Surprise: the sailing trip begins in Grenada. I’m in the Caribbean for the first time!
Caleb and I flew from Seattle to Miami to Grenada, arriving early yesterday afternoon local time.
I can’t be up too late writing this, so I’m just gonna list some thoughts, drop some pics, and click publish.
Caleb and his wife lived in Granada for a while until Covid forced them to look for work elsewhere. The boat has been on land for over 5 years, until today. It’s a 47′ aluminum monohull named L’Chaim that he extensively remodeled and outfitted himself. After the boat splashed we took it on a short test drive. Engine is working well.
We will be sailing to Panama over the next week, leaving tomorrow. From there, when the timing allows, he’ll take it through the canal and have it shipped the rest of the way to Washington.
It’s been great to go to a new country and experience something different. We took the “bus” (really more of an informal van situation) to run a few errands today and I soaked it all up; the aggressive driving on the left side of the narrow and hilly streets, the dialect and styles and vibes of the locals, the natural scenery and interesting buildings, the unfamiliar grocery store items.
The warm and humid weather has also been a pure delight. Famously I hate the cold, which is confusing in light of the fact that I keep moving to towns located closer and closer to the north pole.
We put the sails on and did a handful of other prep tasks today before going out for pizza at an open air restaurant.
The goal is to leave tomorrow before 1. It is possible that we’ll have a GPS tracking site available to watch our progress, and if that ends up working I’ll edit this post with a link right here.
So assuming all goes well, my next update will be in Panama! We won’t have internet along the way. Cheers!
