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| Shamal in Grenada |
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| Grenada |
Well the time finally came where we were as ready as one
could be ( so we thought ) to head on out for the next leg of our
Adventures. We had dived to check the
hulls and give the props a good clean. The new water maker pump had been
installed, and we had even delayed our departure by a day as we had an engineer
on board looking at the electro magnetic clutch, which was causing a problem.
Alec got the water maker sort of working, but he decided we needed to start
moving and he would check it out along the way!! Then one morning just before
departure my Nespresso coffee machine would not work properly. We had just had
the new inverter installed, so put it down to the cloudy days, but really our
1,000 watt solar panels are pretty good plus we have the wind generator. We
started an engine to boost the batteries and I got my morning coffee fix. There
were the usual dinners and drinks to farewell new and old friends, then on
Saturday 2nd February we moved SHAMAL off her mooring and over to
the marina to take on water, just in case the water maker didn’t behave. We
check out of Grenada, then spent the last of our local money on a few more
supplies.
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| Fishing on way to Bonaire |
It wasn’t till after 1300 that we finally motored out of the
bay, put the sails up, and set on a heading to the first of the A B C Islands –
Bonaire. We set a course north of our rhumb line to keep off the coast of
Venezuela due to the political problems they are having at the moment. Also it
gave us the advantage of a lovely broad reach to down wind run. From the
sailing point of view it was a great run, BUT, other issues arose which were
not so great. After dark we were obviously in an area where the Grenadian
Fisherman were working, but that proved no problems. It was just a case of
keeping well away from their boats and set nets, which were well lit with the
usual flashing lights in an array of different colours. In the early hours of that first morning, the
radar decided not to work. There was some shipping about which we could pick up
on the AIS, and we were far enough off the coast not to be around small craft.
We just ran an engine for a while and the radar was up and running again. So
why had the batteries dropped so low? Second afternoon we did a tack and the
wind direction instrument stopped working. Then about an hour later it was
working fine! That night we only turned the radar on from time to time to check
shipping. Later I tried to make coffee with my machine, trouble doing that
again. Then to top it all off, again at night, the chart plotter dies on us. We
do have a back up on the iPad with Blue Charts which are very good, but with no
A I S or radar overlay. Again on another tack the wind instrument stopped
working. Help the gremlins are having a field day with us at the moment. The
chart plotter would come and go being quite spasmodic in working.
