Christmas in da Caribbean

 

Breakfast with Fred, after making landfall in Grenada

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands and some of the market place

Anyone for Fresh Tuna?

Fresh veggie market in Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands

People looking to sail across the Atlantic Ocean as crew, along with things to sell in Las Palmas, Canarie Islands

Savannah Sky's intrepid crew at the dock in Las Palmas Canary Islands.  Before setting sail across the Atlantic Ocean

Now that's a Wahoo!  Fisherman Fred with Charlie showing the fish we released back into the Ocean.

Fred still fishing.  What else was there to do?

Captain Steve sailing along, sailing along

Fred and Anina, mid-Atlantic Ocean

Maria, Mid-Atlantic Ocean

Anina coming to the rescue of a bird in the Cape Verde Islands

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands. Notice all the Sahara sand we are walking along!

Local Cape Verde Rum

Mindelo's fantastic shoreline

Maria and Charlie being tourists on a bus.  The guy on the left might just be Fred or a stalker, ha ha

Our tour bus in the Cape Verde Islands

Anina enjoying her coffee in mid-Atlantic Ocean.  So happy we didn't run out of coffee!

Fisherman Fred still trying to catch the big one

Captain Steve and Fred reeling an empty line in

Savannah Sky's missing lifeline after the crash gybe

Maria enjoying having Starlink along for the ride.  Just not the position Starlink was initially mounted!

Fred, waiting to leave for our voyage

Anina, Steve and Charlie, also ready to leave on the journey

Maria also looks ready to leave!

Colorful Las Palmas, Canary Islands

Steve and Fred still fishing.  Notice the yellow yo yo that was donated to the sea, one stormy night

Arrival at Grenada, Caribbean.  The crew still looks happy!

S/Y Savannah Sky – December 23, 2023 – Log #15

Savannah Sky Position: 13 degrees 00’ N, 061 degrees 24’ W

Bequia, St. Vincent/Grenadines, Caribbean

 

Christmas in da Caribbean

 

Oh, so much water has passed under Savannah Sky since the last blog.  Sorry it has taken so long to write anything.

 

We’ve been a bit busy, as you can imagine.

 

Yes, we completed the ARC+ sailing Rally, sailing safely across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Here are a few highlights of our long journey to the Caribbean:

 

We left Las Palmas, Canary Islands on November 5, 2023 and sailed for five days, arriving in verdant, Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands.

 

Well, the Cape Verde Islands are not really green, that’s for sure.  Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands is African, with a Portuguese twist in a mostly barren and dry landscape.

 

Yet the local people were so friendly and happy to see all of us sailors.

 

The sail from the Canary Islands to Mindelo had a bit of drama. 

 

After the starting line cannon went off at Las Palmas, we sailed for about 20 minutes before our autopilot went crazy, headed off in the wrong direction and quit working.

 

I immediately did a u-turn and headed back toward the marina.

 

Then the autopilot decided it was happy and began working, much to everyone’s surprise.

 

So then we did another u-turn and set course for Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands once again.

 

There was no wind at the beginning of our voyage, so we drifted along for what seemed forever, before Maria decided 3 knots was slow enough. Captain Steve turned the engine on and picked up speed dramatically.

 

The second night of the passage, winds finally increased too much but we were able to sail downwind toward the Cape Verde Islands.

 

Luckily (?), when Captain Steve was on watch, with Maria sitting right next to him, a strong microburst suddenly hit Savanna Sky with 40+ knots of wind and big seas.

 

The autopilot decided to quickly go into hiding, causing Savanna Sky to violently and immediately gybe, triggering the boom to switch sides of the boat, despite being stopped from doing so by what is called a preventer.

 

The preventer does not allow the boom to switch sides of the boat, in an uncontrolled gype, or so the theory goes.

 

Unfortunately for us, the preventer catastrophically destroyed the incredibly strong dyneema line holding the boom on the correct side of the boat, sending our powerful boom hurtling to the other side of the boat in an uncontrolled gybe.

 

Oh, I should mention that when the preventer destroyed our dyneema line, it shattered our wire lifelines with the boom attachments, ripping the lifelines off the side of the boat, as it traveled to the other side of Savannah Sky.

 

We were incredibly lucky the preventer didn’t take our mast and wire rigging with it as well.

 

Our other three crew members rushed out into the cockpit, hearing the explosions from rupturing dyneema and lifelines.

 

We were all shocked to say the least.

 

Quickly securing everything and assessing the damage, we continued on our way to Mindelo, never trusting the autopilot nor dyneema lines again.

 

Mindelo, Cape Verde Islands was packed with 94 ARC+ boats, all ready to party, once repairs were done to nearly every boat.

 

Torn sails, shattered lifelines, broken rigging, you name it and it happened to the group of 94 ARC+ boats during the extremely difficult passage from the Canary Islands to Mindelo.

 

Support facilities in the Cape Verde Islands were unmatched in their ability to get the fleet repaired and on our way again.

 

In such a poor and remote country as the Cape Verdes, who could have imagined the fantastic level of expertise for sailing vessels that existed.  Wow.

 

In less than a week, after so many parties, celebrations, repairs and island explorations, there was another starting line and off the fleet went, sailing across the Atlantic Ocean toward Grenada in the Caribbean.

 

Savannah Sky had light winds, directly behind her, as we made slow progress each day in the Atlantic.  Crew moral was high, mainly due to Maria’s fantastic galley preparations day and night.

 

Watches were 3 hours on and then sometimes 9 hours off, depending on the person’s schedule.

 

Of course Maria didn’t take a formal watch since she prepared meals at all hours of the day and night for us.  Thank you for that!

 

Fred caught a fish the second day of the crossing, with his hand line called a yo yo.

 

No one was certain what kind of fish it was, but it wasn’t big enough to justify blood and guts all over the boat so we released the fish back to the deep depths of the ocean.

 

We then found out the fish was a Wahoo, one of the best eating fishes one could catch.  Oh well!

 

Days turned into nights, one after another after another, as an endless sea pushed us forever forward toward our destination to the west.

 

Unfortunately, Savannah Sky did not have a proper downwind sailing rig, so we were forced to carefully gybe back and forth as we maintained a westward course toward the setting sun.

 

Steve and Anina had daily discussions about the weather, with different opinions as is customary amongst sailors, ha ha.

 

Luckily, Fred decided to bring his new Starlink satellite data system along, giving us the ability to download weather, emails and we could have even watched movies online if we wanted.  Starlink has revolutionized data reception and transmission everywhere on Earth.

 

Starlink speeds are phenomenal, much better than any broadband or cable service on land.  Elon Musk has revolutionized communication throughout the globe we call Earth.

 

Starlink does require quite a lot of power so we only turned it on three times a day, or when anyone really wanted to use it.

 

Charlie had the 10 pm to 1 am night watch.  Luckily for us, Charlie was on watch one night when he spotted something moving next to Savannah Sky’s bow wake.

 

Charlie yelled for me and I sprinted into the cockpit, knowing Charlie was our rock and unfazed by small problems when sailing.

 

Sliding by on Savannah Sky’s port sky, less than a foot away from us, was a large, black inflatable dinghy, incredibly illuminated in the moonlight.

 

Charlie said, “Did you see it?”

 

I shouted yes, as the wayward 24-foot dinghy bounced in Savannah Sky’s wake.

 

The rest of the crew rushed out, with Fred using his 2-mile strong flashlight to make the object appear as if bathed in daylight.

 

There was no sign of life in the wayward dinghy or adjacent waters, as far as we could see.

 

Due to rough sailing conditions and absolute darkness, as well as to keep our crew and vessel safe, we did not turn around and investigate the abandoned vessel.  It was a risk we would not accept.

 

That encounter made for one exciting night watch for Charlie, and all of us too.

 

About one day out of Grenada, Anina was hoping one of her ocean current predictions would materialize.  For Anina, currents matter.

 

We sailed very far south, with the island of Tobago not far off our port side when the elusive north setting current finally appeared, shooting Savannah Sky toward Grenada on an excellent point of sail.

 

It was 04:19 in the morning of our 18^th day when we crossed the finish line for the ARC+ sailing rally across the Atlantic Ocean.

 

Savannah Sky brought her crew safely across the mighty Atlantic Ocean without any major breakdowns or high drama on this leg of the journey.

 

Five very tired sailors were welcomed to the dock at Port Louis Marina, St. Georges, Grenada as a new sun brought a glimmer of light to the eastern horizon.

 

Thank you all for following along with our trackers and thinking of us, out on that big blue ocean, all alone with only endless miles of water in every direction.

 

Crossing an Ocean is an incredible achievement, especially on a sailboat such as Savannah Sky.

 

Fred realized how big an adventure that was for him and got a fitting tattoo to mark the auspicious accomplishment.

 

We’ve all marveled in what it took to remain friends, being confined on a small sailboat for 18 days, together, and sharing this journey of a lifetime.

 

 

Upon arriving in Grenada, Charlie and Anina flew to Trinidad, where their sailboat Prism was waiting for them.

 

Fred took a taxi from the marina to unite with Dakota Dream, his catamaran, to enjoy sailing in the warm Caribbean Sea this season.

 

Catamaran?  Yes, that was one of our worries about Fred.  He is a catamaran sailor so how would he adjust to sailing a monohull sailboat across an ocean?

 

No worries.

 

Fred did great and we even think Fred might have converted to a monohull sailor, well, maybe not.  He says he won’t ever like rolling downwind again with his sailing adventures.

 

For Maria and myself, we cleaned Savannah Sky, refueled, decompressed a bit, before sailing north to where we are now: Bequia.

 

It’s Christmas in the Caribbean.

 

Time to shelve the ole log book and enjoy the holiday spirit in da islands, where we will spend Christmas Day with Fred, Anina and Charlie, along with a few other of our sailing friends here in Sweet Bequia, celebrating the holiday season.

 

Merry Christmas one and all.  And Happy New Year!

 

Sail on, sail on Savannah Sky…