick me up at the boat and ferry my to land and then drive me to the airport. By 4p I’ll be on my way to Germany. I look forward to seeing my family and friends. This will be my first Christmas in Germany in over ten years and I really look forward to it.
More from Sailing JACE in early January. Happy Holidays and happy New Year to all of you wonderful people out there. And thanks for following along.
