well… I have safely arrived in Grenada, so that’s good. I did a last minute boat project in Freeman’s bay Antigua before we left. We checked out as planned on Monday (July  12th) and left on the backside of the nasty low as planned. The sailing was sporty rough the first day and night. Things did calm down as planned for the second and third day. We did almost get run over by a cruise ship the second night, that was interesting. The two tired sailor girls arrived just before sunset on the third day (Wednesday July 14th) We checked in this morning with the Grenada health department and Candy has left the yacht for a resort. WildChild arrived with only 4 things broken. The engine failed just as we entered the anchorage, so this is something I am currently struggling with.

 

 

Prepping for the Passage

The decision to delay our departure was a good one. This also left us in a lovely place to await the beginning of the race. Candy, who is truly a water baby, loved swimming the bay everyday. Sitting still is not something Candy is good at. Also she was more overwhelmed by home sickness than she had anticipated, it was hard for her. Swimming with sea turtles and tropical fish for hours everyday helped her feel better. We did go hiking the middle ground trail which she enjoyed and we walked around Falmouth and English harbour to explore a little bit.

 

 

Mostly it was hard for my crew to just be still and wait. As for me, the Captains stress and responsibility never goes away. Remember that new storm sail flat bar I made in Jolly Harbour…?  Well… Candy joked that it began to rust within the first 5 minutes of installation, she joked we could actually watch it rusting away.

I had decided that it might be lovely if I could get the bar to last more than a week. The ocean is just terribly hard on everything I own, it is a harsh environment. It would have been nice if I could just go to the store and buy some good ole rustoleum oil paint for the steel to protect it, but alas… island life is not this simple. With no hardware store within walking distance I had to find a solution using only the things I had available on hand.

I decided to wrap the steel bar in fiberglass and paint it. It would not be a perfect job but it should slow down the corrosion. Polyester resin sticks well to everything and should bond pretty tightly to the steel. Of course being the pink lovin girl captain that I am there was no other color that would suffice.      🙂

 

 

The other thing on my to-do list was to get permission to enter Grenada. I fully admit I am bureaucratically retarded, I am terrible at understanding or tolerating government stupidity, the stress of it makes me cry with frustration. For me, the second worst thing about being the Captain is dealing with this stupidity. I would LOVE to hand this stuff off to someone else, but I have no such luck… ever.

It is hard to figure out what is expected of me during this Covid stupidity. It took me 2 frustrating hours to research and follow the online forms. I had to fill out like 15 pages of crap. Even Candy commented wow poor Lexi having to figure out so much crap. The world is full of misinformation and half information. Island governments are slow to update their websites with new info, rules are poorly explained or even understood and the sailor rumour mill is often the best source of recent information. Still the Captain must try to wade thru it all.

 

 

I only swore about 30 times in the two hours of mind numbing frustration, soooo….   that’s like good right?

I think smart people are not the Captain, smart sailors find someone else to pay for everything, take responsibility for everything, and just enjoy the easy life of being crew. Candy watched me suffer and offered words of encouragement.

The other thing I have to mention is the heat.

 

 

It is soooo fuckin muggy and hot all the time down here in the summer.

I get that I have Canadian blood quite at home in the cold. I never did “adapt” to the brutal tropical heat down here. It is hard to function when it is so hot all the time. People wonder why I am always wearing a bikini or naked, well its because I’m dying in the heat. It was so hot I had to just hang off my swim ladder 3 or 4 times a day to cool my core body temperature in the warm ocean water to prevent heat stroke.

Body temperature is 36 degrees C… so when the air inside the shade of the boat is 36 degrees C with the humidity up near 70% there is just no way to cool off. Buckets of sweat cling to my skin all day long. I drink liters of water and do not pee it out… I sweat it out.

Even my new crew Candy, who is from Utah, who is used to much higher temperatures had to admit there is a big difference between dry desert air and the muggy ocean hot air. She loves the heat but a few times even she had to admit it was even hot for her.

Finally, Monday morning arrived, and my last minute Captains go/no-go decision came up GO, it looked safe, so lets jump. We went to shore and it took about an hour to check out. As usual the government people were friendly and kind. Antigua just had to make their own online check in website called E-Sea-Clear...  it seems the website the other Caricom islands use called SailClear was not up to Antigua’s standards..? or whatever…. they just had to make their own stupid database asking hundreds of stupid personal questions.

I HATE having to fill out every personal stupid detailed information on various government disjointed databases. I remember when checking into Antigua a year and a half ago being so frustrated with their stupid database. Why does it matter my age or gender…?  If you asked me my skin color it would be racial discrimination but needing to know my gender is not sexual discrimination? Really you need to know if I have ever been married? The government needs to know my current relationship status…?  It is crucial for them to know how much horse power my boat and dinghy engines are…?   I have no idea how much horsepower my boat engine has and nor do I even care… and its my flippin boat, its not relevant to me why is it relevant to these little island governments?

Such questions are never asked down here.

Can you feel me seething with frustration…?

I just make shit up to make them happy. I have no land address but they want one, so I make one up, I have no idea how many horsepower my engines are so I make up a nice sounding number, I lie and tell them I am single and have never been married, its none of their business….   my lies seem to keep them happy.

The Canadian government is slowly beginning to find the balance between the rights of privacy for the individual vs. the worlds need to know every private detail of the individual. These little Caribbean islands are still stuck in the 1960’s British mentality of more information gives the government more power which is unlimitedly good. Privacy rights are almost non-existent down here, its not something that has entered their cultural zeitgeist yet.

When I went to check out using their stupid online system it would not allow me to. The government agent had to make a fake entry into their country on the same day I wanted to check out just to get their stupid computer database to allow me to check out. Even he had to manipulate the silly computer system to get it to work.

Of course there was no refund of the monies I paid ($100ec per month) for permission to be there another month. Refund… how silly… once they get your money you never see it again. They also charged me another $47ec port fee extra… for what I have no idea. Just keep smiling and giving them money… the pain will eventually end.

I miss how simple the French system is… so easy.

 

Passage Making

It was Monday morning around 11am when we were back to the yacht to begin the set sail procedures. We had to raise the dinghy up onto the front deck and that takes a while, I am unsure I could do that alone. I had set a sentinal anchor which I had to lift by hand. I think all told I passed out 5 times getting the boat into sails set and out to sea. It is physically demanding work and hard for my unstable heart to deal with.

 

 

By noon Monday (July 12th) WildChild was sailing away from Antigua in rough seas. The winds Monday were still forecast to be strong on the very top end and back side of the low passing beneath us. The waves were pretty strong at 6-8 footers with fairly steep sides to them. The waves were only half organized and half confused suddenly rising up and breaking under us, heeling us over on our side and shoving us sideways. It is a visceral feeling of sailing that Candy got to experience with me first hand. It is quite something to feel.

I fully understand that waves never show up properly on camera, and I also know you land people want to see it. Sailors will understand the surface tension in the image below and what it says about the winds.

 

 

WildChild is a very good girl and very tough like her Captain, but I do recognize how hard these conditions can be on my rigging. If you were watching our progress on the Garmin tracker you might have wondered why we were heading south by south east… straight into the Guadeloupe butterfly…?   It was to avoid getting rolled on our side by the 8 foot breaking waves on the beam. It is just unwise to take big breaking waves like this on the beam… even if your girl is handling them well. One weird harmonic wave and you could roll. Also it is very uncomfortable for the crew.

So I decided to aim a little bit into the waves to take them on the forward port bow. It makes the motion of the ocean easier on the humans and ensures WildChild’s autopilot will break towards the peak of any waves that do rise up and break under us.

As we got closer to the island I then switched from sailing winds fore of the beam to aft of the beam and quartered away from the waves heading towards the west end of the island of Guadeloupe. This is where things got tricky.

Up to this point we had been sailing in clean undisturbed trade winds sustained around 25 knots, they were stable but had also kicked up a fuss with the waves. If I got too close to the island the waves would go still in the lee but the winds would also be killed. We are a sailboat, wind is our friend. I tried to kind of split the difference and pass about 3-4 miles offshore.

It worked great for about half an hour, winds down to 20 knots waves down to a soft rolly 3-4 feet. All good. These were wrap around winds though. Swirly mountain winds will sometimes curve around the base of a mountain…. then further down go swirly and very unstable. We soon lost the wind and were adrift in the lee of the island.

I knew I needed to get further offshore, I tried to angle us away. There is usually a golden zone when sailing in the lee of a mountain that moves and shifts with hundreds of changing variables. Sometimes 1 mile offshore is good sailing. Sometimes 5 miles offshore is best. Each island each encounter the Captain has to sniff out this golden zone.

The sun was setting with me at the helm struggling with either too much wind or not enough wind. I kept having to reef and release my genny. I constantly had to power up in light winds and depower in the sudden heavy winds. A few times we were so becalmed we are essentially adrift. I know the lesson of sailor patience well and give mom a few minutes to settle her mood, be patient with her… and usually she will bless you with winds again soon enough.

By around 5 -6 miles offshore I found my golden zone. I was being hit most of the night with sustained winds around 25 knots, sporty sailing for sure, but I had configured my girl to shake off the heavier gusts. I was running only first reef in the main, full storm sail out cutter rigged and varying the genny between 20% to 50% with the furling line. Candy had commented a few times that WildChild is a true sailboat and does this sailing stuff very well, she handles great.

 

I had sent my crew down to bed around 6pm to try and get as much rest as she could. I stayed on the helm until almost midnight when Candy came up on her own to relieve me. By now we were in sporty but more stable conditions well offshore of Guadeloupe and heading into the gap above Dominica. The ocean was still sporty and rough and about to get rougher in the gap.

Candy took over the helm for me so I could go down below. I just love this girl. I know I do have an anti-American bias sometimes but this girl is the best of America. She is wonderful, intelligent articulate, thoughtful and kind. I pushed her thru sailing school hard and fast but she understood and retained well. Now we were applying that knowledge in real ocean sporty sailing conditions. It was rough slammy splashy wet tired and horrible but she rose to the challenge with inner strength.

Before I went down below to get some rest I was very clear with her. I laid out a bunch of

if this…   then do that

if this… then do this other thing…

and if anything at all that you feel unsure of… WAKE THE CAPTAIN…  I know she is soft and emotionally sensitive like I am. I know she will feel guilty waking me, I know she knows how much I need the recovery time, I know she will by instinct and nature want to protect me and let me sleep at all costs…     BUT…   I need her to not do that.

She understood…. push any guilt away about waking me and think clearly and logically and be safety caution minded.

She did exactly that. I love this girl.

I went down below to try to rest… ish…   I could hear and feel my boat talking to me the whole time. I did not actually sleep, it was too rough down below, violent. I closed my eyes and let the seizures overtake me as my body got flung around the protected bed. Candy had to call me up like 5 times because conditions kept getting worse.

Waves hit the yacht so hard she shuddered to a stop… fell off the wind sideways to regain speed and go again. Waves hit so hard that the spray hit the dodger so hard it sounded like it would collapse, water pouring into the cockpit like a bathtub. Candy at the helm getting soaked in salty ocean water slamming into her face. The yacht flailing side to side sometimes. Candy reported winds as high as 33 knots that night.

I did an Atlantic crossing last year against the trade winds that never got this rough.

Winds were so unstable up and down. From a calm 15 knots we lose forwards speed and have to open the genny then 20 minutes later the wind climbs up to 30 knots and we are getting over powered again. I came up every time she called, which was the correct decision on her part every time, and together we would make adjustments as a team.

We had an emotional tragedy

I had these lovely Mr. Christie red velvet cake cookies in a sealed bag in the cockpit beside the helm. We would occasionally dig into it and treat ourselves to one of these magnificent delicious cookies while on watch, a real morale boost. One wave came so heavy, so high, it overwhelmed the sides of the cockpit coaming, designed to bleed this water away from the cockpit, and poured into the cockpit like a waterfall, flooding the cockpit with probably 10-15 gallons of water in an instant, and drowning our cookies in salty horror.

We lost the cookies.        🙁

The emotional blow to the morale of us girls was palpable. It is weird how our feelings can change when sailing under duress. It was weird that it emotionally affected us so much. I was really depressed about the loss of those cookies, very sad. The emotional life of girls on the ocean huh..?

 

 

Candy took the helm for me from about midnight to about 4am. When she was getting tired she called me up to take over for her. I took the sunrise shift as the winds began calming down as planned on the second day. Candy actually got some sleep this time.

 

Second Day at Sea

On the second day (Tuesday July 13th) the low had passed us and gone well to the west, in its wake we kept losing the wind. There was no way I was going to go up alone on deck while my crew slept and release the first reef in the main, and that would not be the right thing to do anyway. So I kept opening and furling the genny.

When the winds fell below 5 knots WildChild, rigged for heavy winds, would falter and stall out. For the autopilot to be able to steer you need water moving past the rudder. A few times we were carried along with the current with no water actually moving past the rudder, the autopilot errored and screamed its warning alarm at me. Even with full genny open, when the wind got around 3 knots WildChild stalled out.

 

 

Typically the correct response, when the sailing speed falls below steering speed is to use the iron genny (motor to you non-sailor people)…. but…. my crew was sleeping down below and really needed the sleep. I needed her rested. In very light winds the living conditions down below became pleasant. If I turn the loud noisy engine on… sleep will not happen for Candy.

I resisted the iron genny for about 2 hours that morning. Instead I perfectly trimmed and adjusted my sails for maximum efficiency, and usually some wind would return within 5 minutes or so. I sailed along that morning in 3 knots of wind for a few minutes… then 15-18 knots of wind for a few minutes… then 6 knots of wind for a few minutes… then….    the frustrating cycle continued all day actually.

Finally around 7am… the wind stayed near zero for ten minutes as the sun began to warm the air and the thermals killed the breeze. I had to turn the engine on.

That second day we probably had to run the engine about 5 times for about half an hour each time. The engine worked great with no issues. Each time the wind would eventually return and we could kill the engine and return to the peace of sailing.

Candy eventually spelled me off the helm and we took turns all day. You can see on the tracker that by now we had gone way downwind and were out of sight of land. No islands upwind means no mountains means more stable winds. The sailing the second day was easy and lovely, we both enjoyed it.

 

 

The second day was mostly uneventful and easy. We listened to podcasts and I watched TV on my little tablet. We did get visited by a pod of dolphins in the afternoon which delighted Candy. Usually they stay and play around the yachts for 10 or 20 minutes, but this pod was just moving on by. About 30 dolphins in total passed close by and checked us out. Candy was up on deck taking pictures with delight.

The second night was also in calm conditions. We were still getting some sporty sailing and some waves splashing us at the helm but mostly the winds stayed below 20 knots.

 

 

This was our biggest risk time for a pirate encounter. The pirates will do their drug running out of sight of land in these waters because they know they can outrun any government response. We were both more vigilant on the helm to look for other small motor vessels this far from shore. There would be no reason for small Caribbean fishermen to be out this far.

WildChild can receive AIS signals but does not transmit any signal, it was another $1000 I did not have when getting her ready for this adventure. It means we are invisible on the ocean and it is up to us to let other larger ships know we are there.

Around 11pm the second night I spotted the AIS signal on the chart plotter of a cruise ship coming at us. It was the Celebrity Summit and was motoring along at 20 knots straight for us. Like our CPA (closest point of approach) was 85 feet…!   Like if I do not say anything… like if I was solo sailing out here and sleeping right now… they would run us over. Big ocean far from land or any shipping lanes… and still they will T-bone us right on our port beam in 20 minutes.

This is why I think it is so important to keep a person at watch all the time and why I think solo sailing overnight alone long distance is a terrible idea.

 

 

I was vigilant and kept watching the data. It was clear… they were going to hit us.

At 7 miles out with a time to intercept of 20 minutes I went down below in the dark cabin and grabbed the radio mic. I called out to them and got a friendly response from another woman. I explained the situation to her. She replied that we were not showing up on their radar. I asked them to bear off to starboard to allow us to cross their bow. They were only too happy to comply.

The huge ship altered course and we passed without incident.

 

Third Day at Sea

By the third day we were both starting to get run down. The second night was calm enough for us to actually get some sleep… but still the harsh reality of sailing life was wearing us down. Candy had two grumpy emotional cracking incidents which she handled fairly well. I was getting diaper rash on my bum from sitting in a wet bikini on a wet seat for days. We were still getting waves splashing into the cockpit occasionally. There was no point in trying to dry off and change into dry panties, they would only get wet again.

My backside is still sore today.

We had the same thermal loss of wind at sunset and sunrise. We had to use the motor a few times to keep moving thru it. We were both more quiet with each other… mostly lost in podcasts and our own thoughts.

 

 

Babysitting the helm is not a hard thing to do in calm conditions, the yacht mostly drives herself, but it still important for someone to be there. The robot driving the boat is very reliable but rather dumb. A human brain is always necessary as part of the process to do the adapting and changing stuff.

Candy has proven herself wonderful and competent crew. She has done great. Sailing is a harsh life and this girl proved herself to be tough and competent.

Captain Lexi says that for any future potential person to have the right to call themselves crew they must first earn it, not pay for it on paper, and not just get it for showing up.

The ancient traditions of the ocean say to become crew you must...

1/ Know how to speak technical sailor words

2/ Know how to swear like a sailor

3/ Sail a few hundred miles

4/ Drink a shot of rum straight up (you share with Neptune)

(I don’t make these ancient rules)

 

Candy has almost earned the right to call herself crew forevermore….

you know what you have left to do girl…    🙂

 

Arrival

On the third day I calculated that we could make it in before sunset if we do not lose the wind and sail at maximum speed by trimming the sails well. It would really suck to arrive after sunset and have to either make a night time landing in a strange place or loiter offshore waiting for the sun to rise. I have done both before and honestly… loitering offshore is the easiest one.

Our goal was to make it in to anchor before sunset.

Using our fancy sailor knowledge we took turns trimming the sails all day for maximum efficiency We kept WildChild moving along as well as we could. I even debated shaking out that first reef in the mainsail but decided against it. I still did not trust mother not to go gusty once we got near the mountains of Grenada. We did run full Genny and cutter rigged with the storm sail out too.

We got the usual squirrely mountain winds once we got near land. What Candy got to experience for the first time in her life… is that… when you have been at sea for a while… and then approach land… you can actually smell land from a distance.

The last 20 miles slowed down but we did make it into the back of the anchorage just before sunset.

The dreadful news is… my engine died…

I am never one to want to motor more than a mile if I don’t have to. The anchorage is open at the back end, it is not an enclosed bay. I could have sailed almost all the way in but being the cautious girl I am decided to drop sails about 3/4 of a mile away and motor in slowly to pick my spot. Just as we entered the back of the anchorage suddenly the engine overheat alarm went off. The engine temperature was spiking…!

Crap this is bad… there was nothing I could do but turn the engine off immediately. Luckily we had just entered the very back of the anchorage and were in 26 feet of water. In an instant everything goes from lovely calm and fine to emergency, disasters are always like this.

I kill the engine and just run up to the bow to drop the anchor right where we were then and there before we drifted out to sea again. With my yacht adrift sideways falling off back out towards the open ocean I played out the chain by hand and anchored as best as I could. The anchor drop location went ok. I was unable to bear down on the anchor though so it is not set into the bottom. I added the sentinal anchor for extra security and played out extra chain.

I pray that as the winds pick up the anchor will set itself as designed. I worry though because I could feel the chain scraping against rocks on the bottom. I have no idea if the anchor is sitting on sand, mud or rocks right now.

When I finally had time to open up the engine compartment the engine pan underneath the engine is full of coolant. It seems my new cap allowed pressure to build up and something has split cracked or exploded. Maybe a burst pipe or gasket or something…?  I don’t know.

 

 

I am not an engine mechanic… the engine is the one part of the boat I am afraid to deal with. I do not know much about it. I do not know how to fix it.

but…  I guess I am about to learn.

 

Check in

Yesterday Candy woke me up in the morning to announce to me she was abandoning the yacht early. It seems she was up most of the night worrying and stressing out with anxiety about catching her flight home no matter what the local government rules said. Her anxiety was peaking and she was an emotional wreck. After the distraction of the sailing was done her energy and focus turned to getting home on her schedule as she had planned, delay unfathomable. This trip has been hard on her, she misses her kids and family so much it hurts.

I can empathize with this. I assured Candy that I would do everything possible to assist her getting home. In the middle of the night she had booked a room in a resort closer to the airport. She told me when we went to shore she was bringing all her stuff with her and not coming back to the boat. She was determined to bend all the quarantine rules to ease her anxiety and was going to push the health officials to let her go to the resort. She did admit she needs to feel in control to help her cope with her anxiety.

Candy read this blog and wants to add…   “I read the blog! Nice! Staying in the hotel was good b/c it made it easier to get tested (the second time) and to the airport. Plus I could keep my negative feelings away from everyone.”

This all seemed unnecessary to me. Paying for a resort stay would do nothing speed up the process or help her catch her plane….   but this is what she wants to do… and I am on her team.  I did try to get her to allow for the possibility in her mind that she might not be able to push this. The rules clearly state that we must stay in quarantine on the boat upon arrival until cleared by the health officials. I did not want her to freak out if she doesn’t get her way. She assured me she would not freak out.

 

 

Yesterday we dinghied to shore by around 9am to check-in to the country. Candies anxiety level was thru the roof. It did not help her to know that I did not actually know where to go. The instructions were a bit vague and I had never been here before. She kept calm and helped me search the shoreline for “the health screening tent”.

We both breathed a sigh of relief when I figured out where we were supposed to go. We spotted the dinghy dock and the tent in the distance near a building we guessed to be the Grenada yacht club. We motored over and tied up the dinghy. Candy unloaded her luggage and was peaked with anxiety. We had a plan to let me do most of the talking and just be cool and assume she would be allowed to do this.

It was kind of funny. The health guy was lovely. I explained we had just arrived that night and wanted to check in. He said he was confused why would your friend be bringing her bags for this?

I just casually explained that this was my crew who was only here to help me make this passage and now she is going to stay in a resort until her flight out Saturday. I assured him the resort she was staying in was a Covid approved quarantine resort. Candy showed him the print out list.

 

 

The man was perplexed…      ahhh….      ummm….     you cannot do that he says. That’s not the way it works. I kept up the ploy and told him we had contacted the minister of health to ask for this. I did not bother to mention the minister of health never replied back. The guy then grumbled that nobody ever tells him nothin…  I tried to not burst out laughing, grateful for the mask hiding my big smile. It was beginning to look like we might pull this off.

The health guy then got on the phone to call the immigration people and explain the situation to them. Initially he was asking them if this was possible. But with poor communication between them he ended up convincing the immigration guy to do this….!    SOOOO   FUNNY…..   

I thought this show was great and Candy was so relieved it was looking like we would pull this off.  The health guy was awesome and actually was duped into being our champion. I love that guy. This would do nothing to help Candy get on her flight but being able to see the airport outside her quarantine resort window would help her feel better. At least she would have air conditioning tonight and a dry bed.

We had to pay some other private agent to take Candies passport over to the immigration to get stamped into the country under special circumstances it cost $100ec extra. Then we still had to wait until noon for the Covid testing screeners to arrive and Covid test us. We had to pay $405ec ($150usd) each for that test. After which I came home to WildChild and Candy took a taxi to her quarantine resort.

What was interesting… is that our time at sea did count towards our quarantine time. So we could test upon arrival. The guy said the Covid test results should be back the next day (Today) by around 3pm. Then we would be released from quarantine anyway. So Candy paying for a resort stay had no bearing on this process.

So for me…. probably today around 3pm I should get a whatsapp text from the health guy telling me my negative results are back and I can come to shore. He will issue me a clearance certificate which will allow me to go over to customs and immigration and clear into the country and be free to move around again. Candy will get the same text releasing her from her resort quarantine too.

Weirdly… although other cruisers were quite clear about having to pay for a quarantine mooring ball…. no such thing has been mentioned to me. So YAY….   One less expense.

For Candy… it seems the Covid test we took yesterday does not come with a print out to prove it. Our names just get put on a list emailed to the health guy…?? So this will not help her catch her plane tomorrow. So the poor girl has to go tomorrow morning and pay for another private rapid test to get a piece of paper proving Covid negative to the airline to get permission to board her plane home.

She calls this a scamdemic…  seems apt.

There is a lot of money to be made with Covid.

Teddy bear and I are now safely in Grenada. All is good in my world except my engine problem stressing me out now. I have no idea what is wrong…  I have no idea how to fix it…   but when has this ever stopped me from conquering stuff…? I’m a smart girl who can learn new stuff.

 

Cheers Sailors and sailing fans

 

just another week in the life of this ocean chic

 

Captain Lexi

 

……..    the hot sweaty tough naked sailor girl    …….