Just a note from the team, David and I plus English sailing friends, James Tomlinson RYA, RCC, OCC, and James Robinson RYA RCC Commodore OSC. Sailing Instructor and lots more sailing talent between these two!
The fact is that as soon as you have a deadline things crop up to bite your ass. Our crew arrived on the 20th for the passage to the Carribean with us and everything went to hell in a hand cart.
Winchrite electric winch handle goes kaput. Fine, the crew will fly in a free replacement. It's still under warranty. Seems that was the first of the winch problems... The anchor winch refused to even squeak when David did the quick test prior to departure!
We left Lanzarotte and overnight sailed...motored to Las Palma with an anchor windlass and refrigeration to fix. Well three days later with a lot of bad words flying, the windlass was finally off the boat!! A new one, a Lofrans 3000 was hastily shipped in. All the deck was then rebuilt and painted in readiness for the arrival and insertion of the replacement. Another 3 days, and we were finally all ready to go.
Such good crew!! We found an amazing restaurant up in the main town, did manage to do an island tour and after hasty provisioning, Taipan decided it was OK to leave.
Provisions were hastily gathered, farewells conducted with PICCOLINA, Steph and Rolf, with whom we had shared many delightful meals and fun evenings during the chaos.
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| Farewell and safe travels to Rolf and Steffi. Piccolina |
The new windlass hoisted anchor at 7am on the 6th of March and Team Taipan slipped out of the harbour to cross to Grenada in the Caribbean roughly 2800nm
Clearing the islands was a mixed bag of wind and no wind before it started then to build steadily to around 25kn with a fairly bumpy sea for the first 25 hours. A rude introduction after months ashore!!
With about 2500 nm to go to Grenada, it's still chilly but Taipan is enjoying the rock n roll. The bottom slime seems to have fled and speeds are improving with some nice favourable current to help.
The Team are settling into watch routine of 2 on at a time for 4 hour watches. We're well fed and pretty well rested and with reduced swell ( about 2m). It's a lot more sustainable.
The wind is from the starboard aft quarter at around 14 to 18kn as I write and we're travelling more west to avoid a patch of heavier wind south if us.
Our exact position is updated every 10 minutes at the link below.
Grenada is an approximation! It's possible we may deviate. Nothing is set in stone. Watch this space!
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