Recap of recent Events

Hey lovely people!

It’s been a little tumultuous here on SV CUBA since storm Bret passed but though we’ve been through numerous downpours and changes of plans, spirits are still high.

Today, we wanted to upload some short videos and photos of what happened recently but unfortunately, the Patreon platform is a little limited for that.

We would therefore like to invite you – should you not already have – to join our Discord chat group where we are able to upload updates directly from our mobile and add information on the go.

Discord Messenger is an easy-to-use app and we are planning add more up-to-date updates in the future.

Just follow this link to join our Patreon-Family on Discord: https://discord.gg/vZc5b3Qz

Here we will upload the pictures from this post but we will also be able to mix in the short videos we took along the way. 😃

We hope to see you there!

The evening before forecasts declared that a tropical storm might be heading in our direction. Turns out that approaching storms can create fantastic sunsets (1).

As you know, we rushed down to Grenada (big island) just after we heard that a potential hurricane is coming for us.

Bret brought us some severe wind yet luckily; we evaded the worst of it and woke up to a serene morning near St. George (2). And as much as we wanted to stay and explore this exciting new place, we felt that we could not leave Carriacou (possibly forever) behind, without giving it another try!

Hey, after all, our home is on the ocean and it only takes the wind and our strength to make it back.

Without further ado, we set sail and course back to where we had left off, if it hadn’t been for the storm. We even had some exotic company – a brown booby - along the way (3).

Though forecasts on Windy.com and PredictWind showed great sailing conditions with wind from our beam, the horizon was still pitted with squalls (4). Still, spirits were high, and we made good way (5).

Yet, before we arrived in Carriacou, we noticed that some stitching in our Genoa had come loose. Since the wind was predicted to die down for the rest of the day, we stopped to drop anchor and tackle the issue before it got worse. (6)

Actually, we had very little internet at this point, but managed to upload a couple of pictures in our post on 28/06.

Sewing on deck at night meant we were safe from sunburn but without moon, we got surprised by several rain showers. Good, there were no other boats around because we must have looked like two maniacs with our one spotlight, rushing around deck setting up our sewing station, just to collect and rescue everything from the downpour.

We managed to mend our sail once again in this absolutely beautiful spot (7). But the weather didn’t leave us enough time between squalls to bring our sail back up just yet (8).

Between chores, Pewee always knows how to make us smile (9). However, we were also a little concerned about her since she’d not been an enthusiastic eater recently and our selection of cat food, well and also the reserves of our food started to run low.

With weather predictions showing that for the coming 7 to 10 days it would most likely rain almost non-stop, we changed plans once again and opted to sail instead of waiting for the weather to improve.

Now provisioning for our furry crew and ourselves can be tricky and a little pricey on the smaller islands.

Just as we had our sail back up (10) and contemplated what to do, we also found out that our friends were trying to sail to Martinique to obtain a part for their boat, something that, like foodstuffs, can be hard to come by on the islands further south.

Pewee, pantry, part – 3 is a charm!

And so, we set off, into the wild again! Into the darkness, our course set to St. Anne, Martinique, a 300-mile round trip (11).

Oh boy, did we ask for a challenge, guys? Well, we did get one!

Making it up all the way to the southern tip of Saint Lucia was a breeze but a current of up to 2 knots from the west and winds changing to north-easterly made it almost impossible to gain headway eastward. Instead, we got pushed further and further west.

We tacked our way as close to the northern end of Saint Lucia as we could to get the best angle toward St. Anne and then headed as hard into the wind as CUBA could possibly sail (12 & 13).

Even though we pointed our bow directly toward our destination, the current ultimately pushed us west. After many hours of trying, tacking, and adjusting we were defeated and started to motor-sail.

But the weather had another one in reserve for us and the closer we got to St. Anne the more the wind picked up – of course, coming directly from the anchorage we were trying to head to.

After battling for another 10 hours to make 11NM headway against wind and current, we were startled by the sound of our engine overheating – just 2 miles left before we could finally drop anchor!

Back to sailing it was – in more than 30 knots of wind, straight on the nose, right into the steep, short coastal waves.

Enrique and I just watched in horror as more stitching on our genoa started to come loose as we limped our way into the furthest end of the anchorage.

Here we were, startled, drenched, and beaten. But we were in one piece and though CUBA was injured, there is nothing that cannot be fixed.