Saturday, June 22, 2019

Passage from Grenada to Bonaire 22nd June 2019

Position at 1200 local time 12 degrees 29 minutes north, 063 degrees 28 west
Sailing with poled out genoa wing on wing at 8 knots
Wind 18knots from the East
Swell fairly short interval approx. 5 feet
VMG to Bonaire has been 7.5 to 8 knots since we left and we have 298nm to go

We ended up pulling anchor just before 1 am as the calm rolling anchorage at St George's wasn't working for us and I think we were both just keen to get on the way. The bars on Grand Anse beach were in full swing as we gently motored out of the bay under a lovely big bright moon. About an hour later we had cleared the wind shadow of the island and set the sails - Askari was off. The wind was quite northeasterly, so despite having set up our pole we were able to run on wind angle of about 120 on a starboard tack through the night.

We agreed we wouldn't take a direct line to Bonaire as this would take us too close to the coast of Venezuela, where there have been some reports of those desperate people approaching yachts, so we have set a waypoint keeping us 100 miles from the mainland. The conditions have been perfect so far, even though the sea is a bit steeper than we would like it is giving us an extra push; Askari is surfing down waves frequently over 10 knots and occasionally we have seen 11. This morning was a glorious blue-sky day and just after breakfast we pulled the genoa across and have been running wing on wing since.

We both managed to get a little bit of sleep during the dark hours and have just have pita pizza for lunch which was yummy. We learned yesterday our friend Steve with Nellie the dog on Alkemi is leaving today too so we hope to chat to them on the SSB later.

All well on board - we can still do this!

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