Written by Jon:
It was only a coupe of weeks ago that we realized this would be the longest passage we’ve done as a family of three. Everything to do with crossing the Atlantic we had at least one extra adult as crew. But we felt good about it and we’re looking forward to the three day trip.
Grenada to Bonaire is about 400 miles, and if you draw a straight line you end up passing right through the middle of some Venezuelan island – Los Roques. Having heard how lovely these island are we were very tempted to stop for a few days on the way to Bonaire. From the cruisers we know who have visited, despite Venezuela falling into dictatorship, these quiet little island far from the mainland are safe and welcoming. Then in the last few weeks I spoke to a cruiser friend who was stuck on the islands for a day or two as the navy wouldn’t grating them permission to leave. It would seem that all pleasure boat travel has been banned in the country and these cruisers were stuck in the confusion. They were allowed to leave I the end and no harm was done, but it left us feeling that we had missed our opportunity and should skip it for now.
Once we were more or less ready to leave we were lucky enough to find a buddy boat going the same way, a nice couple on a boat named Slowdown. And with a good weather window open until Saturday we decided to rush preparations and leave Tuesday noon. And after dealing with immigration and filling up with fuel we managed to leave more or less on time.
The wind was a little light until we got out of the shadow of Grenada but just before the sun set the conditions became good for sailing and are still nice as I write this shortly after midnight. The moon just came up, the sea is fairly flat and we have 10-12 knots of wind sailing dead downwind with a poled out genoa. This gives us and easy if slightly wobbly way. Mia is sleeping and Teo crawled into bed with her a couple of hours ago, he tries to keep pappa company but I managed to pursued him to go get cuddles from mamma.
I’ll wake Mia around 3am to rake over as I sleep until hopefully 8 or 9 in the morning, on sofa as it is very comfortable and within shouting distance if Mia wants help. At which point Mia will have a bite to eat then go crash out for a coupe of hours. I’ll usually get a coupe of hours nap in the afternoon too. And so it goes for the next three days!
No photos of share as we are sending this via Satellite phone. Sorry!